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Tick! A convenient timer!

Hi everybody !
After a year of lurking, i've published my first app !
It's called Tick! and it's a simple timer but i've worked hard on making it easy to launch.
Since there is no wheel selector on the sdk, I've developed one to set the number of minutes wanted. With three clicks, you can launch a timer to remaind you that your pastas or your eggs are ready !
Your comments are welcome !
Since I'm new on the forum, I'm currently not allowed to post external links, so if you want to try it, search for Tick! on the market or SlideMe. I will put images, links and QR-Code as soon as i will be allowed !
RabugenTom

Nice app. Any plans on releasing the source

Any chance for an APK for those of us without data?

Nice
Good Work Buddy works perfectly on Xperia X10i

Thanks for the replies ! I've added the apk posted on the market.
I'm working on an improved version !

Agreed, Great work RabugenTom. Love the custom wheel selection.
Have to admit, though, I'm dying to have multiple timers. I'm not sure off the top of my head how they would fit in with your snazzy countdown timeline, but I'm sure it could be done.
+1 for release of the source

Love the app... Mightve been nice if it worked with 30sec increments as well but that might just be me, and there are other more robust timer apps for when you need that i guess.
One thing I noticed though... If the app is open and showing on the screen (IE - not in the background while working on something else or on one of the home screens), Tapping the app notification (in the notifications pane) will "reopen" the apps interface, and this can be done multiple times.
Basically you end up with multiple instances of the same timer... So if youre looking to go back to whatever was open before - home screen or other - by pressing the back button, youll just close the last instance you "opened" via the notification, taking you back to the previous instance of that same timer, and so on until you reach the first one that was opened when you started the app.
It doesnt seem to affect the functionality of the app in any way that ive seen, but it is rather odd.
Sort of like tapping the notification calls on the wrong "show" function, opening a new window rather than un-hiding the original.

Thanks for the feedbacks !
I'm working on an improved version with pause mode, multiple timers and 30s increments. I will maybe release the source later, after a lot of cleaning !
For the notifications, it's the behavior of android which works by intents. Theses are sort of messages send to applications. Intents depends on something they call Context. This is very powerful since you can launch (or do whatever you want to) an application in different ways, and the behavior of the application can depend on the intent. For example, when you launch an application from the launcher on the home screen, you actually send an intent to the application.
In the Tick! case, when you click on the notification, you send an intent to bring back to foreground (if hidden) or relaunch (if closed) the application GUI (which is different from the counting "engine" which is a background process called Service). The intent sent from the notification is different from the one you used to launch it, thats why it relaunch the GUI because the system thinks it is a different context (which is the case).
You can try it : launch from the launcher, launch a timer, go back to the home screen. Now, the GUI is no more in foreground. If you open the notification bar an click on the notification it will relaunch the GUI as expected, and if you continue to click on it again, it will do nothing (as expected). That's because the second time you launched the app, you did it by sending an intent from the notificiation bar, which is different from the one from the launcher.
Now, i don't find this behavior very annoying, and I don't want to write 100 lines of code to handle differents cases! A trivial solution may exist, but I'm too novice with Android to look at it. If someone knows this easy solution, it will be a pleasure to implement it !

Very nice timer. However I have found two problems:
1. When selecting the notification tone, "Default" plays my ringtone when previewing, but when used for real it plays the default notification sound instead.
2. I used Tick for a five minute countdown several hours ago, and afterwards I exited the program and cleared the notification, but it still prevented my phone from sleeping all these hours, draining the battery severely. I had to use a process killer to get my phone to sleep.
Do you really need to keep the phone from sleeping, even during the countdown? A timer is just an alarm with a countdown, and alarms work even when the phone is sleeping. You just have to update the progress every time the phone wakes up. Right?

Hi,
1-I will look on the notification problem. It is quite strange since it always worked for me. Note that the parameter are set for the notification at the launch of the counter. Every change you make will affect only new countdowns. When you exit the app, it always save the last parameters, even made during a countdown, and restore them at a relaunch. So it is strange, and since i've improved again the counting engine, I hope this will be solved in the coming release.
2-You're right, I've found conditions when the wake-lock is not released at the end of the countdown. It's set now. However, the wake-lock requested is partial and does only concern the CPU, not the screen. I've tested again your version on my unplugged G2 and it behave just well.
The CPU is required to fire an alarm even in sleep mode. Thats because i don't use the alarm service of the device which only check every new minute if there is something to do.
And when it's in sleep mode, only a tiny service is counting. The GUI is stopped and it's memory given back.
May I ask what model of phone you use?

RabugenTom said:
May I ask what model of phone you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using an HTC Desire.

I've just added here (and on the market) the version 1.3 which resolves a lot of issues (for exemple, the service exits as soon as it's no more used, thanks to bugmenever) and adds a pause mode (long click on the button)

RabugenTom said:
Now, i don't find this behavior very annoying, and I don't want to write 100 lines of code to handle differents cases! A trivial solution may exist, but I'm too novice with Android to look at it. If someone knows this easy solution, it will be a pleasure to implement it !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im fairly certain there is something simple out there to handle this, but as opposed to you being novice with android, i have 0 experience programming for it. and youre right, its not THAT annoying, and certainly not worth most your work time at this point.
Happy to hear about all those plans though! look forward to seeing them in action
keep up the good work!

[APP] Task Identifier [Android 2.1 and up!!!]

!!!If you have Android 2.1 the app now is in the market!!!
Android 2.2 and higher are also still supported
This is not another Auto Task Killer, no.
Thanks for all the help from everyone! We've moved into a lite and full version now on Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones.This is a new program which allows the user to specify alert levels to phone tasks and give you insight into what your phone is really doing. Make a call, ever wonder what apps may be listening? What's going on when you phone is in standby? In creating this, I will say that I've been surprised a few times at what is really going on. I want any and all feedback as well as we are trying to make this into something special. I am the actual developer of this app.
The full version has:
-Common Names and Actual Application Icons
-No Ads
-Access to all App Settings
-Ability to change alert level from List Tasks
-Removed Internet and Location Permissions
And we have a slew of other features planned for only the full version, but we don't want to spill the beans on those quite yet, but they will enhance the tool greatly!
Both versions now have the new UI as well.
Anyone who had the beta should be notified to upgrade to the lite version now.
Download Task Identifier Lite from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier
Download Task Identifier Full from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier.full
I've also attached a QR Code to scan for both versions. Or just search for Task Identifier in the market.
I hope you all find this useful and enjoy!!

smart work

notowork said:
smart work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
10

Hehe, I like how the only comment for the app (5 stars and "awesome" as comment) is currently by a user named 'x2k'. Hmmm.
I've just installed it and it's been less than a minute and I got an alert from an app that no longer needs to sync...So I disabled it (every little bit of non-sync means longer battery life!).
So far it's looking very promising! I'll definitely report back on my experiences!

Okay, first big thing...
Can you please resolve the cryptic app names to their more friendly name variants?
It's hard to read and make out the com.blah designations.
Thanks!

So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.

Paul22000 said:
So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.

x2kjosh said:
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.

Paul22000 said:
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found when you start doing things you see patterns. On my old Eris while I was testing this, every time I made a phone call, ebay would start! Glad it seems to be working for you! Thanks!

Great thanks

wael0x said:
Great thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome.

Sounds like a great troubleshooting tool. Nice work!

I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!

Namuna said:
I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions. Those are features we truly will consider adding as it will just make the tool even better. Thanks!

There will probably be updates from time to time through the market
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

First of all, thanks for a great app.
I really like the fact that it reports on tasks/processes started while the screen was off!
I have some suggestions though:
1: When I click the icon in the app list to open the menu, it just shows the "Starting monitor" message and nothing else. I have to open an app to get the message in the pull down bar and click on that to start the application it self.
2: On my Samsung Galaxy S i9000 the layout of the application is just a bit to long for a full screen. We are talking about 1 cm or something.
3: I would very much like a log, so that I can check back, what applications started during screen off, and at what time/date.
4: The way the Android memory management works, I guess it's normal for Android to start and application/process to memory by itself from time to time. Is it possible to show this somehow? For what is interesting here is when an application is launching another application or process, and not when Android memory management is putting an application in memory.
Thanks for your great work, I'm looking forward to further updates to the application!

Just saw this on the front page and thought it looked pretty interesting. Installed a few minutes ago, but so far I like it. Not too intrusive with the pop-up.
As Namuna posted though it would be nice to get more detail.
Also to have the actual app name rather than com.xxx.
Really good work.

Installed.
I like the idea that we can see what tasks are really doing in the background. But as noted by some above, the notifications are a bit cryptic at the moment.
After installing and running the app, I started updating some of my other apps in App Market and my phone crashed. This has not happened before and I seems from my layman eyes that too many things might have been running in the background.
When the phone restarted, it too forever for anything to be displayed and the 3 widgets I had on the homescreen refused to load up. Again it seems to me that this app is popping up too many notifications - I have now stopped the app from starting up and running on start up.
I don't know whether this is unique to me or not though. I am running the app on Samsung Galaxy S (international) on stock Froyo with LauncherPro.
Still, I like this app and will use it more. Keep up the great work and many thanks.
Edit : just checked app settings again, and although I explicit unchecked app running on phone startup, the box is checked again. I unchecked the box and pressed save again. Re-entered app settings and the box is checked again. Am I missing something?

This looks very interesting.. So it's installed and ready for testing

Thank you very much for that app, it's awesome. I agree with the recent posters that the name of the app in addition to the com.blah.blubb would be a great help to identify the task. Also I'd like to see a possibility for a logfile.
Keep up the good work!
EDIT: I can hardly read the small, dark font when setting task levels since I use almost the very darkest display settings to save battery. So being able to chose the font color would be great but has absolutely no priority. Again: great app!Using it all day long now and I am surprised what tasks are being started!

Anyone playing with On{x}

Has anyone tried Microsofts answer to tasker?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

JamesR913 said:
Has anyone tried Microsofts answer to tasker?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do not understand?
You talking about an app?
From Microsoft? You think they be busy with the WM thing? (which I care less about)

Yes it is an app that is similar to tasker. You program it on the website and then install the app and it automates certain things. As of right now it is only available on Android
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I'll check it out because apparently I'm too stupid to use Tasker.
I tried to figure it out but I got lost.

Apparently, users hate it so far. The app requires your Facebook login, which is ridiculous. Its also being speculated that the app is farming data about your behavior through this app, and passing it to Faacebook.
http://betanews.com/2012/06/06/microsoft-gives-back-to-android-but-users-say-no-thanks/
Link to the app on the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.onx.app

Hmmmm
redpoint73 said:
Apparently, users hate it so far. The app requires your Facebook login, which is ridiculous. Its also being speculated that the app is farming data about your behavior through this app, and passing it to Faacebook.
http://betanews.com/2012/06/06/microsoft-gives-back-to-android-but-users-say-no-thanks/
Link to the app on the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.onx.app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see a lot of the bad reviews seem to be about the facebook login, didnt see much about the actual product. Did not see much about the farming data and such.
I actually think this is a good idea. Facebook is a solid method of identification, and can be used cross platform. It may be true microsoft is giving an android exclusive (temporarily) as a beta test. When/if they roll it out to microsoft/apple phones they would not have to change their authentication model. It would be ridiculous to request "Live" for windows phones, "Apple ID" for iphones, and google ID for android users. This simplifies the process and allows me to change phones easier. I am not a fb advocate, in fact I personally dont like logging in to sites and such using my fb page, but as I said I do understand it. Clearly the fb authentification is respected, if the New York legislature thinks it should be required to comment on any webpage
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/anonymous-online-speech-ban/
(Not getting into a political debate lol but the facebook model "works").
EDIT: I do not use tasker and am not an experienced android user, but I may try this out and attempt to give feedback.

gunnyman said:
I'll check it out because apparently I'm too stupid to use Tasker.
I tried to figure it out but I got lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker is actually pretty simple to use, once you understand what its asking for.
Forexample lets make a program that silences your Ringer, Turns off WiFi and Bluetooth every Mon-Fri 8:30am - 3:30pm (Work day).
First, it asks you for the Profile Name, This is just something to identify the task. Lets call this Work.
Next it asks you for the "First Context" This can be considered your first "Variable" for us we want it to be Monday thru Friday. So we click "day"
then Change the "Month" to "Week Day", and Select Mon-Friday.
Click the Green Check mark.
Now it asks for a Task. This is what you want to do, so click New Task: And Name it, lets name it "Vibrate,Wifi,BT"
Now we can click the Plus in the bottom right and it brings up a menu of all the possible things we can mess with. For this instance, lets click Audio, then Silent mode. Now we want Silent mode to turn on, so change the "mode" to On click the Check mark
Now Click the plus, to add wifi and Bt off. Then click the Check mark.
Now to add the time, click and hold on your context, then click add. Now you can add "time" and set your times.
All Done.
That was an example of a simple program. Tasker can do a lot more, so explore and test

gunnyman said:
I'll check it out because apparently I'm too stupid to use Tasker.
I tried to figure it out but I got lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Tasker is WAY to involved to try and set up the simplest of tasks. I played with it for about an hour and uninstalled it.

Tasker is the best app I've ever owned. It's simple to set up if you just stop and look at what each thing is.

I started playing around with this today, had a few interesting ideas but there are still quite a few issues and limited api usage available.
This could be a pretty powerful tool if they open up the api's, easier for most than tasker, and can be as complex as you can code.
also i prefer to do all my programming on the pc and transfer to the device which on{x} provides.

Never used tasker so can't compare. But, onx seem fine so far if you like to get your hands dirty in JavaScript. You can still use published recepies if you are no into coding. It is still very buggy and consumes a lot of battery juice.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

Good thing with Tasker is that it doesn't require any programming knowledge. This obviously requires knowledge of javascript to get the full potential.

Tasker support available - TaskS2

Didn't see anything here in the apps forum on Tasker support on the S3. (There are a couple threads in the Q&A section that mention it.) Adding info here in apps so folks to find it easily and set it up to try.
Original thread from S2 forum where it started is here. Link below is to page five in that thread where the author of the app announced the original release a couple years ago.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/gear-s2/help/request-tasker-interface-t3217756/page5
Install the "TaskS2 for Tasker: Automation on your Wrist" app on your Gear S3 from the Gear mobile app. (99 cents)
You'll need to enable "Allow external access" in Tasker Preferences on your phone (Misc. section of Preferences) so the watch app can access it.
Some have had issues w/disconnects to the Tasker app but in several days using it I've never seen that issue come up. Removing the Tasker app from battery optimization should resolve/help w/that issue.
I've used TaskS2 to manage my phone settings (e.g., set to vibrate in movie theater) and home automation tasks (turn off lights, lock doors, etc.).
Fun stuff.

Same author has another app that works with IFTTT and is supposedly "Standalone" called Trigger. I find it more responsive and doesn't disconnects as often as TaskS2

gremlin007 said:
Same author has another app that works with IFTTT and is supposedly "Standalone" called Trigger. I find it more responsive and doesn't disconnects as often as TaskS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll look at it.
I've still had zero disconnects/delays with TaskS2, so still wondering why others had that issue. Been perfect for me. I've had more delays w/IFTTT automations that I use w/my home automation (SmartThings) so not sure that IFTTT would be better than me, but always love a new toy so I'm off to look into his IFTTT app.
Thanks!

Redflea said:
Thanks, I'll look at it.
I've still had zero disconnects/delays with TaskS2, so still wondering why others had that issue. Been perfect for me. I've had more delays w/IFTTT automations that I use w/my home automation (SmartThings) so not sure that IFTTT would be better than me, but always love a new toy so I'm off to look into his IFTTT app.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Tasker app is heavy on my phone because I use it to control my home automation (Wink), and not natively. It's a custom JSON set-up coupled with Autovoice, Autoinput, Autoremote etc. I'd rather have direct Tasker connection than go over the net through IFTTT too due to the delays but it seems to be the most reliable thing for me. Hope it works out for you! IFTTT + Stringify really does let you do anything you want though.
The IFTTT triggers can be used with Makers channel and Autoremote on your phone to control Tasker stuff. That's how I use mine as a plan b when TaskS2 fails.

For those using this app, can you automate the watch brightness? I'm a moderate - heavy tasker but looking at the app description it appears as though it only allows you to access existing tasker profiles.

shotguntheenforcer said:
For those using this app, can you automate the watch brightness? I'm a moderate - heavy tasker but looking at the app description it appears as though it only allows you to access existing tasker profiles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use it to run tasks on my phone to control my phone and my home automation (SmartThings).
Haven't tried to use it for watch control - you'd need a way to interface w/the Gear app, AFAIK, to control watch settings.

shotguntheenforcer said:
For those using this app, can you automate the watch brightness? I'm a moderate - heavy tasker but looking at the app description it appears as though it only allows you to access existing tasker profiles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not possible but could be a nice feature Especially when i'm using a sHealth and every time need to turn off bluetooth in the watch manually.

Redflea said:
I use it to run tasks on my phone to control my phone and my home automation (SmartThings).
Haven't tried to use it for watch control - you'd need a way to interface w/the Gear app, AFAIK, to control watch settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'll poke around in the gear app to see if the settings are available. If so, I should be able to run a dpad task to access and toggle the settings... I'm going to test it
---------- Post added at 01:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:43 PM ----------
kluczus said:
It is not possible but could be a nice feature Especially when i'm using a sHealth and every time need to turn off bluetooth in the watch manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to run an app task to turn off Bluetooth when launching shealth? I suppose that wouldn't work if you launch it from the watch. Oh what could've been

shotguntheenforcer said:
OK, I'll poke around in the gear app to see if the settings are available. If so, I should be able to run a dpad task to access and toggle the settings... I'm going to test it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for checking into this, @shotguntheenforcer...I'd love to be able to modify phone volume based on location (at work or not) or day of week/time if via location isn't possible.
I'll go google a bit, but haven't heard of "dpad task" before - is that a way to automate steps in apps that don't provide a tasker plugin?

Redflea said:
Thanks for checking into this, @shotguntheenforcer...I'd love to be able to modify phone volume based on location (at work or not) or day of week/time if via location isn't possible.
I'll go google a bit, but haven't heard of "dpad task" before - is that a way to automate steps in apps that don't provide a tasker plugin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can automate volume by location with tasker either through location or cell tower. I use this to enable and disable wifi and location settings. You are correct on dpad tasks.
As of now I can't get to gear settings from the app which sucks. Still looking for alternatives

shotguntheenforcer said:
You can automate volume by location with tasker either through location or cell tower. I use this to enable and disable wifi and location settings. You are correct on dpad tasks.
As of now I can't get to gear settings from the app which sucks. Still looking for alternatives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops - typo in my response. I am already controlling my phone volume, etc., via location and Tasker. I meant to say that I wanted to figure out how to control my watch volume/settings via location.
Bummer this isn't easier to do - something that Samsung should enable.

Redflea said:
Oops - typo in my response. I am already controlling my phone volume, etc., via location and Tasker. I meant to say that I wanted to figure out how to control my watch volume/settings via location.
Bummer this isn't easier to do - something that Samsung should enable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Hopefully they will add the ability to do it in the future. The only scheduling I've found was DND but like you I want to access the settings and the gear app is useless

There's no way to control the watch from the phone, or TaskS2 or anything like that.
Pity, because it would open up so many possibilities.

This is the first gear app installed for my gear s3. Thanks!

Question Rules Like routine o short ut?

Hi.
Is there anything like samsung routines or iphone shortcuts on the pixel?
In the menu I only found the rules but I can't do simple things such as activating or deactivating the data connection at a precise time on a specific day. Does this possibility exist on the pixel? Alternatively is there a program that does it but without root? I have tried macrodroid but it doesn't work. Thanks in advance

It seems this device doesn't have it and I also miss it. No way to program vibrate mode at certain hours every day for exemple
If guess Tasker app can do all of this, for a modest one time fee. I haven' tried it yet on this device, though
Tasker - Apps on Google Play
Automate everything from settings to photos, SMS to speech. ADC2 prize winner.
play.google.com

_Johnito_ said:
It seems this device doesn't have it and I also miss it. No way to program vibrate mode at certain hours every day for exemple
If guess Tasker app can do all of this, for a modest one time fee. I have tried it yet, though
Tasker - Apps on Google Play
Automate everything from settings to photos, SMS to speech. ADC2 prize winner.
play.google.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Do you have already use it to change on/off connection data?
I have already use macrodroid and aprofile But No one of the two works, not even giving adb permissions.
Since Tasker is paid, I wouldn't want to buy it unnecessarily

Tasker is maybe not the most easy to use app, but is really powerful and I confirm you that it can do what you need.