Virgin Australia Usage Meter

Virgin Australia Usage Meter downloads your call and data usage directly from the Virgin website and displays it in either an application format or a home screen widget. It also contains optional notifications that warn you when you're approaching the end of your cycle or data/call limit.

The must have app for those running Android on the Virgin network.

Change Notes for 3.2.2:

• Fixed login issues

Current version 3.2.2

Alternate Mirror: Download Here

Troubleshooting Notes:

• The data from Virgin can be up to 48 hours behind. Although in my experience it's never been this far behind.
• Virgin can take up to to 48 hours to completely setup new accounts, until this time the app may not work.
• If you are receiving 0 days remaining and you have a new account, you may have to wait up until your first bill for this to be corrected. This is a problem with Virgins expiry date data.
• You cannot downgrade, to install a lower version you must fully uninstall and re-install.

A Little Teaser

There hasn't been as many updates to the Virgin Usage Meter as I would have liked in the last few months. With a new job and a few other projects I've been pressed for time. Well no more, I'm wiping the agenda list so I can put some good hard hours into bring some much needed improvements to the Virgin Usage Meter.

So what is it you can expect in the next couple of months? Well here is a small list of the most important ones.

• New 2 x 1 customizable widget with 3 different views
• Auto updating that is no longer be tied to the widget
• Historical usage statistics
• Better prepaid support
• Multiple account support
• Rollover account support
• A few other bits a pieces

I can't promise you'll see all the above in the next release but they will appear throughout the next three or four updates.

Virgin System Upgrade

Virgin has notified users via it's members page that it will be doing a systems upgrade from the 19th of February 2011 to the 21st of February 2011. Some of you will recall that Virgin had scheduled the system upgrade for a little under a month ago but was delayed for unknown reasons. Obviously the Virgin Usage Meter won't work during this time. What is worse is that I don't know exactly what a "systems upgrade" for Virgin intails. If it is a website upgrade it's almost certain that my app will no longer work and I will need to release a fix. Depending on how much the webpage changes it could take a day to release a fix to a couple of weeks if they use delayed ajax calls.

I will be releasing an update for the app which will warn people of this and to avoid a market rating plummet I will be removing it from the market over the upgrade period. I hate to do this as it feels like I've left people in the lurch but the alternative is a 1 star rating that will be next to impossible to get back.

I appreciate your patience over this period and I want you all to know that I will be working hard to get a fix up as soon as I possibly can. I will amend and comment on this post when I have any further information on the upgrade itself or the progress on an app fix.

Virgin Prepaid Connection Problem Update

Thanks to help from an extremely helpful Whirlpooler named Saeko, I have managed to track down a few bugs and find a work around to the connection problems that were plaguing Virgin prepaid users. The Virgin Usage Meter should now work for prepaid accounts once again. If this is not the case please let me know by either comment or email.

Thank you for all of your understanding and patience.

I repeat, the Virgin Usage Meter is working for prepaid accounts once again!

Virgin Prepaid Connection Problem

Virgin is currently having HTTPS connection issues with prepaid accounts that are using the VirginInternet APN. Due to the Virgin Usage Meter using HTTPS for security, it it's not currently working for prepaid accounts. In some cases it could also be causing phones to freeze.

Until further notice it's recommended that you remove the widget and not refresh the data if you have a prepaid account.

I will update this post as more information comes in.

Update: 12/11/2010

It doesn't look like Virgin will be able to fix this quickly, so I'm looking into a work around. It will take some time so please bare with me I'm working as fast as I can.

Priority Inbox for Android and Hot Rebooting

Google have released an upgraded gmail app which gives Android users access to priority inbox as well as some other new features. For those of you wondering what priority inbox is, briefly it's a feature which organises your inbox based on the perceived importance of an email using a few different criteria. Apparently it has a learning ability so it gets more accurate over time. You can read more about it here. The new update can be found on the market.

A quick note for those of you using a custom ROM. If you receive an update unsuccessful message, you may need to un-install gmail first using titanium backup, adb, or terminal emulator. Make sure you reboot if un-installing from titanium backup.

The next app of interest is Hot Reboot by appelflap over at XDA-Developers. This gem of a utility speeds up the reboot time by leaving the kernel active and just rebooting the shell. In doing this the shell, apps, and running services are killed off leaving your phone in fresh state in about half the time of a full reboot. There will still be times when you need to do a full reboot but for most issues you should be back up and running much quicker.

You can get Hot Reboot from here

Virgin Usage Meter Bug Submission

I've been writing a lot of bug replies lately, and most of them are pretty much carbon copies of each other describing what information I need in order to diagnose the problem.

In order to speed up the turn around of bug submissions I think it will be more efficient if I list some details here on describing what I need. That way I get all the information I need up front.

Things to include in your email:

• A description of the bug

For postpaid accounts

• A copy of your Bill Preview page (Save file as HTML)
• A copy of your Mobile Internet Usage page (Save file as HTML)

For prepaid accounts

• A copy of your Mobile Internet Usage page (Save file as HTML)
• A copy of your Recharge History page (Save file as HTML)

Important: All data sent to me is private and confidential and will destroyed at the earliest time possible. Please note that I cannot extract passwords from any of the above files and will not abuse or share any of the data I receive.

Virgin Usage Meter Update

This is just a quick update to let you all know that the new theme is finished and pretty much ready to go. The changes were unfortunately much deeper than expected so much of the code base has undergone considerable change. Hopefully I will get the update onto the market by Friday, unless any new bugs arise.