John Spahr

It’s hard to believe that Syndicate is over a year old now, and it’s not even the oldest project I’m still working on! Time does go by quickly... Anyway, I’m excited to announce that a new version of Syndicate, version 1.5, has been released! This update doesn’t add a ton of new features. However, it makes some massive improvements to the user experience. Of these, perhaps the most important is how I’ve changed the feed loading process. I’ve gotten a lot better at coding since last September when I released Syndicate, but I still hadn’t addressed a major issue with it since version 1.0. This was that the feed loading code ran on the program’s UI thread. This meant that the program would become unresponsive while loading feeds, which was obviously not good. Thankfully, this issue has finally been fixed! Additionally, I’ve made a lot of improvements to the user interface. Fonts are more consistent, button placements make more sense, and everything looks a bit nicer. I’ve also introduced ...

Hi, everybody! I have released a couple of small updates for some of my Android apps. Here’s what’s new: Violoncello v1.1 - I have fixed the bug where you are unable to purchase premium. I’m very sorry I didn’t catch this before I released version 1.0, but at least I noticed it within 24 hours of the app’s release. LifeBoard v1.3.1 - This update fixes some minor bugs, and makes some improvements to the user interface. I am getting ready to move on to my next project, which will likely be an update for Syndicate. Stay tuned for more updates!

Hey, everyone! I’m happy to say that switching to a WebView took way less time than I expected, and version 1.0 of Violoncello has finally been released on the Play Store! I’m not always the best at predicting how much time it will take to complete something, so keep that in mind. 😅 Anyway, I’m glad to say that Violoncello provides a great, distraction-free experience for reading webpages, free of ads and videos. Additionally, you can upgrade to Violoncello Premium (one-time fee of $0.99 USD) to unlock custom text and background color settings, as well as the ability to choose from 8 different fonts! Even if you don’t upgrade, Violoncello still provides a perfectly enjoyable experience with plenty of features. With Violoncello Premium, you change the font, as well as the background and text colors! I hope you like Violoncello! It’s been a time-consuming project, but I’ve had a really good time writing it. Version 1.0 is now available for download on Google Play . I hope you like it! A...

I was about ready to release Violoncello. I felt like I had finally finished this huge project that I started over a month ago. However, there was one major obstacle left in my path: optimization. This had been something I struggled with throughout Violoncello’s development, but I had fixed a lot of issues in that area. At this point, I only had one major issue left: Violoncello was incredibly slow. Unfortunately, that’s where the story ends. As of the morning I am writing this, I still need to fix this issue. Unfortunately, if I want better loading speeds, I’m going to have to rewrite a lot of code. Here’s why... The Enemy: Html.fromHtml To convert the HTML to a thing called a Spannable, necessary to load it in a TextView, Android offers Html.fromHtml. Problem is, it’s not very fast. Sure, it’s fine for loading simple pages, but if you want to load a decently-sized Wikipedia article, it can take a very long time. As long as 30 seconds in my testing, in fact. Put simply, loading speeds...

I know, I know... these days, it’s always Violoncello, Violoncello, and so on around here. I’ve been working on this project for a long time now. However, as I have said many times before, Violoncello is a massive project, so that’s to be expected! I’m really trying to make it as awesome and user-friendly as realistically possible. As far as current progress goes, I am pleased to say that I am finally starting to get to the last stages of the app’s development before release. I have a few more tweaks and additions I need to make, but these will hopefully not take too long to complete. Anyway, in short, I’m happy to say that development is going quite well at the moment, and I think Violoncello will be ready very soon. Stay tuned for more updates!

Every time I start a new project, I always make it a priority to try something new with it. With binoc, I decided to learn Kotlin. LifeBoard was the first paid app I ever released. So, when I started working on Violoncello, I decided that I wanted to try something new with it as well. As a result, after some careful consideration, I am excited (and also a bit nervous) to say that Violoncello will feature an in-app purchase, a first for one of my apps. Wait! Don't go! Allow me to explain... It's all about the execution... When it comes to in-app purchases, whether or not they're extremely obnoxious really depends on the execution. For example, having a bunch of ads and nerfing a lot of features unless you upgrade to a premium version is a really crummy thing to do in my opinion. For this reason, with Violoncello, the improvements you get by upgrading are going to be very minor. You'll get a few fun customization options, but that will be it. There won't be any ads, ...

I’ll admit, this has easily been one of the craziest years of my entire life. With the pandemic, it’s been a bit hard to keep a real schedule and plans for each month, as things keep changing every day. That being said, I hope to stick with my plans for November to the best of my ability. So, without further ado, let’s dive in! This month’s main project: Violoncello! Violoncello is easily one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on in recent times. By itself, writing a basic text-based browser is a breeze. However, Violoncello is going to be a very complex browser with a lot of features, so it’s going to be a little while before version 1.0 is ready for production. Don’t worry, though. I have a feeling it’s going to be worth the wait! Syndicate Updates One program I really want to work on this month is Syndicate. I have some ideas for how I can improve it, and I’m eager to start working on a new update for it. With that being said, trying to finish Violoncello is still my main priority ...