Service release

This release contains no new features but addresses three issues:

1. In some BES environments it is necessary to change the ‘Use BES/MDS when available’ setting to ‘No’. This is because some BES admins do not permit Yatca to communicate with the Twitter (or identi.ca) server. The problem is that even when this setting was changed Yatca was still reporting a ‘Bad Request’ error when trying to verify credentials. This has been fixed in the service release.

2. The yfrog image storage service now requires that Yatca identify itself by supplying a unique key when uploading photos. It cannot be guaranteed how much longer yfrog will continue to accept uploads from Yatca releases that do not supply the key. This change has been included in the service release.

3. The blog post for release 1.7.1 stated that the ‘Use geotagging’ setting defaulted to ‘No’ but this was not actually the case. This has been fixed in this service release. Note however that this change will only apply to a new install of Yatca and not an upgrade from 1.7.1. So if you do not wish to use geotagging please ensure that the ‘Use geotagging’ setting is ‘No’.

Favourites, geotagged photos, pause, etc.

It’s been a while but I’ve finally got a new Yatca release ready. N.B. Installing this release will blow away all your existing Yatca settings, updates and replies, i.e. you’ll be starting from scratch from a Yatca perspective. You have been warned. Lots of new stuff so lets get started…

For me, the most useful new feature is the ability to mark/unmark a favourite. This means for example that you can flag any items you need to come back to when you’re back at your computer. Now that I’ve had it for a week or so I don’t know how I managed without it before. To mark something as a favourite simply click the button or use the ‘v’ shortcut.

Next up on the feature list is geotagged photo uploads. This is disabled by default for your privacy and security. If you want to enable it go to Yatca Options and set ‘Use geotagging’ to ‘Yes’. Note that geotagging will increase your power consumption which will run down your battery a little bit quicker. Note also that on device models which default to obtaining ‘assisted fixes’ you may incur additional carrier charges. We won’t be paying.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the geotagging is only effective if you are using an image storage service that supports geotagging! I have changed the default image storage service for Yatca to TweetPhoto. I’m actually quite happy to do this because I really think those guys are doing some great things and I want to encourage you to try it out.

The ability to pause/resume Yatca refresh finally sees the light of day in this release. Users have been asking for this for a long time. When you’re at your computer and using some ultra-slick desktop Twitter client you don’t want to be getting the same 147 tweets to your BlackBerry too. So just invoke the ‘Pause Yatca Refresh’ command. Then when you leave your computer invoke the ‘Resume Yatca Refresh’. Too easy. Note that the resume is from ‘now’, i.e. the exact instant you resume.

Twitter recently introduced the concept of verified accounts for famous athletes, entertainers, politicians, etc. Yatca displays a little white tick on a blue background next to the name of any verified account. Note that they are still working on this feature so if you suddenly stop seeing the little tick next to somebody who previous had one you’ll know why.

There are lots of other minor tweaks and improvements in this release which I won’t bore you with. Enjoy!