Todo Q v3.0.0 now supports Google Tasks

Todo Q v3.0.0 adds support for Google Tasks with automatic synchronization, multiple task list support, completion and delete using the new Tasks API.

This has been a long time coming and I know some of you have been waiting for this feature. Glad the API finally surfaced.

Todo Q is still only $1.99 on the android market. The Amazon market will be a bit behind while I do the 27 steps required for publishing.

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Todo Q featured on Lifehacker

Todo Q was mentioned on Lifehacker last week. An accurate, positive review with a couple of screenshots to boot.

Version 2.1.2 was also recently released on the android market.

+ new indicators on task list for time, location, and timebound location alarms
+ fixed filtering for android 3.0 - now fully functional
+ fixed time alarm converting to timebound location alarm

This screenshot shows the recurrence editor on my XOOM. (which is awesome!)

Also, I just submitted the app to the new Amazon market and it awaiting approval. I'm excited about this new market. Some decent competition in the market space might prompt Google to make some improvements.

My Interval is Bigger than Your Interval

One feature that's been a long time coming is custom intervals on repeating tasks. As of Todo Q v2.1.1, custom intervals on repeating tasks is supported. You can create a task that repeats every 3 day, 2 weeks, 4 months, etc. Another new repeating task feature is the ability to base the next task start date on the current completion date, instead of the original task start date. By default, the start date is used in the calculation.

Here's a shot of the new dialog on my stock droid.

Also added in a prior release is a new snooze dialog. This dialog appears when you click a notification in the status bar. Using this dialog you can set a snooze alarm, dismiss the alarm, or complete the task.

In the interest of keeping users informed, the release notes are now cumulative and outline the changes in each release back to v1.2.0.

Todo Q is only $1.99 on the android market. Give it a try.

Editor Redesign

The task editor in Todo Q had always been functional, but not very pretty. Today v2.0.3 is released and includes an updated look & feel for the editor and some function changes. In prior releases, "clicking" the location field would bring up your existing locations. This causes an issue on a new install since, well, you don't have any and Todo Q displayed an empty list that had to be closed. The list would also popup sometimes when you really just wanted to edit. Less than great usability. This is resolved by adding a "Locations" button to the right to select a saved location. Other changes include adding the day to the date display and trimming the date & time values of their leading zeroes. Also labeled the icon.



















Scrolling down a bit we see all the dropdown or spinners as android calls them have been made to fit the width. Plus we've added separator bars to break things up a bit. And finally, Save and Revert buttons. In the beginning, you just "backed out" of the window to save. Then I added menu items, and now buttons. It does improve the usability imho. Great advice "Bird Dog".

I hope users like these changes. I did run it by a couple who thought it was an improvement.

Todo Q is only $1.99 on the android market.

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No Permission

Recently I was reviewing the permissions on the new market website site. When I read the following, I thought WTF?

Act As An Account Authenticator
Allows an application to use the account authenticator capabilities of the AccountManager, including creating accounts and getting and setting their passwords.
Use The Authentication Credentials Of An Account
Allows an application to request authentication tokens.
Manage The Accounts List
Allows an application to perform operations like adding, and removing accounts and deleting their password.

 The 1st and 3rd permissions sound pretty scary and I wasn't sure why they were there. At one time, I considered automatically creating a "Todo Q" calendar in the user's google calendar, so that could be the reason. Anyway, I pulled both. Todo Q will still request a token for the "send to friend" feature. Send to Friend allows you to send tasks to another Todo Q user or anyone using SMS.

Following is a screenshot of the requested  permissions in v2.0.2. Todo Q doesn't actually send e-mail, so I'll have to check on that one. It accesses the calendar for import and "add to calendar" functions. It accesses your contacts in order associate a contact to a task and use their address for the location. The SD card is for backups, and the SMS permission is the other half of "send to friend".




















We need a way to pick & choose permissions at install and/or runtime. I could easily turn off features if the user didn't want to grant permission.

Todo Q v2.0.2 removes the two unused permissions and is only $1.99 on the android market.

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Two Oh

I recently merged a couple of branches that focused on usability and power management. The result is Todo Q v2.0 and includes many improvements in those areas.

What's new in the following screenshot?

Many things...

• custom task list title color & font size
• task list detail hidden, but you can customize its color and size too
• due date on task list when detail hidden
• completed tasks display with strikethrough and are sorted to bottom
• custom category color is background on completion checkbox/star

Here's another shot with further color customization on the task list, with details visible.

Another theme of v2.0 is power management. Managing power effectively in a mobile application is an important task. Todo Q v2.0 addresses power management for location alarms by introducing a tiered alarm system and "power profiles". It's not perfect, but it is an improvement.

The new tiered alarm system respects the power profile selected in preferences. The ultralow, low and medium profiles use the cellular or wifi network to track location. The high and ultrahigh profiles use the gps to track location, assuming it is enabled. 

The default profile is low. Here's a shot of the preference screen.

Once a potential location is nearby, Todo Q will use the best available provider (network, gps, etc.) and set a built-in proximity alert. If the location goes out of range, the proximity alert is cancelled. The two tiered alarm approach lets Todo Q limit battery usage while providing for a large number of location alarms.

Todo Q v2.0 is still only $1.99 on the android market. Please give it a try today.

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Color Picker in Action

Todo Q v1.2.3 adds the ability to choose the colors to represent the categories for tasks. Previously only A-D had colors, and they weren't configurable. Now all 6 categories A-F support custom labels and colors.

Also added this release was the ability to adjust the task list font size and icon visibility.

Here's a shot of task list minus the icon and displaying the category color behind each checkbox.

The preferences screen used to adjust the category colors displays the currently selected color for each category.

Colors are selected using the very nice ColorPickerPreference component developed by attenzione.

Todo Q is available for $1.99 on the android market. Give it a try.

Thanks.

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Don't forget the VIBRATE permission

Recently it was reported that Todo Q was having trouble responding to an alarm with a vibration notification. Somehow I removed the VIBRATE permission from the manifest.

The latest release of Todo Q resolves this problem. I also combined two checkboxes into a single dropdown to control the time & location alarms. This is in preparation for introducing timebound location alarms, i.e., a location alarm enabled only for a specific time period.

Todo Q is available for $1.99 on the android market. Try it today.

Thanks.

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Todo Q v1.2.0 has support for repeating tasks

Todo Q v1.2.0 has been released on the android market. The latest version adds support for repeating tasks with daily, weekly, weekday, monthly, and yearly periods.

We also recently released Todo Q Free, which is a time-limited version of Todo Q v1.1.28. (w/o repeating tasks)

Here's a shot of the repeat selection menu.

Future ideas include a custom item with support for end duration, particular days, etc. Working towards supporting more of the iCalendar specification.

Thanks for all the great input on this feature.

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JavaOne 2010

JavaOne turned out to be better than I'd hoped. I found the layout in multiple hotels confusing at 1st, but finally got the hang of it. Here's hoping Oracle keeps it separate from Open World next year.

The session quality was good and there were food & drinks everywhere if you knew where to look.

The Complete Photo Set on Flickr

Ironman had a presence.


As did Exadata.


Concurrency Discussions were everywhere.


Best Session was by Adam Bien


Agile too.


My coworker asks Mark Reinhold a Question


I guess I wasn't paying attention and couldn't believe it when Ray Kurzweil walked on stage.


He even had a Mandelbrot picture.


MLB was there and gave Richard Bair a Hat


And also demoed their Draft Software (Go Rangers!)


General Silliness for the Laser Scanning Demo.


And remember, don't feed the pigeons.


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Todo Q Forums

Todo Q now has official support forums at todo.io, which is also the future home of the web client. A FAQ has been posted and we are monitoring the forum.

A new landing page, video tutorial, and more information is coming soon.

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Google drops out of JavaOne

Very disappointed to hear that google has cancelled all their talks at JavaOne. Kinda has that "I'm going to take my football and go home" feeling to it.

In the post, Josh Bloch says:

Like many of you, every year we look forward to the workshops, conferences and events related to open source software. In our view, these are among the best ways we can engage the community, by sharing our experiences and learning from yours. So we’re sad to announce that we won't be able to present at JavaOne this year. We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally. This is a painful realization for us, as we've participated in every JavaOne since 2004, and I personally have spoken at all but the first in 1996.

We understand that this may disappoint and inconvenience many of you, but we look forward to presenting at other venues soon. We’re proud to participate in the open source Java community, and look forward to finding additional ways to engage and contribute.

By Joshua Bloch, Google Open Source Programs Office

I'm aware of the patent infringement action, but don't remember Oracle suing the open source community. A little whiny.

I have seen Josh speak many times at JavaOne and his talks will definitely be missed. The puzzlers talk was great. I also see that Crazy Bob Lee dropped out in support. A quick twitter search shows a lot of activity.

For the record, I will be at JavaOne.

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Todo Q now compatible with DroidX

Apparently there is a bug in the DroidX maps implementation. Recently I started getting bug reports in the maps area of my app, which is usually very stable. The app would crash, but w/o a FC dialog.

Luckily I was able find an article by another developer and release a patch as v1.1.21.

Hard to believe this basic class in Android is broken in the DroidX. I heard this is a leftover from 1.6 that didn't get ported, but have no proof.

Thanks go to Jonathan W. for helping me find & debug this issue.

Here's the stacktrace. Maybe it will help some other poor developer looking for this bug.

om.billybobbain.android.todoqueue.ToDoMap$1@45e159c0
08-05 08:50:44.839  4493  4493 W dalvikvm: threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001e278)
08-05 08:50:44.847  4493  4493 E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.graphics.drawable.BitmapDrawable
08-05 08:50:44.847  4493  4493 E AndroidRuntime:  at com.google.android.maps.MyLocationOverlay.drawMyLocation(MyLocationOverlay.java:561)

Todo Q is only $1.99 on the android market.

Repeating Tasks Use Case

Repeating Tasks are a common request for Todo Q & something I've been working on for a while. The implementation will allow the easy addition new or custom repeat rules. The following is a raw document I created and just decided to release. I welcome input on alternate repeat rules and or strategies that I might have missed.

Use Case: Repeating Tasks

Tasks can be marked as repeatable with a custom time period.

The user can select one of the following values in the dropdown:
Every Day
Every Week
Every Month
Every Year
Custom

The application will then store this value & use it when a task is completed
to schedule the next one. Custom repeating tasks require additional user input.

Custom Repeating Tasks

Daily
D1-Every day
D2-Every weekday
D3-Every N days

Weekly
W1-Every Sun/Mon/etc
W2-Every N weeks on {d1, d2, ..., dN}

Monthly
M1-Day X of every N months
M2-The first/second/etc Sun/Mon/etc of every N months

Yearly
Y1-Every year on MM/DD
Y2-The first/second/etc/ Sun/Mon/etc of Jan/Feb/etc


No end date
End after N occurrences
End by X date

Repeat Rules

D1 - no inputs
D2 - no inputs
D3 - how many days

W1 - which day of week Sun/Mon/etc
W2 - how many week apart, which days of week

M1 - which day of month, how many months apart
M2 - which one, which day of week, how many months apart

Y1 - which date MM/DD
Y2 - which on, which day of week, what month

RRTYPE
RRVALUE


RepeatRule
String ruleType
String ruleValue

DateTime calculateNext(RepeatRule rule, DateTime time)

---

Please comment below or email me if you have suggestions for the repeating tasks implementation.

Todo Q is available for $1.99 on the android market.

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