Archives For November 30, 1999

Corebird Twitter Client

Corebird, a native GTK3 Twitter client, has reached 1.2.1 release with some fixes. Here are the changes according to its release page:

  • Fix a11y labelling of several switches in the settings dialog
  • Fix an input window clipping bug in the tweet info page
  • Fix a few cases of overlapping widgets into window borders
  • Remove the “Save as” context menu from inline media. This has not been working in a while but the context menu was still there.
  • Rename the .sidebar style class to .topbar. This was used in corebird before gtk+ used it, but now that the sidebar is at the top, the .sidebar style from gtk+ themes collides with the horizontal alignment we use, so use the more fitting ‘.topbar’.
  • Show a focus outline in the topbar again. We are setting a custom background color here, so we also need to set a fitting outline color.
  • Fix a coloring but in the topbar, where wildcard selectors in themes would overrde our foreground color.

How to Install Corebird 1.2.1:

While the 16.04 universe repository provides the old Corebird 1.1 release, you can upgrade to version 1.2.1 via third-party PPA since there’s no official Linux installer.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to add PPA and install corebird:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

sudo apt update

sudo apt install corebird

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb installer from the link below:

Select download:

  • corebird_1.2.1-1~ubuntu16.04_amd64.deb for 64bit 16.04
  • corebird_1.2.1-1~ubuntu16.04_i386.deb for 32bit 16.04

Then click install via Ubuntu Software, or by running command in terminal:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/PACKAGE_NAME; sudo apt-get -f install

Corebird, an open source twitter client for Linux, just got a new release after almost half a year of development.

The new Corebird 1.2 brings some UI changes, improvements to HiDPI displays, and more. See the full changelog:

  • Inline media and avatars are no longer cached on disk
  • Videos now indicate download progress showing a preview thumbnail with a circular progress overlay
  • We download higher-resolution avatars on HiDPI displays now
  • The build system usage has seen a major refactoring an cleanup, thanks to Rico Tzschichholz
  • The sidebar is now at the top and dark
  • Favorites now us a heart icon
  • Sending tweets is now cancellable (e.g. when multiple images are attached, in which case it might take a while)
  • Inline media are now displayed “full-size”, scaled to the current window size.
  • Instagram videos are now correctly marked as videos, instead of was images
  • If you have GTK+ >= 3.19, there’s now a GtkShortcutsWindow accessible from the app menuexplaining the various keyboard shortcuts. Note that Corebird still compiles and runs with GTK+ 3.16
  • The big “add media” button in the compose window has been replaced with a regular text button. The added images are scaled down and displayed below it
  • You can quote your own tweets now
  • The settings dialog now contains a setting to hide “inappropriate content”, and it is enabled by default.
  • The file selection dialog in the compose window now keeps you from selecting files > 3MB.

How to Install Corebird 1.2 in Ubuntu:

There’s no official Corebird binary packages. Unofficial builds are available in PPA for Ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 16.04. Since it requires GTK+ 3.16, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is not supported.

1. Launch terminal from App Launcher or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

Type in password (no visual feedback when typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then refresh your system cache and install the software:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb package (select i386 for 32bit, amd64 for 64bit) from THIS PAGE, and click install via Software Center.

Birdie 2.0, an open-source twitter client for Elementary OS, now is in public beta, available in daily build PPA for test.

This beta release features:

  • An absolutely massive redesign
  • Great new pop-out media viewer
  • Automatically load more Tweets when you reach the bottom (infinite scrolling)
  • A native Instagram photo viewer
  • Circular avatars
  • Direct Messaging with conversation views
  • User account, hashtag, and link highlights
  • The icons in the timeline switcher change to alert you to new mentions and messages
  • Click the home button to return to the top of your timeline
  • Stars are out, hearts are in
  • Higher resolution images throughout
  • and much more!

picture from birdie website

How to install Birdie 2.0 Beta in Freya:

1. Launch terminal from Applications launcher:

2. Add Birdie daily build PPA by running below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:birdie-team/daily

Type in your password (no visual feedback when typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

3. Birdie 2.0 requires the latest version of Granite, so also add elementary OS Daily PPA for the dependencies via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

4. Finally run commands to update and install birdie, the last command will also install the latest Granite and other dependencies:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install birdie

5. Since the Elementary OS daily PPA contains other unstable updates, it is recommended to remove / disable the PPA after installation.

To do so, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab, then un-check or remove the two PPAs

The development of Birdie 2.0, an open source desktop Twitter client, drops other Linux support and now is focusing on Elementary OS.

“Birdie is no longer a Twitter app for GNU/Linux, instead, it will be the best Twitter app for elementary OS.”

The Birdie Team has recently announced that the development of Birdie 2.0 is now focusing on Elementary OS and advised all other Linux users to try Corebird.

Nathan Dyer, explained why Birdie 2.0 switches to Elementary OS in the announcement:

  • Birdie 2.0 is built on APIs that are exclusive to elementary OS
  • It will integrate with Pantheon Online Accounts for system-wide login
  • data can be shared between all your favorite services and apps with advantage of both Contractor and Pantheon Online Accounts.
  • no way to be the best Twitter app on any platform

Read more at the official announcement

Download Birdie for Elementary OS:

The website provides the 1.1 release for download at the moment, available for Elementary OS Freya:

Download Birdie

Corebird, Linux native GTK+3 twitter client, has reached the 1.1 release with lots of enhancments and bug fixes.

Changes in Corebird 1.1 according to the release note:

  • Tweets now get hidden/shown more correctly
  • Corebird now saves an application-wide list of snippets that you can use to insert common phrases or longer unicode emoticons. It can be found in the application settings in the “Snippets” tab.
  • Corebird now supports showing quote tweets in timelines as well as creating quote tweets. This replaces the old “Quote” item for tweets which would simply copy the original tweet’s text.
  • Media links and trailing hashtags can now be hidden via the “Tweets” tab in the application settings.
  • Profiles can now also show followers and followees
  • Twitter removed the 140 char limit on Direct Messages and so did we
  • Lots of other small enhancments and bug fixes

Corebird 1.1 now requires GTK >=3.16. Ubuntu 15.10 user can install the new release from PPA by running below commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the installer package from this page.

  • “corebird_1.1-1~15.10_amd64.deb” for 64-bit OS
  • “corebird_1.1-1~15.10_i386.deb” for 32-bit OS

Corebird, a native Gtk+ Twitter client for Linux desktop, gets a new release recently though there’s even not a release note.

Corebird 1.0.1 was released silently without a release note and even changelog file in its source tarball. The only change I can tell is that it now provides minimize, maximize, and close at top-left corner in Ubuntu 15.04 both Unity and Gnome Shell.

For Elementary OS Freya, the global menu (gear button) has been merged into header bar.

Install Corebird 1.0.1 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 15.04 user, open terminal from the Dash, Launcher, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below commands one by one to get it from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

For Elementary OS Freya and those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb installer from launchpad page.

UPDATE: Ubuntu 14.04 is not supported! If you REALLY want this app, first add Gnome Testing PPA (USING THE PPA COULD BREAK YOUR SYSTEM OR MAKE IT UNSTABLE!) and update your system cache, finally install the .deb from the previous link.

Since Elementary OS Freya comes with GTK+ 3.14, it’s able to install the latest Corebird 1.0, a modern, easy and fun Twitter client.

For those who never heard of Corebird, it is a native Gtk+ Twitter client for Linux, which supports keyboard shortcuts, image and video preview. It is one of the few remaining desktop Linux Twitter apps still in active development.

Install Corebird 1.0 in eOS Freya:

1. Depends on your OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), select download the “corebird_1.1~really1.0+xxx_i386/amd64.deb” package from launchpad page:

Download Corebird DEB

2. Open terminal from the Application launcher. Run below command to refresh system package cache:

sudo apt-get update

3. Finally open the downloaded package and click install. Or install it via dpkg command in terminal:

cd ~/Downloads; sudo dpkg -i corebird_*.deb; sudo apt-get -f install

Open-source GTK3 twitter client ‘Corebird’ 1.0 was released recently with lots of improvements. users of Ubuntu 15.04 can now install it from PPA.

Corebird is a native GTK+ Twitter client for Linux which has a modern and responsive design that looks kinda similar to the official Twitter app for Mac.

It’s one of the few remaining Twitter apps still in active development for Linux. With the advantage of the latest GTK+3 features, the application makes use of the new Header Bars. With the gstreamer and gstreamer plugins, corebird allows to view any videos, animated GIFs (added in 1.0 release).

Changes in Corebird 1.0:

  • All dialogs now use client-side decorations if the environment dictates it, otherwise they fall back to server-side decorations (compose dialog is excluded).
  • Many layout updates
  • The compose window now allows for up to 4 pictures to be uploaded.
  • now save additional information about the account which makes it possible for blocked users to be actually blocked, i.e. streamed tweets won’t appear in your timeline anymore.
  • When (un)following someone, now also correctly show/hide their retweets in the stream.
  • The DM page now sorts threads with unread messages first.
  • The @handle completion known from the compose window is now also available when composing Direct Messages, as well as in the account settings for the description.
  • Everything app-specific should now be hidpi ready, the only thing missing are assets loaded from Twitter directly, i.e. avatars and media.
  • Notifications should now get withdrawn whenever it makes sense, i.e. if you read a Direct Message before dismissing the notification, it should get withdrawn automatically.
  • The hover buttons moved to a right-click menu on every tweet.
  • Plurals are properly localized.
  • We now also respect muted users (even though there’s no UI to mute someone)
  • A user’s verification status is now also shown in the tweet info page.
  • Everything should now work when the user’s @handle (aka screen_name) changes.
  • Switching to the same page (i.e. going to a profile from the profile page) now works much better, including the swipe transition as well as proper equality checking.
  • Invalid inline media (file size too big, 404, …) should now be properly detected and reacted upon (i.e. remove the widget in the stream, add the link back).
  • Underlines in @handles are now properly displayed in the app menu (i.e. the “open account” submenu)
  • Animated gifs from Twitter are now also handled (just like other videos).
  • Tweets in timelines are now single-click activated. This unifies the behavior with all other lists in the application. Since this interferes with certain user behaviors, there’s a setting to switch back to double-click activation.
  • Based on a user’s protection status, we now disable (or hide) retweet buttons of tweets.

Install Corebird 1.0 in Ubuntu:

Due to the updated dependencies (GTK >= 3.14), Corebird 1.0 only available in PPA for Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run below commands one by one to add PPA and install Corebird:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

Above commands will also install an old version (Corebird 0.9) for Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic.

Choqok, a free and open-source micro-blogging client for KDE, has reached the 1.5 release recently. It has been more than one year since the previous version was released in September 2013.

Choqok features Twitter, Pump.io (Formerly known as Identi.ca), and OpenDesktop.org services support and KWallet integration. The 1.5 release brings below changes

  • There’s a new option to disable the system tray.
  • As mentioned above, we now have a plugin for Pump.io microblogs.
  • We have a new plugin for expansion of short URLs, and dropped old UnTiny plugin. **
  • A preview for photos posted to Twitter.com is now available.
  • Issues in updating friends list of Twitter is fixed and sending direct message is working again.
  • There’s a new option in User menu for Reporting a User to Twitter.
  • A long wanted request on StatusNet(Gnu social) plugin was ability to take into account the server’s custom set, char limit. now we have it.
  • IMStatus plugin now supports KDE Telepathy.
  • Yourls and Goo.gl shortening plugins are fixed and now they are working again.
  • Broken shortening plugins are dropped.

How to Install / Upgrade Choqok in Ubuntu:

The latest binaries have been made into Adilson’s PPA, available for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17 (fail to build for Ubunt 12.04 at the moment).

Note: as a KDE app, installing Choqok also installs numerous Kubuntu libraries.

To add the PPA, open terminal from menu and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:adilson/experimental

Then update package cache and install or upgrade the app by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install choqok

Corebird, Linux native GTK+ 3 twitter client has reached version 0.9 with great perfermance improvements. PPA’s ready for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and Linux Mint 17.

What’s new in Cordbird 0.9:

  • Mentions, hashtags and links now get highlighted directly in the compose window
  • You can now click the avatar to edit and change the user account.
  • You can now toggle the “autostart” switch in each user account’s settings window.
  • The setting regarding the dark theme is gone (existing configurations will keep working).
  • When viewing an image of a tweet with multiple images/videos attached, you can now use the cursor keys to navigate between them.
  • Avatars in tweets and profiles now show if the user is verified.
  • Lots of the application should now react better to missing network connections.
  • Some things now get immediately applied instead of needing a restart
  • Add a back button in the top of window.
  • UI improvements.

For more, see the release page (Click the suspension points after the version number to view changes).

Install Corebird in Ubuntu:

While there’s no binary packages available for Ubuntu, I’ve made the latest Corebird into my PPA repository, available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 14.10, and Linux Mint 17.

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

If you don’t want to add the PPA, grab the .deb installer directly from this page.

As a workaround to fix the background transparency bug, I’ve edited the .desktop file so that Corebird window uses the old fat scroll bars instead of the overlay scroll bars.

(Optional) To remove Corebird:

To remove the twitter client as well as the PPA repository:

sudo apt-get remove corebird

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

If you’ve added the Gnome 3 PPA, install ppa-purge from Ubuntu Software Center. Then purge the PPAs via commands below:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging