Reader Widget Pro V1.7

I have just uploaded Reader Widget Pro V1.7 to the market. Changes include:

• Time shown next to headlines in pop-up list.
• Sort headlines by feed name or time in ascending or descending order.
• Bug fix: on boot up with no network connection widgets would be blank. Now the data is loaded from the local database.
• Ran zipalign on the apk file. This should improve performance.
• Ran Optipng on all the PNG files to compress them.

I also experimented with showing the unread count in the notification bar but found it to be not that useful. The text doesn’t stay in the notification bar (like when an SMS is received it just flashes up the message for a few seconds) and so the bar has to be dragged open to see the unread count. Ideally I want the unread count to persist in the notification bar so it can be seen even if the phone is locked. I haven’t found a way to do this yet.

Android 1.6: still no animated GIF support

I was just playing around with my newly updated G1 and realised that animated GIFs still do not animate on it. This has been an Android bug since day 1 in both the browser and ImageView. If you visit a web page containing an animated GIF all you will see is the first frame and nothing else. This annoyed me a bit when it was in 1.5 (cupcake) but the fact that its still in 1.6 (donut) is amazing. Android users may have noticed that ads in apps downloaded from the market are just static images and/or text. The Adfonic ads in my Reader Widget Small app are text only because of this bug. I can’t believe that Google, a company built by ad money, has let this one slide for so long. Animated GIF ads can be annoying but to leave developers without the option to use them is very restrictive. Rant over.

Reader Widgets and Android 1.6

I have installed the official Android 1.6 (aka Donut) ADP build on my G1. I’ve done some initial testing and found that both Reader Widget Small and Reader Widget Pro work on it. I have also uploaded screen shots for both to the market (only visible in the 1.6 version of the market). PubCrawler still works too. Now where is my Android 1.6 build for my Hero, HTC? 🙂

Back from holiday

I’ve been away on holiday for the last two weeks, hence the lack of posts here. My girlfriend and I went to California and had a great time. Naturally I took my Hero with me. It has a really useful option in the “hold the power button down menu” to switch off the mobile data connection. I found it incredibly useful as it prevented extortionate data charges whilst still receiving calls and letting me connect to any Wifi hotspots I came across. This allowed me to stay in the loop with all the goings on in the mobile world and a lot has happened, especially with Android.
The first thing on my to do list is installing an Android 1.6 ROM on my G1 and testing the Reader widgets on it.
I have received a few suggestions for features in addition to my own ideas so watch this space.
Also Reader Widget Small passed the 5000 download mark last week. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded, rated and provided feedback on it.