Black Dot Mobile

Thank got I decided to implement error reporting using ACRA. Thanks to this I discovered that there’s a lot of crash reports coming in from devices running older versions of Android. Looks like I was so focused on fixing the camera problem, that I didn’t notice that I have broken compatibility with pre 2.0 Android versions.

The problem is fixed with update to 1.3.1, which should appear in Android Market any moment now.

An update to Laser Level has just been released. This is mostly another attempt to fix the camera related issues many of you reported. This was a real headache for me, because none of the devices I have access to have this problem.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank Karim, one of the users of Laser Level, who offered his time and helped me with testing this update on his phone. Without his help, this would probably end up as a blind fix update like the ones before (which didn’t work as expected). With Karim’s help I knew I was changing the right stuff.

And to all the people who reported problems to me. Thank you for your feedback. I hope this update will fix the problems you had and you’ll give Laser Level another chance.

Summary of changes in this version:

• Autofocus support – there’s now an extra button that will let you use autofocus if your camera supports it.
• Crash reporting – added crash reporting using ACRA library, which works on all Android versions. You can enable/disable it in the settings.
• Reworked camera code – a lot of changes in the guts of the application. Hopefully this will fix the problems with the camera

And here’s QR code for Laser Level.

The last update was supposed to address the problems some users had with camera preview (mostly on Motorola Defy), but that apparently did not work. So today, new version is released in a desperate try to solve this issue

With this version, Laser Level will ask the camera what preview resolutions it supports and will choose one from the list it gets. So if my guess is right, then this should fix the problem. But if my guess is wrong, then I’m out of ideas and this issue will be left unsolved.

Also, I noticed two potential crash bugs and fixed those.

I’m happy to announce an update to Laser Level. This one was actually supposed to be released last week as a Christmas present. Unfortunately, I got sick and instead of working on this update I spent that time bedridden. But now it’s ready and out.

So, what changes does it bring?

• Raw data display – for those curious what data comes from the sensors, it shows you raw data right on the screen. Accessible from Settings menu.
• Sensor data filtering settings – it is now possible for you to specify how much filtering should be applied to sensor data. This can help control shakiness of level line at the cost of increased lag. The right setting depends on the phone you use, so experiment to find the one that works the best for you.
• Installation to SD card – for Froyo and newer Android versions
• Fixed level line going crazy in certain circumstances – this was actually a very stupid bug that I didn’t notice earlier. This was probably the reason many people bashed Laser Level as crappy
• Reworked camera initialization code – I got some word from users of crashes related to camera initialization as well as some error reports through Android Market crash reporting tool. I hope this will fix problems that some users had. I really can’t say if this changes anything, as I could not get the app crash on any of my devices, so those are ‘blind’ fixes. But hey, I had a look at how system Camera application handles that, so it should be OK. If you experience any problems, let me know.

And here’s QR code for Laser Level.