Posts and notes Android

I recently blogged about Nintendo Hotspot data and mentioned it could be more usefully consumable in a native mobile app.

As such, I wrote a small Android app for retrieving this data and displaying it on a Google Map. The app shows nearby hotspots, allows users to also search for other non-local places, and shows information on the venue hosting the zone.

The app is available on the Play Store and its source is published on GitHub.

Since getting a DS, StreetPass has become quite addictive. It’s actually pretty fun checking the device after walking through town or using public transport to see a list of Miis representing the people you’ve been near recently, and the minigames (such as StreetPass Quest) that require you to ‘meet’ people in order to advance also make it more involved. Essentially the more you’re out and about, the further you can progress - this is further accentuated through Play Coins, which can be used to help ‘buy’ your way forward and are earned for every 100 steps taken whilst holding the device.

Last week I released a new version of the tides Android app I’m currently developing.

The idea of the application was initially to simply display the tidal times and patterns for the Gower Peninsula, and that this should be possible without a data connection. Though, as the time has gone by, I keep finding more and more things that can be added!

The latest update saw the introduction of 5-day surf forecasts for four Gower locations - Llangennith, Langland, Caswell Bay, and Hunts Bay. All the surf data comes from Magic Seaweed’s API (which I talked about last time).

Back in March, I emailed Magic Seaweed to ask them if they had a public API for their surf forecast data. They responded that they didn’t at the time, but that it was certainly on their to-do list. I am interested in the marine data for my Gower Tides application.

Yesterday, I visited their website to have a look at the surf reports and some photos, when I noticed the presence of a Developer link in the footer of the site. It linked to pages about their new API, with an overview describing exactly what I wanted.

This is just a quick post to mention that I have made the source for the Gower Tides app on Google Play public.

The source repository is available on GitHub. From the repository I have excluded:

• Images & icons - It is not my place to distribute graphics not owned or created by me. Authors are credited in the repo’s README and in the application.
• External libraries - The app requires a graphing package and a class to help with handling locally-packaged SQLite databases. Links to both are also included in the repo’s README.
• Tidal data - The tidal data displayed in the app has also been excluded. However, the format for the data stored by the app should be relatively obvious from its access in the source.

A few posts back, I talked about the development of an Android app for tide predictions for South Wales. This app is now on Google Play.

If you live in South Wales and are vaguely interested in tides/weather, then you should probably download it :)

The main advantage is that the app does not need any data connection to display the tidal data, which is useful in areas with low signal. In future, I hope to add further features, such as a more accurate tide graph (using a proper ‘wave’), surf reports, and just general UI updates.

I’ve always been interested in the development of smartphone apps, but have never really had the opportunity to actually hava a go. Whilst I’m generally OK with development on platforms I feel comfortable with, I’ve always considered there to be no point in developing applications for wider use unless you have a good idea about first thinking about the direction for it to go.

My Dad is a keen surfer and has a watch which tells the tide changes as well as the time. It shows the next event (i.e. low- or high-tide) and the time until that event, but he always complains about how inaccurate it is and how it never correctly predicts the tide schedule for the places he likes to surf.