ANNOUNCE: gnome-bluetooth 0.5 & libbtctl 0.4 development releases

[Edd Dumbill <edd usefulinc com>]

gnome-bluetooth is a suite of tools for managing Bluetooth devices and
sending/receiving data under the GNOME desktop.

libbtctl is a GObject-based library for the Bluetooth and OBEX
operations on Linux.  It comes with Python and Mono language bindings.

These releases are development releases, and should be considered
unstable.  They incorporate a large amount rewriting of underlying
libraries for improved reliability and API usability.  Little extra
functionality is offered over the previous release.

More details are available at
http://usefulinc.com/software/gnome-bluetooth

Tarballs are available at
http://usefulinc.com/software/gnome-bluetooth/#download

Debian packages (against Debian sid) are available at
http://debian.usefulinc.com/

Mailing list is available at
http://lists.usefulinc.com/mailman/listinfo/gnome-bluetooth

Changes in this release:

libbctl 0.4
===========

New in this development release:

 * an OBEX server class, BtctlObex.
 * an OBEX client class, BtctlObexClient.
 * bindings for Mono.
 * API documentation.

gnome-bluetooth 0.5.0
=====================

This release provides similar functionality to the 0.4 release, but
with many internal rewrites and cleanups.  New features will come in
the next release, so don't worry!  I'm aware that HIG love is needed
in many places, but as the dialog requirements aren't stable yet, too
much refinement is premature.

 * gnome-obex-send and gnome-obex-server are now based on the new
   OBEX code in libbtctl.  This should lead to an increase in reliability.
   gnome-obex-server now lets you decide whether a device is allowed to
   connect or not.  The download directory can be configured from the
   gconf key /apps/gnome-bluetooth/obex-savedir.

 * gnome-bluetooth-admin has been retired in favour of a new program
   called gnome-bluetooth-manager.  This is implemented in Python, but
   is only at an early stage right now.

 * gnome-vfs support has been removed.  Use gnome-bluetooth-manager to
   view all the devices.

 * OBEX sending support is now available on the Nautilus context menus
   for files.

 * Radical changes in underlying code!

   The Bonobo component has been completely removed, in favour of a
   normal GObject, GnomebtController, to be found in libgnomebt.  This
   embodies all of the functionality from the Bonobo object, but without
   getting CORBA/Bonobo involved.  It ships with Python bindings, too.

   To find out how to use it, check out gnomebt-controller-test.c in src/
   for C, and the applications in the python/ directory for Python.

   Porting your code to this new object should make your programs smaller
   and more reliable.

 * New widgets include GnomebtChooser, GnomebtPermissionDialog,
   GnomebtSpinner.

-- Edd