BBC News is a widget for Android for that shows you the latest news headlines in a compact 2 x 1 widget on the Android home screen. Clicking on the widget takes you to a full list of headlines and more story details.

In the headline view, clicking on a headline will in turn take you to the mobile version of the BBC News page on your Android browser.

Feed selection

Each widget can be customised to show content from any of the BBC’s feeds. The default is the Most Popular feed, but users can choose others such as Sports headlines, Entertainment or Technology news.

Android users outside the UK will see the international versions of feeds and stories. UK users will see the local version by default, although any user can switch between UK and international versions in the Preferences.

You can have multiple widgets on your home screen. They will not normally show the same story, so if you set up three widgets from the same feed you will have the first, second and third headlines shown, in the order the widgets were added.

This isn’t a general purpose feed reader. It is customised to the style of the excellent BBC News feeds to give the best experience. I saw some RSS widgets but they try to include too much text on the widget, and the result is hard to read. Also they did not use the thumbnails that accompany each story, losing the visual appeal that they add.

Download

Download BBC News from the Android market now.

Credits

This program is free software under the Apache license. Supported by BBC Backstage.

I hope you enjoy BBC News. As always, leave bugs and requests here. Even if you just enjoyed the app and would like to let me know. I read all comments but I have only around an hour a day for development so I usually can’t fulfil requests. I normally act when several people start asking for the same thing.

For Android phone owners in the UK, BBC Listings is a viewer and search assistant for the BBC’s TV and Radio schedules.

Users select from a list of channels, then view the schedules for that channel, one day at a time. Clicking on a program shows you a synopsis, and allows you to add a reminder to your Google calendar. Sky+ users can set their Sky+ boxes to record BBC TV programs by a text message.

(This message is prepared by the application and sent from the phone, but requires the phone to be registered for the Remote Record service with Sky. Refer to the Sky website for how to register, and costs and limitations of the Sky+ text message Remote Record service.)

Limitations

Because it gets its data from the BBC’s web services, internet access is required. Currently, one week’s worth of future listings and one week’s worth of past listings are available.

To search the listings press Menu and Search. Results are returned sorted by channel and then by date.

Download

Look for the application in the Android market (requires a UK registered mobile) or download it directly here

License

This application is free software. Supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk

History

0.9.1 : The first published version.

Feedback

If you have any comments or queries about this application, please leave them on this blog.

I’ve just released a simple utility QuickCalendar onto the Android Marketplace.

It’s a simple application that displays the current and the next (or the next two) events on the notification bar of your Android phone.

I wrote it because I miss a similar feature from my last phone, a Windows Mobile device. The trickiest part was getting access to the calendar data. There is a provider for calendar data, but unlike the contacts provider it is not part of the standard SDK. However the functionality can be obtained if you get the source (Android is open source), adjust the exported items and build your own SDK.

I may write an article on how to do this if there is demand. Also I will release the source for the application when I have OKed it with my employer. In the meantime you can use the application yourself by going to the Android Marketplace on your phone and searching for QuickCalendar.

Downloading

Get it from the Market, or here

Update

I’ve had some nice comments and feature requests (always welcome). As a result I’ve fixed some bugs and added some features.

• 0.9.29:

  Search button supported on devices that have a hardware search button.
  Corporate Calendar supported on Motorola handets.
  Widgets refresh immediately when calendar is modified, when preferences are modified, and when the screen is enabled.
  Progress indicator for main page.
  Widgets to not refresh when screen is off, to save battery.
  Refresh rate can be configured in preference screen.
  Bug fixed with widget font size.

• 0.9.18 : Cupcake version! Gadget for home page available. Colored indicators in task bar. Also: German language support.
• 0.9.17 : Bug fix release (service not starting on phone power up since 0.9.13).
• 0.9.16 : 24hr (aka military time) format not used in category view unless is on in phone preferences.
• 0.9.15 : Bug fix release (preference changes not taking effect).
• 0.9.14 : Context menu selection for time events. Day group headings correct in all time zones.
• 0.9.13 : Now possible to specify any time (up to 999 weeks) to look ahead for notifications and for the main event list. You are not limited to the pre-set durations. New notification icons more in keeping with the Android conventions. New choice of event list format of ‘grouped by day’ or the original classic layout. Events can be shown colored by the calendar color.
• 0.9.12 : Fixed bug introduced in 0.9.11 (time zones didn’t work). Sorry everyone. Daylight savings time should also work properly now though.
• 0.9.11 : Improved progress indicator. Attempted bug fix on calendar preference screen.
• 0.9.10 : Search option - now possible to search calendars! Minor cosmetic improvements.
• 0.9.9 : New icon from Darrel Austin. Another ‘all day’ event fix. Fixed problem with apk size.
• 0.9.8 : All day events sort correctly in all time zones. All day events future day names correct.
• 0.9.7 : Up two four alerts. All day events work in all time zones.
• 0.9.6 : aDogTrack support. Notification icons can be enabled in preferences.
• 0.9.5 : Less obtrusive notify icons. Start service on power on option.
• 0.9.4 : Ability to select/deselect calendars to alert (where you have multiple calendars).
• 0.9.3 : Fixed problem where the notifications stopped updating.
• 0.9.2 : Fixed problem where the time zone was ignored.
• 0.9.1 : The first published version.

Two of my hobbies are programming, and trying to improve my Scrabble performance by cramming all the playable short words into my brain. It seems natural that I’d try to combine the two activities.

About five years ago I wrote a program to combine these and my shiny new Palm OS-based Sony Clie. It was a game to test my knowledge of the three letter words. It fires potential three letter word combinations at the player, who has to determine if the words can legally be played, according to the dictionary de jour.Tapping out guesses and trying to get a good run is bizarrely hypnotic. Particularly as the definitions are supplied after each guess. I used it constantly for about a year, whenever I was on the move, banging away at the screen as I stumbled down the street. Hopefully passers by would think I was “texting”, rather than learning Scrabble words which is of course terribly sad. I beamed it on to a few other players at Scrabble meets (PalmOS devices are popular among Scrabble players).

Five years on my Clie isn’t so shiny any more (in fact it finally died about a year ago after many years fine service). I’m still a Scrabble player, but this time I use a Windows Mobile smart phone for learning on the go. That’s nice because I can use a common .NET library for my dictionary utilities. On that subject, the Scrabble community has changed the official word list to CSW (Collins Scrabble Words) which required every word tool or game to be updated.

So wquiz has become obsolete. Which leads me on to the point of this post. Having given the program to a few people here and there it appears to have developed a miniature but vocal following. One good friend of mine in particular has been politely asking me to update it for him for a while. I declined because I don’t have the Clie any more and I lost the SDK. But when he started offering to pay me I knew he was serious.

Anyway I dusted out the SDK (Metrowerks for PalmOS), fired up the emulator, got the dictionary list out and viola, here is the mighty “wquiz”, 2007 style, for CSW. I’ve linked it here as a .prc file, I think the PalmOS software will install it for you if you open it from your browser. Enjoy.

wquiz for PalmOS .prc file