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Stumble itA quick note to let you know that both the Chrome extension and the Windows Desktop Gadget have been bumped to version 1.2.1. This little update let you rename or delete tasks in your to-do list, directly from within the gadget/extension.
Windows Gadget 1.2 released
September 28, 2010
picoBeat’s Windows Gadget has been updated to version 1.2 and now include direct SMS sending. As usual, Windows 7 is required to use it.
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Time format preference
August 18, 2010
A brief post to let you know that it is now possible to configure time formatting (i.e. 2:00 pm or 14:00) in the Options panel.
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Chrome Extension released
July 6, 2010
picoBeat users who browser with Google Chrome rejoice: a Chrome Extension has been released to give you faster access to your agenda, tasks, notes and contacts. The extension will also display desktop notification for birthdays, due tasks and events (provided they have an alarm set). To install, just head over to picoBeat’s Extension page.
The extension builds on the highly portable code used for the Windows 7 desktop gadget. Minimal refactoring was done to accommodate for Chrome architecture, most notably the fact that it runs background code and the GUI widget in separate pages and processes. As both share the same codebase, they’ll both benefit from the same updates and fixes.
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picoBeat Windows Gadget 1.1 released
July 3, 2010
The Windows Gadget for picoBeat has been upgraded to version 1.1: it now comes with an extra Notes tab, giving you a speedy access to your existing notes as well as letting you create new ones.
If you are upgrading the gadget do not forget to first uninstall the previous version before installing the new one.
picoBeat itself has been optimized to handle large notes more gracefully by using lazy-loading, this should make handling a large amount of big notes much faster.
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New feature: contacts filtering by first letter
June 19, 2010
Following a user request, you can now filter your contacts by their first letter using the filtering options on the left. Right now only the latin alphabet is available, but other character set (cyrillic, greek, etc.) could be offered provided someone can point me to enough informations to do so (list of letters to include, sorting order, preferred character set for specific languages)
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Windows Gadget Updated
June 8, 2010
The Windows Gadget has been updated and is now in version 1.0. Noticeable improvements include:
- A completely redesigned UI, that is both larger, cleaner and easier to read.
- A new “Tasks” tab that gives direct access to your main to-do list.
- Cleaner, more portable code under the hood.
If you have Windows 7 you can download the new gadget right now.
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Favorite option added to quick send
May 31, 2010
As an added convenience you can now add custom recipients in the Send widget, under the Favorites sections. Once you have added a recipient, sending a note or a task is as easy as dragging and dropping them directly on his or her name!
To edit or delete a favorite, just click once on it.
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Sending improved
May 25, 2010
Finally! It took a little longer than expected but sending items (appointments, contact infos, tasks, etc.) has been improved and better integrated with the messaging module.
You’ll now notice a “Send” panel on each module (tasks, calendar, contacts and notes) that displays groups you are a member of and their members. Sending something is as easy as dragging and dropping it over the person’s name! The message will show up directly in their picoBeat’s inbox and can be added to their own data with a single click. You can also send a regular email to anyone by dragging and dropping your items on “email”. (in this case they’ll be sent as attachment in a standard format: iCalendar, vCard, etc.)
There are a number of improvements planned for this feature, most notably a shortcut list of favorite contacts and emails for improved usability.
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New feature: SMS messaging
April 23, 2010
picoBeat now has a whole new messaging module for sending SMS! Because we have to pay for sending these, we also have to charge for it, but you’ll find our pricing is quite competitive and also very transparent: the messaging interface will give you a real-time information on how many SMS are going to be needed for your message, and with a press of a button will compute the exact cost.
As a SMS is cheap, payment works by pre-purchasing credits for your user account. Unlike many other SMS services those credits can be purchased in small increments (from 5 €) and will be usable for 2 years, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing more than you can use. To get you started, every account gets 0.10 free credits, enough to send 1 or 2 SMS to most destinations!
You might notice that some part of the messaging module seems useless or “over architectured”: this is because it was built to also work as a fully-featured email client, ready to handle multiple external mailboxes, and these features are disabled right now. Since managing email requires important investments in servers and storage (we are serious about having proper backup, speed and availability), these functionalities will be activated once a proper way of financing the service is found.
If you have any question or issues related to this messaging module a dedicated forum section has been opened.
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