Database Develop

BarTor Torrent App Impressions?

Has anyone purchased this new app yet? This is one of those barcode scanner apps that finds torrents. Its $2.99 right now. I wanna wait for some impressions before I make the jump. The concept sounds pretty cool though.

Just saw the youtube video for it, from the video it looks simpler than torrent droid. I don't know if it is though since I haven't tried either. I'm almost willing to take the plunge seeing as I've spent more on less

Personally I'm waiting on a free torrent app before I try torrents on my G1. BitTorrent has always sat in a gray area, but an app like this pretty much supports piracy since 9 out of 10 times you're not going to be able to preview a movie or album in any short amount of time while you're in the store using a p2p download. I don't see it staying up on the market for very long in a commercial form. Besides, you have a 24 hour period to request a refund so if you want to take the plunge and don't like it you can refund.

torrent droid apk
It looks like it has not been released yet however, if it has and I have made a horrible horrible mistake, can someone provide the .apk or a link for the DL? I'll provide the same if/when I get it.
Thank dudes
<EDIT> http://zerofate.com/

Ron Overdrive said:
Personally I'm waiting on a free torrent app before I try torrents on my G1. BitTorrent has always sat in a gray area, but an app like this pretty much supports piracy since 9 out of 10 times you're not going to be able to preview a movie or album in any short amount of time while you're in the store using a p2p download. I don't see it staying up on the market for very long in a commercial form. Besides, you have a 24 hour period to request a refund so if you want to take the plunge and don't like it you can refund.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't seem to have read what the previous guy said: it doesn't DL to your phone. It sends the DL to your home PC.
Your point is the same, however, since it is farly exclusively for piracy.
-bZj

They send you a eyepatch in the mail with every purchase! YAR! Dun pillage me b00ty!
That aside, I took the plunge and this app was definitly worth every penny.

There are plenty of legal uses of BitTorrent.
Case and point, I tried to download Ubuntu last night from one of the many mirrors listed on the Ubuntu website. I got average 150-200 KB/s download speeds. I went to isoHunt, picked the first result for the same release (perfectly legal) and averaged 700 KB/s. This was a perfectly legal use of BarTor.
The BarCode scanning is a perk, it is merely an additional way of entering the information you would have entered anyway. And it even provides a couple of search results for purchasable products offered online, often at much lower prices than the retail store you are in.
With the barcode scanning piece, I think it would be awesome if CDs were released with a QR Code linking to a sampler or something to that effect, so I could listen to a sampling of the artist and/or others. I know that I probably cannot change the way this type of content is delivered, but there are opportunities existing with this type of technology.

i bought it yesterday unfortunately i couldn't get around to messing around with it until today and after a few different ports being forwarded it finally stopped saying failed when i clicked on submit to client and now says success. just wish it had a gui so i could check on percentage complete, sorting by file type. thanks for the app nex, loving it so far. i also just noticed if i hit back to get out of the app then the next time i go in it force closes. its happened to me 3 times and I've deleted the .db file and then it goes back to normal, guess i just have to remember to not back out of the app and just hit home instead

I purchased the app and it works great. I think it is great to see more legal uses for torrents. I like being able to send torrents directly to my home PC when I'm on the go.

I'm not sure why mine isn't working. I am using uTorrent 1.6.1 and I entered my pc's ip address in the app with the ip address and the uTorrent port in the app. I scanned a dvd that I already owned and it's been stuck at Submitting To Client... for about 2 or 3 minutes.
Is there anything else that needs to be done?
Maybe it's my firewall... or router... or torrent app...
I thought this was supposed to be simple!

Binary100100 said:
I'm not sure why mine isn't working. I am using uTorrent 1.6.1 and I entered my pc's ip address in the app with the ip address and the uTorrent port in the app. I scanned a dvd that I already owned and it's been stuck at Submitting To Client... for about 2 or 3 minutes.
Is there anything else that needs to be done?
Maybe it's my firewall... or router... or torrent app...
I thought this was supposed to be simple!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you portfowarded correctly, did you try looking up the webui on the utorrent forums? No I bet, Here check it out http://forum.utorrent.com/viewforum.php?id=20
and the documents for installing
http://utorrent.com/documentation/webui
Hope that helps you set it up, the thing that causes the most problems is the Portforwarding so make sure you do it correctly

I helped with the beta testing on this and love this app. I was the first one to purchase it and rate it (never said "first" though). As for the comment above about wishing it had a gui, it just sends the torrent file to your desktop torrent client, so your desktop is the part that needs the gui (and if this app works, you have a gui because that is a requirement). Read your torrent client (utorrent/vuze/ktorrent) help to find out how to use it. I have a shortcut on my desktop to my ktorrent webui so i can view/edit the torrent download settings.

FuMMoD said:
Make sure you portfowarded correctly, did you try looking up the webui on the utorrent forums? No I bet, Here check it out http://forum.utorrent.com/viewforum.php?id=20
and the documents for installing
http://utorrent.com/documentation/webui
Hope that helps you set it up, the thing that causes the most problems is the Portforwarding so make sure you do it correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I checked out the webui on the torrent forums.
Check it out... i enter http://Ip:UTPort/gui/ and I get this on my page:
¡¨!â2±}òR}ŽçœO£óþ8åÀ^]ÉoÏÄ/k,6’þ5¾©¨ïtsFIYŠ·æ|÷ÃHÜÚ×øKnàþäÕLýÿúaóTÏf!éñ âY¹)u`Níàû›ÛWSG»ù'sƒ$eÙ‹ûþ†øôô•SýâÕ“IY9Ÿí8±v§K÷ež MÁëÿ7þåýÈ{·I4õ_°b®ùLtè™à§gÚˆ-â¼íÒ- IØ^¸ÄEê¿]oS›‹ÌGìÝEúúm};_- ?š½˜/ž+Bæ.)eÄfÚ;»ÑÛGšháó=ùcYg ?’F• ;Ž‰a`é4TÞbïh ’©Àúæ[4Üli÷©L<çûÕ;qGœ\‹ð0Ï3‹EpÁ瘛øâðß(XÐvåÌ©J%eX»OƯ˜dŒ! U
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm no expert... but I think that may have something to do with the problem.
I tried F5... http://127.0.0.1:port/gui... http://127.0.0.1:8080/gui... pretty much everything that they had on the site to include http://YourIP:UTport/gui/?action=setsetting&s=webui.cookie&v={} (which did nothing) so... maybe i just need to reinstall uTorrent. I can't upgrade because I need it for BitSoup (they only support a handful of browser versions).

I assume that you are currently on the same WiFi network, and that you've made sure to enter the private network IP of your PC? Did you get those results when viewing attempting to view the Web UI on the PC in question?

I used the wrong words i guess, just something so I can see a quick rundown of what's actually downloading, because I had a torrent I tried to submit to client and it said failed but when I got home it was downloading and I never tried to submit it after the initial failed message. i mean dont get me wrong the app is good as it stands, just putting my 2 cents in for something i'd like to see

nEx.Software said:
I assume that you are currently on the same WiFi network, and that you've made sure to enter the private network IP of your PC? Did you get those results when viewing attempting to view the Web UI on the PC in question?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i use "http://localhost:38867/gui/" I get
‡"ƒ¡Ý¹ÎL"Ëp“EMhKÖÎ=Šãê.¹ÎV2˜`Xî*þ´‡ znDb(¥aôù¨fd˜ïo~†Ó8 À}‚Í]gý,-¯æçÄ[email protected]ôKúf‡áýü–ç5ïk†‚½¯kþ_¥´$¶™D¦Ìðžgy€jƒ\“
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I use my computers ip address "http://192.168.0.120:38867/gui" I get
k‚-/û0·Ï@¦èB rHGÔ¸Œú׫‚µ)8´RXxÛý‘Ê´²W?®ûÔÔd®„fUZ•Ý\_¶€?ú4Ð#€&ÎÜ%>ÖSÑ17ø”}FV°³~*ú,1Þö>zÓ.HîUª9¬ŽÏW‡!¡1uÃY¦ÐùBVÙÜ@ïá€F“m“[email protected]Øí~°MK¯ôØÓþOO'œµRìTÒ(ðÇ32:\ƒÈ¾¾òƒÓE!VÕe_Èd QþEÕ(LÔk,ÚÛX¬²öêã{s¤±‘kk1ŽÞñðâdZ¾cþæo{Ø_ÓÂõ}î39‰£¶jG»J賨Åîêücªbÿ¾(ì£Å*Êä*³gý‘bÀˆKÂP-¨1'‘Á+f˺Ÿ(ê=›‚ãÁ’ŒŒsµ‚î]ÖQ™`Nõ3 †coú²V}g‘Ù.šLòL¥Ä
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I enter "http://192.168.0.120:38867/gui/?action=setsetting&s=webui.cookie&v={}" I get
þYÊ<-s¢;AÕXªº6=ºõÑ‚û ºˆK[t:ºBÆ9° 'ƒâÔâÀ=cpÜO«˜1aóîô-{ÿ&rF)&»ÄÝ a/ Ûü\§gY+Ö ±ö±Š?×@øà¡AÝ2Y“ñ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I enter "http://localhost:38867/gui/?action=setsetting&s=webui.cookie&v={}" I get
üê E7¿Ñõ#ÚŒ*7Š#ɈPÖQµ‚ü#œO4‹+"&(-}]ú÷·t“ªÖ¥fœ´Etd^!OÛPæN'€Lʳ+³ÙHY9׉˖éDu&z¹ox¿ê÷äÇõ°Åêc‹ HŒ…¿VW¨Uß !"wYc,ØN6“nóAhHa"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So even though it's all the same... I always get a different result. A couple of times it asked me for my username and password and my heart skipped a beat because I thought that it was suddenly working... but I just got a blank page afterwards. I dunno what it is other than annoying.

i dont know if anyone is having this problem but i have tried to send over a torrent a few times today and it stays at the submitting to client point for about 10 minutes before i just cancel it out, yesterday i sent over a torrent and it took about half a minute to get the success message. i went on from the computer where i am and utorrent is active but for some reason i cant submit from my phone. just hoping someone can help me out on this.

BSDADON said:
I used the wrong words i guess, just something so I can see a quick rundown of what's actually downloading, because I had a torrent I tried to submit to client and it said failed but when I got home it was downloading and I never tried to submit it after the initial failed message. i mean dont get me wrong the app is good as it stands, just putting my 2 cents in for something i'd like to see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The default behavior is to retry failed downloads on Application Entry and Exit. After receiving the fail message, when you exited BarTor, the download was retried. It will continue to do so until either the submission to the client is successful or you cancel the download (Menu --> Downloads --> Cancel).

Binary100100 said:
If i use "http://localhost:38867/gui/" I get
If I use my computers ip address "http://192.168.0.120:38867/gui" I get
If I enter "http://192.168.0.120:38867/gui/?action=setsetting&s=webui.cookie&v={}" I get
If I enter "http://localhost:38867/gui/?action=setsetting&s=webui.cookie&v={}" I get
So even though it's all the same... I always get a different result. A couple of times it asked me for my username and password and my heart skipped a beat because I thought that it was suddenly working... but I just got a blank page afterwards. I dunno what it is other than annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like you've got uTorrent encrypting things and/or the WebUI is not handling the GZipped files properly. Maybe a reinstall of uTorrent or at least the Web UI will help.

nEx.Software said:
The default behavior is to retry failed downloads on Application Entry and Exit. After receiving the fail message, when you exited BarTor, the download was retried. It will continue to do so until either the submission to the client is successful or you cancel the download (Menu --> Downloads --> Cancel).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. Thats a nice feature so I don't have to keep trying to send it. What about if its stuck on submitting to client? I've deleted the .db files and rebooted my phone a few times and tried it through wifi also, but I still get the submitting to client for awhile before i just cancel out of it. I have re-entered my information a couple of times to make sure i had it right. i went into it from a computer using http://yourip:port/gui/ just to make sure my utorrent wasnt down and it came up right away. Also i have tried it with different files and sites just to make sure it wasn't a particular torrent site that was having issues. I can't think of what else to try or what it could be. Any ideas?

The endless irritation of automatic logout...

Sick of it.
I open a tab for xda-developers and leave it to load, log in, browse for a while, and go away to make a coffee, sort an issue for a colleague, play Teeter, whatever, and I'm logged out.
How can I stop this? I know it's only a small issue, but when it's every time I come to download a file, view a picture, post a comment, it becomes tiresome.

I supose that you always click the "remember me" button right?
Strange issue, I never had that on my Opera browser...

Just enable "remember me" button on your browser, then try again.

Remember me won't work; I don't keep a persistent cache (even for cookies).
I understand why a bank would have a session timeout measured in minutes, but a mobile phone forum? Seems like overkill...!

if you have firefox you could try password manager addons (i use sxipper)
most have autologon features (i think)

DeathJester said:
Sick of it.
I open a tab for xda-developers and leave it to load, log in, browse for a while, and go away to make a coffee, sort an issue for a colleague, play Teeter, whatever, and I'm logged out.
How can I stop this? I know it's only a small issue, but when it's every time I come to download a file, view a picture, post a comment, it becomes tiresome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you totally. I've never seen this on any site apart from sites where cash transactions are involved. Why do we have to get auto logged out. It's so annoying

buachaille said:
I agree with you totally. I've never seen this on any site apart from sites where cash transactions are involved. Why do we have to get auto logged out. It's so annoying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 Sooo annoying!

Noob either use cookies or stop QQing

Nothing to do with cookies. I have cookies enabled and get logged out while sitting here on the site. Like the OP said, I open a new tab and look around for a min on another site. Then go back to the xda tab and am frequently logged out. I am using Firefox also. And the fact that this is the only site that it happens on tells me its something on the site, not our settings. I frequent a good number of forums, and it doesn't happen elsewhere.

BUMP! This is still a problem, even when I check "Remember me".
What's the big idea? Why isn't this configurable? Not even 10 minutes and I'm logged out - I can barely make a full post without have to log in twice.
My new habit of copying everything I just wrote to the clipboard before posting, on top of being tedious, really shouldn't be necessary.

Stop using Internet Explorer, update Firefox, enable cookies, don't try to be a security freak using programs like CCcleaner often. Haven't had that problem on my mac with chrome, but I do have it happen on my computer at school, but that's because all of the settings are cleared every time I log off.

I'm thinking that site owners don't care that this behaviour annoys people, which is a shame - as it's profoundly irritating!
Another site I use a lot, which used to leave you logged in, has just started to do this too. Does it save on server load or something?

Didntt ever happen with me, and i use different versions of chrome on various platforms, alongwith firefox, am logged in always

on my dreambox for some reason the user or password has been changed from default and i cant figure it out.

buachaille said:
I'm thinking that site owners don't care that this behaviour annoys people, which is a shame - as it's profoundly irritating!
Another site I use a lot, which used to leave you logged in, has just started to do this too. Does it save on server load or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it reduces the size of the session table, keeping the site a little faster.
It's a necessary evil unfortunately. Why not allow the single cookie storing session and the "remember me" password hash?

Am pissed off with this too...
I use ie9 and firefox (latest) with default settings. The site logs me off in a few mins.
Never happened to me in the past.. and am a regular user.
I use remember password too but still annoying.

Same problem here on latest chrome. Though it is not so much frequent.

Looking for beta testers for new Honeycomb App - What to Watch on Netflix

***** Updated June 3, 2011 *****
Thanks again to everyone who helped with the beta testing. Just wanted you to know that I just posted version 1 to the Android Market. It's free and you can get it here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.greggreno.whattowatch
-Gregg
***** Updated May 5, 2011 *****
Uploaded a new version to the same location. Here are the changes:
- Improved the scrolling position after adding more titles to the bottom, but still not perfect
- Fix bug leaving the Netflix registration window open
- Set maximum title list retrieval to 50 at a time
- Fixed bug with extra Edit Search Criteria icon showing in apps list
- Fixed size and look of loading images
- Added ability to turn off ads by buying an unlocker from the Android market
Netflix still hasn't fixed their problems with TV series and getting the data right in their API
***************************
Hi all. I've been working on a new Honeycomb only app called What To Watch, and I'm looking for some beta testers. Anyone interested in helping out?
I wanted a better way to browse for Netflix movies and also manage my queues. For example, I wanted to do something like "show me all Sci Fi movies available on Instant with a 3 star rating or higher, rated PG-13 or R, sorted by release date". I couldn't find any other web site or app to do this, so I figured I would build it myself.
There are 3 main sections:
1) My Searches - this is where you can create your own searches and save them for later. I create two to start with. Click on one and it will display the list in the panel on the right, 25 at a time. Once you click on one of the My Seaches items, you can edit it by long pressing it or clicking the Edit button at the top. Note that this uses a beta API from Netflix called OData. It's the only API that lets you do sophisticated searches like this, but unfortunately it is subject to change from Netflix and it may not always be current with the main Netflix library.
2) Netflix Queues - what you would expect. For example, what is in your DVD and Instant queues.
3) Top Lists - this comes from the Netflix web site rather than the API. It shows what the top titles are for each category. This method won't show the star ratings until you drill into a particular title.
You can download the apk here (note this is case sensitive):
http://jigawattlabs.com/temp/WhatToWatch.apk
Known issues:
This is the first release. Should probably call it an Alpha!
Authenticating with Netflix isn't quite right yet. You may wind up with the web browser still open after exiting the app, and you may get another instance of the app. But just exit everything and it should be ok
There is a bug with the Netflix API with TV series and specials. This is a problem on their end, so you might get some unexpected results when browsing TV shows
I would appreciate any and all comments in terms of general UI impressions, bugs, performance, usability.
You can reach me directly at [email protected].
Thanks!
-Gregg Reno

I just tried it out, seems to work great. I just wish there was a way to actually watch Netflix on my zoom

Thanks for trying it out. I'd love to be able to watch netflix movies as well, and I think we will see that at some point. Hopefully once Netflix makes that possible, I can integrate that into the app.
I'm also going to implement a friends feature, where you can mark your favorite movies and share it with friends, and see what their favorites are.
Comments from other folks are welcome!

My first impression of the app is that it has some shared elements with amazon's web page, which is great. But the reason I say first impression is that it isn't registering with netflix.
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.

chbennett - thanks for testing. Can you give me some more info on the problem you had registering? When clicking almost anything it should prompt you to register. If you say ok, it should take you to a Netflix web page. You may have to log in and then it should prompt you to give permission to the What To Watch application. If you approve,it should take you back to the app and you should be able to run any of the searches on the left.
Where did you run into problems?

I installed it on my XOOM. Log in into Netflix without any problems. Searching also good, but could be good to add additional information about movie like Availability (for some of it shows when it will be available in stream).
It's a pity that we still missing Hulu or Netflix apps on our XOOM. Get used to watch it on my iPad(

greno1 said:
chbennett - thanks for testing. Can you give me some more info on the problem you had registering? When clicking almost anything it should prompt you to register. If you say ok, it should take you to a Netflix web page. You may have to log in and then it should prompt you to give permission to the What To Watch application. If you approve,it should take you back to the app and you should be able to run any of the searches on the left.
Where did you run into problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically all it did for me (ill try it again) was stall out on the "registering with netflix" in app pop up, going no further.
Edit: still doesn't work
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.

Great app! Forcecloses when I click on New Instant Choices under Top Lists category
Also when going into the Instant Que list; I click one of the movies and it takes me to the description. I can also click on Similar, Drop from Instant or Add to Disc. If I choose Drop from Instant and click the back arrow it still shows in the Instant Que listing. Can we have the option of clicking the Instant Que button on the top left corner in the movie description to go back to the Instant Que listing and if we do happen to press the back arrow could the Instant Que listing automatically update with the removal of the movie?

Kozdoba - I will be adding additional information like directors and awards, but I'll also look at adding availability. Do you have an example title in mind I can test with?
bishop72 - thanks for finding the problem with the New Instant choices. I'll look at that one, but it may be because that's a really big list and I'm not handling it correctly. Also, good idea about removing titles from the instant titles if you click the remove from instant button. But the problem with that for me is if I remove it from the list, it should probably close that title window because it's no longer in the instant queue. Maybe someone hit the remove button by mistake and they want to re-add it?
Also I notice that there is some type of caching going on with the adding and removing from queues. When you add or remove, it does that action and then sends another request to netflix to get the current status. But it may not register that quickly. So you may hit remove from instant, and then I get back a status from Netflix saying it's still in the instant queue. If you click it again, it shows up ok.
I appreciate the feedback - good or bad!

greno1 said:
Kozdoba - I will be adding additional information like directors and awards, but I'll also look at adding availability. Do you have an example title in mind I can test with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look this series soon will be available online.
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Death_Note/70081003?trkid=2361637

downloaded the apk to nook but just got a parse error failed to load. I really love my netflix and was looking forward to tablet style look on nc.

The app installed fine, the Netflix login auth worked fine as well. The fit & finish look good as well. Some of the images and searches render a bit slow, but that could be my wifi. I will play with it more through the day and report back.

I believe i heard that Netflix was going to do a live stream with Netflix only productions, so a Top List of Netflix Original or something would be good.

Everyone - thanks for testing and for the comments. I really appreciate it! It's interesting it worked for some but didn't work for dbolton. Not sure why that is.
dbolton - can you post a screen shot of your error, or email it to me at [email protected]? I also took a few screen shots so you can see what it should look like:
http://jigawattlabs.com/w2w/screen1.png
http://jigawattlabs.com/w2w/screen2.png
kiteOregon - once Netflix posts a list of their own content in some type of list, I'll definitely look at adding that. For the Top Lists section, I'm just using the Netflix RSS feeds linked from the bottom of the page. Modified it somewhat to return no more that 50 at a time though since it would load too slow.
Thanks again!
-Gregg

Thus far all is working well. I really like the interface too, great job!
I am going to keep tinkering with it and let you know if I run into any issues or have any suggestions.
Thanks for the great app!

chbennett said:
Basically all it did for me (ill try it again) was stall out on the "registering with netflix" in app pop up, going no further.
Edit: still doesn't work
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard that Netflix was having problems with authorization from 3rd party apps. As a work around the suggest launching your browser and log into Netflix. Leave the browser running, and then launch the app and try to register again. Can you let me know if that works?
-Gregg

garyh2 said:
Thus far all is working well. I really like the interface too, great job!
I am going to keep tinkering with it and let you know if I run into any issues or have any suggestions.
Thanks for the great app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Working to add more features.

somehow I now have a 'edit search criteria' icon (same as main apps icon) in my app drawer as if it were a separate app.

My initial reaction is very positive, but I have the same issue as garyh2. When I tell it to uninstall, I am informed that it is part of the main application so obviously I left it there. This is a weird bug though...
The only other thing I noticed is that the placeholder icons that appear before titles and images populate are slightly larger than the images and titles that replace them. This doesn't really cause problems but is slightly distracting.
I really like the power search function and the ability to save searches and haven't really seen this functionality elsewhere. Good job!

Thanks garyh2 and vidriera - ill take a look at that. The edit screen is a separate activity rather than a fragment, which is probably its somehow getting its own icon. Just one of the differences with honeycomb I need to figure out.
Also good point about the loading graphic. I'll fix that too.

[APP][NST/G] Google(ish) News

5-31-21 I've ceased development on this app because I think there is a better alternative. See post #7.
*updated to version 1.3, adding error trap for discontinued or blank feeds*
It's been awhile since the demise of the last working version of Genie Widget (aka Google News and Weather) but not so long since the big G retooled news.google.com so that our browsers can no longer deal with it and also put the kibosh on the Google News RSS feeds. Sigh.
I have a work-around
Google News 1.3 for the NST/G exploits the "alerts" that Google offers on news topics. These alerts can be optioned in the form of RSS feeds. My app downloads the HTML source for the feed, picks out all the good stuff and trashes all the rest, then builds up a local HTML document which is easily displayed by our browsers (I highly recommend Opera Mobile for ease of scrolling and general all-around function). You can build up your own topics, change your mind, mix them about, read that one more story you didn't get to the first time around, etc. I'm not saying that your browser will negotiate every target link. Some newspaper sites have just become too much. That was true even when Genie Widget was still working. But updating Opera Mobile for TLS 1.2 solves much of that. See this post for details.. The beauty of this app is in the simplicity. It's entirely browser-based once the feeds are downloaded, so you're not going back and forth between the app and your browser (like the current Google News app.......). Designed for both portrait and landscape.
Requirements
1. Android 2.1 has a security issue with opening local HTML files. In order for Google News to work properly you need to address that. Included in the zip below is a tiny app, android-open-in-browser-0.0.4-4-debug. Install that. It's not my app but I have used it for years and wish I could credit the originator.
2. This is a Tasker-generated app. If you already have one of my other Tasker-generated apps or have previously installed GApps, you don't need the two Google maps library files included in the zip and can delete them. If you do need them, copy the two files into the locations shown below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
3. Create a folder in the root directory of your sdcard: Google News (exactly as shown)
4. Install the app itself, Google News.1.apk
How to use
Before you run the app you need to select some news categories, set up the feeds, get the URLs, blah-blah-blah. All of this is covered in the PDF included with the zip. It may seem a little annoying at the start, but it goes quickly once you get started and it's not like you have to do it every time you use the app. You're just setting up your news topics, just as if you were using the current Google News (either the app or the web version). Once you have your topics and URLs and have edited the included text file google_rss_feeds.txt, copy that into the Google News folder of your sdcard.
Note: recently (June 2019) the big G has not been very consistent with the RSS feeds. Some days they are "empty" but come back the next day with lots of stories. Some feed topics simply "die" and a minor change in the topic will resurrect them (change "World" to "World news", as an example). Version 1.3 includes a trap for these eventualities so that the app should not crash, even if your first feed comes up empty. To inspect/edit your feeds, point your browser (on your PC) to your Google Alerts page. If you are signed in this will be found among the options on the Google home page, in the upper right corner where the "apps" grid is shown.
Now you're good to go. Start the app, make sure you're connected to WiFi. There are only three buttons on the app screen. The first one, "Fetch the news" does just that. You will see a little toast that the first news category is being prepared. Once that is done, you will be taken to the browser and that page will open. Meanwhile the remaining pages are being downloaded and reconstructed in the background.
The news page is very simple. I tried to aim for readability over all other considerations (this is the reason the news items are in bold black, even though they are the external links). I have my Opera Mobile set to 100% page zoom. It looks good to me, but you could probably get away with 75%. External websites are another matter. At the title bar left is a drop-down menu button that gives you access to your other news topics. Since no fixed navbar schemes work under Android 2.1, there is a duplicate drop-up menu bar at the end of the page. The use of NoRefresh, or to a lesser extent FastMode, is a plus.
Edit: you cannot use this app with Opera Mini. It lacks the ability to open local HTML files.
The second option on the opening screen, "Read old news" sounds a bit daft, but I just thought maybe someone might have been looking at the topic pages, saw something that interested them and then got interrupted. So this option opens the first local file in the browser again and you can navigate from there. Strictly speaking, WiFi is not needed to browse the local files once they have been created, but it is needed to pursue any stories.
The third option simply dismisses the app screen.
Whew! So this is new...and I think I exterminated all the bugs, but I did not try other browsers. I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate feedback.

Google alert change? No option for RSS alerts anymore...
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm away from home right now but my copy of the app is working so the RSS feeds must still exist. I'll have to sit down with my instructions in front of the computer and see what mischief they've done. Thanks for letting me know.

v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I've run through the instructions sitting at my PC. Everything is correct although Firefox no longer wants to open the RSS feed page as anything other than an xml "text" file. That just means the image on page 4 needs updating.
As far as page 3, everything is currently exactly as shown. Just to be sure, you have to be signed in to Google on your browser before you do any of this. Then when you get to the screen depicted on page 3 you need to change the "Deliver to" option to RSS feed. But even before that, it's important not to get sucked into the email alert business back on page 2. Do NOT click on "Create Alert" there, only on "Show options". That's how you get to the screen I show on page 3.
When you finally get to click on the little RSS symbol shown on the lower half of page 3, you (at least on Firefox) may end up at a page of xml code, or perhaps your browser may show a news feed page. Regardless, the URL shown for the page is the same and it's what you need to copy, just as described on page 4.
Let me know if you are still having issues with this.

v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a few days after I wrote my last post, the app stopped working for me. It just hangs on "Preparing......News"
Google has apparently changed the format of their RSS xml file. Right in the middle of something else at the moment, but I will get it fixed.
Nope, nix that. After fooling around with the app and an xml file from the Big G, I find nothing out of place and it seems the app is now working again
They're just messing with us.
Edit: Indeed they are. Today I caught another malfunction but this time looked at the Tasker routines for an error. Google is sending out (at least today) RSS feeds with empty content fields. That messes up my app. So I wrote an error trap for that. Updated in first post. Have to watch the big G like a hawk....

v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst looking around for a solution to a different issue, I came across this: https://medium.com/@cassandragraft/...tion-not-appearing-heres-the-fix-bf842ca32b88
It appears to address the issue you describe. I never encountered the issue, but obviously some people have.
The Big G is making me very angry lately. Even version 1.2 with a new error trap is crashing. I'm finding that some of my feeds are "empty". The skeleton of the RSS file is there but there is no content populating the file. A category as ordinary as "world" is simply blank. This is new and very annoying. Just a change of topic to "world news" brings up a list of stories longer than your arm. I encountered this before with "science" and fixed it with a slight change in name, so I should have seen this coming. It's a nasty game Google seems to be playing....
Anyway, if the app crashes on the first topic it leaves an overlay artifact behind when you exit. To remove this, go to the App Manager and force stop the app. I will work on a fix which will alert you to the effect that the feed appears dead but allow the app to complete the download of whatever is still working and exit properly.
Grr....
Edit: App updated to v1.3 in first post. I hope that solves the problems. For now.

As I mentioned in my edit of the first post, I think my app is exhibiting creakiness already owing to Opera Mobile's increasing difficulty negotiating many websites.
I have an alternative to suggest, however, that is totally browser based. It seems to work "OK" with Opera Mobile although text display is a bit small with a default zoom of 100%. In Opera Mini, however, it shines, especially with NoRefresh.
Thanks to XDA member @SJT75 , I found out about a list of text-only news sites. One of them is a text version of Google News! The list is at: https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/
While the Google News option does not allow for custom categories (hey, there's an app for that!), it does cover all the usual suspects. Even better, all of the links lead to text-only versions of the sources. Occasionally you go to a page and find it could not be fetched by whatever mechanism the author is using, but pages (even those error ones) include a link to the original source
Also notable on the list are the NPR and CNN sites. Both work well.

Question Shazam Login Link Fails

I'm trying to log into Shazam on my new Pixel 7. I had been successfully logged in on my Pixel 6 for the last year or so.
In order to "log in" you type in your email address and Shazam emails you a confirmation link. When I click on the link, it just hangs. I've talked to Apple ad nauseum with no luck. Then I noticed that the window that hangs has a puzzle piece icon. I'm not sure what that means. Any thoughts?
Fyi, I logged out on my 6 and was unable to log back in, same problem.
I know this is a minor problem, but before my dad died, he was listening to a lot of music. I had stealthily Shazam(ed) his favorite songs, songs of his that I liked, etc. I ended up losing it all because I happened to get a new phone right after he died, and apparently I wasn't logged in.. so I'm just being stubborn and I'm determined to log in, just in case.
Thank you!

Can you try long pressing on the link and see if you get the option to copy the link.
If you do copy the link, open up chrome on your phone and paste in the link and hit go/enter

I apologize. I performed a lot of troubleshooting on my own, then repeated it with Apple.
I have tried what you suggest, and it still doesn't work.
Another thing I forgot to mention:
I was able to successfully log into the web client. It works the same way. They send you a link via email. That link is different, of course.

I just ran into the same issue upgrading to a new Pixel. To resolve it, I had to long-click on the email link and select "Copy URL" and not the Open in Browser option. Once the link is copied, I opened it in Chrome and it took me to the Google Play store. From there, I had to select the link to "Install on more devices" and select my new Pixel from the list. It then said it would take a few minutes for it to install Shazam on my phone (even though it was already installed on it). I exited out of everything and went through the entire process again and this time when I clicked the link it opened Shazam and pulled in all of the contents of the Library from my old phone. Hope this process helps you.

Whatever was wrong, "they" fixed it. It worked perfectly for me today! Thanks for posting, because I had given up.