[Android 2.1+, 2011.10.10] Omniscience 0.9.2

Here is my first Android app, Omniscience :



This is a highly configurable widget to show you what you need to know or remember :

• Calendars
• Tasks
• Weather
• Emails (to remind you of replies you have to make)
• Notes
• etc.

It has (or will have) quite a few assets compared to existing apps of the same kind :

• Stock look to better integrate into your home screen
• Very user-friendly interface
• Supports more than tasks and calendars
• Highly configurable
• A nice tutorial for beginners
• Templates to recreate your favorite configuration quickly with automatic backup in the cloud
• Compatible with Android version from 2.1 with ldpi, mdpi and hdpi resolutions (I'll work on tablets as soon as I can)
• NEW - Scrolling support

For now, it supports the following apps:

• Google Calendar
• GMail (seems broken with recent GMail versions)
• Google Weather (through the Genie widget)
• Astrid
• Facebook (birthdays only) (broken by version 1.5.3 )
• Springpad
• Gtasks
• Google Reader
• Evernote
• SMS & MMS
• Seesmic (twitter & facebook)

Of course, I intend to add the most popular applications of each category.
I initially designed Omniscience for my own needs (as I tend to forget everything ...), but I am hoping for your feedback to steer my in your direction too (I have created a page on GetSatisfaction! for that purpose).

When the app is mature enough and the beta is over, I plan to offer a lite version with Google Calendar only (and without advanced features) and a paid version priced at 1$.

Thanks in advance for all testers

PS : this app uses the GreenDroid library, thanks to Cyril for his awesome work!

Current version : 0.9.2 beta (download)

Changelog
Version 0.9.2
- Changed expiration date to December 31th, 2012

Version 0.9.1
- Fixed item disappearance in scrolling mode
- Changed expiration date to september 30th

Version 0.9
+ Added scrolling layout (single-line only for now)
+ Added Spanish translation courtesy of dexae and rchacin
- Fixed random force close when updating widgets
- Extended expiry date to June 30th

Version 0.8.1
+ Added date formats with weekday
- Fixed font color for light themes
- Fixed date transparency
- Notification icon does not blink anymore when updating more than one widget
- Fixed vertical padding for transparent themes

Version 0.8
+ Added Seesmic
+ Added date/time configuration options
+ Added date descending sort order
+ Translated to Italien thanks to Gfandrea
- Fixed memory leaks in GTasks and Google Calendar

Version 0.7
+ Added SMS/MMS
+ Redesigned buttons for all themes
+ Added a view button
+ Added a new layout that groups items by date with the date as the header

Version 0.6
+ Added Google Reader
+ Added Evernote
+ Added Sense theme
- Improved UI graphics

Version 0.5
+ Added optional "create" and "settings" buttons
+ Added preferences for customizing colors in GMail, Springpad & GTasks
+ Added links to applications that are not currently installed (market or google search for Genie widget)

Version 0.4.1
+ Added an "information" button when configuring item sources
- Fixed FC with Android version 2.1
- Fixed random FC with GTasks
- Fixed Google Weather forecasts expiry dates (forecast for yesterday would keep showing)
- Fixed configuration screens that would not appear in 2.1 for Gtasks, Springpad and Google Weather.

Version 0.4
+ Added GTasks support
+ Added templates
+ Added automatic template backup & restore (2.2+ only)
+ Added °C/°F option to Google Weather
- Updated app icon
- Fixed FC when deleting a widget being refreshed

Version 0.3.3
+ Added filtering and grouping by category for Springpad
+ Added grouping by tag and importance for Astrid
+ Added email display limit to GMail
+ Added an "Help improve Omniscience" page to the tutorial
+ Added link to GetLocalization.com in preferences to help translate Omniscience
- Fixed calendar not installed bug for HTC phones
- Improved facebook birthday performance
- Added support for facebook contacts without a birthday year

Version 0.3.2
+ Added option to display a separator between each day
- Fixed "Google Calendar not installed" bug on several phones (HTC for ex.)
- Minor improvements

Version 0.3.1
- Fixed bug for facebook contacts without birthday date
- Fixed facebook birthday calculation
- Improved performances
- Update icon is now displayed during the whole update period

Version 0.3
+ Facebook birthdays
+ Tag and importance filters in Astrid
- Fixed force close with Google Weather
- Minor fixes

Version 0.2
+ Springpad support
+ Transparent theme now available with dark or light font
- Fixed refresh bug with Google weather

Version 0.1.1
+ Transparent theme
+ Confirmation popup when widget is empty
+ Added refresh context option to main app
- Fixed a force close with older versions of GMail
- The monitoring service now stops when there is nothing to monitor

Version 0.1
+ Initial version

Updated to 0.2 with Springpad support!

Updated to 0.3 with facebook birthdays !

Updated to 0.3.2 with a new option to show a separator between days

Updated to 0.3.3 with an option in GMail to limit the number of emails displayed.
Keep the suggestions coming !

The widget has no refresh interval ; instead, it watches for content changes that are notified by the apps you have on your widget. Unfortunately, some of them are pretty aggressive with content change notifications (even if nothing really changes).

As for gTask I will try to include it in the next version.

Thanks for the feedback!

brypie, what do you mean when you say it doesn't install? Are you getting an error during the installation of the apk?

Updated to 0.4 with GTasks and templates!

Thanks for your feedback phoffer!
First, google weather should display one line for each day, with the temperature range and the weather description. If you don't see anything, try launching the "News & weather" app manually to see if it helps. If it doesn't, you can PM me your logs (logs can be retrieved through an option in the preference menu of Omniscience).

As for widgets being still visible after cancelling, I believe the problem comes from Sense. When a widget creation is cancelled or the widget is deleted, the home screen is supposed to send an intent to reflect that. Sense does not do so in the first case however ; since I store widget information in a database, I rely on that message to clean up.
Furthermore, the app checks at startup that the widgets still exist according to the Android AppWidgetManager. If they are not, they are deleted.

This means that everytime you cancel widget (any widget, not just Omniscience) creation during size choice, you are actually polluting your system with phantom widgets (since they still exist for AppWidgetManager). As a side note, ADW has the same problem.

ishkarioth, can you PM me your logs using a tool like logcollector ?
EDIT: nevermind, I found and fixed the bug in 0.4.1.