Android Live Scores

[FlyersKid]

That was my first thought also, but we decided that a couple well placed 1x2s would be easier to see at a glance and also much easier to develop. We talked about maybe including a 1x4 with some scroll buttons in a later release.

It'll work for the time being, it wont stop me from using live scores. But, I will be looking for that 1x4 widget in the future . Any timetable on the next release???? just asking.

Also, I believe i've found one more bug. In the "mlb", I can hit menu and select stats. I cant find that button in any other sport. I was just doing some browsing to find sergei bobrovsky's stats in the NHL and couldnt locate it.

 

[aarontharris]

It'll work for the time being, it wont stop me from using live scores. But, I will be looking for that 1x4 widget in the future . Any timetable on the next release???? just asking.

Also, I believe i've found one more bug. In the "mlb", I can hit menu and select stats. I cant find that button in any other sport. I was just doing some browsing to find sergei bobrovsky's stats in the NHL and couldnt locate it.

Only MLB stats at the moment. That was a one-off feature we added for MLB and then hadn't gotten around to implementing it for other sports... YET.

Next release is planned to be in 2-3 weeks - but sometimes things don't go according to plan - so far we're on track.

 

[Dusan]

This app is so cool...

 

[Bswartz95]

Do you mean like a scores view that shows scores for your favorite teams?
We're going to be including a widget in the next release which should allow you to see your favorite teams and their scores.

Yeah, exactly. When you first open the app, instead of having it default to a certain sport, it could default to a "favorites" page. Then I could see all of my favorite teams at once on the same page.

Keep up the great work.

 

[SprintFun]

Yeah, exactly. When you first open the app, instead of having it default to a certain sport, it could default to a "favorites" page. Then I could see all of my favorite teams at once on the same page.

Keep up the great work.

Yes - thats something like how ESPN handles it in their app and it is pretty nice. It would be a welcome feature.

 

[skd02]

Yeah, exactly. When you first open the app, instead of having it default to a certain sport, it could default to a "favorites" page. Then I could see all of my favorite teams at once on the same page.

Keep up the great work.

I would agree. This feature would be great!

Also, why is the app constantly attempting to use GPS?!

 

[aarontharris]

Alright - the people have spoken! I'll put in a feature request.

 

[aarontharris]

Can I ask a favor. It has come to my attention that some of our users may be experiencing repeat gps polling from live scores. They're claiming that right after they installed Live Scores, their gps would poll every 15 minutes or so. I coded the gps feature specifically to NOT do this. The only view in the app that touches GPS is the check-in page.

So I would appreciate it if you guys could keep an eye out on your gps indicator. If you see it going off more frequently than usual, you can download an app called "spare parts" which will allow you to look at your GPS usage by app since you last unplugged your phone from the charger. The feature is hidden in Spare Parts under "Battery History" then you click the selector at the top which lets you choose "GPS"

Please let me know what you can because if this really is a problem, I very much want to fix it.

Thanks everyone,
-Aaron

 

[lexluthor]

I see you like Squareparts now

No, I've only seen the GPS icon come on for Live Scores when I go to the check in page.

This does bring up a question I had though.

In my Droid X location settings, I have use wireless networks, use GPS satellites and enable assisted GPS all checked.

Not sure if all of those phones have that option or not.

It's my understanding that polling the actual GPS will use significantly more battery than getting location from the wireless networks.

Do you have the ability to see if you can first get location from wireless networks without polling the actual GPS and only use that as a secondary option or even give the user a choice as to which option they want?

For what you need location for, a rough estimate using wireless networks would suffice.

A good example of a program that does this is Flixter. There's an option called use current location. Choices are off, on (network only), on (network & GPS).

 

[aarontharris]

I see you like Squareparts now

No, I've only seen the GPS icon come on for Live Scores when I go to the check in page.

This does bring up a question I had though.

In my Droid X location settings, I have use wireless networks, use GPS satellites and enable assisted GPS all checked.

Not sure if all of those phones have that option or not.

It's my understanding that polling the actual GPS will use significantly more battery than getting location from the wireless networks.

Do you have the ability to see if you can first get location from wireless networks without polling the actual GPS and only use that as a secondary option or even give the user a choice as to which option they want?

For what you need location for, a rough estimate using wireless networks would suffice.

A good example of a program that does this is Flixter. There's an option called use current location. Choices are off, on (network only), on (network & GPS).

It does exactly that. We only use gps if wifi is unavailable and whether we get a location or not, we turn it off after no more than 3 seconds of polling. If no location was found we use a cached location.

For now the location requirements are met by coarse-location but soon we'll want to use more fine-location so people can say they're checked into the game from Joe-Bob's sports bar etc. When we do start using more fine-location we're going to put in a user-pref allowing the user to tell the app not to use gps and then we'll only rely on network.

I have a droid x which doesnt give the best battery life, reduced battery use is a high priority for us, but we're still learning and the android api isn't the most solid

 

[lexluthor]

It does exactly that. We only use gps if wifi is unavailable and whether we get a location or not, we turn it off after no more than 3 seconds of polling. If no location was found we use a cached location.

If that's the case, how come I'm on wifi now and I saw the GPS icon come on when I went into checkin? I don't think the GPS icon typically comes on when an app gets location using wifi/cellular network.

Is it possible to also get location from the cell network if the user isn't connected via wifi?

I have a droid x which doesnt give the best battery life, reduced battery use is a high priority for us, but we're still learning and the android api isn't the most solid

While we'd all like better battery life, I think the Droid X is about as good as it gets as far as battery life. It's certainly good for apps to care about battery life.

 

[aarontharris]

If that's the case, how come I'm on wifi now and I saw the GPS icon come on when I went into checkin? I don't think the GPS icon typically comes on when an app gets location using wifi/cellular network.

Okay, you got me. Let me rephrase that... When we don't have a cached copy of your location (we consider anything over 5 minutes to be stale) we simultaneously request location from both gps and wifi providers and as soon as either of them returns with a value (almost always wifi when its turned on) we take the value and shutdown the location manager, if neither provider returns after 3 seconds, we shut down the location manager anyway and take the stale-cached location. Typically it takes about a 1/4 of a second when there is wifi in range (whether you're on it or not). So during that 1/4 second, gps was polled.

Is it possible to also get location from the cell network if the user isn't connected via wifi?

If there are wifi networks in range, you can get an approximate location from those networks even if you're not connected/authenticated. So if you use location based apps, its good to keep wifi on even if you're not connected and you might even get away with turning gps off.

I leave both wifi and gps on and keep an eye on which apps are abusing them via spare parts. so far it looks like my fellow developers are doing a decent job of being thrifty with their location-usage. Yelp is kinda bad if you spend more than a minute in the app.

 

[FlyersKid]

Can I ask a favor. It has come to my attention that some of our users may be experiencing repeat gps polling from live scores. They're claiming that right after they installed Live Scores, their gps would poll every 15 minutes or so. I coded the gps feature specifically to NOT do this. The only view in the app that touches GPS is the check-in page.

So I would appreciate it if you guys could keep an eye out on your gps indicator. If you see it going off more frequently than usual, you can download an app called "spare parts" which will allow you to look at your GPS usage by app since you last unplugged your phone from the charger. The feature is hidden in Spare Parts under "Battery History" then you click the selector at the top which lets you choose "GPS"

Please let me know what you can because if this really is a problem, I very much want to fix it.

Thanks everyone,
-Aaron

I can tell you that I do see my gps icon every now and again while using livescores. however, i never use the check-in feature. as far as how often it comes on, im not sure because im not constantly on my phone. but i have noticed it. probably not as much as some people are saying.

.....spare parts doesn't show any gps usage by live scores at all. but ive only had it unplugged for 2 hours now.

 

[lexluthor]

Okay, you got me. Let me rephrase that... When we don't have a cached copy of your location (we consider anything over 5 minutes to be stale) we simultaneously request location from both gps and wifi providers and as soon as either of them returns with a value (almost always wifi when its turned on) we take the value and shutdown the location manager, if neither provider returns after 3 seconds, we shut down the location manager anyway and take the stale-cached location. Typically it takes about a 1/4 of a second when there is wifi in range (whether you're on it or not). So during that 1/4 second, gps was polled.

Ok. I did note that the gps icon remained on for a surprisingly short amount of time. I guess that explains it.

.....spare parts doesn't show any gps usage by live scores at all. but ive only had it unplugged for 2 hours now.

Does anything else show in GPS usage? Perhaps it's not Live Scores at all that's using the GPS when you see the icon come on?

 

[FlyersKid]

Ok. I did note that the gps icon remained on for a surprisingly short amount of time. I guess that explains it.



Does anything else show in GPS usage? Perhaps it's not Live Scores at all that's using the GPS when you see the icon come on?

no. its been unplugged for about 16 hours now. ive got nothing except facebook. soooooo i guess thats not an issue. not with me atleast.

 

[aarontharris]

Good to hear. Though I was kinda hoping for a problem so I could have something tangible to fix, but one more check-mark for the "not a problem" side is also good.

Having a reproducible problem is sometimes better than an unknown - at least I can fix the problem and then the unknown will be answered.

 

[hchan888]

Hi,

I've been searching for the best sports app for the longest time and have not found one yet. The best sports scores I have ever experienced was on my old phone, LG Dare. It had the ESPN app ( don't know if you can call it a app because the Dare didn't have any apps ). But the reason for it being the best app is that it updated nearly instant and it had the current plays that are going on in the game, whichever game it was. I don't know if this is possible but this is just feedback on what would make your app the best app.

-Instant score refresh.
-Display of detail plays in game instantly.
-Have a option to have the screen stay on, locked, instead of having the screen turn off after 1 min. (Dolphin HD browser has this option)

I think if you add all of those into your app. I won't have to search anymore for the best sports app.

Thanks,
Herman

 

[3cutiger]

don't know if this has been mentioned before, or if there is a setting that I am unaware of, but the alerts on my phone are hard to see in my dropdown on the main screen. I have a Fascinate, unrooted, 2.1, and the alerts are black font on a gray background, impossible to see esp outside wearing sunglasses. Like I said, a minor gripe, but if there is a setting I am unaware of where I could get more contrast between the background and font, would love to hear it!!!

 

[chrlswltrs]

don't know if this has been mentioned before, or if there is a setting that I am unaware of, but the alerts on my phone are hard to see in my dropdown on the main screen. I have a Fascinate, unrooted, 2.1, and the alerts are black font on a gray background, impossible to see esp outside wearing sunglasses. Like I said, a minor gripe, but if there is a setting I am unaware of where I could get more contrast between the background and font, would love to hear it!!!

Mine are the same colors, almost impossible to read, but I thought it was because of my theme so I never mentioned it. Guess I am not the only one with the problem

 

[lexluthor]

Just fyi. No start of game notification for giants game today. First score update was about 10 minutes late. Knicks game earlier was good though.

Edit: just another score now (go giants) and I got the update immediately.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Yeah, yesterday I got no start of game for the Idaho Vandals, got most of the scoring updates, but there were a few that never came through.

 

[aarontharris]

Yeah, yesterday I got no start of game for the Idaho Vandals, got most of the scoring updates, but there were a few that never came through.

Hmm I've heard this enough times that it makes me wonder if its a bug or if its just late? Let me know if you do get a game start notification, ill look at the code and see what could be causing the late if ever game-start notifs.

 

[aarontharris]

Heads-up! I just learned that the GPS problem I mentioned a few days ago IS IN FACT a bug. I've fixed it and it will be fine in the next release but for now the version you guys currently have on your phones has a potential problem on the Check-In page where the GPS could get stuck on while in the app. Killing the app will kill the gps.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Heads-up! I just learned that the GPS problem I mentioned a few days ago IS IN FACT a bug. I've fixed it and it will be fine in the next release but for now the version you guys currently have on your phones has a potential problem on the Check-In page where the GPS could get stuck on while in the app. Killing the app will kill the gps.

Thanks for keeping us informed and putting so much work into this app. I wish more developers did this in the forums.

 

[FlyersKid]

i dont mean to be a pain in the butt. lol just something that popped in my head while scrolling through my teams...

1) are we going to get a UI enhancement, if so, when? the current one is pretty boring, and awfully ugly. the app gets the job done though, thats all i can really ask for

2) what about team logos on the league overview screen when you first open the app AND inside the game box-score screen??

3) and lastly, wouldn't it be sweet that as soon as we open the app, it opens up to ALL of our favorite teams viewed on the same screen?? would be pretty sweet.