Posts for the ‘Android’ Category
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Another first from Brilaps. A brand new native G1 application to search the blogosphere.
Andorati is a Technorati.com client that brings the blogosphere search to your G1 Phone. Pick your tag, or type your search. You’ll get the latest of what’s being blogged around the world.
Andorati also features an easy bookmarking mechanism. You can add the blog, and the blog post to your browser bookmarks. This way, you can also access those sites from the G1′s web browser later on. (*hint: Andorati also implements a multi-select bookmark cleanup feature)
The initial beta release of Andorati is “Andorati4Geeks“. Andorati for Geeks require that you have an APIKey from Technorati to enable the searches. The APIKey is assigned to you when you register a free account on Technorati.com (http://technorati.com/developers/)
Andorati4Geeks 1.1 Released on 2008-12-22.
Release Notes: AndoratiReleaseNotes
Posted in Android, Mobile Tech, News | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
This post is about my battle of building, installing and configuring the Android Platform and the Android SDK on Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit x86. Insult to the injury, all that is happening in a VirtualBox VM on a Mac running Snow Leopard.
Please remember, this is NOT intended to be a step by step instruction manual. RTFM 
Follow the regular installation instructions and possibly throw in the following in the mix, when and if you have to.
You will need the Android Source to build (doh!). Here.
Obstacle #1. No Java 1.5.0 in Ubuntu 9.10. Gotta have it, otherwise Android “make” barely bothers to launch.
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp is a starting point. I grabbed the rpm build.
Assuming you have the “rpm” (otherwise apt-get install rpm), install the downloaded package. –force-debian –nodeps flags may be required.
Now you have Java 1.5.0 in place, you need to setup your environment properly.
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| sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_22/bin/java 50 |
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| sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_22/bin/javac 50 |
** change your jdk1.5.0 path if necessary
Getting close.
The “apt-get install” in the documentation http://source.android.com/download includes “sun-java5-jdk“, so take it out and run the command as follows:
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| sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf build-essential zip curl zlib1g-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev-i386 lib32ncurses5-dev ia32-libs x11proto-core-dev libx11-dev lib32readline5-dev lib32z-dev |
Try the “make” now.
Next is installing the Android SDK on Ubuntu 9.10. Grab it at http://developer.android.com . Unzip, move it around etc.
Starting with Android SDK r3, you need to pick and choose what you want to download and install. “./android” under the “tools” directory does that for you. However, every single time I tried this on my Macs, I got the “You might want to force download through HTTP in the settings.” error. So be it, go the the options, simply check the “Force https://… sources to be fetched using http://…” option and download happily ever after. This was a no-go in my Ubuntu 9.10. The trick to properly enable and utilize that checkbox is to run:
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| export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true |
Now, you should be able to download the SDK without the https:// mallarky.
After all this, hopefully, you should be Android’ing in your Ubuntu box in no time
Good luck.
Posted in Android, Code, Hacks, Tips, Tricks | 7 Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
After getting a few very interesting emails, I decided that I should provide a bit of a historical and informal insight to those who might be curious about what that “Save My Ass” may be.
SaveMyAss (Save My Ass) a convenient way to clear the Call and/or the SMS records on the Android based phones. The delete (or purge) process runs automatically upon the app launch without further user intervention. The app either deletes a preset number of messages set in the preferences, or by age (i.e. last 10 min, last 2 hours etc.).
Why did I build this app? Just because. *this is the easy answer (i could’ve said, just for shits and giggles 
)
Why did I build this app? Just because, I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I worked extensively with Android Messaging app and SMS internals during the development of “Txtract – SMS Backup for Android“, “Save My Ass” would be the icing on the cake in terms gaining more expertise on Android.
Why did I build this app? About five months ago, I was about to get a ticket because a polica officer thought that I was on the phone while driving. I swear, I was not on the phone, or was not doing anything on my phone. I was pulled over, and I had to show the officer my call and message history to convince him that he stopped me for no reason. That incident was indeed the spark that made “Save My Ass” built. I don’t want to give anyone any ideas about how they may use the application. The rest is up to the users’ imagination
About the “Save My Ass” name; it’s supposed to be just funny and provocative. Nothing more, nothing less. I can only hope that no one will find the name offensive.
Docs @ http://wiki.brilaps.com/wikka.php?wakka=SaveMyAss
Support at; http://forum.brilaps.com/index.php?board=20.0
Posted in Android, Blog | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Brilaps released an update for the Txtract – SMS Backup for G1 today.
The new version is Txtract 1.3, code name cloudcat.
You can find the release notes here.
*This screenshot needs an update !
For support on Txtract, please visit http://forum.brilaps.com
Posted in Android, Mobile Tech, News | Comments Off
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Txtract 1.5 Release on 2009-01-10, and finally with a much readable HTML export support.
Much to our surprise, Txtract passed the 10K download mark in just over a month in the Android Market. We‘re loving it.
Here are some comments from the users of Txtract:
- Html makes this awesome. Use astro app (file explorer) to get to it. Thanks so much. Good job! (Vinnie)
- Html export works awesome!! Only thing it now needs to be better is options to fine tune exports (especially such as file location, html alignment tag (Matt)
- Awesome, thanks for the update html works now. 5 star app (Don)
- …..
Release Notes
Release date: 2009-01-10
Codename: lufthansa (a significant portion of the code is written on a plane)
Txtract 1.5 introduced the long awaited HTML export.
Enhancements:
- HTML Export
- Code optimizations
Bug Fixes:
- Incorrect escaping of quotes and commas in the CSV export.
Sample HTML Export of SMS Messages
That’s it for now. Txtract still have a few goodies in the bag to come out soon.
Posted in Android, Mobile Tech, News | Comments Off
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Here comes a newer, better faster Txtract on the Android Market.
Txtract 1.6 on a Friday the 13th.
Version 1.6 supports
- Selectable Styles for HTML backup
- Email the backup
- Better look & feel
- Faster
- Minor bug fixes
And a few more goodies in this release.
Posted in Android, Mobile Tech, News | Comments Off
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
Txtract in business...
When I got my TMobile G1 Android phone, I was really enthusiastic about what it has to offer, and it has not failed me yet. Knock on the wood!
As a user of the device, the only thing I can say is, it is fabulous. The application market place is not that rich yet, as the “other” device. However, it looks like getting there. I am not much of a person who would download everything and clog my computational devices, but more of a minimalist who would have only what he needs. Same thing for my G1 phone. I have the Twitroid (frequent user), imeem (once in a while I check what’s tuning), Wertago (i like the idea, but the recommendations around my area are not too accurate), Bank of America’s Mobile Banking app came in handy a few times (had to show my ginormous balance to my friends, j/k) and a few others.
After starting to exchange more SMS messages with my friends, I realized that, those messages accumulate and slows things down a wee bit. Deleting the entire threads of messages was an option, or deleting the entire Message database another option. Deleting the messages one by one was NOT an option. I would rather pull a few all nighters, deprive myself of sleep for a week, and write a programs to do things, such as extracting those messages, instead of doing a manual deletion.That’s how the “Txtract” project started.
Readable link: http://wiki.brilaps.com/wikka.php?wakka=Txtract
This is a textbook description of what Txtract does. 1.1 release does not support HTML output.
Txtract generates a device-independent (XML, CSV, HTML) backup of your Text Messages (SMS) off your Android G1 Phone.
(more…)
Posted in Android, Blog, Mobile Tech, News | 21 Comments »
