[PRIME] Android Phone PAX App Isn't Coming This Year, Sorry

jonxp · January 2009

FWIW...screenshots of the Android app I have in development.

Spoiler:

[strike]If you want the app and know how to install .apk files without using the marketplace, please contact me. Otherwise, please wait until I get a job so I can spare the $25 to sign up with the marketplace.[/strike] UPDATE: Thank you to Theros who is publishing my app for me. Search for PAX in the marketplace.

This is just the first version, and is super basic. It counts down the start of first day of PAX '09. Nothing else. However, it does so EXTREMELY accurately...taking in to account your local time zone, and the particular ways you handle daylight saving time, if at all. This may result in a discrepancy of up to one hour from what you see on the clock, but if you do the math you'll realize it's correct.

Features that will definitely be added:
- Floormap of PAX
- Configurable countdown date (use it multiple years! Countdown to your birthday! The end of the world! Whatever!)
- Update notification

Features that will likely be added:
- Schedule of events that also integrates with floormap (what is going on where, right now)
- Button trading game tracker

Features that will be added if I find the time:
- Scheduler to plan your day and alarms to notify you of upcoming events

Features that are a pipe dream, but I would like to have happen:
- Using WiFi signals to give a "You are here" on the map
- Creating point to point navigation instructions (Go down escalators twice, turn left, take Arcadia Hallway to BYOC area)

The_Reflection · January 2009

Jon, if this comes out like the way you just described it, I will kiss you on the mouth.

Theros · January 2009

The current version of the android PAX app is now live on the Android Market. It should be the only result for searching for "pax" !

VThornheart · January 2009

Cool! You rock Jon! =) =)

jonxp · January 2009

After doing some research I have moved the "You are here" from the "Pipe Dream" category to the "If I have the time and money" category. It would require some amount of cooperation with the folks running PAX and myself. Specifically, I would have to go up there before PAX starts and map the area. At this point I doubt that I'll be able to afford PAX this year (I'll be lucky to still have a roof over my head), and it's even less likely that I'll be able to get the hardware to make this happen. But anything is possible.

VThornheart · January 2009

Ohh, d'oh on two counts. =( What happened? =( =(

BigRed · January 2009

You guys cant base it off of the floorplans that are located on the WSCTC's website?

The_Reflection · January 2009

Yeah, good point. Even with all the maps they put up early, you should be able to have the same data as walking around the event.

jonxp · January 2009

BigRed wrote: »

You guys cant base it off of the floorplans that are located on the WSCTC's website?

That's the definitely doable part of the plan, BigRed. Adding a thing that says "You are somewhere around here" based on WiFi triangulation requires the walking around bit, and a phone to use. I could kinda make it work using guesswork, but I wouldn't be confident in it at all.

BigRed · January 2009

jonxp wrote: »

BigRed wrote: »

You guys cant base it off of the floorplans that are located on the WSCTC's website?

That's the definitely doable part of the plan, BigRed. Adding a thing that says "You are somewhere around here" based on WiFi triangulation requires the walking around bit, and a phone to use. I could kinda make it work using guesswork, but I wouldn't be confident in it at all.

Why is this trying to be made like this? I thought this was just supposed to be like a pax themed map where you could put in some place you want to go (Cconsole freeplay, or BYOC, etc) and it will plot a route for you that you could follow?

why bother with wifi triangulation or gps or something. If people cant read a map and know basic direction (left, right, go up stairs, walk straight, pass the fountain, go through the glass doors etc) then no amount of help by technology or whatever will get them to a place unless they follow someone who knows the way already.
Those are also the type of people that will drive their car into a lake because the gps said to

tl:dr
You guys are making that shit far more complex than it needs to be.

Psychoish · January 2009

Heh, I love how this topic went from iPhone/iPod Touch to Android. xP

The_Reflection · January 2009

Red's got a point. PAX really isnt that hard to navigate, but a handheld map/schedule organizer would be awesome, and is as kickass as the app needs to be.

jonxp · January 2009

BigRed wrote: »

jonxp wrote: »

BigRed wrote: »

You guys cant base it off of the floorplans that are located on the WSCTC's website?

That's the definitely doable part of the plan, BigRed. Adding a thing that says "You are somewhere around here" based on WiFi triangulation requires the walking around bit, and a phone to use. I could kinda make it work using guesswork, but I wouldn't be confident in it at all.

Why is this trying to be made like this? I thought this was just supposed to be like a pax themed map where you could put in some place you want to go (Cconsole freeplay, or BYOC, etc) and it will plot a route for you that you could follow?

why bother with wifi triangulation or gps or something. If people cant read a map and know basic direction (left, right, go up stairs, walk straight, pass the fountain, go through the glass doors etc) then no amount of help by technology or whatever will get them to a place unless they follow someone who knows the way already.
Those are also the type of people that will drive their car into a lake because the gps said to

tl:dr
You guys are making that shit far more complex than it needs to be.

Haha, no, it will DEFINITELY have the basic map. That's what I'm saying. Map of the floor with everything laid out for sure. Nothing special, but it'll work for getting around.

Path finding (and giving directions) is actually a very hard thing to add, and is at the bottom of the list of problems I want to tackle. Directly above it is position tracking which is a very slightly less hard problem to solve, just because I've done something like it before. Above those two is every other feature of the app.

Don't worry, I'm not making it complicated yet. I have a(n agile) method to my madness.

Psychoish wrote: »

Heh, I love how this topic went from iPhone/iPod Touch to Android. xP

Free Cross-Platform SDK...what more can I say?

However, yeah, should I move this to its own thread, or are we going to rechristen this the "PAX Mobile Apps" thread?

VThornheart · January 2009

Aye, it's the availability of the Android SDK (and, in particular, the fact that you can develop for it on a PC) that makes it desirable for folks like JonXP and me. =)

I personally think if you want to try the triangulation, I think that's really neat. =) Yes PAX is fairly easy to navigate... but isn't there something to be said about the "cool factor" of having GPS-like features in the app? Sorry Red, but I think it's nifty. =) =)

BigRed · January 2009

it would be quite a bit of code but couldnt you just program set routes from certian points to certian points?

like

Where are you now?
console freeplay

Destination?
BYOC

only one route for that...

a route would have to be programed from every department to every other one for pax, but would be very useful for people that are not familiar with the wsctc

Sorry but gps/wifi positioning... might be neat but i doubt someone could make that work in time for pax09. Also how are you going get the position of the wifi points for reference?

VThornheart · January 2009

I think that's what he'd need help or to physically be there for, then he could collect the data directly or through experimentation perhaps? I get the feeling that's what he's plannin'. =)

jonxp · January 2009

Yeah, the WiFi positioning thing is only to do an "educated guess" for what part of the map you may be on. It won't give your exact coordinates...but it could say you're most likely in the Handheld Lounge B. It bases this off of the known locations, signal heat maps, and MAC addresses of APs in the area. That's why it would require me to be able to head out there while it's still "clean" to make the heatmaps. Also why it'll only happen if I have the time and money.

That's not a bad idea to have "baked in" directions to get from one place to another. We may want to have humans write it, though.

dyaballikl · January 2009

BigRed wrote: »

Those are also the type of people that will drive their car into a lake because the gps said to

dude, be fair. that's only happened twice. if it becomes thrice, then i'll take my 42" plasma screen gps out from the center of my windshield.

jonxp · January 2009

OK, so here is my tentative feature list in order of importance. It is not a guaranteed list, but features closer to the top are more likely to be in it than closer to the bottom.

So...if you would like to help me out in paying for development costs (including marketplace fee/rent/food/that kind of stuff) you can do so here. I'll try to do something special for folks who donate, but I'm not sure what yet. I am fully aware that you don't know me from Adam, and I could be some drug using puppy killer who will only take the money to buy more puppies to kill. I am only asking due to current joblessness, and all I can do is promise you're actually helping me spend more time developing.

Mods, I promise I will never bring it up again.

VThornheart · January 2009

<3 JonXP =) You rock! Let's do this thing! =)

Also, I know Jon from more than Adam (as a lot of us likely do), and he's a good guy and a damn good programmer. =)

The_Reflection · January 2009

If I give you five bucks, will you hide my shark somewhere in the background of the app as an easter egg?

jonxp · January 2009

The_Reflection wrote: »

If I give you five bucks, will you hide my shark somewhere in the background of the app as an easter egg?

Indeed.

EDIT:

Status update...this is how I've decided to work the Countdown into the "complete" app.

Spoiler:

Once the countdown is over, it will be gone, so it's just a background.

VThornheart · January 2009

jonxp wrote: »

The_Reflection wrote: »

If I give you five bucks, will you hide my shark somewhere in the background of the app as an easter egg?

Indeed.

EDIT:

Status update...this is how I've decided to work the Countdown into the "complete" app.

Spoiler:

Once the countdown is over, it will be gone, so it's just a background.

I like it! Kind of a quick main menu sort of thing, it is good =)

Also, the donations for easter eggs/mentioning somewhere is a neat idea! =) You should set a higher bar for minimum donation before someone gets an easter egg though! =) I guess every 5 bucks helps, but if we're not careful you'll have to fill the app with like 10mb of images and won't have enough money from the donation fund to pay the rent still (let alone for a dev system) =( How about a minimum 25$ donation for that honor? =)

EDIT: Ack, I don't know why I decided to become your unofficial donation negotiation agent, sorry about that =)

jonxp · January 2009

I don't forsee too many donations. If I end up with a flood, I'll make a tiered system of some sort.

VThornheart · January 2009

I'm hoping people will donate enough that you have to do this tiered system =) Your app is going to be awesome, and if it helps to get you to PAX while you're making that app (or at least keep the roof over your head) that's worth it =)

The_Reflection · January 2009

That tierd idea is great but since I asked first I'm immune to it. 5 bucks coming your way soon.

n8lewis · January 2009

I like the list of features. I feel you should add the list of Omeganauts and events for them to compete in. Also add an rss news feed for penny-arcade.com and the comic.

I have been following this thread for a few days now and just thought I would add my 2 cents. I also have been looking for a good reason to develop for Android. If you need any help with the app. I am offering to lend assistance.

VThornheart · January 2009

Ah, those are good features! I like the ideas! =)

Does Penny Arcade publish an RSS feed? I'm curious now, I had never thought to look for it.

EDIT: Aha! There's a button at the bottom for it, I'd never noticed it until I went searching just now. =)

jonxp · January 2009

VThornheart wrote: »

Ah, those are good features! I like the ideas! =)

Does Penny Arcade publish an RSS feed? I'm curious now, I had never thought to look for it.

EDIT: Aha! There's a button at the bottom for it, I'd never noticed it until I went searching just now. =)

PA does have an RSS feed, but the PAX site doesn't have one....at least not a published one...

I need to look to see if there is an "Android way" to do RSS nicely, or if I need to just do it on my own.

I'm trying to figure out a good way to handle code contributions. At this point, if you have an idea, grab the SDK and start working on an Activity. Thanks to the pretty darn cool way that Android is modular, we should be able to integrate pretty efficiently. I'll probably start up a Git repo or something.

VThornheart · January 2009

Ahh, that's right! That is really neat, I forgot about Activities. That was a great idea Google had with that.

Also, I think I have to pick your brain sometime about Git. I've tried using it before, and all I ended up doing was getting really confused. =(

VThornheart · January 2009

Also, I would like to take this time to make a request to Khoo if he's listening.

If you're out there Khoo, provide PAX information on the pennyarcadeexpo.com website in a RESTful service or RSS format! =) Something we can process and utilize for these apps! =) =)

jonxp · January 2009

At *least* RSS. PLEASE.

VThornheart · January 2009

You would be so made of win Khoo!

I'll give you cookies! I mean it! =)

Houn · January 2009

jonxp wrote: »

I need to look to see if there is an "Android way" to do RSS nicely, or if I need to just do it on my own.

There's no built-in RSS app, though a few have popped up on the Android Market. Thus, I don't believe there's a specific "Android Way".

ashridah · January 2009

Houn wrote: »

jonxp wrote: »

I need to look to see if there is an "Android way" to do RSS nicely, or if I need to just do it on my own.

There's no built-in RSS app, though a few have popped up on the Android Market. Thus, I don't believe there's a specific "Android Way".

The Android way would be to use the web browser to access google's rss aggregator tool, probably.

VThornheart · January 2009

Possibly... or we could grab the RSS feed and, using some Python RSS library, decompose the message and then render it in whatever manner we see fit. As I've been reading more on the Google App Engine, it seems that they let you use pretty much any pure python library... which means we have access to much more than I initially realized. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they mean.

Houn · January 2009

VThornheart wrote: »

Possibly... or we could grab the RSS feed and, using some Python RSS library, decompose the message and then render it in whatever manner we see fit. As I've been reading more on the Google App Engine, it seems that they let you use pretty much any pure python library... which means we have access to much more than I initially realized. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they mean.

Speaking of, VT, on regards to the idea of "Scraping" the news:
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/urlfetch/overview.html

VThornheart · January 2009

Ahh, perfect! =)

jonxp · January 2009

Obviously designed with REST in mind, but it'll work for anything.

VThornheart · January 2009

True =)

But this is also good to know if we ever need to interact with RESTful services for anything. Maybe not on this project, but on some future project. =)

jonxp · January 2009

We should really move this conversation elsewhere. I don't think people popping in for iPhone apps are going to appreciate developer talk on the Android version.

Penny Arcade

[PRIME] Android Phone PAX App Isn't Coming This Year, Sorry

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