Hauntcast for Android Phones! (beta)

[Terrormaster]

Hi folks, Chris has given me his blessings to develop a Hauntcast app for Android and well, beta 1.0 is ready and on the Android market.

Keep in mind that this is a beta and I tested it pretty good. But it's not official until it's official. And I'll leave that announcement to Chris.

But I thought I'd elicit some early feedback from the gang here at Haunt Forum before hand.

So what are you waiting for? Hit the Android market and search for "Hauntcast" and be sure to let me know what you think.

http://necropolislabs.com/images/hc1.png http://necropolislabs.com/images/hc2.png

-TM

[Johnny Thunder]

Brent -

That app kicks major ass!!! I just downloaded and it works great. Thanks for all the work ! Love it.

JT

[Terrormaster]

I tried it on a Motorola Droid in the Verizon store and it would freeze up when trying to stream a show. Not sure why and without being able to plug it into a debugger it's gonna be tough to figure out. Might have been just an issue with the display model. But quirky none the less. I also noticed thats since the Droid's screen is slightly taller than the current Android standard the layout doesn't fill all the way to the bottom.

The latter is simple to fix but the former concerns me. Anyone out there with a Moto Droid had a chance to try it out yet? I'm curious as to the results.

Also can't believe I'm already up to 130 downloads in the Market. Wow that's awesome! I'll try and get an update out soon but that Motorola bug concerns me.

Thanks and enjoy everyone.
-TM

[Jaybo]

Just downloaded it on my Motorola Cliq and it works perfectly. Listening to episode 16 right now.

Great job! The app looks great!

[Terrormaster]

Just a forewarning, turn your media volume down in the office. Whenever a new blog or show is posted it will pop a notification on the top status bar accompanied by a laugh from Skelly.

Right now it checks for new posts ever 30 minutes. I wanted to keep the first version feature slim and enhance it based on feedback. However I can see where some preferences might be necessary such as how frequent to check for updates and whether or not you want to hear Skelly laugh when a Hauntcast notification comes in.

I also wanted to give a big thanks to ChrisB for giving me his blessing to work on this as it's given me the opportunity to work in areas of Android I hadn't developed in prior. I've learned a lot of new things in the process.

Hey Dave, I'm still open to doing a Haunt Forum app! ;-)

[Terrormaster]

Anyone who's downloaded it should see an update for it in their notifications soon.

Version 1.02:

. Corrected issue with timeouts when trying to play a feed which would cause the app to hang.
. Added screen proportion support for Motorola Droid (the screen is slightly taller than the standard android phone).
. Fixed problem where the app would time out on the splash screen and dump you out of the program. This was happening because it couldn't connect to the feed within 10 seconds. If problem persists I might pump the timeout up to 30 seconds.
. Minor optimizations.

Wow I can't believe this is almost up to 400 downloads so far - simply AMAZING! Thanks everyone!

[Dr Morbius]

Wish I had an Android...now I must get one. Looks great, BTW!

[DeathTouch]

I am looking for it now. Have not found it.

[Johnny Thunder]

Go to Market, search "Hauntcast " then download.

[DeathTouch]

Did that. No listings. And yes I have the market thingy. Just got it yesterday.

[DeathTouch]

This is what it said. There are no matches in Android market for the search: Hauntcast

[Johnny Thunder]

D'OH- Sorry. Just rerran searches for Hauntcast, Terrormaster and Necropolis Labs but as you said, nothing came up. Hopefully TM can chime in here and help!

[DeathTouch]

Let me try haunted porn, Maybe it is under that.

[Hauntiholik]

How about this link?

http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/app.hauntcast.radio/Hauntcast-Radio?simen=20

[DeathTouch]

nope. thanks though

[Terrormaster]

Should be there now. Apparently Google updated the developer marketplace and didn't send any notification to us. As a result all of my apps were unpublished. I republished everything and it should be there now.

I'll be doing some updates to the app sometime after 1031 (which is where all my time is dedicated right now). The update should address some of the screen issues with some of the new phones as well as being able to download and resume play at another time. If I can I might throw in some bonus features like a Skelly soundboard (will have to work with Chris on that, but bugs first).

Lemme know if you still can't find it.

-TM

[DeathTouch]

I found it it but taking a long time to download. What is used to program apps? Is it C++ or something? And thanks so much.

[DeathTouch]

Ok, I downloaded it. It looks like the blog. I thought it streamed audio?

[Terrormaster]

It does, go to the radio tab. You might be able to see it depending on what model phone you have. On some phones the tabs at the bottom get cutoff because of differing resolutions. But the radio tab has all the episodes that you can listen to.

Android Apps are written in Java.

I might do something entirely different different with the next update since Chris kinda gave me free reign. If anyone has any suggestions (other than bug fixes of course) I'll be happy to take requests.

-TM

[DeathTouch]

I have the Samsung Captivate. I don't see any of the videos or any of the tabs that you are talking about.

[Terrormaster]

Ah, yeah most of the newer phones seem to be using that one odd resolution that Hauntcast doesn't currently support. The issue also exists on the EVO, Droid X, Ally, and a few others.

*Shakes fist at the heavens* Darn you android and your multi-resolution devices. I'll give iPhone one thing, it has ONE standard resolution.

If I can find some downtime from prop building I'll slip this one in as I know its been nagging some people.

[anjpro]

Moto Droid running 2.2 work great

[DeathTouch]

Think mine is 2.1

[Terrormaster]

It's not the version of android, its the resolution of the device. Think of the screen layout like a webpage. There's three major resolutions supported by Androd - Hauntcast App supports only two of them currently. For each device resolution the app must have a separate page layout to support it. I just need to cut up the image differently that makes up the layout and include it in the app.

When I originally wrote it, the app only supported the smaller of the three which is what my HTC Eris uses and my original impression was that it would scale. But when I ran the app on the Moto Droid while in the Verizon store it was coming up short with a black bar at the bottom of the display. So I looked up the resolution of the Droid and figured out how to add a second resolution. The Fascinate and others I mentioned use the middle resolution. And for some reason if it's not an exact match Android defaults to the larger resolution (like the one for Moto Droid) and hence the bottom getting cut off.

I know what the problem is and how to fix it. I just haven't had a free moment to do so.

-TM