Database Develop

Application recommendations (Calendar, email, notifications)

Hello,
I've just recently switched from a Windows Mobile phone to the Hero, and there are a few features I miss from my old phone. I'm hoping that someone can recommend some apps to fill the gap; I've looked around on the forum and not yet found anything that seems like it would do what I want.
Calendar:
The calendar app that comes with the phone works great for everything except one simple feature - it displays all events on the monthly view with the same icon. My old phone used to have different icons for events in the morning, afternoon or 'all day'. This made it a lot easier to tell them apart at a glance. Edit: You also can't flick the screen to the side to scroll through days.
Mail:
This is just a minor annoyance. You can't swap between emails or email accounts by flicking the screen to the side.
Notifications:
If I've missed a call, received a text message or something of that sort, I'd like the phone to vibrate every 5 minutes until I acknowledge that I missed something. Currently all I can find is making the track ball glow, which isn't terribly useful if the phone is in my pocket.
If anyone can recommend some programs to fix those issues, that'd be great. (By the way, I'm using the Modaco custom ROM v2.2) Thanks!
Steve

For text notifications, grab SMS Popup from the Market. Brilliant little app imo

For the calendar get Pure Grid Calendar and turn on the Timeline option in settings

Steven__ said:
Notifications:
If I've missed a call, received a text message or something of that sort, I'd like the phone to vibrate every 5 minutes until I acknowledge that I missed something. Currently all I can find is making the track ball glow, which isn't terribly useful if the phone is in my pocket.
If anyone can recommend some programs to fix those issues, that'd be great. (By the way, I'm using the Modaco custom ROM v2.2) Thanks!
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Missed call can repeat notifications for missed calls and texts. You can also set the vibration pattern.

For notifications, I use Missed Call. Seems to work well for missed calls and SMS messages which is all I need it for.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I tried SMS popup and it worked fine for texts, but as expected, it didn't do anything for missed calls. I've now installed Missed Call; I'll see how well it works tomorrow.
For the calendar get Pure Grid Calendar and turn on the Timeline option in settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for Pure Grid Calendar, that looks good. However it's a paid app; does it work well? The reviews generally were positive, but I'm paranoid about paying for something that doesn't work quite how I'd like it. In particular I forgot to mention that I need it to sync with Google Calendar - the guy's website suggests it does in some of the comments but doesn't specifically say so. Do you know if that's definitely the case?
Thanks again guys.

Pure Grid Calendar and it's cousin Pure Calendar are paid apps but you do get to use them for about 24 hours for free. If you then install you get a refund. My understanding is that this happens for all paid apps but perhaps someone who knows more about market can confirm.
As to syncing with Google calendar, again my understanding is that it is the device itself that syncs. In each calendar app, including HTC calendar, you just choose which calendars you want that app to display. The pure calendars are the same.
Personally I use Pure Calendar rather than the grid as it shows an agenda style widget in a 4x2 format.
M

martint235 said:
Pure Grid Calendar and it's cousin Pure Calendar are paid apps but you do get to use them for about 24 hours for free. If you then install you get a refund. My understanding is that this happens for all paid apps but perhaps someone who knows more about market can confirm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read that somewhere else as well, and then went to check the Market. That's indeed what the Google Terms of Service said; you can get a refund within 24 hours as long as you haven't tried downloading the program before.
As to syncing with Google calendar, again my understanding is that it is the device itself that syncs. In each calendar app, including HTC calendar, you just choose which calendars you want that app to display. The pure calendars are the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, that does make sense. That way each designer doesn't have to program their own syncing code.
Personally I use Pure Calendar rather than the grid as it shows an agenda style widget in a 4x2 format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually tried the Pure Grid Calendar yesterday, and I'm happy with it. I particularly like how it brings up a pop-up of the day's events if you tap a day.
I'll have a look at the Pure non-grid Calendar as well later, as I can't access the market from where I am at the moment. I assume its advantage over the basic Android calendar widget is that it displays multiple days?
Thanks to you both for your help.

Recurring Events
I am new to Android from WinMo as well. I am having trouble with recurring events. I work a rotating (2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off; I KNOW!!! ) schedule for 2 wks with one workgroup then repeating for two weeks with another workgoup, then starting over.
This was not a problem with the calendar in my WinMo Tilt. I could "program" my work schedule in my phone and look out as far as I wanted to. I miss my calendar!
Am I missing something, or is the android calendar completely lacking in this area? Any help is greatly appreciated.

3rd Party Applications - SMS incoming timestamp delay

I've scoured the forums for an answer but all of these seemed to be pointing to the actual stock SMS app or another like Handcent.
What I'm talking about is that on third party applications that send SMS data to a server, the timestamp (apparently for all motorola phones) is delayed on applications such as:
DeskSMS
Web Desktop
LazyDroid
I'm experiencing this problem. Although on texting applications on the phone the timestamp is correct, on these third party applications that send information to my computer the time is around 4-5 hours behind.
Any theories/fixes? I have a feeling the normal time fix app won't work for this...

It's a known problem for all text messaging functions (phone and tied to PC). It has to do with how the date codes are stored in the text message database (which all SMS programs use). If you use SMS Backup and Restore to backup, then view your messages, all your received would be a few hours older.
On the phone, Go SMS works just fine (probably reads and writes to the database itself, instead of going through Motorola's crappy SMS programming). Dunno about the PC end. Although if you use LazyDroid and GO SMS at the same time, you'll get two copies of the same message: correct and old dated. Not the best workaround, but it's something.
Technically speaking, the Motorola coding (with Stock and apparently Handcent use to interface with the database) causes the date to be written as if your local current time IS the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT 0). When another program reads the code without using the Motorola programming, it tries to convert the
"GMT" to your time zone. So for me on the East Coast of the US, I'm on GMT-5. Add a difference of 1 for Daylights savings time in the US, and my messages are 4 hours old.

I don't have any issues. I get texts basically instantly from chrome to phone as well with the stock messaging services.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

i'm going to bump this because I have a weird issue.
i use GO SMS Pro and wanted to use Light Flow to control the LED on the device. When you disable GO SMS native notification settings and uncheck the 'block other notifications' it allows the Light Flow controls to work, but I see the issue where all the received timestamps are 5 hours behind (I'm in the eastern time zone). However, if i do check the 'block other notifications' it works fine, but Light Flow blocks all use of the LED for text messaging. Kind of annoying since I don't see how Light Flow can reveal this bug, but after uninstalling the issue goes away.

Nolam20 said:
I've scoured the forums for an answer but all of these seemed to be pointing to the actual stock SMS app or another like Handcent.
What I'm talking about is that on third party applications that send SMS data to a server, the timestamp (apparently for all motorola phones) is delayed on applications such as:
DeskSMS
Web Desktop
LazyDroid
I'm experiencing this problem. Although on texting applications on the phone the timestamp is correct, on these third party applications that send information to my computer the time is around 4-5 hours behind.
Any theories/fixes? I have a feeling the normal time fix app won't work for this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd assume you do not use your phone on Verizon. Anyways - there is an app on the market called SMS Time Fix. I think it can solve your issue without having to replace standard SMS client.

I was using go sms for like 14 hrs. Deleted it, tho. It was nice to theme it but for some reason it kept reverting my theme to the default and or would revert some aspects of it while keeping others.
Ill just wait for a rom, I don't really have that big of an issue with the stock app.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

leobg said:
I'd assume you do not use your phone on Verizon. Anyways - there is an app on the market called SMS Time Fix. I think it can solve your issue without having to replace standard SMS client.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if you're on a Droid3, but my SMS Time Fix doesn't work all the time on my Bell XT860 (running on Rogers). How has your experience been? Most of the time it gets the right timestamp, but sometimes it doesn't. Is there any way I can tell if the task manager is killing the app or...?

danifunker said:
Not sure if you're on a Droid3, but my SMS Time Fix doesn't work all the time on my Bell XT860 (running on Rogers). How has your experience been? Most of the time it gets the right timestamp, but sometimes it doesn't. Is there any way I can tell if the task manager is killing the app or...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am indeed using Bell XT860 on Rogers. SMS timestamp fix works fine for me. Without it installed messages are stamped with GMT time.
Beside installing it you need to open it, set it active (it is disabled by default) and choose method to correct time (adjustment method) - select top one - Time zone.

Issues? Add them to this list...

Okay, so since I'm having a few kind of big issues, I thought I'd start a list. If anyone has any solutions, please speak up! Yes, I'm rooted, but that's it. I'm running the stock ROM, and these issues existed before I rooted.
1) Silence mode doesn't work. I can get it to go to vibrate mode only by using the hardware keys; setting it in Settings or through a toggle doesn't work, despite the icons showing in the status bar. When on Silent, the phone still vibrates (and sometimes makes sounds still). This is a pain at night, however, since I've gotten Vibrate to work consistently using the volume keys, I put "Do Not Disturb Me" on my phone for night, and that properly silences the phone. The bonus there is I can schedule DND times.
2) I can't save incoming pictures from MMS. In Messaging, I'm not even given the option to, but I use Chat Heads anyway through FB Messenger. When I open an image there, I'm given the option to save it, but I get an error every time that it can't be saved. It's kind of frustrating.
3) Google Photos Sync doesn't work. It's checked in my sync settings, but unlike every other Android device I've owned, online albums don't show in Gallery.

Okay, the picture saving issue is related to Facebook Messenger. I'm seeing the same issue on my LG Optimius G. However, it doesn't look like you can save pictures using the stock Messaging app anyway, so I installed Go SMS Pro to open MMS messages if I need to save photos. I had to turn off it handling SMS and suppressing other apps' notifications, but now I have a workable solution to that until Facebook updates Messenger.

For the record, I've heard from an app developer that there is a firmware issue with many HTC devices that prevents them from switching volume states correctly when the device is playing audio streams like music or podcasts. In my case, this prevents Locale from silencing my phone when I get to work because I'm always listening to podcasts in the morning when I arrive, so the state transition fails, and I have to manually change it after stopping my podcast.

nuclear_eclipse said:
For the record, I've heard from an app developer that there is a firmware issue with many HTC devices that prevents them from switching volume states correctly when the device is playing audio streams like music or podcasts. In my case, this prevents Locale from silencing my phone when I get to work because I'm always listening to podcasts in the morning when I arrive, so the state transition fails, and I have to manually change it after stopping my podcast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, I could see that, but it fails even if I'm not doing anything with the phone.

After the OTA, I'm still having the silence bug when using a toggle or WidgetLocker, but I can successfully get it to truly silence using the volume keys. I'll take that, especially since I don't think that's a bug everyone's experiencing anyway. Still not getting online albums in Gallery.

-Can't share files via bluetooth, theoption simply isn't available in the share menu
-All received messages play as slideshows, and not in full screen when clicked on

Notifications (or alarm) sounds fail (culprit: YouMail app)

I've been having problems with my notification (and alarm) sounds not coming through. I've got the latest t-mobile stock ROM. Somehow i stumbled across the potential problem. I just found the culprit today, so i don't have a work around yet, but hoping that others will find one. Or I'll post if i get a resolution.
I was missing texts because the phone would not utter a noise when i got one. I checked the volumes and they were all up. Reboots usually fixed it. Somehow (i forget why) I started suspecting my Youmail app. I uninstalled and rebooted. I'm good. then installed it again. still good. I listened to a VM on Youmail app. Then checked notifications and they didn't work. To test, I'd open SMS app (stock) and try to change the notification sound. It would fail (silent) as i tried to preview sounds. But opening the files in the music app or ES explorer would allow them to play.
Reboot would fix the problem. But as soon as i listened to a VM on YouMail app, the notifications would not play in the selection screen for text messages (or in the event of an incoming text). Volumes were still all up.
My current work around is this: after listening to a VM, I bring up the task switcher (double tap home) and swipe away YouMail (effectively terminating the app). That works if you remember to do it. I've sent YouMail a detailed explanation through their online help service. I will update here if i get a response or find closure on this issue.

reply from YouMail tech
here's the response 3 days later:
Justin (YouMail Help Center)
Aug 27, 8:37 AM
Hello,
We are very sorry for the issues you are experiencing. We have been able to identify the problem and our development team is working quickly on a fix. Once that bug is resolved it will be released in an android update available in your respective app store. Thank you for your patience while we take care of the matter for you.
Regards,
Justin
YouMail Corporate Accounts
For updates on new features, events, and giveaways:
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/youmail
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/youmail

SOLUTION
They updated the app on 8/28/2015. This seems to have fixed the problem.

Use Tasker to create custom notification sound in Samsungs Messaging app (S9+)

Hello forum. In the Oreo update for some reason the ability to use custom notification sounds for specific contacts was removed. Samsung blames it on Google and vice versa. Theres a 150+ page thread at Samsungs community site about it. Ive contacted them myself and they blamed Oreo. Anyway this use to be as simple as going to the contact and setting the notification sound you wanted for that persons texts. You can still set ringtones, but not texts anymore using Samsungs messaging app. I know there are 3rd party apps that do this, and you can set them per thread in Googles stock messaging app, but I prefer the Samsung messaging app.
Similarly Google removed being able to set custom notification sounds per label in the Gmail app. But after getting Tasker I got some help to make this work with Tasker and the plugin Notification Listener. So I was thinking there might be a way to use Tasker to have Samsungs messaging app notify me with a custom sound for a specific contact. I tried to figure this out myself and couldnt. So I am hoping someone can help me out with this, of course assuming its possible. Thanks

Take a look at the Tasker wiki SMS Notification Management entry.
"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - Will Rogers

Use in profile the state of unread text and within that you can add in a contact.
In the task you can use if the above profile active then play sound, I use a custom vibrate pattern also.
This is what I use and it works well.
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