Den in USA | # 221 | 2009-11-24, 22:33 | Report

@ Jolouis, Link to latest version . . . please!

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Last edited by Den in USA; 2009-11-25 at 18:39.

Tintin | # 222 | 2009-11-26, 20:07 | Report

I wouldn't mind, in the future, seeing a weather icon/update integrated into the Flipclock main screen like this: http://androidcommunity.com/wp-conte...ia-540x400.jpg

After waking up..checking the weather is the first thing I do..having it on the same screen would be awesome

ciroip | # 223 | 2009-11-27, 09:10 | Report

well the thing was in the air months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmaCyWWcPNU

then time (aka money) issues took the scene but there is a chance I could work on that bit on december

sampieter | # 224 | 2009-11-27, 13:52 | Report

Perhaps as a theme???
Other themes: flip + stock info; flip + shopping deals info, etc etc

jolouis | # 225 | 2009-11-27, 14:45 | Report

Okay I know there's been some eager anticipation (always a good development incentive ;-) ) so as promised, the latest version Beta 0.9.6 is now available. You can grab it from Garage as a seamless update:
Diablo:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa....9.6_armel.deb

And Fremantle:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...ntle_armel.deb

I've also had some discussions with Jeremiah about the autobuilder and he's assured me that things are getting back on track again (apparently there's a big upgrade scheduled for the entire system soon, which should help avoid problems like this happening again), but in the mean time things seem to be working so I've got 0.9.5 up in extras-devel, and with any luck 0.9.6 should be showing up there in the next few hours! Once it makes that far if you guys don't report any major problems over the weekend then I'll push 0.9.6 into extras as the first major Beta release (no more "previews" ;-) ).

I've outlined most of the changes previously, but just to re-iterate:

• Clock settings screen - Oooh you guys are going to be caught off guard by this one... I finally got around to adding all of the controls and options there! The only things that aren't functional yet are the Theme browser and About/Help buttons. I will give a break down of each option and what it does in a follow up post.
• Graphics changes - I also finally took some time last night to clean up the main Flip graphics that weren't as great as they could have been (i.e. finally the night mod and exit buttons match... sort of).
• Mood picker changes - Fixed the mood picker to give you a proper colour spectrum to choose from! There was talk before about having a few "preset" colours in addition to the spectrum for shortcuts; there's space for these now, but I don't know what to make them since the spectrum is pretty easy to get all of the major colours from. Feedback on this?
• Lots of changes under the hood - Caching to improve rendering speeds, etc. The alarm settings page is now much more responsive than it was, and things are generally a bit smoother.
• Snooze indicator - When an snooze is active, the "next alarm" date/time indicator will change to show you the word SNOOZE, and the countdown will be time until the alarm occurs again (snooze ends). I need to change the Night theme around to make that countdown easier to read though...
• Other minor bug fixes and changes that I've forgotten to mention here...

So play with it and let me know what you think! As I said, documentation on all of the clock settings options to follow soon once I finish writing it!

Thanks!

jolouis | # 226 | 2009-11-27, 14:53 | Report

Well the key would be to pull that data from somewhere... i.e. stock info has to come from a stock site somehow, weather data needs to come from a weather site, etc. This all really gets beyond the original scope of Flip, since the whole point was to make this as a fully functional alarm clock, not a complete tablet control app... I just don't want to end up building another MediaBox (which has a giant clock display as one of it's screens while music is playing/etc).

That being said, I do like the weather thing... not even so much for the "weather icon" idea, as for some of the possibilities you could do with it. For example, I build a website years ago now that connected to an online weather feed and used that data to update the display of the site... so when the weather was cloudy or overcast, the site's colour theme blended with a gray/dull kind of overlay and the background had clouds gradually move in/appear. If the weather said rain, then there was a dark blue tint to things and rain drops began to fall randomly, etc. That would be pretty awesome to have going on...

nilchak | # 227 | 2009-11-27, 15:14 | Report

I wholeheartedly agree - keep Flip simple with its purpose in mind.

Trying to comingle a clock with Weather, stocks, news, RSS, and what not will only make this crazy.

For the weather bit (if you must do it), maybe instead of getting weather info online, it could just take the weather data stored on the tablet from an already installed weather app (like OmWeather or Foreca Weather) and just work off that stored data in the way you mention (I loved that idea of the clock background showing the weather pattern).

So that way you could just leverage off the installed app (with a note to users that they need to have Omweather or Foreca installed for it to work.

Lacking that dedicated weather app, the Flip app would just work normally with normal backgrounds. So this way you do not have to make Flip a dedicated weather app too (or a stock app or a news app etc). Just keep Flip dedicated to being a clock.

jolouis | # 228 | 2009-11-27, 15:31 | Report

My thoughts exactly, agreed. This is a down the road thing anyways, but it shouldn't be hard to pull the data out of something like OMWeather; I'm surprised acually that somebody hasn't just made a generic "weather data" service yet that other apps can pull the info from via dbus- calls, etc...

Thanks!

jolouis | # 229 | 2009-11-27, 15:42 | Report

As promised, Flipclock documentation excerpt:

Settings Screen
The Clock Settings screen allows you to control the configuration of Flip itself; options on this screen are application wide (if you want alarm controls you need the Alarm Setup Screen). You can access the Clock Settings screen by either pressing the "Current date display" button on the bottom of the main clock screen, or by pressing your finger down on the clock digits and dragging downwards.


The options provided on the Clock Settings screen are described below:

• Clock Mode : This option allows you to control whether the Flip operates in 12 Hour (AM/PM) or 24 Hour mode.
• Seconds Counter: This option controls whether the seconds ticker/counter will be displayed on the main clock screen. This option only affects themes that support seconds display.
• Alarm Style : This option allows you to control the style in which alarms are setup and controlled:
  • Weekly (default): In this mode Flip allows you to define different alarms for each day of the week. Each alarm is distinct and can be independtly enabled or disabled. Alarms in this mode are not auto-clearing; that means after an alarm goes off, it will remain enabled for the specified day of the next week.
  • Daily : In this mode Flip allows you to define a single "daily" alarm. This is the same approach used by most "standard" alarm clocks; when the alarm is enabled it will occur at the next specified time. So if it's currently 8:00pm, and you set the alarm for 9:00pm, it will occur in one hour; if you set the alarm for 7:00pm it would occur at 7:00pm the next day. Alarms in this mode are auto-clearing, meaning that after the alarm goes off it will automatically become disabled until you manually activate it again.
• Max Alarm Volume : This is the maximum volume that you want Flip to play your alarm sound at. To help ensure alarms are always heard Flip overrides the normal device volume level, so this option lets you control the maximum that Flip will use.
• Insomniac Mode : This option controls whether Insomniac mode is enabled or not. For more information on this special display mode, see the Insomniac Mode help section. You can also toggle this option by pressing the hardware "back" button (looks like an arrow) at any point.
• Insomiac Screen Lock: This option controls whether the screen will be "locked" while in Insomniac mode. When this setting is on (default) if the screen is dimmed (at Insomniac level), pressing anywhere on the display, or any hardware button, will only cause the display to return to normal brightness. You'll then be able to interact with Flip normally. When this setting is off all interactions with the device will wake the display and perform their normal actions. For example, if this setting is on and an alarm occurs while at Insomniac brightness, you can roll over and hit anywhere on the display to wake the display up without worrying about accidentally hitting the alarm off or snooze buttons; if this option is off, you'll be able to hit the alarm off or snooze buttons while at Insomiac brightness.
• Insomniac Backlight : This option controls how dim (or bright) the device backlight will be when Insomniac mode is enabled. The default value of 3 is the lowest possible setting and provides optimal "in the dark" viewing, while a higher value might be desirable for "throughout the day" viewing.

You can change any value on the settings screen simply by pressing on it. For example, if you want to change the clock from the default 12 hour mode to 24 hour mode, simply press the "12 Hr" value, and it will automatically change. Some options, such as the Max Alarm Volume, allow for a more specific value to be defined, and so clicking on these will open the "Value slider" display, giving you a quick and easy way to select the exact value you want.

The Clock Settings screen also allows you to access some of Flip's other control screens via the large buttons:

• About Flip : Opens the Flipclock about/help screen.
• Select Mood : Opens the mood colour picker window. For more information on Mood Colours, how they affect Flip and how to pick one, see the Mood Colours help section.
• Select Theme : Opens the theme browser, allowing you to choose different themes for Flip. For more information on this see the Theme Browser help section.

la3875 | # 230 | 2009-11-27, 19:49 | Report

Just did the upgrade to 0.9.6... first thing i noted is alarms are gone though it appears alarms still exist by the icon in the top display bar. I will give it a go and keep you posted. The app has matured nicely and should remain popular.

Thanks for the hard work and for responding to all of our comments.