Now the dust has settled around ICS, I thought I’d write a little something on upcoming improvements to AndChat.
Firstly, there is a lot of work being done to make AndChat work great on ICS. The main improvement being worked on is the userlist handling, which will be similar to how it works on Honeycomb and slight changes to the UI. The challenging part with the userlist is the small screen real estate and nick selection and I’m working hard to find a nice way to get it to work.
One of the most common questions I get from new users is something along the lines of ‘I’ve installed AndChat, what do I do now?’. The AndChat screen after a brand new installation is, frankly, quite shit. Despite saying use Menu->Add, a large number of users seem to want to jump straight into exploring the app without fiddling around with menus and data entry, and I can’t say I blame them. This is also emphasized on this slide show (slide 60).
This problem has always been in the back of my mind but I’ve never tackled it head on and I’m sure it has cost me users and ratings. As they say, better late then never, so for the next version, during first run, AndChat will guide the user through a number of steps to make it easy to jump straight into chatting. (Of course, users already familiar with the app can skip the entire thing.)
The process consists of 1 welcome screen, 1 step to get the most basic information to use for a server profile: nicknames, a username, a realname and optionally, the default encoding and whether logs should be enabled, 1 step to optionally import a list of servers distributed with the app and 1 step to give a overview of basic use and commands available. Hopefully this will make it easier for new users to start chatting straight away and give me a higher retention rate of users.
Screenshots of the process are available here. As always, feedback is welcome.
Well, well, well…my last post was in March, how time flies, thought I’d put something on here…
Not much to mention tbh. Still at the same job which will probably finish in December. Ramadan is just about to end, it hasn’t been as tough as I thought it would be, especially in the long summer. And I’m almost 24…damn I feel old ;( Need to settle down….
Had a car accident in December, also got my first nephew in the same month! My 2nd nephew was also born recently!
Can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 5 years, time has flown by.
With the release of Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb, the mobile phone oriented development I’d done to date would no longer work if I was to make AndChat work smoothly with both phones and tablets. My initial fear was I would have to create a new version of AndChat dedicated for tablets, resulting in 2 apks.
Thankfully, I was able to develop for both phone and tablet from a single project, resulting in an app which would scale up and down and change its UI depending on the type of device the app runs on. (Screenshots at the end) Android offers a brilliant resource system, the true power of which I discovered when trying to make AndChat ready for Honeycomb.
(Continue reading….)
Yes, after managing to avoid it for so long, I decided to make an account for AndChat related stuff. http://www.twitter.com/AndChat – follow me (lol) to get updates about releases, etc.
Despite swearing I’d never buy another laptop from Dell, I was enticed back once again with good prices specs. New laptop specs:
Dell Studio 1558
Intel i7-720QM(1.6GHz) Mobile CPU
15.6in High Definition (1366X768) WLED
Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera
Black Chainlink
4096MB (2×2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
8X DVD+/-RW Drive (slot loading)
1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
Europe Dell Bluetooth 365 Card
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
Windows 7 Home Premium
Luckily, I got a hefty discount because my employer is part of some Dell purchase program 
. The spec I was originally going to buy had an i5 CPU, no bluetooth and was more expensive so I’m glad I used the purchase program instead.
I didn’t even know the laptop included bluetooth, found I can control my Nexus One’s music and phone calls from the laptop which is pretty neat.
Formatted the laptop to get rid of all the crap that came installed with it and am going to use my new Technet subscription to get Windows 7 Ultimate on it (Anytime Update accepted my Technet key ). I can’t be arsed to find a copy of Ultimate via ‘other’ means 
but Windows 7 is so epic anyway, I don’t mind paying for it, not to mention I get access to Office and various other software, so it all works out in the end.
Now to get my docs and stuff copied over (hello Windows Easy Transfer!) and give this old laptop to my niece. Lets hope she doesn’t treat this laptop like her old one, the state of her old one is enough to make any geek techie cry.
Went to one today, was great to see some old faces again \o/
Renamed from android-tts-widget, PhoneVoice is now on the Android Market. Search for ‘PhoneVoice’ or get the QR code from here.
The source code is available for those interested at the Google Code project page.
Special thanks to my mate Raf for the icon.
Telegraph: Car insurance premiums up a record 20pc
No wonder my insurance company wants to raise my premiums by another £25 a month, even after being a customer for 3 years and having no claims! 
Lame, real lame.
