Yesterday we pushed out FlyScreen version 0.4.0 for S60 3rd edition phones. We bumped it up from 0.3.8 because we have added some amazing new features that we’re sure you’ll love!
Here are some of the great new things you can do with your FlyScreen:
1) Read it later!
If you click on a headline, you will see a menu with a variety of options. “Read now” will open the link right away. But what if you see something interesting, but don’t have time to read it right away? Have we got a solution for you!
You can now easily tag headlines to read later! We have generated a unique RSS URL for every user. It can be found by logging in to your account on www.myflyscreen.com, Settings –> Extras –> Tagged Headlines URL. You can take this URL and plug it into Google Reader, any other RSS reader ,or even back into a custom RSS FlyScreen widget! Enjoy! (This is one of Itamar’s personal favourites.)
2) Share on Facebook and Twitter!
Yes, a tad self-explanatory, but a definitely a favourite. If you see a headline that you’d like to share on Twitter or Facebook, you can do it right from here. Clicking on Tweet it! or FB it! will open an input field, and you can add some of your own text too, and click! Shared with all your friends.
3) Email!
See a cool headline about AC/DC tickets going on sale in an hour? Want to send it to Avi so he can buy tickets? It’s so ridiculously easy now. Click on the headline, choose “Email it!” and send it off!
At the moment we have integrated it with your contact list, and support for contacts with multiple email address is coming in the next build.
We are very excited with this direction FlyScreen is taking. We like to think that one of the basic values of FlyScreen is that you can embed your favourite web services on your sleep screen, so you can get to them faster than opening your browser, or an app, etc. Mobile should be faster right? So these features were a natural progression of how we could help people make their mobile web even faster (and yes, more mobile).
We’re super excited to have been included in TechCrunch’s list of 10 Must-Downloads for the OVI launch! Just further confirmation that the FlyScreen revolution has just begun!
**Note: There have been reports of FlyScreen not showing up properly for all phone types. This issue should be cleared up this week, and our 3rd edition versions will be up in the store. Our 5th edition was taken down for maintenance, and we will keep everyone posted here on the blog or via Twitter ( @flyscreen ) when it’s back up.**
So we’re feeling a little show-offish today, and figured we’d screencast our upcoming Android version and give everyone a little sneak peak. There are some great features in this upcoming release, many of which will be included in the Symbian version as soon as possible.
These include:
- Sharing headlines to your Facebook and Twitter.
- Tagging items you’d like to read later, and generating your own unique RSS URL to plug into any RSS reader you like (Google reader, etc.).
- More detailed weather updates.
- Editing widgets from within the settings view.
So we’ve been working hard on developing the UI of FlyScreen. It’s kind of tricky taking a once bare and empty screen, and letting users embed web widgets onto this screen, without making it too busy or distracting. We try to make FlyScreen as elegant and well designed as possible. (And we’ll do something about the ugly font built into S60)
What you will notice in this new UI are the search and settings icon built into the screen. We have taken out the search bar, and made a dedicated settings key, instead of having it via “C” or backspace.
So with this new direction we are taking, we have taken a few very important things (that our users have hammered into our heads ) into account. Namely:
Previously, getting into Settings was confusing. Yes, we did put it in like three of the start-up dialogues, but no one seemed to like it that way. So now you can find a dedicated settings icon on the bottom right, so you’ll never forget how to get there again!
On the bottom left side, you will now find the dedicated search button. The search dialogue takes a few seconds to come up, because in those two seconds you can press * or “function” to lock your keypad if you want. The search dialogue is pre-set to Google mobile search for now, but we will be adding support for other search providers very soon.
The time bar will now only display at the top of the screen. Yes, it was purposefully changing from top to bottom before, because that’s what your old sleep screen did (for some reason). Well, with the new UI we decided once and for all to just keep it still. So it’ll be at the top, along with your notification icons (missed call, incoming SMS, email, etc.), and perhaps something else up there in the future….
The Twitter/Facebook menu has been tweaked to be more sharp, with bolder icons. For the sake of clarity, the background is now dimmed so you can focus on the menu at hand.
The main ingredients of a great mobile UI are for it to be “invisible”, intuitive, easy to use, and pleasant to look at. There’s a lot of thought behind making the most of a small screen. FlyScreen is meant to be non-intrusive and sleek, which we are always trying to attain with a gorgeous UI. We hope this new direction helps our existing users and future FlyScreeners get the most out of their mobile web.
This Symbian version will be opening up around the time the Nokia OVI store launches. Team FlyScreen was in Monaco recently for the 2009 Nokia Developers Summit. It was a great effort by Nokia to reach out to the developer community, and we are very excited to be opening our beta along with the launch of the OVI store. Thanks Nokia!
Another quick update of the latest FlyScreen build for S60 versions 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 (sorry, not for 5.0 yet). Changes were mainly UI/design oriented, but important enough to bump it up a new version.
- New RSS widget graphics
- Slightly faster scrolling
- New Facebook graphics
- Faster menu response
- Easier sign-up process (mainly for new users), and registering from the client
Just a quick announcement regarding our latest build. It’s particularly important because there is a major stability fix in there, so all you FlyScreeners should go upgrade asap!!
Other features include:
- Support for 10 widgets is back (from the previous 5)
- Faster loading Twitter and Facebook avatars
- Night icons for weather widget (yes, they were missing before)
- Graphic tweaks for S60 v3.0 models
Remember to input your feedback and suggestions on our uservoice page: http://flyscreen.uservoice.com/
And follow us on Twitter- we listen and respond! @flyscreen
As we prepare to finally roll out our Symbian beta, we have begun giving our alpha testers a taste of what’s to come. Some of the new features include:
- Major stability upgrade
- Twitter features (@reply, DM, built-in ReTweet)
- Choose 10, 15, or 20 headlines (instead of just 10)
- Built in mobile search (Google, with support for Yahoo! and more coming soon)
- Side translucent scroll bar
- Auto-scroll option. You can now set FlyScreen to scroll from widget to widget every 10 seconds, so every time you glance back at your sleep screen, you’ll have a different widget to see!
We have TONS more features that will be released when we take FlyScreen into open beta, which will be happening quite soon. And we mean awesome features. Stay tuned!
So we’re still recovering from a great week in Barcelona! Lots of great things to see, and cool, new mobile stuff. There are some new developments for FlyScreen in the works, so we’ll keep you all posted about those as soon as we can. As for the show, the highlight for us (aside from the great parties, including the surprisingly awesome one by the Symbian Foundation) was being able to demo FlyScreen at the Symbian Foundation booth. Here is the video (thanks Qik!):
We just want to thank Lester Madden, and everyone from the Symbian Foundation (or Nokia , including Michael, the nice guy who shot the Qik.
We are delighted to have been selected (among someothergreat mobile apps) to demonstrate FlyScreen on the Symbian Foundation Stage at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We will be showing off the first version of FlyScreen made for a touch device, the Nokia 5800.
When?: Tuesday, February 17th, at noon. Where?: Symbian Foundation booth, 8A77(8) AV91(Avenue), at the Mobile World Congress, Fira Montjuic, Barcelona. Who?: Everyone is invited! Cellogic CTO Kibi Hofmann will be presenting on stage for just 15 minutes, speaking about the innovation of the S60 touch UI platform, and the innovation of the FlyScreen platform.
“Myflyscreen - we’ve seen the concept before - the ‘idle’ home screen, but this one rocks, for (at least) one reason - it doesn’t kill your battery life! Every single one I’ve tried in the last few years has left a Series 60 dead in a couple of hours. This one doesn’t, and I’ve been testing it for over 2 months.”
A great write-up by James Salmon, a Product Marketing Manager at Vodafone group.
) into account. Namely:
