Name: NewsSpot
Sync your articles as quick as a wink, store text and images for offline reading and search your articles in a gorgeous metro style way.
This is NewsSpot, a full-featured Google Reader client for Windows Phone: Its advanced sync-engine delivers a two-way sync for your unread and starred articles, which only syncs what needs to be synced. Already stored hundreds of starred articles? NewsSpot will download them once and never again. It caches articles as well as images for later offline reading.
Ever wanted to search your starred articles? Ever been interested in a specific topic of your reading-list? No problem with NewsSpot. Just tap the search button and enter your keywords, it will instantly filter your current list to what you've searched.
Together with Windows Phone Mango, NewsSpot now offers live tiles and toast notifications. For example, you can pin secondary live tiles to your start screen showing the count of your folders. Of course, live tiles can be updated per background task.
Other features include:
- Bookmark your article in Instapaper or ReadItLater or send a link per Email
- Mango only: share your article via Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live etc.
- Mango only: benefit from compressed web communication and save up to 80% of your data plan
- Open YouTube or Marketplace links from within the application
- Read articles in full or mobilized view, supported by Google or Instapaper
I've just released v2.0 of the app, which takes advantage of a lot of Mango features. Here is a list of things that are new in v2.0:
- Compatible with Windows Phone Mango
- Share article via builtin phone services
- Application live tile can show unread, starred and shared count
- Secondary live tiles with folder count
- Background task with toast notification and update of tiles
- Adjusted trial limits, added advertising
- Added support for gzipped communication
- Further improved sync speed
- Uses system progress indicator
- Added what's new to about page
- Added flip animation to folder tiles
- Changed icons so that they stick to the system theme
- Lots of minor changes and bug fixes
There is an add-supported version which has all features with the sole restriction that it lets you sync at a max 200 unread and 50 starred articles. The full version supports up to 1000 unread or starred articles.
NewsSpot is a matter of the heart to me and I'm constantly trying to improve it. So if you find a bug, have a suggestion or any other feedback, don't hesitate to write here or contact me per pm or twitter (@fourspotproject).
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I just downloaded it, will check it later!
I normally use WonderReader, let's see how your app fares against it...
FourSpotProject said:
Name: NewsSpot
PS: I'm not yet allowed to post links here, but I'm sure you will find the app in the Marketplace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the link to the app
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/apps/27ec9e5f-f88a-4caf-bdb4-68d71c962f02
@banvetor:
Thanks for trying it, looking forward to your feedback
@arkavat:
Thanks for posting the link!
Nice Work
Only got to try a few feed items with it so far, but I like what I'm seeing. Nice settings menu, very fast. I just wish it had the option to download read articles for a certain period of days (I frequently have to reference read articles within a day, but not so much after say, three), and a higher class icon to match up to the slickness inside the app and I'd say there's a new Google Reader app in my life.
---------- Post added at 09:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 PM ----------
Ooh, one more thought. It might be nice to have an option to go ahead and automatically resync to the server after tapping to mark all as read, that way if I switch back to a desktop it already knows what I've seen.
@zedmartinez
Thank you very much for your suggestions.
Syncing and keeping read items: this is already on my list, though I think it will not make it to the next or after next version. Maybe I should re-schedule things
Application icon: Yeah, grafics are not my strength. I'll figure out something for that
Automatic sync: this one also is on my list. I think automatic sync after tapping mark all as read can be done quickly. What do you think of automatic sync after a certain amount of time (like 5 minutes or so). I think this would especially make sense in combination with a sort from oldest to newest. Then you can read articles from top and the new ones are automatically appended at the bottom.
Those sync options could work. I'm trying to think how Wonder Reader does it (currently my workhorse feed reader), I think it syncs everytime I go back to the all feeds list, or after marking all as read. I like the idea of the timeline-based syncing though, that's a neat idea.
Sorry to gripe about the logo I'm a graphics designer by trade, so, fussing over icons is sadly engrained in me. If you have too many problems or just would like the help, let me know what the parameters for tiles are and I'd gladly lend you some gratis help.
I keep being really pleased with the speed as I play with this. Excited for future updates, and you can expect a formal purchase as soon as I get paid this week.
So, just checked again: Wonder Reader has some kind of direct sync model, meaning the status of articles is synced as soon as you tap on it.
I'm pretty sure this could be done in NewsSpot, too, though these actions have to be tolerant to network failures. Added to my checklist.
Regarding the offer to help with the icon: You'll get a PM soon
Oh, I totally forgot to meantion that v2.1 is out since 11-10.
It was done in haste since Google changed the interface of its Reader, removing all social elements like sharing and replacing them with Google+.
I'm quite optimistic that the next update will add features instead of stripping them
Just downloaded to try out. If I like it, I'll be sure to buy it and rate it.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Ok. I've been playing with this a bit and seeing what it will/won't do. I like it.
I've noticed that it doesn't run in the background well, as in play well with multitasking.
Pretty much, I can open it up and read an article. Were I to press the home button or press an alert to answer an SMS, I can see NewsSpot in the open tasks list from the long press of the back button, but it attempts to resume then closes out back to either my home screen or another application running.
Also, I can press the globe button to open the mobilized version and then press back to return to the article. If, however, I choose the option to Browse in Internet Explorer, I cannot return to NewsSpot. It will attempt to resume and then crash to the home screen. I imagine this is the same issue as when trying to select it from the multitasking screen.
BTW, I decided to support you and pay.
@ anseio,
Thank you for your valuable feedback and your purchase.
Regarding that multitasking issue: I've got a lot of crash logs lately and as far is I've analyzed them, many arise from the advertising control, especially when the app is tombstoned/resumed. Its a known bug I unfortunately overlooked during development.
So let me ask you a question: since you bought the app, the advertising control disappears. Did these errors you mentioned went away, too?
Thanks for the info. Yes, I compiled this feedback after i upgraded.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
@ anseio,
Sorry to bother you, but I didn't get your answer. Does 'I compiled this feedback after I upgraded' mean that the errors remain?
Yes, it means that it still doesn't hibernate.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
It may have to do with the fact that I'm using the HTC hd2, not an official wp7 device.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Well, I'll check the logs. Maybe I can find something there. Did the app just crash or have you been asked to send a crash log? If not, you may also look into the settings. If there is a log not uploaded yet, you should have an additional entry called 'manage logs'.
Anyway, there are a couple of logs on my hd from Hd2 owners. Will check them this weekend.
FourSpotProject said:
Well, I'll check the logs. Maybe I can find something there. Did the app just crash or have you been asked to send a crash log? If not, you may also look into the settings. If there is a log not uploaded yet, you should have an additional entry called 'manage logs'.
Anyway, there are a couple of logs on my hd from Hd2 owners. Will check them this weekend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't find anything in settings for managing logs. I wouldn't say that the software crashes. There's definitely no error. It's as if they close out in the middle of the "resuming" process.
For example. I'll open NewsSpot, go to an article, press home button, enter messaging and locate a message, long press "back" button, select NewsSpot... it will show "resuming", then go back to the messaging section within a few seconds. Another long press of the back button shows that there are no other apps in multitasking.
Just wanted to let you know that v2.2 was approved by Microsoft and should be online within a couple of hours.
Besides new artwork by zed martinez (thanks again ) you can now navigate from folders to your feeds. Furthermore read items can now be kept and synced.
@anseio:
I've found another couple of bugs related to tombstoning. Please tell me if the app now works better for you.
However, still I have no clue why the app crashes without a notification. The only reason I can think of is that the system runs out of RAM (and NewsSpot is actually rather demanding in terms of memory). Am I right that a HD2 has little less RAM than a HD7 (448 vs. 576MB)?
Related
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feed me
feed me has been temporarily removed from the marketplace. I hope to get a new version out towards the end of the first quarter of 2012.
Details: http://www.wpcentral.com/feed-me-removed-marketplace
Full details: www.forty3degrees.com/apps/feedme
When I first got my HTC Mozart I looked for an rss reader but couldn't find one that suited. RSS Central from Adam Dawes came close, but still didn't quite have the structure I was looking for. I always like to look at my subscriptions in groups. If I am tracking two or three blogs related to the same thing then I don't want to have to look at all three seperately. I just want to look at the newest entries from all of them together. So I got to work, and feed me is the result.
Please give feedback about any missing features or possible improvements.
There is currently no video of version 1.11 as I am spending all my spare time getting a mango version up and running.
Here's a video of Version 1.11:
Here's a video tour of Version 1.9 (full details on the site as always):
Changes in Version 1.8:
Changes in Version 1.7:
Changes in version 1.6:
Supported languages:
• English
• German
Key Features:
• Live tile shows new article count1
• Add YouTube feeds 2
• Watch YouTube videos in HD
• View or listen to podcasts while browsing other articles
• Download podcasts for offline viewing (with pause/continue)
• Tweet or e-mail articles, post to facebook or send the link in a SMS
• Add articles to Instapaper or Read it Later
• Allow feed me to run under the lock screen (allowing feeds to be updated when the phone is locked)
• Supports all windows-125* and ISO-8859-* encodings
• Feed groups with optional ‘all’ and ‘unread’ views
• A Google feed search for adding new feeds
• Add new feeds from Google Reader
• Backup and restore settings to our server
• Filtering of views using the title and/or content
• Feeds are only downloaded if they have been updated3
• Optional automatic update on start-up
• Favorites for bookmarking items
The free version and the trial are ad supported. The live tile is also restricted to showing the number of new articles for four feeds only. The trial does not allow podcast downloads or viewing of YouTube videos in HD, these restrictions will be lifted in the next release.
Visit the site for more info and feel free to PM me if you have any questions
Calum you are a legend, looks great.
just a quick update...
I'm on holiday for a week and am doing the last few bits for the next update... Just got the last bits of live tiles to go, then the tests and it's done.
For the live tiles I will show the total number of new items since the last time the app was open (like the stock e-mail app). You will be able to select which feeds are used for live tiles, so certain feeds with frequent updates can be excluded.
This won't work for backdated items. For example, BBC likes to post items that are backdated to yesterday, these will not be seen as new as the publish date is older than the date of the last refresh.
Feeds included in the live tiles update will always be updated on startup.
Let me know what you think.
I have also set up a page on facebook. And you can follow progress on twitter.
So I've finished the next update... here are a few of the new features:
A live tile showing the number of new items. This is restricted to showing the total of a maximum of 5 feeds at the moment (or 1 in trial mode). I hope to increase or remove this limit but I want to see how the server handles things first. The tile can be updated in 10, 15, 30 or 60 minute intervals.
You can now add a feed from your google reader subscriptions. They are shown in a flat list similar to the feed search in the current version.
I now check the http headers for feeds before downloading. If the 'last-modified' header is present and the feed has not changed then the download is cancelled.
I added a pivot to the start page. Now you can swipe from the list of feed groups to a list of all the new items (these are grouped for easy browsing).
There is a backup and restore function for the feed settings. This backs up the settings to a SQL server so you can restore even after a factory reset. In this version an anonymous device ID is used so you don't need to log in.
I have also improved caching and done quite a bit of work on performance. The limits for the trial version have been increased to 4 groups of max. 4 feeds.
Unfortunately I have had to do away with backwards compatibility for the settings. This means that all settings in the previous version will be lost. I really didn't want this, but due to the live tile implementation, backup and cache management I had to change the storage format for the settings. The main problem is that it is impossible for me to simulate an upgrade as a developer so I couldn't event try to implement a settings upgrade. This is quite annoying and I hope microsoft will do something about it, but at the moment all I could do was add the google reader support mentioned above, and ensure this never happens again due to the new backup/restore feature.
This only really affects the few paid versions out there (unfortunately, or fortunately in this case the actual number is pretty small). Trial versions won't update so you need to uninstall it before installing the new version - this is another microsoft 'feature'.
I will post a full list of changes on the forty3degrees.com website after the update hits the market. This should be towards the end of next week. I have decided to run the final build on my phone for the weekend as there is not point in submitting tonight (nobody will start testing it until monday morning anyway), and you never know... there may just be a bug or two still lurking
V1.2 just got published... a load of improvements and new features.
Check out forty3degrees.com for all the details.
Just submitted the next version. A few bug fixes but a nice new 'tweet article' feature as well. The new version supports all the European and Middle Eastern encodings I could find (I will post the full list as soon as the app is certified)
Feed me version 1.3 has been published to the marketplace. This version has Twitter integration, improved encoding support and a few fixes. See the site for details:
http://www.forty3degrees.com/apps/feedme
Hey i've been trying out your app for a day or two now, seems to work great so far. If its something i find myself using often, I'll be sure to buy it (first time using an RSS reader, so I don't know how useful it will be for me). Also, I'll let you know if I notice anything/have any suggestions
Thanks for the feedback. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions/ideas.
Calum
Great app man! Thanks!
bdotr said:
Great app man! Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you like it I'm always looking to improve things, so any constructive criticism is welcome...
Version 1.4 is out.
- Podcast support
- Instapaper/Read it later
- Run under the lockscreen
Details here
Nice looking app. With the podcasts, can they be downloaded to be listened to later or do they have to stream? I like being able to download several episodes via WiFi and then listen to them even if I have no data connection or if I have a bad connection.
Thanks
Just streaming in this version... I did think of doing a download, but it didn't make the deadline
I will add this to my todo list, and it will almost certainly make it into the next version. I just need to sort out the cache management for the downloaded media, or see if I can add them to the media library. Would you want the media to be available in the media library, or just in the app?
On a related note, I wasn't really sure if I should add the viewed media to the media player history. In the end I decided against it. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the feedback.
Calum
I don't really need it to show anywhere other than from withing the app. I have been doing podcasts through Zune right now and one thing that I don't like is that once I listen to a podcast it just sits there. It gets marked as listened to within Zune and I can delete it, but I kind of like having them just go away. This might be good as a user setting.
gerrymad said:
This might be good as a user setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I thought that too. I prefer them to disappear as well, and this happened to be easier to implement as there are extra certification requirements if I add them to the history.
I think I'll go with the setting for V1.5 with no history as the default. Thanks again for the feedback.
Thanks a lot for the app calum. It's really fast and nice. Especially the animations and such. I haven't seen one (and I've tried them all and still use Flux) and this one gets it about perfect as for look and feel. One thing I have seen that I'm not sure you could have implemented is a tile view for articles, showing them as an image. That's the one thing I really like about flux (as you've already got the other best part..categores), is the overall look when you go into it. Don't want to make you a copycat, just that one option would be great. Or at least an "HTML view" like Feedreader has. That gives the app that last piece of visual appeal. As the rest of it is perfect. Thanks once again as for right now you make it tough for me to choose between this and Flux.
Hi,
thanks for the feedback. I did think about switching to a panorama with images for the main page, although I would add a setting to allow the current main page to be used instead. Good to know that somebody would like this sort of view
Adding images to the article lists would slow things down too much. Scrolling performance would be pretty bad with more that 50 items. (I still don't have NoDo so don't know if it's any better with that...)
I am working on an update for this week, but it will not change the UI much (maybe a new transition for the main page... don't know yet). The main improvements will be podcast downloads and hopefully facebook integration (time permitting - the update needs to be submitted this week to try a fix a marketplace search bug... feed me doesn't turn up at the moment).
Thanks again for the feedback
Calum
Yep, someone does want it (tile view) as that is one thing that stands out about the rss readers on WP7. Flux has seemed to integrate it quite nicely and I believe it's achieved because it has an option to automatically load more items or not. And it only loads 6 tiles initially to keep scrolling smooth for the most part. I like the main page as it is, and having a tiled view of what's new on to the side of that would be cool also. Well, looking forward to any updates for sure and good luck with continued development.
feed me 1.5 is out.
You can now download podcasts. You can also pause the downloads and resume them later (they are paused automatically when exiting the app).
I also added some new animation for the page transitions. I'd be really interested in any feedback as to whether it still keeps the clean look... if not then you can disable them in the settings.
hello devs,
I just finished my first round with Week Calendar: I always used to organize myself by looking at week calendar views, either on Outlook, PalmOS, WM6.5 or iPhone (3rd party apps). I missed it on WP7, that's why I developed this app. Week Calendar reads Phone Appointments from your defined accounts, the same read by standard Calendar app, although it is a separate app. I've put all of my efforts to follow the Metro UI style of WP7 Calendar. I also added a tile with a nice graphical preview of current week appointments: hope you like it.
Week Calendar is available on the Marketplace at €0,99 with a trial edition. it requires Mango to run. the app is available in English, German and Italian.
I'm looking for Spanish and France translations: PM me if you are interested to arrange a contribution (just a few strings to translate, nothing special).
there's a video on youtube, search for "week calendar wp7": I'll add a link here whenever xda will permit me.
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version 2.0 is now available! it features a new search function and the ability to choose which accounts to use.
this is the complete changelog:
•[fix] sometimes settings were not saved
•[fix] improved rendering of an event; no more confusion between click for appointment details and swipe gesture.
•[fix] private appts lacks 'private' label in the grid event
•[fix] removed limit of 100 appointments retrieved for each week
•initial screen removed (I prefer this way…)
•dialog to send email in case of errors removed (totally unuseful in my opinion)
•new appointments search function, with time interval and accounts selection
•new Accounts pane in Settings: choose the accounts to use and their colors
•week grid adjusts its initial position basing on current time
•new 'Show private appointments' option
•now the tile filters events basing on selected appointments
•Improved rotation and related effects
there is more to improve, so support this app giving positive feedbacks! follow me on twitter @WeekCalendarWP7.
Francesco
if only some Strings, i can help you with german.
PM me if interested
matrello said:
although I couldn't integrate it with standard Calendar app - neither I was able to call Calendar task from my app - I've put all of my efforts to follow the Metro UI style of WP7 Calendar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... No synchronization with Outlook? No integration with the other built-in tools? BTW, who needs that kind of calendar?.. As for me, the great advantage of WP7 is not a fancy Metro UI but perfect integration of industry standard business tools.
sensboston said:
Hmm... No synchronization with Outlook? No integration with the other built-in tools? BTW, who needs that kind of calendar?.. As for me, the great advantage of WP7 is not a fancy Metro UI but perfect integration of industry standard business tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for your feedback, it let me clearly state that Week Calendar reads Phone Appointments, the same read by the standard Calendar app.
Danish
PM me if you'd like a danish translation.
hi WMD I sent you a PM.
I love the idea of this app. I've always felt there was something lacking from the wp7 calendar after leaving my BlackBerry, and I think this may be it.
I only downloaded the trial, but from my limited use I have a couple of ideas:
-If possible, it would be nice to turn off birthdays. Since they are full-day events they take up a ton of space in the week view, especially if more than one occur on the same day.
-An option to display the header dates in MMDD format (Week of Sep 25 - Oct 1 2011). Being an American I find it odd to see dates in the other format.
-An option to start the week with Monday (ad end with Sunday. I really wish the built-in calendar had that option.
-If possible, offer some kind of "compressed view" similar to the live tile to see the week at a glance without scrolling. (I might be an oddity in this since my shifts at work range over all parts of the day throughout the week- some days morning, others night.)
Anyway, I dig the app, I'll keep using it, and I just might have to buy it
hi hammerhand,
thank you for your feedback.
hammerhand said:
-If possible, it would be nice to turn off birthdays. Since they are full-day events they take up a ton of space in the week view, especially if more than one occur on the same day.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I resolved by disabling such calendar from Live Calendar directly. don't you think it's enough?
hammerhand said:
-An option to display the header dates in MMDD format (Week of Sep 25 - Oct 1 2011). Being an American I find it odd to see dates in the other format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this will be fixed - tought it won't be an option - on v1.2 (v1.1 is already on certification).
hammerhand said:
-An option to start the week with Monday (ad end with Sunday. I really wish the built-in calendar had that option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Week Calendar reads the system setting about this. overriding it by a single app is discouraged, however I'll add it to the wishing list and see if some other asks the same.
hammerhand said:
-If possible, offer some kind of "compressed view" similar to the live tile to see the week at a glance without scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this will be probably part of v1.2.
hammerhand said:
Anyway, I dig the app, I'll keep using it, and I just might have to buy it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leave a comment on the marketplace also, it's really useful!
Thanks for this app - I bought it immediately. Couple of things, after 10 minutes of use:
1. I second the need to suppress birthdays, or perhaps all-day events in general. And I don't use the Live calendar, using Exchange. Please make this an option?
2. It would be nice to be able to control the number of days to display - now you can choose between 5 or 7 (weekends), why not 2 or 4 days.
3. Option to use 24-hour format (I'm Dutch) would be nice: 18 instead of 6PM.
matrello said:
I resolved by disabling such calendar from Live Calendar directly. don't you think it's enough?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like seeing the birthdays in the native calendar, but the all day event takes up a lot of room on the week calendar. Maybe if they can't be turned off, could their display color be made to match that in the calendar settings? That said, I disabled birthdays in the calendar settings so I'll see how it goes.
matrello said:
this will be fixed - tought it won't be an option - on v1.2 (v1.1 is already on certification).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool.
matrello said:
Week Calendar reads the system setting about this. overriding it by a single app is discouraged, however I'll add it to the wishing list and see if some other asks the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a system setting for this somewhere that I missed?
matrello said:
this will be probably part of v1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent.
matrello said:
leave a comment on the marketplace also, it's really useful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Purchased and rated!
jpijper said:
I second the need to suppress birthdays, or perhaps all-day events in general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
future version will have an option to show allday events on top of a day, I think this should satisfy most users.
jpijper said:
Option to use 24-hour format (I'm Dutch) would be nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
next version 1.1, which is currently under certification, will follow "24-hour clock" format set in wp7->settings->date+time.
You seem to anticipate my every wish Matrello
Did anyone already ask for week numbers? I would like that.
Let me also congratulate you on one of the most informative live tiles I have seen so far!
Thank you... Just spread the word all over!
I notify you that v1.1 is now available on the marketplace. I struggled a lot with the certification process... I hope next versions to be available sooner.
now I'm busy with next release. follow me on Twitter @WeekCalendarWP7.
Just found this application and loving it.
Thank you.
Hi. I have not yet downloaded your app.
Does it have a search function?
hi micha,
not yet but search functionality is planned for one of next versions. now WC is v1.2 and v1.3 development is in progress.
Week Calendar displaying the word "personal"
Hello,
I purchased and use Week Calendar. In the beginning things were okay. But now the word "personal" is on some bars and the entire day is grayed out with this word on top, like the whole day is "personal" How can I get rid of this? Before, things looked much neater in the live tile display. But now the live tiles seems to indicate the whole day is filled with events. But when I check it all it shows is the word "personal" on top and the entire day grayed out or colored. Please help. Thanks.
hi sanctemichael,
these are personal (private) appointments. next WC version will have an option not to include such appointments. I am quite busy but I am going to release it as soon as possibile. please follow me on twitter @WeekCalendarWP7.
Thanks
Thanks for your reply. Can't wait for the next version!
Name: Power Planner
This is a student homework planner for Windows Phone 7. I created it since there were no good homework apps on WP7 and I needed one, and I'm sure everyone else would love to use it too!
Power Planner has a unique feature where it automatically schedules reminders for you. At the end of your day (10 minutes after your last class), Power Planner sends you a reminder telling you what items you have due for tomorrow. Also, if you don't finish an assignment before it is due, Power Planner will remind you an hour before that class, telling you that you have incomplete items.
The app also has an excellent interface that makes adding assignments super fast. When adding homework assignments, you can simply press the "return" button on the keyboard to jump to the next box on the page. Also, Power Planner remembers your last selected class and due date, so you can quickly add multiple things to the same class faster than any other app.
And Power Planner now has an advanced grading system that allows you to use custom grade and GPA scales, weighted grades, classes with credits, etc!
And Power Planner has the best live tile! You can see when your next items are due without even opening the app!!
Tell me what you think of the demo video, and if you have any features you would like to see added to the app, list them here!
Source: This thread
Download: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=46a9c430-f253-4043-99c6-bc600335e9de
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Price: Free or $1.99 (paid version has a few extra features, but free trial is fully functional and is ad-free)
Will this be able to add the assignments as events in your calander? Specifically google calandar? I use that for most of my classes, and if it could integrate with that, then this app would be amazing!
uncled1023 said:
Will this be able to add the assignments as events in your calander? Specifically google calandar? I use that for most of my classes, and if it could integrate with that, then this app would be amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to look into adding that. How exactly do you want them to be added to a calendar?
Homework assignments really dont have a certain time and duration... Just like your general to-do list doesn't have those things. Would you want it to add your assignments to the to-do section of Google? Or for it to generate actual calendar appointments??
ace10134 said:
I'll have to look into adding that. How exactly do you want them to be added to a calendar?
Homework assignments really dont have a certain time and duration... Just like your general to-do list doesn't have those things. Would you want it to add your assignments to the to-do section of Google? Or for it to generate actual calendar appointments??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love for it to add like a 1 hour time slot appointment at the time its due. Or have an option that if you pick a due time as well as date, it will add it as an appointment for that time, or as a todo for that date.
uncled1023 said:
I would love for it to add like a 1 hour time slot appointment at the time its due. Or have an option that if you pick a due time as well as date, it will add it as an appointment for that time, or as a todo for that date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like it's really simple to use the Google Calendar API. I'll definitely try it out. If I ever add it, I'll be sure to post here telling you I did!
EDIT: Hmm, I don't think the Calendar API works with Silverlight... so that could be tough to add in. I don't have the skills right now to figure that out (hell I'm just starting to learn Java, it's my freshman year at college hah). Maybe in the future.
Looks like a nice app. Waiting for it to hit marketplace.
chaitanya91845 said:
Looks like a nice app. Waiting for it to hit marketplace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just hit the marketplace! http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=46a9c430-f253-4043-99c6-bc600335e9de
Unfortunately, I noticed a few bugs right after I submitted it 5 days ago.... so I already fixed them but the update won't be live until probably 12/16.
The major bug is that the homework tip will keep on appearing, even though the user has already seen it. For now, you could make it disappear by adding a homework item, and then before closing the app, edit the homework item, and then the app should remember that you saw the tip! It's an issue with me forgetting to put the SaveChangesToDatabase after the user clicked OK to the tip... very simple fix.
If you come across that bug (or the bug where in the Add Notes section, if you multitask and return to the page, it becomes unusable), please don't rate the app down cause of them... because they're fixed! Thanks and I'm looking forward to your feedback!
New version will also bring the ability to set custom reminders for exam items! (paid version).
why don't you just provide the same version XAP here? This will help XDA community users to test the bugs in new version as well
withwindows said:
why don't you just provide the same version XAP here? This will help XDA community users to test the bugs in new version as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you can do the trial/paid thing with an XAP.
drumercalzone09 said:
I don't think you can do the trial/paid thing with an XAP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Otherwise I would be fine with providing the XAP
Version 2.0 coming in a week!
I'll be releasing an update that should hit the marketplace in about a week, adding tons of new features!
Live Tile showing how many items are overdue, due today, or do tomorrow, or none
Splash screen
Extremely advanced grade/GPA system
Contextual "+" add button
And more!
The grading system will allow you to enter individual grades (like Test 1, Test 2, homework 1, etc) for each class. Then it will calculate your current grade. WP7 doesn't really have any apps that do this, so Power Planner is basically the first!
It also calculates your cumulative GPA.
The grade/GPA system is extremely customizable and accepts everything from honors/AP classes, custom grade scales, weighted grades, classes with credits, classes with no credits, classes with 0 credits, grade scales with the letter "E" instead of "F", etc!
The grading system is exclusive to the paid version though, since that took a TON of work to add. The live tile, however, is available to everyone.
Look forward to an update in about a week! And tell your friends about Power Planner if they have a Windows Phone, thanks!
I'm sure some kids are going to get killed by their teacher because they use their phone in class Thanks though
seiferflo said:
I'm sure some kids are going to get killed by their teacher because they use their phone in class Thanks though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol yeah, some teachers are lame like that
i just got it and reviewed lol. everything is really nice. in college i have never had a problem using my phone in class. this app hopefully will help cuz i do well on exams, homework on the other hand is my downfall. 5*
chrisizzle492 said:
i just got it and reviewed lol. everything is really nice. in college i have never had a problem using my phone in class. this app hopefully will help cuz i do well on exams, homework on the other hand is my downfall. 5*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'm glad you find it useful and that you'll be taking advantage of the office hours/website feature. That's one of my favorites, since I usually throw away the class syllabus and can never find office hours lol.
Enjoy! If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions, you can find my email address in Power Planner's settings -> About page.
Update 2.0
Version 2.0 just hit the marketplace! New features include Live Tile, grading/GPA system, contextual "+" button for classes/exams, and more!
awesome app. to bad im not in school. how bout a a version for work
I bought this app. It's great, good job. One question, how does backup work in the new update? I was just checking it out, and i have to sign in to hotmail. Does it backup to Skydrive? Just wondering before i start entering passwords.
benjammin said:
I bought this app. It's great, good job. One question, how does backup work in the new update? I was just checking it out, and i have to sign in to hotmail. Does it backup to Skydrive? Just wondering before i start entering passwords.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet I'm glad you got the update already!
Backup uses Skydrive. When you enter your password and email, you're giving it directly to Microsoft and it never sees me. That's how the Skydrive API works. I also never see your backed up data, it's all stored on your Skydrive account.
Once you backup, you can go to your SkyDrive and you'll see your data in a folder called IsolatedDataStorage. You can actually open the text documents in there and view the raw data if you would like!
ace10134 said:
Sweet I'm glad you got the update already!
Backup uses Skydrive. When you enter your password and email, you're giving it directly to Microsoft and it never sees me. That's how the Skydrive API works. I also never see your backed up data, it's all stored on your Skydrive account.
Once you backup, you can go to your SkyDrive and you'll see your data in a folder called IsolatedDataStorage. You can actually open the text documents in there and view the raw data if you would like!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a good idea. I really want to develop for windows phone 7, but i have zero imagination or creativity haha.
This is a discussion thread for Birthdays Diary, one of my Windows Phone apps. I hope you'll like it.
Screenshots:
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Demo video: here
Official Facebook Page: here
Description:
Birthdays Diary is a great free app for browsing and managing your friends' birthdays.
You can easily see birthdays coming soon or find the birthday of a particular friend.
Birthdays Diary features a nice, customizable live tile, allowing you to peek at coming birthdays from your home screen.
Other features include:
browse birthdays by month, week or day
see additional data, like age and zodiac sign
hide birthdays you are not interested in
greet your friends from within the app
Facebook integration
User reactions.
Currently the app reads birthdays from Facebook and from the phone. It is not possible to add custom birthdays in the app. This will be available in the next version.
Version history:
Version 1.1
[Improved] User interface improvements
[Fixed] Birthdays displayed one day earlier in certain time zones
Discussions.
I welcome any feature requests, bug reports or just random thoughts.
Thank you and take care.
Free download:
I do like this app, but there are currently two issues that stop me from getting it.
a) Duplicate entries. In the case where a local contact is also on FB, it creates two entries. I know there is an option to hide one of these, but this also means you lose half of the contact details. It should be possible to merge these, no?
But more importantly
b) Ads and I'm not talking about the banner ads (although would prefer an ad-free version - paid for, of course). The issue is the added icons linking back to your other apps. Fair enough if these were in the about page or something, but remove them from the menus. It just ruins the clean look of an otherwise excellent app.
If you made a fully ad-free version and found a way to deal with linked contacts, I'd be more than happy to pay for this app.
First of all, thank you for the feedback.
About A, the duplicate entries. I think it is currently not possible for third party apps to get the linked contacts in Windows Phone. Even if you linked two or more contacts there is no way for a developer to find out they are linked. Please someone correct me if I am wrong here(I hope I am).
About B, the color icons in the app bar. I am sorry they annoy you. I believe this is a less annoying way to promote my other apps. It is just an icon. But you are correct, they should be limited somehow, not showing so much and maybe only in certain screens. Point taken.
Once the app becomes mature I will release a paid version without ads.
Nice app, duplicate contacts can be hidden, its fantastic.
But - stupid adds on bottom page, some strange buttons.
I'd rather pay some money than annoying adds...
So, now its unusable for me.
ldokov said:
About A, the duplicate entries. I think it is currently not possible for third party apps to get the linked contacts in Windows Phone. Even if you linked two or more contacts there is no way for a developer to find out they are linked. Please someone correct me if I am wrong here(I hope I am).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen some apps that pull data from Facebook and Windows Live; merging it into one contact. However, I believe this is done by comparing the name and probably depends on it being exactly the same. Having thought about it a bit more, I think your solution of being able to hide one is actually quite a nice way of dealing with it; plus it has the added advantage of being able to hide those birthdays you're not necessarily interested in.
It would be great if you released a paid version. Keep us posted if you do, as I really like the app and would definitely buy an ad-free release.
Keep up the good work!
Petulinek said:
Nice app, duplicate contacts can be hidden, its fantastic.
But - stupid adds on bottom page, some strange buttons.
I'd rather pay some money than annoying adds...
So, now its unusable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry you see it that way. But that's how life is - free apps come with ads. I tried to make ads unobtrusive and looking nice, but it is only possible to some extent.
About the color icons in the menu: they were not color at first, but then they looked similar to the other icons and you expect them to do something related to the current screen, which I think is worse. I decided to make them color - they look nice, different and you always know what they do. This is for the black theme. If you are using white theme, they look the same as other icons (black). There is nothing I can do about that.
As I wrote, once the app matures I will release a paid version. I just want it to be perfect if I am going to take people's money for it, this is why I am waiting a bit. Also, I will make the color ad icons in the app bar appear less often and in fewer places, as I promised Gorki247.
Thank you for understanding.
Gorki247 said:
I've seen some apps that pull data from Facebook and Windows Live; merging it into one contact. However, I believe this is done by comparing the name and probably depends on it being exactly the same. Having thought about it a bit more, I think your solution of being able to hide one is actually quite a nice way of dealing with it; plus it has the added advantage of being able to hide those birthdays you're not necessarily interested in.
It would be great if you released a paid version. Keep us posted if you do, as I really like the app and would definitely buy an ad-free release.
Keep up the good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is possible to merge contacts by comparing the name, However, I think the name is rarely exactly the same in Facebook and in the phone(Windows Live). The main reason is that in Facebook your friend normally writes his real name while in the phone you write whatever name you know him by (maybe a nickname or just the first name).
I have an idea on how it might be possible to merge contacts but I am not sure it will work. I will try it for one of the next versions and will let you know if it works or not.
Thank you for the feedback and for understanding the problem, it's always good to have a constructive discussion. This really helps me make Birthdays Diary a better app.
I will definitely announce it here when I release a paid version.
New version released!
The next version of Birthdays Diary is now available in the marketplace! I hope you'll like it! You can download it from here.
The update adds several new features and also fixes some known issues. Here is the complete changelog:
Version 1.2 changes
[New] Ability to add custom anniversaries
[New] Ability to show days left in live tile
[New] Compatibility with low-memory devices
[Improved] Birth date is now visible in search
[Improved] Advertizing menu icon is now showing much more rarely
[Improved] Default live tile settings adjusted
[Fixed] Facebook synchronization problems
[Fixed] Posting on friend's wall did succeed but progress was not hiding
[Fixed] Age was sometimes not showing in live tile even if turned on
[Fixed] "Show zero count" setting for live tile not working for "Single birthday" mode
The inbuilt windows phone calendar does a great job in syncing and reminding all the birthdays of your windows live,fb contacts. But this a nice app as well.
Sent from my Lumia 710 using Board Express
Very nice app!
it's the most fluid birthdays app I tryed.
I just miss the possibility of notifications like reminders.
Apart from that it's very good.
eltonada said:
Very nice app!
it's the most fluid birthdays app I tryed.
I just miss the possibility of notifications like reminders.
Apart from that it's very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi eltonada,
I am glad you like the app!
Reminders are definitely coming in one of the next versions. I am currently thinking on the best way to implement them.
Thank you for the feedback!
Here is our detailed review we did for our Readers http://www.wpxbox.com/birthdays-diary-facebook/
It includes a video and suggestions for the app. Thanks for making such a brilliant app for Windows Phone.
wpxbox said:
Here is our detailed review we did for our Readers http://www.wpxbox.com/birthdays-diary-facebook/
It includes a video and suggestions for the app. Thanks for making such a brilliant app for Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great review, thank you!
Also, I really appreciate the suggestions, they definitely make sense. Since this is the official forum thread, I will write a few comments:
Suggestion 1: improving responsiveness.
I am trying to improve responsiveness all the time, but there is always more to be desired. Also, it is different on different phones. For example, it works great on Lumia 800 with its 1.4 GHz processor. It works fine on the Omnia 7, but not as fast as on the Nokia. I guess it would be worse on the Lumia 610, but I do not have such a phone yet.
Suggestion 2: pin individual user as live tile.
This is definitely doable, but you can also pin a user from contacts. You can also post on his wall from there. I am not sure what can I do to make it better. Please let me know if you have something in mind.
Suggestion 3: integrate Facebook Contacts with Contacts on the phone.
I am already working on this. This was an idea since the first version but I never had the time to do it. It is not very easy, you can read my earlier posts in this thread for more info on that topic.
Suggestion 4: Pull in last status update for the Facebook contact.
This is also doable. I am also thinking about other ways to integrate Facebook. For example, maybe it would be nice to see who else wrote on your friend's wall for his birthday.
Let me know if you have other suggestions or anything else you want to share about the app. I will be happy to discuss it.
Looks fascinating, I like the GUI, will try it out.
Hello everyone,
Version 1.3 is now available worldwide. It is mostly a bugfix release, here are the changes:
[New] Introduced a setting to disable category-based background color for the live tile
[Improved] Spell check is now enabled for Name and Description fields (when adding custom anniversary)
[Fixed] Minor Facebook integration issues were fixed
[Fixed] "Single birthday" mode for the live tile now works correctly
Another update is coming soon, it will include support for three new languages: Portuguese(Portugal), Portuguese(Brazil) and Dutch.
I would appreciate your help with translating the app to other languages as well. If you want to help, just let me know and I will send you the files. It should take no more than 2-3 hours if you are fluent with the language.
Thank you, I hope you like the new version.
Paid version released
A paid, ad-free version of Birthdays Diary is now available. You can get it from here: http://bit.ly/Krfrvr
The paid version is exactly the same as the free version, except it does not show ads at the bottom of the screen.
Please note, that the paid version uses different storage than the free version. This means you will lose any settings or custom anniversaries you have entered. This is a limitation of Windows Phone, one app cannot access the storage of another. I am planning to introduce SkyDrive integration and the ability to back up and synchronize data there, but this is not yet available.
Thanks ldokov. I noticed the paid version today and bought it immediately based on my experience with the free version. This is the best Birthday app out there, IMHO. Works really well on my Lumia 800. Great job!
Personally, I also love the fact that we can add other anniversaries and set the live tile to use the relevant colour. It's a really useful feature.
Edit: Just noticed that with adding a custom birthday, the 'year is unknown/does not matter' option doesn't seem to do anything; i.e. the entry will still show a birth year even if this box has been ticked (unless I'm missing something).
Thanks
Gorki247 said:
Edit: Just noticed that with adding a custom birthday, the 'year is unknown/does not matter' option doesn't seem to do anything; i.e. the entry will still show a birth year even if this box has been ticked (unless I'm missing something).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Gorki247,
I am glad you like the app!
Indeed, I just tested it and it is a bug. Even if you check that the year is unknown, it still shows you the selected year. This will be fixed in the next update. Thanks for reporting it. :good:
Hi everyone,
I would like to announce that version 1.4 is now available!
The most significant in it is the support for four new languages: Dutch, Czech, Portuguese (Portugal) and Portuguese (Brazil).
Here is the full list of changes:
[New] Four new languages are now available: Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Dutch and Czech
[Improved] Live tile: if contact picture is unavailable, contact name is always displayed
[Fixed] The app was crashing sometimes when selecting main or related contact for custom anniversary
[Fixed] Filtering by category was not working properly
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Note: This version of the app has hit its token limit, for more info on my plans and its future, check out this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56228193&postcount=553
Hello guys! From the creators of Sliding Messaging Pro, I would like to announce one of our new projects: Talon for Twitter!
This one, along with klinkdawg's EvolveSMS are the two brand new apps that we have been creating the past few months. They are full of polish, features, and beautiful design and KitKat style! Both of these apps are availible on the Google Play store today, but lets get to know Talon a little first
Talon for Twitter - Google Play Store
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Play Store Description:
Get fully immersed in your Twitter with this beautiful, feature PACKED Twitter client with a design that actually makes sense!
Created with Android 4.4 (KitKat) in mind. Includes full screen layouts, stunning animations and more! Of course that doesn't mean earlier versions of android get left out! The only thing that wasn't able to be recreated in Android 4.3 and below was the transparent navigation and status bars... Sorry! It just isn't possible
Beautiful, up-to-date layouts, designs, and neat animations isn't the only thing Talon has going for it though! The list of features is enormous as well, doing everything you could ever want from a Twitter app right off the bat. Even though it is new, I have added every single major and minor Twitter feature that I think is absolutely essential plus a ton that most people wouldn't even think of. Here is a pretty comprehensive list of its features:
Twitter features:
- Live streaming support
- Support for 2 accounts
- View your timelines (main, mentions, direct messages, links, and pictures)
- View retweets, favorites, Local and world trending, user profiles, Twitter lists, and more
- Favorite users
- Search Twitter
- Delete, favorite, retweet, quote, and reply to statuses
- view replies to statuses
- Update your profile picture, banner, location, and user description
- block, follow, and add users to lists
- search for your friends to tweet at
- Attach pictures to your tweets
- Attach locations to your tweets
- And the list goes on
Customization features:
- Extremely powerful developer theme engine (Read the second post )
- Choose between either "Talon" or "Hangouts" layouts
- Choose from 3 beautiful base themes (light, dark, and pitch black)
- Custom text sizes
- Night mode
- Auto-Refresh options
- Custom notification settings
- And many other goodies in there as well!
App Features:
- "Talon Pull" to be always listening for interactions (mentions, retweets, favorites, new followers, and direct messages)
- Expandable, actionable, and dynamic notification system
- Full app popup
- Full emoji support
- View in-line Twitter and Instagram pictures
- View in-line YouTube thumbnails
- Native YouTube player
- In-app browser
- Complete landscape and tablet modes
- Advance to new pages in a "windowed" viewing mode
- Never leave your timeline with in-line replies, favorites, and retweets
- Actionable toast bar so you always know where you are and can jump to the top
- Hiding action bar
- "Do not disturb" mode
- Widget for main timeline
- DashClock Extension
- Draft system for unsent/failed tweets
- Google style pull to refresh for quick refreshing
- Save tweet pictures
- Share content with other apps, to and from Talon
You will never go back to your old Twitter client again!
Enjoy Talon and don't hesitate to contact me with questions, requests, or bugs!
Thanks!
Contact me (Luke Klinker):
Email: [email protected]
My Twitter: @lukeklinker
Talon's Twitter: @TalonAndroid
Google+ Beta Page
Emojis
Here are two different emoji plugins for you to choose from, choose whichever suits you best, install it and never worry about it again!
Sliding Emoji Keyboard - Android
Sliding Emoji Keyboard - iOS
Permissions Explained:
- Write to Storage: Saves pictures to your SD card and writes them into the cache.
- Read from Storage: Used when backing up settings.
- Location: Used for trends and attaching locations to tweets.
- Network Communication: Obviously have to be able to interact with Twitter
- Network State: Used so the user can toggle background sync to only over WiFi.
- Run at Startup: Re-schedules the background refreshes.
- Keep Awake: Used for background refreshes and waking the screen.
- Vibrate: Used for the notifications.
Credits:
- Jacob Klinker: to many things to list! Tons of ideas, support, and inspiration
- Aaron Klinker: Icon Design
- Other open-source libraries and resources used can be found under the 'Get Help' section in settings.
-----------------------------------------------------
Screenshots:
-----------------------------------------------------
Closing Comments:
I have worked really hard to bring you guys a great experience right from the start this time and it really shows, from the login screen to the timelines, you will be fully satisfied with the design, execution and finesse that Talon brings to your phone. It isn't going to take months to get up to speed like Sliding Messaging did. I have designed this to be efficient, fast, and just work, right from the start. I learned a ton from that app and Talon goes to show just how much.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, sound off in the comments with question, concerns, suggestion, or whatever else you feel like saying about the app!
One more thing to say before I leave you here, please remember that this is XDA, and you are all expected to be a little bit different Android users, if you are having a force close or something, I would like you to be able to post a logcat of it. If you are wondering about why I did something the way I did, then I will probably explain it to you in a programming sense instead of how I would to a normal user on the Google+ beta page or something, because that makes much more sense to me, is easier on me, and you should be able to understand it a little bit better... Just keep that in mind and stay on topic please
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
1.) Push Notifications
I am just going to say this now, before anyone asks: Push notifications will not be coming to Talon unless something changes with the Twitter APIs. I have created "Talon Pull" with is simply an always on, listening/streaming service that will receive new tweets from Twitter whenever your Twitter handle is included. To read more about this option, look at the "Talon Pull" section below the "Reasons" section.
Reasons
This will be the more technical part of this post, if you don't want to read and understand it, then you will have to just accept my answer from above. If you don't accept that I know what I am talking about... Then by all means, read on, I will try to keep it as simple as possible.
To access Twitter, they have provided us with the REST APIs (currently version 1.1). These APIs allow developers to communicate with Twitter in real time by just submitting requests to get data from the network. They make it relatively simple - if you know what your doing - to obtain the data that they allow you to get and store, but there are plenty of limitations to these APIs, which make sense: Twitter is a completely free service and make their money off of advertisements. They want people to use their official Twitter products (such as the web or their own Android app) to access their services because they are able to place advertisements in them and that is the only way they make money. So they just aren't going to make some things available for 3rd party developers.
One of those things is their push notification system. As I said before, they allow us to access their services with these REST APIs, but they also have a Streaming API available so that a 3rd party service, such as this one, could be "always connected". Sounds great right? Maybe, maybe not. More testing probably needs to go into it, because it is very new in Talon. For the past few weeks though, I can say that it doesn't seem to take up much more battery than sycning on an intervol does. So try it and let me know. I have done the best I can to optimize this service, but if you want to know more about it, read below in the "Talon Pull" section
What these streaming APIs should be used for is a server side interaction that would then connect to GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) and send push notifications from there. I would love to say I am working on something like this, but it isn't possible for a developer like me. I don't have the time, resources, or knowledge to set up a complex server like this. The knowledge I could get, but I am a 20 year old kid, working off of this 1 MB/sec internet connection while being a full time college student at the University of Iowa. I wouldn't be able to handle the upkeep of the system like this or the traffic. I just don't have the backend necessary for this type of thing, and there aren't many developers who do. So push notifications from the server side? Way out of the question.
That leaves only one thing to do: wait. Maybe Twitter will open up some kind of push notification service to it's developers, but I wouldn't count on that. The ideal thing for them to do would be to set up their own GCM server for us to communicate with, but I don't see that as being likely at all because of the advertising. That would take away one of the main draws for their app, leaving it with almost nothing that 3rd party developers can't do. For now though, "Talon Pull" seems to be working well and I would encourage you all to try it out. Battery seems to be fine, the one drawback is that you must be connected to a datasource right when the interaction happens or it won't be saved or shown.
Talon Pull - My solution/workaround
As I said before, this is NOT push notifications. Push notifications are sent to your device to notify you from some kind of server. They aren't always on, and only turn on when your device receives the info from the web service.
Talon Pull on the other hand, uses Twitter's Streaming API to just create an "always on" service to be constantly listening for and streaming tweets that contain your Twitter Handle. The way this works is that you are signed in with your API keys after you turn on the option to enable Talon Pull. I then just create this "listener" that Twitter's servers will send new tweets to. Luckily, they will take care of most of the filtering of those tweets on their end, to reduce the load as much as possible on your device (because before the filtering, it literally will receive every single public tweet that is happening. It was amazing when I first flipped and saw the tweets flowing over my log haha). So we filter it down to as few of tweets actually reaching your device as possible, then I start broadcasting the notifications when you receive the new ones.
Overall, it is a relatively simple process, the problem with it though, you have probably already realized, you have to be constantly connected with a data service or the app won't know when to receive the new tweets. Obviously that is the part that is going to end up taking the battery (if it does), not "bloated" or "un-optimized" code as some of you I sure believed. So far though, through my testing, it doesn't seem to have a very big impact on battery overall, but I suppose that it potentially could if you are using Twitter that much more than I do.
If there was a better way, I wish I could find it. I think that this is the method that most 3rd party services use to send you those fake "push notifications". So there ya have it, hope you learned something. It works well and it is the only way to get a lot of information like who favorited or retweeted your statuses
Conclusion
Thanks for the read, if you made it all the way, hope that gives you an idea as to why push notifications just aren't even an option at this point and what my solution to that problem has been, even if it is not ideal. It works, and it seems to be working quite well for me.
So just know: "Talon Pull" isn't quite the same as push notifications, but it is as close as you are going to get and is working better for me than I would have ever imagined. Enjoy!
2.) Translucency
Why aren’t my status bar and navigation bar translucent like in all of the screenshots?!?
This is an Android 4.4 KitKat feature only. Get a new phone/ROM if you want it.
3.) Theming Support and Limitations
We have created a pretty powerful theme engine for Talon and EvolveSMS this time around, but it isn't without its limitations.
The main app color will always be orange. Don't ask to change it. That isn't something I can theme dynamically or read from an add on package, themers can change the orange glow on the in-line buttons (favorite, retweet, and send), but that is as much as your are going to get with that one.
4.) Viewing users who "retweet" and "favorite" your statuses
This is another thing that isn't going to happen at this point. It isn't possible to get the user ID's or their names with the current version of the API's.
Maybe Twitter will open this up in the future, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.For now, the best you will get is the numbers on them
The only way to get this information is through the use of "Talon Pull" and the Streaming API's. When you get a retweet or favorite, it will be put in the interactions drawer on the right side of any activities with drawers.The only way to get this information is through the use of "Talon Pull" and the Streaming API's. When you get a retweet or favorite, it will be put in the interactions drawer on the right side of any activities with drawers.
5.) Clearing the Cache
If you know much about caching in Android, then you may wonder why in the world I would want to clear it every time you switch themes.
The answer is pretty simple: to vastly improve the performance and the smooth scrolling in the app, I save the profile pictures according to the current theme's style, whether that is circle (like the "Talon" layout) or square (like the "Hangouts" layout). This preference is also available to themers in the add-on themes.
By caching them directly as circles, it alleviates the need to do it on the fly which could consume quite a bit of processing power on older phones and would just be a complete waste to render them like that every time.
You may think it is a hassle, but you would be thanking me if you knew the difference it makes.
You can also view the current cache size and clear it manually from "Advanced Settings".
6.) Battery Consumption
If you use Talon a lot throughout the day, it is going to take up battery, simple as that. I find that on a 30 min refresh intervol for the different timelines and manually going in and browsing/updating throughout the day, it takes about 4-5% of my battery. I would say this is pretty normal because there are days that Google+ takes up to 10% with just casual browsing.
If that isn't acceptable for you though, then there are a few things you can do to reduce battery consumption:
1.) Turn down the refresh interval on the timelines. This is the big one. It is those background services that are going to drain your battery.
2.) Turn off "Refresh on Startup".
3.) Turn off "Talon Pull" and "Live Streaming"
4.) Don't have it sync the second account's mentions
And if all else fails... Get off Twitter and do something productive for awhile =D haha any app that accesses the internet and refreshes as much as a Twitter client is inherently going to use more battery in the background. There are ways to reduce it, but not always ways around it!
7.) Custom ROMs Immersive Mode
My custom ROM has "Immersive Mode" and Talon doesn't seem to play nice with it! What's up with that?!
The way that immersive mode works in your ROMs currently isn't so hot unfortunately. There is a reason Google didn't put it into the whole system because app developers would have problems implementing the "translucency" with conflicting system stuff.
Not to fret to much though, I was able to get things working smoothly with it in Talon. The problem was that my ListView's are expanded through the different system bars. This can be a big problem if you try to switch to "Immersive" in the middle of doing something in the app. You will notice the margins get all wanky on the top and the bottom of your lists.
It can be easily solve though by just restarting the app by swiping it out of your recent apps screen. Sorry, but that is the best I am going to be able to do here, Translucent bars an "Immersive Mode" just weren't meant to work together.
Theming in Talon
Theming in Talon for Twitter
Real quick, before you get to far into the content, I want to let all you developers know about one of, if not the standout feature of Talon and EvolveSMS: one incredibly powerful theme engine.
Along with these apps, me and Jacob have completely redesigned and rethought our old "Theme Engine" from Sliding Messaging! Although the Sliding Messaging one was cool and great for the average user to customize, it was slow, cluttered, limited, and just bad design from a developer perspective. This won't be an issue with these apps though. We remade everything about it to bring you the ultimate themeing and customization experience, without the bloat and slowdowns. You won't be disappointed when you see what it can do!
All this theme engine takes is a little bit of knowledge about layouts and resources in Android, along with the Android SDK to compile and distribute your package as an APK, then you can make both of these apps into literally ANYTHING you want. We are able to read the layouts, drawables, and some of the colors directly from your compiled package and place them in our apps! Sweet huh, you thought this kind of design your own thing was only for homescreens
And the best part: it is completely free and you can easily share these themes with anyone when you are done by just sending the APK or putting it on the Google Play Store!
For more info on these and to start making Talon really your own, check out these links:
1.) Talon Theming Example/Walkthrough on GitHub
2.) Google+ Community Theming Section - A great place to share so anyone can see and use your themes, not just XDA users
3.) Google+ Theming Post
gonna try it out soon
Amazing Twitter app, absolutely loving it so far. It is just stunning, and kudos to going with transparent navbar instead of immersive, it looks fantastic and doesn't require a gesutre to get to.
Yeah, I completely agree that transparent is the way to go over immersive on something like this, it takes more work, but definitely with it!
Why do you only support for 2 accounts? It's just a question!
Pac-Man said:
Why do you only support for 2 accounts? It's just a question!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, a little embarrassing, but because the logic behind coding more than that gets way complex... haha
klinkdawg24 said:
Well, a little embarrassing, but because the logic behind coding more than that gets way complex... haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry! But I hope you'll add multiaccount. There're a lot of people that love it
Anyway it's a good app with a perfect design. My sincerelly congratulations!
Enviado desde mi Nexus 4 mediante Tapatalk
Will love to try it, I paid for falcon and then it got free
Hoping for xda version
Maybe I'm just stupid.. How do you pull up replies to others tweets? Beautiful app btw... Love it...
wow this app looks beautiful, would love to try it, unfortunately, i dont have a credit card and can't purchase from google play. Will there be a free or xda version coming soon? if not is there any way for me to try this out? signed up for the beta as well
I got the app a couple of hours ago and it's amazing.
Just a few things..
Where did the Talon Pull notifications go when they are received? I have to manually to update the timeline anyway.
You have to pull down for too long in order to update. You should adjust it
You should definitely implement threaded DMs, that would be pretty cool
Great app btw,
donwhall70 said:
Maybe I'm just stupid.. How do you pull up replies to others tweets? Beautiful app btw... Love it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right now, you can only look backwards at tweets, looking forward will come when i figure it out haha
alkspo said:
wow this app looks beautiful, would love to try it, unfortunately, i dont have a credit card and can't purchase from google play. Will there be a free or xda version coming soon? if not is there any way for me to try this out? signed up for the beta as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, because of the token limit, this app is going to be paid, I thought about an XDA version with different tokens, but that would just go against Twitters rules still
Kage0x said:
I got the app a couple of hours ago and it's amazing.
Just a few things..
Where did the Talon Pull notifications go when they are received? I have to manually to update the timeline anyway.
You have to pull down for too long in order to update. You should adjust it
You should definitely implement threaded DMs, that would be pretty cool
Great app btw,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) They go to the interactions drawer on the right, make sure you are on the newest version and it will work better (1.01)
2.) i changed it for the version im releasing now
3.) yeah the dm's have a lot of work i know!
Version 1.05
(up in ~2 hours)
Well, day one is coming to a close and i have added some nice stuff for all of you
There was an update earlier that solved some issues with the Talon Pull service not working and tweets being saved twice in some places. That was version 1.01.
Changelog for 1.05:
Correctly mute retweets
- Higher quality images on timeline
- Dismiss all on interactions drawer
- In-app browser is now optional
- Lowered swipe length for Pull to Refresh
- Option to display both screenname and name on timeline tweets
- Open app from clicking icon on widget
- Finished German translation
- Fixed contact images on layout change
- Attempted fixes for Play Store crash reports
I hopefully got the force closes that were reported today taken care of. Although there weren't many, which makes me happy
Let me know how this version works for all of you!
hi mate
the last update is wonderful
it fix almost every complain ppl have.... BUT.....
PLEASE and i repeat PLEASE don't use the same way of plume to manage DM
the DM must be in threaded conversations, with the ability to delete entire threads, just like a normal "sms" application does, and just like tweetbot does.
please fix the dm section and this could be the real deal for android users.
faremoney said:
hi mate
the last update is wonderful
it fix almost every complain ppl have.... BUT.....
PLEASE and i repeat PLEASE don't use the same way of plume to manage DM
the DM must be in threaded conversations, with the ability to delete entire threads, just like a normal "sms" application does, and just like tweetbot does.
please fix the dm section and this could be the real deal for android users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DMs will get a big rewrite, but I have a few other things I need to do first
klinkdawg24 said:
DMs will get a big rewrite, but I have a few other things I need to do first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice app. I only have two "issues" Local Trends is displaying trendings from another country. The same happened to me with Falcon Pro so, I guess you both use same location service. It would be nice to have an option to select trends manually for people who is living in another country and wanna know what is happenning in their "home"
The other issue I found is that I think data loading is faster in other Twitter clients especially with timeline refresh
OK, this gets better and better.
The pull to refresh is better than before, but it still needs some improvement. Take a look at how the one from the gmail app behaves. That one is perfect. But this is just a minor issue, so it's not a big deal
Regarding the DM issue, could you at least change the order in which they are displayed, or at least give us the opportunity to do so? It's kinda weird to have the old ones first. But it really depends on long will it take to rewrite the whole thing, if you're going to do it
Also, I really think mentions notifications from the Talon Pull should go directly into the mentions tab instead of the additional drawer, but maybe that's just me
awesome. perhaps the only competitor falсon. you can do that display images if given a direct link to it? (everywhere)
view who retweet/favorite. display real-time, I mean like 20:14, but not 14 minutes ago. thx, man.