Being someone prefering native clients I started to use Fever already quite some months ago (before Google announced the killing of Google Reader) and use Reeder for iPhone with it. But on my Windows desktop there was no client at all – I used Desktop Google Reader until I switched to Fever so from that day on I tried to use the web interface of Fever.

In the end the (very old) plan to create an all new RSS client for Windows are now being brought to live (Desktop Google Reader is  great but it is very Google Reader focused (also from the code) and not the way I would create an app those days).

So today you can get the (very early) first BETA for Meneré which will be a multi service client for e. g. Fever, Feedly, Tiny Tiny RSS and so on.

The version I just uploaded for you (get the setup by clicking here) already does feature the following parts:

• Fever account only
• Get unread items
• Mark item read
• View item content
• See item linked url inline
• Open item linked url in your webbrowser
• Filter items by feed
• Filter items by title and content
• Get Snarl notifications on new entries
• Proxy settings

And this how it looks like (it’ll be full themed – this is the Solarized Light Theme):

Please keep in mind: it is the very first BETA and things are very likely not to work as expected sometimes (I do have used it already some days so I hope it will work )

Things to be added:

• Social sharing
• Save for reading later (e. g. Pocket)
• More account types (see screenshot)
• All items and Saved items display
• Folder / Groups view

Final note: Meneré will be a commercial client – so somewhen in the future I’ll make a post about licensing – meaning at the moment when I know what I want to charge for it. Suggestions welcome

And now: have fun!

This is the biggest update Chapper has seen so far – so get it here for download now.

There are so many changes – where to start? Well, the most visual change is the possibility to theme Chapper to your needs. During the beta phase some of the users (and I) already created quite some really great themes – and if you want to create your own feel free and have a look at the documentation.

And it’s not “only” about themes in general – you now can change the font sizes to your needs.

Next big thing: Links can now be inserted using the MarkDown syntax (like [Link title](http://www.example.com)) which will be rendered by most client as linked text. The same is true for images. Oh, and if you have an Url in your clipboard while pressing the add link button the title of the page will be retrieved automatically.

Want to get rid of a user? Chapper now has a context menu on the users to mute and/or block users. (Sorry @timpritlove in the screenshot – I wouldn’t block you for sure )

Having posted something wrong or in the wrong context? Well, you now have a button to delete your post or message (yes, even in Patter rooms @nhk ).

Patter rooms became quite confusing as every single one needed its own tab. This is gone and they are now shown in a dropdown instead.

Let me summarize all the other new and changed stuff for you:

• Tabs are now represented by icons instead of text (less space needed)
• Completely rewritten code about the compose box (getting post target etc.)
• Direct message button is now hidden if user will not receive your private messages due to privacy settings
• Replying to a post with multiple mentions now also mentions those users
• When closing a tab Chapper now jumps to the previously selected tab instead of the last one
• Images are now also shown if they are within a repost
• Verified domain is now shown in user info
• On personal messages the receiver is displayed if you are the sender
• Replying to a post with multiple lines now not shows multiple lines as overlay in compose box anymore
• Displaying and sending error messages on posting fail added (optional)
• Finally fixed stream markers in my and unfied stream as well as in mentions (they broke in 1.0 final and I did not notice till now…)

I have to say I never would have called this a final version if the pressure wouldn’t be so hard…

So what’s new compared to 1.4.x:

• App.net support
• Facebook integration fixed
• Twitter API 1.1 support
• New design
• Many bugfixes
• Performance tweaks

The downside is due to the hurry in the end some things are not completed by now and will be added / fixed on next 2.x releases:

• Twitter streaming is disabled (polling used for now)
• TweetMarker is disabled (I am aware this is a blocker and will reenable it as soon as possible)
• Image upload is broken

Also on the downside are the limitations out of the Twitter API 1.1 Display Requirements - most important:

• No more mixed Views with Twitter and other services (only Twitter and only anything else but Twitter now)
• The “Send to”-menu is gone from tweets

See the complete changelog for all the many, many details.

And now I do pray everything works for you…
Please report problems to @lighun either on App.net or Twitter.

!!! Note: if Nymphicus crashes on first start after upgrade please reset all your settings as described in the FAQ !!!

But all the users (and possible users) might ask now: why another client next to Nymphicus and by the way: shouldn’t you spend your time into finishing Nymphicus 2.0 finally?

Well, the goal of Chapper is different: small, fresh structure and easily to be changed by me. Nymphicus has grown much during the two years it is developed now (remember: on start it was “only” a Twitter client) and therefor anything I change or add there has consequences in many places (does it work with multiple accounts, all account types, Views, filters, ….) which slowed down everything recently.

So I decided to have a “playground” to try new features and changes at a much (!) smaller codebase and also wanted to have a testing implementation of my Open Source(!) App.net .NET client library I released earlier this year. Some examples: the App.net authorization code is completely rewritten und will be part of the next Nymphicus 2.0 Beta as well as the layout within Chapper is already based on  a theme (which will be in Nymphicus 2.0 final too).

You see Chapper is my way of speeding things up again with Nymphicus – having very few free time (remember everything here is my hobby next to my normal job and my family) is always a challenge.

Finally Chapper will be commercial. It’ll be EUR 1,89 which I think is a fair pricing.
And an important note: licenses for Nymphicus will also be valid for Chapper. Boom!
I don’t want to push anyone to pay a second time!

During the last days and weeks I have thought quite some time why I am using Twitter. Well, I would be happy if the answer would be:

“because I like it”

But to be honest this is not the case anymore. Twitter really made me upset many times with all their business driven decisions (which are also many times wrong in my opinion…) and kicking us developers (and early adaptors – I am there since 4 1/2 years now) in the butt. I really do respect people like @Manton who already left Twitter (in case you wonder who he is: he is the developer of Tweet Marker…!)

Well, the only reason I do stay with Twitter for now is Nymphicus – I want to give you, the paying users, the long promised 2.0 Windows update till the end of the year (yes, a date finally ) and will be starting with public alpha releases quite soon (need to finish the bottom area first).

But in my private live I now already made the switch and you’ll find me under my development pseudonym lI’ Ghun now here on app.net!

And yes, I even paid the 100 bucks to get development access (100 bucks is more than I got out of Nymphicus for Windows in sum this year – just to give you an idea…) and looking hopefully forward to find a new home there in the end.

So as long as Twitter won’t kill my development keys Nymphicus for Windows will stay with Twitter (also the Mac version which is Twitter only anyway) – this is my promise I am giving you here!

Now I have come to a conclusion for myself: I stopped all the already done work on Nymphicus for Windows which was focused on the modularization in preperation for Nymphicus Basic and Metro.
As new clients (which they would be) make no sense currently the modularization does not make that much sense anymore (except of cleaning up of course).

Sounds sad and it is for sure – but there is a big plus: I now will work on the “old” 1.4.4 codebase and so I immediately can do all the layout changes I planned already since ages. So there will be a Nymphicus for Windows 2.0 – but it is back to the original focus: redesign. So today I did spend the first two hours and this is what I have already and the direction it will move on:

And next to that I now will finally continue my work on the longterm planned Meneré – a Google Reader client. And also there an important decission has taken place: I will start doing it as a Windows 8 app from scratch (traditional window layout later on). I am excited to play with it!

With an early version of the Windows version I added the “mark as read feature” and I know there are quite some users who use this feature heavily (much more than me ). Then I later added TweetMarker and they both do not speak to each other currently.

My own “mark as read” has one big difference compared to TweetMarker: not only does it have the option to decide that all items older than the current are read but it also is able to change this state for single tweets (so you might have many read items and down in your list you keep one unread for example).

My idea now would be to unite both TweetMarker and “mark as read” so both automatical and manual storage can be done. It would always and only be saved to TweetMarker and not (as currently in the old approach) locally on your harddisk.

The downside would be to loose the ability to have single tweets read/unread in a wild mixture. But does anybody of you need this or would you all be fine with the solution “all older than current” as with TweetMarker currently?

Please let me know – currently I do prefer the union…

Today you finally released a more or less clear statement what you think about clients having own ideas on how to present Tweets to the user. The short version: every client has to look and feel as Twitter thinks how it is the only right way.

I have read many statements which call this decision something like bullshit or similar and I am personally not amused how Twitter handles us developers. Many blog posts state that Twitter won’t be as big and feature rich if us developers and users wouldn’t have invented things like Mentions or Retweets – and this is just the trues. But Twitter seems to have lost its original user base right now and is focusing on the celebrity and events stuff they do spam me about in their newsletter quite some time already.

For me Twitter’s homepage is not (and never has been!) a good and useful way to access tweets. From day one I have been using clients (first on Mac, then iPhone and nowadays also on Windows (you might guess it – Nymphicus in my case)). If Twitter is going further in this direction they might be going there without me!

Enough complaints – what about Nymphicus!?

Nymphicus for Mac is relatively save – the now Display Requirements (formerly Display Guidelines) will be easy to implement while you might discuss if it makes sense to require to have the posting date on top right instead of bottom of the tweet…

There is one point I can’t believe that they they do require it now – it’s “Individuel Tweets -> Tweet Actions -> b”. It reads as follows:

No other social or 3rd party actions may be attached to a Tweet.

While I can understand Twitter (not the user!) may have an interest to ensure they are not send to Facebook, LinkedIn and so on this statement as written there also excludes services like Pocket, Instapaper or delicious. And this is – I have to say it also – bullshit! For my personal way of use sending Tweets and links iTweeits to Pocket is essential. If we have to remove this feature from Nymphicus (and this how it looks like) we’ll have a major feature less…

Nymphicus for Windows has the same issues as the Mac version but also adds another huge one as it is multiple protocol already. This time it is “Timeline -> Time integrity”. This one reads as follows:

Tweets that are grouped together into a timeline should not be rendered with non-Twitter content. e.g. comments, updates from other networks

This is against the main and central feature of Nymphicus - the Views. In my daily use I do have many Views mixed out of Twitter, Facebook, QUOTE.fm and Google Reader (and I did plan to add LinkedIn and Xing) which is awesome. Now I have to remove the other services (which I won’t do!) or have to cripple Views that they can only be pure Twitter or pure Non-Twitter. So in future I will have to use at least two Views where today one is enough for me. Thank you Twitter…!

I don’t want to speak about stopping work on Nymphicus as of today but once again Twitter makes me very upset on how they think they can play with us users (remember: Nymphicus has been created in my personal need for a Twitter access in a way I need it).

Yours

Sven

Nymphicus 1.x is mainly a one file fits all solution – its overview looks as simple as following:

While this concept is quite easy to maintain while you only have this one client there is the problem that as soon as you (me ) start to think about new ideas it is very limited.

So currently all my work is dedicated to the part of splitting Nymphicus into several files. Let’s show the concept here in another overview image:

So the main thing about this concept is the Nymphicus.Core.dll I currently work at.

This DLL handles all the main stuff (having accounts of several types, retrieving items, sending items and whatever is possible in the different service (favorite, like, …).

Secondly I want to once again contribute to the Open Source community and do extract all the external services (currently Pocket, Instapaper, del.icio.us and Pinboard) into an own project which than will be in the future an easy way for any .NET application to embed those sharing services (for example I will add them to Winslew then…).

When the creation of those DLLs is completed (it’s still quite a lot work) I also will have the basement to create a Nymphicus family all sharing the same Nymphicus.Core.dll. And how do I plan to use them?

Well, first I will work on a “Nymphicus Light”. There is still no simple small and great Windows Twitter client available so this is what the light version will be – one account, traditional layout (tabs for timeline, mentions, DMs, …) and as lightweight as possible (e. g. I won’t use WPF there as it tends to use a lot (!) of RAM.

And second with the upcoming Windows 8 a Metro version would be awesome, wouldn’t it? (This is a real question – I am not convinced about what I saw in all the betas and previews…) I think the idea of Views would be a great match to Metro – every View could have an own tile.

So my current main problem is that as long as I work on the concepts I simply have nothing to show (screenshots and so on) – as soon as the work is done there I’ll focus on the new and cleaner user interface and then we’ll have many screenshots and hopefully some public betas.

Enough said for today – see you soon.

And this is also what all upcoming 1.4.x releases will be – if you find more bugs (I don’t hope so but am realistic…) they will be fixed – and no or only features will be added so we are now in something like a “Snow Nymphicus” phase here

In parallel I do extend my work on the 2.0 line which will be – as promised – all about design. Many of you like all the  features Nymphicus has but the current design – what shall I say… Those following @liGhun might have seen already some first screenshots and mockups and this will be the place where you see it first.

That said here the changelog of Nymphicus 1.4.3

• Better scroll behaviour: if new items are received the current topmost shown item will never been scrolled out of sight (it will go some steps down but not out of sight anymore).
  this also means the scrolled to Tweet Marker position now stays visible
• Read It Later renamed to Pocket
• All settings are now saved every 90 seconds to be sure changes won’t be lost when Nymphicus crashes
• All settings are now saved if the preferences window is closed regardless if done via Save button or by the window close button
• Fix: Accounts are now saved more often to make sure they are available on next restart in all possible cases
• Fix: Possible crash on new Twitter item retrieval
• Fix: Missing Snarl notifications classes on first start
• Fix: Possible crash on long running instances (as well es edited/delete tweet) related to the maximum number of concurrent displayed items
• Fix: Crashes on tweet sending will now be catched. If you encounter an error message please send it to me for further investigation
• Fix: Notification of new likes on empty text Facebook items now shown correctly
• Fix: New items icon badge & window title now more reliable
• Fix: If some invalid data is send through streaming interface Nymphicus does not crash anymore
• Fix: Clicking the retweet button in an UserInfo window recent item crashed (you wouldn’t believe how much code needed to be changed for that fix )
• Fix: In some rares cases a tweet was shown as being retweeted where it wasn’t and displayed some random text
• FIx: Stability in many places