MoodBlast 2.0 on the Horizon

For anyone keeping track, there’s a super-cool new version of MoodBlast on the horizon. A revamped interface and a slew of new features (many from user requests). It’s basically a whole new program, with all of the original functionality. Here’s just a taste…

New Features

• New, snazzy interface (see screenshot)
• Automatically lowercases the first letter of Facebook entries, leaving others uppercase
• Preference panel, including the ability to set and reset passwords manually.
• Better support for “always on top” mode.
• Fix for several Adium glitches. It’s working flawlessly for beta testers now.
• User configurable hotkey settings, with a sweet interface that lets you just press the desired key combo and save.
• A pulldown menu on the menubar pill to get to preferences, open and quit, freeing up space in the interface.

Before this version is released, support will be added for Sparkle so that you can get the latest versions automatically, making all of our lives easier. I’m also trying to perfect UTF-8/Unicode support for our non-english friends. With those additions, and a little sleep, I’ll be ready to release MoodBlast 2.0.

Future versions will have Applescript support. This is huge because you’ll be able to send events to MoodBlast from programs like iTunes, iCal, Salling Clicker and more. You’ll be able to define which services to send to and what to send. Alarms in iCal can tell people you’re in a meeting, track changes in iTunes can tell people what you’re jamming to, and your mobile will be able to do all kinds of crazy things with MoodBlast. Plus, the Mail.app possibilities will be insane. That’s for version 2.1, though.

Jaiku icon support has been suggested, and may be a possibility. Code has already been contributed. One idea that I’m toying with is auto-completion of common phrases, or the ability to add custom phrases to the pulldown on the menubar. A default “Away” message, for example, that only affects chat clients. That would take some serious preference panels, but I think the framework I’m working on right now will open up the possibility.

Because I’m converting a lot of the code from Applescript to Objective-C, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with both MoodSwing and MoodBlast. A new version of MoodSwing with Unicode support, a password reset function, and Adium fixes will be released very soon, but it will probably not be developed much farther than that. MoodBlast has stolen my heart (and time).

Well, I hope you’re all looking forward to this as much as I am to releasing it. And thanks for the donations that have been coming in, you’re keeping me well caffeinated ;).