@tomasmcguinness

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  • How accurate is accurate? GPS adventures with Android

    Testing of my Job Tracker app continues in earnest and, I’m pleased to say, it is becoming a useful tool that my brother is beginning to integrate into his day. While this is all very positive, there is a new issue that reared its head yesterday and it’s a doozie! One of the functions of the app…

  • Location accuracy in Android

    As part of my work on Job Tracker, I’ve been using the FusedLocationApi within Android. Initial tests haven’t been very promising, with some wild inaccuracies. Some positions have been over 800m off! It’s that or my brother has been working in the middle of a field. I’ve been modifying the logic to try and make…

  • Job Tracker beta testing

    It’s been a week since my little brother, AKA beta tester prime, started using my Job Tracker app on his Android phone. He’s an electrician and travels around doing work at a mixture of sites, commercial and residential, so an app that let’s him record accurate details of the work he has done could be…

  • Android Beacon Monitoring Woes

    My new experimental app, Job Tracker, has been out in the wild with my beta tester for the past few days and, whilst the feedback has been good, the app is just not working as I expected. The main problem is that, after a random period of time, it stops picking up the beacons. This…

  • Watch App Notifications

    Finally got a basic Watch App notification working. Handling multiple categories requires multiple notifications in the Storyboard! The colour communicates the status of your route.

  • Track your work. The iBeacon way (Van drivers only)

    After a discussion with two of my brothers around the problems they face as mobile workers (electrician and mechanic), we got thinking about an app that might help them. After much experimentation with Android and the (awesome) Estimote beacons, I have developed a simple Tracking application yesterday. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you…

  • New Roomr Icon

    Ahead of the release of version 2.7 of Roomr, my wife has been hard at work on a new icon design. Here is an early look at the new Roomr Icon. What do you think? My wife is available for freelance design work too, so if you need an app icon designed or similar, let…

  • My new iOS calendar control

    As part of the development on Roomr and the upcoming Peopler app, I have been busy working away on a new DayView calendar control. This is what I have got to date:

  • Commuter Pal for Apple Watch

    As I’m home for Christmas, I like to curl up in front of the fire and do some learning. I’ve spend the last two days playing around with my iOS app Commuter Pal. More exactly Commuter Pal on the Apple Watch. The idea behind CommuterPal is that rather than have a one size fits all…

  • why Android, why?!?

    Came up against a nasty issue with the stock Android browser. For some reason that escapes me, it’s unable to download a simple file. I’m returning a small file using ASP.Net’s MVC FileContentResult class. Works fine for everything else, but the stock Android browser is failing. Has anyone ever seen this before?

  • CALENDARING in the 21st century – a shambles!

    I received an meeting appointment email today that had an ICS file attached. It was from an Australian client, so getting the meeting into my calendar with the correct time is very important. If the meeting is scheduled for 6pm, Sydney time, it needs to go into my calendar in British Summer Time. Seems pretty…

  • processing saas invoices automatically

    As I continue to work on my Chrome Extension for importing invoices to FreeAgent, I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can parse the invoice, extracting the necessary information automatically. It’s now just a matter of clicking the “Add to Bills” button beside the invoice you want to add and the extension (with some…