A bugfix for the previous post

Here's a fixed APK of the previous version. Delayed and repeating events will now behave correctly. Since Llama now only check events that are likely to be affected by a trigger, you may find your delayed or repeating events lingering about for a bit longer. They'll only be checked when their 'delayed until' or 'repeating at' time expires. They still won't run their actions if they shouldn't, but since Llama isn't constantly/needlessly checking them Llama can't remove them earlier.

It also now has the market's BILLING permission included so I can start working on an alternative way to donate. A lot of you want to donate more than 80p, which is very cool :) There's no UI for the donation at the moment, so it's just sitting there in the code not doing anything for now. If you're worried that I might try and ninja-bill you, then rest assured that you have to confirm an in-app purchases through the Android Market. It would be pretty dumb otherwise.

Version 1.2011.11.29.1700

Download

100,000 Llamas

The Android developer console says Llama has been downloaded 100,000 times now, and because it's a nice round number caused by the fact we have 10 digits on our hands we should celebrate! Although I'm not quite sure how to celebrate yet.

In the meantime, there's a bunch of new features to play with.

Version 1.2011.11.27.1700:

• Audio becoming noisy condition, which may react faster than headset unplug or Bluetooth device disconnected on some phones.
• Desk dock condition
• Shutdown phone action.
• Locale action plugin support
• Speak action (requires Android Text-To-Speed engine.)
• Calendar events can now filter by all day and busy/available.
• Updates Minimalistic text widget when the phone boots, so that it isn't blank.
• WiMax toggle should now work on more phones.
• Llama no longer updates the vibrate mode if it hasn't actually changed (to prevent some superfluous vibrates on Samsung phones.)
• Fixed calendar reading in Ice Cream Sandwich.
• Speedier event tracking... Llama now only checks those events that are likely to be triggered when testing events, rather than checking all of them. However, this only makes about 200-300ms difference.

As usual, export your data before installing test versions, just in case you have to revert to the market version!

Download Llama - FYI - I've found a bug. Repeating or delayed events may not fire. If you use those, don't install it yet. Expect a fix later today.

A quick note about ICS and calendars

There's a problem with phones running Ice Cream Sandwich and the Market version of Llama, which is caused by Llama trying to access calendar events. This is because the Calendar API in Android was never officially released, so had to be implemented using unofficial API calls. Now in Ice Cream Sandwich Google have finalised a way of reading calendar events. Unfortunately, it's subtley different to how Android 2.3 worked, so Llama craps itself.

There's a test version that ignores the problem rather than crashing on the blog, but Calendar events aren't working just yet. I'm working on it :)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zyclotff7kdboy7

As usual, backup your data before installing the test version, just in case you have to uninstall and go back to the market version.

As an annoying note... Android give developers an emulator to test this kind of stuff. However, they don't let the emulator log into a Google Account, so you can't access a calendar! D'oh! If you'd like to lend a hand, get in touch by pressing the Llama-question-mark button in the app and emailing me. Ta!

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