We are getting closer and closer to the final release of Spark 2.5, and I thought I would give a little insight on some of the stuff that’s new, stuff that’s coming, and stuff that’s hidden. It doesn’t do anyone any good when we have features within the client that no one knows about. So why don’t we begin…
The New Stuff
Jingle VOIP Calls: This is the one big feature that we have been working on for quite some time, and it’s really starting to kick some serious booty. Besides being one of the only, if not the only client using Jingle right now, we are coming up with all sorts of ideas. From conferences to just better interaction with others, it’s just a blast to finally get to talk with some of the people who we have been chatting with daily. Give it a try, you can make a call from either the roster or inside any of the chat rooms. Basically anyone using Spark 2.5.0 Beta 4 should be able to talk with one another.
Recent Conversations: Try ctrl+e inside of the Contact List, this allows you to see the last 10 users you have chatted with. I use it all the time.
My Favorites: Try ctrl+t inside of the Contact List, you can see the most “Popular” people related to you. Now granted, it may be a person that you just have to put up with constantly, but I like to be optimistic about it.
Copy To and Move To: I actually added this because I’m still having troubles scrolling down the contact list using drag and drop mechansims. This feature allows you to do mass move or copies of contacts into other contact groups.
The Hidden Stuff
Task List: Using ctrl+F5, you can add tasks that are persisted directly onto your server, so they are mobile. This feature, as is the next one, have been in the product forever, but yet, no one seems to know about them.
Notes: Using ctrl+F6, allows a simple notepad that is persisted directory onto your server. I use it for daily reminders, etc.
Still Brewing (But should get in the release)
I have a shiny new Mac on my desk in order to get the OSX build up to snuff. So, two things that I’m going to be jamming on. The first one being better growl notification. The second one being better dock notifications via text and animated icons.
Jingle Discovery - we need to see who can actually talk.
I hope you find this helpful. Always fun to discover new things
I tried to RTFM, but I couldn’t find anything on Tasks or Notes in the feature tour or screenshots. You should have kept the Easter eggs under wraps for another 3 weeks!
Sweet features, though I know I’ll never remember the keyboard shortcuts so it would be great to see them in the action menu… or even a “Google Desktop” like multi-function panel.
Re. the tasks function, how difficult would it be to extend the function so that tasks could be sent to other people on the roster… if accepted, they’d show up on their task list?
These features look great. Just discovered wildfire and considering moving to Spark from Gaim. What platform are those screenshots taken on? The fonts look much nicer than I can get using java6 on ubuntu.
Like Steven and Joe I don’t see anything about SSO. I’ve been waiting for a while for this and if 2.5 doesn’t have it I think my Director is gonna force me in a new direction, even if it costs. Help me out guys.
It would be reallyreally nice to have a global keyboard shortcut to search for a user. I love that feature but I always have to click on a chat window or the contact list and then type Control-F.
I’m running Spark 2.5.0 Beta 4 but I can’t see any of the voice/jingle functionality that you mentioned in your post. What do I need to do to get this working?
We are using the iaxclient package which has many signalling built into its packages. This is different from the standard gTalk etc. approach which handles the “raw” audio streams. I fully understand that we have to use the raw streams but the iaxclient was a simple start. Are you using the libjingle?
