Note: This is a test build with bugs and it may crash.  The release will be pushed to everyone once we iron out the kinks.

The new build is almost ready for release and we need your help testing it before it is pushed out to everyone. We are very eager to get it out the door since it includes some highly anticipated improvements:

• RAM Optimization: Many people have reported that Digsby is taking 70MB - 110MB during normal use. If you leave Digsby running for a while, the memory leaks caused RAM usage to climb to 150MB+ on some systems. We completely reworked the architecture to use less memory and also improved the memory management by releasing objects when they are no longer needed.  We also hunted down and eliminated numerous memory leaks.  All in all, these changes lower Digsby’s RAM usage by over 50%. It should now hover in the 20MB - 50MB range depending on how many accounts you have and what you are doing at the moment.  There is still more we can do and our goal is to get RAM utilization down even further!

• Performance: The changes in architecture improved the performance of simple user interface elements like buttons and menus; they now draw 2x - 3x faster!  Digsby should be much more responsive now than ever before. However, while this build focused on RAM optimization, the next 1-2 builds will have a strong focus on improving “perceived performance” even more, including things like GUI response time, CPU utilization, etc.

• Firewalls and Proxy Servers: Every IM protocol now automatically tries to connect using several different ports to improve the odds of getting through restrictive firewalls and proxy servers.  MSN Protocol also falls back to an HTTP-based method of connecting, which makes the traffic look like web page requests.  Those who have not been able to use MSN or other IM protocols due to firewall/proxy restrictions should now be able to connect without any issues.

• Crash Reporter: We still have a few bugs that cause Digsby to crash. These have been hard to hunt down because they are rare, random, and hard to reproduce.  The new release includes a crash reporter that will ask you whether you want to send a crash log to us if Digsby should crash.  This will greatly help us in hunting down and fixing the remaining issues that are causing crashes.  The major changes in architecture in this build may introduce a couple of new crash causing bugs and that is one of the reasons why we want to test the build before releasing it to everyone.

• Bug Fixes + Enhancements: Over the past two months we have added a large number of bug fixes and enhancements.  There are too many to list here but we will include a full Change Log when the release is pushed to everyone.

Unlike previous releases, which were pushed on a weekly basis, this one includes over two months of new code so we want make sure we didn’t introduce any new bugs.  If you run into any serious problems testing the new build, you can revert back to the current release by downloading the installer from our website. No matter what happens, none of your preferences or account information will be lost. There are instructions for getting the test release on our forum:

http://forum.digsby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2116

Update 1 (8/10/08, 2:30pm): Thank you all for the wonderful feedback and the bug reports.  We will knock out the issues as quickly as possible to get this ready for release.  Also, thank you for the crash reports.  The new architecture did introduce a few crash causing issues and the crash logs will help us hunt these down ASAP.  Keep on eye on this blog for updates.  We will most likely push an update with fixes to those testing this new release sometime tomorrow.

Update 2 (8/11/08, 8:00pm): We just pushed an update (r16760) to all that are testing.  We are really close to fixing the issue that is causing most of the crashes but it didn’t make it into today’s update. The air conditioning in the office broke and we are up to 89 degrees so we’re going to call it a night but we will hit the ground running tomorrow (A/C will be fixed at 7am) and are pretty sure the crash will be fixed by end of day. The following bugs fixed in this release are:

• Fixed a bug that prevented buddies from being added because list of accounts didn’t update
• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to get stuck in “Checking for Updates” for some users with proxy servers
• Fixed a memory leak in Facebook Chat that caused RAM to skyrocket when the connection was lost
• Fixed a bug that caused some Hotmail accounts to get stuck in “Connecting…”
• Fixed a memory leak when closing an IM window with multiple tabs

Update 3 (8/12/08, 8:00pm): We just pushed an update (r16808) to all that are testing.  Fixes include:

• Fixed a bug that was causing *most* of the crashes we have seen so far.  There might be a couple more crash causing issues which we are hunting down now.
• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to get stuck in “Digsby needs to restart…” after an auto-update for those who never installed Digsby prior to this test build
• Installer no longer includes the Microsoft VC++ Redistributable (so no more temp files in C:\)
• Fixed a bug that prevented you from deleting Jabber accounts
• Fixed another bug that caused Hotmail accounts to get stuck in “Connecting…”
• Fixed a bug that caused conversation log searching to break
• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to not exit if you had an IM window with multiple tabs open
• Fixed a GDI object leak in popups
• Shaved a few megs off the installer size

Update 4 (8/15/08, 2:30pm): We just pushed an update (r16927) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed numerous crash causing issues! Hopefully there will be far fewer crashes now but we are still hunting down a few that remain
• Temporarily bringing back the VC++ redistributable because our fix worked on Win2k/XP but not on Vista. It will not write files to C:\
• Fixed a bug that prevented the MSN HTTP method of connecting from working in some cases
• Fixed a bug with mislabeled RTF messages
• Fixed a bug that caused Gmail to get stuck in “Connecting…” after a network disruption
• Fixed a bug that caused Yahoo Protocol to say “Failed to Connect” when it should be “Authentication Error” because an invalid username was entered
• Fixed a bug that caused Yahoo Protocol to disconnect when you reject a file transfer
• Fixed a bug that caused no IM window to show if the sound which was suppose to play on incoming IM is missing
• Fixed a bug that broke SMS over AIM
• Very long nicknames now get cut off with a “…” instead of wrapping to multiple lines on themes where wrapping looks bad
• Some conversation themes that looked bad when maximized now look correct
• Crash reporter now confirms that the report has been sent

Update 5 (8/19/08, 11:10am): We just pushed an update (r16998 r17003) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed a crash that happened when you changed conversation themes
• Fixed a crash that happened when one thread tried to get to a file object that was just closed by another thread
• Fixed a crash that was caused by loading Flash incorrectly
• Added more diagnostic information to crash log to help us hunt down the last ones!
• Fixed a bug that caused ICQ unicode status messages to show incorrectly
• Fixed a few bugs that caused MSN not to fall back to HTTP
• Fixed a bug that caused the input box in the IM window not to clear after a tab was dragged out into its own window and then dragged back in
• Added Yahoo Mail support for BTInternet Yahoo mail accounts
• Fixed a bug in deleting MSN buddies when signed in via HTTP
• Twitter rate limit and default update times now based on 100 requests per hour instead of 70
• Fixed a bug that caused problems with the IM window if emoticons were missing
• Fixed a bug that caused some Hotmail accounts not to work
• IM window correctly shows animated GIFs with short delays

Update 6 (8/20/08, 10:30am): We just pushed an update (r17031) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed two bugs that caused Digsby to crash when idle
• Fixed a bug that caused popups to freeze and Digsby to spin to 100% CPU usage before crashing
• Fixed a bug that caused the conversation area not to show when the system locale is set to Japanese
• Fixed a bug that caused MSN HTTP not to work over some HTTP proxy servers
• Fixed a bug that caused MSN not to sign off when you clicked “Disconnect”
• Fixed a bug that caused white backgrounds to show in some conversation themes with the AIM protocol
• Fixed a bug that caused font formatting to stop showing when talking to someone else using Digsby over the AIM protocol

Update 7 (8/22/08, 9:00pm): We just pushed an update (r17139) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• New option to disable emoticons in Preferences -> Conversations
• Google Talk contacts will show Google Talk service icons more often
• Digsby no longer requires the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable
• Fixed a bug that caused MSN to send duplicate SMS messages
• Fixed a bug that caused the input area in the IM window to not remember its height
• Fixed an issue where some MSN messages from Pidgin wouldn’t appear
• Fixed a bug that caused the IM window not to work if the conversation skins directory is missing
• Fixed a bug that caused popups to not fade out
• Fixed an error dealing with offline messages from mobile contacts in MSN
• Fixed an issue with authorizing contacts on Yahoo account
• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to freeze when giving contacts a unicode nickname
• Fixed some more crashes

Update 8 (8/23/08, 12:00am): We just pushed an update (r17142) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to get stuck updating if one of the files failed to download instead of just logging in with the current version
• Fixed a bug that caused Digsby to completely break after an auto-update. NOTE: You may get this when updating to r17142. If that happens, please download and run r17142 the installer.

Update 9 (8/25/08, 8:20pm): We just pushed an update (r17185) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Added new diagnostic information to help us hunt down the rest of the crashes.  This will slow Digsby’s performance for this build but it is temporary.
• Fixed a bug that caused file transfer request popups to fade out - they should stick until you take action
• Stronger default privacy settings to prevent IM spam. These can be changed in Preferences > Privacy
• Fixed a bug that caused the IM window to notify you that you have an unread IM from the wrong person
• Fixed a bug that caused endless Yahoo authrization requests to show every time you log in even if you already approved or denied them
• Fixed a bug that prevented MSN from falling back to HTTP in some cases
• Pressing “Enter” in the crash reporting dialog puts in a new line instead of sending the report

Update 10 (8/26/08, 8:00pm): We just pushed an update (r17216) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed several more crash causing bugs - thank you for the crash logs today!
• Fixed a bug that caused AIM/ICQ accounts to disconnect without realizing it
• Fixed a bug with spellchecking on computers with unicode Windows usernames
• Performance and functionality improvements for some HTTP operations, affecting favicons and MSN
• Fixed a bug with setting your Twitter status with unicode characters

Update 11 (8/26/08, 9:20pm): We just pushed an update (r17225) to all that are testing. Fixes include:

• Fixed another crash

We just pushed an update (Build 31, r15078 r15142) that fixes the last of the known bugs with MSN conversations along with a few other bug fixes and enhancements. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build. As always, if you have any issues please email bugs@digsby.com.

Update: We pushed a small fix for Facebook Chat.  A change in the protocol resulted in Digsby disconnecting/reconnecting every 10 minutes.  This will no longer happen.

We just pushed an update (Build 30, r15001 r15021 r15034) that introduces several bug fixes and enhancements, including a few significant usability improvements. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notable changes:

• Account Connectivity: Email and social network accounts now retry three times with two second pauses between retries before telling you that it failed to connect. Also, the popups which tell you that it failed to connect are not sticky anymore so you they will go away without you having to click close
• Facebook Chat: Added typing notifications to Facebook Chat, fixed a bug that caused some incoming messages to not show, and fixed a bug that prevented some international users from logging in
• New Authorization Dialog: It now shows you what account the add request is for and lets you “Authorize/Add” in addition to just “Authorize” so you can also add the person to your buddy list

Thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build. As always, if you have any issues please email bugs@digsby.com. We are running out of catchy blog post titles for the releases. Leave a comment with some ideas.

Update 1: We had a very productive day today so we wanted to push another update. The new release number for Build 30 is r15021. We fixed two bugs that prevented auto-update from working, a bug that prevented the InfoBox from showing, a bug in the new authorization dialog, a bug that caused Jabber accounts to disconnect on roster changes, and a bug that caused the CPU to spin to 100%. Connection lost error popups will now only show once until the connection is reestablished so they are less annoying. Also, auto-updates will not take place on Windows 2000 since the auto-updater does not work on Win2k.

Update 2: We just pushed a tiny update for a bug we introduced that caused Digsby to have trouble reconnecting to our servers after returning from hibernate on laptops.

We just pushed an update (Build 29, r14878 r14905 r14938) which is focused on general bug fixes, enhancements, and a few important MSN fixes. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notable changes include:

• Major overhaul for MSN Conversations to fix bugs that caused messages to not be delivered sometimes
• Fixed a bug that caused the CPU to spike to 100% if an MSN file transfer fails
• Added a backup auto-update system in case Amazon S3 has issues again like it did last time
• Added support for unicode and extended ascii passwords

We are getting very excited about the RAM and performance optimizations we are working on. These should be ready within a few weeks. We are also working on the last of the CPU spins and HTTP login for MSN Messenger for the upcoming builds. As always, thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build. If you experience any bugs please email us at bugs@digsby.com.

Update 1: If Digsby crashes on auto-update, we found the cause for this… it is a bug with Windows XP SP2 and Microsoft has a fix for it so if you run windows update and get all the hotfixes it will not happen (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921337). We are working on a fix that will avoid this windows bug regardless of whether you have the hotfix or not and we will push an update shortly! You will need to reinstall after the fix is pushed but it will not happen again.

Update 2: We just pushed a fix (now r14905) for the crash on auto-update. It was a bug introduced into Windows in SP2 and fixed via an optional hotfix or by installing SP3. We now completely avoid the issue so if you download and run the latest installer it will not happen next time you update whether you have the Windows fix or not. Additionally, we fixed a bug that caused Digsby to not dock on startup if it was docked when you exited and a bug that made it impossible to close the IM window in certain cases after sending an offline message to someone.

Update 3: We just pushed a fix for the Facebook Chat protocol change in r14938. Thanks for letting us know it stopped working.  Also, if a Twitter update fails, it will retry 3 times before telling you that it failed.  Their servers seem flaky at times so we shouldn’t annoy you with a popup without retrying under the hood at first.

You asked for it, you got it! Build 28 (r14688) introduces Facebook Chat support! This is our first implementation so you can expect many improvements over the coming weeks. Please let us know if you run into any bugs so we can fix those too. There are several other important updates in this release. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notably:

• Facebook Chat: You can now chat with all your Facebook friends right from Digsby! This initial release includes all the basics - messaging, buddy icons, status, and status messages. We will add the ability to sync your IM status with your Facebook status and the ability to move Facebook buddies into other groups shortly! Facebook Chat is completely separate from the social network support we currently provide for Facebook so you need to add your Facebook account to the IM accounts list.
• Yahoo Mail: This build introduces an improved implementation of Yahoo Mail. Those who had trouble accessing their mail should now be able to get to it. If you use the New Yahoo Mail instead of Yahoo Mail Classic, the “Inbox”, “Compose”, and “Open” links will take you to the right interface. Lastly, international accounts now show the correct email address such as @yahoo.co.uk or @yahoo.es instead of @yahoo.com. Please let us know if the new implementation has any bugs.
• Proxy Support: All known bugs with proxy support are now resolved! We also have a suite of proxy tests now to simulate various environments before pushing new builds so it doesn’t break in the future. If you are behind a proxy you may not be able to get this auto-update but that will be a thing of the past after you download and run the latest installer from the website.

We are working diligently on finishing up the RAM optimizations, fixing the CPU spikes, and improving GUI responsiveness. We have a few highly reported bugs that we will tackle for the next build along with any that get reported about the new features. Thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build. If you experience any bugs please email us at bugs@digsby.com and send requests to features@digsby.com.

We just pushed an update (Build 27, r14343 r14361) that introduces several critical bug fixes and optimizations. We are working on some very promising projects that will lower Digsby’s RAM usage and greatly improve user interface responsiveness. These are not quite ready to be pushed yet but we had a few important bug fixes that we wanted to push out to everyone. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notable changes:

• Proxy Improvements: You will now be able to get auto-updates and use web services such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Facebook, etc. over proxies that block the CONNECT method (ie: SQUID). Those of you who have been affected by this will need to download and run the installer here.
• CPU Spike Fix: We fixed a critical bug that was causing the CPU to climb to 100% (or 50% of you have a dual core processor). A few bugs that may cause this side effect still remain but we are working on them right now.
• Twitter Fixes: Finally fixed the bug that caused Twitter popups to continuously appear for some users. We also optimized the Twitter update sequence so the 2-3 second freezes should no longer happen.

We are splitting our time between finishing up the RAM optimizations and knocking out bugs. We will have the optimizations wrapped up and pushed out as a single build very soon. We will also have HTTP login support for MSN soon so those of you who use it at work behind a restrictive proxy can log in. Thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build. If you experience any bugs please email us at bugs@digsby.com.

Update: The HTTP proxy fix resulted in a new bug that affected some SOCKS proxy users. We just a fix for this issue (5:45pm) and proxy support should be back to normal. Those who are affected by the bug may need to run the installer on our website since the bug affected the auto-update system. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience.

We just pushed a small update (Build 26, r14192) that has a few bug fixes that we wanted to get out there before the weekend. For those of you who already updated to Build 25 it is also the first test of the new auto-update system. As always, you can read the entire list of changes on our Change Log. Most notably:

• Fixed a few Twitter bugs including the “black infobox bug” and the “endless popups bug”
• Fixed a bug that prevented some users from connecting to MSN Protocol
• We also added log statements to help us find the rest of the cases where this may happen if any remain

We just pushed an update (Build 25, r14142 r14158) that introduces many new bug fixes and enhancements. It took us longer than usual to get this update out because we did not want to push any more updates until the new auto-update system was ready. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notable changes:

• New auto-update system: Digsby not launching due to partial updates should be a thing of the past. Since we are still using the old system to move to this build, a small portion of you will still need to run the installer if you get stuck.  If Digsby fails to start after this update, download and run the installer here.
• Twitter Improvements: We have gotten a lot of feedback on the new Twitter implementation and much of that has been implemented. The new Twitter boasts improved performance, shorter default update timers, options to configure update timers, ability to manually update, and several other enhancements.
• SNAC Error Fixed: This was caused by a protocol change on the ICQ servers and it is fixed in this build.

The goal for the next build is an important one. Every time we hear about Digsby’s RAM usage the response is, “we haven’t optimized yet; we wanted to get it out to the public to start getting feedback.” That time has come! We are going to focus on improving GUI responsiveness and lowering our memory footprint significantly for the next build! Right after that, the next few builds will focus on all the bugs you have reported. Thank you for all the feedback and enjoy the new build.

Update 1: We have gotten reports of a few bugs in the buddy list and with proxy support. We are fixing these right now and will have a new update out shortly. (9:30pm)
Update 2: The bugs we introduced are fixed and we pushed another build. There are a couple minor issues left that we will fix in the morning. There will probably be another build tomorrow with a few bug fixes and then we will focus on performance! (1:20am)

We just pushed an update (Build 23, r13703 r13706) that fixes many of the bugs reported since our public beta release! We had quite a busy week, knocking out 27 bugs and enhancements while laying groundwork for a better auto-update system and a more robust bug reporting system, which will both be pushed out as soon as we are done testing them. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Most notably:

• Brought back the “Show in taskbar” preference for the buddy list - hopefully bug free this time
• Numerous fixes for the “Listening to” feature including showing both title and artist in iTunes now
• Numerous fixes for spell checker errors such as URLs, numbers, and hyphenated words
• More reliable full screen detection on Vista - XP fixes coming soon!

Our focus right now is on the remaining critical bugs and the auto-update system. After that you will see some profound improvements in performance and memory utilization. If you experience any bugs, please email us at bugs@digsby.com.

Lastly, we want to welcome to all our new users! We are glad to have you join us as we continue improving Digsby! Leave a comment to let us know how we are doing.

Update: Pushed a quick fix for a bug we introduced that prevented a few people from opening IM windows.

What a ride this has been! Since going into private beta testing just six weeks ago, we have released 15 new builds which included 35 major changes, 53 enhancements, and 109 bug fixes. Thank you to everyone who participated in the private beta test for the all the feedback and bug reports. We have been working day and night to squash bugs and implement your suggestions and will continue to do so!

Today, we are proud to announce a major milestone for our little egg-shaped friend. We are launching Digsby into public beta testing to make it available for everyone! An invite code is no longer needed and you can show your support by taking a minute to Invite Your Friends.

With today’s announcement, we are introducing several highly requested features. The complete list of changes can be found on our Change Log as always, but most notably we added:

• Twitter Support – this has been the most requested social network by far. Enjoy!
• Audio/Video Chat – we partnered with TokBox to provide A/V support across IM networks. Implementing native A/V support for all the protocols is still on the roadmap and we will add this functionality in the future.
• Spell Check – we added inline spell checking for the English language (us/gb/ca). We will add 50+ other languages very shortly.
• “Listening to…” Status – there is a new option in the status dropdown which sets your status message to the song you are currently listening to in iTunes or Winamp. We will add support for other media players in the future.
• Block Support – you can now block contacts from the right click menu on the buddy list or the dropdown menu at the top-right corner of the IM window.
• Full Screen Preferences – there is a new set of preferences in the “Advanced” tab for what Digsby should do when you are running full screen applications such as games.

We hope you enjoy the new features and if you experience any bugs send us an email at bugs@digsby.com. Moving forward, the top priority right now is optimizing performance and memory usage. Thank you for your support!