Android Market Crash Reports, Release Info, and Froyo

Just a quick update.

The android market crash reports have already helped me find a bug in Todo Q.

Recent releases have also fixed a couple of bugs in address lookup and added features to control the custom icons and category assignment.

The only other thing on my mind right now is Froyo. Seems the Calendar provider changes are breaking applications everywhere. Time to go back to gdata. Ugh. (bug on google code)

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

bbb

Update 1:

This bug comment says the provider URI was updated.
Content provider URI
Old (2.1 and before): content://calendar/
New (2.2): content://com.android.calendar/

New Features in Todo Q for Android

Todo Q was updated recently to make entering & reviewing tasks easier. The new button bar has buttons to quickly add tasks, toggle the display of completed tasks, open settings, and open maps.



The widget was also updated to a 3x2 and displays up to 4 items.



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

BBB

Todo Q v.1.1.11 for Android has Faster Task Completion

Todo Q v1.1.11 was recently released to the android market. The main enhancement was the addition of star-style checkboxes on the task list that can be used to complete a task. The long-click menu still exists, but the star-style checkboxes make it much more intuitive.



Currently working on a button bar for the list with common functions such as add task, show completed tasks, settings, and filter by location. On a longer term, trying to rework the location services to support additional location providers and improve battery life. These are harder problems, but definitely worth solving.

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

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Todo Q v1.1.10 for Android Released with Widget

Todo Q v1.1.10 includes several new features designed to make managing tasks easier.

• improved help with new content and screenshots
• new widget showing next task with time and location
• improved foursquare venue lookup provider (beta) (see video)

My first task this morning is to replace my video card. It looks like I'm late already.



Clicking the widget opens the task list. (principle of least astonishment)



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

BBB

Todo Q Screencast

Just ran across this really cool androidscreencast project on google code. Only a few frames a second, but I sort of like the effect.

Here's a capture of me walking through the app.



screencast

This uses the beta foursquare lookup to find the grocery store. What do you want to see me demo next?

Sorry, no audio at this time. Ya'll don't wanna hear my Texas twang anyway.

BBB

As the World Turns

Eek! It looks like I let my frustration leak onto the blog. Sorry.

I REALLY want Todo Q to sync with google tasks, but need a reliable method.

I appreciate the input & haven't given up on it.

BBB

Blame Google, Not Me

I'm getting beat up over the lack of google task sync. Flames for me instead of the software missing the API. If there was an API for google tasks, it would be integrated. I refuse to resort to screen scraping or use a backdoor that might end up in lost customer data.

Sorry, that's just the way I am.

Thanks.

BBB

Todo Q v1.1.9 for Android Released

Todo Q v1.1.9 for Android adds a few new features to the the task editor. A new "All Day?" checkbox was added to allow the creation of all day events. The task editor also replaced the "Add to Calendar?" checkbox with a dropdown listing the calendars known to the account. You can now assign a task to any of your calendars, instead of only the default defined in settings. The default still affects the imported calendar. (for now)

Here's a shot of the task editor showing the "All Day?" checkbox is selected. This hides the normally visible start & end time buttons. The calendar dropdown is visible at the bottom showing the Billy Bain calendar is selected.



Since the last blog update, Todo v1.1.8 was also released with the following features.

• using a contact address on a task to avoid retyping
• a new preference to force use of the gps to autofilter the list
• a very beta foursquare lookup enabled via a new global preference
• and a few bug fixes

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

Droid 2.1 update makes Todo Q maps say pinch me!

My droid was updated to 2.1-update 1 this morning. I ran a quick test of Todo Q and everything seems to work normally. When testing the maps in Todo Q, I was surprised to find that "pinch to zoom" worked flawlessly. (!) I figured it would require additional work, but I guess they built it right into the component. Good job Google.

Todo Q is available for 1.99 in the android market.

BBB

Todo Q v1.1.7 for Android Released

A weekend full of work resulted in a few bug fixes and enhancements released as Todo Q v1.1.7.

Todo Q is smart to do list that filters based on your current location. Todo Q unifies the calendar, contacts, and navigation functions seamlessly into a single interface. This integration plus advanced sorting & filtering, time & location alarms, gps/nav integration, gui configuration, send via sms, custom icons, backup to SD, and much more make for a full-featured application.

Here's a summary of the new features in 1.1.7.

• New "Notify" field with Vibrate, + Audible, + Repeating Audible values is a dropdown located just above the priority dropdown that allows task level control of notifications.
• Reminder field can now be a dropdown or slider and is controlled by a setting. The default is still a slider for now, but I like the dropdown.
• Categories can now have custom labels which are established in the settings.
• Fixed the bug where the task contents weren't being autoselected in the editor, causing extra keystrokes. This still seems to be acting differently since upgrading development kits.

Things I'm working on for upcoming releases that will hopefully see the light of day.

• Foursquare integration, with other location providers coming in the future. (testing now, very nice)
• Use a contact address with task for navigation, etc.
• Better battery/power management for location alarms.
• Google tasks integration (this is hard!)
• Multiple gmail accounts (even harder!)
• Usability

All of these features were requested by customers. I am too clueless to come up with this stuff on my own. ;)

Todo Q is available in the android market for only $1.99.

BBB

Droid 2.1 rollout

Engadget says it's finally coming. Todo Q has been tested on 2.1 before, but not on a Droid. I bought mine day one & hope this all goes smoothly. They've had enough time to get it right.

If there are issues, please email me at billybobbain@gmail.com.

BBB

Plasma Fractal Generator source added to github

The plasma fractal generator project has been added to github at http://github.com/billybobbain/Plasma. Maybe I'll find some time, but I really wish someone would add color cycling using a 256 color palette ala Fractint.



BBB

Todo Q v1.1.5 for Android released

Todo Q v1.1.5 was just released to the android market and includes many new customer requested features.

Backup to SD Card
The Todo Q database can now be backed up to the SD card. If something bad happens to your phone and you have to reinstall your applications, Todo Q will automatically restore from the backup database.

Usability Enhancements

We added new save and revert menu items on the Todo Q Editor menu for users that prefer a direct command to save or cancel changes instead of the automatic save. Plus we added confirmation messages for anytime we save or cancel an update to a tasks to give you more feedback.

Clear Filter Button with Task Counts
The Todo Q list sports a new button adjacent to the filter field that displays the count of visible tasks vs total tasks as a label. When clicked, this button clears the filter and refreshes the list to show all tasks.

Here's a screenshot of the task list unfiltered...

... and filtered based on the string "3141".

Each item is visible for a different reason:

• Find Me 3141 has "3141" in the description
• Find Me Too has "3141" in the custom field
• Find Me Three has "3141" as part of the address / location field.

Todo Q searches across multiple fields when filtering and updates the list and task counts dynamically as you type in the filter field.

Todo Q is available for only $1.99 on the Android Market. Give it a try today.

Follow me on twitter here.

Stealing Time with Todo Q

A few years ago I met a guy at work named John that just had his hands in everything. He had  more than a full-time job, did outside consulting, wrote papers, was on forums & expert groups and anything else that interested him. I once asked him how he found the time and he said it was really simple. You have to learn to "steal time." I'm like, WTF does "steal time" mean? He says, "You know those moments when you had a breakthrough, were interrupted, or maybe a meeting ended early?" View those as opportunities to "steal time" and work on something else. I started trying to do this and I do find it to be effective. Everyone does it... when you are paying a bill standing in line at the market, or even while supposedly listening to your wife. He just advocated taking it to the extreme. I'm not as good as John, but I've learned to apply this technique and it seems to have helped my career and life in general. Not sure wife would agree.

One of the other things I heard about a couple years ago on TED was the cognitive surplus that is wasted in the world by idle time, mainly watching TV. I especially like the comparison of TV to Gin in the past. (John would like that too) I've started apply stealing time to TV... so if I sit down to watch TV, I ask myself does this show suck? If so, then turn off the TV and do something else. Or if a (insert your favorite sport here) game blows out, steal that time and do something else.

The ultimate question becomes, what to do with all the extra time? So I made a list, which turned into a to do list or queue, which is now Todo Q. Available for $1.99 on android market.

Hope you enjoyed my little story. I stole the time to write it because the smoke alarm started a low-battery beep this morning and after that, I was up. Steal some time today.

Billy Bob Bain

P.S. - Here's John in the past with book and some trophy. Like I said, it was always something.