yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
OK... I haven't looked at the APK, but I'm sorry to say I have other priorities right now. Like that DHD ICS stuff.

BUT !... I would pay attention if a good number of people said they liked this and want it.

First, about the XML files, if someone imports them they will also import all of your settings, including presets, and over-write their own. To avoid this, delete all lines from the XML file except those starting with:

<string name="ui_el_

But you could also leave this line in and then they won't have to manually enable UI Elements:

<boolean name="ui_custom_elements" value="true"/>

I could create other export (or import) functions in future that restricted themselves to certain areas, such as UI stuff.

And my hope is to create a library of "Profiles" for specific popular phones running specific ROMs. So if I or someone determines there are specific Debug and Audio settings that work best on a DHD running IceCold or whatever, a small XML file for just those settings could be posted in a thread, or in a directory of my app and easily imported, without writing over presets or whatever.

I have no concerns anymore about Unlocked specific settings in the XML file. The free app just won't use them. The restrictions are in the app and can't be worked around with XML config file edits. The now old unlock mechanism did have this problem.

I haven't looked at your modified APK, but if it just changes image files, ideally I will make that possible eventually without a modified APK. IE, just by having a directory on SDCard with user modifiable image files.

But if the layout XML files were modified, that's a tougher problem. My hope & expectation is that normal UI settings such as "Display Status", or even UI Elements settings will avoid the need for XML layout file mods.

Thanks for your interest. Hopefully we can eventually make this much easier, and improve the UI. But I also have plans for touch, fling and flick friendly UI elements that people expect now from smartphone apps.
[Spirit FM] qzem:
Man I really like this UI, I always thought that this great app should have nicer look. It sure deserves it :)!

@mike

No hard feelings, I know that your goal is functionality not the look :D.
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
If you want mike, I can attempt some ui redesign whilst you work on the code
[Spirit FM] danakers:
Thank you!

Got to say, LorD ClockaN's Ice Cold Sandwich and Spirit FM has negated the need for me to replace my old but still fantastic HTC Desire HD. Now, thanks to a working implementation of Ice Cream Sandwich and a fully-functioning Spirit FM, it's pretty much a new phone... no need to upgrade for a while now (sorry, HTC).

Quick question: will I be able to upgrade to the paid version so I can use the additional settings, or won't that be possible until this new version hits the Android Market?

Thanks Mike for all your hard work on getting this working on the DHD with ICS. Great work!
[Spirit FM] nemanja066:
Can I have ICS theme on Spirit FM Free (4 march) in a simpler way! :) What should I do? This is all complicated for me and i dont understand! :D
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
It's quit easy, just follow the instructions in my post
[Spirit FM] gazzacbr:
woohoo, works great on my HD2 with tytungs ICS on SD.

i had given up hope of the radio ever working on ICS. couldnt get it working a few days ago but latest update is good.

@Quinny899: that ics skin really looks the part.

looking more like ICS than Robertsons lol ;) (sorry mikereidis)

i know i'm being picky but can you make the font a bit bigger in the frequency area?

how can the theme be applied to the paid version? you say uninstall the one i have?

EDIT: got the paid version through laptop as i couldnt buy through phone
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
Easy to make it bigger. Just go to Settings > UI Elements > T Preset (near the bottom)

Add a number to the end, 15 is smaller, 25 is bigger
[Spirit FM] gazzacbr:
holy multiple settings Batman! so many to choose from...

when i click on the T Preset there is no number there but if i make it 10 or 40 i dont see any difference?

also, if i change the theme it also makes no difference. could it be because i am on an SD build of ICS? are there settings or files somewhere else? (i have some programs that are not really happy to be in a .img file)

have these questions been asked a zillion times already? i know i am late to the show ;)

i was hoping not to have to read this thread but looks like i will :(
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
Actually, which frequency area do you mean?
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
If you mean this one:

Then modify T Frequency to:

ca d d cb 35

It's 5 above T Preset

35 controls the text size, you can change it. I think the default is either 20 or 25
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Vote counted & no offence taken. A number of people have just said the UI sucks, and I respond that OK, yes it does. OTOH, a number like it better than stock HTC or Motorola apps, so go figure.

I think it's more accurate to say that my primary goal is a self sustaining project, producing enough income to live on.

That leads to my strategy about what to prioritise and focus on. And I still think that means supporting the most popular devices, in any way, before concerning myself too much with the UI. For many people their first priority is an app that works on their device, and the way it looks is secondary.

So making it work on more devices (at least the popular ones) has been my main priority, with some occasional forays into things like AF, or minor UI improvements. Currently, besides some ICS stuff, I'm focusing on supporting OEM proprietary FM APIs so that the majority of Android users, with stock un-rooted devices (or stock derived ROMs), can use the app.

But supporting stock ROMs also means my app competes with the stock FM apps, some of which, like Samsung, have UIs that I think most people prefer to my simple button oriented UI. So, as I support more stock devices, the UI is becoming more important.

The last big proprietary API is the Motorola API. Once I successfully tackle that, I expect to be spending more time on the UI. And the quick and simple things will likely be tackled first.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Go for it. :)

At least 3 people have started this in the past, but at least 2 didn't get anywhere and I think 1 made a 1st round of mods and stopped.

The only thing is that I have to keep concentrating on the priorities I've chosen. But if you post mods and enough people like it, I'll take more notice...
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
As others have posted the DHD ICS support isn't too stable yet. I added the magic for headset, but still need the same for speaker and off. Hopefully tonight; I know what needs to be added, but there's always the possibility of more being needed. In fact I can't be sure until it is well tested whether or not it's viable to "go around" or bypass the audio libraries.

As for the DHD, I've been impressed to hear that HTC will be providing an official update to ICS. And I feel that's it's a major score that I got mine for $130 on EBay with the only problem being a slightly wonky volume button.

Re question: I think the answer is yes, but I'm not entirely sure what your question is. Are you asking about the UI mods ?

If you're just asking about the DHD ICS audio support, the answer is yes. I can always email a new paid app to you if it's not on the Market yet. Or put it on Mediafire with a password.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Thanks for your purchase. :) I presume you are my lone sale so far today at, I guess, 17:22 GMT. I think your Market troubles might be related to a custom DPI setting, but I wish I knew a way to fix that on my end.

The March 4 Market version doesn't have the ICS magic added, but I think after you run the free one, the 1 day older Unlocked version should work, when using audio method qdsp5v2.

The mods that were made to the free version weren't made to the Unlocked version, or at least I don't have a copy. But lets wait at least until later tonight, or for many people, early tomorrow.

After changing a UI setting, you need to "restart the app". You can do that just by hitting the Back button from within the app, then returning to it. You don't have to power cycle the FM.

Yes, there's a huge number of settings under UI elements. The font size is the 5th of 5 parameters. To use defaults for the others, for a font size of 18 you could use (without the parentheses ""): "d d d d 18".

That settings section is named "UI Elements:BC/RA/WT/TC/TS" to remind me of the parameters: (1) Background color, (2) Radius of corners, (3) Weight, (4) Text color and (5) Text size.

Just ask your questions, that's what this thread is for, although I certainly encourage using the search functions or just reading, but 240+ pages is a lot and many things have changed every month.
[Spirit FM] htc_fagn:
Last update does not work on dell Streak

Hi,

On Dell Streak the application stop working after upgrade to last release.

It reports "FM not accessible".

Regards
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Thanks for your report.

If you need it, the previous Feb 26 Market free version is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ezo9poksmtpmifw/Spirit_FM_Radio_v120226.apk

Of course the Market is called Android Play now, LOL. :)

Do you know anyone else reporting this ?

The changes were mostly for the Galaxy S and I can't see any obvious changes that would affect the Streak.

Can you send me a debug log with Menu->Help->EM Logs and after a few seconds. enter "Streak" in the email text and press send ?

If you normally start with Bluetooth On, try with BT off or vice versa.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
There was enough interest expressed here in your ICS theming that I can't ignore it. :) See the March 7 test release.

So can you detail what you changed ?

I see the manifest was changed to use Theme.Holo . I've been working on "boring" stuff so I haven't upgraded to the ICS SDK yet and I can't build with that so I left it out.

I can't tell if you changed any of the other XML files.

I just grabbed all your PNG files and stuck mine in an "old" folder. Did you modify them all or something ?

Thanks... :D
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
March 7: http://www.mediafire.com/file/yyf37sq60curm2x/Spirit_FM_Radio_v120307.apk

Fixes, more or less, for the 3 new Audio Methods added in March 5 as seen above.

"More or less" for qdsp5v2+ for DHD etc ICS means it's working better now, but according to my testing, phone calls are still bad and general audio may not work well. But FM seems good, speaker and headset.

Thanks to Quinny899 for his ICS theme mods I've incorporated, at least for testing for now... Note that if you installed his modified package, you will need to remove that first. The package signatures are different. For the mostly full (?) effect you need to do the following:

- Select Menu->Test->Preferences, then the last option "Import from spirit_ics.xml" (You don't need any files besides the March 7 APK.)

- Hit the Back key to return to your Home screen.

- Return to the app and you should see the changes.

It looks like the icon is the same for Free and Unlocked. I had reversed the image and colored it on the Unlocked app.

Let me know what you think and if I should make this the default. I could create a Skin setting with selections for "Classic" and "ICS", but if Classic was widely reviled I wouldn't bother. I still need to create 4 PNG files for seek/frequency up/down to replace whatever is stock on a device.
[Spirit FM] Nitemare_real:
Thanks to mikereidis and to Quinny899, excellent job
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
HTC sent me a box yesterday and I'm hoping to see it arrive today and am wondering what exactly is in it. :) Must be Christmas again... LOL.

I gave them a list of the 10 most popular HTC phones running my app, and though I was possibly offered a Tablet, I pointed out that FM doesn't seem to work on them, but that I could test.

Motorola, LG and Samsung said no, despite Samsung claiming that "partners" can get phones.

HTC followed through on their promise to unlock Bootloaders, unlike Googarola. And HTC will officially support ICS on my now "old" Desire HD.

So, between all that, and the high end Motorola devices without FM, and the Samsung high end devices in North America having FM surgically removed by the carriers, and the fact that LG and the smaller players have various issues and challenges...

So guess which brand I'll be recommending from now on ?

I'm hoping the new HTC One models support FM. AFAIK, they will but nothing definite yet. No mention on their spec page: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-xl/#specs

At gsmarena I see:

n_babyk: the phone has fm radio. look at YouTube videos of htc one x at mwc and look through u will see when guy is scroling through apps u will see radio fm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TgP3MgboP8

Dr. Batata: >The One X has a radio. The One XL (North America) version does not.

So will I see an HTC Flyer and a One ? Or some old device w/ no FM ? LOL.
[Spirit FM] gazzacbr:
ok, just to update,

i couldnt get paid version from market because it is not allowed where i am (even with market enabler) but just logged in via laptop and paid there. a few mins later it was d/l on the HD2.

paid version UL v Mar 4 working great on HD2 with tytung ICS on SD.

just had to set Audio Method to qsd8250

looking forward to the ICS look theme.....

good work mikereidis
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
As we PM'd I sent you a link for the Unlocked version.

Great to hear about tytung ICS on HD2. User "icke" got it working on some other ICS ROM and had to jump through a few hoops: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21232473&postcount=4254
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
I edited anything that was red to ics blue and anything that was grey to ics grey
[Spirit FM] onesolo:
Wow, the app with ICS theme is much better looking!!!
[Spirit FM] Kusa123:
FM radio module released as open source and sensor HAL updated

http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/...leased-as-open-source-and-sensor-hal-updated/

Just FYI they released FM radio modules for 2011 Xperia phones, hope this helps.
[Spirit FM] PhilCapron:
March 7th

Like the new theme.Thanks to all.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
OK. Just the PNGs, or something in the XMLs too ?

Your mods look like a winner ! :D
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
Just the pngs and the android manifest theme addition. And thanks btw ;)

I had to leave the xmls stock as it failed to recompile with the old ones that I copied in from my old theme version
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Wow ! :) Thank you very much for noticing and posting.

And kudos to Sony and Texas Instruments for releasing their code. I think this new openness is due to Sony struggling with phones, and TI being roughly in 3rd place for BT/WiFi/FM combination chips, but regardless...

So far my app only seems to work on the SE x10 mini, and only in low level mode; not in the proprietary TI FM API mode. This code should help me support the other SE devices with FM...
[Spirit FM] Quinny899:
Mike, to include Holo but not make it incompatible :

Set a style in the manifest from styles

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/themes.html

Use the part with the values-v11, with holo for v11 and dark for normal values
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Yeah, the layout XMLs tend to stay static for months, but every several months I dive back into them to update a bunch of UI stuff, as I did for the UI Elements stuff back around November/December I think.

The main reason I added the UI Elements stuff was to allow customisations without changing the XMLs.

I want to support customisations, but I don't want to have to co-ordinate my work with the work of customisers. IMO that's too much work for me (and them); as they say "Too many cooks spoils the broth". :)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Kusa123 pointed out this good news earlier today. :)

But I don't think it will help on the Xperia Play. You need a usable FM or combo chip, the appropriate chip connections for antenna, audio and power, and you may need some system software.

I looked at logs from a Play at least once and concluded FM was not feasible. I could be wrong, but I won't consider pursuing it further unless and until someone proves FM is possible.
[Spirit FM] Kess78:
Hi Mike,

Thats nice for the sources from SE :-) That's why I always buy Sony I found they always have been cool about radio, like RDS and AF support since 2004 at least :-) Ill probably buy a new device soon,i hope we cnuld figure out FM together.

Also I have a problem with my ears, I heard less with the right one...

Do you think you can add an audio balance to the app? I'll be thankfull for this.

Thanks
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:) My quick look at the code indicates SE/S is pretty much using the TI API. There's probably a small detail or two that prevented my TI API support from working on your phone.

Too bad SE/S isn't too popular. It doesn't register in my paid app stats, but it's at 1.9% for the free app, just ahead of the DHD for some reason. The differences between the paid/free app stats is hard to understand.

Re: Balance: only in special situations where the hardware might allow it. Some ALSA drivers can allow setting levels per channel.

Have you ever seen a balance control in Android ? I can't remember any, but too many trivial facts in seems to push some memories out, LOL.

I just did a quick google and it looks like lack of balance is a common complaint. Stock Android and Voodoo sound don't support it. Possibly PowerAmp does ?

Your phone records so it should be possible to do DSP processing on the FM audio and perhaps adjust balance. But I don't expect to be able to support balance unless some easy way is found. I have enough "To do's".
[Spirit FM] Kess78:
Yes i searched through apps and I think only PowerAmp has this feature, that only affect the app :(

I understand your priorities and the difficulties I'll be patient :)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
March 8: http://www.mediafire.com/file/w8lpi5n168a3idf/Spirit_FM_Radio_v120308.apk

Just UI mods:

- Added ICS SDK PNGs for seek up/down and frequency up/down, for easier replacement and image consistency on Android 2.x etc.

- Setting User Interface->Theme to the default of "Default" now does nothing. This means on ICS, the ICS theme is used, including for Settings, Help functions, etc. On GB, the standard GB theme is used.

- Added "Holo" theme selection, but it's not needed on ICS and likely won't work on GB.

- To get the ICS look on Android 2.x select Menu-> Test-> Preferences-> Import spirit_icsg.xml . Note the 'g'; it's the last option.

- To get blue text on ICS do "Import spirit_ics.xml" (No 'g'; 2nd last option). To also get the grey backgrounds Quinny899 specified, do the "Import spirit_icsg.xml" with a 'g' at bottom.

- On ICS you can get the Android 2.x theme by using the Black theme, but likely very few will want that.

- The ICS Holo theme has round fuzzy dandelion sliders I'm not too fond of. I prefer the Android 2.x radiused rectangular silver bars. Perhaps next release I can force those or make them optional.

This is the effect of the spirit_ics.xml file for blue text:

<string name="ui_el_cb">#ff33b5e5</string>

<string name="ui_el_all_force">d d d cb</string>

And the spirit_icsg.xml file for blue text and a grey background:

<string name="ui_el_ca">#2c545454</string>

<string name="ui_el_cb">#ff33b5e5</string>

<string name="ui_el_all_force">ca d d cb</string>
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Hmm. That might be a useful idea if it has some advantage over the settings option I have for theme, I know translucent won't work unless it's specified in an XML file.

Please check out the March 8 approach and let me know if having theme as a setting produces any limitations.
[Spirit FM] diegolaz:
thanks!

Thanks! great app! wors good with my I900B with ICS F4K MOD.

Since last update (around 2 days ago), the app keeps mutting after 2-3 minutes. I have to cloe se app, and open it again and it comes back.

Other than that, it works great!
[Spirit FM] locomotive96:
Need help finding radio stations.

Hey, got this app to produce sound on my DROID 2 GLOBAL, but I can't get it to find any stations when I try to change it. Could you please give me some instructions as to change the frequency to pick up some radio stations?

Thanks.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
OK. In the March 4 release I used a new technique to keep the audio path from being shut down after a few seconds. It should be the same as the standard and CM7 audio libraries more or less.

But this technique might not work on some Galaxy S variants. GT-i9003 users running JP-MIUI found that March 4 doesn't work for them.

To go back to the old way, you can enable Settings->Debug->Silent Loop. This continuously plays a silent audio file.

But please be warned that there may be some risk of speaker damage doing this, or even using the plain March 4 GalaxyS ALSA method. I just had an email from someone who had a 2nd speaker failure but I don't know yet if he was running the March 4 release.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I am currently trying to add support for the stock Motorola proprietary FM API and hope this will provide a solution.

I think that many Motorola devices have an antenna switch and it defaults to off. I haven't yet figured out how to enable the switch, but using the proprietary API seems to do it.

"Stay tuned". :) Hopefully I will have a Motorola solution within the next 7 days or so.
[Spirit FM] locomotive96:
Sorry.

Sorry, I forgot to mention I am running MIUI Version: 1.10.21. I don't know if this helps or not.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Email:

Hi,

I'm very sorry to hear about your trouble. Did this happen with the March 4th or a later release ? I was reasonably confident March 4 fixed the problem for good, since I pretty much copied known good code and the kernel messages are the same as for that known good code.

I have an idea. I think it's about "DC offset". If there's a high enough DC offset the speaker cone will push all the way in one direction which can cause damage, There's something called a "DC servo" that is supposed to eliminate this offset, but sometimes it doesn't work.

At the top of my 1st post here I provide some info, including some EBay links and instructions (for the brave DIYer only) on how to replace the speaker.

I can't say I would blame you for leaving a bad review. I've had some pretty rotten reviews for some very ridiculous things, such as not being able to support FM on phones on which it's impossible. A bad review for speaker damage is much more understandable.

Regards,

Mike.

Thanks for your report and understanding. Due to your report I'm either going to remove the mode completely or make it very hard to access. If I remove it completely I'll get lot's of complaints and bad reviews too. This is definitely the worst "bug" I've had and I can't really "win" no matter what I do.

The warnings don't help, people still feel angry if it happens to them. I wish I could re-create the problem at will, and sacrifice my own speakers but I can't. Somewhere around 1% of users have had this problem I estimate, assuming 4 people don't report for every 1 that does.

Removing the speaker mode didn't help. The problem has been there for 6 months and I made quite a few attempts to fix it. I was going to remove the mode 2 months ago, then ICS came along and there was big demand.

IMO, Samsungs' design is a contributing factor. It's rare that hardware is designed such that software can break hardware. And I wish there was documentation somewhere for the ALSA driver stating how it should be used. But AFAIK there isn't.

Regards,

Mike.