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So I've been wanting to find something to help me organize my life through the use of my phone for quite a while and have always come up short, mostly because of the oh-so-limited search functionality of the Android market (even on sites like Androlib etc.). Part of the problem seems to be the set of features I want to be included in the app, or at least in interlocking apps (ie one can be opened from within the other and data from one is seamlessly shared to the other), which up until now I have yet to find. So I've come here hoping that our community of tinkerers has found something that might fit the bill. Here is a list of the features I need / want:
Need:
- Calendar integration with alerts, preferably with Google calendar
- Appointments with alerts
- Tasks with multiple levels and with alerts
- Contexts
- Checklists that can be recycled and which can have alerts attached to both the list and individual items
- Contacts integration
- Multi-platform integration (ie can sync with online service and with my desktop)
- Easy to use and easy to keep using (read: doesn't require an hour of my time each day to make sure everything is set for the next)
- Useful widgets
- No monthly fee
- 100% functional (minus sync of course) without a data connection so it can be used when in poor coverage areas or on a plane
Want:
- Much prefer a "Getting Things Done" (GTD) style application
- Location specific alerts (ie upon getting home, a reminder to take the trash out... and yes, I do need this sometimes )
- 100% free (I'm willing to pay for the app, though not a monthly service, but I prefer not to if I don't have to)
- Integration with Email, Text, Phone, and Contacts (ie ability to set a callback appointment from within contacts or us an incoming email to generate a task)
- Persistent alerts (read: I'm going to dismiss something important at some point and I want to be reminded of it again automatically)
Anyway, I know this is a hefty list of demands, but if any of you have suggestions that can actually fit some or all of these, I'd really love to hear them so I can give them a try. I've been looking for this for a while and just can't seem to find something I that fits enough of my important criteria to make it useful to me.
Thanks.
You can try the following :-
Any.Do (free) - A basic to do app without the location feature, it has alarms, different levels of priority and also syncs with your browser.
Remember The Milk (free) - though some features which you are looking for such as location based reminders come with the pro version, which requires a monthly fee that adds up to 25 USD a year and is a bit too expensive in my opinion.
Astrid To do (free) - You can get extra features such as location based based reminders and widgets for about 4 GBP total.
Hope I helped!
Thanks a lot, I'll have a look at those to see if they fit the bill. Do any of them have calendar integration?
treblesum81 said:
Thanks a lot, I'll have a look at those to see if they fit the bill. Do any of them have calendar integration?
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As far as I'm aware, I think Astrid does. I've only ever used Astrid and Any.Do. But you should be able to see the feature list on the Play Store. If you're looking exclusively for calendar integration, I think you should check out Gtasks
madgooner2810 said:
As far as I'm aware, I think Astrid does. I've only ever used Astrid and Any.Do. But you should be able to see the feature list on the Play Store. If you're looking exclusively for calendar integration, I think you should check out Gtasks
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I guess that's another one I'll have a look at, but the thing is that I'm looking for a daily planner, which is also a task manager so I can build to-do lists into my schedule, while also having a good schedule app, if that makes any sense. Kind of an all-in-one type of thing with as much versatility / features as can be packed in.
treblesum81 said:
I guess that's another one I'll have a look at, but the thing is that I'm looking for a daily planner, which is also a task manager so I can build to-do lists into my schedule, while also having a good schedule app, if that makes any sense. Kind of an all-in-one type of thing with as much versatility / features as can be packed in.
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Then, in my opinion, your best bet would be Astrid with the paid locale add on.
madgooner2810 said:
Then, in my opinion, your best bet would be Astrid with the paid locale add on.
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Click to collapse
I've spent the last few hours messing around with Astrid today (not the locale plug in though) and found that it lacks the ability to make a reoccuring checklist or at least subordinate lists (ie a task with a list of tasks contained within it) which is one of the most important features that I'm looking for. Unless I just haven't found the right way to do it, if I wanted to make a recurring checklist for cleaning the house, for example, I'd have to enter in each separate cleaning item as its own task which would be cumbersome and also would start filling up my inbox with old tasks pretty quickly if I decide to defer some items off a week or two.
I guess now the question is what would be your second recommendation, if any, while keeping in mind the need for checklists / subordinate tasks? Do any of the other apps like Doit.im, Shuffle, or DGT GTD (all of which have subordinate lists, but not checklists a la remember the milk, and all of which I've tried, but not been able to use successfully for one reason or another) have locale-type add-ons?
Thanks again
treblesum81 said:
I've spent the last few hours messing around with Astrid today (not the locale plug in though) and found that it lacks the ability to make a reoccuring checklist or at least subordinate lists (ie a task with a list of tasks contained within it) which is one of the most important features that I'm looking for. Unless I just haven't found the right way to do it, if I wanted to make a recurring checklist for cleaning the house, for example, I'd have to enter in each separate cleaning item as its own task which would be cumbersome and also would start filling up my inbox with old tasks pretty quickly if I decide to defer some items off a week or two.
I guess now the question is what would be your second recommendation, if any, while keeping in mind the need for checklists / subordinate tasks? Do any of the other apps like Doit.im, Shuffle, or DGT GTD (all of which have subordinate lists, but not checklists a la remember the milk, and all of which I've tried, but not been able to use successfully for one reason or another) have locale-type add-ons?
Thanks again
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You talk about a requirement for a multi-level checklist, unless I'm mistaken, is it the same as the one in the first screenshot of Astrid's Google Play page? Doit.im, Shufle and DGT GTD do not seem to have location add ons, but I did come across another app which might interest you :- "2Do: To do List | Task List" It's for about 6.99 USD and it does seem to have all features EXCEPT location based notifications. My advice would be to fully explore/understand Astrid and then buy the add on if you're interested. I still think it has the necessary feature (sublists) , I am downloading the app and figuring out how to do the same, if I find a way, I'll post it here.
EDIT: To make subtasks, create the two seperate taks (for example let the main one be clean room and the subtask be make the bed), then longpress make the bed and drag it to the the faint grey divider you can see between every task, when you drag it there, you may notice that make the bed got indented to the right and that should make your subtask list! You can verify if your subtask has been included by checking the main task, in this case, clean the room, and if both clean the room and make the bed get checked out you should have understood the whole process. Similarly, you can add more subtasks, say vaccuum the floor, by longpressing and dragging it to the divider just below the main task. Hope I Helped!
alternatively you can check this website out for more help: blog.astrid.com/how-do-i-create-subtasks/
madgooner2810 said:
You talk about a requirement for a multi-level checklist, unless I'm mistaken, is it the same as the one in the first screenshot of Astrid's Google Play page? Doit.im, Shufle and DGT GTD do not seem to have location add ons, but I did come across another app which might interest you :- "2Do: To do List | Task List" It's for about 6.99 USD and it does seem to have all features EXCEPT location based notifications. My advice would be to fully explore/understand Astrid and then buy the add on if you're interested. I still think it has the necessary feature (sublists) , I am downloading the app and figuring out how to do the same, if I find a way, I'll post it here.
EDIT: To make subtasks, create the two seperate taks (for example let the main one be clean room and the subtask be make the bed), then longpress make the bed and drag it to the the faint grey divider you can see between every task, when you drag it there, you may notice that make the bed got indented to the right and that should make your subtask list! You can verify if your subtask has been included by checking the main task, in this case, clean the room, and if both clean the room and make the bed get checked out you should have understood the whole process. Similarly, you can add more subtasks, say vaccuum the floor, by longpressing and dragging it to the divider just below the main task. Hope I Helped!
alternatively you can check this website out for more help: blog.astrid.com/how-do-i-create-subtasks/
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Click to collapse
I appreciate the help so far. I'm once again moving away from Astrid because I can't seem to get the subtasks to reoccur as subtasks on a daily / weekly schedule. I'm a manager at a restaurant, so I tried to put together a store closing checklist, which worked fine the first day, but when I set it to repeat for the second day, it did not retain the subtasks as subordinate to the main task and mixed them all in with other tasks I'd created. In addition to this problem, I've been unable to get any tasks that I create to sync with my calendar, even when enabling the GTasks sync and then having GTasks sync with my calendar, which again means that a primary function is not working as needed, or at least I have not been able to figure it out.
I'm going to have a look at 2Do to see what its got going for it, but I'm starting to feel like a lot of the apps that we've discussed so far, while still decent apps which are well written, are not going to present me with the catch-all I was hoping for.
On a side note, I have found that more apps are starting to include location based reminders, but they often come with fatal flaws for my desired use. MyLifeOrganized has location based reminders, but the only way to sync it to my calendar is to use either the cloud based sync or the desktop program both of which cost extra money and, from what I've read, create a system where getting tasks to appear in your calendar is hit or miss at best.
I've also noticed a distinct lack of proper calendar integration in everything I've tried. Some are able to put a task on the calendar, but if I want to be able to attach a to-do list to an appointment or time block, which is possible from what I understand about the calendar code, there just isn't any kind of option beyond making the appointment and then making a task which is due at the same time. Maybe I'm asking too much of these apps?
treblesum81 said:
On a side note, I have found that more apps are starting to include location based reminders, but they often come with fatal flaws for my desired use. MyLifeOrganized has location based reminders, but the only way to sync it to my calendar is to use either the cloud based sync or the desktop program both of which cost extra money and, from what I've read, create a system where getting tasks to appear in your calendar is hit or miss at best.
I've also noticed a distinct lack of proper calendar integration in everything I've tried. Some are able to put a task on the calendar, but if I want to be able to attach a to-do list to an appointment or time block, which is possible from what I understand about the calendar code, there just isn't any kind of option beyond making the appointment and then making a task which is due at the same time. Maybe I'm asking too much of these apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You ARE asking for a for a really feature heavy app. I guess what you require isn't just available in one single app right now. Maybe if you would be willing to combine 2 or 3 apps to get the job done you could achieve what you need. I'm sure app devs will add more features, but as of now I guess all apps I can suggest are insufficient for your needs. If you want, I can tinker around a bit and see what apps you can use as a combination?
madgooner2810 said:
You ARE asking for a for a really feature heavy app. I guess what you require isn't just available in one single app right now. Maybe if you would be willing to combine 2 or 3 apps to get the job done you could achieve what you need. I'm sure app devs will add more features, but as of now I guess all apps I can suggest are insufficient for your needs. If you want, I can tinker around a bit and see what apps you can use as a combination?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am willing to combine apps, but only if they are interlocking, or at least very easy to use together. Trying to juggle 2-3 different sets of tasks / appointments / calendars just seems like it would be too cumbersome for me to stick with it, which is ultimately going to be the deciding factor about how successful the app(s) are for my needs. If I have to re-enter a new set of checklists, or even re-subordinate each subtask every time I want a checklist to repeat, I'm not going to use it very long. Just like if I have to do triple-entry bookkeeping to have an appointment or project deadline, plus have that project have a to-do list associated with it, and also have trouble integrating everything into a single calendar, I'm not going to use it very long. If any of that makes sense?
Hi, this is a small app I made to remind myself to do things that don't have a set due date or deadline.
About the app
A simple app to keep you on top of things. Type in your reminder and click create, and the reminder will stay in your notification tray until you clear it. It's a simpler and more efficient way to manage things. There's no way to set a reminder for an event(Read: household tasks, school related things) that doesn't have a deadline, so the solution is to keep the event in your notifcation tray until you clear it. People glance at the notification area everytime they turn on the phone, so it's impossible to miss the reminder that Simple Reminders creates. This app is most useful for students but it can also be useful for adults.
Example
You have to buy milk the next time you go to the grocery store. No one makes plans to the grocery store, you just go when you have free time. Regular reminder apps can't remind you to get milk because they don't know when you're going to the store. Simple Reminders gets around this by keeping a notification in the tray that you'll notice when you're going to the store.
About the developer
I'm a 16 year old high school student learning java/android programming in my spare time.
Feel free to leave any feedback/tips/concerns.
I'm a huge fan of simple apps that take care of basic things such as this, bychance would this work on a Nexus 7 and are there any widgets for it as well? It would work great on my lockscreen
Just tried it, pretty good but please add the option to make the reminder sticky if need be as swiping them clears the notification away (obviously not good if you accidentally cleared the notification area)
Oh and please add the option of a black and white theme to the creation page
Many thanks
EDIT: Before I forget, there's a typo in the apps options page. Should be "created" not "creator" :good:
Since we live in an age in which phones pack more computing power than PC’s from less than 10 years ago, the number of tasks we can accomplish with mobile devices grows very fast. Which means the functionality of applications gets better every day, to give us a faster way to achieve our goals, on a day to day basis. That’s why, a lot of automating apps these days try to stay on top of it for us. One of these aps is IFTTT – If This Then That.
Tasks we can accomplish with the app range from scanning for updates on RSS feeds, Ebay, Reddit or Youtube and connecting to different apps, like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and much more. For instance, we can receive a notification, if a new item is available on Ebay, or when we are tagged on Facebook. It all sounds great, but the question is how well does it work in the real world?
I installed IFTTT mostly in the hope to be able to stay on top of news and new items, which works really well and is really easy to set up. All you need to do, if you want to scan for specific items on Ebay, is to add a new recipe (+ button on top) and search for the Ebay trigger, select it, and activate the channel. After that, enter the search terms or keywords for which the recipe should be searching for. Now that the trigger is set up, we can choose actions or in other words, what should happen when we get a match. There are a lot of actions to choose from, like adding the item to a spreadsheet or text file on cloud based storage services, or simply sending an email to a friend that the item is available.
The procedure to scan the RSS feed of a website is also very straight forward. We simply select the RSS trigger, after we created a new recipe, and then we paste the feed link and enter the desired keywords, for which we are searching for. Now, we just need to finish the recipe with the desired action, and we are good to go. Anytime something with the desired keywords is posted, we know about it. IFTTT looks for changes every 15 minutes.
On the other hand this is not an app which is great in automating only device based actions. It is not meant for that, yet. The problem is not in triggers which give you more or less what you need, but in actions. Lets say I want to disable the pattern lock screen when I get home. While the trigger for a specific wifi SSID is available, the action for disabling the pattern lock screen is missing. We can only choose to change the ringtone volume and update the wallpaper under actions, which is actually pretty scarce. But this is not where its true power currently lies.
To sum it up, IFTTT is great for connecting together services or different apps like Twitter or Pocket and it is also very straightforward with the building of recipes. Anyone can do it. This is something that other automating apps are missing, which is why IFTTT fits right in. Nobody did provide such functionality in such a simple manner to this day...
IFTTT in Google Play
Hello everyone! I would like to share some interesting information about the app we released recently.
It's called 1-3-5 To-Do, our new productivity app for iOS and Android, designed to battle never ending to do lists. While regular to-do apps do help to list all your tasks, they all have one problem - the list has so many to-dos that you can’t accomplish them all. When it’s getting bigger, it’s even harder to complete all tasks.
That really drove us mad and we have come up with a simple solution to get things actually done - we narrowed down the daily task list to only 9 core items: 1 big task, 3 medium tasks and 5 small tasks. All tasks are visible on one screen while the list has predefined priority so you can quickly and easily manage your tasks.
1-3-5 To-Do is very simple to use. The app has 3 main to-do lists: Today, Tomorrow, Someday (for unprioritized tasks). All tasks can be moved between lists and you can always have a snapshot of your tasks. For better task management, there are tags to describe the context of your tasks. There’s also Calendar that allows you to plan your future to-dos, track history and quickly check how many to-dos you have for any specific day.
You can check it out on Googe Play and Amazon (available for both phones and tablets)
Let's talk! If you have any questions about the app, I will be happy to help you out!
RSS reader offline fulltext articles with images, optimized for traffic economy
This is a separate branch of the Flym RSS reader application
Main functions:
- RSS feeds of articles
- search for by keyword when adding feed
- download offline full-text versions of articles with images
- import / export of the channel list from OPML
- filter articles by keywords or regular expressions
- full screen reading mode
From the modified:
- loading articles from site without rss (all site links will be loaded as articles)
- keyword to mark articles as favourite when loading new ones (with notification)
- collapsing (folding) the groups of feeds
- swype article left|right to mark read|favourite
- the ability to hide read articles per channel
- bold type of reading articles
- view shared link from other app (e.x. browser) in app mobilized
- limit the number of downloadable images of the article
- the ability to download individual images of the article
- a detailed description of the process of downloading articles to understand what the application is doing at the moment
- the counter of the consumed traffic
- setting up automatic marking of articles as read while scrolling the list
- setting the display of the text of articles in the article list (these two items are useful for reading forums)
- tap area to go to the next / previous page while reading the article
- quick transition to full screen mode and back, as well as showing / hiding the action bar
- much more ...
apk View attachment ru.yanus171.feedexfork_0.7.9_107.apk
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.yanus171.feedexfork
Github: https://github.com/yanus171/Flym\
This app does NOT synchronize with online news feed readers (i.e. Feedly)
This application is free, without ads, open source
Feedback and suggestions are welcome
Amazing! The best of its kind!
Flym Fork is everything I wanted a RSS reader to be. It's interface is very similar to Flym which I was already using when I discovered Flym Fork. I prefer Flym Fork because it is updated regularly (basic Flym hasn't been updated since march 2017).
I can easily filter RSS feeds with keywords. I can customize the RSS lists like I've never been able to before (I can see a picture preview, the title AND a preview of the content).
I'll subscribe to this thread with hopes that this app will grow with even more options!
---------- Post added at 12:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 PM ----------
Hey there, I noticed a strange issue but I'm pretty sure I am doing something wrong. It would be nice if someone can explain what is my issue.
I'll show it with a simple example :
https://www.kijiji.ca/rss-srp-meuble-de-jardin/saint-hyacinthe/jardin-de-ville/k0c686l1700151r20.0
It returned nothing within Flym Fork BUT I can see one entry from it's original http URL :
https://www.kijiji.ca/b-meuble-de-jardin/saint-hyacinthe/jardin-de-ville/k0c686l1700151r20.0
Today, I deleted the feed and entered it again. Now it shows the entry.
I wonder if a "restart" feature would be useful for this sort of scenario. I see many advantages for it :
if I accidentaly deleted entries and I wanted them back, I could hit the restart button on this specific feed and everything would be trashed and loaded back again. Right?
Talking about deleted entries, maybe a trash bin with a custom cache time (like 24 hours) would be useful?
I'm just throwing ideas in. If there is already an option that allows to do what I want, I would be glad to hear how to do it.
Thank you!
Hello !
A RSS-reader is one of the main - and the key apps I use on a daily basis. What I mean by "the key app" is that I highly value being up-to-date with all of things I find interesting and important.
Over the years I've been using several RSS-clients. At some point I've met one particular app which seemed promising - but over the time ads were added and using the app wasn't convenient any more. To make matters worse splash-screen has been introduced - which also slowed the app (in the long run I find very important to be able just to instantly open an app).
So I needed the research again - to find another RSS-reader which could be right for Me. During the research one thing I found strange: several apps looked pretty similar to the one I've described before. Soon I've discovered Flym and its various forks, i.a. FlymFork by Yanus171. I picked a few which seemed most promising and contacted their developers (including the original app), equipped with some insights and key-requests which I've found crucial (like - for example - being able to enlarge text-size or switching articles by volume buttons). Only one person answered - that way I've discovered an app which I use to this day. Moreover, the app is more and more convincing and appealing - because new features are introduced, which also make a big difference in terms of both usability and user-experience as such. This is also why I am interested in this app's development: I'd love to see it growing, being more user-friendly (especially regarding average users, which requires a proper attitude) and a little bit more elegant and flexible. All of that is My dream which I'm brave to have because of how promising the app is now - and its Developer seems to be open-minded, generally responsive to various requests, ideas and loose thoughts.
What I find most useful so far:
User-friendly text size:
You can enlarge both article's - and articles list' text size - separately (which is important). It is crucial for Me because of limited vision/eyesight, I highly need big text and only in FlymFork I've found sufficient level of text size in articles and articles' lists. I guess there are not many users with limited eyesight out there - but that "trivial" tiny thing like enlarging text-size to pretty big may be crucial and final factor allowing some users to just using the app, let alone using it conveniently.
Convenient reading:
switching articles by volume buttons, "tap areas" and remembering the position of reading per article. All those features are fundamental in terms of usability, how easily and fluently You can use the app. I use volume buttons to switch next/prev articles - and combine it with tapping on top or bottom of the screen to scroll it up/downward. This way You can browse/read articles very easily and quickly - especially given that displayed articles are automatically marked as read. I find especially amazing that by tapping the top or bottom area - it scrolls exactly the whole content of the single screen - no matter where I've scrolled it before. Besides it's very convenient to have that ability to scroll the text exactly one page down/up - in case if You use volume buttons not to scroll, but to switch articles. On top of that FlymFork remembers where You've stopped reading all the articles - which is also very helpful.
Killer feature: Important Articles (so far it is known as a filter "mark as starred"). I subscribe several RSS channels and browse them when I have some "spare time" between other - main activities I'm highly into. As I've mentioned before, it's important for Me to be up-to-date with all I find interesting (several matters represented by favorite RSS channels). As far as subscribed channels are concerned, among these You may find information which You consider high-priority (maybe it requires an urgent action/checking out/etc.). One example could be posts on time-limited offers: if You check RSS news only from time to time (like Me, during "spare-time-windows" ) - it's easy to miss any urgent info. But if You'd be notified right after that kind of high-priority info shows up - it could be a game-changer. In other words: regardless of how often You are able to check the (RSS) news - You no longer miss anything important.
Read It Later (so far it is called "starred items"). My approach to RSS is that sometimes I have the time to read something - or just to quickly browse articles to pick up potentially interesting ones to read later. A wonderful thing is that I can put interesting articles "on the buck burner" with the certainty that they won't dissapear - regardless of time span I chose in the app's settings. This is another feature I find crucial in terms of how much this app is really helpful and useful in everyday life, fitting in various lifestyles (more or less time to read).
Kind requests - what I think would be a good idea to implement and make the app growing:
I. Nomenclature - be more user-friendly.
I think there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of how the app communicates with users - especially keeping in mind average users who just want to be up-to-date with all they like/they are interested in. No need to be a computer geek, power user, etc. I'm sure there are many users who don't know what RSS is - but would be definitely interested in being in touch with all which is important to them (via RSS channels). It would be sufficient to supply an app which will communicate with them using non-technical language, this way being more comprehensive, avoiding various potential confusions derived out of "non-technicality". I think this is a good idea to care about average people - not only users with the knowledge, however basic or advanced. I'd like to see the app which I could use without knowing all the technical details - FlymFork would be excellent being that way - and in the same time maintaining more "geeky" features somewhere "under the hood" (like - for example - handling websites with no RSS feed!). As a result both user-bases would be content: power users with their needs - and average users with almost no technical knowledge and nomenclature in mind.
Moreover, by implementing various "touch-ups" within the nomenclature itself the app would become more human = more friendly. And this would be one of key-factor to choose FlymFork instead of any other app.
I would suggests several touch-ups:
Rename "Favorites" as "Read It Later".
I think it would be definitely more precise and understandable than "favorite". Imagine You are an average - non-technical user. Then imagine You see "Read It Later" option in the app: it's very easy to know what that feature is for. But why I (or an average user) could "mark something as favorite"...? I think it would be much more convincing to put it as "Read It Later".
"Articles" instead of "entries" or "posts".
This one is a request of similar mold as previous one. Although there are many users (programmers? ) who are accustomed to name things as "entries"/"items" - there are even more users for whose it would be much more friendly to name things simply as "articles": more human, more understandable, without need to think "Do I really know for sure what does 'the entry' mean?". So I highly suggest to change "entries" into "articles" app-wide, everywhere where a word "entry" (or "entries") is used - to change it into "article/articles". For example, instead of notification message "XX new entries" I would suggest "XX new articles". Moreover, for FlymFork to be more friendly I would love to see it put as "You have XX new articles to browse." . It would be so exciting to use an app which is so friendly - on a daily basis ! Small change, but big impact - I'm sure the angel (not the devil) is in the details .
"Updating (which could take some time), please wait..." instead of "updating" - and "You have XX new articles to browse." instead of "XX new entries".
While updating, FlymFork displays two notifications: one is displayed only temporarily and contained originally only the time of the update - the other informs how many new articles has arrived. Since the temporary one is often displayed even a few minutes - it could be a little bit confusing. Fortunately now it has been changed into "updating" - now I know what is happening and why I'm still seeing this notification on the bar. To make it accordingly more friendly (as I've pointed out earlier) I would suggest to change sole "updating" into "Updating (which could take some time), please wait...". This way there is no place for any confusion or uncertainty on what is happening - moreover, users are now prepared that updating can take some time, and it's not complete yet (and this is important information). When updating is complete, FlymFork displays a notification "XX new entries" - I would suggest to change it into "You have XX new articles to browse." - again, to make it more human/more friendly/more understandable. I think many users would appreciate it.
"Important Articles" instead of "Mark(ed) as starred".
I refer to the 'Important Articles' concept I've mentioned before. Many people would benefit from this feature if it would be clear what is it for. I think what would help is to rename it from "Mark as starred" (in the filter configuration) / "Marked as starred" (in the notification) - to "Notify on Important Articles" (in the filter config.) and "New Important Article" (as notification).
"Full articles instead of excerpts" instead of "retrieve full text" - again: more understandable for average users.
If I will notice another instances where we could have the app communicating with the user in a more friendly way - I'll let You know, but those above are essential because they are most often seen by users while using the app.
II. Multiple fonts.
I think the more flexible an app is - the wider user-base it can reach (because it can meet more individual tastes). Ability to change the article font (as well as the font of articles' list - it may be one setting for all) could make more users smile . For example, I would especially recommend the font "Lato Light" for it resembles widely known "Roboto Light" propagated by Google, but in My opinion is more "fluid" and elegant - or less "edgy", to put it differently. Wherever I can, I use Lato Light - it could be great to have it here ! More information on Lato font You can find here (I recommend to read the 'about' section for those who are interested in typography - You will find interesting information there!): fonts.google.com/specimen/Lato.
III. Progress bar.
With limited sight I could barely notice its existence - but it looks like great idea, to have that subtle progress bar accompanying reading and indicating how much we are engrossed in the content . I think this bar would be, however, a little bit visible - and still subtle (I'd love to be able to set My own color to it!). Now the hour displayed next to it is so tiny... The progress bar being so small has no use for Me - but it does would be useful if a little bit bigger and placed on the background (of the color according to app's theme). BTW, not everybody is interested in being always informed what time is it - so it would be definitely great to be able to turn off displaying the time alongside progress bar somewhere in the options.
IV. FTP synchronization.
Although this is not crucial - I think it would be something making FlymFork considerably standing out, especially if You consider that FlymFork "does NOT synchronize with online news feed readers (i.e. Feedly)". I think it would be much better to be able to synchronize several things over the FTP. I saw that feature in Anki - an Android app to memorizing. On one side it has its own cloud with the synchronization service - but on the other it offers its users an ability to synchronize via their own FTP server (!). I find this feature amazing and - although I'm not a developer - I guess it would be done: to implement synchronization via user-defined FTP server. It should synchronize everything needed for fluent, transparent usage of FlymFork on multiple devices. An ideal effect should be not to feel that anything changed when You grab another device. So we need synchronization:
[*]List of subscribed RSS feeds/channels.
Status of reading (which articles are read, which not yet - and which are marked as starred/Read It Later - plus notification on Important Articles).
Position of reading per article.
Last viewed article (if enabled in settings).
Also FlymFork should notify if any problems with accesing an FTP server occurs - as well as on successful synchronization. Besides, it would be good to be able to choose the synchronization's interval somewhere in settings.
I'm not sure if would it be possible but maybe You could add a Google Drive as another place to synchronize?
V. Localization.
Although I'm all right with using the app communicating in English - I know there are many users who don't know the language, using their own native one. In My case it is Polish - and I would be interested in translating the app into Polish in order for FlymFork to communicate in this language when Polish Android instance is detected. What do You think about it?
Bugs:
Multiple "External link" items on the sidebar.
Using the app over the time there are many "External link" items on the bar - which contain an error message ("Error: attempt to invoke...") and seem to be useless. If I suppose correctly that they are not necessary - it would be definitely great to hide them in order to the sidebar not being littered.
"Setting up automatic marking of articles as read while scrolling the list".
I can't find or observe this option in action - where is exactly located? Is it possible to turn it on/off? If no, would it be (I think it would be a good idea)?
I wanted to cover all topics but I think it would be better to publish it now and add any further remarks at some later point - this way You could make FlymFork better earlier . So I hope You find the ideas described above useful.
Kind regards,
Thomas Leigh
First of all thank you for app reviews. They will infulence the app development.
volt26 said:
I wonder if a "restart" feature would be useful for this sort of scenario. I see many advantages for it :
if I accidentaly deleted entries and I wanted them back, I could hit the restart button on this specific feed and everything would be trashed and loaded back again. Right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After you have refreshed the feed the last update time is remembered, and the subsequent refresh will only load the articles after that date|time. There is a Delete all option in artcile list menu which also resets the last feed date time. After that operation, subsequent refresh will load all articles that exist in the feed. But there may be loaded articles in FlymFork, which do not exist in feeds (feed contains only last several articles). Such artciles would NOT be loaded after Delete all operation
TJMulder said:
"Setting up automatic marking of articles as read while scrolling the list"
I can't find or observe this option in action - where is exactly located? Is it possible to turn it on/off? If no, would it be (I think it would be a good idea)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long tap on feed and check Show article text in list. In this mode atricles are makred as read automatically while scrolling (It was a bit hard to realized that feature). This mode is very usefull to with short text articles, like forum post which have RSS. (But now it is possible even without RSS)
Buy the way in the next app release View attachment ru.yanus171.feedexfork_0.7.2_100.apk there will be a new feed setting Load type that allows to load the url not as RSS, but as webpage. So we can load the articles from webpages which do not have RSS In such a case all web page links are loaded as articles, and the url is also loaded as article too (It isritythe first). To reduce the amount of links the filter should be applyed to feed. You'd better temporaly turn on Show articles url setting for that.
It is very handy to filter using regular expressions checkbox. But I realize that requires advanced knowledge. But you can mail me and I will give you required regexp filter for your page.
yanus171 said:
Long tap on feed and check Show article text in list. In this mode atricles are makred as read automatically while scrolling (It was a bit hard to realized that feature). This mode is very usefull to with short text articles, like forum post which have RSS. (But now it is possible even without RSS)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You for pointing out. Indeed it works - and it works in a gently way: not marking articles as read just after they disappear from the screen, but a little bit later (scrolling-wise).
It is amazing feature and it would be excellent to have it working in the "Unread" list, would it be possible? I mean article text displayed also in the "Unread" list, alongside marking them as read while scrolling.
I am getting an error with this link archstrike.org/rss/news
Code:
At line 45, column 264: undefined entity null
github.com/ArchStrike/ArchStrike-Website/issues/6
Zragon said:
I am getting an error with this link archstrike.org/rss/news...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this version https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dDzBRh9zDe1DT_Gu-00SE-hla2i8A1sb/view?usp=sharing
TJMulder said:
Thank You for pointing out. Indeed it works - and it works in a gently way: not marking articles as read just after they disappear from the screen, but a little bit later (scrolling-wise).
It is amazing feature and it would be excellent to have it working in the "Unread" list, would it be possible? I mean article text displayed also in the "Unread" list, alongside marking them as read while scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, i have about 90 feed sources and receive 1K news to read.
I need something to sort out what i need to read and save what i will read (read later feature will be really useful too)
I'm currently using Aggregator RSS (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tughi.aggregator)
I recently noticed flym fork. I's really good.
Take a look at Aggregator, maybe you'll find something to implement in flym fork.
I use RSS everyday.
Thanks for your app.
4Freedom said:
Yeah, i have about 90 feed sources and receive 1K news to read.
I need something to sort out what i need to read and save what i will read (read later feature will be really useful too)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about set as favourite button?
4Freedom said:
Take a look at Aggregator, maybe you'll find something to implement in flym fork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe YOU will point me to features usefull fo YOU?
By the way here is new version View attachment ru.yanus171.feedexfork_0.7.9_107.apk
- min auto update battery level
- setting to not display read article count
- language select setting
- font size sttings were enlarged
- Android 8 compability
- bug fixes
yanus171 said:
Try this version drive.google.com/file/d/1dDzBRh9zDe1DT_Gu-00SE-hla2i8A1sb/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tested and working.
yanus171 said:
What about set as favourite button?
Maybe YOU will point me to features usefull fo YOU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, of course.
Here is a list of point about why I am using Aggregator right now.
It does not want to be a criticism for its own sake, but a list from which to take inspiration.:good:
LONG PRESS on feed list allow me to "mark as read", "create exclusion rule" and "share".
WEBSITE ICON option to view website icon instead on letters/images (Main page) .
SPEED It took about 7 minutes to fetch all feeds, vs 1 minute by Aggregator.
NETWORK USAGE 90MB used vs 3MB used by Aggregator. EDIT: Probably related to images.
GUI I think Aggregator has a better implementation of the material design guidelines (Layout/Icon/Menu/Sidebar) .
Custom refresh interval per feed?
Hello, I still use Flym Fork and I love it! It's that great!
I do have a feature suggestion that would totally change the game for me (and probably other users) : can we set a custom refresh interval per feed? I have some feeds that must be refreshed every 5 minutes while some of my other feeds can be refreshed once a day.
Right now, EVERYTHING is refreshed on the same timer.. It generates a lot of useless refreshes on some of my RSS feeds. It generates data and battery usage that I can avoid.
Thank you!
Flym Fork+TTS
Flym Fork is amazing app. I promised to write something how I use it. So:
I have some RSS sources with interesting articles, but no time to read. But when I travel or do something boring housework, I have time to listen.
So I often use menu option "share all text" and send them to @voice app. (Resp. option @voice add to list".)
I collect list of interesting stories and when I have time I listen it.
If you want use @voice, you need good TTS system with good natural voices. For me is the best option "Vocalizer", where I bought some good voices. (For English I like UK English Serena, for Czech language Iveta.)
I also use it for reading books in FBreader and "Cool reader" apps.
That is all Flym Fork is one of my most useful app.
Best regards
Pavel
I have two issues.
#1 soompi.com/feed
I set it to retrieve full text but I'm getting an error 404 instead.
#2 feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews (from thehackernews.com)
Full text works but this content extract rule does not work:
Code:
thehackernews.com:id=articlebody
Hi guys.
First thanks dev, this app is awesome.
I just experience some trouble with the widget which is not updating. Any idea?
I'm on EMUI Oreo with Lawnchair launcher.
Tried to disable all battery oriented settings for both the launcher and this app without success.
Is there something I'm missing?
Thanks for your help.
Miaou
Did you tick the option to let the app always run in background aside from disabling battery optimization? I had trouble wirh some messengers if that wasn't enabled.
x2k13 said:
Did you tick the option to let the app always run in background aside from disabling battery optimization? I had trouble wirh some messengers if that wasn't enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the app updates well, it's just the widget which is not updating
Hello @yanus171,
at first thank you for Flym Fork (Handy News Reader). I did a pull request for the german translation update. Would you send me a beta please to check if all strings are right?
Thank you and happy christmas