[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
V2.2.9.1B up!

WAKE UP PHRASE TIME!!!

I thought I'd start in a different way to my usual 'hey folks', as I know you've been waiting for this... What's new...?

WAKE UP PHRASE!!

I best hope it works after all the capitals...

Inspired by the post yesterday from TheMasterBaron and desperately needing a break from the tutorial, which may well be the most boring thing I have ever had to code... I thought I'd throw this out there to test. For Jelly Bean users, I'm working completely blind (or perhaps deaf is a little more apt) as I don't know when the recognition 'beep' occurs. I got some clues from TheMasterBaron (BIG thanks to him), but I've not been able to test.

The wake up phrase is fixed at 'wake up' right now, but will of course be configurable. To start the permanent listening, go to the settings and press 'wake-up-phrase' and the notification will turn orange.

I haven't tried the competitors that have such wake up commands, but I'm pretty damn sure none of them will beat utter! for speed... It should react almost instantly. I'll let you tell me!

Warning 1

This is going to murder your battery..... I haven't put any restrictions on it as yet, but I strongly advise you only enable this when the device is on charge

Warning 2

This may use a lot of data! I intended to run some battery and data consumption tests before I released this, but it being rather a whimsical inclusion, I haven't had chance... If some of you have data/battery usage monitor apps it would be great to know just how much it uses over the period of a couple of hours.

So, if you have a limited data plan - beware!

EDIT: Forgot to mention - in the release build, utter! will continue to permanently listen until told to stop - whereas at the moment, it takes a command and then stops.

Tutorial

Having completed it and it being the most boring thing I have ever done, I forced myself to admit that the first implementation was just no good. It went on for too long and was almost as boring to listen to as it was to create. I've shortened the initial tutorial and now I need to add the remainder to each setting and customisation feature, so utter! can tell the user more there and then if they want.

20% of creating it was making it work - the rest has been catching all of the possible eventualities of it going wrong.... From users saying the wrong thing, to losing connection, the phone ringing, or the device exploding.. etc etc...

I know all of you are seasoned users, but if you can pretend to be an 'utter noob' and do and say the wrong thing during the tutorial to see if you can break it, it would be appreciated! Thanks in advance. I have further 'levels' to add if Google Voice Search is returning complete rubbish.

To activate it, it's top of the list in the main app page.

Bugs

Apart from Google Stream Music, there's not much point me telling you what bugs I've fixed, as none of you seem to suffer them! They are the weird and wonderful ones that come via the Play Store.

There are A LOT of coding changes though, which is always slightly worrying..... Do let me know if something doesn't seem to be working correctly!

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Ok, I think that's about it... Hopefully I'll have the tutorial wrapped up by this time tomorrow and I can get back to getting some new features in and some annoyances fixed! By the way, in case you were wondering, I've focussed on the tutorial to try and get the retention rate up and stop the emails asking 'where is the settings menu?' etc.............

Right, I'm done! Thanks in advance as always! :good:

EDIT: I created a stand-alone English recognition launcher apk for those struggling with adding a shortcut to Widget Locker or Driving Dash etc - It can be found here - If it's somehow not working for you, please let me know, otherwise I'll assume all is well and make more icons available and get it on the Play Store.