Although we are a bit late, we are pleased to announce fruux 0.6. This version still contains no iCal syncing (sorry for that), but we changed a ton of internal stuff, that allows us to include new features in the next version, give you even better performance and reliability as well. public beta This version allows new users to join our beta test. Just download it and register a fruux account yourself (you need a valid emailadress, otherwise you wont be able to activate it).

Changelog:

• (FEATURE) self registration feature (allows new users to create a fruux account)
• (FEATURE) fruux autoupdater (allows us to deliver new features to you)
• (FIXES) A ton of bugfixes and performance optimizations

If you are are current fruux betatester, this is (hopefully) the last time you have to update your fruux client manually. Please download the new client version and follow our update instructions. Please contact us if you need help, experience bugs, have a suggestion or simply want to tell us how much you love fruux ;-) If you are interested in speeding up development, feel free to support us and please suggest your top priority feature!

We are a bit late, with our promised client update. Hopefully the following screenshots help bridging the gap until the actual release (it's imminent! No, not that Duke Nukem Forever kind of imminen

This is our new main screen:

The following image shows the new account sheet. The next version wont require any email-begging in order to join our beta. Just download the fruux client, create your account, click the email verification link and you are ready to go sync.

If you are interested in speeding up development, feel free to donate (via paypal or by shopping at amazon) and please suggest your top priority feature!

With the help of your nice feedback, we worked on a bugfix release during the last days. Changelog:

• (FIX) No more iSync error messages at the console, when syncing cell phones
• (FIX) No more birthday conflicts, when using the reset function
• (FEATURE) Added german localization

If you are are current fruux betatester, you'll get an email including the download location of the updated client. If you are interested in betatesting fruux, follow these steps.

Just in case there is an updated version of your new favorite application, here are the necessary steps.

1)

• Doubleclick the new fruux Preference Pane

2)

• Click "Replace"

3)

• Click "Synchronize Now" in the fruux Preference Pane
• Click "Allow" in order to grant the updated fruux application to the account information you previously stored in your keychain (This step is very important! Since fruux is not "codesigned" yet, you have to manually grant the keychain access after an update).

Several lion-hearted people out there started testing fruux during the last week. Taking the system stats into account it even looks like there are some everyday/productive users besides the team. It's a great pleasure that some of you already adopted fruux into your everyday life! Now we'd like YOU to join us testing fruux! Applying is quite simple, just get in touch with us and tell us a bit about you and your motivation to test fruux. We'll happily provide you with the fruux application and a demo account.

UPDATE: fruux is in public beta - download it here.

While we are readying the system for a broader betatest our pixelguru Martin spent some time on the icon of our client application. The journey started of course with our logo. Adding some gloss and depth... adding some details and glow... adding more depth and a typical system preferences icon shadow... well yes - it's not ready yet, but sufficent for our upcoming beta.

The following screenshots show the current look and feel of our application.

Our icon still needs some optimization for different resolutions and sizes.

fruux is meant to simplify your digital life. When syncing different devices and services you might run into troubles called sync conflicts. Just think about the following scenario:

1. you modified one of your contacts phonenumbers on the go via the (not yet demoed) fruux webapplication
2. then you modified the very same contacts phonenumber on your laptop (lets assume you had no internet access while doing this)

The outcome of this example is a sync conflict. The fruuxServer and your local system now contain different phonenumbers for the same contact. As the system has no idea which phonenumber is the correct one, it just asks you.

Reviewing the sync conflict gives you a nice dialogue (left side shows your local addressbook, right side shows the data from the fruuxServer). Now it's really easy to choose the correct contact, by just clicking on the correct card.

After choosing the correct card you just restart the sync via the "Sync Now" button and immediately both your local system and the fruuxServer are in sync again.

It's been a while since our last post, but it was worth the wait. This screencast shows the first demo of our sync client including a graphical user interface. The video shows the following steps:

• empty database on the fruuxServer
• the content of the local addressbook
• installing and running the client
• fruuxServer database in sync with local addressbook
• changing a name in the local addressbook
• syncing again
• fruuxServer database in sync again

Just some comments:

• yes the gui isn't very pretty yet and we have to add our logo
• the screencast shows just first- and lastname in the database of the fruuxServer, but of course all other entities have been synced as well. the system is able to handle all the custom entities!
• there is no public betatesting yet, but hopefully soon

Looking forward for your comments.

This screencast shows a very early version of our sync client. So far there's no graphical user interface. We just wanted to share this video with you as a little non-vaporware proof. What actually happens in the video is the following:

• the client uploads the local addressbook to the server
• the local addressbook is deleted
• the client runs again and fetches all the previously uploaded records from the server

Even in this early version we already support every entity of the addressbook, including the custom entities. Just in case you wonder, why the client fetches all the records from the server during the second run instead of deleting them on the server as well (this is what would happen in a real sync): we cheated a bit. the second time the sync-client is invoked, it gets a special parameter that forces the client to rebuild the addressbook with the data stored on the server.

First of all my appologies for so many days without any sign of life from the backstage! We are still extremely busy behind the scenes, but as we don't want you to lose sight of our work, here is the next post (b.t.w. thank you for all your feedback in this early stage!). In my last post I presented one of the main concepts of fruux - synchronizing data with the fruuxDatabase and other computers. Thats the foundation of the whole system. Staying in sync with all your different devices is of course very important and thus nice to have, but not really beneficial if you are syncing outdated data all the time. your friends, family and business contacts move from one town to another, get new emailaddresses, new phone numbers etc. this is why we are adding functionality to fruux, which will allow you to connect your virtual (business)card with the addressbook of your contact (and the other way round). nontechnically speaking that means: you and your contact will always have up-to-date emailadresses, phonenumbers, adresses etc. of each other - automatically. your addressbook will maintain itself in the future. of course you'll have comprehensive privacy settings for each connecting to another user (like just sharing your business contact details or just sharing your private contact details, etc.).