TWIT Version 0.8 Released

Just released version 0.8 of the TWIT app to the Android Marketplace. The same version is also awaiting approval on Amazon's AppStore. This version has fixes for the issues that were causing the chat and calendar views to reload (logging you out of chat) when the devices orientation was changed. 

I'm still trying to locate the bug causing the stream to stop after 10-15 minutes on froyo. I have some reports that it's only on froyo but I need more information. It would be ideal if there were online documentation of MediaPlayer's error codes. If anybody knows what causes MediaPlayer to OnError(1,-11) please let me know.

Amazon Android Market

Amazon has announced that they are creating their own Android application marketplace and have opened it to developers. I immediately went and created an account and submitted the TWiT app for review. The reports capabilities already look impressive, but then again, compared to the non-existent reports on the Google Market anything would be impressive.

Like all app developers I get regular emails from alternative App stores wanting to carry more applications. I think the biggest of these has been 10-15K applications so I haven't even bothered looking at them. But this is Amazon. The only negative comments so far are that Amazon wants a $99/year subscription to have an developer account and that they require three screenshots. Now, for me, the screenshot requirement is just a minor annoyance but I can think of some Android applications that don't even have 3 different screens that the user would see. The annual subscription though will definitely restrict the number of developers that will use Amazon's marketplace since so many Android applications are free and have no income whatsoever.

We shall see what we shall see.

Android Devices

There's been a noticeable lack of development in the past few months with regards to the TWiT for Android and this has been due to a lack of testing hardware at my disposal. The Odroid-T that I was using for testing gave up the ghost. I have been waiting for my desired Android device to become available, the Motorola Milestone 2 (GSM version of the Droid 2). While it hasn't become available in Canada yet it has been released in Europe. This afternoon I placed an order with eXpansys UK for a sim-free (unlocked) Milestone 2. Hopefully it will be here by the end of next week!

v0.75 Released

Just published v0.75, some notable changes are that the playback of the stream will now mute while a phone call is active. The dashboard now has much larger buttons which I added based on feedback from users. A bug that existed in v0.7 that would cause the app to crash when it had an error playing the stream has been corrected, the app will not push a notification to alert the user of the error.  If you already have an IRC client that listens for irc:// intents it should be opened automatically instead of using the web client that will be used as a fallback. I don't know of any IRC clients for Android that listen for irc:// but if you find one let me know. 

3 stars - "Really needs A exit close app button."

What's with the one guy that goes through the Android Market and rates every app as 3 stars - "Really needs A exit close app button"? None of the apps on Android need an exit button. It's a waste of screen space and Google designed Android's multitasking not to require that the app be closed manually.

Don't take my word for it. Go to the source. This Radioactive Yak article explains it quite nicely. The author's an Android Developer Advocate employed by Google in case you failed to notice that in his About Me tab.

There shall never be a button named "Exit" wasting valuable screen real estate in any of my Android apps. Don't bother asking for one.  Press the Home key instead.