The official Diaspora blog has a big update with screenshots and video. They say they’ve implemented everything seen in the video except for the profile pictures, which is great, because it shows some complicated behavior (chat and status) using decentralized nodes.

You can also see that the user interface looks much less like a blog, as it did in the mock-up screenshot, and more like Facebook.

March 2010 pre-pre-alpha screenshot



July 2010 pre-alpha screenshot



Already, Diaspora’s offering is looking better from a UI standpoint than anything currently available from free software developers. I think it’s safe to say at this point that the grassroots investments were not wasted. However, the whole thing depends on people moving their friends to Diaspora when it comes out; and that’s not going to happen until September! I hope y’all can hold out until then.