New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New Apps, versions, features, etc

New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby marwatk on Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:34 pm

(Topic locked) Even newer version here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1256

Ok, so I pulled the trigger and pushed this out to the beta site.

http://ota.versatilemonkey.com/beta/

That means people are going to start getting notified of a new version. At this point I think the features I wanted in there are there, and everything is getting stable-ish. Now is when I start to make it solid for releasing to the general public. (Always a fun day in my inbox)

For users coming from the older beta (2.6.9) a lot has changed. You're probably better off checking out this page for the change logs: http://ota.versatilemonkey.com/beta/

For those of you who've kept up with me, these are the changes in this release (video, 'car mode' and repeat playlists are the new features)

* Android: Working video (confirmed on Droid running 2.1)
* Android: Fixed a small leak
* Added 'Car mode' general setting (big playback buttons)
* "Add podcasts" button on home screen
* Android: Clicking widget text now takes you to main screen or 'now playing' depending on whether something is loaded or not
* Playlist setting to auto-repeat items
* Playlist setting to reset listened items when adding
* Android: Clicking home screen icon now takes you to 'now playing' if something is loaded
* Save playback state in more cases/more frequently
* More service logging for troubleshooting

There are a couple of android points worth noting. The audio routing has been totally removed. It was borking the whole system (other media players included). I'm researching this, but as of right now I can't find a reliable way to control it. I'd be very interested in hearing whether and how other apps handle it (make sure to include the android device and OS you're using, and specifically what the app can do for routing). For example, it appears possible to make this work on 1.5 and earlier, but for 1.6 and later I haven't found a way.

And, as always, keep letting me know what you run into.

-Marcus
Versatile Monkey
For more/quicker help make sure to check out the user manuals
marwatk
Lead (and only) Monkey
 
Posts: 2596
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:20 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby marwatk on Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:40 pm

As a followup for where I'm headed next with features (which will be after I get a release out, unless there's something else that's really needed).

Here's my todo list:

Android: Alternate larger widget with more controls
Android: Handle fonts better (allow resizing, etc)
Android: Audio routing(?)
Both: Write/finish my own XML parser to handle crappy xml
Both: Go through the feature voter
Both: Clean up todo list on the bottom of the changelog

Bugs that I'll be fixed before the real release:
[*]Support audio routing
[*]Start sleep timer menu item
[*]Make minimum font size work
[*]Larger widget with more buttons
[*]Recently Played Screen
[*]If played again at the end of media restart from the beginning, but only if manually started (not via playlist)
[*]Clean up keyboard settings screen on android
[*]Add a 'reset thumbnails' menu item in storage settings
[*]Option to not display global menu item
[*]Message letting user know that podcast has more than 'max feed read' episodes
[*]Make switch site explain the 8 vs 12 digit codes if they try to switch with a 12 digit one
[*]Switch playlist on playlist screen needs to indicate that it has a kb shortcut (N)
[*]View w/Ready Eps shouldn't hide bad feeds
[*]If user tries to add a podcast they already have turn off 'View w/Ready Eps'
[*]Shortcut key to 'now playing' (indicate that 'L' works)
[*]Option to preserve when bookmarking
[*]Ability to edit bookmark labels
[*]When you delete a podcast it will ask you if you want to delete each bookmark associated with it
[*]BB: Podcast list doesn't preserve position when updating
[*]playlist autosort setting doesn't get restored
[*]Fix the global menu item showing up multiple times when playback is interrupted


Other stuff I'm not thinking of that I hope you'll remind me of.

-Marcus
Versatile Monkey
For more/quicker help make sure to check out the user manuals
marwatk
Lead (and only) Monkey
 
Posts: 2596
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:20 pm

FC with auto update from 2.9.8

New postby FreydNot on Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:05 pm

2.9.8 (android) gave me the notification that a new beta version was available. I told it to go ahead and update and I got a FC error. I exited PT and installed manually from the OTA beta web page. Seems to be working...

Video on my Vibrant (2.1) still isn't working. Played the video and I got a black screen for a few seconds. Then the video started playing (I saw a tiny bit of it) and I got a bit of audio and then it paused and went back to the now playing screen. I pressed play again and I only got a black screen before it went back to now playing. I'll email logs...

Image
FreydNot
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:14 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby FreydNot on Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:27 pm

marwatk wrote:* Android: Working video (confirmed on Droid running 2.1)

See my previous post about video still not working for me. Maybe the video format is to blame. Can you suggest a video podcast that you know is working for you?

marwatk wrote:* Added 'Car mode' general setting (big playback buttons)

It's a good start and I really appreciate the effort for this feature. I think this is a feature where less is more. Having all of the buttons large on the screen is pretty cluttered. I don't think I've ever used the "|<" or ">|" while in the car. I very rarely use ">>>" or "<<<" in the car. I would vote to have play/pause, ""<<" and ">>" the only buttons to be large in car mode. I really like the play button being as wide as the screen in portrait mode, but in landscape I think the buttons need to be arranged differently. I'll see what I can come up with...

A button on the now playing list to toggle car mode on and off would be cool.

My phone mount in the car holds the phone in landscape mode only. Maybe having separate car mode toggles for portrait and landscape mode would be a good compromise?

What do you guys think? Does anyone use it differently in the car? What would you like to see?

PT 2.9.9 Car Mode Portrait:
Image

PT 2.9.9 Car Mode Landscape:
Image


marwatk wrote:* "Add podcasts" button on home screen

Yep. Seems to work as intended.

marwatk wrote:* Android: Clicking widget text now takes you to main screen or 'now playing' depending on whether something is loaded or not

Yep. I like this feature.

marwatk wrote:* Playlist setting to auto-repeat items

* Playlist setting to reset listened items when adding

How are these intended to work? I don't see any way to turn them on or off.

marwatk wrote:* Android: Clicking home screen icon now takes you to 'now playing' if something is loaded

Yep, I'm digging this too.

marwatk wrote:* Save playback state in more cases/more frequently

I am still seeing the view mode going back to "View All" after I've set it to "View w/ Ready Eps". Steps to replicate:

1) set View mode to "View w/ Ready Eps"

2) press the back button on the phone until you are at the phone's main desktop (or home screen)

3) run PT (I'm touching the PT icon I have on my desktop)

4) PT jumped to now playing (yay) so press back to see the main screen

5) the view mode has changed back to "View all"


marwatk wrote:There are a couple of android points worth noting. The audio routing has been totally removed. It was borking the whole system (other media players included). I'm researching this, but as of right now I can't find a reliable way to control it. I'd be very interested in hearing whether and how other apps handle it (make sure to include the android device and OS you're using, and specifically what the app can do for routing). For example, it appears possible to make this work on 1.5 and earlier, but for 1.6 and later I haven't found a way.


I don't notice any difference, but I always set it to OS controlled anyway. I am not aware of any other apps that have direct control over forcing audio to bluetooth devices. It seems to be (in 2.1 at least) that if a BT device is paried and connected audio will come out of it not matter what. Interestingly, alerts get played both on the phone speaker and via BT. I wasn't expecting that when I switched over from blackberry to android.
FreydNot
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:14 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby FreydNot on Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:07 pm

Here are some mock-ups I did for a potential landscape car mode. I think I like #6 the best, but they all have their merits.

The green car icon indicates we are in car mode. Touching it would toggle to the non car mode (in non car mode I would use the same car icon but in red and with a circle with a slash through it). I stole the car icon from this web site: http://www.eastwoodvolunteerbureau.org. ... r-icon.gif. Please feel free to use some other icon or scrap the idea all together. This is just what I threw together in an afternoon.

I tried to keep everything in even proportions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc) so it can scale to unknown screen sizes easily.

Of course these are only my ideas, I am eager to hear what other people think about them and what they would change.

If these mock-ups are helpful for Marcus, I'm thinking once I get some feedback on landscape I'll try to make something similar for portrait mode.

#1
Image

#2
Image

#3
Image

#4
Image

#5
Image

#6
Image
FreydNot
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:14 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby BrewerBC on Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:31 am

Any word on using our Registration code from the Blackberry version on Android. Can't seem to get mine to work.
Thanks for car mode, awesome.
BrewerBC
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 4:48 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby Cilraaz on Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:40 am

The delete bug from 2.9.7 on BlackBerry seems to be gone with this release. Thanks!

I did have the same permissions issue on install, though. This release I was able to resolve the problem by manually changing the permissions and rebooting, rather than a full uninstall/reinstall that 2.9.7 required.

Device: BlackBerry Storm 9530
OS: Driphter OS5/OS6 hybrid (.732/.743/.758/6.0.0.31)
Device: Samsung Droid Charge
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Android Version: Gingerbread 2.3.6
Baseband Version: EP4
Modifications: IMoseyON's EP4 Kernel v4.0.0, Humble ROM v5.0 RC2
Cilraaz
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:31 pm

A forum page of our own and other things

New postby San Juan on Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:40 am

Do you think it's time for an Android Podtrapper page of our own yet?

Also a feature request.
I saw that Beyondpod (what I was using while waiting for Podtrapper) just added this feature.
In android, you get notifications when email or text messages come in. Beyondpod now has the player stop when the notification comes in.
Can you have Podtrapper not only stop but do the back up when notifications come in? That is a very nice feature when listening to books/spoken word podcasts.

Also, can you set it up for a long press on skip to end. This way you won't inadvertently delete your episode

Starting to remember why I loved this app when I had my storm
San Juan
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:29 am

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby SHKaminski on Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:52 am

The BT controls appear to be working for me (even though I had some problems a couple of days ago).
Clicking home screen icon now takes you to 'now playing' if something is loaded--this is cool.
Video seems to be working now, too.

I like the big buttons for the "Car Mode"--which I think may be helpful for more than just listening in the car.

I agree with most of Freydnot's suggestions on the buttons. But I'm going to repeat myself, too--I think using short press and long press commands gives more flexibility to the button layout.

Here's the mockup I did a while ago--it gives a way to get to more commands using short/long presses. It may address this issue, too:
San Juan wrote:Can you set it up for a long press on skip to end.


Image
SHKaminski
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:06 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby SHKaminski on Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:54 am

Speaking of BeyondPod, it would be very cool to be able to use PT with Locale or Tasker (as you can with BeyondPod). I can think of several applications.
SHKaminski
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:06 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby goliatham on Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:04 pm

BT controls still cause the double-tap issue on my Droid (2.1).
When a file is playing, hitting pause/play button on my BT device causes PT to pause momentarily and begin playing again. The reverse occurs when a file is paused.
I visually see PT widget button icon alternate from icon and back to original.

Double tap issue seems to occur for the FF & Rew BT controls. Mine are mapped to FF alot & rewind alot.
FF alot for me is set to 10%, and Rew alot is set to 30 sec. When hitting the corresponding BT button, it would FF 20% and rew 60 sec.

BTW, if BT controls can be mapped to any of the various skip settings, that would be a great feature
goliatham
 

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby therealjoeblow on Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:38 pm

My play control icons are really ugly now, the nice single-pixel versions from 2.6.9 are gone, replaced by multi-pixel messes (see screenshot)

This on a BB Curve 8330 running OS5.

Cheers
The REAL Joe

EDIT: sorry, it won't let me upload the image...

"Could not upload attachment to ./files/665_15a15cc86bc0410313127b73fdde0d4d."
therealjoeblow
 
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:00 pm

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby scaryslocuda on Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:12 pm

This is my first post, so I apologize if I am duplicating any finds that have already been covered in other posts (I don't see any mention of them above, and they continue to persist on the most recent version of PT 2.9.9).

Also, I am running Android 2.1 on an HTC incredible.

Issues
- Video playback is still not working. When I attempt to play a file, the file either begins playing or the screen just goes to black. However, a half second later, I am returned to the informational screen. Attempting to replay yields the same results.
- Upon selecting "View Deleted" files within a specific podcast, you can no longer choose NOT to see the deleted files. In other words, there is no option for "Hide Deleted" files.
- I've been using DoggCatcher (in the interim between switching from my Blackberry and waiting for PT on Android) and I've gotten very used to having an option for "Only download when on wifi", similar to the "Only download when charging" found on PT. This is crucial in controlling data usage, reducing battery drain, etc.
- Storage/battery indicators are not working. I used to have PT on my Blackberry Storm, so I was used to seeing the yellow and green bars indicating the amount of available storage (SD card) and the battery levels. Now I only see only one bar (green) and it appears to be full...which is not true for either my battery life or storage capacity. This feature is not necessary, and is better omitted than inaccurate (in my opinion).
- This has already been discussed, but I'm having issues using my old Blackberry reg code to extend my license with this alpha/beta build (10 days left).
- Not an issue, but I desperately miss having dedicated hardware buttons for skipping back (if nothing else). I know this is already being addressed.

Thanks for all the hard work and I look forward to a finalized version of PT for Android.
scaryslocuda
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:38 am

Re: New PodTrapper Betas (2.9.9)

New postby marwatk on Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:33 pm

Topic locked: Will continue discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1256
Versatile Monkey
For more/quicker help make sure to check out the user manuals
marwatk
Lead (and only) Monkey
 
Posts: 2596
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:20 pm


Return to Announcements

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

cron