Neo twitter -- big update!

[fxspec06]

Hello all,

Today I submitted an update for Neo that fixes many of the initial release bugs. Themes is still being worked on and will receive more overhaul in the future, and I plan on adding a few extra goodies such as a possible main screen sidebar and tweet-marker support.

Biggest fixes are button taps working again, black screen bug (no more!), search updated (twitter changed the URL), empty icons are now filled (with a bug icon ), list anchors, retweets working, and a new setting to remove the graphic that displays when you minimize the app.

Complete changelog is below.

//////////////////////////
//                        // 1.3.13
//                        // version 0.5.3
//                        // app catalog submission
// 
// - Fixed twitter search URL
// - Fixed large tweet bug
// - Added anchors for lists
// - Fixed lack of notifications
// - Fixed horrible retweet bug
// - Fixed avatar bug from 0.5.1
// - Fixed infamous 'black screen glitch'
// 
//  

//////////////////////////
//                        // 12.27.12
//                        // version 0.5.2 *beta
// 
// - Added ability to tap a selected sidebar to select it again (temp fix to help deal with "black screen glitch")
// - Fixed glitch from unreleased 0.5.1 with icons
// - Added more icons
// - Separated themes from basic and advanced
// - Added 6 new Toolbar themes to select
// - Added changelog to about section
// - Added placeholder help button to Themes
// - Added placeholder basic button to Themes
// - Changed Themes behavior, added functionality
//  

//////////////////////////
//                        // 12.21.12
//                        // version 0.5.1
// app catalog update #1
// app catalog BUMP to top
// 
// CHANGES:
// - Added setting for hiding of minimize graphics
// - Fixed button tap issues
// - Fixed icon not displaying issues (icons not yet decided now appear with 'bug' icon)
// - Minor optimization
//  

//////////////////////////
//                        // 
//                        // version 0.5.0
// OFFICIAL APP CATALOG RELEASE

I value this community and my customers and will continue to support Neo in at least the immediate foreseeable future. I will continue to work hard from now until at least a couple weeks after my classes begin January 22nd. I want Neo to be great. I want you to want Neo.

Much thanks to all who deal with me. Thanks for all your support!

[Herrie]

Great work as always! Sorry if my question is dumb: Is this written in Enyo2? You seem to be one of the few developers who keep up with latest versions and play with them :-)

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[Grabber5.0]

According to his signature it is.

[fxspec06]

Originally Posted by Herrie

Great work as always! Sorry if my question is dumb: Is this written in Enyo2? You seem to be one of the few developers who keep up with latest versions and play with them :-)

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

Absolutely, 110% YES.

[Herrie]

Thanks for confirming :-) Might buy it to support you and dig around in the code to see if I can learn some things to see if I finally can get some of my app ideas for NL market worked out for our beloved platform :-)

P.s. Communities doesn't show signatures, hence my question ;-)

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[Grabber5.0]

Ah.. I was browsing from a pc and forgot.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

[fxspec06]

Also, there is a demo version coming. (but shhhhhhhhhhhhh)

[Herrie]

I already bought it :-)

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[fxspec06]

Originally Posted by Herrie

I already bought it :-)

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

Thanks! How are you liking it so far? Any immediate suggestions that are possibly not so obvious to me?

[Herrie]

Didn't play much with it yet... Don't do much Twitter in general... Don't like the skinning, sorry it's not my taste.. I prefer the standard ("boring") webOS look and colors hut couldn't find an option for it yet?

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[GMMan]

Out of curiosity, why is the app so huge? On App Catalog it says around 400 MB, and installed it's around 200 MB.

[fxspec06]

Originally Posted by GMMan

Out of curiosity, why is the app so huge? On App Catalog it says around 400 MB, and installed it's around 200 MB.

That would be a question you'd have to ask the guys at sunnyvale for an explanation. I'm not 100% sure why, it doesn't make sense to me. The app is only 13MB when packaged in an .IPK. =( The only theory I can come up with off the top of my head is that because there are a ton of files, in many nested folders, the source is somewhat large in terms of quantity of files. In order for that to correlate to 400MB (????????), palm must be doing something on the other side that reserves extra space per file, per folder, per image, or whatever, for whatever reason they have, and they're doing this for every file or folder in the IPK. This happens to me on other IPK's as well, not just Neo. However Neo is the worst I have seen by far (13MB!=400MB!???!???!?)

Another theory is that they are randomly copying the ipk unto itself in attempt to confuse consumers into thinking they are getting more for their money.

Or the app uses some weird service that causes a memory bug when uploading to the servers causing a package to expand to an unusually large size and then not filling it with any data.

Or, you know, the Mayans. And 9/11.

[fxspec06]

Originally Posted by Herrie

Didn't play much with it yet... Don't do much Twitter in general... Don't like the skinning, sorry it's not my taste.. I prefer the standard ("boring") webOS look and colors hut couldn't find an option for it yet?

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

Working on a method right now to make theming three steps..... going to add stock webOS themes right after. Possibly starting tonight. we'll see

[Herrie]

Working on a method right now to make theming three steps..... going to add stock webOS themes right after. Possibly starting tonight. we'll see

Great! Looking forward to an update on this!


-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[fxspec06]

Today, I modified themes and FINALLY got quick themes working.....








Trying to decide how to approach the "stock base" theme. Should your quick theme start with a new "base" theme and load on top of that, or should you "overwrite" the existing theme persay? follow?

Also you can have transparency in these things, damn you see some cool effects. i need to tweak more, and more

[fxspec06]

I pushed this update through today, although it comes with a caveat: some of the deeper theming support is somewhat wonky. I'm taking things day by day, it's hard to pull all the pieces together and I can only take so much before I need to take a break. But it's coming together and things are looking better and better every day.

I launched for the BBPB this weekend during the port-a-thon with a cool "3d effect" using @kesne's "Oldnyx" package from github -- and DANG the effect is super cool! But the touchpad doesn't render the 3d effect as well as chrome and the playbook do. Looking into a cool fix for you guys, the end result should be

edit: here's a preview of what it looks on the playbook

[Herrie]

Originally Posted by fxspec06

I pushed this update through today, although it comes with a caveat: some of the deeper theming support is somewhat wonky. I'm taking things day by day, it's hard to pull all the pieces together and I can only take so much before I need to take a break. But it's coming together and things are looking better and better every day.

I launched for the BBPB this weekend during the port-a-thon with a cool "3d effect" using @kesne's "Oldnyx" package from github -- and DANG the effect is super cool! But the touchpad doesn't render the 3d effect as well as chrome and the playbook do. Looking into a cool fix for you guys, the end result should be

edit: here's a preview of what it looks on the playbook

Click to view quoted image

This theme already looks a lot better to me and more like "standard" webOS! I'm sure I'll test it out once it's in the App Catalog as an update

[GMMan]

You know what I think the biggest problem for Neo is with regards to UX? The buttons are too big and unlabeled. They also don't work in the way that's expected. So, a cursory look at the above screenshot: On the left panel there's that left arrow. I would have expected it to be a "back" button, but it actually collapses the panel. Most would use a grip icon for that (you can typically tap on the icon in addition to dragging it for the same). On the right, there's an exit, power button, smiley face, and two buttons with a group of smiley faces, and in addition, a shield icon and another smiley face. The power button, by positioning, seems to either be a follow/unfollow button or opens a context menu. However, the icon does not explain much. What would you "turn off" in Twitter? The smiley I would guess is an @ message, though I don't know what it really is. The two grouped smileys are probably lists, but telling which list is impossible. The bottom smiley may or may not do the same thing as the top smiley. The shield I assume would be block, but no one uses a shield to represent that in other Twitter apps. And search, if put in context with the other buttons, would preferably search within the person's tweets, though it could also search for other tweeters. So overall, the GUI is pretty ambiguous with the buttons, and that sets up a high learning curve for the program. That's the reason I prefer Spaz HD over this: the GUI is clearly labelled, and doesn't have a mishmash of huge buttons. The icons represent what you expect to happen, and there are actually text buttons.

A way the problem may be fixed is to add a tooltip to every button. But this isn't a desktop platform, and doing it Android style (tap and hold) isn't ideal either. What I recommend is to replace the icons with ones that better represent the actions they perform, and add labels to ones that have icons that don't necessarily correspond well. I would work on the GUI to make it more usable first, instead of working on customization that may or may not matter. (Actually, if customization is a bigger feature than being a usable Twitter client, you're doing it wrong. I'd like to compare your app's customization vs base GUI to Vistaus' first build of his browser, though to a less degree: the basic functionality don't work well, but all the focus goes instead into something not as important.)