Beta testers needed for sanity check of 1Alarm

[Mystictrust]

So I used it last night. I must have locked my phone in the middle of the night because my normal alarm woke me up and this app never went off. I take it doesn't work at all under the lock screen from this experience. Any way to add that ability?

Thanks for the accidental testing, I was about to try that for tomorrow morning

I agree that letting this run under the lockscreen would be nice if possible. Here's the main reason: Those pesky navigation lights (back, start, search) stay lit at all times and I'm not a fan of that. It's something Microsoft should let apps access, IMO. Fortunately, I've been taking advantage of the screen brightness glitch on my Lumia, so the clock was super bright until the screen went black, and the navigation lights never came on. Win win! Anyway, yeah accidental locking for whatever reason would also be solved by letting the app run under the lockscreen.

I have other feedback but I'll either send an email via feedback in the app or send a PM.

 

[seemack]

Does anyone know why we can't view Vimeo videos on the phone? Do we have to open the app and do a search?

Doesn't work on my browser either. I checked to see if there were any settings on the video which might make it available to mobile but didn't see anything.

 

[unstoppablekem]

I'm new to beta testing, so do I give you my Developer information or Microsoft account? I'm running a 920, and would love to test it.

 

[unstoppablekem]

We need someone with an 8X and/or Ativ S to test it out.

 

[seemack]

So I used it last night. I must have locked my phone in the middle of the night because my normal alarm woke me up and this app never went off. I take it doesn't work at all under the lock screen from this experience. Any way to add that ability?
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

Did you leave it as the open app when you went to bed? If you leave the app running, it will prevent the screen from locking. Unfortunately, this means the screen is on all night so I added a timeout that dims the screen after a few minutes. You can tap the screen to turn it on again.

I tried to get 1Alarm working under the lock screen for so long..oh how I tried..

So WP8 says it allows apps to work under the lock screen now but it's only half true. If I had an app that was playing music, it's true that I could lock the phone and have the app continue to play music under the lock screen. However, WP8 does not seem to let you actually start a song while your app is under the lock screen : ( Really annoying and I've been hounding the dev forums trying to find a workaround but nothing yet.

 

[seemack]

Thanks for the accidental testing, I was about to try that for tomorrow morning

I agree that letting this run under the lockscreen would be nice if possible. Here's the main reason: Those pesky navigation lights (back, start, search) stay lit at all times and I'm not a fan of that. It's something Microsoft should let apps access, IMO. Fortunately, I've been taking advantage of the screen brightness glitch on my Lumia, so the clock was super bright until the screen went black, and the navigation lights never came on. Win win! Anyway, yeah accidental locking for whatever reason would also be solved by letting the app run under the lockscreen.

I have other feedback but I'll either send an email via feedback in the app or send a PM.

haha glad you found a way around the navigation lights. I don't like it either but I've gotten used to it. My apt is pretty bright at night so it doesn't make too much of a different. As I mentioned above, I really wish I could get this working under the lock screen but no luck yet.

Look forward to hearing the feedback!

 

[seemack]

I'm new to beta testing, so do I give you my Developer information or Microsoft account? I'm running a 920, and would love to test it.

You just have to PM me your Microsoft account and I can add you to the beta list. It'll take a couple hours after that for the permissions to go through but I'll PM you when I add it so you know approximately when you can download the app.

 

[fkalseth]

Did you leave it as the open app when you went to bed? If you leave the app running, it will prevent the screen from locking. Unfortunately, this means the screen is on all night so I added a timeout that dims the screen after a few minutes. You can tap the screen to turn it on again.

I tried to get 1Alarm working under the lock screen for so long..oh how I tried..

So WP8 says it allows apps to work under the lock screen now but it's only half true. If I had an app that was playing music, it's true that I could lock the phone and have the app continue to play music under the lock screen. However, WP8 does not seem to let you actually start a song while your app is under the lock screen : ( Really annoying and I've been hounding the dev forums trying to find a workaround but nothing yet.

I havent tested your app, so you may have already considered this and its not viable for your app, but not sure why you need it to run under the lock screen to set off an alarm? You could use the Alarm and Reminders APIs for that, and your alarm will go off regardless of wheter the app is running or not. Have a look at How to create alarms and reminders for Windows Phone

 

[seemack]

I havent tested your app, so you may have already considered this and its not viable for your app, but not sure why you need it to run under the lock screen to set off an alarm? You could use the Alarm and Reminders APIs for that, and your alarm will go off regardless of wheter the app is running or not. Have a look at How to create alarms and reminders for Windows Phone

That's true but that option only gives you access to the alarm sounds provided by the OS. I like to use my music from the Media Library to wake up to so I can't go with that option. The other thing is that you are also forced to use the OS way of snoozing the alarm/reminder which means no shake-to-snooze and back to wondering if I just turned off my alarm instead of snoozing : )

 

[seemack]

I just installed the app and I am facing an weird issue. After exiting the app, it refuses to start up again. Need to uninstall and reinstall...

Interesting. I haven't seen this on my 920. Just in case, does it go away if you reboot the phone? If not, let me know and I'll add some logging so that we can track this down.

 

[fkalseth]

That's true but that option only gives you access to the alarm sounds provided by the OS. I like to use my music from the Media Library to wake up to so I can't go with that option. The other thing is that you are also forced to use the OS way of snoozing the alarm/reminder which means no shake-to-snooze and back to wondering if I just turned off my alarm instead of snoozing : )

Ah, the Alarm API is too limited for those requirements, yeah. You can use a custom sound file as the alarm sound, but only sounds that are bundled in the XAP (so nothing from the media library or isolated storage), and you're stuck with the native Alarm UI for dismiss/snooze like you say...

 

[Mystictrust]

Ah, the Alarm API is too limited for those requirements, yeah. You can use a custom sound file as the alarm sound, but only sounds that are bundled in the XAP (so nothing from the media library or isolated storage), and you're stuck with the native Alarm UI for dismiss/snooze like you say...

It sucks that it has to be that way. I think Microsoft is SO scared of apps going "rogue" and taking over the user experience that they locked down as much as they could. I appreciate what they're trying to do (i.e. avoid things like the stories of apps on Android that would secretly send text messages to premium numbers, which would of course show up on a user's bill, or phantom battery drain from out of control apps), I just think they're being a bit too restrictive. What if there's a better way? If I want to allow this 1Alarm app to run completely in the background, without being open, and access a music file I previously specified... then I should be able to. A new setting could pop up in the settings menu that would "Revoke background access from all third party apps" or whatever - and then 1Alarm would go back to operating as it does now. Maybe that settings menu would allow me to give some apps access (and detect apps that have the capability to do so), but I wouldn't have to.

Sorry for ranting in your beta test thread, seemack It's not like Microsoft would see my message no matter where I put it. I'm composing a PM to you right now with some of my specific feedback

 

[seemack]

lol no worries Mystic!

I know exactly what you mean. I had really wanted to set the volume in app so that people didn't forget about it and not get woken up because their volume was too low. Unfortunately, MS had issues with apps muting the volume in WP7 because people couldn't figure out how to un-mute. The volume-rocker wouldn't un-mute so you'd have to go back to the app and un-mute from there. Their response? They removed the ability to change the system volume for 3rd party apps!

 

[Narse77]

Did you leave it as the open app when you went to bed? If you leave the app running, it will prevent the screen from locking. Unfortunately, this means the screen is on all night so I added a timeout that dims the screen after a few minutes. You can tap the screen to turn it on again.

I tried to get 1Alarm working under the lock screen for so long..oh how I tried..

So WP8 says it allows apps to work under the lock screen now but it's only half true. If I had an app that was playing music, it's true that I could lock the phone and have the app continue to play music under the lock screen. However, WP8 does not seem to let you actually start a song while your app is under the lock screen : ( Really annoying and I've been hounding the dev forums trying to find a workaround but nothing yet.

I left it open bit must have locked it sometime. I remember looking st it on the charger st about 2am so it was somete after that.

I know that cooking timer and the default alarm.app both work locked and if you completely back out of them.
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

 

[Mystictrust]

lol no worries Mystic!

I know exactly what you mean. I had really wanted to set the volume in app so that people didn't forget about it and not get woken up because their volume was too low. Unfortunately, MS had issues with apps muting the volume in WP7 because people couldn't figure out how to un-mute. The volume-rocker wouldn't un-mute so you'd have to go back to the app and un-mute from there. Their response? They removed the ability to change the system volume for 3rd party apps!

Hmm, seriously? What if they just allowed apps their own independent volume control, separate from the system, so they wouldn't affect anything else? Like, say, I could go into 1Alarm and there's a setting that says "Allow independent volume" and then the volume set for that app is separate from the rest of the system. And then a setting in the phone's main setting menu that allows you to see a list of apps with their own independent volume controls and shut them off.

Yeah, I'm dreaming.

I know that cooking timer and the default alarm.app both work locked and if you completely back out of them.

Same with "Tricky Alarm", but that's because they all use pre-packaged sounds that don't tap into the music library. I totally wish Microsoft would loosen that restriction.

 

[seemack]

I left it open bit must have locked it sometime. I remember looking st it on the charger st about 2am so it was somete after that.

I know that cooking timer and the default alarm.app both work locked and if you completely back out of them.
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Board Express

The default alarm app works because, aside from being a 1st party app, it uses the OS alarm sounds. I could do that as well but I really wanted to use music from the Media library which can't work under the lock screen.

I'll look into the Cooking Timer app though.

 

[seemack]

Hmm, seriously? What if they just allowed apps their own independent volume control, separate from the system, so they wouldn't affect anything else? Like, say, I could go into 1Alarm and there's a setting that says "Allow independent volume" and then the volume set for that app is separate from the rest of the system. And then a setting in the phone's main setting menu that allows you to see a list of apps with their own independent volume controls and shut them off.

Yeah, I'm dreaming.

Same with "Tricky Alarm", but that's because they all use pre-packaged sounds that don't tap into the music library. I totally wish Microsoft would loosen that restriction.

haha too true Mystic. Completely removing the ability to change the volume was definitely an overkill response. Thanks for the heads-up about the cooking timer. I had figured that would be the case.

 

[seemack]

Quick note for anyone playing with the app.

The "test alarm" button will only be in the beta version of the app. I added it to make testing the alarm easier since you can't set a nap shorter than 1 minute in the regular app UI. Just wanted to save you guys (and myself) 55 sec : )

 

[seemack]

Nope. I tried starting it after rebooting but it still crashes!

I'm adding some logging into the app now and should be done by tomorrow evening. Will PM you for some details!

 

[unstoppablekem]

Man, I love how it can pick your songs, even ones from Xbox music that you didn't even buy!