StreetView in Android

As part of the 4.4 Play Store Services release Google has extended the Maps API to include Native StreetView. I’m super excited about this, in fact I would go so far as to say that if your app has a map it needs StreetView! I know that’s a big claim and the reason I make this claim is that while a map is great at showing a user where a landmark is and how to get from one point to another, it does a very bad job of showing you what to expect when you get there. This, of course, is where StreetView excels!  Providing users access to StreetView as part of your maps solution not only gives your users the ability to see what the landmark looks like before they get there, but also what landmarks surround it, what type of road it’s on, whether or not it has curb side parking available, etc, etc. The best part about it is that StreetView can be embedded inside your app with very little effort.

So let us begin! In this tutorial we’ll  be using the SupportStreetViewPanoramaFragment to create a self contained fragment that takes a set of longitude and latitude coordinates, positions you at the street near your coordinates, and points you in the direction of your coordinates.

Setup

As with all my tutorials I’m going to assume you’re using Android Studio, or at least using the Gradle build system. The first step is to setup Google Play Services Maps, now I could take you through each step but Google already has done this better than I could have. You can find Googles setup page here

You’re back, great, now open up the Android SDK manager and ensure you have the latest version of Play Service and ensure you have added the latest version as a dependency and we’re ready to begin!

Implementation

The first thing we’ll do is create a new SupportFragment called StreetViewFragment that extends the SupportStreetViewPanoramaFragment, this will allow us to keep all custom StreetView logic inside our fragment class. While we’re at it we’ll create a newInstance method that take a set of latitude and longitude coordinates and returns a new instance of the StreetViewFragment.

The newInstance methods is fairly simple, it stores the geo coordinates in the fragment arguments for use later, and returns a new StreetViewFragment instance.

The next step is to override the onCreateView so we can start to setup and position the StreetView camera.



Just a quick note on positioning the StreetView panorama, while this might be obvious the position of your panorama will not be the location you pass in but the closes road side position. What’s not obvious is that the panorama will not point towards your target location, but instead will point to 0 degrees or North. So while the code thus far will position the panorama correctly it will more than likely be pointing the wrong way. In order to fix that we’ll first create a helper method that will tell us the angle between two locations.



Before we can use the above method we need to get the camera location, unfortunately the camera location is not set until after the onCreateView method as been called. Luckily for us we can get the camera location by listening to the onStreetViewPanoramaChange event onCreateView. Just remember to remove the listener unless you want StreetView to point towards your coordinates every time the user moves the camera.

Listening to bluetooth connections

In this quick tutorial I'm going to lead you through creating a BroadcastReceiver that will listening for bluetooth device connections and disconnections.

Permissions

The first though we'll do is add a few permissions in the AndroidManifest, we need both the Bluetooth and the Bluetooth Admin permission for listening to connections/disconnections.

BroadcastReceiver

The next step is to create a BroadcastReceiver that receives ACL_CONNECTED and ACL_DISCONNECTED broadcast actions.

Registration

The last step is to register the BroadcastReceiver in the AndroidManifest so it can start receiving the broadcasts automatically. Alternatively you can handle this by registering the receiver in an Activity or Fragment when needed.

Does the Galaxy S4 deserve the hate

The Galaxy S4 has been copping quite a lot of flack over the last couple of months as higher powered devices are pushed out in time for the christmas rush. I’ve heard the lag word thrown around a bit, as well as sound issues however, I’m always fairly sceptical of peoples opinions, particularly tech people and power users who are renowned for getting caught up in the boredom factor. There’s nothing wrong with that, I fall into the same trap time and time again. After 5 or 6 months with a phone I’m pretty well over it and looking for the next flagship phone to lay my hard earned on. Luckily I work in a great field where I have access to many different mobile devices including the Galaxy S4, so I thought I’d use it for my daily driver and see if it’s deserving of all the hate.

First boot experience

The first thing that sticks out when reaching the Android homescreen for the first time is Samsung’s big push to their own ecosystem. Each screen is full of average looking “samsung content” widgets, and most Google Play services apps are buried in the app drawer. This makes perfect sense, there’s a lot of money to be made for the company that controls the ecosystem. The problem is Samsung’s ecosystem barely a shadow of Google Play.

Another annoyance is the rounded square icons Samsung has enforced. This really gets under my skin, as I know the effort some designers put into their launcher icons, only to be so quickly disregarded by Samsung for the sake of outdated design language.

I think it’s safe to say I really don’t like touchwiz, the fundamental design language just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s glossy, outdated, and chock full of skeuomorphic design. It feels like a bridge for transitioning iOS 6 users who aren’t quite yet ready to shrug off the chains of the past and take on a real Android experience. I can really see why Apple wasn’t overly impressed with how close Samsung has flown to pre iOS 7 design language.

Customisation required

There are many things I love about Android, but in the case of the Galaxy S4 there’s none better than the ease of dropping in a new launcher. My launcher of choice is the “Google Experience Launcher” (GEL) found on the Nexus 5. It has Google Now built in, and doesn’t play with the launcher icons. Not only that it offers some nice extra features over the standard launcher without losing the look and feel of Android.

I also switched the keyboard out, this isn’t the fault of Samsung. Keyboards are a very personal thing, some people swear by Swiftkey, others Swype, I’m definitely a standard Google Keyboard guy. I’m sure I could have gotten used to the default keyboard, but I didn’t have the interest or the time.

Screen

The screen on the Galaxy S4 I found was way over saturated, which seems to be a AMOLED traite, however after setting the screen to movie mode it was much more color accurate and didn’t tire my eyes as much. The screen itself is very sharp at 441 ppi, and outdoor usage was acceptable. Even though the screen isn’t Super AMOLED Plus, meaning it uses pentile matrix arrangement, there wasn’t any noticeable banding throughout the range of brightness levels.

Camera

The camera on the Galaxy S4 is quite good, again it’s not DSLR quality but in good lightly it creates vibrant snaps. Even in low light the photo quality was surprisingly good, there was definitely noise in the photo but nothing unacceptable. The autofocus is fast and accurate, and the camera app is feature packed with some useful and interesting modes. Some features take a bit of setup and probably too much foresight to be useful aka the eraser mode which removes background people.

Sound quality

Normally the phone speaker quality wouldn’t get a mention, however ever since HTC launched the HTC One with boom sound I’ve become a little more interested. Unfortunately it feels like Samsung didn’t even try in this department. The speaker internal speaker is weak, tinny and overall horrible. Though it’s probably not an issue for most, as those that care have the HTC One already, it is a pretty pathetic speaker.

Headphones are another story, when listening to music through the Galaxy S4 bass appeared to have a little more punch and crispness than my beloved Nexus 5 through the same headphones, and the highs and mids seem to have more “clarity”. I suspect this has a fair bit to do with the equalizer curve in use rather than the hardware itself, and could most likely be replicated through an equalizer app. Out of the box though the Galaxy S4 has a pleasing balanced sound.

I have heard and read a lot of complaints about sound quality with Google Play music, I used All Access heavily throughout my time with the phone and noticed no issues in any of the music I listened too. The phone was factory reset prior to me using it so maybe that played some part.

Performance

The overall performance was a bit luck-luster to be honest, there was a lot of random lag, and jenkiness in places that lesser phones (in hardware and cost) ran quite fine. I don’t it’s fair to blame the Snapdragon 600 either, while it’s not as fast as the Snapdragon 800 there are other phones running the same platform with out the jenk. I have a feeling that touchwiz isn’t as efficient as it probably could be and that Samsung is just trying to do too much with all it’s extra features.

Overall

Overall I think Galaxy S4 is quite a good phone with a great screen and a feature packed camera. I’d pull up short of saying it’s a great phone though, it’s full of half baked features, and average quality bloatware that noticeably slow down the phone. Then there's the issue of it running TouchWiz, a UI that is in desperate need of a make over and a good performance tune. As such I couldn’t and wouldn’t recommend it to anybody I knew. The bottom line is there are better phones to be had at the same cost point like the HTC One, or below it like the Nexus 5 or Moto X.

Virgin Usage Meter - An end is a new beginning

The Virgin Usage Meter has always been my favourite app, it taught me a lot about Android Development, but even more so about people. Virgin Usage Meter started out as a small app I wrote for myself which was never intended for release, in fact it wasn't until I saw a thread on Whirlpool requesting somebody write one, 3 months later, that I started to entertain the idea of releasing the app. After a few beta tests by the kind people in the Whirlpool thread I released the app which, for an app on the play store at that time, became a quick success. Within the first few days I had 1000 active users shooting past my very low expectations and steady growth over three years saw me topping 92000. Even more remarkable was that the app never dropped lower than a 4.5 star rating, and had a 5 star rating for the first 18 months.

So what did it teach me about people? It taught me that a very small minority of people expect that every developer owes them 24/7 support, instant fixes and can be incredibly condescending and rude. Luckily and more importantly it taught me that a large majority of people are encouraging, extremely accommodating, will step in to defend you against the above small minority. Even with all the time I spent developing the app, it was the users who shaped it into the app it eventually turned out to be.

Retiring the app wasn't as tough a decision as I thought it might have been. Three years is a long time for a single person to maintain a hobby app, and VMA's constant plan and website changes meant a lot of late night bug fixes and updates. I also started to receive a larger proportion of demanding emails, of which many grew abusive and threatening if I didn't respond within a few hours. So when Virgin approached me to sell the app to them and help rebuild it into an official app with official APIs, I saw a win/win scenario for myself and users and jumped at the opportunity.

I am really very pleased with how My Account turned out, there's a lot of my app lurking in there but with the new API's it's much more reliable and the new polish has made it much easier to use better to look at. It's still early days for My Account and I know Virgin have some great ideas for the future, and I'm happy to still be a part of an app that helped to carve out my career as an Android developer.

Virgin Mobile Australia - My Account

Google IO Day One - Keynote

Google IO kicked off yesterday with the keynote at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. They keynote is always an exciting event with the big names on center stage filling your ears with all the great new and upcoming tech. While this years keynote steered away from hardware and Key-lime Pie it was till jam packed with a tonne of stuff. Here are the bits of the Keynote that I found interesting:

Android Studio

This took me as a bit of a surprise to be honest and quite a good surprise at that. Google is moving from Eclipse to IntelliJ. This is very interesting because b2cloud has just made this transition about two months ago after struggling with Juno for months. With the Android tools team putting it's resources behind intelliJ for Android, some of the weaker aspects to IntelliJ have been improved, namely the Visual Editor. Prior to Google's input the visual editor bordered on horrible to unusual, now it has the multi-screen size comparison Eclipse has.

Galaxy S4 Nexus Edition

I had heard rumors about a Galaxy S4 Nexus Edition prior to the keynote starting, but I was a bit skeptical. Sure enough though, the announcement came. This is very interesting and promising, basically it's opening up the doors for any manufacturer to step up to the plate, put Vanilla Android on their flagship phone and submit it as a Nexus Edition to be purchased on Google Play. I'm hoping the HTC One will follow suite! Come on HTC, the Android community has been waiting for another HTC Nexus devices for a long time!

Translation Services

Google has now integrated translation services into Google Play. This is a paid feature that has string resources submitted to a human or humans who then go through them and translate them. In the keynote they said the turn around was a week.

Beta Testing and Staged Rollouts

The developer console is now letting you manage your beta testing by giving you the ability to setup a beta testing team who will get access to your app. It also allows the user to do a staged rollout of updates by selecting the percentage of users you want to include in the rollout. Staged rollouts are a great way of minimizing the potential impact of a accidental bad release. While as developers we try to ensure that this doesn't occur, sometimes bugs occur and sometimes they occur with disastrous impact. 

Google Music - All Access

Google has entered the music streaming wars, with a fresh new music app, and a $9.99 a month subscription rate ($7.99 if you get in early). I don't think most people will find this interesting as Spotify, MOG and Pandora has a large hold on this market. For me however this is great as I already have a large number of songs uploaded and purchased from Google Music. Unfortunately this service is for the US only, however if you work a bit of Google Plus magic you might be able to access this from other countries, hint hint!

There's much more in the keynote that I wanted to add but these are the big topics that interested me the most. I strongly recommend watching the keynote yourself on youTube

9-patch Transparency Gotcha

This is from a post I put up at b2cloud

Recently I had a project design which required borders around each image displayed. To avoid overdraw I used a 9-patch image resource with a transparent center in which the image would be placed. This would theoretically avoiding overdraw completely. So after a quick session in Photoshop I knocked a 9-patch, turned on “Show Overdraw” on my Dev phone and did a test run.

Not quite the results I was hoping for! If you look very carefully, you will notice that while almost everything is blue (good), there is a thin border of green around each image which signifies overdraw. The obvious place the overdraw could have come from is the content patches along to the bottom and right hand side. If they happened to be too long and overlapped the border then overdrawing would occur. A quick examination of the resource proved that was not the issue, the content images were correct.

Given that the content patches were correct, that only left the stretch patches. That raised the question, What if the stretch patches not only told Android where to stretch the image, but also told it where to stop drawing due to transparency. With that question in mind, I set out to test the theory.

After extending the stretch patches across the entire transparency section I fired up the app once again.

Success!

There you have it, if you’re going to use transparency in 9-patch resources to reduce overdraw be sure that your stretch patches encompass the whole transparent area.

If your interested on more tips for UI performance check out Romain Guys post at curious-creature.org

Nexus 4 Review

I have to admit, when I heard the news that the next Nexus branded phone was going to be be coming from LG I was pretty quick to dismiss it. The last LG phone I had was an old horrible plastic flip phone from Telstra with little to no functionality. Even taking calls was a stretch for it at times! However, I can admit when I'm wrong and boy did LG wipe that nasty little smirk of my grubby little face. They've really done a wonderful job with the Nexus 4. The phone feels amazingly solid in the hand, with the cold touch of the back glass panel adding to that high quality feel. From the front you could be excused for for confusing the Nexus 4 with the Galaxy Nexus, however on closer inspection it becomes immediately clear that they are two very different beasts. The most noticeable difference is that the Nexus 4 has shrugged of that plastic throw away feeling by replacing the flexible back battery cover with a black glass back. The glass back has undergone a Crystal Reflective Process which adds a glitter like effect when the light hits it from the right angle. The glitter effect is quite subtle and is really only seen when you're in direct sun sun or trying to angle the phone the right way to show some body. One issue I have noticed is that the back is quite susceptible to scratching, within my first couple of days I noticed small surface scratches. Not a big deal I suppose but an annoyance none the less.

The screen on the Nexus 4 is a IPS LCD panel, which is a bit of a change compared to the AMOLED based screens found in all previous versions of the Nexus phone line. Like others I found the screen to be a little washed out, however this is more to do with the average calibration and less with the screen quality itself. After rooting my device and installing FauxClock I was able to calibrate the screen to a point where it's comparable in color depth and contrast to that of the iPHone 5. It's a bit of a shame that LG didn't take the time to calibrate the screen a bit better during the manufacturing process. Aside from the calibration issues the screen is really very good. Text is sharp, and blacks are very black for an LCD display. The other thing I really like about the screen is the bevels on the left and right of the screen are small and curved giving the impression that the screen is above the glass and not below it.

The performance is a great improvement over it's older sibling. As much as I love the Galaxy Nexus every so often I would experience UI stutters, particularly if I was installing or updating an app in the background. With the Nexus 4 I haven't noticed this at all, UI animations are fluid and apps that include animations now run extremely well. Even Commonwealth Bank's Kaching app now "almost" preforms at an acceptable level. Saying that I think Kaching would need a quantum processor to function at any reasonable speed, but that's getting off topic.

The camera has also has a much needed bump in quality, it's still not top of the line but it's reasonable a marked improvement on the Galaxy Nexus, and by far the best seen on a Nexus device. Hardware HDR is also a welcome inclusion and performs extremely well. My favorite new feature, while not strictly limited to the Nexus 4, is Photoshere. Photosphere is a 720 degree panorama which is taken by moving the camera to specific places around you. All the different photos taken are then stitched together to form a 3D sphere in which you can move around in using a special Photoshere viewer. Photoshere photos can be shared between other Android devices and in Google Plus which has the ability to display them in 3D. The thing I love the most about Photoshere is the memory emersion, it feels in a small way that you're back in the place the Photoshere was taken all over again. Just a bit of a heads up on Photosheres, while taking them is fairly easy, getting a perfectly stitched Photoshere is a little more difficult, particularly if you're taking it in an environment where things are closer to you. Most of the stitching issues I get is because I've tilted the phone to the side a little and things no longer match up correctly.

The Nexus 4 has a non-removable Battery and while the battery life gets me through the on most days, I do feel a little uncomfortable with being able to carry around a spare battery if I get into a tight spot. This might not be a problem for most, but I'm a fairly heavy user and have been known to drain a full Galaxy Nexus in as little as two and a half hours. For the average user though, I think the battery would see them through the day with a little to spare.

The Good

Looks and feels great

Top quality screen

Fast

Good Camera

Access to early updates

The Bad

Non-removable battery

Stock screen calibration appears washed out

Back panel is prone to scratching

Although the Nexus 4 has its niggles, it's an amazing phone that not only looks great but has the performance to match. This phone does justice to the Nexus name and I personally congratulate LG for proving to the doubters that it has the quality to mix it with the best.

Google+ Events - Lets get into Party Mode

After hearing about Google Plus Events at Google IO and then seeing one in action at the after party I couldn’t to take it for a road test. Every year my partner in crime Maz and I hold a large dinner party in honor of Bastille day. It’s an expensive, stressful, but grand affair that provides the eating of some of the best French food I’ve had the privilege of seeing on a plate. Everybody walks away full, slightly drunk, and unfortunately with all the pictures they’ve taken. And there in lies the problem for which I thought Google Plus Events could fix.

Google Plus Events is an interesting feature of Google Plus which makes events much more social and fun. Events cover the full lifecycle of an event by firstly making it extremely easy to send out invites, and Google Calendar syncing makes guest list management a breeze. Both of these have features have merit on their own however, where Google Plus Events really shines is when users enable party mode. Party mode enables guests to upload any photos taken to the events timeline automatically which combines with social chatter and photo comments to provide a in depth and sometimes hilarious trip down memory lane.

All of this is great in theory but how did Google Events perform when put to the test in an environment where technical support was at a minimum? Well honestly as much as I wanted it all to just work, it wasn’t without issues. Party mode only worked on two out of the five Android devices at the event, and only after completely disabling party mode on the other devices were they able to upload any photos at all. To this day I’m not exactly sure why as one of the devices not working was identical to mine. Then there were those pesky iPhones who didn’t have party mode at all, and had to manually upload images. Which to be honest was less troublesome than Party mode. Luckily the guests were very understanding, in fact it became the highlight of the evening. However, even with all those issues and me running technical support in between mouthfuls of food the end results were great. The social chatter and comments on the photos we actually managed to upload were hilarious and I still laugh whenever I flick through the events timeline.

I think that it is important to mention that at the time of the dinner party Google Events was only just released, and I did expect it to have some issues. Since my this event the Google Plus client has undergone various updates and  improvements, and I’d expect now that things will work more smoothly. I think the bottom line here is that even with all the running around and extra effort the end result was more than worth it.

Nexus 7 Review

The new tablet from Google isn’t an iPad killer, and it’s not meant to be. It’s priced much lower and aimed at a different market. No, this one’s going directly after Amazon and their closed version of Android. Competing against the Kindle Fire is no easy task, it’s extremely low priced and doesn’t have the reputation of the Nexus branding to uphold. Thankfully apart from a few missing features like rear facing camera and expandable storage, Google haven’t sacrificed much to make the price bracket. In fact with the $25 credit on the Google Play Store, I find it hard to imagine Google isn’t taking a hit to the bottom line. Not that taking a hit on the device is a bad idea. The more devices in people’s hands, the larger the boost to the Google Play store purchases. A strategy which game console makers have been using for a long time.

The build quality on the version I have great given the price point. All seams are seated well, the screen is really very good (for the price point), and it feels solid and sturdy. The back has a slight texture which feels rather grippy so having the device slip from your hand shouldn’t be an problem. The one issue I have notices, which may be limited to the Google IO version, is that the back stains quite easy and once it does stain it’s very hard to remove. With the darker backing of the retail version this might not be as big an issue but for me with the white backing it’s plain annoying.

The Nexus 7’s screen, as I said, is pretty damn good. It has a great viewing angle thanks to the IPS screen, the colors are vibrant, and it’s leagues better than any of the first gen Android tablets. There has been a lot of talk on forums of washed out colors and pixelization at some brightness levels. I suspect these are thanks to some poor manufacturing calibration rather than the screens themselves. It’s important to note that I haven’t experienced any of these issues myself but that could be me overlooking small imperfections subconsciously based on the device’s pricing point, and that’s the important aspect here, the price point. It’s unfair to compare the screen of a $250 tablet against that of $500 + tablets, and even when unfairly compared it does admirably well.

The 4325mAh battery paired with the Nexus 7 provides more than enough power to get through a day of heavy usage, and with plenty of standby time this isn’t a device that will need nightly charging for the average user. The best part about this power plant is that it can be easily charged through the same MicroUSB cable we all know and love. No longer do you have to lug around a separate power adapter just for the tablet.

As you can probably tell I’m impressed by Google’s 7 inch offering. It’s a great form factor that is large enough to view most content without a lot of zooming yet small enough to fit easily in one hand. Granted there are a few issues here and there being reported, and some features are missing like expandable memory and a backwards facing camera, but for the price it’s a solid offering with direct Google updates, and performance to spare.

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.

The Android Army, Series Two

After sadly missing out on series 1, I was determined to secure myself a box of Series 2 Android Mini's. So much so that I went to the effort of creating an account with DyzPlastic the night prior to the release so I'd be all ready if they went quickly. I even made sure to juggle my work schedule so I'd be on lunch just before the release.

With that in mind you could probably be forgiven if you thought I'd managed to secure myself a box of this awesome Android goodness... but you'd be dead wrong. That's right, even with the preparation and the shirking of work duties I was still unable to put a purchase through. The DyzPlastic online shop buckled under the pressure and by the time I got an order through there was no more stock. Luckily all was not lost, Mazza came to the rescue with some quick thinking and managed to secure a box from Plastic Heart.

While luck deserted me when purchasing, it was certainly there when opening. I managed to score all but two of the Android designs, both of which will be arriving any day now.

1 Star Rating with Unhelpful Comments

This is a bit (a lot) of a rant so you have been forewarned.

My rant is about people who leave 1 star ratings with unhelpful or untrue comments without attempting to contact the developer. I have noticed this on other peoples apps but have only recently started receiving them. I generally try to ignore them as the comments don't provide anything to work from and I have no way to contact the author for clarification. However a couple of days ago I received a comment from a chap named Paul that went past the stage of ignoring. Apparently Paul has commented on my am that it "Has to be the worst support for a application ever". The problem is Paul has never actually contacted me for support. He even went to the effort to purchase my donate version so he can make the same claims there as well!

Well Paul here are some facts for you, I spend more than an hour a day on average answering clients support emails for an application that is free. That's everyday Paul, every single day. It doesn't matter where I am, at work, dinning out, shopping, I will answer a support email as soon as I see the flashing icon on my phone. Sometimes there may be a lag if I've got a back log or am swamped but I get to each email as quickly as possible. To me they are of the highest priority because there is somebody out there being inconvenienced by something I created. Although you wouldn't know it Paul because you never contacted me.

I admit there are times where I cannot fix the problem on some clients phones. In which case I am continually email them back trying different solutions or asking more questions. Sometimes they get frustrated and stop emailing back which, while I wish they'd continued with support a little while longer, I completely understand if they choose to leave a low rating. What I don't like nor understand is for people to make unhelpful or snide comments with 1 star ratings who have never bothered to seek support.

I put the Virgin Usage Meter on the market for free because I want people to have access to the functionality it provides. It allows me to give to the community which makes me feel good about myself and my work. The problem is when people like Paul leave 1 star ratings with bullshit messages they start to remove that good feeling. If there is no good feeling then I have to ask myself why do I bother at all. Luckly there are many many more people who have left kind and encouraging comments or emails which make that question rather rhetorical. Though the fact I have asked myself that question at all is the most maddening part.

The point of all this is, we as developers pour hours into these apps to give you the functionality you need. All we ask in return is you to show us a bit of decency and let us help you if you're having trouble using our apps. It makes for a much happier ending!

Virgin Usage Meter Tops 10,000 Downloads

A little while ago I wrote an update saying that the Virgin Usage Meter had just broken the 1000 active users mark. Well now I'm ecstatic to say that it has just topped 10,000 total downloads, 10098 to be exact. This is a milestone I never imagined I'd reach let alone in the small time it has been on the market.

Now I know what you're saying, that's a very impressive number but it doesn't really indicate anything of substance. I understand, I mean what's the point of a million downloads if only 100 are actively using it? Well, with that in mind I proudly present the active user count...

75% of downloaders are active users which equates to 7574 active users.

Lets put that number in perspective, I hit 1000 active users in September 28th 2010, which is approximately 5 months ago. Since that time the active user base has grown around 650% in 5 months, that's 130% user base growth per month on average. Now that's some perspective.

Before I sign off I'd like to say the usual thank yous.

A big thank you to all the users, espeically those who stuck through the bugs. I'd also like to say a big thank you to Virgin Australia who have been more than understanding when it comes to my barrage of tweets.

Virgin Members Site Back Online

As most of you probably already know the Virgin Member's Site is back up and running. I would advise people to login to the members area and just make sure all your data is correct. There have been a few people who have missing call and data usage. If you find anything incorrect on your account it'd be great if you could give Virgin a call on their support line and report the problem. The quicker they know about these things the quicker they can fix them.

The other good news is that the app is in perfectly fine shape so I can keep on chugging away at the promised upgrades.

Virgin Members Site Down

As per the title, the Virgin members area is now down for maintenance. If all goes well it should be up on the 22nd around lunch time. Although I have some good news, I fired off a tweet to Virgin Support and they have informed me that it's mainly just a hardware upgrade so hopefully the Virgin Usage Meter shouldn't be effected when the servers come back online, which is great news as I can continue to concentrate on improvements rather than fixes.

Edit:

I have some good news and bad news, the bad news is that the techs over at Virgin are having trouble with the server upgrades and as of yet the servers are still down. I have been told they came online briefly for a short period of time, which luckily was long enough for Strafer333 to confirm over twitter that the Usage Meter still works after the upgrade. Hopefully the servers will come back online soon.

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.

HTC Desire HD Review

I recently purchased a HTC Desire HD to replace the Nexus One which unfortunately was starting to get a little unreliable keeping a data connection. Why the Desire HD? Well the decision wasn't an easy one, for the week leading up to the purchase, my mind was constantly switching between the Galaxy S and Desire HD. Infact if Virgin had a Galaxy S in stock when I first inquired this may have been a review on the Galaxy S. Eventually however, the Desire HD with it's camera flash, slightly larger screen, and less problematic GPS eventually one me over.

Size

The first thing I noticed when I took the Desire HD out of the box was just how big this phone really is. I was a little concerned at first, it looked a little too big, and felt rather weighty. However, after a few minutes of playing around with it the weight didn't seem to be much of a problem and the phone fit surprisingly well in my hand. The phone also feels very solid thanks to an aluminium unibody case, which is in stark contrast to the plastic feel of the Galaxy S. While I'm on build quality one criticism I do have is the battery and sim compartments feel a bit fragile and could have been designed a bit better. I can see a lot of potential for them to break or deteriorate if constantly removed.

Screen

Lets be honest, the massive piece of glass on the front is the main calling card for the Desire HD and at 4.3inch it really is massive. Screen size is all well but unless the screen performs the extra size is rather worthless. So how does it fair against the competition? Well lets just be clear, it's more than adequate. The color representation is great, and the lower pixel density doesn't appear to subtract from the overall image quality at all. The only real issue I have, which is a rather pet peeve, is the light bleed from the SLCD in dark environments. The screen lights up the room substantially even when the screen image is black. Now that I've spent some time with both an AMOLED and SLCD screen I think the benefits outweigh the cons of the AMOLED technology, at least for my usage patterns.

General Performance

With 768MB of RAM there is no noticeable lag even with an uptime of a few days and 10+ apps running in the background. The UI is also very responsive with little to no lag swiping and scrolling. The app tray load is around average for most Android devices but in my opinion the scrolling seems to be smoother when compared to the Nexus One and Desire. All in all I couldn't be happier with the snappiness.

Call Quality

The phone clarity is also very good, it seems to handle in car calls a bit better than the Nexus One with very little to no fade out and higher clarity when traveling along the same routes. The clarity on the other end of the line is also very crisp and clear, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how much clearer voice was when listening to the Desire HD through my girlfriend's Milestone as apposed to the Nexus One.

Music and Video Payback

Music and video playback is equally surprising. Both stock music and video apps contain Dolby Mobile and SRS WOW HD sound enhancement and they really pack a punch. With even an average set of headphones I was surprised how much depth was added to the sound playback with good solid base and clear mids and treble. Another nice addition is the added DivX and XVid support straight out of the box, which is a good thing as the sound enhancements are only available to the Stock music and video players, which is quite disappointing. I would have thought it would make more sense to include them as a global equalizer rather than segregate them in individual apps.

Internet

The internet is where the larger screen really becomes a great asset, you wouldn't think a jump from 3.7inch to 4.3inch would add much, well I'm here to tell you when it comes to browsing that .6 of an inch makes a world of difference. The whole web experience is much less frustrating and I find myself using it more often than I did with the Nexus One.

Battery

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty happy with this phone. Solid performance, great screen real estate and a very enjoyable online experience. However, there is one thing I'm not happy about and that is battery life. In fact I'd go so far to say that it's rather abysmal. HTC recommend giving the battery 10 days to work itself in, and while I did notice an improvement through out the 10 days it wasn't exactly astounding. I honestly cannot see the reasoning behind putting the effort into creating such an amazing phone only to pair it up with a totally inadequate battery. I find myself having to charge it throughout the day in order to avoid running out of power by the end. Now to be honest I'm a pretty heavy user, I have auto sync on plus a few auto updating widgets and background processes so the average person may come out a bit better but don't expect miracles here.

Pros

+ Large crisp clear screen

+ Aluminum unibody design

+ DivX/xVid compatibility out of the box

+ SRS Wow HD and Dolby Mobile sound enhancement

+ Great performance

Cons

- Battery and simcard slots a little fragile

- Sound enhancements restricted to stock music and video apps

- Abysmal battery life

- Light bleed through

Virgin Usage Meter Donate Version

I've just uploaded a donate version of Virgin Usage Meter. I want to assure everybody that there is no functional or support difference between the free and donate version, I've never liked that whole shareware sort of release model. The Virgin Usage Meter was always intended to be free and fully functional.

So rest assured that the donate version is an avenue for those who wish to throw a bit of spare change towards the app now have the ability to do so.

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!