Sunday, December 28, 2014

Updates rolling out to LCARS Interface for WP7 and WP8.0

We promised this over Facebook a while back that it would be done after we finished the last update to the Windows 8.1 version. Here it is!

This update is mainly a visual update but also includes some good performance enhancements and a few other things. This brings the WP7 and 8.0 versions in line with all that we did visually in the WP8.1 version that we released recently!  The modules exclusive to the 8.1 version such as the ePub viewer, image viewer, and Holo Cam are not currently available. We will be looking into what we are able to do for those based on platform limitations eventually, as we want to keep all versions as close in features as possible.

The modules that you will see as different are:
  • Main Menu now has the updated look and also supports Landscape orientation
  • Scanner module now has updated look and also the simulator mode for phones without the Compass required hardware.
  • Calculator now supports scientific functions in Portrait orientation.
  • Improved web browser interface.
We've also done a bunch of restructuring of this legacy code for WP7/8 in order to make maintaining them easier, which will allow for back porting of some newer features to the older versions faster and more likely to be done more often, which is great for those still using capable older versions of the OS.  Not that many developers are still supporting WP7, but we are!

18 comments:

  1. What's the chances of having a star trek interface that you can text or call from on a Nokia Lumia 625, thanks.

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    1. Currently our LCARS Personnel app can accomplish this! As far as the Windows Phone platform will let us anyways. All we are actually allowed to do is launch the message or call task and provide some information about what to do. The actual task itself is only allowed to be done by the OS, but we took it as far as we could based on their limitations!

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  2. LOVE your work, by the way. Planning on further developing for the Windows 10 "universal app" thing? Sounds like it might be easier to maintain...

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    1. Currently our app is a Universal app as far as the code for features that exist in both is concerned. They are not currently linked as one in the Windows Store due to differences in features and price. To see how that will eventually pan out, please see our earlier blog post about the roadmap for all of our LCARS apps.

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  3. Weather and photos apps not working other than that great app

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  4. WP8. and Interface I think. I haven't used it until I tried today, so I'm not terribly familiar with it. I can't risk running 10 because I need my phone for work. The only other phone I have is an old Anrdoid phone.

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    1. So it's WP8.0 and not 8.1? I don't have an HTC One to test, but I've downloaded the app from the store on 4 phones so far without any issues. If you are running 8.0 I will test that version as well.

      So the Microsoft windows phone recovery tool does not see the phone either?

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    2. Nothing. As far as the computer is concerned, there is nothing plugged in. I tried three cables to confirm on two computers. Literally dead. Not just HTC though, also Lumia. And yes, WP8.1 on HTC and 8 on Lumia. Both devices are dead.

      I could try a third, that's running WP7, but as I said I need a phone for work and don't want to lose my backup. Android is an old SII so it's not up to modern life haha

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    3. I'm going to have to get in touch with Microsoft directly about this problem. There is nothing that a sandboxed app can do to cause such a thing on the phone without there being some issue with the API. But if it is something we can help figure out, we're going to do it. I'm sorry for the inconvenience of this issue.

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    4. Yeah, I'd offer some technical info, but at the moment, I can't. XD

      I do hope it's fixed soon or at the very least, I would like my phone back on. So if you figure out how to get it to boot, that would be very helpful.

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    5. It's very weird that it could be bricked that hard. When experimenting with developer builds of the OS I've never seen it so bad that the recovery tool can't help it. Definitely not good....but we will investigate.

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    6. Thanks hun. Will you be posing an update? If not, could you email me something? My email is my first and last name @ gmail.

      Thanks

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    7. I will definitely e-mail you once I get some more information about what may be causing this, and if there is a resolution.

      Thank you!

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    8. I'm going to be trying to recreate this issue on all of my test phones this weekend, but it's unlikely Microsoft will get back to me before Monday, unfortunately :(

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  5. Your app bricked my phone. Thanks! Going to be sure to let as many people know as possible.

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    1. Well if your first reaction is to go and tell everyone that we're making apps to purposely crash your phone, that's your choice. If you'd like to actually help solve the problem, you can continue reading :)

      This is the 2nd report of this happening (out of thousands of people using our apps without issue). Unfortunately the issue was related to one phone carrier's devices and we have been unable to obtain any information as to why. It's not only our app that this happens with. But any information you can provide about what phone you have and on what carrier will help us try and track the issue down further.

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