Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Yesterday, I exchanged a few emails with a G1 user, who contacted me through Android Market Application. Here goes the short but to the point email chain;
from Thndr <his email>
to my email here
date Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 8:06 PM
subject Txtract – SMS Backup
Wtf is so good about ths shit fone? It can’t download crap. Going back to. My real fone. A waste of money.
from my email here
to Thndr <his email>
date Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 8:12 PM
subject Re: Txtract – SMS Backup
Sorry, but you’re barking at the wrong tree. We’re not with Google, or with the Android Team, or affiliated with your GSM Operator 
You can voice your concerns about G1 at http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/
Here comes the best part.
from Thndr <his email>
to my email here
date Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 8:19 PM
subject Re: Txtract – SMS Backup
Doesn’t matter. Wtf kind of crap fone is this when you wait for geeks to develop programs? Going back to my real fone. This shit is worthleaa.
Whatever many may think, I think and believe Android platform is great and G1 is a good phone. And really doesn’t require that much of a brain power to operate that device.
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »
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
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Application Market Place for Android based phones is a funky place. The commenting system is truly jacked up. I saw many nasty and disturbing comments left by users. Many discussions around the matter can be seen here, just search for “comments”.
From a developer’s perspective it’s extremely sad to be trashed by a bunch of bozos. Almost feel lucky that our stuff was not trashed that bad. Fingers crossed. The interesting part on the matter is Google’s reluctance. It looks like they recently started cleaning up some of those comments; I see less and less. Come on Google, how difficult could it possibly be to integrate a profanity filter !
I didn’t intend to bitch about the epic fail of Google’s Android Market commenting system. It is what it is and it will stay as it is until they fix it.
This one, on the right is a recent comment which is left for Txtract . I find it sorta amusing and witty. A different kind of compliment (if it really is a compliment). “victory and female genitalia to you“ . Oh well! Thanks to you “punkofevil”, for your good wishes. Wishing the same back at ya
And Joanna, sorry that you have to do something like that.
Google, Google; when will you implement the “paid” applications in the Android Market !
Posted in Bizzare Oddities, Blog | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Here is some piece-meal code for folks looking for information about how to implement a sort-of-a-timer and GUI update in Android based applications.
Some initial definitions;
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| private Handler handlerTimer = new Handler();
private static final int UPDATE_STUFF_ON_DIALOG = 999; //this is a true arbitrary number. |
Init the timer at some point. Perhaps on “onCreate”, or where ever you need it.
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| handlerTimer.removeCallbacks(taskUpdateStuffOnDialog );
handlerTimer.postDelayed(taskUpdateStuffOnDialog , 100); //set a 100 milisecond delay for the initial post |
The Runnable thread that will possibly do some lengthy operation;
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| private Runnable taskUpdateStuffOnDialog = new Runnable() {
public void run () {
/*
Do some lengthy stuff here !!!
*/
// handling be in the dialog
// don't mess with GUI from within a thread
Message msg = new Message ();
msg. what = UPDATE_STUFF_ON_DIALOG ;
handlerEvent. sendMessage(msg );
//Do this again in 30 seconds
handlerTimer. postDelayed(this, 30000 );
}
}; |
taskUpdateStuffOnDialog task will post the message to the main dialog’s event handler, where we will finally do some GUI stuff.
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| private Handler handlerEvent = new Handler() {
@Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
switch (msg.what) {
case UPDATE_STUFF_ON_DIALOG: {
// have a go at your GUI stuff here. enable/disable stuff, flash things, change text...
}
break;
default: {
super.handleMessage(msg);
}
break;
}
}
}; |
That’s it.
Posted in Blog, Code | 2 Comments »
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 »
