RoamingOrb 1.01 available now from the Apple iTunes App Store - Free Download

[patmankn]

Damn it... two more days before i can give it a testdrive! Thumbs up guys anyhow! ;O))

Pat

[Foxi352]

Wow!  From the screenshots this looks great!

Any chance you could get it working on iOS 3.1.3?  I'd love to use it on my first generation phones.

Hi !

We have a version running on 3.1.3. now mainly for older iPod's. I will submit it to the app store today. Of course i can't tell you when apple will review and authorize it :-) Keep looking for updates ... :-)

[Foxi352]

Hi Andrew,

Been playing a bit more with this yesterday and today. Still very much enjoying the new toy

A couple questions that should not be taken to mean that I'm complaining about what you've provided or suggesting you need to do more work:

1) Is multitasking support possible? You'd obviously want to avoid battery drainage from constant polling by doing a suspend-state type thing if the protocol allows. The splash screen on reopening the app is pretty quick, but I'm wondering if it could be eliminated or made faster.

2) Is there any possible future for follow-me via blue-tooth in this app?

Thanks again!

Hi !

Multitasking would be possible. I will get an iPhone 4 in about 3 weeks. I can't test it on my existing iPhone3, but until now i did not see the interest in multitasking. What should the app do in the background ?

Concerning the splash screen: It does not take any time. in fact the system shows the screen while reconnecting to the proxy_orb on your core. Of course we could eliminate the splash screen, but that would give you an empty screen :-) It's not that the splash has a 5 seconds timer to show our nice logo or something like that.

I find your follow-me idea great. We will investigate in that direction. I think some core modifications would need to be done, but nothing is impossible ;-)

Thank you for your feedback.

[davegravy]

Hi !

Multitasking would be possible. I will get an iPhone 4 in about 3 weeks. I can't test it on my existing iPhone3, but until now i did not see the interest in multitasking. What should the app do in the background ?

Concerning the splash screen: It does not take any time. in fact the system shows the screen while reconnecting to the proxy_orb on your core. Of course we could eliminate the splash screen, but that would give you an empty screen :-) It's not that the splash has a 5 seconds timer to show our nice logo or something like that.

Like you say, when you open reopen the app it has to reconnect to the proxy_orb which is why the splash-screen gets displayed. I'm wondering if the reconnect can be bypassed somehow.

When RoamingOrb is backgrounded maybe it can tell the core "i've been backgrounded" so that the core doesn't think it's dead when it stops responding to pings (I'm assuming this is how the protocol currently works). When re-opening RoamingOrb, the app can resume functioning as if it was never closed (maybe it just does a screen refresh).

Again, I don't know the details of the communication protocol, so this may be impossible without major structural changes. Thanks for listening to my ideas!

[Foxi352]

Like you say, when you open reopen the app it has to reconnect to the proxy_orb which is why the splash-screen gets displayed. I'm wondering if the reconnect can be bypassed somehow.

When RoamingOrb is backgrounded maybe it can tell the core "i've been backgrounded" so that the core doesn't think it's dead when it stops responding to pings (I'm assuming this is how the protocol currently works). When re-opening RoamingOrb, the app can resume functioning as if it was never closed (maybe it just does a screen refresh).

Again, I don't know the details of the communication protocol, so this may be impossible without major structural changes. Thanks for listening to my ideas!

Hmmm ... When you start the app it opens a connection to the core and that connection keeps open until you exit the app, or until it is broken (example: quick reloading the dce router).

What i probably could do is backgrounding the app and keeping the connection open (not sure if that is possible as long as i don't have a corresponding device). But you have to keep in mind that the app can also be used over 3G where disconnections are not rare.

Anyhow, i will investigate in that direction as soon as i have a multitasking enabled device ....

[totallymaxed]

Like you say, when you open reopen the app it has to reconnect to the proxy_orb which is why the splash-screen gets displayed. I'm wondering if the reconnect can be bypassed somehow.

When RoamingOrb is backgrounded maybe it can tell the core "i've been backgrounded" so that the core doesn't think it's dead when it stops responding to pings (I'm assuming this is how the protocol currently works). When re-opening RoamingOrb, the app can resume functioning as if it was never closed (maybe it just does a screen refresh).

Again, I don't know the details of the communication protocol, so this may be impossible without major structural changes. Thanks for listening to my ideas!

Hmmm ... When you start the app it opens a connection to the core and that connection keeps open until you exit the app, or until it is broken (example: quick reloading the dce router).

What i probably could do is backgrounding the app and keeping the connection open (not sure if that is possible as long as i don't have a corresponding device). But you have to keep in mind that the app can also be used over 3G where disconnections are not rare.

Anyhow, i will investigate in that direction as soon as i have a multitasking enabled device ....

Another factor is that on a 3G connection where the user may have limitations on their mobile dataplan they might leave the App open but in the background and chew up a lot of their data plan allowance - without realising it. On the other hand the amount of data we're moving when the app is idle and no screen changes are happening is pretty tiny so this may not really be an issue. On a Wifi connection this is not a problem of course.

I still think the big win with multi-tasking is the ability for a future version of the App to alert you, when its in the background, to some system event...eg the door bell was pressed, A security alert has been triggered...if the App is sitting their it can alert the user and bring the event to the users attention etc.

All the best


Andrew

[Foxi352]

Like you say, when you open reopen the app it has to reconnect to the proxy_orb which is why the splash-screen gets displayed. I'm wondering if the reconnect can be bypassed somehow.

When RoamingOrb is backgrounded maybe it can tell the core "i've been backgrounded" so that the core doesn't think it's dead when it stops responding to pings (I'm assuming this is how the protocol currently works). When re-opening RoamingOrb, the app can resume functioning as if it was never closed (maybe it just does a screen refresh).

Again, I don't know the details of the communication protocol, so this may be impossible without major structural changes. Thanks for listening to my ideas!

Hmmm ... When you start the app it opens a connection to the core and that connection keeps open until you exit the app, or until it is broken (example: quick reloading the dce router).

What i probably could do is backgrounding the app and keeping the connection open (not sure if that is possible as long as i don't have a corresponding device). But you have to keep in mind that the app can also be used over 3G where disconnections are not rare.

Anyhow, i will investigate in that direction as soon as i have a multitasking enabled device ....

Another factor is that on a 3G connection where the user may have limitations on their mobile dataplan they might leave the App open but in the background and chew up a lot of their data plan allowance - without realising it. On the other hand the amount of data we're moving when the app is idle and no screen changes are happening is pretty tiny so this may not really be an issue. On a Wifi connection this is not a problem of course.

I still think the big win with multi-tasking is the ability for a future version of the App to alert you, when its in the background, to some system event...eg the door bell was pressed, A security alert has been triggered...if the App is sitting their it can alert the user and bring the event to the users attention etc.

All the best


Andrew

I am investigating with push notifications for that, so even if your app is not started you could be notified of such events.

Concerning the data plan: I am atm evaluating another technique together with uplink. We try to use weborbiter_command and weborbiter_image instead of directly speak to the proxy_orb plugin.
This will then work on standard http port (future remote access) and this may touch battery life. It will also make backgrounding easier as you simply don't poll while in background, but you don't have to disconnect and reconnect everytime.
I am just concerned if this have the same performance. I will do first tests on weekend and let you know.

Serge

[ThinkCentre]

Theres only 1 thing I need to do to make it work and I can't even do that!

"When inside you have at least to set the server IP and the server port of your proxy orbiter"
Where do I find out this info?
-The IP is that of the core? Router=127.0.0.1 or Internal= 192.168.80.1 (Eth0:1) or External=192.168.1.102 dhcp(eth0)?
-Where do I find the port?

Sorry to have to ask about even the simple things!

[davegravy]

Theres only 1 thing I need to do to make it work and I can't even do that!

"When inside you have at least to set the server IP and the server port of your proxy orbiter"
Where do I find out this info?
-The IP is that of the core? Router=127.0.0.1 or Internal= 192.168.80.1 (Eth0:1) or External=192.168.1.102 dhcp(eth0)?

192.168.80.1 is the default core IP, unless you want to be able to use RoamingOrb outside of your home network (via 3G). In that case you need to use your public internet IP which you can find by visiting http://www.whatsmyip.org/ from your CORE.

-Where do I find the port?

Have you created a weborbiter in the past? If not, follow the wiki instructions.

If you have, go to your webadmin. Show Devices Tree>Expand CORE>Expand Generic Web Device>Click on Generic Proxy Orbiter. Under device data, look for "Listen Port". By default this is 3461.

Cheers.

[Foxi352]

Theres only 1 thing I need to do to make it work and I can't even do that!

"When inside you have at least to set the server IP and the server port of your proxy orbiter"
Where do I find out this info?
-The IP is that of the core? Router=127.0.0.1 or Internal= 192.168.80.1 (Eth0:1) or External=192.168.1.102 dhcp(eth0)?

192.168.80.1 is the default core IP, unless you want to be able to use RoamingOrb outside of your home network (via 3G). In that case you need to use your public internet IP which you can find by visiting http://www.whatsmyip.org/ from your CORE.

-Where do I find the port?

Have you created a weborbiter in the past? If not, follow the wiki instructions.

If you have, go to your webadmin. Show Devices Tree>Expand CORE>Expand Generic Web Device>Click on Generic Proxy Orbiter. Under device data, look for "Listen Port". By default this is 3461.

Cheers.

I think one of the next top priorities for the app is the automatic orbiter generation. We will keep contact with los93sol and try to get that working asap...

Serge

[davegravy]

I still think the big win with multi-tasking is the ability for a future version of the App to alert you, when its in the background, to some system event...eg the door bell was pressed, A security alert has been triggered...if the App is sitting their it can alert the user and bring the event to the users attention etc.

The possibilities are endless... just off the top of my head: iphone GPS detects that your distance-from-home has shrunk from 20km to 100m, determines that you are returning home and it is 10pm (after sundown)... triggers event which turns on pathway, porch, and front vestibule lights, maybe opens your garage door.

[Marie.O]

davegravy,

the touch orbiter has no intelligence and can't trigger anything atm. This is something for another piece of software, that would benefit from running in background.

[totallymaxed]

davegravy,

the touch orbiter has no intelligence and can't trigger anything atm. This is something for another piece of software, that would benefit from running in background.

Yes currently true...but we plan to add much more 'intelligence' in future versions...we have big plans for Touch Orbiter aka RoamingOrb ;-)

All the best


Andrew

[rndinokc]

Hi just wanted to voice my appreciation for all the hard work put into this project.  It works wonderfully.  Thanks Randy

[Foxi352]

Hi guys,

Just a quick note to let you know V 1.0.2 is available on app store now. There are no improvements but it does run on older iPod's with iOS 3.1.3 now. I know there are many lying around that could probably serve and be reused now :-)

Another version with many new features is currently in dev. We will keep you informed as we progress ....

Serge