Roc stated in his blog, his post was his views and his views alone, it wasn’t the views of Capsuleer.
I’ll state in this post, THESE are the views of Capsuleer.

First off lets talk a bit about history (need to start somewhere).
When version 2.0 of Capsuleer was released it came with a fancy new feature. Headlines. At that time the EVE blogging community smaller then it is now. We wanted a way to deliver some of the best fiction and in-game writing to the users of Capsuleer.

Picking the EVE Blog Pack was a natural choice. CK was maintaining a list of great writers who were active and creating content that the users of Capsuleer could enjoy and read. Capsuleer can deliver that content to thousands of readers daily. Its a great relationship, and worked well for everybody.

Flash forward to present day…
Over the year since Headlines first made its debut in Capsuleer the EVE Blogging community has grown considerably. There are MANY more active writers, and the content they are creating is amazing.

CK has decided to revise the Blog Pack and trim some of the blogs that are inactive as well as add more to it.
Good on him. It is HIS list after all.

CK realized that there needs to be change, be it good change or bad change, he did identify that it must happen.
So must Capsuleer.

I will say off the bat (well not really off the bat, cause I have already rambled on for a while now) that Capsuleer will always include the Blog Pack. Be it 20 members, be it 50, they’ll continued to be delivered through Capsuleer.

But (oh I know you were waiting for that) here is where things change on our end as well.

In version 2.1 (The version that is being worked on and tested right now) some changes are coming to the Headlines area. I want to add more content. As the community of writers grows so must the list of content Capsuleer provides.

I have no interest in maintaining a list of bloggers though, policing the content, nagging about posting. Its not what I do.

This where evebloggers comes in.
Just as CK did in the early days, Ga’len and BlackClaw are helping foster the community and help it grow with their awesome directory. Its a great destination for anyone looking for content about (and BY) the players of EVE.

Because of the nature of Capsuleer, it isn’t a generic RSS reader. If you want a generic RSS reader there are lots on the app store. Capsuleer is designed to be your portal to all things EVE. Its designed with speed and ascetics in mind. Because of those decisions I can’t just load any old RSS feed onto the phone.

There is a server process responsible for collecting and processing the feeds, and organizing whats changed. By doing things this way I can deliver a headline update in 10k vs pulling down an entire RSS feed only to realize that there are no new posts.

Its part of what makes refreshing headlines so blistering fast.

This feature isn’t going to change in 2.1. The server will always be responsible for collecting the content.

I also can’t just cram the 500+ blogs that are listed in the evebloggers listing into Capsuleer.

There has to be some kind of middle ground.
I’d love to work with the folks at evebloggers (to that note as soon as I hit publish on this post I’ll be emailing them) to evolve their listing to start categorizing and grouping blogs in a way that will make them easy to add to Capsuleer and easy for people to browse through and enjoy.

Some posts and comments have had great ideas around social network style promotion of blogs and posts, and ways to help the great content bubble to the top and get read by more people. I don’t think I have the bandwidth to code this into the 2.1 release, but its an interesting enough idea that its worth exploring for a release after 2.1. It can help bring the community together, and really help reward people for writing great content.

If you made it this far I am proud. I apologize for the length, but I really felt it was important that I state Capsuleer’s position.

As has been insinuated by a few people, we aren’t out to create elite cliques, or keep the blog community a closed affair. Out goal is to deliver features and content that the players of EVE enjoy using and reading.

I hope I have cleared up a few of the misconceptions with how the Blog Pack changes will effect Capsuleer.
If you have any questions please feel free to post them here as comments, post them on our forums at http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums/ or email me directly at pyjamasam@vanguardfrontiers.com. I’ll do my best to answer any and all of them.

And for those of you reading this through Capsuleer… Click here to go and comment :-)

I am PyjamaSam and I approve this message! :-)
chris.

We here at Capsuleer HQ hope you have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

We’re looking forward to the new year, and I’ll be posting some presents in the next week that will show you where we are headed with the next version of Capsuleer.

But for now all you get is a measly Christmas Card :-p

Fly Safe.

Just wanted to take a moment and reassure everyone that design and development is well under way, and while I won’t go into exactly what to expect in this next major version, I do want to let everyone know that it will definitely be a significant update to functionality, as well as multiple enhancements to existing functionality.

We have a timeframe in mind, but will not announce until closer, as we prefer to be thorough in our bug testing, ensuring a quality product for all.

READ THE REVIEW

We’re still here though and have been working diligently on 2.0.3 and 2.1 at the same time.

Since we are getting close to submitting to apple I’ll give y’all a little run of what you can expect to see.

2.0.3
- Improved character refreshing (much faster for characters with a lot of skills)
- Shake to refresh any screen that has a refresh button (OS 3.0 only)
- Copy/Paste support for adding pilots (OS 3.0 only)
- Ability to re-order of pilots on the pilots list screen
- Optimizations to some drawing code.

And of course saving the best for last.
- Push notifications when skill queues are less then 24 hours. (OS 3.0 only)

When the release has been submitted to Apple for approval I’ll make another post with more detailed information about each new feature.

Now you’ll notice there are lots of fun OS 3.0 features that we are adding to 2.0.3, but fear not OS 2.x people. Capsuleer will still continue to run on devices running that firmware. You just won’t get the new features that require OS 3.0

There are a few little glitches to work out with the push notifications, but we’re getting close to being done.

2.1.0
2.1 is a little further off. Once 2.0.3 is in the bag we’ll be directing our attention to 2.1 full time. It will include Faction Warfare statistics as well as an Agent search (you already see those icons staring back at you taunting you).
I am sure we’ll sneak some other stuff in as usual though.

2.2.0 and beyond
We have some great ideas that we are prototyping and refining for future versions. User suggestions on the forums have been fantastic but we’re always looking for more. They really help us prioritize things and decide what features make it into future versions.

Some ideas people know about, some… well lets just say we have a few ideas still up our sleeves.

There ya go. A little update from the land of code and phones…

If anybody has any questions feel free to jump on over to the forums and post away. We’re always keeping an eye on them and reply as soon as we can. (http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums)

Thanks again for using Capsuleer. We really appreciate the support of the community.

Fly safe.
chris.

But this also brings up a delema.

OS 3.0 is a $10 upgrade charge for iPod Touch users. By upgrading Capsuleer to use the new features in OS 3.0 we would require to have upgraded their device to that version of the OS. Phone users are covered cause that upgrade is free, but the touch users would have to pay.

There isn’t a way to deploy multiple versions of Capsuleer that require multiple versions of the OS (well without making an app called Capsuleer – OS 2.2.1 and Capsuleer – OS 3.0, but that just lends its self to confusion).

I am looking for input from the community here. Are people with iPod touches planning on upgrading? Is this a moot point? Should I not worry about this? Are crispy fries really crispier then normal fries cooked longer?

I don’t want to exclude any part of the community from using Capsuleer. By upgrading to use OS 3.0 features I am attaching a $10 price tag to Capsuleer for iPod touch users.

Weight in. Cast your vote. Let me know your views. It will all help me make the decision.

Head on over to our forums to vote:
http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums/index.php?topic=196.0

You’ll have to register, but its quick and painless.

Thanks.
chris.

http://www.eveonline.com/council/voting/

For more info on what the CSM has contributed to the game check this devBlog out:
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=657

For more info about what the CSM is and does check out the Evelopedia entry for it:
http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Csm

Vote because you can;
Vote because it does make a difference.

chris.

I just want to say to every one, thanks for giving Capsuleer a try. The community is what keeps us doing this.

And as a gift back to you the community I offer up a little image I have been working on.

This image is made up of just some of the players that have been added to Capsuleer.
(Sadly for you folks reading this through Capsuleer you will have to visit http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/blog on your desktop to see the picture in all its glory since flash doesn’t work on the phone. And yes the irony of this doesn’t get lost on me :-P hahahaha)

And so without further delay, I present
Capsueer – 10,000 installs!

Also if you feel like chatting jump on over to our forums at http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums.

Looking forward to the next 10,000 :-)

chris.

Hope you like the new version of Capsuleer.

Feel free to join us over on our forums at http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums if you have any questions.

chris.

Data Dumps:

The latest Apocrypha data dump hasn’t been posted by CCP yet. As such we’ve been taking this time to…

Skill Queue:

We’ve designed the Skill Queue interface into Capsuleer, and have coded the framework for it. This weekend we hope to actually get Skill Queues working in time for this imminent major release of the product.

If we cannot get it ready and implemented before the data dump is released, be assured it will be in the first minor release version.

Implants API:

Still some confusion on this topic as every test we have done ourselves and with our beta testers shows that implants are still being returned from the API. CCP hasn’t been too responsive with details on this, so we’re really not sure what we’re going to do now regarding this topic.