Catching up – feed7 1.7, 1.8 and 2.0 (Mango)

It was very busy here over the last couple of months and besides some delayed updates for feed7, also the update details for the April 2011 update are missing here.

But feed7 is gearing up and over the next couple of weeks there will be a lot of new stuff coming out that will include all the work that has been done since the last update, and that was mainly targeted on the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Mango release.

But step by step, let's start with the missing release information for feed7 1.7:

feed7 1.7 April 2011 feature update

I'm sure everyone already uses this version in the meantime. While not obviously visible, this was a rather large update containing a complete redone UI for (much) better scrolling performance, (much) better performing and Metro-like animations/page transitions, landscape support, a complete localizable UI (with one additional language, German, included) and much more. Here are the details:

feed7 1.7 Release Notes:

Added: Full localization support for complete UI implemented
Added: Localization to German added. More languages will be added depending on customer demand
Added: Links in articles can now be opened directly in WP7 browser, can be limited to YouTube video links only
Added: Mark all read on top level
Added: Full landscape support added
Enhanced: Improved scroll performance in feed lists to offer native-like WP7 experience
Enhanced: New page transitions that offer native-like WP7 experience and faster, less diversionary animations
Enhanced: Optimized startup time by reducing amount of cached data
Fix: Due to some Google Reader API bugs, duplicate articles were returned occasionally. feed7 handles them now.
Fix: Opening articles from "all" lists caused sometimes automatic re-opening of those items later
Fix: Some small UI glitches fixed that were not compliant to WP7 design guidelines
Fix: Exception on startup when push notification server is temporary unavailable
Fix: Under some circumstances saving tombstoning data could cause a null reference exception

feed7 1.8 update for NoDo coming

While Mango is just around the corner, there will be one more update for NoDo devices coming in the next couple of days. It will add some requested features and some bug fixes that were reported since the last update in April. Included are customizable Application Bar colors, auto-sync on startup and some more UI enhancements.

It was a long time since the last update - the reason is that we needed to move some of the planned features to the feed7 2.0 release as we need the new Mango features for them.

There is also one bugfix in this release that already targets Mango (for everyone that already uses feed7 on a Mango beta device): when changing your password, it is currently stored incorrectly on Mango devices. This update will fix this problem. You won't have noticed this problem if you haven't changed your password since your update to Mango on your device.

feed7 2.0, the update for "Mango" - join the Beta!

feed7 2.0 is in the making for months now and had been delayed again and again because the planned new features weren't realizable with the current-generation WP7 OS. It was impossible to work around the limitations without having serious performance impacts. But with the new Mango update everything is on track now, mainly the "heart of the update", a new caching engine.

Shortly after the 1.8 update there will be a Beta for 2.0 available to everyone who already has the Mango Beta running on a real device. Everyone who is interested in joining the Beta, please contact feed7 support. While the first Beta release won't be feature complete and you might not even notice huge differences, there will be some key features of Mango implemented, like support for fast app switching ("Multitasking").

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