NotifyMe! Beta testing

[quickster47]

Okay, now that the basics are pretty much working as advertised I will concentrate on cleaning up some things and fixing some of those hidden features that tend to creep into software development efforts done in a night or two or three.

[e9]

Just tested 1.6.  Very sweet!

My 2¢:

1. For some reason when first enabling I get a Palm "sysnotify..." or something.  It doesn't happen again after disabling and re-enabling, but it is a bit odd to get that error the first time out.  Also, got it with 1.5.
2. When first setting built-in sounds, the test volume is excruciatingly loud for some reason, but okay after exiting and then trying again.  Actual functioning (non-test) sound notification volume behaves properly.
3. IMO, the GUI for selecting built-ins is a bit awkward as it is not possible to see them except one-by-one.  So it seems a bit primitive to go through a list of say 40 sounds, especially one a "one-handed" device. In other apps, the built-in sounds appear as a pop-up list that can be scrolled or navigated by letter key press.  Don't you think that would be more user friendly on the Treo 600?
4. I love the "anti-launcher" or "anti-auto-run" and personally do not need it to be an option, though it probably should be an option anyway for others who may want this feature.
5. Thanks for nixing the Handspring "pleasing" sound.  What a relief!  Is it possible that some may want it as one of their choices?

Excellent work!

[MrByte]

I also just tested 1.6..  looking better every time around  

as for elysian9 comments...
1) I saw this happen when you try to Enable and it is already Enabled or you try to Disable and it is already Disabled.
2) wasn't a problem here ...
3) I also suggested quickster the same thing after I got 1.5
4) I asked for that option, alltough he mentioned in an e-mail

For right now neither of these are an option but comes bundled within the software

. So eventually it will be there!  
5) I'm not sure it that should be an option? I mean, you can now assign any sound you want to the eject/insert events, so why have that one as well? I noticed on 1.5 that it was playing after the select sound.

 and here are my 2¢:
6) The Check Card this many Times defaults to x0. IMO it should be at least defaulting to x5
7) If you use the Built-in Sounds AND have the Vibrate as part of Notification selected, the Built-in sound only sounds the first 1 or 2 1/2 (yes, 1/2, it starts and then silences) times even tough the phone keeps vibrating the rest of the time. This does not happend when using the default sounds in the App.
8 ) if you eject the SD again while the Insert sound is being palyed, it doesn't do any further checking, as if the program wasn't aware that the card is out again. I tested it both while the timer was still active, meaning it still was in the xTimes period to check and after it had done its xTimes checking. Interestingly, when you insert the card, it launches the Insert sound.

 Quickster, great program. With these few glitches fixed, this will be a GREAT program (it already is ).

Thanks!

PS: Chris when doing my list above, I encountered another problem with the emoticons. When I wrote 8 ) (without the space) it gives the emoticon....

[tr30]

Thanks for the 1.6 update, quickster!  Love the new features, especially the anti-launcher feature!    

Issues/Suggestions
* The vibration goes off 3x.  Some users may not want it to go off 3x as it may drain the battery too fast if user has it set to check card every 15 seconds or so.  Maybe give the option to vibrate from 0 to 3x?  Personally, I would like mine to vibrate once each time it checks card.
* I too get the "sysnotify" message everytime I first enable NotifyMe from a fresh install.
* I agree with everyone else that selecting the built-in ringtones needs to be more intuitive and user-friendly.  See my suggestion on this on my previous post.
* Also (which I know you're trying to figure out), screen still comes on during reminder alerts.

Great work on version 1.6!  It's definitely a big improvement.

[Feico Mol]

I've posted the new beta version 1.5 in the Downloads/Treo Utilities section.

Chris did give me access to the News admin module a while ago, now if I can only remember how to access it I'll post a News item, too

[Feico Mol]

1.6? Hey! I've only received 1.5!  :-/

[Chris]

This is too cool. Thank you so much Quickster for making this great software.

(MrB, thanks i'll have a look at the smilies)

[MrByte]

quickster

 I believe I found a little bug and would like to confirm if any of the fellow testers has the same issue:
 If the Enable After Reset is selected and you (soft) reset the phone, it launches the Insert sound after resetting but the SD card is not accesible at all.
 Funny thing is that if you eject/insert the card, the sounds are played...

[quickster47]

quickster

 I believe I found a little bug and would like to confirm if any of the fellow testers has the same issue:
 If the Enable After Reset is selected and you (soft) reset the phone, it launches the Insert sound after resetting but the SD card is not accesible at all.
 Funny thing is that if you eject/insert the card, the sounds are played...

Fixed that for the next release.  Seems that I was only checking Enable After Reset and not whether it was or was not enabled plus, it was reregistering itself.  Sigh...  life is tough at 4:00am when you are alone and your wife is in bed and your dog thinks you're a stanger in the house.

[e9]

quickster

 I believe I found a little bug and would like to confirm if any of the fellow testers has the same issue:
 If the Enable After Reset is selected and you (soft) reset the phone, it launches the Insert sound after resetting but the SD card is not accesible at all.
 Funny thing is that if you eject/insert the card, the sounds are played...

Confirmed!  I thought NotifyMe had wiped my SD, but thankfully that was not the case.  Disabling and renabling NM restored SD access.  Methinks we need a quick fix, Quickster.  

[Feico Mol]

1.6? Hey! I've only received 1.5!  :-/

We just received 1.6 and Chris has uploaded it. Thx Chris!  

[MrByte]

We just received 1.6 and Chris has uploaded it. Thx Chris!  

 ...don't hold your breath, but 1.7 will follow soon with some more fixes  

[quickster47]

Okay faithful followers of NotifyMe.  I have not dropped of the face of the Earth.  Just had to return to work to support my Palm habit and allow me more time to work on my favorite stuff.

Should have an update out this weekend.

I have also discovered something ugly about trying to play sounds when the Treo is asleep, screen off, and not wake it up with the screen on.  Sigh...  

[Tadd]

Just out of curiousity, while the SD card is inside of the slot, how often does the program check the status of the card, and does frequent checking have any impact on battery life?  Or does the program wait for the card to pop out and then begin to periodically check the status of the slot?

By the way, version 1.6 works really well.  It's exactly what I have been hoping for in a card keeper program.

[quickster47]

I have just sent Chris version 1.8 of NotifyMe! and hopefully he will post it soon.  If, however, you want me to send you a copy now just drop me an eMail to cquick2@earthlink.net.

NotifyMe! 1.8
Fixed the problem with the card not being recognized after being inserted with NotifyMe! enabled.
Made the built-in sounds selection screen a little more pleasing to the User.
Added a preferences page and moved the vibrate option to that page.  The "anti-launcher" and "anti-auto-run" feature has been softened but I am looking at another way to force this without totally preventing the device from mounting the card.  Although I did learn that even when you mount the card it bounces out of the app you are in and back to the launcher.
For those difficult times when a card does not mount properly I added a menu option to mount the card.  If an error is encountered it will just display the error number.  Working on a better error display.  But then this option should only be used on rare occasions.
If you select either the insert or eject sound from the main page, and you are using the built in sounds, you are taken to the built-in sound selection page.

Due to the inherent design of the Palm OS, when a reminder alert goes off the screen turns on.  Therefore, it is NOT possible to keep the screen off when an alarm sounds.  I tried several methods to make this happen, but alas, there is just no way keep the screen off when a sound plays.  Now this might possibly change as I delve deeper into the ARM code but for now it works as designed (WAD).  And yes, one of the methods I did explore was using a Procedure Alarm.  Turns out that a procedure alarm appears to only have so much time in the background and playing a long sound during that time is NOT good.

Disclaimer: The statement "it is NOT possible to keep the screen off when an alarm sounds" is 99% true.  You can actually play one of the Palm simple alarm sounds when the screen is off in background mode and this could be made an option.