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So I got a Nexus One

Sometimes the reckless pace of modern life is just unbearable. No time to ponder on the meaning of things, no time to enjoy the wonders around us, no time for anything that really matters!
Remember how it used to be? Before the internet, before all this nonsense. When people actually took the time to write letters - on paper...




Ah, if I only I could say 'no' to this modern craze, and live my life at a more leisurely speed.

As it turns out, almost nobody can, but apparently Brightpoint Netherlands begs to differ, as they made a point of taking 6 full weeks to ship me a Nexus One - a mean speed of 1.37 km/h. That's probably slow enough to warrant some significant relativistic effects. I should have checked the phone clock - I'm sure it was several minutes ahead the rest of the world.

Anyway: here's the live blog (lies, it happened days ago) of the Big Event as it unfolds, with my impressions and unadulterated thoughts. Let's pretend it was exactly midnight (it almost was) when I first opened the courier box...

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lowne

Status update, and an announcement

Let's shoot the good news right away: largely thanks to the LifeHacker review of JuiceDefender (a never redundant thank you is in order for Kevin),  rent for March is more than covered!
Of course, it's too early to tell if this is going to be sustainable in the long (or medium) term - but I guess that's mostly up to me now.

More good news: Latedroid has been selected (probably per il rotto della cuffia) for the DSPfTAMD (by the way, why does AndroidAndMe only review the big shots?) - meaning Google should send me a Nexus One to aid my development efforts.
Not only this is great because it's free - it's the only way I could ever get a N1 in Italy. But I've been forced to temporarily move out in the middle of nowhere to patiently wait for the phone - never have stuff sent to Venice, it'll just get lost.

The downside is that I've been suffering from a bad case of email overload that greatly reduced the amount of time that I can spend on coding. Which is too bad, as there are so many things to do! Moreover the quality of my support inevitably suffered; I still manage to respond to every email, but sometimes it takes a couple of days. No good.

For these two excellent reasons, I decided to semi-branch the development of JuiceDefender (and later the other apps) and to institute a "private beta" test group - this will hopefully allow me to focus more on a fast release/feedback cycle and take some load off my suffering inbox.

So if you're interested in helping the development effort join the brand new JuiceDefender Google Group:





Google Groups

Subscribe to JuiceDefender
Email:
Visit this group



Now let me profusely thank the many people who are or have been in contact with me via email or in the various comments threads - reporting bugs, suggesting solutions and new features, or just discussing this or that. You guys have been immensely helpful, but more importantly it's a real pleasure to have these interesting conversations with you - let's keep it on on the group! (And, I'm sure you'll be happy to get to know each other)
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32 com

JuicePlotter

JuicePlotter is a battery usage graph that combines full at-a-glance information about your battery consumption with sheer beauty.


The coloured bands along the graph show your screen brightness, radio usage, charging status and battery temperature. Just scroll around to find precise information and make sense of the different colours.


JuicePlotter includes a Home screen widget that shows an accurate estimate of how long it will take to fully discharge/recharge your battery.


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lowne

UltimateJuice promo sale!

Tomorrow I'll be releasing JuiceDefender/UltimateJuice v1.0 temporarily-out-of-beta-edition.

For the occasion, UltimateJuice will be on sale at the promotional price of 0.99€ for the weekend - make sure to grab it on time!

(the exact times are yet to be disclosed, but an anonymous source says the promo will last "from when I publish the update on Saturday to when I change the price again on Sunday - times are in Central European Time")

For those of you who are beta aficionados: don't worry, next week I'll start working on some new, radically useful features. Back to beta business as usual!

An even better reason to celebrate is that Sunday or Monday will hopefully see the last snow of the season in Venice - it's so incredibly romantic that I'll be walking around watching chick flicks on my Magic in tears hand-in-hand with my girlfriend (that's the backup plan given that OpenEclair doesn't yet support video as of v1.2.2).
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SeePU++ in the Market(s)

I just published the paid addon for SeePU (SeePU++) on the Android Market and on AndAppStore.

If you grabbed it for free during the promo, just keep it installed. It will keep working through updates to SeePU - at least until my well-laid future-proofing plan will face some unforeseen circumstance.
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Call for action

In the last weeks I occasionally hinted at the revenue I get from this Android adventure - I finally decided to share some thoughts about the matter.

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lowne
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UltimateJuice

UltimateJuice is an add-on to JuiceDefender that enables some advanced features:


  • WiFi control (with location-based AutoWiFi)
  • 5 minutes, 1 hour and 2 hours schedule interval
  • night schedule with optional silent mode
  • MMS APN control

Please note that it doesn't do anything on its own (doesn't even have a UI) - the extra features will be available from the JuiceDefender UI.

Find it on the Android Market or AndAppStore - if you have problems with the purchase process please see the JuiceDefender FAQ
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lowne

JuicePlotter 1.0 - unlimited! (ooooh)

That's right! Since I'm feeling somewhat happy about the tourist situation in Venice, I decided to remove the (admittedly arbitrary) limitations in JuicePlotter. Enjoy unlimited (and themed) plotting!
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SeePU FAQ

Technically-oriented answers about SeePU here.

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lowne
47 com

JuiceDefender FAQ

Known issues and a list of questions about JuiceDefender (and UltimateJuice), asked for a period of 8 minutes every 30 minutes. Now comes with answers too!
Jump to: Known Issues - Download/Install/Purchase - FAQs - Compatibility Matrix
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lowne
26 com

SeePU

SeePU shows the current CPU, RAM and network usage in the notification area.

You can easily see whether your processor is being heavily taxed - and for example let it finish its job without burdening it further - or is sitting happily idle, ready for action; or the download speed of that large podcast...
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lowne
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JuicePlotter FAQ

A list of not-really-frequently asked questions about JuicePlotter.

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lowne

Paperdroid Pro now available for all non-Market folks around the world!

That's right! Head over to andappstore now!
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264 com

JuiceDefender

JuiceDefender saves battery power (lots of it!) by controlling the mobile data connection, WiFi, Background data, Auto Sync and other battery-hungry components.

You can schedule regular activation to let background synchronization occur, have connectivity always enabled while the screen is on, and much more! It also helps in minimizing distractions ;)

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lowne

All your juice are belong to us

JuiceDefender is in the Market! (Android-only link)

Now I can finally enjoy some relaxing reading.
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6 com

Paperdroid FAQ

We've got answers!

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lowne

Who wants some spare juice? Or monkeys? Tears of blood? Anyone?

I'm finally back from exile, not without a new app almost ready to hit the market!

It's called JuiceDefender (ain't it kickass), it saves your battery (well now, what a remarkable coincidence!), it's free (as in "Free Valpreda"), and it's in superquickbeta mode - you have 24 hours to grab it from andappstore, test it and report back! Execute! Dismissed!

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Is the Android Market headed for disaster?

A fellow developer informed me that he doesn't see Paperdroid Pro in the Market app. I had no clue on why this would happen, so he sent me this very informative link.

The picture that emerges from reading that thread and the ones linked within it is grim. Briefly:

  • Paid apps are a no-go (in theory) on rooted devices
  • Carriers have the ultimate power in deciding what's in your Market and what's not
On the former: my rooted Magic shows me everything (in Italy, with any carrier; and Market Enabler works just as expected). This just proves even more that there's a lot of confusion out there. 

The important point is the latter. Although carriers are just starting to implement it, it is clear that this is where the Market is headed. This poses some problems.


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lowne

On Paperdroid Pro without the (Google) Android Market

UPDATE: Paperdroid Pro is now available at andappstore!

I've spent already too much time trying to figure out a way to get Paperdroid Pro to people without access to the Android Market (or its paid apps section). The alternative markets out there all require some sort of added infrastructure (and code), which would force me to maintain a separate Paperdroid Pro codebase for them. This doesn't seem worth the hassle, given the current and predictable amount of Pro customers (one day I'll share the laughs).


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I'm really, really bad at writing changelogs

The thing is: many updates went through; Paperdroid/Pro is now at v1.1.1 v1.1.4.

The other thing is: I patently lack the willpower that is necessary in order to consistently write proper changelogs.
On these grounds, I ask for forgiveness about the following pathetic attempt:
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