We are hoping to get some more testing prior to the release of Miro Public Preview 2. I thought I would mention my favorite updates and hopefully inspire you to check it out and give us some feedback.

OPML Import and Export - Finally it is here! Export your itunes or fireant feeds and import them into Miro. Export your Miro channel list and share your favorites with a friend.

Single File Download - Got a url of a video that you want to add to your library? Copy the link. From the File menu, select Download Video - and it is yours.

Channel Guides - I love the Miro Guide, but I have had a lot of fun using some other guides. Use the Channels -> Add Channel Guide menu to add the likes of blip.tv, mefeedia and even digg. You can browse for videos and feeds. With the blip.tv subscribe button, you can add a channel directly into Miro.

So please - grab the latest release candidate from the testing builds. File a bug if you find one. We have an automatic crash reporter for any crashes - and the Report a Bug link in the Help menu.

We have a brand spankin’ new bug tracking system: http://bugzilla.pculture.org/

Although it doesn’t look beautiful (yet), our developers will spend a lot less time fooling around with duplicate tickets and spam.

Do I Need an Account?

Yes. If you want to make a feature request, vote, or report bugs, you’ll need an account. We were overwhelmed with anonymous comment spam on our old system.

Miro Feature Requests

From here on out, we’ll be encouraging users to post enhancements (aka feature requests) into Bugzilla. This will make it easy for developers to see which ideas are most popular. Vote on your favorites.

Submitting Bugs

Bugzilla has two modes for reporting bugs: guided and unguided. The guided mode gives you helpful hints for every step of your report. It might seem like a hassle to have to include more information, but detailed reports really do make it easier for our developers to pinpoint tough bugs.

A Makeover for Our Bug Machine

If anyone has any CSS and/or Perl skills and wants to help us make Bugzilla look nice (modern fonts alone would be cool). It would be great to have a friendlier user interface, something in the vein of basecamp or the KDE Bugzilla system. Contact me at: dean [a] pculture [d] org.

Note: Bugzilla usernames are email addresses. The software does some very basic obfuscation, to discourage spammers, but we’re working on a solution to fully hide the information.

Many channels now include recommendations based on other people’s subscription habits:

If the Guide doesn’t see any subscription patterns, the section may only be partially full or nonexistent. We’re still tweaking the algorithm, so don’t be surprised if something wild pops up once in a while.

This feature is going to improve a LOT once we get our channel ratings system in place. Paul, one of our awesome new devs, is rapidly enhancing the Miro Guide — stay tuned for more cool features.

Note: This feature utilizes completely anonymous statistics. Miro doesn’t send us information on your subscription or viewing habits.

Prizes (updated)

Grand Prize Winner: Gabriel (All 3 Miro shirts + 1 vintage Democracy shirt)
2nd, 3rd, 4th Places: Wes, Pat R, noo (2 Miro shirts of their choice)
Other Participants: Alexandra, Sam, Sha, Shoestring (’M’ logo shirt)

Thanks to everyone who submitted a design, and to the voters too! I will get in touch with the participants over the weekend and get sizes, mailing info, etc.