Generation Changing Llama

After the semi-success of the 2G/3G test app, Llama can now change your phone between 2G, 3G and 2G+3G. This has probably been the most requested feature ever, however I've delayed implementing it for a couple of reasons:

1. Your standard Android build doesn't let third party apps change the network mode. Unfortunately, Llama is still no exception to this.
2. My previous network only supported 3G. This would have made testing a bit troublesome

This feature only works on Cyanogenmod roms. There's about 745,751 of you out there, so let me know if it's also working for you. If you haven't tried Cyanogenmod yet, are a bit geeky and don't mind potentially breaking your phone, I'd recommend installing it.

Back to the phone network thing (and if you aren't from the UK, you probably won't care). I'm now with giff gaff. If you click the link and activate a SIM, I get some cash. Nice. They're also cheap n cheerful: £10 a month for unlimited internet and unlimited texts, and these phone call minutes things... does anyone actually talk on the phone anymore?? When changing phone networks, you'll be connecting to a bunch of different phone masts, which makes all of that previous learning useless. This version also has a bulk remove feature that lets you delete all the cells, but keep all of the area names (and events) that they belong to. Then it's just a case of long-tapping the areas to relearn them.

Version 1.2011.10.26.2300:

• 2G/3G
• Updated German, Spanish and Polish translations
• Bulk remove all cells, wifis, Bluetooths and map locations from areas (this is tucked away in settings)
• Calendar events should now work on Honeycomb

And here's the link....

http://www.mediafire.com/?gubwfgycc8kkkuu

As usual, back up your data before installing this, just in case I've screwed something up

Noisy Coloured Llamas

This week I've been teaching Llama how to make noises. You can now select a Play a Sound action that will play a ringtone, notification tone or a piece of music.

I've also changed the way Llama handles its notification icons. The colours and number of dots are now separated, so you can have 'blue with 3 dots' and 'yellow with 1 dot'. This means you can use the dots to represent the volume of a profile and the colour to represent some other state. Since the icon drawing has changed, it also means that the profile lock icon displays as an overlay on top of the current profile, so you can see what the current profile is.

Unfortunately, Android requires each combination of colour and dot to be defined (thankfully not as a bitmap, using LayerDrawables). This means that I can't do stuff like yellow Llama, with 2 blue dots and 1 pink dot. Currently, there are 5 different numbers of dots and 10 Llama colours, as well as a locked and unlocked state. This means there are:

5*10*2 = 100 variations

If the dots could change colour too, there'd be about 1000 combinations. If each individual dot could change colour then there'd be a bigger number than I want to think about. I'll experiment with this day, but it might cause havoc.

The Llama notification icon action and profiles have been updated to let you change the number of dots and/or the colour of the Llama. You existing profiles and actions will behave as they did before. e.g. black/white with whatever number of dots, or coloured with no dots.

Anyways, the new version is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?w37e8er44uqebe7

As usual, backup your settings before you install this version, just in case you encounter problems and have to return to the market version.

New market version, and possible future 2g/3g toggle support

There's a new version on the market:

Version 1.2011.10.02.1100:

• Repeating, delayed and confirmation events
• Filter event list
• Reminders make noises
• Profile lock up to 24 hours
• Llama variables (condition and action)
• Wake screen when polling option
• Wifi hotspot action
• Screen off action
• Change screen-lock password action
• Queue event action
• Speakerphone action
• Alternative Mobile data toggle code

While I wait for the first set of abusive angry comments and helpful emails about bugs to arrive, I've decided to investigate 2G/3G toggling. I've put this off for the moment, because my phone network only supports 3G. However, in a months time I'll be switching to another network, so I'll appreciate whatever battery savings a 2G/3G toggle will provide.

I've thrown together a simple test app and am pleased to say it works great on my phone... a HTC Desire Z running CyanogenMod 7. However, I'm fairly sure the CM guys have tweaked their version of Android to allow the network mode to be changed without any special permissions being required.

I'd be interested to hear whether it works for you! If you decide to try it, let me know your phone and ROM.

Download 2g/3g test app - EDIT: This link is now correct, sorry!

Nearly market time again

I've been using the Llama test versions for the past few weeks and am pleased with the stability, so I think it's time I finally put it on the market. I'll do it tomorrow unless I decide to go outside into the real world. So the final test version is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?vmcvup1ed3p3b5c 1.2011.10.01.1310

• The wallpaper picker now works with QuickPic (and maybe some other wallpaper pickers that didn't behave exactly like the default Andorid 3D-ish Gallery app.
• Profile editor slightly less rubbish... now disables things when the tickboxes aren't ticked. Expect an even less rubbish profile editor in the future.
• Pressing the clear button in the notifications pull-down now sends a 'cancel confirmation' to Llama

Another beta

Some of the eagle-eyed guys out there have noticed there's been a new beta on mediafire for a few days. This brings the much requested feature of 'variables'. You can use conditions to set a certain state, which Llama will remember, and you can create other events that are triggered by or based on the states that you've created.

• Variables
• Fixed AndroidIntentAction not saving intent send type
• Ending calendar events occur before starting calendar events
• Option to wake screen while cell polling for phone models that I've learnt to hate
• Event history shows details about delay cancels, delay starts and repeat cancels

As usual, backup your data before installing, just in case you need to go back to a previous version.
Version 1.2011.09.14.2240 http://www.mediafire.com/?j85np9ng9bcuh2j

A couple of bug fixes for the last version

Well it's nearly the end of the Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, so my updates won't be as frequent as the past couple of days. Next on my to do list is probably the variable thingy, which should please some of you.

• Fixed re-editing event forgets the queue delay
• Seek bars can show a message for 'zero' for the queue delay
• Updated Slovenian
• Longer profile lock timeout options

As usual, backup your data before installing, just in case you need to go back to a previous version.

Version 1.2011.08.29.1906 http://www.mediafire.com/?dnqb15sb0q96nxa

More beta features

Another busy week, another load of features:

• Event filtering
• Screen off action
• Change lock screen password action
• Queue event action
• Reminders can make noises

The screen off and lock screen password action require you to authorise Llama as a device administrator. If you aren't comfortable with that, then don't do it :) This lets you disable the lock screen password by setting it to empty (i.e leaving the textbox empty). You'll still get the slider screen though. If you want to get rid of that too, you have to combine the screen lock password action with the buggy-screen lock action. Fortunately, when the screen lock password is blank, the screen lock action isn't buggy anymore; the home-screen buttons work again. Hooray!

Llama encrypts your lock-screen password before it saves it. This is because you can export your events to the SD card, and you wouldn't want every other app with SD card permissions from being able to read it. Llama requires that you set a Llama Security Password. This password is the key for the encryption, so set it to something completely random. You don't need to remember this password, but if you get it wrong, you'll have to reenter the screen lock password. The Llama Security Password is stored in plain-text in Llama's private settings, which no other apps have access to. However, apps running as root will have access to it, so be careful who you give root access to!

The last version allowed you to create repeating events, but the blog post about it described one of its shortcomings. This version now lets your repeating events create other events. So you can say something like:

Between 7am and 11pm, repeating every 15 minutes -> Enable Account Sync and create an Event 1 minute from now that Disables Account Sync

Again, this is very much a test version. I had some feedback from the last version about the repeating events not always working, so that's been fixed. Please get in touch if you find any bugs :) Make sure you export your data before you install it.

Cheers

http://www.mediafire.com/?7259j1qbpetu2hw