Camera Gear: Android app for managing photo & video gear - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AlxDroidDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 01:22:31 pm
content: Dear folks,I know that many EE professionals, enthusiasts and hobbists also enjoy photography or movie-making, or are photographers/movie-makers, like me. Therefore I am taking the liberty to post about an Android app I wrote:Camera Gear.Camera Gearkeeps track of important data about our gear, including warranty expiry dates, insurance policies, loans, wish lists, and has a built-in database of over 900 equipment from major manufacturers, including the complete current offerings from Canon, Nikon, Sony and Hasselblad, and every entry in the internal databse has either a link to the product page, to the user manual or both (96% of the entries have both). More and more equipment are being added to the internal database and soon it will reach over 1,000 entries.You can also add photos of your gear's serial numbers, invoices, the equipment itself, and so on. It has so many features, it needed a well documented User Guide, which it also has!Other cool features include:- Adding a camera to your database from a photo of that camera: the app will read the EXIF info and add a new camera from its info. For some models, that also includes the shutter count and serial number. This feature can also be used to update the info on existing equipment (such as continuously updating the shutter count of your cameras).- Organize your gear in "Gear Bags": depending on the type of assignment or session, you may organize your backpack or bag with different gear. The Gear Bags feature allows you to create different setups for a given bag/backpack/etc with different gear, and it gives you the total weight and current value ($) of that bag. An upcoming release will allow us to run checklists of the Gear Bags.It features an easy-to-use, intuitive but complete user-interface.It'sFREE(with ads) but some of the mentioned features are Premium (only US$ 9.99 and can be upgraded through an in-app purchase).Link to the app and more info:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alxdroiddev.cameragearThank you!PS: Dave, if you think this post is inappropriate, please delete it.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 06:59:26 pm
content: A neat idea and the application itself looks very professional. However do you really need all those permissions? Not being a developer at all, I'm sure you have some very valid reasons why certain permissions are required but as someone who is security conscious, I always dial-back permissions manually on almost every application installed on my handset and it almost never affects actual usability (or disables functions I specifically want disabled).Looking at what your application requests, it seems like a lot.ContactsRead your contactsPhotos / Media / FilesRead the contents of your USB storageModify or delete the contents of your USB storageStorageRead the contents of your USB storageModify or delete the contents of your USB storageCameraTake pictures and videosWi-Fi connection informationView Wi-Fi connectionsOtherReceive data from InternetView network connectionsControl flashlightFull network accessRun at startupControl vibrationPrevent device from sleeping

author: AlxDroidDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 08:27:30 pm
content: Access network state and Internet - Required by several features of Camera Gear, such as signing-in for the first time, accessing this User Guide, and show ads on the non-Premium version.Thank you for trying Camera Gear and for the feedback, Halcyon. I'm really putting a lot of effort into it. I have a long list of improvements and new features I have planned for it and I've been working on it on a daily basis for a few months now.I agree that it might seem like a needlessly long list of permissions, and I tried to make it use as little permissions as possible, but some of the features I wanted to have do require the permissions asked. They are all described in the online User Guide, but I'll explain each one of them below:Access network state and Internet- Required by several features of Camera Gear, such as signing-in for the first time, accessing the User Guide, show ads on the non-Premium version, upgrading to the Premium version (IAP = In-app purchase), accessing an equipment's product page and manual URLs, and so on.Billing- Required by IAP, to enable the upgrade to Camera Gear Premium. Using Google's IAP library automatically adds the Internet permissionBoot complete (Run at startup) and Vibrate- Camera Gear Premium can alert you of warranty and insurance policy expiration dates, as well as when people are expected to return gear you've lent them. This permission is needed so that the alarms you've set are restored after you reboot your device. The Vibrate permission is also need if you want the alarms to vibrate your device whenever they are triggered. These permissions are only enabled if you're using the Premium version AND have chosen to enable alerts for the events mentioned. Otherwise they aren't even set or used.Camera and Flashlight- Camera Gear allows you to add photos of your equipment (such as of their serial numbers, invoices, receipts or other proofs of purchases and whatever you'd like). It also allows you to scan the barcode of the equipment's serial number. For these 2 features to work, the Camera permission must be granted. In Android Marshmallow and newer, this permission is explicit, which means you'll have to grant it once Camera Gear requests it. If the permission is not granted, the feature will simply not work.External Storage (read/write), also known s USB Storage- The photos of your gear must be saved somewhere, and that's why this permission is there. Camera Gear favors external storage, since it is more abundant in most devices, so without this permission Camera Gear is stuck with the internal storage, which, as we know, is much more limited than external storage.Read Contacts- Camera Gear has features that can, for your convenience, rely on contact information already present on your device: Lending, Insurance Policy and Seller. In all cases, your contact list is read just to have an "auto complete" feature on the person's or company's name (such as insurance company, the store or seller you purchased your gear from, or the person you're lending your gear to), telephone, e-mail and so on. Again, in Android Marshmallow and above this is an explicit permission and the "auto complete" feature will only work if you grant this permission. If you don't everything will still work, but you'll just have to type the contact's information yourself. Unless you saved the contact info on the lending or insurer screen, Camera Gear does not retain, save or share any of your contact's data.Other permissions like view network access, view wi-fi information and connections, and network-related permissions are set and required by the ads library (also from Google).On the User Guide and in the Privacy Statement, I stated that no info is shared by Camera Gear without user consent, and I follow that promise. I know if I don't follow what I've stated, I'd be burned in 0.2 seconds with my customers, and that's really not what I want. Actually, the only thing a user can share from Camera Gear is the Wishlist, and that doesn't contain any personal info.

author: AlxDroidDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2016, 05:13:19 pm
content: As aCyber Week Promotion, I am offering Camera Gear's Premium upgrade for only US$ 5.99.This promotion is valid only until Dec. 3rd, 2016.The basic version of Camera Gear can still be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alxdroiddev.cameragear