MyApp: Calendar Widget for Android 2.2 (Froyo)

I had been looking for a decent home screen widget for the calendar(s) on my Samsung Galaxy S (currently on Froyo). Could not find one that is free, so wrote one.

Features:
* Includes events from all your calendars on the phone (personal, corporate etc., etc).
* Support for recurring events.
* Separate section for today's events and later events.
* Auto refresh in every 2 minutes (No, it doesn't wake up the phone, if sleeping -- so don't worry about battery).
* Occupies 3 (rows) x4 (columns) cells in home screen.
* Shows up to 6 events at a time.

Note:
* Apparently Google has deprecated the Calendar ContentProvider post Froyo. So this widget may not work post Froyo (including 2.2.1, I suppose). I only have a 2.2 phone and the emulators don't support Calendar (deprecated) -- so no idea.
* Tested only on Samsung Galaxy S on Froyo.

When I get a firmware update to Gingerbread to my SGS next month (hopefully!), I shall try to port this to Gingerbread as well, if possible.

Download the .apk installer here or point your phone to this QR code to download directly



Developed and built using Eclipse Indigo on Ubuntu.

Debugging Android apps remotely via Wifi

Android has tonnes of cool features and this is just one of them. Now I don't need to search for my USB cable to start developing/debugging the apps. Also, poor Samsung, my WinXP BSODs whenever I plug out my phone from adb debugging. This was irritating and that's when I came across this useful tweak.

Requirements:
+ You need a root'ed Android phone. (I suppose, to start/stop services..)
+ You need a terminal emulator software on the phone (preferrably). Android market gives it free.
+ You should already have a working debugging setup from your PC to the phone via USB (I mean all those SDK's, tools, ADT plugin installed).

Connect your phone via Wifi into a n/w that provides access to, from your PC.

On the phone: (either via a 'terminal emulator' OR via 'remote ssh' OR via 'adb shell on USB')

$ su
# setprop service.adb.tcp.port 6666
# stop adbd
# start adbd

All set, now the adbd knows it is suppose to listen on TCP instead of USB.

Disconnect the USB if connected.

On the PC: (example on Windows)
C:\>adb devices

if this shows your device connected, run
c:\>adb disconnect

Then,
c:\>adb connect mobile_ip_address:6666
Connected to device mobile_ip_address:6666
[not to mention, you can use any port other than 6666, but use the same in both places.]

c:\>adb devices
[this should list your device.]

All set. Use Eclipse and debug just like you would on a USB connected device.

Note: This change goes off once you restart your phone. You can automate this in a number of ways.. left to you.

Seeing my apps getting deployed wirelessly onto my phone and debugging and watching those variables remotely is really cool!! :)

Video cable for Samsung Galaxy S

Disclaimer: Although this should just apply for any other SGS, this has been tested only on SGS Vibrant, India model.

If you didn't know how this cable looks, here it is. Note the 4 terminal stereo plug (stereo plug normally has only 3 terminals).

Although one can build a cable from scratch, it is usually cheaper or same to get a read-made cable like this, instead of trying to build our own cable with just the plugs. Ok, so what is there to be done if I get the ready-made cable -- the reason is that, all cables aren't compatible with SGS video output. This post anyway has all the info to build your own cable, if you are interested.

The common confusion that prevails in the forums is that some cables work and some don't; so how do we buy the right cable. The answer is that, you don't have to worry as long as the terminals are exactly these (ie., 4 pin stereo on one end, RCA on the other end). I had bought one such cable from ebay India for just Rs. 100. You can search for "Camcorder RCA cable" and you might end up on one such item.

If you get a camcorder cable, it most likely won't work. If it doesn't work in the normal configuration (ie., Yellow to Video, Red/White to Audio), try connecting the White to Video, and Yellow/Red to Audio. This should just work.

Why?


This is how a 4-terminal stereo plug looks. Lets name the terminals as T1..T4 as in figure. The camcorder cables send T4 to Video, but the SGS sends out video on T2. On Camcorder cables, T2 is the Left/Mono Audio (White) -- thus swapping that for Video works.

T1 is the Ground. As long as the ground is not changed, you should be able to convert any cable to be compatible with SGS video out. T1 usually gets in contact with the case/body of the device, so I would think it would be always ground on any such cables for consumer devices. I also don't see any reason for a cable to insert the video terminal between the two audio terminals. Going by these rules, it is most likely that, it is either T4 (T2, T3 are audio) or T2 (T3, T4 are audio) which is the video terminal.

If you have a multimeter, just connect this cable to your phone, turn on Video out on settings and measure the DC voltage (0-20V range) on each of the RCA plugs (make sure the phone isn't playing any audio). Only the video plug will sense a voltage of ~1.5V at this point. This should identify the video plug safely without having to try out various plugs on the TV directly.

To summarize, so you can build one if required. The SGS video output pin out is:

T1: Ground
T2: Video
T3: Left/Mono
T4: Right