Just got the email last night that Xblaze iPhone 1.0.2 is now live on the App Store .
New in this update:
- Better support for Avatars
- Xblaze iPhone will now download the same avatar that is shown on your Xfire profile page, regardless of whether it is a custom upload, a screenshot clipping, a gallery avatar or the default Xfire avatar.
- Avatars are cached properly, Xblaze no longer relies on the system level cache, and the avatars are written to the filesystem for faster loading and to prevent unnecessary network access
- A few UI tweaks, mainly using a grey selection style for the table cells and a new icon to dismiss the keyboard in the chat view.
Go grab it!
An update for Xblaze iPhone has just gone live on the App Store.
This update fixes a timing issue where the app could get stuck on the “Connecting…” screen while attempting to log in. This seems to happen more often on very fast internet connections (so using Xblaze over 3G is more likely to work than on a super fast wifi connection).
This has been fixed now, so those of you with super fast wifi connections can rest assured.
I’ve also just pushed the 1.0.2 update into review, which includes better support for avatars and caching, and a few UI tweaks too, so there’s something to look forward to in a few days.
(Ps. I’m absolutely loving this new faster turnover with the App Store approval process! Hehe)
Very happy to announce that Xblaze has just been approved by Apple and should appear in the App Store very very shortly!
I’m really happy about this, and I’m really impress at how fast Apple worked through my submission. The app went into review at 9:15am EST, and was approved by 15:51pm EST. That’s just over 6 and a half hours! Excellent work Apple!
So everyone must go and download it, and don’t forget to leave a review!!
PS. I’ll have a page up soon where you can see a screen cast of the app…
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who signed up for the Xblaze iPhone Beta. Your input and feedback has been extremely useful throughout the testing period.
I would also like to announce that Xblaze iPhone has now been submitted to the App Store for review! I’m hoping the approval process won’t take that long, and Xblaze should be available to download very shortly.
Here are some screen shots to tide you over 
I’ve just sent out emails to all the people who signed up for the Xblaze iPhone Beta. You should have received them by the time you read this.
I’m hoping for a lot of feedback, during this beta test period, so don’t be shy to report the bugs you find and suggest the feature requests you have!
Happy beta testing!
I know its been quite on the Xblaze front recently, and for that I apologise, but here’s a surprise to make up.
I’ve been hard at work since the release of Xblaze on a new project that a small number of you already know about. Here’s a sneak peek:
So if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 3.0 or later, and want to help beta test Xblaze for iPhone, all you need to do is send me an e-mail with your full name and the UDID of your device.
To get the UDID of your device, you can download and install a free iPhone app called UDID sender. Alternatively, you can copy it from iTunes:
- Connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer and wait for iTunes to open.
- After any automatic syncing has finished, click on your device in the source list on the left side of the iTunes window.
- There you should see some information about your iPhone/iPod under the summary tab. Click once on the Serial Number label and it will switch to show the UDID.
- When the UDID is showing, press CMD + C on your keyboard, or select Edit > Copy from the menu bar. This will copy the whole 40 character UDID string to your clipboard, which you can then paste into an e-mail to me.
Personally, I find it easier to use the UDID Sender app.
Once you’ve pasted the UDID into an e-mail, please ensure that it is exactly 40 characters long. I can’t do anything with a UDID that is missing a few characters.
When the beta starts, if you’ve sent me your UDID, you will receive an e-mail from me containing a Zip file and some instructions on how to install the App.
Xblaze 1.0.3 is available on the download page. Go grab it.
New in this version:
- Fixed a bug that prevented Xblaze from connecting when Adium starts if you check the “Connect when Adium opens” option.
- Fixed an issue where Friends of Friends were randomly bring shown in the contact list. Current solution is to not show any friends of friends at all. A friends of friends solution will be worked out in a later release.
Hey guys. Another late night, 04:57am right now…
Xblaze 1.0.2 has just been uploaded and is ready for download.
New in this version:
- Contact list has been optimised – should build and update much faster than previously.
- Server info is now shown if available in the tooltip for contacts.
Also, I have fixed the issue in the forums that prevented people from posting new topics, so remember, if you have any issues, e-mail me or post in the forum and I’ll get back to you.
Hey guys, just a heads up that Xblaze 1.0.1 is up on the downloads page. Go grab it!
- Xblaze will now show typing notifications when your friends are typing, and send typing notifications to your friends when you are typing.
- Plugged a few minor memory leaks
It’s 5:08am. I’ve just committed the typing notifications code to SVN. Sleeeepy.
I’ll release an update tomorrow at some point that will include the typing notifications support.
The incoming typing notes, (those that tell you who’s typing), were simple. A few short lines of code and they were working. But the outgoing typing notes, (those that tell your friends when you’re typing), were a lot more involved. The MacFire library didn’t have a packet to represent a typing notification, so I had to write one before writing the logic to send it.
I also learned something a little odd about the way Xfire handles typing notifications. According to all the documentation I’ve read about the Xfire protocol, the typing notification packet is the same packet that contains messages and message acknowledgments. The difference between these packets is the data structure within, their IDs are all the same. With that said, the typing notification packet contains a field aptly named ‘typing’ which represents an integer.
The documentation says this is treated like a boolean, 1 for typing, 0 for not typing. So my initial inclination was to send the packet with a 1 when a user is typing, and then again with a 0 when they finish typing.
I was wrong. This caused the typing notification to keep being displayed even after a message was sent. My only guess is that Xfire (for Windows) ignores this boolean value, and just assumes that any typing note packet that arrives means that the user is typing… Either that, or the field isn’t intended to be used as a boolean. We shall most likely never know.
Good night.