The big thing is the addition of 'Application Extensions'. The basic features of Desk Clock Plus (ie the features from the versions prior to this and what the 'Stock' clock app does) will always remain free. I don't feel it's right for me (or legal) to charge for that*. However I understand that there are some users who what more from this application that others don't need. I think the dock configuration is a good example of that. Some users have asked for this and I would image that others wouldn't care if they could do that or not. So for one US dollar (or your approximate equivalent) you can purchase this extension for your devices. As I said before, I don't see myself getting rich off of this application, but with the holidays coming up and more importantly the office holiday beer exchange I could use a couple extra bucks.
One more thing to note about this... I am a little sketchy about how the code for this works. I'm pretty sure that I have it implemented correctly (the Pay-Pal system was much easier to work with and debug). If you have a problem please contact me (or leave a comment) I don't want to leave someone who has paid for this (or is trying to pay) high and dry. There are a couple of bonuses with this.
- When you purchase this extension, it should work across all your devices that are connected to your account.
- If you get a new phone or second device, you should just need to go in to the 'Purchase Extensions' screen for things to be reset internally, so you will not have to 'repurchase' this extension.
Now, on to the changes for this version:
- Scrolling Dock Button Extension - More documentation to follow, but the quick over view is that you can go into the settings --> Scrolling Dock Configuration to set the number of docks and to configure the docks. Swipe the dock left and right to change docks. Additionally you can long press a button change a button's:
- Action - internal to Desk Clock Plus
- Application - Launch a 3rd party app
- Clear - Clear action or application
- Add Dock - Add a new empty Dock.
- Delete Dock - Delete the current Dock.
- Scrolling time / Weather - As a bonus for anyone who purchases an extension I also enable the feature of swiping the time or weather to change it to Digital Time, Analog Time or Weather (I'll add more 'windows' as I add more paid extensions.
- Reorganized Settings Screen - I grouped everything into sub-properties instead of the sub groups, this way you have smaller pieces to deal with at one time. Everything is still grouped the same way, just organized a little different.
- Redesigned GUI - This should be pretty much be transparent to everyone, however some people should notice that fixes issues with 3 digit temperatures and long city state names.
- Translation - I changed how I translate this application into other languages. I originally sang the praises of Androlate. There was some problems with it. First, it was pretty slow. Second, it didn't handle multiple string files very well. Third, it doesn't work anymore (it was only a beta anyhow). For this go around, I used a Chrome Extension Android Multilingual translation tool. I was very happy with it as it fixed the 3 issues above, however it doesn't handle string arrays, so those are still in English for the time being. I also don't know if translations are any better (I'm going to check with other users)
- Background Images - I made a major change to how background images are handled that should drastically reduce the memory that I'm using and should reduce if not eliminate the out of memory issues you would get when loading images. This has also worked its way into the slide show.
- Performance Boost - I think this comes from the changes for the background images, but the application seems to be running much faster which is always good!
Some other things to note, I updated everything on the Android Market page added a new featured graphic, new screen shots and re-wrote all the text.
Stats wise, I'm very happy with what Google is telling me (22k downloads, 5k installed and an average review of 3.7)
As always, what's next? Probably over the next week or two it's going to be a number of updates for bug fixes as people start using the new version. I might have some language updates depending on how well the chrome extension did. I have a couple more ideas for the dock configuration extension that I want to implement. I have a security issue that I need to resolve and then hopefully some more extensions.
As always, I'm very happy that 5,000 people are using this application, so if you experience any issues or have a suggestion, please email me!
*I am happy to note that everything except for the alarm & alarm screen was written by me. The alarm code was taken from the Google source.
Hello, thanks for the update, i've been looking forward to it for a long time!
ReplyDeletecouple of issues:
- the whole app crashed constantly everytime i tried to open it. the only way i could fix it was to go into the manage apps area, and clear the data. you'll have an app crash report from me for this.
- i bought the extra docks thingo, but i had to close and open the app before it would let me configure any of the doc shortcuts
- when choosing a custom app to open on one of the dock items, the applications don't appear to be alphabetically sorted, makes it hard to find an app
- when choosing a custom app i had to long press on the app for it to select.
- if i swype on the clock or the weather to change the main screen, when i close and reopen desk clock plus it has reverted to the digital clock in hte middle and weather at the bottom. it doesn't seem to save what config for the main screen you want.
- when i stop hte phone from charging, the little power cord icon (next to the battery %) is still on the screen. i can't remember if this is how it was in the previous version, but it doesn't make sense :)
- the clock seems lower now? i liked it better before when it was a bit higher, bigger font, and offset to the left. i guess that's personal preference, but it seems like there's a lot of empty space at the top of the screen now.
- the : in between the hours and minutes of the digital clock used to pulse/fade in and out, and it now just blinks on and off.. the original way looked much cooler!
i know some of these are really minor things, but i thought i'd just give my feedback, feel free to ignore :)
thanks again for a cool app!
I agree with omniwolf's comments about the clock and it's appearance.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when I choose 24h time format, I do not expect to see AM/PM indicators
Happy with Scrolling Dock purchase. Gives me quick access to Authenticator and to Beyond Pod instead of a Music app.
ReplyDeleteWould welcome the Scrolling Dock as a single continuous loop instead of discrete alternative docks. My device is a Kyocera Echo so I quickly go from 1 normal phone sized screen to a double sized screen. This is where having more than 5 icons at a time would be convenient. A single loop of dock icons seems like the elastic way to provide this.
Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteFirst, if you haven't done so hit up the market I released version 1.0.0.1 late on Monday that should fix the crash on load.
omniwolf:
I'll look into the why the extension took a little while to "kick in" it might be something on my end or it might have been lag in the google market acknowledging the purchase...
Sorting the app list shouldn't be a problem...
Long pressing the app to select was done by design and how all the other lists were handled in the app. I should have a header in there that says 'Long press to select'.
Remembering the last selected panel (time, clock, weather) is something that is on my list to do, but I need to figure out the best way to handle this now and for the future.
The 'Plugged In' Indicator is a bug, if you unplug the device the indicator should go away... I'll have to look at that.
You are correct the time is smaller and off set differently than before. I had to do this to make the swipe-able panels. There is some unused space at the top (for now) that's the same size the dock at the bottom all part of the new design.
I don't remember if the 'Heartbeat' fading in and out (it can). I've see different devices do different things. A co-worker's tablet did some crazy flip disappear thing (although it some crazy ROM installed).
Bob S:
I have the 24h format fixed, but couldn't push an update the market yesterday...
The choice to do 5 icon docks was done to mimic what the Launcher Pro's dock does (Launcher Pro is an awesome home replacement if you're not familiar with it). This also allowed me to use Launcher Pro dock backgrounds in the themes. Even on large tablet devices, the dock remains pretty much the same size as the smaller phones.
I can understand what you are asking for with the continuous scroll of individual icons... maybe a future feature to this enhancement called tablet mode? It's defiantly a good idea.
Thanks again for your comments! I should have another update later this afternoon that should address some of this issues.
Hi Bob M (it was a confusing read until i realised there were two different Bobs ;) ),
ReplyDelete1) v1.0.0.1 was already out when i updated to the new version, so i don't think that has fixed the crashing problem :/
2) the paid extension did take a while to kick in, i even tried to buy it again thinking the purchase failed, but it gave me a message saying something like "the purchase will go through in a couple of minutes, please be patient", which was nice. I waited a little bit, and then i could tell it had activated because the settings menu item wasn't greyed out anymore. but still i couldn't customise the dock icons. this really isn't a big deal as i just had to close and open the app to fix it.
3) cool, again this is minor but makes the experience nicer :)
4) i suppose you could put something in the header to explain how the user should use the interface, but is there any reason for this? I would think it would be a better idea to just stick to UI standards and have long press as an "alternate select", and single press as a standard select.. it's more intuitive that way than trying to retrain the user for your interface.
5) ok.
6) ok.
7) ok. i have to say i really miss the way it previously was, i think it looked much nicer. when there is only one digit in the hour it looks like it's strangely off centre too.
8) yeah i'm pretty sure it used to fade in and out.. at least on my device (SGS2). i thought it was a really nice effect. also i think the dots in the colon were round, and they're now square.
possibly a feature request if you want to get tricky: sometimes the background picture is white, and so the clock and weather text can't be read easily. you could maybe detect if the colour in the background will clash.. or put an outline around the text.. i dunno. not a big deal, but maybe something if you get bored :)
feature request: allow us to customise the icons in the dock when we choose an app to open (like Launcher Pro).
again, please don't take my comments negatively, i'm really grateful for your work on this and just thought i'd throw some ideas and comments in.
Nick.