lördag 30 oktober 2010

New version of FindMyPhone under way

I have corrected a few FC-bugs as well as bugs that made the SMS-replies never being sent.
Also I have added basic functionality to receive and send email with the position. This requires you to have K9 mail properly set up for the account to receive the secret text. The response is sent through a gmail account of your choice.

I still have a few bugs concerning SIM-change handling.

After fixing this, I will probably release the app as a beta.

tisdag 20 juli 2010

FindMyPhone Beta released

Features
  • Send SMS (Text) with a secret you set and receive the location of the phone via SMS.
  • The location SMS contains a Google Maps link as well as the street address for the location.
  • The location is determined by using the GPS first and then network location.
  • The same secret SMS will turn on the ringer (if on silent) and reset the volume to the maximum level. This is to find the phone you lost between the pillows in your couch.
  • If you are using k9mail, you can trigger a location message by sending a secret email.
  • Designed to be robust and not drain your battery (Using BroadcastReceiver API).
  • Will always be 100% free with the source freely available at http://findmyphone.sf.net
Instructions SMS
  • Click on the app to get the settings view
  • Check "Active" to enable the service or uncheck it to disable all functionality
  • Set the "Secret" to the exact text you want to trigger a location SMS. This text needs to go first in the SMS you are sending from another phone.
Whenever you want to find your phone, simply pick up your friends phone and send a new SMS containing your secret text. Within 1-2 minutes (depending on your network provider, etc) you should receive an SMS with the location of your phone. Also you may now call it and listen for the ringer

Instructions Email
  • Make sure you check the "Active" checkbox
  • Set the "Secret text" and "Email prefix"
  • Check "Email trigger"
  • Enter a valid gmail-user and password that the app will use to send replies from
  • Make sure you have k9mail installed on your phone and set it to "push" och "poll"
  • Now send an regular email to the email-adddress that k9mail is using
  • Once k9mail receives the email, FindMyPhone will trigger and check the subject for the secrets provided earlier
  • The subject of the email must start with the "Email prefix" and contain the "Secret text" for FindMyPhone to trigger
  • Once FindMyPhone has found your phone's location, a reply will be sent, using the Gmail-user as sender

Changelog
Version 1.1B
  • Changed to beta software
  • Number of fixes
  • Disabled the SIM-card change feature
  • Added email-trigger / reply functionality
  • New launcher-icon
  • App2SD support
Version 1.0
  • Initial release
  • Secret SMS functionality from Alpha version
  • Added SIM change detection
Version 1.01
  • Added detailed logging to help searching for reported faults
  • Tried to improve GPS fix by prolonging timeout
  • Added some improvement for SIM change detection. Still needs more work to work with PIN-locked SIM cards
  • Fixed one bug with getting network fix if GPS is active but fail to fix.
Version 1.02
  • Found and fixed another bug if the phone didn't have a last known location for either GPS or Network.

lördag 17 juli 2010

FindMyPhone alpha 2

I have now finished a crude version that manages to get GPS fix and failback to network location if GPS hasn't gotten a fix in 30 seconds.

Features that are needed to enter Beta:
* Some kind of simple lock to disallow changing of secret text if you don't know a PIN
* Turn on ringer and set ringer volume to max once secret SMS is received.
* More detailed message with address-lookup and "last seen" time.

Features that I think would be nice:
* Mail-function if network is available
* Send an SMS / Email every 10 minutes, showing updated location for x hours.
* Blog-API to post updates on a blogger-blog.
* Store track on phone and supply in email/blog updates, to show a nice path in Gmaps.
* Removal of secret SMS so it won't show up in the normal messaging apps.

The new alpha is available at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/findmyphone/files/

torsdag 15 juli 2010

FindMyPhone alpha

I just started a new project called "FindMyPhone". It's supposed to be a robust and 100% free app to let Android users find their lost or stolen phone.
Currently I'm letting the user sending an SMS with a secret text to the phone and then get an automated response back with the location in an Gmaps-URL.

It uses the GPS and currently it's not at all as robust as I wish.

Future additions should be:
* Continious GPS updates via some kind of central server. Maybe via blogging API?
* Using alternative communications channels if texting is not allowed or if the SIM (phone number) has been changed
* System should look for open WiFi APs to communicate.
* Accumulate and store location over time and allow sending the track once an viable internet connection is found.
* Track new SIM (phonenumbers) to enable tracking of a potential thief / finder of the phone.

Find the project source and download the alpha at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/findmyphone/files/

tisdag 18 maj 2010

PhoneNumberFix 1.1

Här är första applikationen från Sogeti och Erik Of Sweden. Ett program som gör det möjligt att lägga till ett prefix framför varje nummer du ringer. Standardinställningen är att lägga byta ut varje inledande nolla med +46, så telefonnummer 08-123456 blir +46-8-123456.

Denna applikation är t.ex. utmärkt att ha om man har Telia Dirigent på jobbet.