Thoughts of an iPhone Developer

Osfoora HD 1.1, what to expect…

Said Marouf — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:18:11 +0000

Osfoora HD 1.1 just submitted to the App Store and waiting for review.

Here’s what to expect for this major update:

All New Light Theme.
Great New Landscape Layout.
Clickable Links/Profile/Hashes from within Timeline.
Enable/Disable Unread Badges.
Enable/Disable Sound on new Tweets!
Auto scroll to Newest Tweet Option.
Integrated Wacchen Service.
Revamped Icons.
Updated Profile views.
Changed the way Tweets are marked Read.
Mark all read also possible by double tapping Tabbar.
LogIn view supports all orientations.
Login screen has instructions for new users.
Improved Geotagging.
Some improved usability touches.
Clear Cached Images.
Many bug and stability fixes.

More small changes…

Cheers!

Osfoora HD 1.0.1, what’s to come?

Said Marouf — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:09:55 +0000

-Features:

Add to “Instapaper” and “Read It Later” from within Browser view. You can still enable/disable the “read later” menu when clicking on links.
Reply All now included in Contextual menus.
Ability to see Conversations from user profile views.
Faster account switching
List view is shown when starting App, top view hidden.
Clear Cached Images
Pull to Refresh within Search View

-Fixes and Changes:

Fixed critical issue with DMs caused application to crash.
Enhanced url parsing.
Fixed issue with shortening some urls.
More precise tweet geotagging.
Minor UI changes
More reliable connectivity over slower networks.
Fixed issue with Twitlonger

Osfoora Tip for resolving rare crash issue

Said Marouf — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:19:05 +0000

Hi everyone,

Some Osfoora users are experiencing crashes upon starting Osfoora or switching accounts. This is effecting certain Twitter accounts.

I was able to replicate the issue on my side. And very confident I found the cause of this.

Let me explain the potential reason and Fix.

Twitter does not allow users to send DMs to their own accounts via its official API, even though some services such as posterous and PrivateTweet allow you to do so…That is, you will have within your DMs messages sent by your own twitter ID.

For example Posterous will send a message on behalf of you that says: “Welcome to Posterous! Your site url is http://xyz You can customize this by registering at posterous.com“

There is an issue within Osfoora when handling such cases that causes a crash. I have already fixed this, and will be pushed tonight. It will have to go through the review process which could take around a week.

Fix (Kind of – assuming you dont really need those DMs anymore): If you have DMs sent to yourself, simply delete them. You can access these from within your account on twitter.com, go to “Direct Messages”, then the “Sent Tab” and look for those sent via your twitter id.

This should take care of the issue.

Sorry again for the inconvenience

Best Regards,

Said

Osfoora HD, for Twitter 1.0

Said Marouf — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:57:55 +0000

Hello every one,

I am glad to announce the availability of Osfoora HD for the iPad. If you like Osfoora for iPhone, I am sure you will love HD.

Great design, bunch of features. Details available on iTunes

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/osfoora-hd-for-twitter/id372419321?mt=8

Hope you all enjoy it, and keep the feedback coming.

Cheers!

Screen shots!

Click to view slideshow.

Full View Images:

Osfoora for Twitter 1.4

Said Marouf — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:30:31 +0000

Osfoora for the iPhone version 1.4 change log:

- Core change, fixes Mentions/DMs being reloaded issue.

- “Double Tap” Title Bar (Toolbar at the top of screen) anywhere in Osfoora to instantly go back to the Timeline.

- Mark all Tweets/DMs/Mentions as Read by “Double Tapping” their corresponding Tabs at the bottom of the screen.

- After detecting gaps, timeline scrolls to the first tweet in gap.

- “Show Conversation Button” moved to toolbar within the tweet view.

- Ability to Post Link to Tweet.

- Fixes for special characters.

- Theme changes, more consistant DM conversations.

- User profiles now show “Verified” sign.

- Moved “Lookup User” to Search Tab

- Slight timeline changes

- Slight Home screen background change.

- New splash screen

- Easier access to recent searches

- Other Bug fixes

Cheers!

Osfoora for Twitter 1.3, what’s to come?

Said Marouf — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:42:33 +0000

Hi all, want to keep you up to date with what’s coming in Osfoora 1.3. Right to it then…

Core Changes:

-Improved performance and better memory management.
-Improved Scrolling, more noticeable on older devices.
-Twitter Engine updates, more reliable (Should see less timeouts).
-350 API requests to Twitter, Rate limit should not be an issue now!
-Bug fixes related to restoring stored tweets.

Features Added:

-Pull to refresh
-Instant Account switching from within Timeline View, via top bar.
-Now see your Avatar within Timeline at the top.
-No missing tweets now, by Detecting missing tweets (Caused by not opening Osfoora for a long period).
-Click Avatar to show user’s profile.
-Preview tweet you’re replying to by pulling down composing area.
-Osfoora now keeps track of Read/Unread tweets even after quiting the App.
-Marks tweets read while scrolling through them.
-True and Complete Contact List (Accessible from Home screen or while composing a message)
-Follow Friday Random generator! Customizable: Input you own custom prefix (e.g. #FF, #FollowFriday, or whatever!), Choose number of follow friday contacts to attach (from 0 – 10).
-When Quoting (Older Retweet Style) Cursor automatically moves to start of text.
-TwitVid support.
-TweetPhoto support (Not quite as I wanted, but will suffice for this update).
-Bookmarklet installation (from Settings)
-Osfoora remembers the scroll position you last left off (When possible)
- Other small changes…

Other Changes:

-Light theme revamped. More consistant
-Home Screen: now a little bit smaller icons, and accounts button on top. Also shows active account.
-Time line changes: favorites shown differently , retweets badge slightly changed.
-Small change in contextual menu (Press and hold tweet).
-Ability to tweet from search view.
-Other small changes…

Cheers All! There’s always more to come….

How would you change Osfoora’s Home Screen?

Said Marouf — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:16:12 +0000

So.. I’ve received quite some feedback regarding Osfoora’s home screen. Some wanted the ability to customize the background, some think the icons are too large and silly, others dont even like the home screen! Of course many love it too

What do you think? Leave a comment below, and let me know what you’d like to see in future updates.

Cheers!

Poll: Pull to refresh?

Said Marouf — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:01:11 +0000

Osfoora 1.2 Approved!

Said Marouf — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:06:43 +0000

Hi all,

Osfoora 1.2 just went live to the iTunes store. My previous post elaborates on the features/fixes within 1.2.

Something I would like to clear up the issue regarding users who get their tweet saying “from web” instead of “from Osfoora”. After updating Osfoora to 1.2, you just need to delete your account then add it again within the “Manage Accounts” View. This will fix the issue for sure.

FYI, Osfoora is using Twitter’s new xAuth authentication. This will provide you with the best security without affecting the usability of Osfoora.

Hope you all like it, leave a comment and keep the feedback coming.

Your sincere Osfoora dev,

Said (Pronounced ‘Sa-eed‘, Sa as in Sat, eed as in need)!

Osfoora 1.2 and Posterous Integration

Said Marouf — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:57:40 +0000

With Osfoora 1.2 (Coming Soon) comes a neet feature. You can now post both Images and Videos to Posterous. I wanted to write this brief post just to explain how posting with Posterous works. I’ve used many Twitter clients on the iPhone and some do already provide Posterous integration, but not as good as Osfoora’s… IMHO.

When posting with other clients, it uses your Tweet content as the title, and leaves the body empty. So when posting an Image for instance, you will see the Image with a title at the top (Only part of your Tweet), and an empty space underneath the Image.

With Osfoora, Posterous integration is a bit smarter! Osfoora 1.2 Parses your Tweet and uses the first 40 characters as the Title of your Posterous post. Why 40? Well, that is the perfect length of a title that fits the width of a Posterous post. So what happens to the rest of the tweet? Osfoora uses the whole Tweet as the body of a Posterous Post. So if you post an Image or Video to Posterous, you get a title that is an extract of your actual message, and below the Image/Video you have the full content of your Message.

Such an integration allows you to post pretty nice and complete Posterous posts with full content. You can call them Mini Posts

I beleive every Posterous user will appreciate this feature.

Cheers!