KATG Droid app

[The Girl]

I'm excited to announce that, Dan, a listener of the show, has volunteered to take on the challenge of starting to put together a KATG Droid app.
He's been listening for a long time but does not yet have a presence on the forums so I'm starting this thread for him.

If you have a Droid, please help Dan with things like testing and lending some feedback for his work.

Thanks guys!

[dmfrey]

Hey KATG Android Users!

The new beta of the KATG Android app is here. For the time being, I am hosting it on my DropBox account. This will give you the chance to use it, find any bugs and report them back to me here.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14169722/KAT...AndTheGirl.apk

The easiest way to install the application is to go to the above URL on your phone.

If you prefer, download the file then send it to your phone. This can be done by emailing it to yourself or hooking up the phone to your computer and copying the file to phone. Once it is on the phone, simply click on it. It will prompt you install it. When complete, you will find a familiar KATG icon your launcher. Feel free to drag it to one of your desktops for easier access.


Some issues you may run into installing the app.
- AT&T users might not be able to install the app at this time since they seem to be pretty particular about not installing apps that don't currently exist in the market. If that is the case, please be patient, it will be in the market in a short while. I simply want to get any bugs worked out before I make the initial launch.
- If it is indicating it cannot be installed, please try this: From your home screen, press your menu button, select Settings, then Applications. Click the box that says Unknown sources. After you check this box, go to back and try and install the application again. It should work.
- If you have any other issues installing the application, please leave me a note here in this forum or PM me. I will help you work through it.


When will the app be in the Andriod Market?
Shortly. I simply want to work out any bugs you may find before doing an initial launch.


Requirements
This app requires that you have internet access
Android 2.1 and above are supported. (If you are unsure, from your home screen, press the menu button, click settings, then select About Phone. Select Software Information and you can find the current version of Android you are running.) If you are still running a version older than Android 2.1, let me know and I will see if the app will work on your version and update it.


Current Features
- You can see the last 10 episodes of KATG
- Each episode can be streamed to your phone, no downloading required. (Streaming works best while connected on wifi, but also should work while using your carriers data connection, usually called 3G, or LTE, etc.)
- You can launch the KATG web site


Upcoming Features
- Live streaming when KATG are broadcasting live (live button is currently disabled)


Feature Requests
I am interested to know what you would like to be able to do with the app. If there is a particular feature you would like to see added to the app, please leave me feedback here in this forum thread or PM the request.


I want to hear from you. Please tell me what you like, what you don't. I am very interested in what is not working for you. I have tried it on my HTC Thunderbolt and I know that everything works fine on there. However, there are may Android phones out there and not all manufactures implement features in exactly the same way. The more information you can give me, the better the app will be.


If you find you are having an issue with something, it would be very helpful if you could provide me with the model of the phone you are using. For example, HTC Thunderbolt. Also, please indicate if you were connected to wifi or your carrier's data connection. Also, if you are experiencing an issue with just one episode in particular, please let me know the episode number.

Thank you for all your help in making the application the best that it can be. I look forward to hearing about all your experiences. Please leave me any feedback here in the forum thread or PM with your questions.

UPDATE: (3/3/2012)
Live Streaming and call in is now enabled. Also, next show time is displayed.

UPDATE: (7/4/2012)
Sorry it has been so long, but I have finally had some time to get back to working on the app. There is a new one posted in the dropbox account.

Some notable changes:
1. UI has been completely rewritten. It should work on Froyo (android 2.1) up to, and including Jellybean (android 4.1)
2. Feedback is now enabled
3. There are social links to Keith and Chemda on Twitter and Facebook
4. There are web links to the site and forums

UPDATE: (8/17/2012)
I have made some minor updates to the app. Most notably some images and some bug fixes around the player. Give it a shot and let me know it goes.

UPDATE: (8/18/2012)
Another Update!!

There was some minor UI work done. Also, all the past guests are listed on the app. Give it a second the first time through, however, as it needs to download a bunch of pictures.

As always, let me know if you have any issues.

I think the app is coming along nicely and I hope to have it in the Google Play market soon.

UPDATE: (8/19/2012)
One More Update!!!

The latest file adds some new notifications to your Status Bar. Also, you can now sort the guests by most recent, top count and name. If a guest has listed their web site, twitter, and/or facebook page, you can now link to them right from their entry in the list.

Also, I am working on implementing downloading the show. This is preliminary work, so please let me know if there are any issues. If you download an episode, it now plays from the local one instead of the stream. The player needs to be updated with more controls for FF/Rew, etc. Also, i have not implemented any way to remove these files once they are downloaded. Hopefully get to that soon.

Let me know what you think.

UPDATE: (9/5/2012)
KATG Android Users, this is a big update!!!

I have done some rework on the app and I think you will like what you see.

- You can now sort the guests
- The Social and Web pages have now been combined into one page, call The Hosts
- In the Episodes, you can now download the episodes. You will be able to see episodes you downloaded if they go past the 10 most recent that are currently available, but if you delete them, then they are gone for good.
- The feedback on the player has been moved to a dialog, so it is only present when you are listening to the live stream


HERE IS THE BIG NEWS!!!
- VIP's you can now enter your VIP code from the VIP dashboard and have access to every episode of every show and spinoff. It may take a bit to download the first time, so give it a chance.
- If you Stream or Download any videos, they will play in the default Video Player. If you want a great alternative to the default video player, check out BS Player Free in the Android Market.

[Piscean]

Dan, thanks for taking on the task!

A couple of features I would like to see:
1. Ability to download and playback later.
2. Ability to pause, and restart where I left off rather than restarting from the beginning.
3. Skip forward/back XX seconds
4. Some sort of progress indicator so I can see how far into the show I am.

Happy to test any versions you come up with.

[dmfrey]

Piscean,

Thanks for the info. It is on my list of things to do. Streaming was the quickest way to get the app out for people to start using. But my plan for app is to be able to either streaming or downloading.

Dan

Originally Posted by Piscean

Dan, thanks for taking on the task!

A couple of features I would like to see:
1. Ability to download and playback later.
2. Ability to pause, and restart where I left off rather than restarting from the beginning.
3. Skip forward/back XX seconds
4. Some sort of progress indicator so I can see how far into the show I am.

Happy to test any versions you come up with.

[89vision]

Is it GPL? Is it on github or anything?

[da_ticklah]

Rooted HTC EVO running the MikG rom and works like a charm

[dmfrey]

89vision,
I haven't posted the code to my github account yet. I will do it and post the link here. It will also be gpl'd.

Originally Posted by 89vision

Is it GPL? Is it on github or anything?

[89vision]

Originally Posted by dmfrey

89vision,
I haven't posted the code to my github account yet. I will do it and post the link here. It will also be gpl'd.

Cool, I haven't done much Android development but i'm a fairly good Java Programmer. I'll help in anyway that I can.

[dmfrey]

89vision,

I have GPL'd the code and put it out on github. Here is the link to the source code: https://github.com/dmfrey/KeithAndTheGirl

Let me know if you want commit access to the repository.

Originally Posted by 89vision

Cool, I haven't done much Android development but i'm a fairly good Java Programmer. I'll help in anyway that I can.

If you want to setup and environment, here is what you need to do:

1. Download and install the latest eclipse (you probably already have this)
2. Download and install the Android SDK and Android Plugin for Eclipse
3. Install the EGit plugin

At this point you will be able to checkout the source code.

1. Import the project from git
2. It might be necessary to convert the project to a maven project. All dependencies are managed by Maven

Google ROME is used for downloading and parsing the RSS Feeds. I will be using the Spring Framework for other items.

One of the next items I plan to implement is an asynchronous downloader so that episodes can be played offline. Also, next on the list is being able to access the live streaming.

The downloader seems like it would be pretty straight forward, however, I am running into issues with what to do with the downloaded file after the episode has gone off the latest 10 episodes that are available in the rss feed. What I am thinking is instead of writing a native player interface in the KATG App, allow them to download them and then launch the native media player. Then they can manage the downloaded episodes themselves and not have to worry about when the episode goes off the rss feed.

As for live streaming, connecting to it is no issue, but i would like to either parse the calendar on the web site and determine if it is live streaming, or check the stream directly before initiating playback.

I am interested in your thoughts. We can take this offline as well. PM me, or hit me up on Google+. We can always fallback to email as well

[Buxton]

Installed and working fine on my UK HTC Desire running a LeeDroid unofficial ROM.

(BTW, Firefox extension Mobile Barcoder is the easiest way to get general links from Firefox on my PC over to my phone, as it can generate a QR Code of any link on any page.)

Barcode Scanner lovers, scan this on your phone - it'll take you to the APK download link: