Pino Twitter Client Goes Experimental: Adds multi-account, Indenti.ca & a Xmas Tree

By , Published February 21, 2010

Pino 0.2 was released was released a few hours ago, adding a slick roster of new features.

Experimental Features
The new features are: -

  • Identi.ca support
  • Multi account support
  • Conversation view
  • Single instance mode
  • Option to hide tray icon
  • Notification with application icon (for “docks” users)
  • New application icon (See below)

Multi-Account Support
This has been a feature long in request and Pino has integrated it well. Switching accounts is a breeze – simply click on the account ‘avatar’ in the upper-right and toggle between your accounts.

The “new” icon
We loved Pino’s original icon: -

Then they brought in “Bambi in a dress”: -

Our criticism of that particular icon led to the developers issuing a public call for a new icon. This is what seems to have been chosen: -

To their credit it matches the Humanity icon set with utter aplomb – I’m not sure if a Xmas tree really screams “Twitter” to most people, but hey, at least it’s not Bambi! Even more awesomely the icon turns green on a new tweet/dent!

Best yet to come?
We really do love Pino here at OMG! (even if the developers must hate us for our icon-bashing!)

As progress on Pino, er, progresses there are a few features that I would dearly love to see: -

  1. MessagingMenu integration -
  2. Twitpic uploading
  3. Automatic URL shortening on paste
  4. Statuses get ‘from Pino’ post tag rather than ‘from API’
  5. Bring back the ‘t’ icon!

Download
If you’re using the Pino PPA then your update will appear automatically via Update Manager (go check now!)

To add the PPA sudo: -

  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:troorl/pino
  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vala-team/ppa
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install pino

Alternatively you can download the latest release from the Pino website @ pino-app.appspot.com/downloads

Best yet?
This release certainly gets two thumbs up and a sip from our Ubuntu mug as it is easily the best release of Pino yet and certainly places Pino into the top 3 native Linux twitter clients.

Don’t forget you can follow OMG! Ubuntu! on Twitter – where we like to post links to recent posts, interesting articles, tweet about Ubuntu, apps and themes and post lots of stuff that never makes it onto the blog! Find us @omgubuntu

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Pino Gets URl Shortening, Other Options
  2. Pino 0.1.4 Released €“ Adds DM, Notifications, More
  3. Pino Twitter Application Reviewed
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  • Anonymous

    A christmas tree? Odd.

    Wonder if Pino has DBus support? I’d be tempted to write a docky helper if there is any demand for it?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Ooooh that would be pretty awesome. I know Gwibber has…

  • anon

    not in any way connected to the project, but it’s a pine tree. pino – pine, not that hard.

  • http://mrdoob.com/ Mr.doob

    “Pino” is a pine in spanish. And the icon looks like a pine to me.

    http://images.google.com/images?q=pine

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I kinda assumed it was something like that but it’s become a running gag to criticise the Pino icon now :P

    • http://nerdetection.rv89.com gabrielbutoeru

      pino is a pine in italian too :D

  • http://twitter.com/teengenerate Tom Jowitt

    Isn’t it a tree because Pino is “Pine” in Spanish/Italian? Good work on the blog btw.

  • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

    Uhm. It’s certainly an improvement. But the icon shouldn’t be themed after the name of the application; it should be themed according to what the application does. The new icon has a nice style to it, but it’s not very well thought through.

  • Anonymous

    I’m pretty tired of you trashing the old icon. It was fine. If you didn’t like it, you could have easily replaced it with something else on your machine.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      i personally did replace it – there’s even an article on how to do that on here.

      The icon is an important part of an applications identity and whilst i get that the ‘bambi’ icon was some niche reference it really didn’t gel with a lot of users – hence our tongue-in-cheek praising of Pino and disdain for it’s icon.

      The best example i can give is from my sister (who i mention a lot on here as she can’t tell a browser from an OS) yet she uses Ubuntu and i ‘support’ here where needed. She installed Pino and loved the application but called me up wondering what the hell the “bambi in a dress” – which is where the quote actually originated – icon on her tray was about: she didn’t associate it was the awesome microblogging client she had installed. That kinda says it all.

  • http://twitter.com/symodhcn Symod J. Urich

    Updgraded today. Love it. I for one think the new try icon’s great, especially the detail with the tree going green when there are updates :) A few more upgrades/bugfixes, and that’s it, the perfect little alternative to Gwibber and Choqok on my desktop.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      The minute i noticed the green alert icon change i was sold.

  • Anonymous

    I like the icon & The bambi in a dress looked more like a little kid in a costume to me.

    • Anonymous

      Not to mention going to T might restrict development into other social networks.

    • http://www.ainotenshi.org/ Julian

      It’s because IT IS a little kid in a costume, it’s the character Pino from the sci-fi anime Ergo Proxy

      http://images.google.com/images?q=pino%20ergo%20proxy

      • Anonymous

        And there we go. I think any project should be allowed the icon that represents it’s name since I’m sure it wants to retain it’s identity in being unique. I can’t think of too many programs that use another product’s icon as its own — no matter what it does.

  • http://ubuntca.com/ sehs

    pino really is promising app among another twitter apps on ubuntu, because it have an active team they always update and improve pino, i prefer Pino’s original icon.

  • Phil Cas

    Guys. Pino is an anime character from Ergo Proxy. (hence the original icon.)

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ijsg3REAZJw/SF2ZkDG1N8I/AAAAAAAAAII/KqY8IRnsKCw/s400/ErgoProxy31.jpg

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      …as a million people have pointed out over the last few months,

      My issue isn’t with it being a name-sake but with being unintelligible for the majority of users. A character from an anime most desktop users won’t have seen doesn’t help Pino or the user; the icon needs to be more representative of the application’s function. Evolution has an envelope, Pidgin has a speech bubble, etc.

      As i posted above: –
      The best example i can give is from my sister (who i mention a lot on here as she can’t tell a browser from an OS) yet she uses Ubuntu and i ‘support’ here where needed. She installed Pino and loved the application but called me up wondering what the hell the “bambi in a dress” – which is where the quote actually originated – icon on her tray was about: she didn’t associate it was the awesome microblogging client she had installed. That kinda says it all.

  • http://iovarsamis.blogspot.com/ YaniMrjack

    All these features requests can find a better seat where they belong :
    http://code.google.com/p/pino-twitter/issues/list
    :)

  • Anonymous

    I welcome the new Xmas tree icon. It looks better than the “barbie in a dress” icon. Of course, the twitter “T” was best, however I wonder if the twitter folks didn’t complain about it, or if the creators just didn’t feel that was compatible with the GPL license. They could just be omitting it because twitter could claim that the “T” is part of the trademarked logo, and as such, its use in pino dilutes twitter’s name brand. Twitter has been increasingly crazy about the use of “twitter”, even so much as to get into argument with Leo Laporte, owner of the “twit” trademark years before twitter was conceived. Lets face it, while the “T” icon is cool, no one wants to see a legal battle over the use of an icon. Personally I am content with the ability to modify the source code and change the icon as I will. The original icon doesn’t concern me. Viva la Xmas tree pino icon.

  • Yi Sun-sin

    «To their credit it matches the Humanity icon set with utter aplomb»
    Does it ever cross your mind that Ubuntu is not the only Linux distribution on earth, and even for Ubuntu users, Humanity is not the only icon theme ?
    An application icon should follow the one and only set of guidelines : Tango, and nothing else, especially not Humanity.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Well this is an Ubuntu blog so i’m going to highlight pro-ubuntu features etc.

      Many applications ship with Humanity style icons now because of Ubuntu. I think this is a good idea because i, of course, think that the Humanity style icons are utterly gorgeous.

      • Yi Sun-sin

        Well, as I said, Humanity is not the only theme used on Ubuntu, and I really think that trying to integrate into Humanity is A VERY BAD THING.
        That being, of course, if you don’t want to turn Linux into a MacOSX-like things that hates with a passion theme customization.
        Using a Tango icon allows your application to fit in all theme official Gnome icon themes, and in the default icons themes of all the major Linux distribution – except of course for Ubuntu.
        Thanks to this extremely uncaring decision to use only monochrome icons for the panel, Ubuntu only managed to split all the applications between «Ubuntu-style» and «Rest-of-the-world-style», just like they did with the new notification system. The only result will be more inconsistencies both when using Humanity and when using another icon theme.

        The only right way to do it, or so it seems to me, is to use a tango icon, and to propose another for inclusion in Humanity. That’s the way I work with my own icon theme, Buuf ( http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Buuf?content=81153 ). I include hundreds of icons for third-party programs, since my theme is not Tango-compliant.

    • http://twitter.com/pixel_juice Ben Jarvis

      WOW! Has it ever crossed your mind to be a little less rude? Your mom would be ashamed.

      • Yi Sun-sin

        No, it has not. No, she wouldn’t.

  • http://mpt.net.nz/ mpt

    The current situation, where applications have to choose between fitting in with Ubuntu or fitting in with less popular OSes, is indeed awkward.

    That’s why, last year, a few Ubuntu developers (including myself) proposed a scheme by which Ubuntu and other OSes that use monochrome panel icons can have them, while OSes that use colorful panel icons can have them. Ideally, this should work with both dark and light themes without developers having to provide different icons for each.
    http://wiki.freedesktop.org/wiki/SymbolicIcons

    This has also been discussed on the XDG mailing list.
    http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2009-December/thread.html#11143

    • Yi Sun-sin

      I guess you were answering to me, but missed the reply button ;â‹…).
      That’s great to see that Ubuntu’s developer are aware of this issue. But I would like to point out that it is not about fitting with Ubuntu or other OSes, it is fitting with 99,99% of the icons themes available for Linux, or fitting with Humanity !

      This could be great. But meanwhile, I’m still very much against the use of anything else than Tango guidelines in panel icons.

      • http://mpt.net.nz/ mpt

        (I did use the Reply button, and was surprised when the comment appeared in the wrong place.)

        It’s completely untrue that the choice is between “fitting with 99,99% of the icons themes available for Linux, or fitting with Humanity”. Most people using Linux are using TiVo, Android, or WebOS, none of which use Tango.

        Anyway, there’s a reason we don’t use Tango in Ubuntu: it looks bad. Everything else is secondary.

        • Yi Sun-sin

          First, that makes 3 themes, out of hundreds !
          Second, none of those themes you are speaking about are usable in Gnome or KDE (or XFCE, or LXDE, or whatever), so I don’t see how they relate to this matter.
          Third, apart from the monochrome icons, it seems to me that Humanity follows Tango guidelines…

          Just test that : after a fresh install of Ubuntu, try all the icons themes available. Then, install of the icons themes in the repository. Do you find any icon theme in which monochrome icons fit ?

  • merbit

    (offtopic) I don’t mean to be rude, but since you’re bashing others work, “OMG! Ubuntu!” logo and text doesn’t really appeal to me as an average Ubuntu user. “What’s oh-em-gee?” would be a first question.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Firstly i am not “bashing” other people’s work. If you read any of our previous posts on Pino you’ll see we have nothing but utter adoration for the project and quite clearly state that over and over. It has become a running ‘gag’ for us to mention the Pino icon – just do a search and read all of our previous Pino reviews/updates.

      There is a difference between “bashing” and pointing out usabilty errors. Our concerns about Pino’s icon are purely from a user’s POV. Whilst you may be part of the clique that has seen the obscure anime from which the application is named the Ma’s and Pa’s who may use the application won’t have – it doesn’t help them or help the application itself to confuse people. There are plenty of awesome guidelines about application icons you can read – particularly by the freedesktop.org initiative and the GNOME UI guidelines. -That- is where we’re coming from.

      Secondly if you read out ‘about’ page – there’s a link to it at the top – you’ll get to know what this site is about. We are tongue in cheek and jovial. The site name is the launching pad for all that; it’s one of the firstcquestions answered in the about section: -

      “OMG! Ubuntu!” is a silly name. Why did you call it that?
      One word – Hyperbole

      • Anonymous

        I don’t think this actually falls into the category of hyperbole. Hyperbole would be an exaggeration, where as “OMG!” exaggerates nothing. In fact, it could literally sum up your enthusiasm for Ubuntu for all we know. If you were to say you’d rather gouge your eyes out than use Windows or a Mac, then that would be hyperbole (I hope).

      • http://twitter.com/pixel_juice Ben Jarvis

        Don’t worry about these tards. I think they forgot their Asperger’s meds. GODDAMN PEOPLE. GROW A SENSE OF HUMOR. BTW, I agree on the icon stuff. Fuck that deer.

        When I saw the tree I just assumed Pine tree. IMNSHO, the name Pino might be part of the confusion. Is it a type of nut? An alcoholic drink? Software for Filipinos? One has to guess.

  • bhm

    Hello

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/422036/pinosvg.svg

    1. I just learned Inkscape. So thanks anyway.
    2. Shameful plug of my creation.
    3. Shows where I’m coming from. If there is someone with Inkscape/Ilustrator skills ( devs want svg afterall).
    http://www.stjernstedt.net/screens/ergoproxy/HappyPino.jpg
    FFS. Flip head so ears point other directions. Doesn’t it look like ‘t’? Hello? Anybody?
    4. Recolor it so when no updates – grey. New updates – this purple/pink like color of bambie’s dress.

    Cheers

    • Anonymous

      That is actually a very good one! You should contact the pino devs…

  • Anonymous

    Does somebody remember Pino icon replacement post: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/how-to-replace-pino-notification-area.html

    Maybe artist can connect with Pino developer?

  • Aubrey

    This may be off-topic, being about the app rather than the icon, but I really like the way Pino is going. Unfortunately I tried to “cheat” the config by putting one of my Twitter lists as a separate account and it borked and wouldn’t reconnect. Nevermind, but I do hope future Linux clients, including Pino and Buzzbird, do pick up lists and give users an easy way to switch between them.

  • http://twitter.com/andypiper Andy Piper

    Is this Lucid-only? I’ve added the ppas but get told that it’s not possible to install libgee2 when I try to install pino :-/