Upcoming events

After a successful visit to OSCON in Oregon last month, Matrix is this week represented at Clue Con in Chicago. We have a speaking slot later today – see the full schedule here. However, this time, we will be calling in remotely from London, but what better way to demonstrate video calling than by using it?

More upcoming events include Fosscon in Pennsylvania (August 22nd), where we have two talks scheduled, and ElastixWorld in Columbia (Oct 7 & 8), where we are participating as a keynote speaker. We hope to see you there!

As always, for questions or comments – or just to say hi – please join #matrix:matrix.org using your favourite Matrix-client!

Android Matrix Console 0.4.2 & 0.4.3

In the spirit of releasing early and often, we have pushed Android Matrix Console 0.4.2 to the Google Play store.

This release comes with a few new features as well as many bugfixes:

  • A notification settings page has been added
  • Added an image slider (access by tapping an image)
  • Improved the management of multiple accounts
  • Retaining filenames on upload
  • Fixed the causes of two crashes that were reported via Google Analytics
  • Several bugfixes – see full changelog here

Update:

We have pushed another update, version 0.4.3, after a bug was reported that affected some users upgrading to 0.4.2:

  • Fixed a bug where updating to 0.4.2 caused the history list to be empty
  • Added presence information on avatars in rooms

Android Matrix Console 0.4.1

Super-quick post just to announce that we have released a new version of the Android Matrix Console. This version fixes a problem where the Playstore wouldn’t let some Android devices install the app just because they don’t have a SIM card, due to a required permission that wasn’t really needed anyway.

Grab the latest version from the play store!

Android Matrix Console 0.4.0

Matrix Console 0.4.0 for Android has been pushed to the Google Play store and shall be available shortly.

This release contains a whole lot of bugfixes, new features, and nicer UI and UX – see the changes file for details, but in summary:

  • Lots of UI and UX improvements (inc. long click on images)
  • Added GCM support (can be enabled/disabled)
  • Added Google analytics support
  • Added badges management
  • Added “orientation” management for images
  • Now offering image resizing before upload
  • Lots of bugfixes!

Global TADHack Matrix hacks

Over 800 hackers all over the world spent this weekend working on hacks and prototypes in the Global TADHack hackathon. Some were working from home, and others gathered at one of the 14 official locations. Matrix were physically present at the London and Lisbon locations, and we also handed out two prizes (a massive amount of tessel modules) to the best hacks using Matrix in some way or another.

After a hectic weekend, over 90 different hacks were submitted and presented. There was a live stream available (archive here) so that everyone could watch all the submissions. We were of course particularly interested in Matrix-related hacks, and there were several:

  • Matt Williams continued his Project Clearwater/Matrix integration from TADHack-mini London earlier this year; this time he added support for IM<->SIP MESSAGEs.
  • Rob Pickering bridged his company’s keevio system to Matrix via the AS API.
  • Sacha Nacar and Mike Dauphinais wrote a sign-language interpreter that uses Matrix for conversations.
  • Igor Pavlov made it possible for users of Lytespark to be contacted via Matrix and OpenMarket’s SMS AS when they are offline.
  • Phani Pasupula showed a PoC for using Matrix as a platform for starting a Dialogic XMS conference.

In the end, we had to pick only two of these awesome hacks, which wasn’t easy. We are really encouraged by seeing the Matrix ecosystem grow bigger – and more bridges to various existing systems being built; this is exactly what Matrix needs!

We awarded our two prizes to Igor for his use of OpenMarket’s SMS AS, which adds a new and very wanted feature to Lytespark – and Sacha/Mike for their inventive sign-language -> Matrix translator. Congrats to all of you! We were also happy to see Phani win one of Dialogic’s prizes with his hack!

Below you can watch our two winners’ presentations:

The TADHack blog has a list of all the winners: local winners and global winners. In total $36k worth of prizes were won!

Thanks to everyone who participated!