Metro Messaging

Just a little teaser of what I am currently working on.

NOTE: Metro UI 2.0 Payment

As of right now, Metro UI 2.0 is free.  Eventually, I will move it to a paid app much like I did with the original application.  Some of you have expressed interest in not paying twice, which I understand.  I am hoping to release 2.0 over the Pro version of 1.0.  That way anyone that originally paid for the app will just receive 2.0 as an update.  I will research other means of accomplishing this but I believe this way is the easiest to make sure everyone that has already paid will not have to pay again.

Metro UI 2.0 Application Counts

As of version 0.0.3 developers can now update application counts for their apps.  Below is a quick tutorial on how.

This example shows how to update application counts in Metro UI 2.0.  The example we will be using is updating the count of the default "Phone" tile.  First, you will need to make sure you have requested permission to update application counts by adding the following "uses-permission" tag to your applications manifest file:


<uses-permission android:name="chrisman.android.home.metroui2.UPDATE_TILE_PERMISSION" />


Once you have permission, you can send intents by doing the following:


Intent i = new Intent();
i.setAction("chrisman.android.home.metroui2.UPDATE_TILE_INTENT");
i.putExtra("chrisman.android.home.metroui2.NAME_EXTRA", "com.sec.android.app.dialertab.DialerTabActivity");
i.putExtra("chrisman.android.home.metroui2.PACKAGE_EXTRA", "com.sec.android.app.dialertab");
i.putExtra("chrisman.android.home.metroui2.COUNT_EXTRA", MissedCallCount);
getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(i);


Basically what this is doing is sending a message to Metro UI with the identifying application information (Package and Name) along with the count you want displayed.

Pretty easy, huh?  If you have questions or need further clarification, let me know.

Metro UI 2.0

Sorry for the very long absence.  I had several family emergencies that have kept me from developing.  I have decided to start from scratch on the Metro UI project.  Now that I have a better grasp of Android and home replacement development I hope that a complete redo will be beneficial in the long run.  I have only just begun the process but I wanted to post a few screen caps and get your opinions.  I have also decided to not imitate Metro UI exactly and my own flair...hence the desire for opinions.  Anyway here they are:

Current Plans

With a majority of my functional list done I will be moving on to more maintenance work.  I will be stabilizing the current code, bug fixing, etc.  As well as focusing on creating more live tiles and tile counts.  As it stands now, here are my goals:

- Folders (yes I plan on doing folders, I just have not decided on a good design)
- Live tiles (polishing the people tile, calendar, etc.)
- Tile Counts (Twitter, Facebook, Email...probably K-9, etc.)

BETA Closed

The BETA phase of Metro UI is closed.  The two apps, currently BETA & Stable, will be changed to Free & Pro.  I will still be supporting the Free/Beta version but any major new features (drag n drop, folders, animated tiles, etc.) will be only added to the Pro version.  In simpler terms here is a break down of what updates to expect depending on the version you currently have:

BETA/Free

• Bug Fixes
• Live Tile Updates (Facebook Count, Twitter Count, etc.)

Stable/Pro

• Bug Fixes
• New features 
• Folders
• More live tile options (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Animated Tiles (People, Pictures, Calendar, etc.)
• Drag n Drop (if I ever figure out how to allow a GridView to do this)
• Custom Tile sizes (2x1, 1x2, etc.)  (again...if I ever figure out how to allow a GridView to do this)

As always I appreciate your patience.  I do work full time and I do have a life outside of work.  So even if updates slow down, rest assured I am not giving up on development.  I will post here once I feel all major development is done on the Pro version (v 1.*).

NOTE:

Drag n Drop and 2x1/1x2 Tiles may not get into METRO UI until v2.0.  Again please have patience.  I do plan on adding these features.  The constraints of my current design seem to make it impossible at the moment.  So it may take a major development effort (hence v 2.0).  In the mean time I may try to add a "priority" property of each tile that I can sort on.  That way you can at least re-order just not via Drag n Drop.

Custom Icons in METRO UI

Custom icons are more-or-less available in METRO UI (BETA).  I suggest using the gallery to select icons for now.  I am working on the fix that should allow custom file managers to work as well.  Here is an update on some of the requests and where they are on my priority list:

1. Fix issues with custom icons
2. Long press tile to Edit/Delete
3. Updates to Status Bar (new icons: WIFI, Bluetooth, Vibrate/Silent)
4. Custom tile color

Started looking at, found it will require LOTS of work:
1. 2x1 tiles.  I am using a GridView and it does not allow column span.  So this will require a pretty large rework :(
2. Rearranging tiles.  Again the GridView does not seems to be very friendly for drag-n-drop.

Very low on the list:
1. Widgets.  My experience is that widgets really slow down the system.  Since my goal is a lightweight get-in, get-out launcher, if widgets slow it down too much they will be removed.  When/if they are implemented it will most likely be on a separate screen.  Accessible from the menu(?)

Anyway, if I missed anything I apologize, I was doing this from memory :)

On a side note, check out this screenshot.  Submitted by bamick823 on XDA.  The icon pack is available from ubergeekinc on DeviantArt.

METRO UI - Stable

I have released a stable version of Metro UI.  It is the same as BETA version 0.3.3.  It is currently listed at 4.99, but I may adjust that price depending on the feedback I get.  This version will be updated whenever the BETA version reaches a mostly stable point.  Eventually the BETA version will cease to exist (at least not get updated). Let me know if you think this is a fair price.

METRO UI

It has been a while, but I have managed to carve out some development time.  With my other projects fairly stable I have moved on to a home replacement that imitates the new Windows mobile environment.  I still have plans for my other projects but they are a lower priority for me right now.  My METRO UI project is currently in BETA and a work in progress, so please be patient.

My major obstacle for this project is not actually owning a new Windows phone so everything I am doing is based on demos.  The other major issue is that Android does not allow access to notifications from other applications.  So in some cases I have to reverse engineer (via logs) how to grab unread/notification counts.  It is a long process and specific to each application.  So again please be patient.

I would just like to thank all of those that have taken the chance to send me constructive feedback.  It really helps.

Clock Issues

I have to apologize for the issues that people have been having after the latest updates with the clock.  I was trying to prevent the clock from freezing.  However the new update type ended up creating issues with the settings.  When I tried to fix the issues with the settings, it seems that the issue was latent, at least in my environment, so I was not able to catch it.  I will be rolling back to the original service version tonight.  I have yet to find a reasonable fix for the freezing issue, I will continue looking.

I'm Back

I've been on vacation for Labor Day.  I'm back now and I have a list of issues and enhancements I want to make on both widgets. So hopefully there will be some updates soon.

Digital Clock

While I was figuring out all of Android's preference framework, I developed a simple digital clock widget.  It has a simple background that can be turned off.  You can also enter a format string for both the time and date.  Here are a few common format strings:

• 24 Hour: HH:mm
• 24 Hour (no colon): HHmm
• 12 Hour: hh:mm a
• Date Options: 
• E: Numeric day of week
• EEE: Shortened day of week (Wed, Thur, etc.)
• EEEE: Full day of week (Wednesday, Thursday, etc)
• d: Day of month
• M: Numeric month
• MMM: Shortened month (Jan, Feb, etc.)
• MMMM: Full month (January, February, etc.)

Other format options are available at http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

asdf

Themes

In the next few days I will begin rolling out themes for the Pro version of the Signal Strength Widget.  To start with I will be creating different colored skins.  As I get more time I will be developing true themes that have a....theme (sports, movies, music, etc).  Please leave any theme ideas in the comments or email them to me.

Update (9/1): Themes are getting close, the settings are setup, I just need to work on updating the UI once the theme is changed.

Signal Strength Widget Pro Version

Several people asked for configurable options.  I added that ability in a "Pro" version of the widget.  The following is a list of the configurable options and what they do:

• Show Background
• Displays/Hides a background image for the widget
• Show Operator
• Displays/Hides the operator name
• Show dBms
• Displays/Hides the numeric signal strength indicator
• Use Generic '3G' Indicator
• Instead of displaying the specific technology used (i.e. Ev for EvDo, U for UMTS, H for HSPA, etc) the widget will group all 3G technologies into a group and just display 3G.

Both widgets are still very much in beta so please be patient and send me any enhancements or issues that you find.

Signal Strength Widget v0.1.4

I was surprised to find out that there were no decent widgets for showing signal strength in the Android market. I was not able to find any widgets that provided all the functionality I was looking for so I created my own. Here is what I created:

Feature List:

• 10-bar visual signal strength
• Numeric signal strength (dBm)
• Network Operator
• Data activity indicator
• Network Type indicator
• Supports Android 1.6 - 2.2 (hopefully...I have 1.6 so I have only been able to do much testing on that platform).

Update:  Updates are mostly to the UI.  Everything was moved to a more portable UI layout.