New Layout

Introducing a new layout for this blog. I have updated the "dated" look of the blog for a more flat look with Android "Holo" colors. I use the "holo blue" and various dark and light grays, all from official Android elements such as action bars and and action bar icons. I will be re-releasing two apps this summer. Theme Tester and AndroWeather (formerly Legacy Weather). Theme Tester will have a "pro" version called "Theme Tester+". AndroWeather will also most likely have  a "pro" version as well and will probably have the "plus" added to the end. The old apps will be unpublished because the "key" I used for those apps was corrupted when my old hard drive crashed. I was able to retrieve it (and everything else) off the hard drive, but not matter what I did I couldn't get the "key" to work to submit new apps. Plus the new apps have new package names, so that would also cause problems. I will be posting pictures of the apps and the feature graphics to see how you guys like them. I'm always taking suggestions to improve the look of my apps and their presentation. Let me know what you guys think of the new layout.

Theme Tester Update to v1.2

I updated and published Theme Tester in the Play Store. The new update brings several changes. First, the "concepts" screen is replaced by the "More Apps" screen, where you can see other apps made by me. Next, I removed the theme options in the "preferences" page, but I kept some sample items in there. The theme options were faulty and didn't work right and had to be removed. I also removed my custom action bar (and split action bar) backgrounds so that themers can preview their backgrounds without mine interfering. Here's a quick peek at what is being updated in the app. 

Legacy Weather Update v1.3

I know it has been a while (probably too long) since I last updated the Legacy Weather app. This latest update is purely cosmetic. I made new icons for the Thunder Timer and the SPC Maps. I drew inspiration from Iron Man's J.A.R.V.I.S. UI and the NanoSuit2's HUD. Combine those with ICS colors straight from the design guideline color pallets, and the new icons took shape. I also removed the lightning background from the Thunder Timer while it's landscape. It didn't look good with it being skewed and distorted. I improved the tablet layout by increasing the font size and button size so that it doesn't look so tiny. I will hopefully (since classes are out now) be able to do the full rewrite that I had planned a while back. This rewrite will make use of support fragments that way it maintains compatibility with previous Android versions. Let me know what features you would like me to add. What would you guys like from this app?

Here's come screenshots:

Theme Tester update v1.1.1

These past couple of updates (1.1 and 1.1.1) have added a few new things such as split action bar use for 4.0+ devices and some new form Widgets including a text box and some new text views. Another major change is that the user can now change the default app theme at will. Changing it from dark to light and even holo (android 3.0+) and holo light. Just go to preferences and hit App Theme and select one. Then go to the main screen and hit menu>refresh to apply the changes. Once again, thank you for downloading and visiting :)

Google Music found in Market

While strolling through the /res folder of the new 3.3.11 version of the Market, I found a slew of orange drawables that are going to be used in the Music section of the market soon. All the images and layouts are there and ready.

Calling all ROM Devs and Themers

Theme Tester

This is an app that can be used as a tool for ROM Developers and Themers of all kinds. This is only a free version and a "Pro/Donate" version is on its way.


This app is divided into 3 tabs:
Form Widgets - Various form widgets such as buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc.

Dialogs - Progress dialogs and Alert dialogs

App Icons - *Will be available in the "Pro/Donate" version* Pulls the icons from the system to show what all app icons have been changed.


Uses:
This app can be used by ROM Developers and Themers to showcase all the UI elements that they have changed and not changed.

Developers can use this app to test their themes before releasing them to the public.

Developers can also use this app in their app screenshots.


I will be posting the ic_launcher drawables so that Themers can alter the Icon to match  their themes.

This app is compatible with all platforms 2.2 and up (including 4.0). If you want me to include 2.1, let me know. I personally don't know of any 2.1 ROMs running around still, but I will add support for it if you ask nicely :P

Google/Samsung Event Starting Now!!!

http://www.youtube.com/android

All Day LiveBlog

All day LiveBlog via Android Central. They will be covering both the Motorola Event in NYC (happening right now) and the Google/Samsung event tonight (see previous post for times in the US). Here's the link to join in:

http://www.androidcentral.com/perpetual-liveblog

ICS almost upon us

With the Google/Samsung ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) event tomorrow night for the US, what are you most excited about? A new Nexus (developer) phone? Just Ice Cream Sandwich alone?  What are you app developers looking forward to most? The idea that the Android OS will finally be unified under one set of APIs? Better handling of varying screen sizes? Let me know what you guys are all hoping to see tomorrow night during the Google/Samsung event.

Here's a schedule for what time the event will be sweeping across the US tomorrow courtesy of Android Central:

North America

ADT (Halifax)	10:30 p.m. Tuesday
EDT (eastern daylight time)	9:30 p.m. Tuesday
EST (George Town)	8:30 p.m. Tuesday
CDT (central daylight time)	8:30 p.m. Tuesday
MDT (mountain daylight time)	7:30 p.m. Tuesday
MST (mountain standard time)	6:30 p.m. Tuesday
PDT (pacific daylight time)	6:30 p.m. Tuesday
AKDT (Alaska daylight time)	5:30 p.m. Tuesday
HAST (Hawaii-Aleutian standard time)	3:30 p.m. Tuesday

Google+ update

The leaked Google+ version 2.0 update brings some pretty nice enhancements, especially to honeycomb. There are two new widgets, one of which you can resize. It also utilizes the action bar and seems more suited to honeycomb (and most likely ICS). Here are some screenshots I took from my Transformer.

Android Developers preparing for ICS Video

Here is a snap shot of the YouTube home page showing me that Android ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) Launch is scheduled. It doesn't give a date for when it is scheduled, but we know that they are preparing to upload. I can't wait!!!

Legacy Apps Update

I released an update for both the Legacy Music Player [Prototype] and the Legacy Weather app. The weather app update was minor (only increasing the size of the start/stop buttons). The music player app had a HUGE update. I was FINALLY able to get the songs section to list all the songs found on the SDCard. Granted, the songs aren't in alphabetical order, yet. I'm still working on that :P Oh, and the artists section lists all the artists (they are repeated for some reason, haven't figured that one out yet). Jumping back to the list of songs from the SDCard...you can play a song by tapping on it, but there are a few bugs. The first one that I noticed is that when ever you change orientation, the song stops (not sure exactly why yet). The second one I noticed is that once a song ends, you either have to change orientation (to reset the list) or back out (by hitting the provided "home" button) and enter in again to play another song. If there are any other bugs, please let me know either by email, or by commenting below. Thanks for all the downloads so far :)

On a side note, how do you guys feel about ads? Would you rather have ads in a free version then a paid version without them? Or strictly ads and keep all apps free? Or have no ads and paid versions only for donations (and possibly "limited edition" content). Let me know what you think.

Thanks for visiting,
-X

Legacy Weather -Release-

I just released my second Legacy App. I call them "Legacy Apps" because they feature my "Legacy UI" which brings a honeycomb-ish look and feel to phone devices. I wanted all app elements to be accessible on-screen without the use of buttons. I will have a QR code ready when I get a chance, which will most likely be next week due to finals being this week.

Legacy Weather is not necessarily a beta, but you could treat it like one by giving lots of feedback about what's wrong with it and what kind of features you guys would like. So far, the only real useful thing about this app is the "Thunder Timer" that tells you how far away lightning is by converting the seconds between the flash of lightning and the thunder into miles and kilometers. There was an app on my iPod touch that I have and it does only this and I always wanted one on my phone, so I just made one ;)

Screen Shots Below:

as always...thanks for visiting :)

-X

[Poll] Which default cover art pic?

As seen in the Albums section of the Legacy Music Player [Prototype], do you like the shiny disc, or the gray slanted one more? Comment below :)

-X

Wave Android Game Review

This is my first app/game review and I wanted to showcase this awesome game called Wave made by Motalen. It's TapTap Revenge meets AudioSurf and it is a lot of fun to play. The game is very dynamic and I'm sure he will be updating it and adding new features. Is there anything you guys would like to see? Any games or apps you would be interested in seeing reviewed? Comment to let me know.

The developer's website: http://www.motalen.com
Market link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.motalenbubble.w...

Thank you so much for watching the review :)

Legacy Music Player [Prototype] -Release-

As you have already read, this app is just a Prototype for the final product and will be constantly updated when bugs are found. Press the -menu- button (or the button on the top-right of the screen) on the main screen to call up the menu that gives you access to my live wallpaper concept/prototype and general information regarding the app. I have only been developing since August of last year, so I don't know everything about android, yet! I will be taking feature requests concerning the Music Player to be added in future updates. If you have any questions at all, please ask :)

Known bugs:
-added playlists disappear when you leave the playlists screen
-removed playlists reappear when you leave the playlists screen
-text stays in text box for adding a playlist -> delete the text and type again to add a new playlist


Thanks for visiting
-X

Things to come!

I may be releasing my Legacy Music Player [Prototype] to the market this weekend. It is not fully functional! It is only the basics with sample lists and such. It does not read music from the device! I will be launching a YouTube account with videos of the music player and possibly some app reviews. I am not making any promises about deadlines for my app or videos! I will do my best to get at least the app out on the market this weekend, but I will also try to get a video out demonstrating it's functionality. The main purpose of this Prototype release is to check compatibility with all devices. I'm making sure it all looks the way it is supposed to look before actually making it read music from the device. If there are any bugs (problems), please let me know so that I can fix them. I will be frequently updating because I work on this in my free time on a daily basis and I randomly have epiphanies that lead to new features or less bugs. The first release will be very rough, so don't expect anything too fancy :P

Thanks for visiting
-X

Legacy Music Player Concept

I have rendered some sketches of what the Legacy Music Player will look like. Inspired by a combination between the Honeycomb UI (eg. no need for physical butons) and Daft Punk from Tron Legacy. I created this practically over night, so don't be too harsh :P Tell me what you guys think. What would you change about it? If you would want to help make this a possibility, contact me via PM or gmail. Thanks in advance :)

P.S. Click to Enlarge. Sorry it's so small :(

-X

I am currently developing a live wallpaper (which is almost complete) but I only have an analog clock at the center of the wallpaper. I was wanting to also be able to replace the clock with weather icons, but I don't know how to obtain weather information (or any at all, for that matter) from a source and convert it to images. Does anyone know how to do this? Here is a pic of the live wallpaper: the arcs rotate around the clock (which is a built-in widget) at different rates and in different directions. What do you think?

Major Update

I published an update for the DYLM app. I have added a Menu that has a Help (?) button and Clear (x) button. The Help button shows the current version and tells the user how to get to this website. The Clear button simply clears the selection made by the user. I have also added the logo for this sight at the bottom of the screen that, when tapped, will bring the user straight here. I am still working on the option to set the background behind the text and buttons. Most people don't understand what the point of the application is and give bad reviews, so read the description before judging the app, please. I also updated the description so that people won't be confused that the app sends the message over text, email, or bluetooth. Sorry for not making it clear earlier. For those of you who have downloaded it and are reading this, thank you :)

-X