Version 1.7.3 is out, brings updated interface

Version 1.7.3 is out on Market, and it brings quite a few changes despite being a minor update. Here’s the change log:

  • Bug fixes
  • More TV show naming conventions
  • New widget (experimental - I need your feedback!)
  • Options to sort by availability & genre
  • Tap outside dialogs to close
  • Updated About dialog
  • Updated layout for movies and TV shows

Get it now! The update for the Lite version is coming soon.

Update: Some have reported crashes when viewing movie details - I’m guessing this is when you enter a movie from the new widget, but please add a description in your report, describing how it occurred. It’s impossible for me to fix it otherwise!

The next update is coming fairly soon

The most obvious change in version 1.7.3 will be the redesigned movie details view, which now focuses more on the backdrop images and usability. It’s much easier to get an overview of things now. You’ll find a screenshot of the redesigned interface in both landscape and portrait mode just above.

You’ll probably note that I’ve removed backdrop and actor details from the view, and instead added a couple of buttons that provide access to the same content. This is one of the benefits of the Analytics tracking, that I’ve told you about earlier. This allowed me to see that only a limited number of people are actually using these features, so there’s no reason for them to take up such a large amount of screen estate, when it’s not used very often. Pretty sweet, huh?

Other changes include options to sort by genre and availability (useful for the NAS users), support for additional naming conventions in TV shows, some bug fixes and perhaps also the new widget. I’m having some issues with the manual update button, can’t seem to get it to work. Might have to postpone it a bit. Also, I’m considering removing the built-in theme support. I think the default theme is pretty good, and removing theme support will make future UI improvements a bit easier. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Anyway, the update will be out within the next few days. I’ve got quite a bit of work to do first, though. Also happy to report that I’ve received a NAS device myself now, so I’ve got something real to test the upcoming network support on!

Update (10/28/2011): Not quite done with work yet, but it’s getting closer…

Version 1.7.2 is out, bringing major user experience improvements

Just published a new update for Mizuu - version 1.7.2. It’s bringing quite a few changes:

  • Added minor improvements overall
  • Added support for Justin.tv in Web videos
  • Added visual effects to grid views
  • Bug fixes
  • Changed “small file size” to 50 MB from 100 MB
  • Revamped File sources and Update screens
  • Unsupported file formats are now included by default

How’s that for a “minor” update? Here’s a screenshot of the new Update screen:

Get it now at Android Market. The free Lite version is available from here.

Update! Boy, I’m a jerk at supporting portrait layout, too. There’s a small fix, version 1.7.2.1, out that prevents a crash in Web videos in portrait layout.

Upcoming improvements

The next update will be ready in a few days or so. There’ll be a few bug fixes and small improvements and changes. Justin.tv support will also be added in Web videos, and there’ll be some visual improvements in here as well. One important change though is the improved file sources management.

The next update greatly improves on the current way of managing file sources - i.e. the folders that Mizuu will scan for files when updating - and it’s now very easy to see which folders are related to Movies and which are related to TV shows.

The change also makes it considerably easier to add additional functionality in future updates, i.e. support for network attached storage devices.

Version 1.7.1 is out, adds web videos

The first minor update for version 1.7 is out. The new update fixes a couple of minor bugs from the previous version, and adds two new things:

  • Web videos
    I’ve got some cool visions for this new section of the application. I’ll be adding support for more video sites in upcoming updates. Hopefully Mizuu will one day be able to collect all the most interesting video content from the web in one place.
  • Google Analytics tracking
    Tracking may sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually not. Google Analytics allows me to get a look at how the application is being used - which parts of the application are more used than others, and hopefully it’ll help me find areas that need improvement. By the way - the tracking is completely anonymous, so don’t worry about that. No user-specific data or data about your movies / TV shows is collected. It’s solely for the purpose of making the application better.

Get it on Android Market now! The Lite version update is available from here.

Update! Just noticed a bug when launching the app in portrait mode - it crashes. Fixed it and uploaded version 1.7.1.1.