MahTweets 3 Beta 1 was released as a relatively low key event, however with beta 2 we're making a bit more noise, starting with our brand spanking new website powered by Umbraco.

New features

The first big change from previous versions is the overhauled user interface. There are several reasons we changed away from the Aero interface introduced with 2.6 - performance on several video card models were subpar, experience was inconsistent between Windows XP (or Vista/7 with Aero Basic enabled) and Vista/7, and led to some confusion when dialogs would popup.

MahTweets 3 takes a modal approach to dialogs so there won't be any popups hiding behind the main application or other windows.

Here are three new features - discovering the rest of the new features is half the fun! (or you can just head over to the features page)

Customisation
Although not perfect at the moment, we're now introducing some fantastic customisation options - from the basic level of just colours and fonts to more advanced compiled themes which let you change the layout as well.

This beta comes with two themes - "default" (white/blue) and "soft orange", as well as a "minimal" variations of both of those themes.

Mosaics

Scripting
In an early version of MahTweets we had scripting via IronPython and IronRuby. Unfortunately the scripting components were a little unstable in the manner we were using them. We've reintroduced scripting (IronPython only for now), which lets us translate, search, define or manipulate addresses - and this is just the beginning.

Right click on an update or select some text and right click to bring up the scripting menu.

Missing features

To do the massive amount of changes, we've had to pull some features until they're "good enough" to make it back in. We plan to reintegrate all of these by the "final" version of MahTweets 3.

• Plurk
• Ping.fm
• 12Seconds.tv
• Yammer
• Twitgoo
• Twitrpix
• Bit.ly
• Read/Unread tracking
• Streaming search
• Search (if you click on hashtags, search will fire up and work)
• Ignore
• Webcam
• Facebook Photos, Videos and Uploading

Removed features

We've not just been adding features, but we've also been cleaning up a lot of code and general user experience. As such, we've deemed some features inconsistent with what we're aiming for, and they're "gone for good".

• Uploading to multiple services at once
• Media window
• Disabling hardware rendering or virualisation
• Tweet saver
• Auto translation (translation is available on a word-by-word or update - ie, tweet - basis by right clicking on it)

Future features

Along with the missing features and plugins, we've got a lot more work planned. Here are two we're hoping to have relatively soon, but as always with an open source project we're unable to give any firm timelines:

Sync
Sync your MahTweets settings and accounts across multiple machines - and in the future, multiple devices.

Downloadable Plugins, Themes, Scripts
While it's "easyish" to drop your own plugin into the MahTweets folder, having a central repository for distribution is going to make it easier for developers. For those who just want to customise and share MahTweets in your own styling, the same mechanism will let you one-click upload themes/palettes to share with the world.

Likewise, since dynamic scripting has returned to MahTweets, you'll be able to upload IronRuby and IronPython scripts!