A Developer's Experience

I have been using Android for quite some time now, and only recently I noticed that Android pops up a notification reminding you of a reminder . It says "Upcoming alarm - Buy Milk", where Buy Milk is the reminder I had set. Is it smart enough to help a lazy volatile minded guy like me or is it trying to be my wife who would not rest until I buy milk? Don't know.

I gave SMS FireWall a refresh with a couple of features requested by users:- An option 'Allow and Move' in the settings screen, which when checked moves the messages from the quarantine vault when opted to be added to the allowed list. Although it might be clear to you, let me explain it in a few words how it works. When you long press a sender in the quarantine vault, a menu with two options appear - Allow, Delete. When 'Allow' is clicked, the sender is added to the allowed list. And when the 'Allow and Move' setting is checked, the messages from this sender are moved to the inbox. A confirmation dialog prompt when attempted to empty the quarantine vault A few minor (internal) improvements Hope they are useful to others too. And let me know if you need any other features to be in the application.

Tired of prank SMSes. Need a simple way to block them, and keep your inbox clean? Don't worry. You got it! SMS Firewall is a simple and cute (hope you like it!) Android application to block and quarantine unwanted SMS from reaching your inbox. Unwanted are those who are neither in your contacts list nor in the allowed list, which is provided by the application. Phone numbers or sender names such as your bank or mobile service provider can be added to the allowed list. You got an option to either notify you of the blocked SMS or ignore it, in which case you will have check the quarantine vault by yourself. Besides, you have a 'Just Monitor' mode, which is primarily used for debugging purposes or when you don't want to block SMS from unknown sender(s) (for a while). When this mode is switched on, SMS from unknown senders will reach the inbox and also a copy of it is saved in the quarantine vault. Here are a few screen shots to get you attracted... ...

We have released an update for Seinfeld Calendar with a bunch of some exciting features and defect fixes. I hope they are exciting for you too. NOTES : You can add notes or additional information for a task on a month basis. Again, the notes are maintained month wise and not date wise. It is just to keep it simple, since adding it date wise would require a special selection mechanism for marking a date as completed. REMINDERS : When you create a new task or edit an existing task, you will now be able to add reminders for a task, or disable them too if you added one already. As you might have guessed it, the reminder pops up a notification at the specified time reminding you to do the task. It could be jogging in the morning or taking your pills at night. The tool is now improved to not only keep track of your task status, but also helps you to do it everyday by reminding you. So you will not miss doing it! HOME SCREEN WIDGET : We have added the facility to drop home screen w...

It is always fun for me to program in C# (besides C++). If so, how would I feel if I was able to program for Android in C#? You may be wondering what in the world I am talking about. Android development environment is all Java and open source stuff. How could this Microsoft thing fit onto it? Well, it seems that some clever guys had huddled up and ported Mono for Android , developed .NET libraries for the Android SDK, and also supplemented it with a 'Mono for Android' project template in Visual Studio; and called it mono for android . Thus we end up writing C# code happily for Android. After a bunch of installations , fire up your Visual Studio (2010) and you should be seeing a new project template 'Mono for Android' under C#. Create a new 'Mono for Android' project, which by default comes with an activity - C# code. Modified the orginal code to try starting a new activity from the default one... The project layout for most of the part is...

A couple of my colleagues and I huddled up to learn a bit of Android. I think I told you about that a short while back. We developed a very simple application - The Seinfeld Calendar . Seinfeld calendar, or otherwise called the habit calendar, is Seinfeld's productivity secret . The secret of achieving your goal is practising something, whatever your goal is, everyday and make it a habit. And mark it in your calendar each day you practice, and make sure you do not break the chain. Our application helps you keep track of your everyday tasks. Our application does not jog or meditate or quit smoking for you. You have to do your tasks. Our application provides the facility to create tasks for the habits you wish to pursue, which in certain cases like smoking means quitting. And then you mark each day in the calendar if you pursued your task, else you don't mark and break the chain. And no cheating! The application is in very nascent stage and does not provide you (fancy) s...