New NST Weather Widget is done! https://forum.xda-developers.com/nook-touch/themes-apps/app-nst-weather-widget-t3946270
Updated to v1.1
--fixed issue that often caused app crash if initial contact with OWM was unsuccessful
--added sunrise/sunset update for condition icon
--added "current value" display in Settings for Lat., Long. and API
--some cosmetic changes to forecast panel
Everybody talks about the weather...
I miss WeatherAce, but when WeatherUnderground deep-sixed their free API service, there was nothing left in the app that worked. I made a few half-hearted attempts at updating the APIs for some of the other services included in the app but it became clear that my approach was too simple-minded and I gave up.
NSTWeather is my "learning app" for figuring out how to deal with xml weather data. It's a simple weather display and forecast app just for the NST (and sort of the NSTG...read on). Because Tasker (which I used to make this app) cannot create widgets, I started looking for some screen real estate that would (almost) always be visible. There is a small "blank" section of the status bar to the right of the soft Menu button. On the NST, this area is large enough for a temperature (no F or C) and a small condition icon. On the rare occasion that sync arrows appear, they overlap the condition icon. Alas, if you have an NSTG, the Glowlight indicator overlaps the condition icon when WiFi is on and, I suppose, sync arrows displayed with the WiFi on might overlap the temperature. So this might not be the best thing for NSTG users.
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"What about apps that run full-screen?", you ask. I have only one or two, including the stock reader. I have made the weather information the same color as the reading page background. That's one reason the icons look a little rough. Only 2 colors. If you have other full-screen apps and the weather display is annoying you, it can be toggled by a long press once the app is activated.
This app is not quite experimental, but it is not a destination for me. This is a way for me to work out various issues leading up to an eventual Widget.
With that out of the way...
What it does
This app uses your latitude, longitude and free OpenWeatherMap API to fetch a 3-hr, 5-day forecast for your locale. The app makes up to two attempts to contact the OWM servers each morning, at 4:30 am. The xml file from OWM is then processed to extract sunrise/sunset times, and temperatures and precipitation amounts for each 3-hr period over the 5-day forecast. All this data is massaged to get the time zone corrected, adjust the day/night condition icons for sunrise/sunset (OWM has them wrong...) and convert the precipitation into the units you desire. There is lots of other information in the xml file, but I decided to keep this "simple" (it is anything but) and just go for this essential information.
At each 3-hr interval, starting at 2:00 am, the temperature/condition display is updated from the forecast data. In addition, a tap on the temperature display will open a panel with the forecast for all 5 days, at 3-hr intervals (see screenshot below).
If the app fails to contact OWM (their servers are sulking or you have arrived in a hotel the previous evening and your NST can't make a WiFi connection...), it will re-sort the panel data to keep the day display correct and continue to display whatever information it has in the last forecast received until it runs out of data. I don't know what happens then! Of course, one could hope that in the course of 5 days it will eventually reach OWM.
What it doesn't do
The app--as configured--does not display "tiny" amounts of precipitation. I have it set to indicate "trace" (tr.) when the value falls below a tenth of whatever unit is selected. Also, I make no distinction among the types of precipitation other than by the condition icon.
Unfortunately, in the old version of Tasker that runs on the NST there is no way to directly address the changes at sunrise or sunset since they are variable, and variable time contexts were added only to later versions of Tasker. In the current version of NSTWeather I have added a routine for updating the condition icon within 15 minutes of sunrise or sunset, always on the early side rather than later. I based my range of potential times on Anchorage and Oslo. If you live at even more extreme northerly or correspondingly southerly latitudes, this will not work for you all the time. Also, since the weather data is updated at 4:30 am, I did not include the entire potential sunrise range (as early as 3 am), but rather settled for 4:45 am as my starting value. Hopefully you are asleep at that point...
Requirements
1. This is a Tasker-generated app. If you already have one of my other Tasker-generated apps or have previously installed GApps, you don't need the two Google maps library files included in the zip and can delete them. If you do need them, copy the two files into the locations shown below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
2. Copy the folder "NSTWeather" and its contents from the zip below to the root of your sdcard. This contains all the condition icons and is where the weather.xml file from OWM will be stored.
3. Go to https://openweathermap.org/ and find the current weather for your locale. When this is displayed you will also see the "geocoordinates" (i.e., the latitude and longitude). Copy these two values.
4. Go to https://openweathermap.org/api and sign up for a free API (right there in the opening paragraph, click on the words "sign up"). You will eventually receive an email with the API.
Installation and Use
Install the app from the zip below either by side-loading or ADB. The only user interface of the app is a Settings page. Open NST Weather and enter your latitude and longitude, as well as your API. Be especially careful with the API and make sure to include any negative signs with the geocoordinates.
Next, make your selection of the units you want displayed. Finally, to make the app fully functional you need to check both of the boxes in the lower section (you can disable the app temporarily by unchecking these). When you've made all the selections, tap on the bottom box to start a manual data retrieval. The Settings page will close and you should see WiFi come on for a bit. It will then turn off. If a successful connection was made with OWM and if you entered your information correctly, you will eventually see a weather display in the status bar. How long will it take? About 3 minutes. There's an awful lot of stuff to be done. That's one reason for having the data update done at 4:30 am when you are hopefully snoozing.
If nothing seems to happen and you see WiFi come back on again in 15 minutes, then it failed to contact OWM the first time and is trying again. If the second time fails, you will get a notification telling you that download failed, assuming there is nothing wrong with the values you entered. Go back to the Settings page and carefully check your API. That's where the most likely error will occur. Of course you should check your geocoordinates, too, just to be sure.
If you have made a successful connection with OWM before and one day there is a notification saying download failed, you can just ignore it and hope for better luck the next day unless you absolutely must have an updated forecast. In that case, you can use the manual retrieval option. There is no need to re-enter the latitude, longitude and API each time you open the Settings page once they have been entered correctly. They are stored in the /data/data/app folder for the app. Also, if you decide to change the locale, you only need to enter the new latitude and longitude, not the API.
The 5-day forecast panel is updated daily even if a download fails (data is just shifted to the left and the names of the days are changed). You access the panel by tapping on the temperature display.
If you want to hide the weather display, a long press on the temperature will make it invisible, but the area on the status bar adjacent to the soft Menu button remains active. Another long press will re-display the weather information.
Widgets?
As I said early on, Tasker cannot make widgets on its own, although it can share data with some other apps which can. Of these, only one will still work on the NST/G: Minimalistic Text. The current version of NSTWeather shares the current temperature value display with Minimalistic Text as a "Locale" variable called CURRTEMP. If you have a working install of Minimalistic Text and some familiarity with the app, you can play with this just to get a feel for the possibilities (that's what I'm doing!). To do so, create a widget (1x1 or perhaps 2x1), and select "Custom" for the format/layout. Get rid of all the stuff that is there by default and tap on the "Misc" tab. One of the options there is "Locale". If you drag that up to the working area you can enter the name of the variable CURRTEMP. If you want to add a degree symbol and F or C, or perhaps your location, you can use the "Static Text" option. I've done this and it works wonderfully well, updating right along with the normal status bar temperature display of NSTWeather. There's still a tremendous amount of work to be done to get to the actual Widget with the condition icons, etc., but it's a start
Related
Dear Canadian htc magic/sapphire/android users (and our international friends that visit Canada),
I just put up the beta version of EmWeather, my new weather application. It is very functional and looks nice. Most other weather apps do not provide this extended information or just have hooks to open weather underground websites (ie. slow and annoying). On top of that, most apps pull from Weather.com which, for Canada anyway, is next to useless.
Environment Canada provides excellent, surprisingly accurate, and very detailed forecasts for the whole country. This app aims to make this information easily available.
Features:
- Free, open-source
- Pulls data feeds from Environment Canada
- Shows current details and 8 extend forecasts on the main screen
- Easy access to detailed forecast information
- Ability to choose any city in canada, no need to do an independent search for obscure city codes.
- Wonderful GUI look
Coming in the next release:
- Alternative icon packs
- French language
Enjoy!
http://code.google.com/p/emweather/
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-emweather-emweather-qnCp.aspx
0.9.1 update
Just a quick note that there was a small bug in the application that showed every day as being the "evening" that snuck in at the last second. It is fixed in the 0.9.1 update.
Well, it's a good start. Only problem is, I've been spoiled by other weather applications. So, here's the things that have me using Snowstorm instead:
- Widget
- Auto-update the city based on the phone's current location (aka, automatically picks the city)
Okay, so it's just two things. Great work otherwise though, I'll definitely be keeping an eye up for this app in the future.
Thanks for the feedback. I have been thinking about adding multiple city support for travellers, also the ability to choose a couple of "favourite" cities for commuters.
I have a question about the widget: what would you like a widget to show? A widget that shows the current weather is pretty useless normally (if it's raining, it's raining, if it's sunny, it's sunny). Should it show the current weather and the weather forecast for the evening? Current/Tomorrow? Current/evening/tomorrow?
Thanks for the feedback,
Emilie
Hello, I've downloaded and took at look at your app, and I have a few suggestions for improvement. If you'd like to hear me out.
Like Spaceboy said include that and my suggestions:
- Widget (Take a look at "beautiful widgets" weather widget, or the Hero's Weather Widget, where it has a nice animation for clouds/sun/rain/temperature)
- Also can you add a Celsius/Fahrenheit switch
- If you look at weatherbug, it allows you to put the temperature into the taskbar at the top of the android, just a simple 26°
- Also from weatherbug if you were to pull the application bar down it would give more detail on the weather in a simple row.
- Auto-update the city based on the phone's current location
Huh, guessed I should've specified what should be in the widget eh?
From what I want and from what I see in other apps, here's what a good widget needs.
- minimal battery usage
- does not slow down the phone
- able to choose update rate (every 15 min, 30 min, hour, etc)
- updates your location automatically based on network location
- either displays the current weather in a 1x1 widget (useful to people work indoors) or the expected weather for the day (good for mornings)
- for multiple size widgets, displays the short-term forecast (weather for the morning/afternoon/evening/night for today day and tomorrow) or the long-term forecast (daily weather for the next few days)
- clicking the widget should open detailed view, (or your app to the right screen)
- some people like different skins, I'll settle for the ability to change font colour
That's about it off the top of my head. Hope it helps.
if you dont mind me asking... where does the Em come from?
Thanks again for the feedback. I am excited people are using the app! I do all the time and I love it.
I added the features you all have mentioned and the ones I am thinking about to the Issues tracker on the homepage. Please feel free to add others or comment on these ones.
I am a little swamped with school and work right now but I wanted to make sure I articulated all the features and bugs so that I can add one of them now and then when I have a few hours to spare.
Thanks!
ps. Em comes from the EM-pathy I feel for all those poor suckers reading weather feeds from weather.com and getting rained on when the forecast says sunny! Just kidding, it's from my name
I don't suppose you plan on posting up the sources? =D
I'll add what I can to the issues. Have fun with classes.
Actually, the (gpl3) source is available on the project page (use SVN).
For some reason, the last update (0.9.2) didn't seem to commit all the changes properly but the sources should be at least 0.9.1.
em
Hey, I appreciate your work on the app. My only issue is that the most important information to me is the 'feels like' temperature, which only seems to be tracked by the Weather Channel. I don't care what the 'real' temperature is, I care what it feels like. So I guess I'm stuck with the 'Weather Channel' app for the time being. It sucks, because I really like the layout of your app - it's just that you draw your weather information from Environment Canada, which doesn't track 'feels like'.
Finally
It's about time someone decided to use the Weather Office for Canadian weather information.
Currently I just had a browser shortcut on my desktop to my local city weather. This app has the same information I want formatted for my screen.
Thank you!
Suggestion - I like the familiar look and feel of the weatheroffice.gc.ca website. Current weather as the top strip with extra information (wind chill, tendency, ect..) Then just basic weather boxes with the POP info.
Personally I don't care for fancy graphics and eye candy. I just want the information in an easily readable format.
WeatherEye
Try Weathereye. Feeds from www.theweathernetwork.com Just as the TV channel.
widgets and customization
EmWeather now includes widgets and basic theming options!
EmWeather Project Page
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DrSpaceman said:
Hey, I appreciate your work on the app. My only issue is that the most important information to me is the 'feels like' temperature, which only seems to be tracked by the Weather Channel. I don't care what the 'real' temperature is, I care what it feels like. So I guess I'm stuck with the 'Weather Channel' app for the time being. It sucks, because I really like the layout of your app - it's just that you draw your weather information from Environment Canada, which doesn't track 'feels like'.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I'm glad you like the app. Environment Canada does provide an index that it calls "comfort". For example, on a day that is 18 degrees but feels a little chilly out, environment canada will say "comfort: cool". It is very accurate and it is already included in EmWeather.
I find that the weather channel feeds are basically useless for Canada, or at least for Montreal, certainly for forecast info but also for current conditions. For example, if it's rainy and cold outside and the weather channel says "mostly cloudy and feels like 17c", it's totally useless information
In the future, probably in the next 6 months, I am hoping to be able to add some other weather feed sources. If I can included the weatherchannel feeds, it will include this information.
7Dialer, which was initially released in March was temporarily discontinued, but is now back and reloaded for Mango!
Description
7dialer allows to quickly call any of your contacts. No need to dive into the default contacts hub to find a contact, simply launch this app and use its intelligent keyboard with predictive search to get the contact you want to call, sms or email. Saves you a lot of time!
On second tab it features a people wall where you can pin any contact for even quicker access. This wall has many different layouts you can navigate through and setup.
It has some other fun features such as customizable dial tones and breathing effect for the tiles on the people wall.
You can also change the live tile to show a collage of your favorite contacts.
Features
Smart dialing/filtering either with number pad or characters pad
Option to call, SMS or email
"Call later" reminders
Pin contacts as Live Tiles to start screen, as a to-do related to a contact
Fullscreen People wall (aka favorites) with customizable layouts
Dial tone sounds
Breathing effect for contact tiles
Live tile display options
Copy & paste
Customizable and automatic dialing prefixes
Call history (outboud)
Option to add/edit contacts
Date on system tray bar
Automatic contacts sync
Quick voice mail shortcut
Custom background image for dialpad
Localized to: English, Spanish, Russian.
Official site: http://7dialer.jdbpocketware.com
Full version:
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Free version:
cool but in the free ver, sync took me more than 10 sec ... and not all contact will be shown also
Hi, it will only sync contacts having phone numbers or email. Can you confirm that?
pckshd said:
Hi, it will only sync contacts having phone numbers or email. Can you confirm that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after 5 min only 5 contacts with alphabet A are sync ... no more that that ...
Ok, maybe is this... When you only type "a" it will only list names starting with "a". If you type "ab" or more, then it will show all having "ab" at any part of the name. Its done for better performance.
But 5 minutes its a lot. How many contacts you have? linked to which accounts?
hi, interesting app, but on my LG Optimus 7 with mango, the app just hangs during the sync process, after 10 minutes i just hit the cancel, the app only managed to get around 10-15 contacts with the letter A
pckshd said:
Ok, maybe is this... When you only type "a" it will only list names starting with "a". If you type "ab" or more, then it will show all having "ab" at any part of the name. Its done for better performance.
But 5 minutes its a lot. How many contacts you have? linked to which accounts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it only captures the contacts with the letter a only no other than that .. i have more then 100 contacts linked to the acc
Debug XAP
Thanks all for taking the time, you will get a free license when fixed and ready.
I have uploaded a debug XAP here with error detection enabled:
http://jdb.userecho.com/topic/59720-7dialer-problem-syncing-contacts/
Once an error, it will launch an email form with the error message, but it would be better if you could manage to copy and paste it on the thread above(or here).
pckshd said:
Thanks all for taking the time, you will get a free license when fixed and ready.
I have uploaded a debug XAP here with error detection enabled:
http://jdb.userecho.com/topic/59720-7dialer-problem-syncing-contacts/
Once an error, it will launch an email form with the error message, but it would be better if you could manage to copy and paste it on the thread above(or here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, here we go:
2.0.0.0
NullReferenceException
at smartdialer.App.Contacts_SearchCompleted(Object sender, ContactsSearchEventArgs e)
at Microsoft.Phone.UserData.Contacts.OnSearchCompleted(Object e)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.InternalInvoke(RuntimeMethodInfo rtmi, Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean isBinderDefault, Assembly caller, Boolean verifyAccess, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.InternalInvoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
at System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke(Object obj, Object[] parameters)
at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeOne(Object[] args)
at System.MulticastDelegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args)
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Dispatch(DispatcherPriority priority)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.OnInvoke(Object context)
at System.Windows.Hosting.CallbackCookie.Invoke(Object[] args)
at System.Windows.RuntimeHost.ManagedHost.InvokeDelegate(IntPtr pHandle, Int32 nParamCount, ScriptParam[] pParams, ScriptParam& pResult)
Thats the output i get
Nice concept , I am using the debug .xap so I sent you an email already , it did load right about to 10 seconds and got error, before that it just hung on the sync , hopefully you find out the problems , this app looks very interesting!
OMG, interesting app, but on my HTC-HD7 with mango, the app just hangs during the sync process, after 10 minutes i just hit the cancel, the app only managed to get around 10-15 contacts with the letter A
Ok. Files have been updated. Please re-download. Fixes freezing when having contacts with no name.
http://jdb.userecho.com/topic/59720-7dialer-problem-syncing-contacts/
If any additional issues or feature requests, feel free to file them at: http://jdb.userecho.com/list/8442-ideas-bugs/?category=1511
Regards
The app certainly looks promissing. Couple of glitches/inconsistencies that I noticed.
You can't add second number of a contact to the quick dial section if it already contains another number of this contact.
You can't exit the app with back button if you have on-screen qwerty keyboard opened. You can by pushing windows button, otherwise you need to switch to numeric keypad first.
Opened contact doesn't always have all the numbers/email addresses listed. It looks as if max 4 lines can be displayed within contact (no scroll).
The keypress sounds included, albeit interesting, are not very business like. Perhaps regulard "tap" sound should be there as well (like the one stock keyboard has).
Perhaps there should be an option to only display contacts with phone numbers.
And perhaps an option to not display contact pictures. I'm not sure if this would increase app/search speed but would certainly give more space for displaying numbers & email addresses when the contact is opened (without need to scroll).
Are you planning to have search for some other (non-latin) alphabets enabled at some point pckshd? I'd purchase the app should it support search by Cyrillic letters.
@rubbish, thanks, yes some functionality is limited and will come through version updates.
Btw to add a different number to People wall you first need to remove the old one (while on the edit screen, click on it to remove).
Other characters will be added once we have localization with help of translators.
I have uploaded 2.0.0.1 with some fixes:
Fixed back navigation when using abc pad
Added standard 'tap' sound
Fixed menu bar hidden after changing wall layout
Fixed some contacts getting lost when changing to a layout with fewer slots
I can't sync contacts
works just fine .... really like the dialer
i found out the live tiles not working after a while ... if put more than 2 tiles in my case
smart dialing allows you to look for letters in the contact name,,,,can it allow you to look for numbers too (example: if i click 010 it would pull all contacts that have 010 in start or middle of their phone number)?
also i can not get live tile to work...after i add "people" and change the settings it creates a tile with contact photos but its not moving, flipping..etc
thanks
Hi, it does search by phone number but only for numbers starting with the search pattern. But looks like there is a current problem with the ones starting with zero.
About the live tile, we still haven't determined how could animations impact on battery live so for now its static only.
There is another live tile related feature we will be including soon.
Version 2.0.2 improves sync speed a bit and prevent some crashes.
(Updated attachment on initial post or here)
New Version 2.0.2 is working fine no sync issue
working fine in My HD2 Mango 7.5
Name: Tile Master
14-in-1 for the price of just one! Unlimited free access to Connection Settings and Website tiles in trial version!
Tile Master app allows you to create 14 tile types. They are all beautifully designed and you can customize them as you like. Every tile can be pinned to Start screen of your phone or to the Virtual Start screen (inside Tile Master app), so that your Start screen is not too crowded. You can create multiple tiles of the same type.
Connection Settings tile: direct access to WiFi, Cellular, Bluetooth and AirplainMode settings with current status
Website tile: opens your favorite website, you can download favicon to customize the appearance
Note tile: write yourself a not on the Start screen with full customization of colors, fonts and sizes
To Do tile: shows list of tasks and reminds you to complete them every time you look at your phone
Flashlight tile: uses phone's camera flash, display or both to provide constant light
Wake-On-LAN tile: allows you to wake up a computer remotely
Countdown tile: counts down/up to/from any important date you choose
Quote tile: quote of the day on your start screen every day. Choose between general, love, art, funny and nature quotes
Picasa tile: downloads thumbnails from Picasa Featured album. You can download full sized photo and use it as a wallpaper
Search Marketplace tile: search marketplace with predefined query
Search Web tile: search with your favorite search engine is just one tap away
Dialer tile: dial a phone number directly, without going through a contact detail
Email tile: send a predefined e-mail with just one tap
SMS tile: send a predefined SMS with just one tap
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Do the tiles stay live?
Good app, but let me ask you something, Is it system rule that this aplication cannot make real IE shortcuts on the main page? This is the second app I saw it, when I tap on the internet page shortcut, first black screen for few seconds appears, and after that the page is opened in the IE. Is impossible to make it without black screen? Thanks
sinister1 said:
Do the tiles stay live?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean, but it depends on the tile type.
Connection settings tile will show current status of WiFi and Cellular if you switch them through this tile (bluetooth and airplain mode do not show status because status is not available for developers).
Countdown, Quote and Picasa tiles are updated through background agent so they are live.
All other tiles are static because of the nature of those tile types.
VNavratil said:
Good app, but let me ask you something, Is it system rule that this aplication cannot make real IE shortcuts on the main page? This is the second app I saw it, when I tap on the internet page shortcut, first black screen for few seconds appears, and after that the page is opened in the IE. Is impossible to make it without black screen? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately it is not possible. This is what happens behind the scenes when you tap on "IE shortcut" that is created by custom application:
1. Custom application is opened (that's where the black screen comes from)
2. Application calls what Microsoft named "web browser task" and that is when page is opened.
There is no other way to open a web page from custom application.
Since opening an application takes a few seconds (even if it is completely empty) that is where delay comes from.
Hey, just want to let you know, I bought your app. Works great so far - really like some of the tile styles you've come up with, especially the "To Do" and "Note" types.
Good work!
Although I got some really nice comments on my mail for this app, I am also getting some bad reviews. Very often people say it is useless. I don't think it is useless but I need someone who does think so to post a detailed explanation why is that so. Maybe trial version does not show the real value of this app, but I need more details because "it is useless" just doesn't give me enough info to understand it.
So if you think it is useless please post why do you think so.
amaric said:
Although I got some really nice comments on my mail for this app, I am also getting some bad reviews. Very often people say it is useless. I don't think it is useless but I need someone who does think so to post a detailed explanation why is that so. Maybe trial version does not show the real value of this app, but I need more details because "it is useless" just doesn't give me enough info to understand it.
So if you think it is useless please post why do you think so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I think I figured this one. These are the two main reasons:
1. People often think this app replaces original Start screen so they just want to show their disappointment. Well this is not possible even for device manufacturers. So, no this is not what this app do. But it does allow you to create some really really nice and useful tiles.
2. There is a problem with the Marketplace which causes paid application to act as a trial or in some cases users can not download application they just bought, they get some error. Microsoft is currently not doing anything about this, but most of the time solution is to reinstall the application. But download of app should be initiated from the phone instead of Zune. Because it seems that is what causes the problem.
A lot of people who bought this app ask me where are their 14 tile types. They can see only four.
Apparently something is not intuitive enough. And that something is horizontal list. So for anyone who can't see more than four tile types it is because you need to scroll horizontally to see them. Otherwise you only see first four.
If anyone had problems with flashlight tile, that is now fixed.
I have the paid version and still do not see more than 4 tile either way i scroll?
Well that was with the 4 that was installed on the virtual start screen. You have to create the tile from the list at the bottom then pin to start or virtual start to see all 14.
Just to avoid confusion...there are 14 tile types (horizontal list on the tile editor page) but you can have more tiles (virtual start or phone start screen) than just 14 because you can create multiple tiles of the same type. Also some tiles types have subtypes (Flashlight - camera, display, both; Connection settings tile - wifi, cellular, bluetooth, airplane mode).
There were some problems with Quote tile (structure of the data source changed) and Website tile (favicon service is down) but that and some other small things are fixed.
My "Crosswords" app from Standalone recently died. No more puzzle downloads from any sources. To my knowledge that was the only crossword app that would run on the NST/G without pieces of the onscreen keyboard disappearing during use (and leaving the lower part of your screen a mess, to boot). @pinguy1982 commented on this in the past, noting that the NookClearScreen app would "fix" the problem. The trouble is, you spend more time "clearing" the screen than entering clues.
I searched through the forum for other possibilities but they all had the same issue. One app, Shortyz, was touted very early in the forum history, but although I managed to find a long list of versions to download and try, none would get past the opening changelog screen. I could not figure this out but eventually checked a logcat and found that a funny encoding method was being used by the app (Cp1252). I could only find this once in all the smali files after taking the app apart and a little sleuthing (with confirmation from @Renate) suggested that I might just replace that with "utf-8" or even "iso-8859-1". I tried that and voilà! Very weird. Perhaps early firmwares for the NST had the capability to deal with Cp1252. But this solved the problem and Shortyz worked! It even downloaded some puzzles!
Shortyz is da bomb
But it's not perfect. It, too, has a soft keyboard that plays a vanishing act and leaves your screen messed up. Here's what the screen looks like before you use the keyboard:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
And here is what it looks like after filling in the first clue (and I had to guess at some buttons which disappeared as groups!):
BUT, there is a setting to use the "native" (i.e., stock or currently installed) keyboard! Yay! The theme may not match and you may lose some extra navigational keys, but it works.
Of all the versions that would run on Eclair, I picked the one with the most working downloads. There may be minor issues which were fixed later on (I'm sure I'll either hear about them or discover them myself), but this seemed a good place to start. Of course, eventually the downloads will fail. The fact that they still work is actually shocking given the state of the SSL on the device. Still, this story does not end like my late, great "Crosswords" app, and this is where Shortyz "stands alone" (just a tiny pun there):
As long as there are .puz files out there somewhere, Shortyz will continue to work for you because it is, in essence, an Android Across Lite player. All you have to do is download a .puz file on your own (some sources to follow), place it in the folder /sdcard/crosswords, and Shortyz will do the rest. So thank you, Robert Cooper, wherever you are!
What I did
While I had the app decompiled I tried to do a little modifying. Here's a quick list:
1. Change character encoding from Cp1252 to iso-8859-1
(note, there is not a direct correspondence of all characters, so some punctuation in puzzle titles or clues does not always display properly--like the apostrophe; same result with utf-8)
2. Change all "help" screens to black text on white background
3. Change puzzle listing to black text on white background
(recurring theme: I do not like white text on a black background for the NST/G)
4. Uncheck non-working puzzles for download
What I wanted to do, but could not
1. Force keyboard choice to system default (I made the change in the preferences xml but the app ignores it--you must set this yourself, but only once)
2. Change other white text/black background instances (layouts strongly influenced by smali actions proved too much of a challenge for my modest talents)
Things to know
1. The help screens are context driven, so there is probably a help screen for each different view. Status-bar menu button, bottom of screen "Help".
2. Very little is gained by running the app full-screen as you need the back and menu buttons now and then (see #1) and this places the clue bar right up against the bezel (in portrait) which can make it harder to read and access.
3. This must be somewhere but it's worth mentioning anyway: a tap on the clue bar at the top of the screen opens a listing of clues, both Across and Down. The back arrow, twice, returns you to the main play view.
4. The most important context menu, IMO, is found by long pressing on the play view (the grid). There you can increase the size of the clue in the top bar (large!) and change the zoom size.
5. Navigational settings may not work with all keyboards. The back and forward arrows on the stock keyboard work, but only to the end of a line. You must tap on a new line to proceed to the next clue. Directional arrows in my usual keyboard (AIType) had no effect. Your mileage may vary.
6. The view in landscape is significantly different:
More clues always visible but more panning is required on the play grid.
7. Do not try to use the "force keyboard" visibility setting. It makes it nearly impossible to exit the app, and if you manage to get out, the keyboard is still there, no matter where you go!
8. If you add puzzles of your own, they will be placed under the date when you added them, so there's no point in renaming the file excessively. You can rename to clean up the display (the file name will be the display name in the list).
Installing and setting up
Download the modded app from below and install as you would any other app. If you are connected to WiFi when you first start the app it will download the puzzles for that day while you peruse the changelog. Puzzle downloads that still work are:
Mon-Sat--LA Times, Newsday, USA Today, Universal
Sun--Newsday, Universal
This is the only version for Eclair that gets the daily LA Times. Additional sources below.
After you dismiss the changelog if the app closes, open it again and you will see the puzzle listing. Tap on the status bar "menu" button and go to Settings. "Select Puzzle Settings" is effectively useless. Nothing works there except what I listed above. Checking anything else will just waste bandwidth. "Application Settings" contains some stuff which may suit the way you use the app in terms of moving around on the screen or having the play grid move by itself. I haven't done a lot of testing there. Some keyboard effects may or may not work with the stock or your favorite keyboard. You just have to try.
Keep scrolling down the list of settings until you find "Keyboard Style" (just about at the end). Tap that and select "Native". Exit Settings and return to the puzzle listing. Have fun!
Additional .puz sources
I am not claiming this list is exhaustive. Unfortunately a lot of the quicker and smaller puzzles like Joseph and Sheffer are now obscured behind real-time player applications and can't be downloaded by mere mortals. Such puzzles must be "scraped" from the host sites and fixing this sort of thing is not within my realm of expertise. However, here are a few additional sources for puzzles that once could be downloaded using Shortyz (and might be again in a current version):
Jonesin' (Thursdays) [archive] 2022 through 2014 (change year digits in URL)
Universal Daily Crossword (Daily) [archive] 2022 through 2019 (change year digits in URL)
Chronicle of Higher Education (Fridays--now dead) [archive] 2020 and 2019 (change year digits in URL)
Wall Street Journal (Monday-Saturday) [archive] 2022 through 2014 (change year digits in URL)
*Washington Post (Sunday magazine, Evan Birnholz) [archive] 2022 and 2021 (change year digits in URL)
*these are what Shortyz calls "large format" puzzles and may present additional panning challenges on the NST/G screen
I have tried downloading some of these directly on the NST/G with Opera Mini and have been successful. They can go straight to the /sdcard/crosswords folder. A quick file rename and you're good to go!
I've extracted the puzzles from the Nook Color crossword app which, while it installs and "runs" on the NST, isn't really useful since some of the grid is always obscured by the keyboard and there is no way to change the zoom or to pan.
The puzzles are from the NY Sun, ca. 2000. There are four categories:
Easy (50)
Medium (50)
Hard (39)
Themeless (50)
Oddly, the puzzles were saved with the grid completely filled in, so I installed an Across Lite player on my PC, opened each file, cleared the grid and resaved.
Attached below. Enjoy!
EBookDroid 1.5.7 (nivieru MOD) is a reader for PDFs, DjVU, CBZ, CBR and some other less common formats (not ebooks like epub or mobi--not in this older version anyway). As demonstrated by @ALinkToTao, it has one of the best text/background contrast ratios of the common PDF readers that work on the NST/G. It is particularly good for PDF texts in landscape mode where it can be set for continuous vertical scroll. In conjunction with NoRefresh mode this makes for a comfortable reading of books in PDF format without messy reflowing.
That said, page rendering is sometimes slow and you may arrive at a page to find a white screen until the device catches up with you. It's not as bad as it sounds for a PDF book, but it's not as fluid as something like PerfectViewer, for example. I hasten to add that there are many, many arcane rendering settings which I do not understand and which might actually improve performance significantly. I just use things more or less at default levels.
A quick comparison of version 1.5.7 on the developer's Google Code archive reveals that some theming adjustment was done by @nivieru along with the contrast adjustment. After using the app for some years I feel there are still too many visual distractions in the settings in the form of missing text and murky/muddy backgrounds behind black text. I've spent some time with the app trying to clean things up.
What I did
1. Changed the ancient app icon to the current EBookDroid icon.
2. Went through the various menus and dialog boxes to make sure all the text that is supposed to be there (and even functional icons) is actually visible.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
3. Went through various menu/settings options and forced all backgrounds to white and text to black.
4. Changed the colors in the overlay for tap setup to shades of grey. You can actually see now that there are 4 tap zones (two of which overlap). That may not sound like much, I guess, but you have three options with each zone (which you can now read) so I guess that's like 12 zones, assuming you can remember what is a single, double or two-finger tap...
Edit: I spoke too soon. See Spoiler below for more information on the tap zones.
Spoiler: More than you ever wanted to know about Tap Zones
I've discovered there is more to the tap zones than meets the eye AND that they are a pain to sort out.
1. First, although it seems you can delete a zone as one option when you have tapped on it to set it up, you actually can't. You are dumped back at the Bookshelf screen if you try. There is a way to delete tap zones, although maybe not the 4 default ones (my results have not been consistent). The only way I have found to do this is to edit the file /data/data/org.ebookdroid/shared_prefs/org.ebookdroid_preferences.xml
Copy the file to another location for editing. Find the field <string name="tapprofiles">. You can probably just parse out the format of the entries, but although it may be possible to edit at this level, I just prefer to wipe out the entire entry until you get to </string>. Then save the modified file and copy it back to where it came from, overwriting the existing file. If you do this all on the NST/G you won't have to worry about permissions. If you edit off the device and copy it back to the device, be sure the file permissions are rw-rw-
2. Second, the coordinate system used to describe the zones. The overlay screen is a 10x10 grid. The origin (0,0) is the upper left corner. So the default zone at the top of the screen is described as 0,0-100,10 (x1,y1-x2,y2). Just FYI.
3. Third, you can add tap zones, although you may be adding overlays if you can't delete the default four zones. However, they seem to work. To add a zone, place your finger on the zone overlay grid where you want the zone to start, and drag it to where you want it to stop. You should notice some highlighting. That's it! Unfortunately as disclosed in #1, removing the zone seems to be very difficult, unless you remove them all.
4. At least in my experience, setting the zones up seems very squirrely. My most consistent results were obtained making only one change at a time. Use the "Clear" option before selecting a new or different action (even if that action is "None"), then return to the document before making another change. You may find that you need to close the document and return to the bookshelf before setting another zone.
Installation
Unfortunately if you have a current EBookDroid installation you will need to remove it because the signature has changed. First do a backup of your configuration because the /sdcard/.org.ebookdroid folder is not removed during uninstall and that's where the backup file lives. Then you can read in your configuration after installing the MOD.
Modded apk file attached below.
@nmyshkin You the man!!
I'll be implementing this app ASAP. Thank you so much!