Xbox Friends Watch - v1.1 has been posted

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Download 1.1 Now

Performance Improvements
A week ago, I posted the first version of the Xbox Friends Watch Gadget.  I received a lot of great feedback and feature suggestions.  The most noticeable was the excessive amount of memory consumed for some people.  I've gone through and optimized, linted and crunched the code.  I've run this version for a few days now and although it still runs higher than I'd like(20k) that's a lot better than the (300k) I had seen before.

Duncan has also optimized and compressed the REST service, the size of the data downloaded is much smaller.

Version Check
Another big feature, is that the gadget now checks to see if it has the latest version.  Definitely something I wish I had added with the initial release. I'm guessing 70% of the people who downloaded the gadget's first release won't find this new release or any consecutive ones.

Next Steps
I've added a page just for the Gadget and will be adding Suggestions as well as FAQ.  And then I will work on the next update where I will target "access to the gadget context menu", "loading screens" and "more than five friends displayed".

posted on Nov 2nd, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (33)

33 Comments »

  1. An update to an excellent gadget. If you can get Major Nelson to announce the update then I'm pretty sure a lot of the original downloaders will get it.

    Downloading now!

    Comment by Phil Collins - November 02, 2007 @ 9:11 AM

  2. Thanks Phil, maybe once I get to version 2.0 and we've gotten the whole more than 5 friends thing smoothed along with a few of the other smaller requests I'll ping the Major again :)

    Comment by Adam Kinney - November 02, 2007 @ 10:56 AM

  3. Awesome gadget, can't wait for the postmortum on how you created it. I haven't really done any Silverlight development but this little guy definitly got me interested. Plus it's helped me know when to run downstairs and jump on Live for a wee bit of Big Team Battle.

    Comment by Shawn Oster - November 02, 2007 @ 6:20 PM

  4. I'm loving the gadget update! I'm using the gadget all the time and it's nice to notice my friends are online when my Xbox is off and I don't want to constantly visit Xbox.com. A couple quick suggestions: When you do add support for more friends, make friends that are playing online appear at the top of the list. Also, in a player's fly out screen, it would be cool to have a link that will take users directly to the page on Xbox.com to send the player a message. I look forward to the next update and keep up the great work!

    -MageGriff

    Comment by Matt Gartzke - November 02, 2007 @ 10:33 PM

  5. The gadget is great thanks for the update,, to have the players that are live and playing on top would be nice,, or getting the live feed into the thing would be nice then we could send messages right out of,, couldn't .net be implimented in to silverlight ?? that would be cool..

    Comment by DRT 117 - November 03, 2007 @ 7:18 PM

  6. Good call on the sorting idea I like that, similiar to instant messaging. The message link is a good idea too that should be pretty simple.

    .NET integration will come with Silverlight 1.1 which is just an alpha right now. Once its ready, I'll be ready, too. Right now though I am thinking of a WPF implementation.

    Comment by Adam Kinney - November 03, 2007 @ 9:34 PM

  7. Sweet deal will you be keeping us posted on when 1.1 will be out,, yeah instant messanger style sorting or having a couple of different lists you could pick from,, like a friends list or clan list or social list that you could customize.. by the input block,, but you could select it in the setting menu..

    Comment by DRT 117 - November 04, 2007 @ 3:03 PM

  8. Great update Adam, Have been using it constantly since you released it. Just wanted to thank you for your hard work and effort.

    Raiydeck

    Comment by Raiydeck - November 05, 2007 @ 4:04 AM

  9. Unfortunately I cannot get this gadget to work on my installation of Vista Ultimate 64bit Edition

    I installed Silverlight Ver 1.0 then proceeded to install the gadget. Upon installation and activation of the gadget it displays a "Get Microsoft Spotlight" picture, which when clicked, takes me to the Spotlight site that tells me that I already have Spotlight installed.

    Anybody else come across this problem, did you fix it, and if so, how?

    Comment by Travezy - November 05, 2007 @ 10:34 AM

  10. im running the latest Silverlight and Vista home premium on 32bit.

    im having the same problem as 9^. it keeps saying Get Microsoft Silverlight

    Comment by Antigone05 - November 05, 2007 @ 12:14 PM

  11. I get a error message A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line: 1 Error: 'this.games.0.tileUrl' is null or not an object. I only get this error when a friend has all his info blocked.

    Comment by Mike - November 07, 2007 @ 7:01 PM

  12. Great Gadget

    it is soooo.. the best..

    greets PrivGi

    Comment by PrivateGiJoe - November 10, 2007 @ 4:24 AM

  13. Hey,

    I'm having a problem. I Installed the gadget and when I input gamertags into the settings menu, they never show up.

    I have Silverlight installed and everything, so I have no idea what the problem is.

    Thanks ahead of time.

    Comment by Travis - November 10, 2007 @ 10:12 PM

  14. Hi, very nice Gadget, thanks a lot. I like this Silverlight style.... :)
    All Works fine, greatings from Germany
    tom

    Comment by Thomas - November 11, 2007 @ 5:00 AM

  15. When can we expect the next update ???

    Comment by slider2nl - November 20, 2007 @ 9:18 AM

  16. Hi - your gadget shows me playing Halo 3 at the moment. I assure you I'm at work and not on the XBox... Was last on ~15 hours ago... is there latency at work or is this a bug?

    Comment by Dunk 360 - November 21, 2007 @ 6:16 AM

  17. NB the detailed view shows me as offline, it's only the bar that shows me as online. Link to image:

    http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/6712/toduncpartthesecondku3.png

    Comment by Dunk 360 - November 21, 2007 @ 6:23 AM

  18. This looks really cool, but it isn't working for me. I have Silverlight 1.1 installed and all this shows is the "Get Microsoft Silverlight" button in my sidebar. Do you have an idea what it could be?

    Comment by Chris Pietschmann - November 26, 2007 @ 12:34 PM

  19. Hi Adam,

    Been using this since 1.0....Actually 1.0 didn't work for me but 1.1 is working great! This is BY FAR the best and most useful implementation of the sidebar...plus it makes your desktop look so cool! -2 of my friends are using it as well.

    Thanks again and great job!

    Jeremy,
    Orange Ca

    Comment by Jeremy - November 29, 2007 @ 6:09 PM

  20. Thanks very much for spending the time to create this gadget, Adam. Your efforts are much appreciated. I look forward to the next release!

    Comment by MR Gamer - November 30, 2007 @ 12:38 AM

  21. Hey installed silverlight and it worked fine but cannot get the gadget to work i am the same as ^9 and ^10 have both latest versions but i am running vista home premium 64bit is this causing the issue??

    Comment by Ben - December 01, 2007 @ 7:46 PM

  22. Good news I'm glad to hear 1.1 is working better!

    I need to add this to an FAQ, but there is a way to get the gadget to work when running Vista 64-bit.

    Regarding the next release I was planning to release a new version this week, but I've been added to a high-priority project. I'm now hoping to release the next version next week. And for those of you using Facebook, you can follow along with the gadget's progress on the Xbox Friends Watch Gadget page. I don't know much about the new Pages on Facebook, but I thought this might be a way to publish news abotu the gadget.

    Comment by Adam Kinney - December 03, 2007 @ 10:14 AM

  23. I hope all is going well...
    Any update on the new version? Just went x64 and would rather not have to do the x86 sidebar hack.
    Thanks

    Comment by Zapper - December 10, 2007 @ 1:39 PM

  24. I think this last round of updates to Xbox Live broke your gadget. It won't update the status of my friends anymore.

    Comment by DustoMan - December 15, 2007 @ 10:05 PM

  25. Really enjoy your gadget, its been very helpful. As of lately it isn't updating correctly. It says everyones offline, you can click the friends and read that they are on-line, but it still says they are offline.

    Comment by Monte - December 15, 2007 @ 11:07 PM

  26. Will an update to this ever be released? The performance in v1.1 is much better, but could still use a fix (sometimes the Gamertags stop updating). Any new features you can think of would be awesome too!

    Comment by Master Devwi - January 09, 2008 @ 10:47 AM

  27. Hi Adam,

    I love your "XBOX Friend watch" Gadget, one of the best Gadgets i've ever seen :)

    Will there be an update/upgrade?

    We need more space for Friends and (maybe) a audio notification.



    Thanks a lot, and keep up the nice work!


    ÜberSONIC.
    (Germany)

    Comment by ÜberSONIC - January 10, 2008 @ 12:08 AM

  28. Hi guys, thanks for the compliments. Yes, I've been away from the gadget for too long. I've been off on other side projects and of course the holidays took some time away.

    Good news, though. I've agreed to speak at the Seattle Code Camp at the end of this month about how I built the gadget. This will be a great forcing function for me to finally get v2 out the door. I'm planning a release to coincide with Code Camp.

    If you're running version 1.1, you'll probably know about it before anyone else there, due to the version notification feature.

    Comment by Adam Kinney - January 10, 2008 @ 11:28 AM

  29. I just found this, and is just what I was after, so thankyou very much. The ones you can get from the gadget marketplace don't do the job. ie who is online and who is off.

    I'm looking forward to v2.

    The features I would like to see in the next one are more friends than 5, and also some sort of alert when someone comes online.

    Thanks

    Comment by H Pepper - January 17, 2008 @ 7:49 AM

  30. Hi Adam,

    After having played around with this for a few minutes I have a couple more suggestions. Would it be possible to change the opacity of the gadget as with my other gadgets?

    Also, when someone is on a game it says 'playing [game]' unfortunately there is not enough characters for games with long names. I suggest your configure the gadget to ignore the characters of 'playing' that way you would be able to see what is being played.


    Thanks, Adam

    Comment by H Pepper - January 17, 2008 @ 8:04 AM

  31. Hi Adam,

    Was looking forward to getting this gadget running, exactly what I was looking for! However when I add the gadget to my sidebar I just get a gray square, no way of getting to any settings etc. I am running the latest Silverlight 2.0 release.

    Any ideas?

    Cheers,
    Ben

    Comment by Ben Moore - March 15, 2008 @ 2:28 PM

  32. When is the new version due out? Going on 3 months since you announced it. Have yet to get your link above working to find out how to get it working in vista 64 =(
    Please advise.

    Comment by BoDEAN - March 17, 2008 @ 4:26 PM

  33. Is the author dead or what? No responses. Cmon.

    Comment by Tony V - March 19, 2008 @ 3:56 PM

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