We just got out BlueOrganizer 3.1 and we are already busy working on 3.2 version. Over the last few days we actually mapped out 3.2, 3.3 and to a lesser degree 3.4 and 3.5 releases. This is actually great news, because there are so many things that we know we need to do to make BlueOrganizer better and smarter.What we are working on is focused along different major axis: Improved UI and User Experience, Better BlueMenu, New Widgets and Improved Sharing, Automation and user-defined actions. Each of these topics is big an involved so we are spelling out exactly what we want to do for each one and why. So far with 3.2 release we have been able to evolve solutions that we are very excited about. So we wanted to give you a little preview…
BlueMenu Shortcuts
We are planning to introduce Shortcuts for most commonly used actions in the BlueMenu. This is going to save you a ton of time for things that you do often, like Renting on Netfix or looking up more books by the same author.
Attribute-centric BlueMenu
Another change to the BlueMenu is that its going to become attribute-centric instead of action centric. For example, when you are looking at a movie, you will see the top level entries for title, director, stars and tags. As it turns out, doing it this way makes the BlueMenu more compact. We hope that you will like it. Here is the preview:
Collections and Actions are merged into My Sites
We also worked out a way to simplify the Collection and Action options. Instead of two sections in the next version you are going to see one, tentatively, called My Sites. Under my sites you will see a list of selectable categories like Book, Comparison Engines, Movies, Maps and Weather. Under each category you will get a list of sites that you can choose from. You will be able to select sites to appear in the BlueMenu and in shortcuts. So that should make it easier to configure the BlueMenu.
New (hot!) BlueBadges
Finally, another major thing that is cooking for 3.2 is brand new badges. Rion did an amazing job desinging them, all of us here just love’em and we hope that you will too! These creatures will look fantastic on your blogs and myspace pages. Here is one, take a look:
The badges are going to be configurable. You will be able to select the size of the square (2×2, 3×3, 4×4), the skin and a couple of other parameters. Each badge will showcase bluemarks based on a collection, a smart filter or a tag, so you will be able to create the badges of My Books, My Wishlist or My Things that are Blue.
Like with old badges, you will be able to grab other people’s bluemarks and add them to your collection, but there will be a few other perks and the experience is surely going to be more fun.
So thats whats cooking for 3.2… We are really excited about this release. In the next few posts we will tell you what we are planning for the following versions.
Alex
