WiFi File Explorer Port Number Change for Amazon Version

Anyone that uses a Kindle Fire and recently had a Fire OS update may have noticed that after applying the system update and then trying to use WiFi File Explorer, the app got stuck on 'Starting...' and never got itself going.

The reason for this is that WiFi File Explorer uses port 8000 to serve on, which is generally unused on most Android devices. However, it appears that Amazon has chosen that same port 8000 for another service on the Fire OS since the last update, and so when WiFi File Explorer tries to use it, it is unable to and so fails to start properly.

By the time you read this there should be a new update available to WiFi File Explorer which changes the default port number to 8001 (which is unused) and so allows the app to operate correctly again.  You can also go into the app settings and configure this number yourself if you are having troubles before you get the update.

This applies to the Amazon version of WiFi File Explorer; so even if you don't have a Kindle Fire, but you downloaded the app onto your Android device from Amazon, then this port number change to 8001 will affect you as well next time you go to use the app.

So just remember: if you downloaded WiFi File Explorer from Amazon, then next time you go to type in the web address to use the app in a web browser, double check that you are typing in the correct address - it should now end with 8001.

SECuRET is Back!

It's been a while, but SECuRET is back and available to download on the Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore!

This is an improved version called SECuRET ProCam and it combines the best features from the previous iterations of the three SECuRET applications into just one super-app.

SECuRET has always been a complex camera app that provides motion detection and live streaming functionality. It was initially developed in the early days of Android when phones and tablets were much less powerful than they are today meaning cramming everything into one app and have it perform well was nearly impossible. It was this that led the functionality to be spread across separate apps that all worked together to provide a genuine camera security solution.

However, we are now in a time when our Android devices are much more powerful than those early days and this is why we can offer all these features in just one app now - SECuRET ProCam. There are also some new features that have been added or have replaced older features that had stopped working:

• This is the big one... you can now motion detect and live stream at the same time!
• As well as Dropbox support, there is now support to sync your captures with Google Drive.
• A refresh of the look-and-feel along with new app icons.
• No more support for email or Twitter uploads as these have been replaced by the Dropbox/Drive functionality.
• No more reliance on Java applet support in order to stream video to web browsers.
• MJPEG support, so you can stream to other media players.
• Performance improvements in live streaming and receiving.

Hopefully you'll enjoy these new features and appreciate having it all in just one application now. It should be simpler to use now and give you more for your investment. If you'd already downloaded the app previously known as SECuRET SpyCam, then this update will arrive free of charge as a regular update. If you only owned other versions of SECuRET then you will have to purchase this new version of SECuRET ProCam. And as before, there's a free demo version to try out that is time-limited, low resolution and black & white.

After taking a break from active development of my Android apps for a while, hopefully this update is well received and I can go on to add more features to SECuRET ProCam. I certainly have a long list of ideas that have been sent to me by the enthusiastic SECuRET users over the years!

Drag-and-Drop File Uploads in WiFi File Explorer

You are now able to upload files via WiFi File Explorer by using drag-and-drop. The old upload box on the web user interface has been updated to display an area that allows you to drag-and-drop the files you want to upload, to make it quicker and more efficient to transfer files from your computer to your Android device.

So just drag the files from your computer onto the new area labelled "Drop Here" and your files will immediately upload. You can still use the "Select Files" button if you wish to navigate to your files in the more traditional way.

Aside from being a more convenient way of transferring files, another benefit of this update is that is no longer relies on Flash plugins to handle the upload; instead it uses HTML5 and JavaScript. This means that some older web browser may not support the drag-and-drop mechanism, so you should use the "Select Files" button instead... or get a better web browser! As Flash plugins become more and more obsolete, this update helps to future proof WiFi File Explorer as Flash will eventually become unsupported.

Let me know if you have any issues with the new drag-and-drop feature - it's a lot of new code, so there could be bugs I am yet to find through my own testing.

Also, there's a new tidied up and higher resolution icon, and a new font for the logo title, as you can see in the image above.

SD Card Write Access Returns to WiFi File Explorer

Long time users of WiFi File Explorer may remember back in the olden days where you could actually write to the SD card in your Android device - crazy stuff, huh? You'll also remember when Android 4.4 was released and ruined that blissful utopia, taking away SD card write access, meaning a lot of file operations in WiFi File Explorer (and other file-based apps) stopped working as they used to, like upload, delete, rename, etc.

Android 5.0 addresses this to a degree and once again allows SD card write access to third party apps, albeit in a rather convoluted way. The user must grant an app access to a particular area of storage using a folder chooser dialog which is presented via the Android OS. I'll take you through those steps in relation to WiFi File Explorer so that you can once again manage the SD card using the app. Remember though, this only applies to devices running Android 5.0+ and the latest version of WiFi File Explorer; it will not fix the issue on Android 4.4 devices.

Advanced Settings in SECuRET SpyCam

It's long overdue that I detailed exactly what some of the Advanced Settings in SECuRET SpyCam actually do.

They can appear quite cryptic, so hopefully these explanations will make sense and allow you to configure the app for your particular needs. One thing worth pointing out on that subject is that there is no one "perfect configuration"; every single scene is different, so you have to experiment with each setting to find the right balance for you.

All the settings can be found in the app under Settings > Advanced:

Detections For Trigger
This number represents the number of frames in a row that must contain motion in order for a motion trigger to be fired, and therefore perform a capture. So if you want to detect motion that is more pronounced, set this to a higher value so you can be sure some genuine and interesting motion occurred. For example, if you set this to 10 then each of 10 successive frames from the camera input must contain motion in order for a picture (or video) to be taken.

Processing Scale
Each frame from the camera contains lots of pixels to process, so it is wise to scale this down in order to speed up processing. So lowering this value makes the frame to be processed more pixelated (you can see this on the Mini-Preview within the app as the camera is running) and thus means less processing time/power. It also means the frame contains less information so you risk missing the more subtle motions in the scene (although this of course might be a good thing for your needs). So if you want to process faster and become less accurate, set this to a lower value.

Sensitivity
How sensitive to motion the app is. Can't say more than that really!

Frame Delay
The gap between the frames that actually get processed. So rather than processing every available frame, only process the available frame every certain amount of milliseconds. Similar to Processing Scale, this means less processing time/power needed to run the app. Of course it also means that you can catch more prolonged motion to cause a trigger. For example, you could set this to be 1000ms and Detections For Trigger to be 10 which would mean only motion that has occurred for roughly 10 seconds (10 x 1000ms) would take a photo (or video).

Gaussian
This smooths out the current frame to be processed in order to reduce noise in the picture. It means slightly more processing time/power is required though, which is the trade off for using this setting.

So combine these settings to match the needs of your scene. However, there is no combination of settings that I know of that can ignore the motion of trees - the app can't distinguish between what type of object is actually moving, so there is no "Ignore Trees" setting I am afraid... all you can do is try adjusting these settings to try and lessen the amount of times moving trees to cause a trigger. A moving tree is motion after all!

SECuRET LiveStream, BabyCam Monitor and Java Security Settings

Some users will likely be experiencing problems using both SECuRET LiveStream and BabyCam Monitor due to the latest security features of Java. Both SECuRET LiveStream and BabyCam Monitor use Java Applets running inside the web browser to provide the video and audio feeds directly from your Android device. When you try and access the web page served up from either app, you will now likely see this popup error message:

The problem is that the apps act like mini web servers running on your Android device, i.e. you aren't connecting to a remote web server on the internet, but rather a local web server on your Android device. Java does not recognise the location of your local web server and is presented with no certificate to verify it, and now that Java is more strict in the latest versions, it blocks the app from running.

The way around this is to add the web address given to you by either SECuRET LiveStream or BabyCam Monitor to a list of security exceptions in the Java Settings. This implies that you trust the source of the Java Applet as you know the source is a local web server on your Android device as part of either SECuRET LiveStream or BabyCam Monitor.

In Windows, the settings can be found by going to the Windows Control Panel > Java > Security tab and then add the web address given to you by either SECuRET LiveStream or BabyCam Monitor to the Exception Site List, e.g. something that looks like http://192.168.0.3:8000.

You can also set the Java Security Level slider (on the same Security tab as the Exception Site List) down to medium and this should have the same effect, but may be less secure when browsing the regular internet.

Then you should be able to initialise either SECuRET LiveStream or BabyCam Monitor and have them work as expected.

Please let me know if you need more assistance or have any concerns with performing this workaround.

Emails Not Sending in SECuRET SpyCam: SMTP Errors

Common errors when trying to send automatic emails of your photo captures in SECuRET SpyCam are "SMTP error 535" or "SMTP error 534". You will receive notification of this error within the app via a popup message stating the "Capture could NOT be emailed!" along with the error details.

SMTP error 535 means your login credentials are incorrect, so please ensure you have entered the correct details into the app settings. The settings you must verify are in Settings > General > Photo Settings > Email, and then in the Login section please enter you full Gmail address and case sensitive password.

SMTP error 534 is supposed to mean the message is too big, however I have seen this fixed in two ways not relating to file size. First is to double check your login credentials as described above for SMTP error 535. The other is that you may have 2 factor authentication enabled on your Google Account and the protocol within the app used to send the email is not capable of handling that, hence you may need to disable it on your Google Account if you wish to use this functionality. You may find that is what also causes SMTP error 535 in some cases.

Essentially, if you receive either of these SMTP error messages, please double check you Gmail login credentials and ensure you are not using 2 factor authentication. If you receive any other SMTP errors, simply perform a Google search ("SMTP error nnn") for that particular error code.

A Break From Active Development

After almost 4 years of developing my Android applications, I am now taking a break from active development of WiFi File Explorer, SECuRET & BabyCam. I'll still be making critical bug fixes as they arise as well as any other necessary maintenance with new Android releases and techniques, but I will not be implementing any new features or requests from users.

I still welcome ideas being sent to me and I keep a to-do list for when/if I do return to actively developing my applications. As more and more people request the same thing, features change in priority on that to-do list until it becomes immediately apparent what I should do next. So thanks for all your ideas that I still frequently receive and they all get duly noted, but as I alluded to, there is no guarantee as to when/if that feature will get implemented.

After spending all that free time developing my applications over the last 4 years, it is now the right time to take a step back, reflect on what I have achieved and enjoy the fruits of my labour. Hopefully I will return to those applications in due time, but for now I am happy concentrating on other projects and spending more time with family and friends!

Free Space - Internal Vs. External Storage

WiFi File Explorer displays a number of statistics in the top right corner of its web UI; battery, WiFi signal and free space. The free space on the device is shown via two filled bars representing the external and internal storage, as well as the actual numerical figures underneath.

The confusion lies in what these actually mean; what is the external and internal storage - flash? SD card? Internal memory? Connected drives? Well, that differs depending on the device and the version of Android, so it's quite a hard question to answer. Basically, those free space statistics are retrieved from the Android OS using a couple of lines of code that are supposed to give the "external" and "internal" storage for the system. Because each Android device may implement its storage solution in a different way, depending on the device manufacturer and version of Android, you may find that what the Android OS thinks of as being external, you may think of as internal, or vice versa. Or it may show the same statistics for external and internal. Or you may not have external, yet it tells you that you do. Confusing, huh? I know... my Nexus 4 does not have what I consider to be external storage, i.e. an SD card, yet it tells me that I have 5.67GB of internal storage AND 5.67GB of external storage.

What's even more confusing is that on my old Nexus S and many other devices I have owned over the years, it would give exactly the statistics I would have expected for external and internal storage. The moral of the story is that those couple of lines of code to retrieve these statistics work on some devices, but don't make an awful lot of sense on others. And as far as I know, because of the many different ways storage is implemented across all Android devices, there is no other universal way that should give accurate readings for external and internal storage.

So it's that old Android case of "works on some, but not on all, and some is better than none". If any developers know of a better way of retrieving these statistics, please get in contact with me and let me know.

The Ping Test

A number of my applications (WiFi File Explorer, SECuRET LiveStream and BabyCam Monitor) are all web server based applications (i.e. your Android device acts as a mini web server).  They start up and then prompt you to enter a web address into a web browser on a device on the same network to access the web interface.  Simple enough, but a common problem users email be about is not being able to connect to the application when they actually go to enter the address they have been given.

There are a number of reasons this can happen, and I have already listed out most of those at an article I wrote here at this link.  It's a very useful article and I'd urge you to read it, especially since there are many useful comments from users that have solved the problem in different ways.  However, it's over two years old now, and since writing it I have become better at recognising the cause of problem and finding a much quicker way for you to diagnose it.  So before reading the article linked to above, please read the following...

By far and away, the most common cause of not being able to contact the app when entering the address is simply that your network/router is not configured correctly.  The easy way to determine this is to perform a ping test and the results of this will confirm that or not.  If you don't now how to ping, then read this article.  So just ping the IP address of your Android device from your PC (search Google for how to find out your particular Android device's IP address) and if you don't get a reply, then we can say for certain that your network is not allowing communications between your PC and Android device.  And because these apps all use your local network, this will prevent them from being accessed... so not the apps fault at all!!  If you do get a reply, then your network appears to be OK, and so go back to reading the original article I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

More than likely though, you didn't get a reply in your ping test and the devices can't communicate on your particular network.  In that case, I am afraid it is up to you to figure out what is up with your router/network.  I can't really support you in this case because I have no idea what your network is set up for or what your particular use case for it is, not to mention the many different types of routers on the market than I am not familiar with (I usually forget how to use even my own router!), so I am in no position to offer expert support.  I can however say that a lot of users (more than you probably think) "fix" the issue simply by switching the router off and back on again (I know, right!).  Another common cause can be that you have "Wireless Isolation" (or something named similarly - basically, preventing wireless devices from communicating) enabled on your router, so check that option on your router settings.  Beyond that, I am sure a quick search on Google ("can't ping ip address") will yield enough results to help solve your network configuration problem (that's what I would do anyway).

Hopefully I have provided enough information between this article and the article here for you to be able to support yourself on this one, but if you are still stuck after that or your just need help understanding anything I have already written about, then please feel free to contact me again and I'll try to give you some personal support as soon as I am available.

There Are Just Some Things I Can't Help You With

If you are reading this, then more than likely I have just sent you here after you have emailed me for some support.  Now, I hope you don't think I am being rude or lazy, but sometimes I am just not in a position to help with your request - it's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that in this situation, I can't.

More often than not, the reason I can't help you is because you have asked about something to do with the actual purchasing and downloading of one of my applications from one of the various app stores they are available from.  So you could be having trouble completing the order, or maybe you are getting an error from the app store when you try and download, or perhaps you are being told the app store can't verify your purchase.  The fact is that I am an independent developer and so can only support my own applications; I don't work for any of the app stores and so I don't know how any of those systems work from a users point of view.  Therefore, I can't offer support for them and can only suggest to you to contact the support team for that particular app store.

There is one small exception in that for the Google Play Store, if you provide me with an order number, I can actually see the status of your order (and refund it if necessary).  So if you'd like me to do that then I am more than happy to; just email me with the order number and I'll see if I can help you out.  But also remember that you can see the information you need yourself simply by logging into your Google Wallet account online and looking at your transaction history.  I am afraid I can't offer the same service for any of the other app stores because I just don't have access to that information on an individual order basis.

Another typical reason you may have ended up here is that you are asking questions relating to the general operation of a particular device.  I only have a handful of Android devices myself, so although I may be able to answer a few questions, you are far better off contacting the manufacturer's support team for that particular device.

So sorry I can't be of more help to you in this situation, but hopefully this has prompted you to contact the support team that can resolve your issue in the quickest way possible.  Of course, you may still think I can help you, so please don't hesitate to contact me again and I'll see what I can do.  But just remember, I can only support my own applications... I may occasionally be able to help beyond that in some situations where my applications are a factor, but you are most likely reading this blog post because I already think I am not best person to contact for your issue.

The Dreaded "Server (IO) Error"

Occasionally, there are times when trying to upload a file using WiFi File Explorer PRO that the file won't upload.  If your eyes are in the right place of the screen (the upload section, on the box representing the file to be uploaded) and you are quick enough (before the page refreshes) you may just see the words "Server (IO) Error" and wonder just what on earth that means.

Well, it's a bit of a generic error and as you can see, not very descriptive on its own.  But luckily it only actually occurs in a handful of situations, and after reading descriptions of those below, you should be able to quickly work out which one refers to what you are doing.

So here are the ways in which you can cause the "Server (IO) Error":

1. You are attempting to upload to a read-only area of storage.  Remember that not everywhere you can view on your Android device's storage can be written to (even if you are rooted, as WiFi File Explorer does not support root operations).  If you are unsure of what areas are read-only or not, then I suggest searching the internet for information relating to your device as it can vary greatly.  Also, remember some SD cards have a read-only physical slider on the actual SD card itself and this may have been accidentally (or purposefully) switched on.

2. Your storage is full, or, you would fill it if you upload that particular file.  Not much to explain here other than to check how much storage you are using and delete as necessary if that is the issue.

3. You are uploading a file bigger than 4GB.  I am afraid that is the limit that the Flash plugin used to upload the files is able to handle (perhaps linked to the limit of a FAT32 based file system).

4. Your storage is not correctly mounted.  This doesn't just mean physically mounted correctly into the device, but also logically by the Android OS.  Switching the device off and back on again should ensure it is logically mounted again correctly, but it could also be another app doing something strange to it.

The only other time someone has reported this error, but unrelated to the scenarios above, was to do with his particular Flash installation.  He could get it working on one PC, but not the other.  However, this is purely anecdotal and I can't confirm the validity of his claim that it was to do with the Flash install.  It may be worth bearing in mind though if you can't link the error to any of the descriptions above, so perhaps try updating to the latest version of Flash.

And as always, if you still have trouble after reading this, then please feel free to email me for personal support.

Update: After updating your device to Android 4.4 (KitKat), you may find that you are no longer able to perform some functionality on the external SD card that you were previously.  This is because some device manufacturers have not changed the default behavior of Android 4.4 which is to not allow write operations to the external SD card (see point 1 above).  This "bug" is particularly evident on Samsung devices and I have no information on whether Samsung plan to address it in future Android updates or not.

SECuRET SpyCam Video Recording Length

One of the settings that is often questioned by users of SECuRET SpyCam is the Video Recording Length.  It specifies the length of the time you want to record for when you are capturing videos based on a motion trigger occurring.  So for example, the app detects a motion and then it will capture a video for 5 minutes, at which point it will stop and then resume to processing and detecting motion.

The first thing I should point out is why it has to be based on a length of time at all; why can't it just stop recording a video when the motion has stopped?  Well, the reason for that is simply that it is not possible to perform the motion processing on each individual frame coming in from the camera at the same time as video is recording - the two events are mutually exclusive.  So we can't detect when motion has stopped; instead we have to record for the length of time that we think we are going to expect, based on the scene you are detecting motion in.

The range of time you can set the Video Recording Length to be is from 5 seconds to 10 minutes.  So then why is the maximum only 10 minutes - that isn't as long as I want to record for?  Well, firstly there has to be a maximum of some kind, otherwise if it were unlimited there is potential for major problems.  Imagine if you had the ability to set the recording time to infinite, i.e. keep going until there is no storage left.  Sounds like a good idea on paper, but what if you intended to monitor for a very long time (a couple of days maybe) and in the first few seconds of monitoring someone just walked past the camera for a couple of seconds and then nothing else happened   Nothing at all for the next 24 hours.  What are you going to get?  A video of someone walking across the screen and then, depending on how much storage you had left, a really long, boring video of a completely still and uninteresting scene.  Then, when something does actually happen of interest on the second day, you have no storage left to record that all important piece of motion you were trying to detect.

So, the maximum of 10 minutes is there as it feels like a sensible amount of time to expect motion to be occurring or not.  In one video, at best you get 10 minutes of constant motion or at worst you only get 9 minutes and 59 seconds of stillness.  But the beauty of it is that after 10 minutes, if motion is still occurring in your scene, then it will trigger again and start recording another video, and another after that and so on, and so on.  In practice then, the Video Recording Length settings is of little consequence as it will essentially keep recording video for as long as motion is occurring and there is ample storage left - as long as motion is occurring  you will be sure to capture it (albeit over multiple video files).

I hope that clears up the confusion over the limit of the Video Recording Length and why it even exists in the first place.  It basically protects the amount of storage you are using in the most efficient way possible and ensures you don't miss a thing - you can record as much motion as possible and as little stillness as possible.

But I HAVE Already Upgraded!

A common problem when upgrading from the free version of WiFi File Explorer to the paid PRO version is that users try to use one of the features in the PRO version but they are told they still need to upgrade. Typically, this involves trying to perform an upload after upgrading (which is only available in the PRO version) and the user again receives a message saying they need to upgrade to use this functionality.

"But I HAVE Already Upgraded!"

Yes, you have, and you haven't been conned out of money or tricked into paying for something that doesn't exist, or any of the other nonsense I have been accused of over the years. The truth is that if you see this message then you are most likely still using the free version by accident. The other explanation is that your order failed on the Google Play Store (or other app store) and you haven't yet upgraded to the PRO version, so always check that as the first thing.

So assuming that your order was successful and you have paid for the PRO version and you are suffering from this problem, the first thing to do is to uninstall the free version. Like I mentioned earlier, you are most likely still running the free version and that's probably my fault for calling it an "upgrade"; that can imply that you are just adding something to the free version, but it's actually a separate app you are upgrading to. So, as you don't need the free version any more, uninstall it from your Android device (the free version has a white WiFi symbol on the icon and the PRO version has an orange WiFi symbol on the icon with the word "PRO" at the end of the app name) and then you know for certain that when you do run the app it is definitely 100% the PRO version you are running.

And just to make doubly sure that everything is working, close your web browser if you already had WiFi File Explorer open in it while suffering from this problem. It may be that the web page currently in the web browser was one that was served while you were running the free version, so just to make sure it isn't left in there or the cache, close it down and start it up again ready to use with the PRO version.

So very simply:

1) Check your order was successful and you have upgraded to the PRO version;
2) Uninstall the free version;
3) Close your web browser;
4) Start the PRO version (and as you uninstalled the free version, you know you are definitely launching the PRO version);
5) Start your web browser again and enter the address given to you by the app... and enjoy the PRO version!


As always, any questions or if it still isn't working, please contact me at pauldyble82@gmail.com.

Aaaaannnnnd... That's 100,000 Applications Sold!

Over the weekend I managed to pass another massive milestone on the Android development odyssey on which I embarked almost 3 years ago now... as the title and picture imply, I have now managed to sell paid apps (i.e., people actually parting with money!) to the tune of 100,000 units.  And that's just on the Google Play Store - my apps have sold thousands of copies on the Amazon Appstore, SlideME, AndroidPIT, GetJar and even on BlackBerry App World!

I'm extremely proud of that figure and it was certainly not a goal I even dreamed to set myself when I started.  I was surprised when I got to 10,000 and even more surprised when I got to 50,000, so 100,000 apps sold is something I never even imagined I would achieve when I started.

Not quite sure how I got to this landmark and I feel very lucky.  Actually, I do know how I got here, and it wasn't just dumb luck; spending hours of my free time coding away and answering support email after support email at every hour of the day... basically, blood, sweat and tears.  But it's not all bad of course, I've had lots of fun along the way and had the chance to meet some fantastic people who have really helped me out... and a lot of the time they do it for absolutely free.

So what now then?  Press on to chase the next 100,000 sales?  Errr, no thanks!!  As fun and rewarding as it is, the stresses and the pressure of dealing with so many users is not something I really want to have on my shoulders - this is all in my spare time still and I have a full time job and parenting responsibilities to consider.  Checking comments and reviews everyday, looking at my sales statistics, dealing with users that have no right to own a "smart" phone... I am trying to share some of those responsibilities, but still, these are all things that have taken over my life and my free time, and I quite frankly would like my life and my free time back.

And I have already started distancing myself from it for the last few months.  If you have one of my apps, then you have probably noticed that rather than an update every couple of weeks, it's now more like every couple of months.  I also don't (or rarely) obsessively check the comments and reviews for my apps any more - although the majority of them are good, the needlessly abusive ones are just not worth even looking at.  I also have no idea where my apps sit in the charts now, whereas before I would check it pretty much daily.

So I haven't exactly quit - I still support the apps and I have just released a load of cool new features (with some more to come in a couple of weeks)  - but I am certainly sitting back and letting the hard work I have already put in propel it all from now on as it starts to tail off.  I have achieved and experienced more than I had hoped for already, so put it this way, I wouldn't be (too) upset if it all stopped tomorrow...

... but it won't, and this Android stuff can be dangerously addictive.  I hope to receive the new Nexus 7 in a couple of days and I may end up getting a whole new wave of motivation when I get that in my hands.  I am also working on a couple of genuine business opportunities based on the technology in my apps that is away from the model of selling them on app stores, and this is certainly where I have a greater interest now and is where I will focus my energy.  They may fizzle out to nothing, and I get contacted all the time about possibly using something I have written in some fantastic new Android-based product, but the projects I am working on at the moment seem to have real potential... and even if they do fizzle out, it's actually pleasant to be doing some work which isn't rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars for once!

There's also a project coming up in my full time job where I will need to develop a fairly complex Android app, so it all seems to have been beneficial and worthwhile learning how to develop Android apps in the first place.  So although I am winding down my activity with selling Android apps for a handful of pennies on various app stores, it certainly looks like green robots are going to be entwined with my professional and personal life for a good while longer, be it playing with my new Nexus 7 or writing apps in my real job.

And all this because I decided one lunchtime, in an unusual rush of motivation, that I should stop wasting time reading gadget websites and actually try doing something for myself.  Who'd have thought it, eh!?

Dropbox Support in SECuRET SpyCam

SECuRET SpyCam has recently been updated to provide Dropbox support so that you can automatically upload your captures to your Dropbox account.   For those that aren’t aware, Dropbox is a service that is free to use and allows you to store you files in the cloud so they can be accessible anywhere on a variety of devices, both mobile and desktop.

The exciting thing is, this applies to all captures; photos and videos at all resolutions!  Now, that may not seem that exciting to you at first, but to users who used older versions of SECuRET SpyCam, the only option to automatically send your captures somewhere other than the SD card was to either email or Tweet them... and due to restrictions in both mechanisms, this was limited to only lower resolution photos.

So with this new Dropbox support allowing you to upload photos and videos at all resolutions, this will be a really useful addition for anyone that wants to view their captures remotely.  As the main use case for SECuRET SpyCam is to hide or position your Android device running the app somewhere where you are not able to directly use it, this ability to view all types of captures without having to wait until you recover your device from its hiding place will prove invaluable.

For example, you can position your device somewhere you want to monitor something valuable, like the amazing triple-decker sandwich you just made.  Set SECuRET SpyCam up to record videos on motion detection and enable the Dropbox support to automatically upload your files, and then wait.  You’ll now be able to sit and watch for a video to appear in your Dropbox account of that pesky housemate who keeps stealing your food tucking into your sandwich as they are doing it – caught in the act!  Obviously you would eat the delicious sandwich yourself before anyone else had the chance in this scenario, but I am sure you can think up your own scenarios, depending on what you are spying on!

How do you set it up then?  Easy - just go to General settings in the app and scroll down to the bottom.  Make sure you have Save Captures ticked so that your captures are saved to the device storage, and then click on Dropbox.  Here you can enable the automatic uploads and link your Dropbox account, and if you don’t have a Dropbox account already there is a handy link to sign up from within the app.  Now when you start the app and any motion triggered captures occur, they will upload to your Dropbox account into the SECuRETSpyCam directory which is in the Apps directory.  If you have Dropbox installed on your PC then you can see these new captures appear moments after they have occurred (depending on your network speed of course).

I think this is a really great addition and helps cement SECuRET SpyCam’s position as the ultimate security camera for Android.  I hope you find some interesting ways to use it and I am always keen to hear from users how they are using the app and if they managed to catch any criminals with it, so please contact me if you do.

WiFi File Explorer for Beginners

I sometimes forget that even though many people praise WiFi File Explorer for its simplicity and ease of use, it can actually be pretty confusing and daunting for some people to understand.  Things are only easy when you know how, so let me explain the basics behind the app so users of all abilities can make use of WiFi File Explorer.

Usually, to manage the files on your Android device (like copying photos you've taken to your PC or transferring some MP3s to your phone), you would dig out your cable and plug it into your PC.  In essence, WiFi File Explorer lets you accomplish this but without the cable!

You start by ensuring that your Android device and the PC you want to transfer files to/from are both on the same WiFi network, for example your home WiFi network.  Once they are, simply start the WiFi File Explorer app on your Android device and assuming you are connected to a WiFi network it will popup a message that gives you a web address to enter into a web browser.  At this point, go to your PC on the same WiFi network and enter that web address into your web browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc).  Make sure you enter this address exactly as the app tells you and ensure you enter it into the address bar, not into a search box.

Once you have done this, you are presented with a web page (like the one in the screenshot above) that lists all the files and directories on your Android device.  It is a pretty familiar concept to the one you are used to in other file managers such as Explorer on Windows, so it should be fairly intuitive how to use it.  As it is a web page, to transfer files from the Android device to the PC the term ‘download’ is used, and this can be achieved by either clicking the arrow to the left of the file name you want to transfer to your PC or by clicking several check boxes of files you want to transfer and then hitting the Download button.  Files are then downloaded to your PC just like when you download a file from any other web page and they are stored in the downloads directory of your PC or wherever your web browser usually saves downloads.  Conversely, to transfer a file from your PC to your Android device the term ‘upload’ is used, and this can be achieved by using the upload box to the right of the web page.  Simply select some files to upload from your PC and hit the Upload button to transfer those files to the current directory of the Android device you are viewing on the web page.

So once you have got to grips with this basic method of transferring files it should be fairly easy to work out how to do other things, like deleting files, creating new directories, moving groups of files around.  Then you can dig into more advanced features, such as setting music files as ringtones, viewing a slideshow of pictures, installing app files and setting your Android device’s wallpaper.

Finally, just to explain how the app technically works if you are interested... It actually works by setting up a small web server directly on your Android device.  This web server is confined to only the WiFi network you are on and can only be accessed by people that know the web address it is using; so don’t worry – it is NOT a publicly accessible web site.  You can also go into the app settings and set up a password to make it even more secure.  So when WiFi File Explorer gives you a web address to enter, that web address is actually made up of the IP address and port number of your Android device on your WiFi network.  And then when you connect to that web address via your PC web browser, you are connecting directly to the small web server running on your Android device (no external servers used at all and all the data is local, so you don’t get charged for any data usage).  This is presented as a set of web pages that allow you to manage your files, which is WiFi File Explorer!

I hope that helps people get into WiFi File Explorer and to understand a little about how it works so they can safely and efficiently use the app to manage their files without the need of a cable.  And please do not hesitate to email me with any further questions about the basics (or advanced features) of WiFi File Explorer.

WiFi File Explorer & the Toshiba Thrive

Some WiFi File Explorer users are finding that they experience some unexpected errors when using the app on the Toshiba Thrive Android tablet, particularly when uploading a file to the external SD card they receive a “Server I/O error” and the upload fails.  This also applies to some other devices as well, such as the WiFi US Motorola Xoom and hopefully I can use this post to explain why...

Update: I have been informed this post also applies to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.

Many Android devices today have both internal flash memory for data storage and also an external SD card to extend that amount of storage.  Most of the time, both these areas of storage have full read and write access and so using WiFi File Explorer to upload and manage your files is no problem at all.  However, in the case of the Toshiba Thrive and WiFi US Motorola Xoom, the SD card is actually read-only when it is mounted in the device.  This means that apps can read from the SD card quite happily, but whenever an app tries to write to the SD card it will cause an error.  Fear not though, as the internal flash memory is still writeable, so you can fully utilise WiFi File Explorer with this area of storage.

So because of this, it means features in WiFi File Explorer like uploading, copying and moving files (basically anything that requires that the SD card be written to) will not work when attempting to do so on the external SD card.  In the case of the Toshiba Thrive there is one exception to this in that only the file manager app that comes pre-installed on the device will actually grant write access to the external SD card.  So there is a workaround in that you can upload a file to the internal flash memory using WiFi File Explorer and then use the pre-installed file manager app to move the file to the external SD card – a bit or a pain, but it works!

At the time of writing, I don’t know any other devices that suffer from this problem, but please leave a comment below if you discover any to inform other users.  I believe that by default in Android this is how Google have engineered it (hence why the WiFi US Motorola Xoom suffers from the problem as it is a Google Experience Device) because they have always envisaged Android devices only needing one area of main storage that needs to be written to by apps, but obviously other device manufacturers have had different ideas.  It may change in the future via an OS update (surely Toshiba will address this with the Thrive as I have seen lots of complaints about this in various forums), but for now this is how it is.

Managing Your Media With WiFi File Explorer

Most of the time when people are using WiFi File Explorer to transfer and manage files, it is often related to media-type files; MP3s, pictures, movies, etc.  This means it is quite important to understand just how Android manages those files so that they appear in the applications that use them, like the Gallery and Music applications.

So it basically all revolves around a media scanner within the Android OS that scans the file system for media-type files, and then adds any it finds to the media database on your Android device, or removes any from it that no longer exist.  This media database can then be used by Android applications to determine what media is stored in the file system and then use it within those applications, so for example, the Gallery can show all the pictures you have.

Typically, this media scanner only kicks into life when the Android device is switched on or if you take the SD card out and then slot it back in.  But also, applications can invoke the media scanner whenever they need to and WiFi File Explorer just so happens to be one of those applications!  So whenever you upload, delete, rename, copy, unzip or move a file using WiFi File Explorer it will set the media scanner off on that file so that the media database is kept bang up-to-date at all times.  So unlike some other file management applications, if you were to upload a picture to your Android device from your computer using WiFi File Explorer, it will be instantly viewable in the Gallery application ... some other file management applications don't do this so you have to turn your Android device off and on again, or take the SD card and slot it back in again ... what a pain!

In addition to perfectly and automatically managing the media database on your Android device, there are some other options in WiFi File Explorer to give you greater control over it where required.  Firstly, you have the Rescan Media button which forces the media scanner to go and rescan all the files on your device in case they have become out of sync with the media database for any reason.  And secondly, you have the the Hide Media or Unhide Media button which will either add or delete a ".nomedia" file in the current directory.  By adding this ".nomedia" file to a directory it tells the media scanner not to add any of the media in this directory to the media database, so if you had some audio files in a certain directory that you didn't want appearing in the Music application then just click the Hide Media button and they will no longer appear in the media database and so won't litter your Music application any longer.  Useful huh?  This could also be helpful if you wanted certain pictures to not show up in the Gallery application, depending on what you take pictures of ;)

But of course you don't just want to manage your media using WiFi File Explorer, you also want to consume it.  WiFi File Explorer gives you a number of ways to do this so that you can stream your media from your Android device into your web browser.  If you click the file name link of any media-type file, it will open up via the web browser into your media player of choice to directly start streaming.  Or, you can click the Media Playlist button which will give you a playlist file to open in your favourite media player on your computer so you can play a whole album from your Android device on your computer for example.  Warning: If you use the Media Playlist button, make sure you turn off the password functionality otherwise the media player using the playlist file won't be allowed access to the files via WiFi File Explorer!  

Also, if you click on the file name link or the thumbnail of a picture (or click the Slideshow button) it will bring up the Gallery Viewer which allows you to quickly scroll through all the pictures in that directory, or just hit the Play button and sit back to a slideshow of all those pictures streamed directly into your web browser.

Finally, with regards to the media database, WiFi File Explorer lets you view the contents of that database by simply clicking the Picture, Video or Music icons to the left in the top navigation bar of the web UI.   This then allows you to see, for example, all the pictures that are on your Android device regardless of which directory they may be in, just like the Gallery application on the Android device itself.  Very handy!

See, you didn't even know all that was happening in the background, and now you can see just what a good job WiFi File Explorer does with regards to your media database without you even realising.  I hope this gives you enough information so that you can go and fully enjoy all the features to get the best out of the media on your Android device.

HTC Thunderbolt Not Recording High Resolution Videos After Gingerbread Update

A few users have contacted me recently stating that after upgrading their HTC Thunderbolt to the latest Gingerbread (Android 2.3) update they can no longer record videos using my camera applications (SECuRET SpyCam/LiveStream/RemoteControl & BabyCam Monitor).  Everything worked perfectly beforehand with Froyo (Android 2.2) but specifically the Gingerbread update seems to have broken something; nothing at all had changed in my camera applications.

The good news is that video recording hasn't been completely broken in my camera applications running on the HTC Thunderbolt!  You can still record using the Low and Default resolutions - just go to Settings -> General -> Video Settings and change the Video Resolution.  It appears that HTC have just broken the High resolution setting.


If you look at the API you can see that Android specify that "Quality levels QUALITY_LOW, QUALITY_HIGH are guaranteed to be supported, while other levels may or may not be supported. "

It seems HTC forgot to adhere to this rule in their Gingerbread update for the Thunderbolt :(

I have done some testing and tried to work around this bug, but I really can't seem to find a solution.  So if you are finding that after the Gingerbread update you can no longer use the High resolution video recording option, I can only suggest that you complain to HTC customer services and report the bug with them and just continue using my applications using the Default or Low resolution settings.  If you have only just bought one of my camera applications and you are running it for the first time on the Gingerbread update then just email me and I can of course process a refund for you.