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LastInLine posted:I know it's supposed to do that but it has never, ever restored that for me, even when I restored everything from the same ROM to the same ROM (when you've had a G2x you do a lot of restoring across identical devices). Not once has it ever worked for me. I use SMS Backup & Restore and Call Log Backup & Restore just because every time I've tried to use Titanium to do it it's failed. Fair enough, I've had no issues. You obviously do have to specifically restore those two apps since you don't want to restore every random system app, things can get screwy. But hey, I'm pretty sure you've been posting in the Android threads long enough to know that. I remember it being a lot less reliable on my Desire which I always assumed was due to some HTC bullshit. On my GSM GNex it seems to work fine at least. No idea! The other two apps you mention are good options anyway and do give you finer control over the backups/restores.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 09:30 |
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# ? Jun 7, 2024 01:30 |
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Tunga posted:Fair enough, I've had no issues. You obviously do have to specifically restore those two apps since you don't want to restore every random system app, things can get screwy. But hey, I'm pretty sure you've been posting in the Android threads long enough to know that.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 10:03 |
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golgo13sf posted:If you can't beat the game without IAP (or it's incredibly difficult to do so) then that is lovely and they should be ostracized for it. Extra levels are kosher as far as I'm concerned.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 10:08 |
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Anyone else having issues authenticating to the Amazon AppStore? I am able to log into Kindle fine, and I can log into my account via web fine, so it's not a problem with my account or the phone specifically.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 20:13 |
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I think this has been discussed before, but I checked the last couple pages and didn't see anything. What is everyone using as a .pdf viewer? I've been trying the Kindle app and the stock viewer on my tablet, but haven't tried Adobe's reader yet. I notice that flipping through pages, some times it will stall with a "loading" message. I vaguely recall that being the nature of pdfs on Android. Also what are some good ebook readers for .epub and .mobi file formats?
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 23:30 |
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Aldiko for eBooks.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 23:33 |
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fnkels posted:Also what are some good ebook readers for .epub and .mobi file formats? I've just been sticking with the nook app. You can load books into the /sd-card/nook/my documents folder
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 23:42 |
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fnkels posted:Also what are some good ebook readers for .epub and .mobi file formats? Moon+ Reader for ePub. I'm not sure anything but the Amazon app can read Mobi though. edit: I lied, there's a few that handle Mobi. FBReader perhaps? Vykk.Draygo fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jul 24, 2012 |
# ? Jul 24, 2012 23:49 |
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jakeledel posted:I've gone through a bunch of these apps and I like Yahoo! Sportacular. THIS. This man is my hero. It even has widgets, (I know I wasn't looking for them) that you can add for each team! which is awesome, except that I get to sit there and be reminded about Georgias loss until their first game
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 23:50 |
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fnkels posted:What is everyone using as a .pdf viewer? I've been trying the Kindle app and the stock viewer on my tablet, but haven't tried Adobe's reader yet. I notice that flipping through pages, some times it will stall with a "loading" message. I vaguely recall that being the nature of pdfs on Android. EZpdf.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 13:58 |
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Regarding the IAP discussion, What do you guys think about games that are demos (as in let you play the first level or two) and have an IAP to unlock the full game instead of having Game and Game Lite as separate downloads in the market place?
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 15:12 |
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Lowen SoDium posted:Regarding the IAP discussion, I'd prefer the game and game lite way of doing it. For one, it gives me a way to get a refund within 15 minutes if the app doesn't work correctly. edit: I recently had a huge problem with IAP. Someone sent me a link to Word Lens Lite a while back. I installed it and realized you had to IAP a language dictionary for the app to actually work. That's fine, I thought to myself. So I purchased the French dictionary. Then, after the purchase, I noticed there was a full version of the app for $4.99 (the price of a language pack) but the full version came with a free language pack. So here I am, stuck with the lite version of the app. So, I decided I would go ahead and install the full version anyway and just pick the Spanish dictionary so I'd have both the French and Spanish. There is a button inside the app that says "restore in app purchases" which I thought would carry over my French dictionary to the full version of the app. Nope. I was wrong. So here I am with the lite version installed with the French dictionary and the full version installed with the Spanish dictionary and no way of getting both into one app. This is why I hate in app purchases. They are clumsy and you can't automatically get a refund. In the end, I contacted the developer and was able to get a refund on the one language pack and everything worked out. IT Guy fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jul 25, 2012 |
# ? Jul 25, 2012 15:19 |
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Lowen SoDium posted:Regarding the IAP discussion, I don't mind this but I wish people would list the IAP costs and content on the store. The "Best Free" and similar tabs on the store are worthless becuase they are all freemium and IAP unlocked games that aren't actually free at all. Actually I wish the market just listed all IAPs by default but hey it's Google so don't get your hopes up.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 15:23 |
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Lowen SoDium posted:What do you guys think about games that are demos (as in let you play the first level or two) and have an IAP to unlock the full game instead of having Game and Game Lite as separate downloads in the market place? Let's put it this way. If you're developing an app/game with the intention for it to be a paid app/game, then sell it as such, maybe offering a "lite" version also. Don't list it as "free" with a giant ugly IAP to unlock 75% of the content. It's inconsistent and confusing, and frankly annoying. Like Tunga pointed out, your game/app isn't free, only the demo is. Yet it'll be listed in the "Free Apps" list and not the paid one. It does't matter how large of a warning you have that says "75% of content unlocked by $2 IAP" or whatever, it's still inconsistent. Yet everyone knows what's up when they see two versions of an app/game in the Play search results, a $2 regular version, and a free "lite" version. It's a bit different if the sales model is such that the entire game/app is intended to be released for free, with sales recouped from optional à la carte IAP purcahses, like add-on levels, or gratuitious skins, or whatever. Even here I personally prefer to pick up a (perhaps more expensive) Paid version with everything unlocked. But Free+IAP makes sense, becuase each individual IAP doesn't represent the majority of context, but are merely "little extras". Edit: To clarify, I personally dislike IAPs and literally only browse the Paid section, willing to spend more to get something where everything's unlocked. You can do whatever you want with the Free/Fremium version, I'll ignore that, just don't ignore the market of folks who actually look for Paid stuff. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jul 25, 2012 |
# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:11 |
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IT Guy posted:I'd prefer the game and game lite way of doing it. I hadn't thought about that angle, but it is a good point. Tunga posted:I don't mind this but I wish people would list the IAP costs and content on the store. The "Best Free" and similar tabs on the store are worthless becuase they are all freemium and IAP unlocked games that aren't actually free at all. Yeah, if I was going to make a game that unlocked the full version through an IAP, I would be upfront about it in the description, including the cost and the limitations of the game or app if it was not unlocked. I want it to be clear to the user what it is that they are downloading. I am not interested in making a Freemium game. I consider most of them to be complete garbage. The reason I am considering this is because it allows the user to carry over progress from the demo version of the game to the full version of the game with out relying on saving info on the SD card. It also allows for patches and updates to effectively update both your demo and full version with a single push. Basically, it just seems to me that if you do IAP right, you can make things easier for your users and easier for yourself. And I think you get more user who are willing to support you if you treat them well instead of treating them like thieves or treating them like idiots by trying to trick them in to buying your app or what ever. I would rather make a little money by being honest than make a lot by being shady. edit: For some clarification, I am developing a game right now in my spare time that I am probably going to release completely free because I don't really think it's worth paying for and I would rather see it played by more people than make money off of it. But I am collaborating with a friend for another game that I think has more mass appeal that we will probably do some kind of demo and $1-2 full version. I just wanted some feed back on how people felt about IAP as an unlock method. Lowen SoDium fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jul 25, 2012 |
# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:21 |
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Lowen SoDium posted:The reason I am considering this is because it allows the user to carry over progress from the demo version of the game to the full version of the game with out relying on saving info on the SD card. Lowen SoDium posted:It also allows for patches and updates to effectively update both your demo and full version with a single push. Edit: Lowen SoDium posted:Basically, it just seems to me that if you do IAP right, you can make things easier for your users and easier for yourself.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:33 |
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ExcessBLarg! posted:Like Tunga pointed out, your game/app isn't free, only the demo is. Yet it'll be listed in the "Free Apps" list and not the paid one. It does't matter how large of a warning you have that says "75% of content unlocked by $2 IAP" or whatever, it's still inconsistent. Yet everyone knows what's up when they see two versions of an app/game in the Play search results, a $2 regular version, and a free "lite" version. This was the big shitstorm over "Jazz: Trump's Journey", because it looks like a great game and it appeared to be free, except for the completely unmentioned IAP to unlock the rest of the game a level or two in, sprung as a "Gotcha!". The only way to see it coming (besides a high cynicism baseline ) was to read through all the comments on the Play page, as a few of them were big rants about it. If the publisher had been up front about it and mentioned it at all on the Play page, it wouldn't have gotten poo poo on nearly so badly. Nobody but nobody likes feeling like someone's trying to trick them, and most people are already worried about that when shopping in the first place.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:43 |
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ExcessBLarg! posted:If the Paid and Lite versions are signed with the same certificate, can't you just use a one-time intent to migrate any useful data form the Lite version to the Paid one? ExcessBLarg! posted:Are you expecting users to have both versions installed long term? I didn't mean a single push to update both version for a single user. I meant a single update would effectively update the program for any user regardless of if they were a demo user or a full version user. This was about making it easier for me as a developer to maintain a single version. ExcessBLarg! posted:Doing "IAP right" isn't about making thing easy, it's about using them in a sales model for which IAP is solely appropriate. Otherwise you're using IAP as (an inconvenient) workaround for problems (e.g., data migration between Lite and Paid versions) for which there's better solutions. While you could be right there there are better solutions for data migration (I will research this farther), I personally don't consider IAP to be inconvenient. Especially when compared to some thing like: User installs Demo or Lite version User like app/game and wants to buy full version User goes to Play Store to buy full version User has to uninstall lite version If the developer didn't include some way to bring over data, User has to reconfigure app or start over on game progress. Where as with an IAP unlock model User installs Demo or Lite version User like app/game and wants to buy full version User unlocks full version using IAP It seems easier and more convenient in my mind, but I wanted to know how other people felt about the concept. You all are raising some good points that I hadn't considered.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:49 |
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One of the biggest concerns about IAP is that there is no way to know if it's something that will be tied to your Google account or not. If my phone gets replaced tomorrow, will that IAP transfer over or am I just going to have to buy the upgrade again? If I buy an app off the market I know that purchase will transfer over but there is a lot less transparency with IAP.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 16:52 |
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IAP should be optional content. If it isn't optional, make it a paid app.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 17:00 |
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Android is great about integrating my Outlook email and calendar, but I can't seem to get my notes to sync. Is this possible at all? Do I need a specific app to get them?
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 17:11 |
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Cruseydr posted:One of the biggest concerns about IAP is that there is no way to know if it's something that will be tied to your Google account or not. If my phone gets replaced tomorrow, will that IAP transfer over or am I just going to have to buy the upgrade again? If I buy an app off the market I know that purchase will transfer over but there is a lot less transparency with IAP.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 17:18 |
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Lowen SoDium posted:To tell the truth, I am not a very good developer and I am still learning a lot of this. If the amount of data you have to transfer is small, you can probably just serialize it and shove it in the intent's EXTRA_STREAM field. If the amount is large, it looks like the best way (although I'm not completely certain) is to have the demo app write it to a MODE_WORLD_READABLE file and send an intent with a URI to that file to the paid app. I'm sure this topic has come up on Stack Overflow before. It might also be worth asking in the Android Development megathread in the CoC subforum. Lowen SoDium posted:I didn't mean a single push to update both version for a single user. I meant a single update would effectively update the program for any user regardless of if they were a demo user or a full version user. This was about making it easier for me as a developer to maintain a single version. I can't imagine that IAP in this fashion is necessarily easier for users. They should be alright as long as you do provide a data migration path. Also, in general, in the tradeoff of "making easier for developers" and "making palatable for users" you're better off making things better for users if it means making it marginally harder for yourself. You can also do both the Free/IAP and Paid route. But unless you're doing IAP for other reasons I'd avoid them entirely. I'm also not certain how difficult IAP is to implement for developers, I imagine it can't be much easier than the aforementioned data migration method. Edit: Whatever you do don't use Sticky Broadcasts. It's a gaping security hole and astute folks will rip you apart in reviews for it.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 17:20 |
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Aren't IAPs only linked to a single device? I'd hate to upgrade my phone and lose access to an app I 'paid for' just because I'm on new hardware.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:23 |
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spincube posted:Aren't IAPs only linked to a single device? I'd hate to upgrade my phone and lose access to an app I 'paid for' just because I'm on new hardware. Depends entirely on the developer. Some are tied to a single specific device, some to a single install (ie if you just wipe your local data it's gone forever), some to a single non-specific device (ie you can move the install from one device to another, but only ever have one device "activated"), and some (the only good ones) are tied to your Play account so they're there no matter what you're using today.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:28 |
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So Google made it easier for developers to take my money, but I've no way of telling how persistent my purchase would be.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:39 |
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spincube posted:So Google made it easier for developers to take my money, but I've no way of telling how persistent my purchase would be.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:42 |
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You'd think that billing directly using Google Wallet would be a good work-around for consumable DLC, and leave IAPs as a more permanent purchase. Like the Valve (and iTunes?) model. Believe me, I don't have a problem with IAPs, DLCs or other TLAs, so long as it's clear from the outset what you're purchasing and for how long. The no-ads IAP for Words With Friends, for example, doesn't specify which category it falls into, it just promises 'the best Words With Friends experience'. The T&Cs are about as useful as you'd expect, too. Why not make it like any other permission, with a brief description of the IAPs required on the store page? Similar to how you can weed out the lovely devs that don't explain why they need to read your SMS' and call log from their picture frame app, for example. [edit] I realise I'm on the verge of getting frustrated about Google's half-cocked attempts at running a virtual shopfront again. quote:the portion of the app data that Google backs up to the cloud. Another half-baked idea that's completely opaque to the end-user... spincube fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Jul 25, 2012 |
# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:52 |
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:Things like in-game currency won't be restorable because there's not really a good way to do that. Sure there is, you just track how much an account has remotely. Since they can't buy anything with it without being online usually, easy to track. Or you store it, encrypted, in the portion of the app data that Google backs up to the cloud.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 18:52 |
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Splizwarf posted:Sure there is, you just track how much an account has remotely. Since they can't buy anything with it without being online usually, easy to track. Or you store it, encrypted, in the portion of the app data that Google backs up to the cloud. That's the best way to do it, and that's how Draw Something does it, but there are extra considerations when running it on multiple devices. Most of the time when you buy currency it just adds to a number in an SQLite table or XML file.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 19:01 |
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I'm switching to a different carrier and I'm either going to port my number I've had for 10 years to the new carrier (Sprint) or I'm going to port the number to Google Voice. I've read some web articles about the pros and cons of porting your primary number to Google Voice but they are all over a year old from the time when the feature was rolled out. What do you think? Should I switch my primary number to GV? Pros and cons?
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 19:34 |
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If you use MMS and/or shortcodes extensively, then GV porting is going to be a problem. Otherwise, once it's set up, it's pretty seamless, AFAIK.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 19:45 |
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Splizwarf posted:Sure there is, you just track how much an account has remotely. Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:Most of the time when you buy currency it just adds to a number in an SQLite table or XML file. Denzalo posted:Should I switch my primary number to GV? Pros and cons? The other main advantage of porting your number to GV is the free voicemail transcription. But I think you can get that if you port your number to Sprint, then do the GV integration that Sprint offers. The downsides is that GV MMS support is basically non-existent. Also, if you port your number to GV, you won't get free any mobile calls (I think?) if you use the GV dialout number. Of course, you can call folks directly, but then your Sprint number shows up. Unless you're looking to port to GV for the ability to do fast carrier swaps, or so that you can forward to multiple devices, I'd probably just port the number to Sprint. Mind you, you can (and I recommend) port your number to the Sprint line anytime after it's activated. That might be a good thing to do so you can make sure your new service works well and you're happy with it before you take the porting plunge.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 19:55 |
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ExcessBLarg! posted:The other main advantage of porting your number to GV is the free voicemail transcription. But I think you can get that if you port your number to Sprint, then do the GV integration that Sprint offers.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 20:03 |
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Denzalo posted:I'm switching to a different carrier and I'm either going to port my number I've had for 10 years to the new carrier (Sprint) or I'm going to port the number to Google Voice. Port your number to Sprint and use the native Google Voice integration with Sprint. If you get an MMS will come as a normal text message from Sprint and your voice mail and call screening go through Google Voice. This is the one feature I'm going to miss with moving from Sprint. Also, if you don't like the Google Voice integration you can just turn it off. The only negative is no one at Sprint knows about this so if there is a problem you are on your own.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 20:25 |
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In other news, the "Beaver" browser, everyone's favourite browser for Much more discreet for third parties that play with the phone, and continues to be great for those hard core kitty viewing sessions.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 21:47 |
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Pretty sure putting "Private" in the name makes that a step sideways instead of forward.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 21:51 |
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Does anyone know of a good directory lister for Android? I need something like an Android version of Karen's Directory Printer or DirPrinter. Basically I want a list of my Music folder's structure.
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 22:06 |
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edit;
Sab669 fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jul 25, 2012 |
# ? Jul 25, 2012 22:52 |
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# ? Jun 7, 2024 01:30 |
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vonManstein posted:In other news, the "Beaver" browser, everyone's favourite browser for Wow this is great, my dad will love this!!!
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# ? Jul 25, 2012 23:46 |