yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] croques:
61 pages...

I've skim-read the whole lot; bought the app and am waiting for tags to play with.

NFC ReTag

It seems most people writing in this thread use their tags for automating control on their own phones only. In this case it seems sensible and cheaper to use NFC ReTag as it only needs to read an already written unique ID from a write protected tag and then performs a menu of actions stored on the phone. In this way used tags are recycled! So those people that bought write protected tags many pages earlier have a get-out-of-jail-free card. For example I've just used my write-protected bus-pass to set my phone up to navigate home!

Which app claims the NFC tag read event?

Whilst experimenting with my bus-pass I found that the application that used to respond to the tag no longer did after NFC ReTag was installed. Is there any way to set up a preference as to which app should claim the NFC trigger event?

Play sounds?

I guess it's been done or, at least, already proposed, but I would like to make a picture book for my very young grandchild with tags to emit 'sounds' that add to the impact of the story. I imagine I could use file://URI to play a local resource but to make it readable by all NFC phones it would be good to encode a very small mp3 on a larger NFC chip. Is this remotely possible? I know this isn't directly a thread specific question but there seems a growing chunk of NFC talent here.

Finally, to the OP, congratulations on more than a year responding promptly and with good grace to questions... some oft repeated.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] mad_vtak:
Do you think this will ever be an option OP?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
I don't imagine it will be unless Google re-thinks their card emulation stance.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] mad_vtak:
It would be nice to open gates and doors at work with phone. etc etc

Also i see how viscous it could be too.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
SOLVED!

NFC.apk has 3 ogg files in res\raw: start.ogg, end.ogg, and error.ogg. The start sound plays first, then either the end sound if success or the error sound if no success. I opened each file in Audacity, did Edit|Silence Audio, and saved (i.e., exported the file). I replaced the original sound files with the silenced sound files, and now my NFC is totally silent. And, since NFC Task Launcher has a sound/silent/vibrate option, I now have total control over my NFC notifications.

The modded sound files and the modded NFC.apk are in the attached zip, if anyone wants them. NFC.apk goes into system/app, with rw-r--r-- permissions. Or, use the modded sound files on your own NFC.apk. Mine shows an August 1, 2008 date in properties, if that helps.

NANDROID, and BACK UP your original NFC.apk, just in case.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
Nicely done, you are definitely not the only one that wants this.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
5/9 Version 3.4

- UI updates

- Added German, Spanish and Korean

- Removed Italian as it is out of date

- All tags now save to "Your Tags". Recent shows the 5 most recently used

- Changed Tag limiting to uniquely track switch tags
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] progitto:
If you want some help to update italian translation send me a PM
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
PM sent - Italian translation should be back in soon thanks to the help of some volunteers from XDA :)
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] croques:
Comfort breaks and conditional pop-ups

Like lots of you I have an NFC sticker on my car dock that does the usual; off wifi; up brightness; up volumes and on Navigon.

But here's a thing; this week I was travelling some distance overland and there were times when I needed a break from driving. Removing the phone from the car dock for comfort breaks meant that on return the NFC sticker would re-fire and restart my instance of Navigon and consequently lose all current navigation data. Thus I needed to fiddle with phone to reset the route each time I got back in my car. That sort of defeated the whole idea of a 'quick tag'.

So may we have an optional yes/no conditional pop-up before starting an app? Or is this yet another job left for Tasker? (I don't like leaving Tasker running as I suspect it, (yet unproven), of eating battery.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
A pop up might be possible, it would be off by default though.

Is this something that enabling the rate limiting in settings would fix though?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
A popup would in a way defeat the purpose of automating things with NFC. If you have a pop up, you might as well just have a widget or icon with settings from tasker.

What I did was put the tag on the base of the holder, that way if I want to enable the GPS I first touch the base, then I lock the phone. This allows me to choose when i want the profile to activate. Also, when I am leaving the car I get it close to the base and set it back to the normal settings. If its stuck to the actual holder, removing the phone doesnt activate the second profile. one would have to remove and approach again.

-gk

PS.- If I forget to set the phone back to normal when leaving the car, i carry an nfc keychain in my pocket.

---------- Post added at 08:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 PM ----------

feature request:

save tags and settings online for cases when one reinstalls android.

thanks!
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
A pop up would be off by default, but I don't love the idea.

Cloud backup / restore of tags / settings was in the last release.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
I believe I have the latest version. Where do I enable this cloud backup setting? where does it save to?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
There is no setting, it's automatic. It's backed up using Google's Backup service (a backup is queued on a setting change, tag save or tag delete) and restored during the installation process.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
I had no idea google offered that service. Thats pretty cool.

thanks.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
The documentation could use a little work, but it's a nice service.

https://developers.google.com/android/backup/
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] croques:
How about an extra option in Launch Application; Configure Action?

Whereas now you've got an Application Chooser and a Customize line, what about adding a Conditional Launch Check Box option here. Then some applications could launch straight away and others could be set to need an OK from the user.

In other words set and save a local variable to the tag rather than a global one held in the app. Then on read back if the local variable is there a conditional OK pops up; if not the application just loads. Then everyone should be happy?!!?

However, I guess I could stick the tag elsewhere than on the cradle... as someone suggested, though it's not so elegant to my mind.

Cloud-backup is a great addition; thanks!
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] privatesam:
I'm posting about the mod to remove sounds from the Nfc.apk. I have an Nfc tag for bed and the annoying beep sound wakes my wife. So I have been poking around trying to replace the 3 .ogg files in the Nfc.apk but everytime I put the apk back into /system/app it crashes the phone and I get the "Unfortunately the nfc service has stopped working.

I suspect this is either to do with signatures or something to do with the custom ROM I'm on. Anyone who could help I'd much appreciate it!
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
Did you try using the NFC.apk that I posted, or the three modded ogg files I posted?

---------- Post added at 12:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 AM ----------

Easy with Tasker and variables.

Lets say you have three locations - home, work, car. Set up one "location task" in Tasker for each (three tasks total). Call them Car, Home and Work. For each location, these set up the desired bluetooth status, volume, etc.

Next, set up three tasks for settting variables, called HomeVar, CarVar, and WorkVar: the first sets %HOME to 1, %CAR to 0 and %WORK to 0. The second sets %HOME to 0, %CAR to 1 and %WORK to 0. The third sets %HOME to 0, %CAR to 0 and %WORK to 1.

Then, use NFC Task Launcher to set up three tags, one to run HomeVar when you get home, one to run CarVar when you get in your car, and one to run WorkVar when you get to work.

Next, set three profiles in Tasker, based on variable state. The first profile runs the Home location task when %HOME=1. The second profile runs the Car location task when %CAR=1. The third profile runs the Work location task when %WORK=1

Now, here is the key to prevent repetition of location tasks. At the end of each "location task", you set variables that tells Tasker which location is now active. I call them %HOMEPROFILE, %WORKPROFILE, and %CARPROFILE. So, at the end of the Work location task, the task sets %WORKPROFILE to 1 and %HOMEPROFILE and %CARPROFILE to 0. At the end of the Home location task, set %WORKPROFILE to 0, %HOMEPROFILE to 1, and %CARPROFILE to 0. At the end of the Car location task, set %WORKPROFILE to 0, %HOMEPROFILE to 0, and %CARPROFILE to 1.

Then, at the

start

of the Work location task, make the first statement "Stop if %WORKPROFILE=1." At the start of the Home location task, make the first statement "Stop if %HOMEPROFILE=1." At the start of the Car location task, make the first statement "Stop if %CARPROFILE=1."

This way, Tasker will not run a specific location task a second time, until a different location task has been run.

Let me know if this is not clear.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] privatesam:
Hi smalis,

Yep - tried the NFC.apk you posted and the silent ogg files but everytime I replace the Nfc.apk on my phone I get the Nfc not working error message lopp and have to resort to restoring from backup. Are system apps somehow signed to the device - this would explain why just copying and pasting your (albeit with permission change) didn't work?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
I don't know enough about it. But, if you took

your

nfc.apk, replaced the ogg files with the three I posted, and put your nfc.apk back, it should work. Maybe your nfc.apk is a different version, or something like that, but I don't see how replacing the ogg files would matter, since those ogg files worked on my phone. Might be something beyond my pay scale.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
privatesam, try this. Copy the nfc.apk from your ROM to a folder, and replace the ogg files with the three I posted. Turn NFC off. Rename the original nfc.apk in system/app to nfc.apk.bak. Copy the modded nfc.apk into system/app. Reboot! After reboot, turn NFC on, and give it a try.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] MisterEff:
I just bought this app on the market and I'm unsure of how to use the customize line when opening an application. Say if I have a tag that launches Pandora, if Pandora was open in background it will open but it won't play. Do I just write play in the customize line?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
The custom line is just for launching a custom activity (non default launcher activity) it won't control the activities or pass extra information.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] MisterEff:
Damn, so I misread it. Would there be a way to have it launch an app then tell the app to do something? Like add it in a future release?

And thanks for the quick reply and a great app...worth paying for it
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
It would be possible to let you build a custom intent (and pass extra data). However you'd need to know the extras completely (type, name, value) for them to be useful. Without either docs from the developer of the app in question or source that's going to be difficult to infer.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] Danwms:
Ordered my tags, can;t wait to have a play with this.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] Anakin_fr:
First of all, thank you for your amazing app. It is very useful !

About launching app's activities. Nova Launcher (Launcher Pro too) manage to access activities of any app. For example, I can create a shortcut on the launcher for a specific activity of an app.

Would it be possible in NFC Task Launcher ?

Thank you
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
You'll need to know the activity name, but this is what the custom activity field is for.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] Anakin_fr:
Thx for your answer !

But where can i access to list of activities of an app ?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
You can actually open the manifest using something like root explorer. However all may not be launch able.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] nobylspoon:
Is there a way to include email address on vCard?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
nobylspoon, if the contact has an email address it will be included. At least it does on mine. You can use another tool NXP TagInfo to verify this. I just tested it and it worked fine.

It would be nice if Task Launcher added a bit of info as to what will be written to the v-card...ideally, it would allow you to choose which fields you want. My personal contact includes a several email addresses and a huge notes section, when I try to use my contact to make it into a v-card i get an error because its too large (and I use 1K tags). If I could pick and choose it would be niice.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] nobylspoon:
I verified with NXP TagInfo and I still did not see the email field. I cleared the tag, erased the contact and tried again from scratch but still no luck :(
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
are you using a google contact? or is it synced from another site (like facebook, skype, etc)? Have you tried creating a fresh contact and testing? I dont really use the vcard feature, but the few tests I did worked fine as long as the contact wasnt too big.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] nobylspoon:
I was using a phone contact. I will try again with a google contact.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
phone and google contact should be the same. They use the same field names, I was just wondering if maybe there is a difference with the synched contacts. But definitely try it, see what happens.

Also, try going to the contact and pressing share and sending it over email to yourself...it attaches a .VCF file...look at the file in notepad...see if the field is in there. I assume that NFC Task Launcher just uses this VCF file.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] nobylspoon:
Google contact worked fine. I'm not sure why it wouldn't work for the phone contact. Oh well, at least it is working now :)

Thanks!
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
glad it worked. Just curious, how do you plan to use V-Cards with NFC? Describe a usage scenario.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
I query the content resolver and manually build the vcard to the RFC. It sounds like the email is not being stored either 1.) grouped with that contact ID or 2.) as type email.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] Danwms:
Got some tags this week and have been trying out a few different uses.

Looking for some new ideas.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] kalhimeo:
I tried to modify my NfcGoogle.apk today (on the I9100P) to replace the .ogg with yours.

I had no experience with APK extraction but I followed 2 different tutorials. I successfully re-zipped the apk with modified .ogg and then signed it again but unfortunately this new apk won't install on system/app (and of course NFC feature is lost).

I know that this is a bit of topic but could anybody explain if extra steps are required for the NFC extract/zip. I join my original NfcGoogle.apk if it can help.

Thanks in advance !
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
The app on my phone was nfc.apk. Sounds like a different apk than yours.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] kalhimeo:
Sure it must be a different one, that's why I did not try to use your APK ^^ I tried to modify mine which looks quite similar inside (I found the same 3 .ogg within).

My problem is that my modified apk (with ApkManager) is not valid after editing, I guess that I am missing something with the extract/zip/sign process for this system app.

I am aware that this is a bit off topic, I don't want to flood this nice thread with an APK problem but maybe some other users of the I9100P would be interested in a modified apk as well.

Regards,

Laurent
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
Try unzipping and zipping with 7-zip, which is what I use. I think I recall using another zip program before and having a problem with the recompiled zip/apk,
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] kalhimeo:
Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately it does not work for me, I tried many different combinations (7zip, signing with apktool, etc) but every time I replace my NfcGoogle.apk with a modified version I lose the NFC function in the Settings.

I will keep on trying and post the .apk if I manage to get it working.

Cheers
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] crimsonconcepts:
I just purchased this app this morning and have been trying it out in the car. So far things are working as expected, the one thing that I didn't see is volume for BT. I can enable it and disable it, but can't control the volume.

I use BT audio to my car, and I have to have the volume almost all the way up to have it work, however when I have me earpeice in for phone calls, I normally set it to about half or 3/4.

The other thing is GPS, know that it is possible since I have other apps that use it also, but I would love to be able to turn on GPS with my car NFC and then turn it off when I get home or to my destination.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
I think that BT volume is the same as media volume, so you might try changing that. I am not sure though, and I dont have my BT with me right now to test.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
I thought it was media volume as well (I crank media volume up in the car when I get in).

GPS is in the next release. Given that this is a protected API you'll need root access to allow nfctl to move itself to system.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
You can also do this with Tasker and Secure Settings, with the Secure Settings Helper.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] dehaani:
Personally, I thought Italian was a bit passé years ago. I'm wondering why you added Spanish too! :P
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
LOL, I just meant that the translation needed to be updated :)
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] dehaani:
I know, I was just kidding. Really nice app btw.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
6/12 Version 3.6

- GPS (Root needed)

- Mobile Data (Root needed)

- Display Timeout

- Fixed Airplane mode bugs

- Precision timer

- New languages

- Cloud backup and restore
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
Hi, what is Precision Timer when related to NFC Task Launcher?
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
The Alarm based timers use the internal alarm handler (which rounds to the minutes). So if it is 13:14:23 and you set an alarm for two minutes it alerts at 13:16:00 (which isn't really a full two minutes).

The precision timer allows you to specify minutes + seconds and uses it's own alarm handler (Alerting via a notification) so that you get a precise timing rather than a rounded one. I use it for making tea, others had requested it for cooking timers.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] gkrawiec:
got it. Thanks!
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] croques:
Samsung TecTile

Samsung have just released TecTile, (free), which has some useful addition to the options offered by Task Launcher.

TecTile can write tags to setup the playing of videos directly; make a call and send text messages, (with a final acceptance key press from the user), among other things.

It is only officially available in the USA as it is being marketed with Samsung branded tags - an unnecessary expense. Market Enabler allows market spoofing of course, if you live outside the USA.

TecTile appears to work with all the usual tags and cards.

I guess it won't be long before the 'Samsung extras' appear in Task Launcher
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] smalis:
Works with any tag, not just Samsung Tags (as the app description seems to misleadingly claim).
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
They just want you buying their pricey tags :) (also they help to promote app/brand awareness when displayed publicly)
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] croques:
Yes of course, but don't dismiss it just because of Samsung marketing; the app has some very useful features and a good ease of use you too might usefully consider.

---------- Post added at 07:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

Thought I'd already said that :)
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] krohnjw:
I was only referring to their physical tags, which offer no advantage outside of branding.
[Nexus S Themes and Apps] jpmi23:
I've got a quick one for you guys (and gals)... I would like to put a tag on the outside of the shop that I work at to allow visitors to check-in to Facebook and/or Foursquare. I have the switch set up (FB first, Foursquare second) and it works good. I'm just curious if I can have a particular address written into the tag so that visitors won't need to search for us but rather tap their phone, then have our place show up so they simply check-in.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance!

Edit: I think I may have found something here: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57378425-285/how-to-create-an-nfc-tag-for-foursquare-check-ins/

Edit 2: I see there is an option in NFCTL to search for a venue. That worked great. Anyone know about do the same thing with Facebook? Also, when I tap the tag to check-in via FB, it wants to open the browser. Any way to give the option to the user to open the FB app instead?