This may be an area where the dumbphones win, but I've only been able to find one app that is just a timer--open the app, you've got a timer--and it's way too cumbersome.
When the app opens, I need to see:
A number pad.
A Next button (for moving from hh/mm/ss).
A Start button.
ETA: Also, number pad input needs to overwrite the current field, not insert.
These features have been available on every dumbphone for over a decade. Can't they be done in Android?
This isn't exactly what you are looking for, but I use it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hybrid.stopwatch
It has a stopwatch, too, but remembers which mode you chose and launches in that mode.
Yeah, I tried that one and it has all the same issues as Kitchen Timer, though it's nicer to look at. Who decided an Android timer would use this cumbersome +/- interface? It's made worse by the fact that once you get a cursor in a field, it inserts rather than overwrites, and won't jump fields.
Ideally, the only actions necessary to set a timer should be open-0-0-7-3-5-start, no navigation, no clicking up and down as if we had a device with two buttons (i.e. a watch).
Yeah, I looked around for a timer too. This was the easiest to use that I found. I rarely have to change the time on it so for me I launch it and hit go. But if I was constantly changing the value, it would be annoying. Makes you want to go out and write your own!
I'm poking around in App Inventor to see what I can manage--I would be lost writing code from the ground up. I think I should at least be able to come up with something with multiple one-button presets on the starting page, and they can probably be user-programmable, but I don't think App Inventor has the commands to give focus to a numerical text-box (thereby highlighting the contents for replacement and launching the number pad) on app initialization.
If you want, take the time to send me some EXACT specifications and I'll see if I have time to whip something up; we're not talking 10 year global weather modeling here! LOL
TIA,
Roots
Rootstonian said:
If you want, take the time to send me some EXACT specifications and I'll see if I have time to whip something up; we're not talking 10 year global weather modeling here! LOL
TIA,
Roots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually making progress in App Inventor, but if it comes to naught, I'll PM you.
Well, it's not finished and it's not pretty, but it's a timer
So far, I can't get the box to grab focus when the app opens, but it's still quicker for entering a new value than the others on the market. The empty red bar will bring up the number pad. Hit hours, mins, or secs to start the timer with the relevant units. Start/Pause work, and if you enter, for instance, "90 + Mins" it will convert it to 1 hour 30 mins. More than two digits in the Hours box will break the UI, but it will count them down
The preset buttons and persistent notification box don't do anything yet, and it doesn't remember the last value entered if you close the app yet, but the core functionality is there.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7299403/TimerSAUR.apk
ETA: enabled persistent notifications and shake-to-stop.
ETA2: remembers last value entered and whether Persist was checked, made some visual tweaks and added an icon.
ETA3: re-skinned the whole thing and hid the preset buttons for now. I can add features, but I'd call it a complete app, and more functional than anything on the market, for my purposes.
ETA4: I, um, even fixed those script errors that caused FCs if you tried to start a timer with all fields empty. Details.
D'oh! As far as I can tell, the App Inventor "clock" function pauses if the device is sleeping--not exactly practical for a timer :/
Maybe I'll have another run at it tomorrow.
Maybe you can save the time that it paused, then calculate how much time has passed when it wakes up and start from there. That won't help much if your time expires while it is sleeping, though. Will App Inventor let you prevent sleeping?
Talking to App Inventor community members, I think the clock provided is just not workable for something like this. Maybe if I'm willing to build a windmill to turn a doorknob, I could figure something out, but I'd probably be better advised to start learning real code if I want to pursue the matter.
Better yet, I could take Rootstonian up on his/her offer
Yeah, it shouldn't be too difficult to build. And since you already have some of the GUI worked out, you can just pass that on.
I've built one Android app but it was a while ago so I'm very rusty. But it sounds like it can be done pretty quickly.
Jason
Related
I've made an app for my own use and I want to know if this app can be useful for others.
The main purpose of this app is to register the current system time when I pass the turnstile of the company that I work for. When I do that, the App registers date and time, and shows me what time should I go out to lunch, when I need to come back, and what time should I go out to complete 8 hours of work-time.
So, please vote if this could be useful for you.
Gee, how does your device sync with the turnstile? Does the speaker react to the "click" as the turnstile, erm, turns?
OK, I'm being facetious. I guess I'm just not used to a workplace where your lunchtime and leaving time are so strictly by the clock rather than:
1. workload
2. how hungry you are and/or what workmates are doing for lunch
3. workload
4. what work there is left to do
5. workload
6. when your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend is expecting you home
7. etc.
pistou said:
Gee, how does your device sync with the turnstile? Does the speaker react to the "click" as the turnstile, erm, turns?
OK, I'm being facetious. I guess I'm just not used to a workplace where your lunchtime and leaving time are so strictly by the clock rather than:
1. workload
2. how hungry you are and/or what workmates are doing for lunch
3. workload
4. what work there is left to do
5. workload
6. when your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend is expecting you home
7. etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL LOL LOL!
It would be VERY NICE to sync with the turnstile automatically, but, for now, I need to touch my device to register.
But, thats why I'm making this poll, to check if a reasonable number of people works at a place that controls your work-time.
something i would be interested in is more of a time tracker.. i am a webdesigner, so i need an app that when i click it would mark the time...
so then i drive to the clients location,
do whatever,
then when i return click it again.
almost like your using with a few minor adjustments.
i'd like to find a soft with these features:
1)quick way to mark period: work, sleeping, surfing etc
1.1)i'll try to start each period with pressing button "changed activity to... <choose a tag>"
1.2)if i forget that, i would like to be able to mark the period "post datum", e.g. finger-oriented way to draw a segment on timebar or sector on clockdial, marking it with tags
1.3)tags could have two levels: work\planning, work\coding, work\meeting, home\shopping, home\sleeping, idle\surfing, idle\transport etc
but this is not crucial. can do with plain planning-coding-meeting-shopping-sleeping-surfing-transport
2)easy way to port data to PC-spreadsheets for charting
are you talking about such an application?
and THE ****ING WEATHER app.
The first one is called MTG Keeper, and it's an app designed for keeping track of your and your opponents life scores in the game Magic: The Gathering. It can also do coin flips and dice rolls. there is also a 50 minute timer included for those that play in tournaments. Funny story about the coin flip, it uses 2 Faces coin of unburned and burned sides, and there is a 1 in a million chance of it landing on its side.
The second app is called Ball Bounce. Its a simple game where you simply tap on the broken computer monitor and try to keep it from hitting the desk for as long as possible. The current and hih score is displayed at the top. My current highscore is 54.
The third app is called THE ****ING WEATHER. It's based off the website thefuckignweather, and makes a web request with the inputed zipcode and download the current weather from it, along with the description. This app does require a data connection, so additional charges may be applied depending on your carrier.
These are teh first apps i've ever made, and all three are designed for WVGA devices, although they should technically work on all CF 3.5 phones. The only reason the cab file for MTG Keeper is so big is because I used images for just about everything.
Any bugs or comments, feel free to post.
not bad starts. it would be nice if fn weather kept last state. No complaints with Magic (but I've never played it). I did get a coin on the edge - what are the real odds of that? The broken screen app doesn't work on the HD2. It's nearly imossible to get thescreen to bounce even on direct hits. HD2 does weird things though. aesthetics are nice on the game though
Awesome! Keep it up.
bugsykoosh said:
it would be nice if fn weather kept last state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean it remembers the last location you entered when you exit the app?
kaeedo said:
Do you mean it remembers the last location you entered when you exit the app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes so I don't need to type it each time
I took Java in High School (10yrs ago) and don't remember any of it. However I am computer savy and am a quick learner. Here is the deal: My group has meetings several times a week and sometime several times a day. These meeting times are posted on our website. We don't like phones going off during our meetings.
Currently I use a app called "silent time lite" which I program to put my phone on silent during pre-determined times. Would it be difficult to make a simple app which pull the meeting times off our website and puts the phone on silent during these meeting times? I would imagine allowing the user to choose which days they attend the meeting and allow them to change how often they want the app to check with the website regarding meeting time changes. ?
Would it be complicated? Can someone please point me in the right direction. Any Guidance would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Ps(using an app which uses google calendar events to determine when to put the phone on slient, like Taker, is not what we are looking for)
I don't think it would be too complicated for an Android developer, but for a novice? Not so easy.
Also depends on how the date and time data is stored. You would have to scrape the html off the page, parse it (we're into PHP scripting here) and send the data back to the phone.
On the phone side, you have to call the php script on the server, and get your data. This app would most likely have to run as a service and sit in the background and poll a date/time every x minutes to see if it matches a meeting date/time and set phone accordingly.
To me, sounds like a lot of fun. Development, debugging, testing, implementation etc., in my opinion is 40 hours minimum. Per hour rate? I imagine that varies from $20 to $70 per hour.
Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately I don't have the means to hire someone right now, but I have plenty of free time (not currently working) and I am a pretty quick learner. I was just hoping for some guidance in terms of what I should look into and try to study. For example, do you think this tutorial is something that would interest me?
http://www.anddev.org/getting_data_from_the_web_urlconnection_via_http-t351.html
or should I look into Http GET? or the like? I was just hoping to follow different relevant tutorials and then putting everything together.
The way the data is posted online is very simple and I was hoping that the app can handle everything instead of getting into PHP:
For example, there exists a simple txt file at: http://www.sample.com/test.txt.
Inside this file it looks like this:
"
1:30 PM
6:30 PM
7:40 PM
9:00 PM
"
I just need to make a simple app which puts the phone on silent during these times + 10 minutes (ex: from 1:30 to 1:40, 6:30 to 6:40 , etc). The app would need to recheck the txt file every 2-3 days as it is constantly changing.
Then I would suggest getting Eclipse on your computer, the Android SDK and JAVA JDK (if you don't have a Mac).
See if you can create a simple app.
From there, see if you can add a button to the app that will switch the phone to silent mode when pressed.
Then, try to get current time from the phone and see if you can do what the above button press does, but based on the current time, i.e.
if(currentTime == meetingTime) { // you can hard-code a meeting time to test
// Silence phone
}
Don't forget about setting the phone OFF silence mode when meeting is over. This should get you going on a basic concept-test. And explain why developers/programmers make $25 to $100 an hour ROFL
Thanks again for your reply. I will definetly look into those suggestions.
So far, I have installed all the software needed and went through the tutorial I posted earlier and I made a apk file which I already sent to my phone. Currently, it is just showing the text from txt file on the app.
So the next step will be to find some ways to put the phone on vibrate etc.
If anyone else has any tips or links, please let me know. Thanks again.
llamas are awesome
this is not exactly what you asked but I am confident you'll muse, "I need that!"
master4g said:
My group has meetings several times a week and sometime several times a day. These meeting times are
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the meetings are a mobile tower away from where the phone may be loud consider the app
Llama
http://kebabapps.blogspot.com/
http://www.appbrain.com/app/llama-location-profiles/com.kebab.Llama
Ps(using an app which uses google calendar events to determine when to put the phone on slient, like Taker, is not what we are looking for)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you wouldn't use
http://tungle.me
for that.. but you might want to use it otherly
my other WS has a bookmark for 'learn android java by example' or somesuch. no, I don't sync all my profile's bookmarks. If I can find that and remember to post it here then it will appear here edits allowing
thanks for that, I currently use something similar, however it will not work for the rest of the group because of various reasons.
Didn't want to post this in the dev section but this app seems extremely useful and I was curious if there was any way of extracting it for use on other android devices?
That would be very darn useful for everyone.
I'm using tasker . . . you can do alot of creative stuff with it, but it is kinda complicated and costs ~$6
mel493 said:
I'm using tasker . . . you can do alot of creative stuff with it, but it is kinda complicated and costs ~$6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tasker as well but in general I dont find it super user friendly. From the looks of it Smart Action could replace tasker as well as juice defender which I also use.
I've already made one for home, work and when I go to bed. It seems pretty user friendly to me. Excellent app.
Heh, even if someone extracts it, it needs Blur libraries and frameworks, too.
kholk said:
Heh, even if someone extracts it, it needs Blur libraries and frameworks, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen harder things get ported on xda just needs willing developers
I haven't really had a look at this Smart Action App yet as I still haven't received my microsim. I was wondering how sophisticated it is?
Is it possible to have it read sms when connected to bluetooth, for example? I attempted this with Tasker on my Defy with no success - I don't think Tasker liked MIUI very much
stunno said:
I haven't really had a look at this Smart Action App yet as I still haven't received my microsim. I was wondering how sophisticated it is?
Is it possible to have it read sms when connected to bluetooth, for example? I attempted this with Tasker on my Defy with no success - I don't think Tasker liked MIUI very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker does many things but in terms of doing things you need to know the proper terms for the various variables etc for what you want to do which isnt too simple
Here are some premade ones you can download or make but none for what you wanted
http://tasker.wikidot.com/profile-index
As an example of how complicated it can get with tasker is the following. How to make a battery full notification.As you can see the app lets you do allot but is not super user friendly. Smart Action may not be able to do all that tasker is able to but may be able to do most and may be more user friendly
click New and select Event
select event category Power and event Battery Full
click Done
click + in the bottom left to add an action
select category Alert and action Notify (Sound)
type Battery Full! in the Title field
click Done
To avoid getting a repeat notification within 30 minutes, we add a cooldown:
Click on the profile and select Profile Properties
Slide the Cooldown Time slider to the far right
Click Done
Alternative solution to avoid repeat notifications (added by b00ky)
Set a variable such as "%BFN" to 0 anytime you plug in your phone
Edit the "Notify Sound" task to only run "If %BFN < 0"
Add a new task "Tasker » Variable Set » %BFN to 1"
This has worked for me and makes sure you only get notified ONCE while it is plugged in as opposed to after 30 minutes of cooldown.
I'm new to this so I apologize if this is not a good way to do this, but it works for me.
An alternative to the alternative to avoid repeat notifications. If you tend to leave plugged in for long durations, 30 minute cool down may not do it for you. The below gives you a one time notification that your battery is full, and wont repeat until you unplug/replug back in. phonedude
Profile - Battery 100%
Event - Battery Full
Enter task -
1. Play your sound
2. Set Profile Status {Battery 100%} to Off
Exit task-
n.a.
Profile - Plugged In
State - Power (Source = Any)
Enter task -
1. Profile Status {Battery 100%} to On
Exit task-
1. Profile Status {Battery 100%} to Off
Thanks for that fidorulz! Much appreciated. I notice on that site that the guy tried to get the read SMS to work and failed, tried again and got it working but doesn't know how!
http://tasker.wikidot.com/readsmswhileincardock
I found a walk through on here that would not work either and I assumed it was because of MIUI, as Tasker didn't register any SMS being received. It seems that the %SMSRF and %SMSRB variables only get initialised when an SMS is received.
I will patiently wait for tmobile and the royal mail to get their fingers out and deliver my microsim and I will give it another go
I use "Setting Profiles" pretty simple and powerful, a lot easier to use than tasker (although not quite as powerful in the nitty-gritty) but definitely hits the 80/20 rule. It costs, but I believe there is a free version to try out the functionality and see how you like it.
Hello,
I have recently bought a watch with Wear OS 2. I quite like it, but I am missing one nice feature from competition watches. I am blind. Apple watch and some other specialised devices can tell you time by certain vibration patterns. e.g. 5:30 am - 5 short vibrations, then pause, then 3 short vibrations... etc. I am thinking about creating something with Tasker, but this would require connection to the phone all the time.
Would someone take this as an interesting project? Or maybe would someone give me a helping hand in developing this? I am a programmer but never programmed for Android unfortunately.
what would be your preferred way of activating the vibration?
i'm thinking about an empty watchface which could, whenever it's activated either by gesture or button, start the time pattern.
also please let me know how exactly such a vibration pattern would best look like. (first hours then minutes, ok. what about 11:34 ? also seconds are not needed i guess?)
I might do a quick app
I really like this idea because the watchface would be sooo battery friendly
btw: any idea for a good name? I think I would go for "time feel watchface" if no one's got a better idea
if everything goes right, I will have a first test version by tomorrow
update: basic watchface running. gonna implement vibration pattern tomorrow.
need info:
-i assume it's no problem that the watchface is always black, this is to save as much battery as possible
-any symbol maybe for blindness i could use for the icon / watchface preview?
-should the vibration pattern start again if you touch the screen?
----I find this problematic because screen usually is only on for a few seconds, maybe i have to let it stay on as long as the pattern is running and it would go to standby immediatly after that... so i'm not quite sure how to handle this
-is a 24 hour mode needed or should it even be default?
Hi, thanks for your response. Yes this is aimed at blind people specifically, I am blind my self. Yes blind people use smart watches, mostly from Apple, but there are also some users of Android Wear OS.
wow I read your reply just now and it seems cool. I have a few points:
A watch face is an interesting idea, but for example I would prefer it to be just an app which even does not launch a screen, does the vibration and exits. I use information I have on my watch face, I use screenreader to read info about upcoming events, battery etc. You may ask why do I need this vibration way of telling time when I can read it from the watch face? Well it is more discrete and does not bother surroundings. I could assign a specific gesture in the screenreader which would launch the app and do vibrations.
Honestly, I am probably the only Wear OS user in Czech Republic and I have to get connected with other blind people to get their opinions.
I think 12 hour format should be OK so far.
so basically you just need an app that vibrates the time when launched?
for example 5:33 x x x x x pause x x x pause x x x?
then i need to rethink that. but that should be even easier
Yes, for me this would be enough. Ideally if the app would do it without displaying any window so that the screenreader does not read anything. Is that possible? I am sorry I did not clarify this at the begining.
As to how to do vibrations:
I imagine this schema:
1 - one short vibration
2 - two short vibrations
3 - three short vibrations,
4 - four short vibrations,
5 - one long vibration
6 - one long vibration, short pause, one short vibration
...
9 - one long viberation, short pause, four short vibrations
0 - long vibration, short pause, long vibration
e.g.
10:56 - short vibration, long pause, long vibration, short pause, long vibration, long pause, long vibration, long pause, long vibration, short pause, short vibration
here's a first prototype.
do you know how to install apk to your watch? you need to enable ADB and WiFi Debugging to install wireless over ADB
let me know what you think. is it too fast?
i know it's not perfect, for example you need to exit the app to relaunch the pattern. i can fix that - can i let the app run the pattern and immediately exit? so you wouldn't need to exit manually everytime
Hello, you are amazing! So fast! Thank you very much. I tried the app.I have few questions:
1. Vibrations are quite fast. Could you make it a bit slower? Let's say that the long pause among numbers could be 1 second?
2. Could you make it so that the app does not open any window? That after launching the icon everything happens in the background?
3. Will this work also on phones or only on watch?
Thank you so much. If you don't mind, I would like to spread the word about this among other Wear OS users.
1. sure. i actually use two different long pause durations: one between the digits and one between hours/minutes
---i need to do this because leading zeros are ignored. i could also do leading zeros so you always have 4 digits and pause can be constant, but imho that's not as efficient
2. In this new version the window exits after launch, I hope that's fine. also fixes not working on second launch and makes the app not stay in RAM.
3. This version is only for Wear OS, but I could copy it to an android app.
Of course you can spread this app however you like. when it's done I can attempt to publish it to the play store.
please check this new version. is it still too fast?
also 12 a.m. seems to be treated as "0". should i change this?
new version with fixed 12 a.m.
if you are fine with this state i'm going to finish it and publish it to play store
Wow thanks, this look very well. I still have a problem with the app creating a window. The problem is that when the window is created and closed again, the screenreader reacts to that - in this case after closing the app window it reads info about previously opened window or a watch face. That is a bit problematic as my idea was to not make any sound at all, so that one can check for the time discretely.
Would it be possible to not display any window at all? Maybe running as a service which would be waiting for the launcher icon to be pressed? I am not good at Android internals so maybe it is a stupid idea.
krecoun said:
Wow thanks, this look very well. I still have a problem with the app creating a window. The problem is that when the window is created and closed again, the screenreader reacts to that - in this case after closing the app window it reads info about previously opened window or a watch face. That is a bit problematic as my idea was to not make any sound at all, so that one can check for the time discretely.
Would it be possible to not display any window at all? Maybe running as a service which would be waiting for the launcher icon to be pressed? I am not good at Android internals so maybe it is a stupid idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now I understand the problem. I need to look into this later. but I guess that's doable.
update: I tried to replicate your problem. I enabled talkback and started the app. only thing I can hear is a click when launching the app. is that what you are talking about? If so, I don't think that can be prevented as it's caused by the launch of the app.
-sorry, I didn't read correctly. so the problem is that it starts reading the previous app. that's a problem. I didn't find an easy way to fix this - as far as I read you cannot launch an app without starting an activity. at least not with an app. maybe i could make the watch sleep after launching? or you can find a solution with tasker or something similar
Hypothetic idea:
Let's say that the app would be running as a service after start. I don't know if this is possible in Wear OS.
1. After clicking the launcher icon, check if the service is already running.
2. If not, launch it. You can display even a window and close it, well while launching the service we probably won't avoid that but that's acceptable.
3. If yes, don't show anything but send some intend / activity / however it is called in Android to the running service which will do the vibration.
Is it doable?
the thing is afaik an app launch always needs to launch an activity.
if i'm wrong i hope someone corrects me
How about this?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2704084/how-to-launch-an-activity-without-a-ui
krecoun said:
How about this?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2704084/how-to-launch-an-activity-without-a-ui
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it says you can have an app that's a service only, which starts on boot an can receive intents. but how do you call it? you need to activate something. you could maybe do it as a compilation, but as I see it it's not possible by launching an app.
I see two easy solutions:
-let the app run in an empty window
or
-let the device go to standby after vibration
update: I looked into this a bit more. I guess my solutions would not work. an app can't send the device to sleep and if I show an activity the screenreader always reads the app name...
so I can't help you any further. maybe someone else can
Hi, sorry for looong delay. I must say that I am using your app quite successfully. Sometimes it talks but mostly it does not and vibrations work as expected. Great work. Maybe you could release this app into Playstore, some other blind people could benefit from that or make more suggestions.
krecoun said:
Hi, sorry for looong delay. I must say that I am using your app quite successfully. Sometimes it talks but mostly it does not and vibrations work as expected. Great work. Maybe you could release this app into Playstore, some other blind people could benefit from that or make more suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback, i'm glad you like it.
I find myself running it from time to time, just to see if I can feel the time
I'm gonna try to publish it when I find time. I'm currently starting work at a different project.
Just came across this thread. Very interesting project!
I, myself, am not blind, but I like the direction this is going! I am going to try it out!
Have you published this to the Play store as of yet? This could be good! ??
Yeh, this is a unique app concept for many!
sorry, for not responding in almost a year.
best would be to bake this function into the os, or make it activate by gesture... wouldn't this be awesome? telling time without ears and eyes, just by a movement...
I just remembered this app and thought i might finish it and add it to play store.
HOPEfully this weekend