Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

She didn't have any context when making the icon. I'll ask her to take another whack at it after seeing the other icons and have her try to fit the style.

Re: Personal GRPS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Shouldn't this post be submitted to the Marketing slogans thread instead? :eek:

Likin' the app. It's too bad data counters are almost necessities to get the most effective data plan for the least amount of $.

Would it be too crowded or useless to put the date/time of when the counter was last reset in the title bar? I mean, obviously if you work in resets and accumulated figures for specific timeframe which could be toggled it may not be necessary. And yes, most of us will keep the device "always-on". Maybe this falls back on the reset option request. Anyways, just a thought, not necessarily essential.

Would avg speed/throughput be an option or even be able to calculate accurately? I suppose you'd have to utilize some form of detection when a specific value is exceeded to trigger the inclusion of the transfer to be used in the average calculation (to avoid it averaging background ping-like/refresh processes or single IMs into the figure), or break it down maybe by application type, or include all but with the understanding it isn't a true representation of actual throughput at any given time. (but maybe at least subtracting the idle/standby times when the screen blanks or similar)

Again, just throwing wood on the fire to see how high it gets.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

just thinking design issues now that the functional stuff is done.

GPRS Turnstile?
Data Meter?

Icons could be a meter hooked to the n900, 0s and 1s going past a turnstile...

Just throwing out ideas...

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

http://www.mav-media.com/maemo5/data...Monitor002.jpg

Added Reset Date and Average Speed. Would it be possible to have the average speed swap between upload and download?

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

this looks good - but isn't the name a bit misleading?
what about personal data monitor or personal bandwidth monitor, to get away from a specific protocol (as it counts both gprs and 3g).

another thing that would be nice:
set a max limit - if you have a dataplan with fixed mb, the dashboard could "count down" what you have left - or give a warning (change color) when nearing the max limit?

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Okay, before I make any more changes to the visual, I think we should make some decisions on what the widget will include. Then I can create appropriate space etc.

so for sure we need:
1. Uploaded / Downloaded (do we want Sent/Received instead?)
2. Do we want Reset Date?
3. Do we want/need Average Speed?
4. I like the countdown Idea! I think we can do a green/yellow/red notifier, with a countdown that can be configured in the options.

I'm not sure who "invented" this app/who is developing, but lets hear from them, then I'll continue to push the design.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Heh, made me think pulse, blood pressure, temperature (my emphasis)

Toggling by clicking to get the countdown detail sounds good to me. Of course, it's merely making us more lazy by dodging the simple gradeschool math.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Average speed doesn't really make sense in my opinion.

Bandwidth alerts are most likely on the way eventually. I have a sound engineer working on creating alert sounds that will fit the Maemo 5 sound motif. All depends on when fiferboy has time to do the work.

We decided that "Uploaded/Downloaded" was more friendly to newbies than "Received/Transmitted".

No, reset date should not be on the widget.

Yes, I think the name should change since it's really 3G as well.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Sorry, but this looks like clip art circa 1998. I hate saying this when someone was asked to make it, but... It's not to great.

Tim

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Nokia Sans. But, that will sort itself out when the default is used in the code.

Tim

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Personal Dataplan Monitor?
Should be obvious we're not talking about WiFi data here.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

The font is called Nokia Sans. And does it really matter what font the mockup has since the actual font is defined by programming.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Someone already mentioned that, but thanks for the reminder.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

So I took off the extra stuff on the bottom (Average and Reset) and cleaned up some of the spacing

http://mav-media.com/maemo5/dataMoni...Monitor003.jpg

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Nitpick: the units are a bit confusing/misleading. The prefix should be "K" (x 1000) or "Ki" (x 1024) and the base unit should be "B" (I assume the gconf values are in bytes, not bits).

Re: Personal GRPS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Without a contract, you have no excuse or reason to put up with that. There are some decent options listed at http://wiki.maemo.org/Data_plans#United_Kingdom.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Yes. Ideally make it switchable between SI prefixes and binary prefixes and also do some intelligent formatting (switch to MiB/MB and GiB/GB after the counter goes over 1000 [SI prefixes] or 1024 [for binary prefixes]).

(Edit: Just read on that Wikipedia page that for SI units, 1000 is represented by a lowercase "k", so it would be "kB" for SI, but still "KiB" for binary)

Some "cosmetic" issues should also be thought about - do you want to allow different units for both up- and download or do you link them together, so when one switches to mega/mebi, the other does too? Also, do you want to hide trailing zeros after the dot or not? It'd be nice if the dots for both are aligned.

Thinking about this and implementing the formatting right will make the widget look much better :)

A feature request: Add a preference to disable automatic connection to cellular data connections after some limit has been hit. This way, users can usually automatically connect to cellular data, but when some pre-set limit is hit, they have to manually choose to connect to cellular data (until reset, at which point the user should either be asked to re-enabled it or do so automatically).

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

All that is already in there right now.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Thanks for all the replies (while I was sleeping). I will try to address some of them.

As far as units, the numbers are provided in bytes (B) and I do a straight conversion to make a more readable number. Thus for KB I divide by 1000. MB by 1000000. GB by 1000000000. The upload and download could be displayed in different units currently. I have thought it might be a good idea to link them.

As far as having extra data displayed on the widget, I don't think there is an easy and reliable way to get the average rate. I don't have any strong opinion on reset date, but I think it could be handy to some. Maybe a user option to display it?

Fonts and colours are easy to handle programatically. For the title font I use "SystemFont" which follows the theme. For the rest it is "SmallSystemFont". These two fonts are recommended in the Hildon HIG for dekstop widgets. Font colours would be "DefaultFontColor" and "SecondaryFontColor" which are also defined in the theme. Currently I am not using the secondary colour, but I will in the next version.

As for the icon, I will go with the consensus - but anything would be better than the mish-mash icon I made up for the app manager ;)

Edit Oh yes, as for renaming it (again) it would be easy for the app manager and widget itself to display whatever text is chosen. I don't think I will actually rename the package itself, but that would be invisible to 99% of the users.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

I think reset date is important if you add the feature to set some type of limit. Because the limit only makes sense in some type of timeframe (i.e. monthly).

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Here is my list of goals for the next version:

- Use joshua.maverick's layout
- Update icon
- Allow user to choose refresh interval
- Allow user to switch between binary and SI units
- Change the name in the app manager (Personal Dataplan Monitor?)
- Change the title on the app (Dataplan Monitor?)
- Allow the user to display last refresh date if he/she wants

And some features for releases after that:

- Customizable alert levels (with visual and audible warnings)
- Total visual customization (fonts, colours, corner raidus, transparency, etc)

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Our little baby is growing up so fast. :)

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Would you like me to upload a link to the psd?

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Go for it.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

png would be better for me, if you could provide them. 40x40 and 64x64 would be great.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

pngs of which parts? I have everything in folders designed on 800 x 480, header/icon/body/background

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Sorry, should have specified. png of the icon would be a good start. Header, body, and background can more than likely be implemented in code (which would make them more customizable to the user in future).

Thanks

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Okay cool, also, the color for the data numbers, the line below the header and the single pixel stroke around the app, look like they are based on the theme color (i.e. the color of the app menu button in the mock up). Can you also create the black to alpha gradient that goes bottom up on the header?

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

joshua: All that is possible, although it may take some tweaking. It would be very helpful if I had access to a device so I could see how it looked in different themes, but that is neither here nor there.

Maybe once the final SDK is release I will be able to look at how other applets handle it. I assume that it is not just text displayed over a png background, but maybe I am wrong.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Cool man, I was just giving you my input on how I thought things worked, I don't dev for linux/maemo at all, but I do work with web/flash/as3 so I have a bit of knowledge.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

3G makes much more sense than GPRS. A phone (S60, Android, Maemo, ...) says '3G' too when it has the connectivity. It is also shorter, and more akin to speed provided. Otherwise one could call it "$Mobile_Telecom data" e.g. "T-Mobile data".

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

http://mav-media.com/maemo5/dataMoni...Icon001_03.png

the icon is 48x48, why do you need a 60x60 one, or 40x40 for that matter? the ui guidelines and the ovi widget (calendar) icon are 48x48

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

The N900 does not just say 3G... it also says 2G and 2.5G so... doesn't really fit. I still think "Cellular Data Use" is the best.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

The icon on the applet itself is defined as 64x64 in figure 5 here: http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/..._look-and-feel

The icon for the application manager is indeed 48x48 (I thought it was 40x40 for some reason). The field is called XB-Maemo-Icon-26, so it is a little misleading already.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

For package name, yeah, true.

My S60 says 3.5G too, but that just means HS*PA. In my case I will either get 3G or GPRS, and if I get GPRS I am in the middle of nowhere.

The same will be true for those with EDGE. You either got EDGE or GPRS or nothing. And when you have GPRS, that is rather rare and backwards compatiblity. Not something to take seriously into account for the name.

Anyway, it is a sacrifice. Cellular data use is quite long. But accurate.

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

For what it's worth, the N900 instruction manual consistently refers to all cellular data connections as "GPRS". Each connection is also described by one of the following speed classes:

GSM (2G), EDGE (2.5G), 3G (3G) or HSPA (3.5G).

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

64x64 icon

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

It's weird though, that icon (64x64) is substantially larger than the one on the calendar. Am I misunderstanding something?

Re: Personal GPRS Monitor for Fremantle
 

Maybe they changed the calendar design since that HIG was written. I will see how it looks.

Thanks