[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
V2.2.9.3B up!

Hey folks, finally an update for you!

What’s not new?!

I’ve delayed releasing the server bolt on for the moment.

What’s new!?

There’s lots, so I’ll keep it as brief as I can!

Layout

To try and not overwhelm new users or users that don’t fear tweaking, I’ve changed the layout so the settings are now layered as Settings/Advanced Settings/Power User

I need to enable some Action Bar navigation options so you don’t end up pressing back a hundred times to get where you want. I hope the more advanced settings that ‘out of the box’ users won’t need, will be hidden away more until they decide to have more of an explore.

Tutorial & Help

The tutorial is aimed at new users (obviously) and gives a tour of the app as well as testing some commands and recognition. It was too long and boring to cover everything, so now in each setting and dialog there is an ‘i’ icon you can press which gives further information about each feature.

More Ads

I need to get the ad revenue up for the app and I also need to see if it’s possible for an ad supported model to cover the costs of premium plug-ins such as Wolfram Alpha.

There are ads everywhere. You’ll have to give me you feedback as to whether you think I need to reduce this number (and by how much) before it’s released to the more critical Play Store user-base.

It appears that many users use ad-blocking apps too, which doesn’t help us developers!

There may also be a problem with some ads on tablet devices.

Unknown Commands

In the Advanced Settings there is now a ‘Try Again’ option. Here you can decide whether utter! should ask you to repeat what you wanted to do or send the command directly to Google as a web-search.

There will be more options added, such as sending to Wolfram Alpha (eventually). Also, asking if any more assistance is required after a command has completed successfully is on the to-do list.

Volume Settings

In the Advanced Settings can you choose which volume settings utter! adheres to. Some users prefer just the media stream, some like it to be when the device is on silent or vibrate.

Wave Configuration

In the Advanced Settings, there’s finally a way to tweak wave-to-wake to see if you can get this to work for you (most can’t)! The configurations are fixed for the moment, with configuration 1 being the default and 3 being the most likely to activate.

I’ve noticed in my testing that having a case on the device, greatly impacts the sensitivity of the proximity sensor.

You’ll need to place your hand fractionally above the device and wave back and forth in a pendulum action. It’s demonstrated on the YouTube beta video at 9:20.

Proof Reading

Again in the Advanced Settings you have the option for utter! to always immediately dictate back to you the content of your messages, before it asks you if you want to proof read it within your default application.

Punctuation Fixes

Finally, I got round to making the content of your messages grammmaticall! Upper case letters etc are fixed.

Superuser Permission

In the Power User Settings, there’s an option to allow Superuser access. Some users were denying this at first and then wanting to enable it afterwards.

SMS body fix

Those that were not getting the content of their text messages populated to proof read can apply this fix which will hopefully correct the issue.

Temperature Units

Finally, in the Advanced Settings you can choose your default units, instead of having to listen to them both…

Search URLs

Based on your device Locale, I’ve changed domain extensions of Yahoo.ca and ebay.co.uk etc etc. This is only for English speaking Locales. Others are defaulted to .com

Foursquare

Initial Foursquare integration is built in. Using the command ‘check in to +venue name’ utter! will see where you are and if it can get a match on the venue you’ve requested. You’ll need to authorise use from the Linked Applications section.

I’m not a Foursquare user, so if there are other features of the app you think I should build in, please let me know.

Waze

Waze should now work for your navigation commands. It’s not been easy as they don’t use the standard navigation intents, but hey, every 3rd party app seems to like to do things their own way!

Navigation Commands

You can now say:

‘Find my car’ (if you’ve previously used the parked car command). It will provide walking directions for you (unless it’s Waze, which doesn’t support walking directions *sigh*)

‘Navigate to contact +’contact name’ +(at home/work)’

Examples would be:

‘Navigate to contact Joe Bloggs’

‘Navigate to the contact Sarah Bloggs at work’

I need to tweak these commands to make them more natural, but that’s it for now I’m afraid!

Calling

‘Redial’ – should redial the last number!

‘Call +number’ – should dial the number!

Email

I’ve included support for Yahoo and Live email accounts that utter! can send from. No joy if you have secondary authentication set up I’m afraid and Exchange support is a no go at the moment.

Applications

‘Application settings +app name’

‘Application settings cut the rope’ – as an example.

‘Search for trending applications’ – or top free/top new free/editors choice/top paid etc – this will take you to the link in the Play Store.

Remember

If you want to make a lightening quick note of something, you can say:

‘Remember this +anything’ – the ‘anything’ will be copied to the clipboard, which you can then ask to toast, speak or you can paste it somewhere.

File Expert

By popular demand, support has been added.

Catch Notes

I’ve left this in for you to try, but both the note and voice note features are broken, well, they don’t work for me anyway… I’ve reported it to the developers, but as usual, they ignored me.

Long Press Home! (Jelly Bean only)

This one is a long shot…. It’s working for me on my Jelly Bean device, but you’ll have to let me know if it works for you. It may well be determined by the implementation of your device Manufacturer.

EDIT: When you long-press-search there should be options at the bottom, one of which will be a voice search icon or Google in text. If you click that, you should get the option to select utter! as the default instead? So, it won't activate on a long-press, but will be long-press and then slide your finger up....

Wake-up-phrase

I’ve left this in for Gingerbread and ICS, but disabled it for ICS+. I’ll have another go and getting it working properly soon. The wake-up-phrase is fixed at ‘wake up’ for now.

Stand alone apk

As a reminder, there is a small app (found here) that does nothing but launch the recognition. Useful for those struggling with custom launcher, Widget Locker and car dock apps.

Bug fixes & performance enhancements

Too many to list and bugs that don’t appear to be reported here!

Bugs (main ones)

Memory issue

Notification issue on ICS (Google bug). I have to keep updating the icon.

Ticks and crosses not updating until page is refreshed.

EDIT: I've had a couple of reports that Facebook posting has stopped working - It's fine for me. Anyone else?

What’s next??

Memory and battery issues

Headset support/Driving mode.

Google Voice Integration

Assuming all is ok with this release, I’m stopping everything until I get a handle on where and why the memory problems are occurring. Thank you all again for your posts about this, they’ve been really useful and much appreciated.

Most of the additions in this release need further tweaks, as I’m not handling all possible errors at the moment. So much to do, so little time……

Thanks again for all of your support! :good:

Enjoy!

EDIT: APK update to V2.2.9.3B with bug fix - credit Extreme_One, GLDavis, bruce7373