Database Info

looping video recording. is it possible?

It occurred to me the other day that when on a windscreen mount the camera in the hd2 could be useful for in car video footage.
Seems to work fairly well but what would REALLY be great would be if you could set it to record a continuous loop so it only uses a fixed amount of card space unless you tell it save the file and start a new file.
Any idea if there are any apps that could do that?

Anyone?
Would be super useful to have. I nearly witnessed a nasty crash today and wished I had video to report the moron that nearly caused it, but can't just leave it recording at about 500-600mb per 15 minutes or so!!

+1 - Good idea, soon we're all going to have in car recording

Well I want to be able to show that if I'm ever involved in an accident exactly what happened and so on.
But kinda mainly because I just want to be able to do it to see if we can.
I suppose it needs to record to a set file size, then once that is done, to use an extra buffer amount of storage briefly while it deletes the file it just finished and begins recording again over the same space. Or something.
If you want it to keep anything you stop it and save it, then it starts from scratch.
Might be better if it actually keeps the current and previous file before deleting anything, then that way it's less likely to immediately/accidentally delete anything useful before you tell it to save. For instance you could maybe have a video screen overlay with a couple of large basic controls for save current recording and a couple of other bits.
Basically the important bit is the automated control over only using a specified file space then re-using it once it's used it up.

search forum... already discussed topic
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=597003

Yep. Shame those options don't seem to work that well....

No other options for this then?

[Q] Android Developers, why are you treating my SD card like a garbage can?

This has been bothering me for quite a while, so I conjured a little story to help sooth my frustration.
Lets say my Android device is the new tenant of a nicely formated loft, this loft being 16gb of square space. To commemorate this new exciting space my device throws a house party. Most of the Apps he invites are pretty well behaved, but some start spilling drinks, then puking on the carpet, then having an orgy, then bukkake-ing the root directory. After discovering such acts, the device politely requests the disruptive guests force quit and leave. "I need more space on my phone." the device replied as each questioned on their way out. To his disbelief, NONE of the Apps cleaned up their mess! Even worse it seems some of the classier Apps, though more organized seem to have been influenced too. Unfortunately the device is forced to live with it, as the police force stopped responding to calls in his neighborhood. One man tries, but it always returns to a mess.
I hope that entertained someone.

i know exactly how you feel... there is at least 7 unused folders just wasting space on my phone. not to mention random mp3's hidden deep within my phone...

PhxkinMassacre said:
i know exactly how you feel... there is at least 7 unused folders just wasting space on my phone. not to mention random mp3's hidden deep within my phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you understand about the unused folders and NOT the bukkake-ing!!

hello, nice story!
I won't say that I am even close to being a developer but I do develop some apps and the thing that I wan't to point out is that apps do not run when they are installed or uninstalled. It's not each application job to clear up the mess it may have created but package manager's which apparently leaves some files be just in case you would like to reinstall the app later(?)...
I would propose to look for a more efficient package manager or doorman/janitor for your loft

That's why I don't invite the guy whos only existence is to make farting noises!

Very good point. However, one thing I don't know is if uninstalling through the market cleans up the SD card better than using a third party mass uninstall app. Something you may want to experiment with.

Back at it again...
Here I am again, and I still don't flippin get it!
After reading some of your comments I realized my main point kind of got glazed over(no pun intended @Scudderb)
My big issue is that there's no hierarchy in place for this crap. In windows, program files are stored in the 'Program Files' directory. In Android (and I credit google and the developers for this sloppy BS) Apps are just throwing all their **** in with my stuff on the ROOT.
How is this acceptable. Seriously, HOW? And if its all cache files and/or temporary documents than WHY THE **** ISN'T ALL THIS CRAP BEING PUT INTO A TEMP/CACHE FOLDER.
I'm PISSED! Why does every app I install get to put their own folder on the ROOT WITH the FOLDERS and FILES that actually matter to me ex: like my music, pictures, movies, documents (OH and by the way, a lot of apps developers do a REALLY ****ty job with their NAMING CONVENTIONS so the folders being created may or may not even look related to the app that put it there!)
::end rant::
My apologies for the colorful language, folder structure and hierarchy are something I design as a web designer so when I see this crap going on in my phone like the inmates are running the asylum... I get angry.
Today I was cleaning up my SD card for the umteen'th time, and found that Foursquare was dumping its temp files directly onto the root of my directory. I blew my top and had to get it out of my system... so..
A MESSAGE TO ALL THE APPS PULLING THESE SHENANIGANS: GROW UP!

The problem here is that it's hard to do it right
For custom data, files are supposed to be saved into "/data/data/com.appname/blah" (that's from the top of my head, could differ slightly). That's the directory to use for data files, but there's one big issue with it: it's on the internal memory storage. We all know that internal memory on Android (without custom ROMs) is.. limited. That's probably why most devs are using SD for larger files.
There's also the "Android/data/com.package_name.blah/blah" directory on the SD card. This directory should be used by apps to store files into and is automatically deleted when the user removes the associated app (but only when you're running Froyo or greater).
The issue with this approach is that users (and developers too, when testing the app) will lose all their data when removing an old version of a specific app. Let's say there's a bug with the Market again and the app suddenly gets uninstalled. User will have to reinstall, result: data will be all gone. That's only one of the many doom scenarios.
I can't speak for other developers, but that's more or less the reason why I started to use a common directory outside of the preferred ones when I was doing apps. It's not a great situation, I fully agree. But would you rather have your data accidentally deleted?
If anyone knows a good way to get around this issue, I'd love to know more about it...

orly
Thanks for the reply @Stripeymilk
I can think of multiple solutions:
#1 Development community adopts a universal directory for files deemed 'User' or 'Save' data that should be stored for future use. (or Google creates this for developers)
#2 Development community adopts the practice of allowing users to pick the directory users want to store an apps data in. (prompt at app's first start)
#3 Store files/data in the cloud.
#4 Users dump trash in the lobbys/living-rooms of developer's and see how quickly they find a solution.
#5 USE THE "Android/data/com.package_name.blah/" FOLDER WHEN ALL YOU'RE REALLY DOING IS STORING CACHE/TEMP FILES!!!
BOTTOM LINE: Its not hard to do it right, Its just hard to get people to do it.

You make it sound so easy
1) I'm all for it, but Google needs to put its weight behind an approach like that because otherwise people will say "I like /Data better than /data or /Mydata or /MyData". It's a bit like coding conventions: everyone wants to be different.
2) Good for techy people, not so good for "normal" users. Could make it easier with a small "file manager", but that's too much work for indie devs. Could be a nice idea for a new open source project though.
3) Great idea, could actually work if the associated account would be created automatically (like in Cut the Rope for Android with Scoreloop), but:
- The backup functionality in Android for storing data in the cloud is available for API level 8 and greater, making it of not so much use when you're targeting API level 5 or 6 and greater. Could be fixed by using something like Google Storage combined with Jets3t instead, but that would be useless for apps written in C++, like many games are.
- Cloud storage isn't free. Developers can't pay for that as it would be too expensive. If every Android user would've gotten free cloud storage from Google it could be a nice alternative, but (yeah, there's always a but) most current users don't have that.
4) If you're prepared to send your trash by plane to another country, go for it!
5) Agreed. Useful for temp data.

I'm not trying to make it sound easy, believe me I know how it isn't. I'm trying to make it sound simple, because really.. it is...
In response:
1) I agree and this is exactly what I mean by the real hard part is getting people to do it. This requires widespread endorsement by developers big and small - that this is a 'best practice' that should be adhered to. I think the gate swings both ways though.
example: Twitter didn't invent hash tags, their users did, and with its widespread adoption, Twitter adopted/implemented it too.
2) Another good point, though this process can be curated to drive the user in the right direction (holding their hand). The XBOX 360 does this for every game you play, the first thing it does is ask you which storage device you want to use for game saves.
example: in combination with solution # 1, the default folder the app saves to could be '/data/theAppsName' and the prompt could say "This app saves files to your SD CARD in '/data/theAppName'. Would you like to choose a new location?" [Yes] [No] [?]. The [Yes] option brings up a simple file manager, the [No] option uses that location, the [?] option brings up an easy to understand write up on what its asking and why its asking it.
3) We'll get there eventually, my point really was if you've got the resources, why not. Its a solution better than #1 and #2
4) I plan on sending human clones to create trash individually and exponentially
5) AMIRITE~!
In all seriousness though, thank you @Stripeymilk for taking the time to go in depth and have a conversation about this. I seriously think it doesn't take an act of Godogle to solve this (to what I beleive) is a big issue!

I can't agree more with you.
As developer (Windows, iSeries) I try to make my programs as structured and readable as possible. The same goes for the files and folders used used by the programs, but sadly, even with all the available resources, some people (colleagues) make a complete mess of it, cause "that's not/less important", as long as the program does what it's intended to do ...
It's all about the resources and people using them the right way!

Cool, didn't know about the hash tags on Twitter
Well, we're on a great site here with developers on it. If everyone here would adhere to the same standard, it could at least be a nice push to make the Android SD card world a better place.
What's the directory we're going to settle on? Any pros and cons?

[Q] Help with syncing large music library to S3

I've looked through the forums and have seen many suggestions about different apps that will help you sync your music using your iTunes library and playlists. I've tried Easy Phone Sync, Double Twist and iSyncr, but all suffer from the same issue and crash part way through syncing when doing a complete sync or sync with a lot of changes. The sync eventually finishes after a number or app restarts, unplugging/plugging in phone, etc. It's just really annoying that it can't be a smooth process.
Has anyone else had issues with large libraries? And if so, any suggestions on how to get the syncing process working smoothly so you can literally just click sync and then wait till it finishes? I'm using Windows 7 and have tried syncing from 2 different pcs, with same issues on both. I've also had the issue on stock S3 rom as well as custom roms I've installed. I've also tried both default exFAT and FAT32 file systems on my SD card(64GB), but same issues every time.
Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

I too have a large music library. My strategy is to drag and drop folders over the USB connection. I don't find a program necessary. When I want to change stuff around, I just delete what I don't want and drag on what I do. I use it like a jump drive.

Te3k said:
I too have a large music library. My strategy is to drag and drop folders over the USB connection. I don't find a program necessary. When I want to change stuff around, I just delete what I don't want and drag on what I do. I use it like a jump drive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I was heading down that path as well, but I just wish it wasn't such a PITA. It's so much easier to manage it using play lists. I switched from using an iPhone, which was such a breeze, and I just don't understand why it has ended up being so clumsy on Android.

Blame apple for that.
Wayne Tech Nexus

wickedmx said:
Yeah, I was heading down that path as well, but I just wish it wasn't such a PITA. It's so much easier to manage it using play lists. I switched from using an iPhone, which was such a breeze, and I just don't understand why it has ended up being so clumsy on Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that making playlists in iTunes was a hassle—partly because I was only ever copying over full albums, so I literally had to go through each and every album and turn it into a playlist for syncing, which I found to be quite redundant. Dragging and dropping albums onto the device turned out to be simpler to me. Maybe this is because almost all of my music is sorted into full-album folders already.

Te3k said:
I found that making playlists in iTunes was a hassle...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm completely the opposite and find playlists in iTunes much easier to manage my library and what I want to take with me or group together for other reasons. I have close to 90GB of music and only enough space on my external SD card to hold about 55GB. Using a library that you can drag and drop to/from while seeing a live update of how much data the library will consume makes much more sense to me.
I've tried doing the syncing using other music apps as well(e.g. Winamp), however then I run into issues with those programs and crap support of m4a when transferring. I would get huge amounts of failures due to "unknown file error". So even when trying other library management software it seems to not work smoothly or cover all bases.
All I want is an app that will sync a playlist (partial update or full) without crashing after getting to about 10-15%. It seems like it should be such a simple ask in today's world, but alas it appears not.

another option
wickedmx said:
I'm completely the opposite and find playlists in iTunes much easier to manage my library and what I want to take with me or group together for other reasons. I have close to 90GB of music and only enough space on my external SD card to hold about 55GB. Using a library that you can drag and drop to/from while seeing a live update of how much data the library will consume makes much more sense to me.
I've tried doing the syncing using other music apps as well(e.g. Winamp), however then I run into issues with those programs and crap support of m4a when transferring. I would get huge amounts of failures due to "unknown file error". So even when trying other library management software it seems to not work smoothly or cover all bases.
All I want is an app that will sync a playlist (partial update or full) without crashing after getting to about 10-15%. It seems like it should be such a simple ask in today's world, but alas it appears not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this thread is a little dated, but I run into the same issue. I have a 64G microSD in my phone and it is mostly music. I just reformatted it for a new phone, and I'm on my third try with isyncr to get the whole itunes playlist copied over. I may opt for my old technique I use with my Sansa clip: pop out the microSD card and put it in my computer. then run the neat little program itunes sync (free from binary fortress software]) to copy over the itunes playlist. It always seems to work. I just need to take the back off my phone to pull the sd card each time, and that's less easy than plugging in a cable.

[Q] Android inventory app data storage suggestions

Hello,
I'm attempting to make an inventory application. Basically, our company has several devices/equipment that we checkout to other people and our current paper system isn't working out. The devices will each have an NFC tag put on that uniquely identifies it, and the idea is that the Android application on our smartphones (provided by the company) will simply scan it to check in/out the device. It will record the date time, who checked it out, and other information, and we want more than one person to be able to check in/out items at a time.
My problem is figuring out a way to store this data. Our company already pays for a OneDrive for Business account and our initial idea was to simply store the data in an Excel spreadsheet and share it with the people who checkin/checkout the devices (only two people at the moment), then the app would download the spreadsheet, record the new data, and upload it again to OneDrive. Reading and writing the data is easy, but actually pulling the file from OneDrive is where we hit a road bump and now we need another plan.
Are there any free alternatives for data storage of this kind where I would be able to access it through the Android application and update it? We also thought of using Heroku, but through researching I found that directly connecting to the PostgreSQL database they provide within the application is not possible. Of course we want to keep this data secure and only accessible to the people actually checking in/out devices, but we do not need a huge amount of space to store this data. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

cyborg99 said:
Hello,
I'm attempting to make an inventory application. Basically, our company has several devices/equipment that we checkout to other people and our current paper system isn't working out. The devices will each have an NFC tag put on that uniquely identifies it, and the idea is that the Android application on our smartphones (provided by the company) will simply scan it to check in/out the device. It will record the date time, who checked it out, and other information, and we want more than one person to be able to check in/out items at a time.
My problem is figuring out a way to store this data. Our company already pays for a OneDrive for Business account and our initial idea was to simply store the data in an Excel spreadsheet and share it with the people who checkin/checkout the devices (only two people at the moment), then the app would download the spreadsheet, record the new data, and upload it again to OneDrive. Reading and writing the data is easy, but actually pulling the file from OneDrive is where we hit a road bump and now we need another plan.
Are there any free alternatives for data storage of this kind where I would be able to access it through the Android application and update it? We also thought of using Heroku, but through researching I found that directly connecting to the PostgreSQL database they provide within the application is not possible. Of course we want to keep this data secure and only accessible to the people actually checking in/out devices, but we do not need a huge amount of space to store this data. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heroku is a good option. You'll have to make an app to run API's that will talk to your app.

Gimme the straight dope on backups

OK nerdscape, I'm only gonna spit this once so disconnect your oculus rift headsets take off those nintendo powergloves and listen good. I don't "get" you. I find your technical jargon and whip-smart banter strange and confusing. Despite my sub-normal cognitive faculties and deficient social intelligence, I've managed to coast through life on a conventional blend of white male privilege--which I REALLY don't like to confront--and physical intimidation. The open exchange of ideas in this culture infuriates me, probably because I'm terrified that all of you are smarter than I am, but I don't have the emotional maturity to explore any of that, so instead I'm gunna vent by verbally abusing my goldfish with homophobic epithets.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I need help figuring out a backup strategy that works for me. I recently upgraded to the Nexus 6P, but the santecmonious dweebs at Best Buy only had the 32 GB model in stock--no matter how much I yelled at them and broke everything, they just didn't have any 128 GB or 64 GB to sell. So I'm looking for the smartest way to do this right, without eating up a lot of space.
1. I have installed TWRP, TI backup and Franco Kernel. Each offers backup options--does it make sense to use more than one? How do I decide?
2. I'd like to automate backups that will quickly and easily restore my phone from nothing--call logs, text message history, app settings, system settings and user data (e.g. photographs, videos, recordings, downloads files saved by third-party apps). Basically, if I were to format all the data on my device and install android N tomorrow, I want to be able to pull something simple off the cloud that restores everything. It seems like google has the apps and contacts piece dialed, so I don't need to back any of that up.
3. I'd also like to schedule local backups, but without all the big user data files--For that much I can just count on the cloud.
Hit me