http://www.codeplex.com/doppler

We will host the source on CodePlex. I’ve created the project already and it will be available at http://www.codeplex.com/doppler, but until now it’s still not in a published state. Currently I’m in the progress if cleaning up things (there is a lot of unfinished code in there), the moment I’m done with that I will publish the project and people can join in and help us to make it a great tool!

The question I have for all you out there: what kind of license should we pick?

1. Vista support (Vista is my main OS, I develop Doppler on Vista and obviously it also runs on Vista)
2. More languages: French, Slovak, Polish besides the already existing English, Dutch and Swedish (thanks to Bercik, Marián, Pouts and Per!)
3. Many many bugfixes and performance improvements.

Besides that, parallel on the Windows version of Doppler I’m also continueing on the mobile versions. I’m testing currently a build for Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0 (and Windows Mobile 6.0). Again, that version contains many improvements and bug fixes. Watch this space the coming weeks, new versions are on the way!

Now that Microsoft released the Zune in the US without podcasting support we see a new ‘market’ on the horizon (I put market between quotes as we don’t sell Doppler and as a result make no money out of it). However, that market we cannot reach because the Zune is not available in Europe.

The Zune comes with it’s own software, a bit like Apple iTunes, but as the Zune is not available we cannot test whole experience with downloading a podcast, adding it to a playlist and syncing it to a Zune device.

So our call to Microsoft:

Is there a Zune developer program? Is there a known API (what I found on my computer after installing the Zune software did resemble the WMP API in a way)? And is there a possibility for us developers living in Europe to be able to get hold of a Zune device so we can develop software that supports it?

Please take into account that we are a non-profit team. We make no money out of it, so we cannot invest in big contracts or deals. We basically just want to get hold of a Zune device so we can modify Doppler so that it works smoothly with it.

1. Feature complete
2. Bug free

We’re running it ourselves on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista (various builds). It requires, as the previous beta versions, the .NET Framework version 2.0.

Download it from http://www.dopplerradio.net/doppler-30-ctp-2006-11-01-release/

If you found a bug, please email it to us.

Among others I moved fulltime to Sweden. That took a lot of time. Time I didn’t and couldn’t spend on Doppler.

Still. I finally decided to freeze the features in Doppler. I was running a beta for several months already for with with I myself was quite happy, but was simply lacking ‘production quality’. Crashes (especially on Windows Vista) did happen regularly, but I got used to it. Still I didn’t want to put you out there in the frontline with that version.

I did some clean up in the code the last couple of days and removed some features I’ve been working on but I decided not to implement them in the end, as they would require full-time availability from us. Maybe in a future release, but not in 3.0.

So, what I will do: early next week I will post a so called CTP version of Doppler. Please realize: it’s buggy. It’s unfinished, but it works better than the last beta. If you want to post bugs, please be my guest, but I simply don’t have the time currently to reply to them all. I don’t like that, but it’s a fact unfortunately.

I have currently a few users out there running the pre-CTP version of the upcoming build and from them I get good reports back, so it seems a go for early next week.

Check out this space around Monday and Tuesday to find the link to the download of the CTP.

What you need to participate:

• A Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone (e.q. QTEK 8310, QTEK 8300, IMATE SP5, IMATE SP5m, etc. etc.). Please take notice, we’re currently only testing the Smartphone edition. At a later stage we will release versions for other Windows Mobile devices. If you are unsure if you have a Smartphone: you can usually recognize a Smartphone by the fact that it has a keypad. Windows Mobile phones without a keypad are usually Pocket PC phones, for which we will release a version at a later stage.
• Either an unlimited data plan or a wifi connection (not a requirement for the final version, however it is recommended to keep the costs down)
• Some time to play around with it, and some time to report issues and/or feature ideas to us.

If you are interested to test this version, please contact us

Just imagine, somewhere in Papua New Guinea there is someone using Doppler. Great!

click below to see if your country is in the list

Afghanistan
Algeria
Andorra
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cote D’Ivoire
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakstan
Kenya
Korea, Republic of
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Malta
Mauritius
Mexico
Monaco
Morocco
Namibia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Taiwan
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Yugoslavia
Zambia

So, if you are working at Arvato Technology GMBH, know about this specific issue, or can bring us in contact with the responsible person, please contact us by email.

Doppler will be running against “IDAutomation Barcode Image Generator” and “ShareAlarmPro” in the “Best Utility Using .Net” category. Winners will be announced at the Shareware Industry Awards Banquet on July 15.

We are definately looking forward to the Shareware Industry Awards ceremony.

http://www.dopplerradio.net/doppler-30-beta-2

There are numerous fixes. An overview of the new features and main fixes:

• Conversion to bookmarkable AAC (M4B) files is back
• You can now cancel multiple downloads (control click or shift click the current downloads and right click to show the menu to cancel them)
• Double clicking an ongoing download will cancel that download
• After you cancel a download you will be asked what to do with it, cancel and retrieve later, or cancel and never download again
• You can now control the history from the posts view. Right click a post and select the appropriate menu option.
• You can use a new ‘remote storage’ feature, which allows you to upload you feed subscriptions and download history to either an FTP site or a windows share or directory (for instance to an USB stick). Using that you can run multiple instances of Doppler (say, at home or at work) and still make sure those instances stay in sync so you don’t download the same podcast twice.
• We’ve added an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) column in the downloads pane, which tells you how many minutes to wait.
• When adding a playlist to iTunes, those playlists will end up in the Doppler category/folder. This will be configurable in an upcoming release.
• You can opt now to not show the ’site icons’ (favicons) in the list of feeds.
• You can opt now to never show the embedded media player (that option is in the ‘view’ menu)
• Scheduling downloads has been fixed
• Double clicking a feed which reports an error will open the log.
• You can active a spacesaver that will remove podcasts you’ve listened to. The spacesaver will monitor the playcount of the podcast in either iTunes or Windows Media Player.
• We’ve split up the ‘Add to Windows Media Player/M3U’ option in two separate options.

What can you expect (in random order)

• Space savers now work both in iTunes and WMP.
• Conversion to M4B (e.g. Bookmarkable AAC) is back due to many requests.
• Podcasts added to iTunes will now be marked as excluded from shuffle (will be configurable in beta 3).
• There is now an option to upload your feed subscriptions and your download history to a remote location (FTP and fileshare support, which also allows you to take your subscriptions and download history on a USB stick for instance).
• Added the option to start a retrieve right after startup of Doppler.
• During setup you can now choose where to install shortcuts (startup folder, desktop, quicklaunch bar).
• Default feed settings now transfer correctly to newly added feeds.
• There is a new space saver: remove podcasts you have been listening to. It check for the playcount in both iTunes and Windows Media Player.
• You can now add and remove podcasts to and from the history from the posts pane. Right click to see the context menu.
• Double click on a post will open that post in a webbrowser.
• Double click on a file in the file pane will open that file in the default application registered for that file.
• When an error occurs while checking a feed, double clicking the error message in the feed will open the logfile.
• If you never use the embedded media player (it slows a bit down when clicking through the posts) you can hide it.
• Changed the add feed dialog to be simpler. Advanced properties are still availabe if required.
• Right click on the system tray icon will give you several more menu options.
• Fixed a bug in the downloader causing feeds from FeedBurner (among others) not to download correctly.
• Double clicking a downloading podcast in the download pane will cancel that download. Right click context menu is also still available.

And numerous other bugfixes…

So when will it be out? Well, as said, it’s sort of finished. However, as I will be offline the coming week I will not release it. Releasing software and going offline for a week is not considered a ‘good thing’ So you will have to wait for at least one more week. I’m back online at the 18th.

You can find the list here

If you encounter an issue with Doppler 3.0 Beta 1 currently not in this list, please contact us.