Update

Been a while since I've published anything... I've been busy cleaning and consolidating code for both the basic and pro versions. This should hopefully make both of them easier to manage. Coming from a .NET world, the Eclipse IDE has a bit of oddities that takes a bit of getting used to. Plus switching from VB to Java and back to VB is alot like going from English to German and back.

I only updated the basic version and this was really intended for people who have upgraded to 2.2 already. The long press on the first button (Phone by default) will give you the choice of the Phone or a picture gallery application. The long press on the fourth button (Browser by default) will give you your choice of browser(s), Google Talk, AIM, Twitter or Facebook. If you don't any of these applications installed then you obviously can't choose them...

Not Quite Frozen Yogert?

I'm sure the apple fan boys are going to making the same jokes, so might as well beat them to the punch. Apparently I was one of the "lucky" few to get the runny version of FroYo via the OTA update.

Quick update in case someone links to me saying that USB tethering doesn't work. A coworker currently in the UAE sent an email from his laptop by tethering his Droid which was connected to WiFi. I suspect the the reason why he did this is that TV in the middle east is very bad and he was very board.

Froyo...

Being a Moto Droid owner, I was happy to see the news that Froyo was finally available. I planned on doing the manual update at lunch today. However, I was greeted by a message on my phone after returning from a meeting saying that I had an update to install. In my small circle of Droid owners here at work, I am the only one to receive the OTA update. This also includes my wife who is the primary account holder. My guess is that since I'm a android developer I go to the front of the line?

One of the things that I noticed was that the camera icon on my Launch Bar went away and was replaced by a second Google Maps Icon. I'm sure that they changed the class name or something stupid like what they did with the HTC Sense and Blur. However after running the configuration screen I was greeted with a force close... I still haven't heard the end of it. I found that not all of the code that went into the last update / fix for the Base version made it into the Pro version. So, a little code merge and testing later and all seems to be working again. I really need to learn more about the Eclipse IDE. I shouldn't need to maintain two sets of code that are the same in both applications.

First thoughts on Froyo...

• Updated Multimedia dock is nice
• The gallery and camera apps seem to have some nice enhancements
• The speed increase is very noticeable.
• No wireless tethering? I'm pissed at that and more pissed at the BS reason of "The Droid doesn't have the necessary hardware."
  
• Although, there is a USB tether which just means I need put a micro USB cable in the laptop bag for emergencies. (Although rumor has it you can only get to Verizon's web site...)

So far that's it for now...

HTC and Blur update

After I pushed out the update last week, I noted alot of non-positive reviews about the base version of Launch Bar and how it's really not working for HTC Devices. I then got a text from a co-worker from his brand new Droid X. My app didn't work on his phone at all. Although, it did give me an excuse to play with his phone a bit...

After running a debug app that does the same bit of logic as the Launch Bar, I discovered what the problem was. In the case of the phone dialer, I was looking for a package(application) called com.android.phone. It looks like the motoblur UI tweaks the phone dialer slightly and the name is com.motorola.blur.phone. All of the other "stock" applications all had the same kinds of package name changes. I'm making the assumption that the HTC Sense UI did the same thing for all their apps and hence why it wasn't working for that either.

There's about 3 different rants that I could go on:

1. about how the stock application names shouldn't change and Motorola and HTC should change them (akin to Dell changing the Windows to Dell's Windows)
   
2. the awesomeness that the phone OS is open source and they COULD go and make those changes (akin to Dell changing Windows Vista so that it works)
   
3. the stupid programmer that made the assumption first that he could find the application by label name (which lead to the localization problem) and then the "fix" of trying to find a specific package which doesn't exist on non vanilla installs of Android.

In my defense for number 3, up until my co-worker got his Droid X. Everyone I knew with an Android based phone as the standard Moto Droid and the only development environment that I had to test against was emulator provided by Google. I did try to build the source code from HTC, but I got to a certain point and then stopped (I'll get back to it at some point). It (OK just me) is very frustrating trying to develop for a moving target and to me it seems very difficult to jump though the fiery hoops to build the HTC source and I'm not even sure that's going to work in the emulator.

The update to the base version makes the GUI for both version the same. However, base version when you long press it will present you with a pick list of applications that qualify for that button (Phone, SMS, Contacts, Browser, Maps, Camera). The custom button will show you all the applications installed on the phone. This is actually pretty cool in my opinion as you are no longer stuck using the stock items (I know alot of people use HandSent and Dolphin as their main SMS and Browsers).

However, it seems that on the Droid X the contacts button isn't working... Oh well, just another programming opportunity.

Houston we have a problem...

I knew that I should have waited until over the weekend to push the update. I'm hoping that 99% of the Pro users didn't have the same problem as a user who emailed me on Saturday. After the update the widget disappeared. After thinking about it and a quick email exchange, I realized that the data conversion process was only happening on the configuration side of things and not on the widget side. What happened in his case (on a HTC Incredible) was that it couldn't find the default applications and returned a bunch of blanks. I believe that he then uninstalled the widget and tried to reinstall from the Market.

However, with the new configuration screen, it couldn't find the default apps that I specify. I believe that caused the force quit error. This would explain why the couple of new users canceled their order shortly after purchase.

So here's what it does now:
When the configuration screen loads and it can't find the application I'm looking for (Thank you very much non-vanilla androids... I'm looking at you HTC) it will just get the first application it can find. I'm assuming that everyone is going to change it regardless, but if your configuration window is all Alarm Clocks then you know why.

If you don't go into the configuration screen or the application can't be found you'll get a button with this guy:


Basically, it's saying that I can't find the app for this button. I'm hoping people who see this will just go back to the configuration screen and save their configuration again.

On a side note, this has given me some insight on why the Basic widget has been having issues with the HTC phones. I know what I want to do to fix it, I just need to learn HOW to do it.

The need for speed

During the little bit of time I had for widget development, I saw what I was doing wrong and was able to whip up the updates for both versions of the widget.

So, what's new? The application loads a lot faster. The exception is the first time you load it as there's some internal data conversions that need to be done. The way you choose your buttons has changed and for the pro version it is now a long press on the list the application list. I will update the basic version's configuration screen to mimic what the pro version is doing. I also updated the icon re-sizing on the phone orientation change. The icon re-size is now instantaneous.

What was the big change? No more internal looping looking for stuff and setting icon size via the layouts and not doing it via code. I realized that I was working too hard to do a lot of the stuff I was doing, so I found a much better way.

Coming Attractions

Just a quick update...

I've been working on a semi radical change to the Launch Bar for a couple weeks now. I have the basic version completed and am working on a similar update for the Pro version. However, I'm hitting a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to some more advanced GUI elements. I'm hoping to be able to publish the updates early next week.

This update will include:

• A new GUI for the configuration screens
  
• Removed the icon size slider (for now)
  
• A major speed increase when launching the configuration screen
• A major speed increase when changing the orientation of the device

Also, I've seen a couple of comments regarding the basic Launch Bar not working or missing icons (specifically messaging) on certain phones. Typically these have been HTC devices with the Hero, Desire and EVO being the ones I know being problematic. I have good idea of what the problem is, but with out a phone to test on I can't verify it or write a fix. I've been trying to build the HTC source code so I can use it in the emulator, but haven't had time to really work on that. If you are running the basic version and have seen the missing button issue please send me an email. I have a debug program that I'll send you that should help me out. I can be reached at rmueser (at) gmail (dot) com