When Rain v1.0 was released I also created a thread on kirupForum asking for critiques of the user interface and the software as a whole. I did not expect such a big response from the thread, with a lot of major people participating in the discussion. I got some very good feedback on the application and an insight into the reasoning of users.

Something I needed to hear.

A few moderators and another user pointed out something important. Very few users know what AIR is, even fewer feel like installing more software to run a simple application. Although it is frustrating, it made me realize that to gain a shred of attention or popularity I would need to make this application worthwhile. And that I would need to make it extremely easy to use yet still powerful.

On a warmer note...

I did get some very positive feedback about the interface, along with some tips on how to improve it. Even pushing version 1.0 of Rain out has given me a new perspective on designing desktop applications. I highly doubt that my work on Rain will stop anytime soon.

Jus a little teaser, Rain version 1.1 should be out by this Friday; it will feature a built-in help section, Facebook status updating, and a couple other features to make posting to your favorite sites even easier!

That's right, Rain version 1 is complete and is available for download! Please be aware that this is the first version and there will likely be many bugs; for example Twitter only allows 70 authenticated requests to its API per 60 minutes, this means that if you post more than 70 updates in a 60-minute period all of your updates after the 70th update will not be accepted. Please comment with any other bugs that you encounter. Also, thanks again to Brett Terpstra for inspiration. If your on a Mac, download MoodBlast, it's much better than Rain. (It's Mac-only though.)

Forgot to mention this, but you will need Adobe AIR to run this application. AIR is a cross-desktop (Windows and Mac) runtime that allows you to build applications that will look and function the same on all supported operating systems. Download it here.