[Feature] MA for Android as a Live Wallpaper

[dwax]

Testing it now. Works great on my Samsung Galaxy Proclaim. Will test it later on my other ones. ( Toshiba Excite 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 7.0, and my ASUS Transformer 10 Pad. Can't afford to buy all the fish tho.

[Nicki]

Can someone tell me, what is the cost of the fish?

[Wizwad]

£1.85 in the UK, which is probably about $3 in Canada? But I suspect the costing models are different in different countries.

I've only bought the Copperband and the Clearfin Lionfish so far. I'm considering which others to go for too. Probably the Flame Angel and the French Angel, but any others I need to think about more.

[Jav400]

I'll have a complete workup in a couple of hours or so Nicki, but the paid version is 1.98 for the app, and then 17 of the fish are listed as premium and are 1.98 each. I doubt that will work for very many people. That would mean if you purchased the app plus all the fish you are talking about roughly 36.00 USD. That's more than for Jim's full computer version. ...................

[patscarr]

If you buy 1 fish, can you have ten of those fish in the tank at the same time?

[Jav400]

OK, here we go............................

They list the fish as follows:

Basic 2 types - Blue Chromis & Yellow Tang; those come with the app when you purchase.

Standard 10 fish - Regal Tang, Threadfin Butterfly, Three Stripe Damsel, Long Nose Butterfly, Koran Angel, Percula Clownfish, Royal Gramma, Squarespot Anthias. These come with the app and are selectable.

Premium Fish 17 ea. - Blue Ring Angel, Emperor Angel, Volitans Lion, Flame Angel, French Angel, Clearfin Lion, Wimple Fish, Redfin Butterfly, Regal Angel, Rock Beauty Angel, Starfish, Powder Blue Tang, Achilles Tang, Clown Trigger, Copper Banded Butterfly, Picasso Trigger, and the Queen Angel are all 1.98 ea.

Each fish has a small icon with a number box next to it so you can choose that fish and how many to display.

As for the program itself, on my phone it looks really good. The problem is that with the age of my phone ( Original Galaxy S1 ) about 3 years old now, the full program doesn't run very well and causes problems. I was already planning a new Galaxy S4 when they come out within the next few months so that should solve that problem.

The free version ran better, but after 24 hours you lose everything except the two basic fish. As always I would suggest getting it first to test how well it runs, but don't count that as a full-blown standard because after all the other options get enabled it takes more CPU to run. In addition as with any "Live Wallpaper" your battery is going to take a hit as well. How much depends on how much it gets shown.

As for options, you can set the display to auto pan, or let it go manually yourself as you swipe between screens. It will automatically change ratios for ever how many screens you have your phone set too. By that I mean if you use 6 screens it will cover 6, if you delete 3 screens, it will cover 3 screens without any loss of the aquarium.

For the tank you have a check box for the bubble column and the crystal/coral, and there are 3 background settings like ours where you can choose 2 colors for each setting.

Overall it looks very good on my phone and has a fair amount of options. I would suggest that it is not very "backward compatible friendly" by that I mean older devices will have troubles running it even if they have a new enough version of android installed to handle it, basically like my situation.

As for the pricing, I can't see many people going the whole route to get all the fish. That totals up to almost $ 36.00 USD which to me is to much for the complete app. Jim's computer version is only 19.95... I could see bundling maybe 3-4 premium fish for the 1.98 each and having a total price of 10.00 - 12.00 and being more "sale-able" as a complete package. That's just MHO and subject to each persons opinion.

PS. I finally had a minute to attach a screen shot or two.

[Jim Sachs]

Thanks for the great report, Michael. I don't know anyone with an Android device, so I've never seen it running, just still shots of Acrodea's progress as they developed the app. I've let them decide on their own pricing and marketing scheme. $36 for the whole package does seem very steep, but we'll see how it works for them. I've always wondered how this strategy of paying for premium fish would work, but have been too afraid to tamper with success to try it.

[Jav400]

It looks good Jim. I can't use the full version on my phone as it causes slow-downs to badly, but that's because of the old phone I have.

I posted the shots so people could see how good it looks, but every time I hit upload I imagined you cringing with all the icons over it.

Of course I had to move one icon so Harvey could peak out between two others.

[Nicki]

Thanks Michael for the full breakdown on pricing. I've downloaded the trial and my phone isn't up to running it smoothly. I should have got a Galaxy S3 but I needed something with a physical keyboard and didn't want a Blackberry. I wish Acrodea the best of luck with their rather radical pricing policy. You know what they say though, it's so crazy it just might work. Perhaps they should have offered them over time as new fish instead of putting them all there for $1.98 right out of the gate? FWIW, Jim, I like your method much better and if you do release creature packs at some point you can count me in.

[Time Crystal Pilot]

The "radical" pricing would work best if there was individual creature behaviour, including some rare events. Thinking of Johnny Castaway.

[Wizwad]

I've got it running on my Samsung Galaxy S2, and it works fine on that. Mind you, I don't have it running as a live wallpaper, just as a simulation app. I'll give it a go as a live wallpaper and see how that impacts on the performance.

[F34R]

Originally posted by Ad_Enuff:

If only iOS did Live Wallpapers!  

Yeah, that would be great if you could have that option without having to JB anything, etc.

Originally posted by Yellow Tang:

Just to make this clear, v2.6 is already available for iOS, as an app, it's $1.99.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mari...364867315?mt=8  

An updated version would be nice. Two years, and no update? Still $2 for an app that lacks easily added features, etc.

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

MA 3.2 for Android is now on Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ZGVhLmZpc2giXQ..  

Testing it out....

[Sergiales]

Amazing on my Galaxy Nexus (Android) :-)

[dwax]

Originally posted by Wizwad:

I've got it running on my Samsung Galaxy S2, and it works fine on that. Mind you, I don't have it running as a live wallpaper, just as a simulation app. I'll give it a go as a live wallpaper and see how that impacts on the performance.  

I just upgraded my phone to a Samsung Galaxy S2 and it will not let me adjust any settings. Cant launch it at all. If I press live wallpaper it will show up but can't add any thing.

[Jav400]

go to google play where you look for updates and hit the open button. Then you can get to the settings screen.

[dwax]

Gave that a try Jav400 and the screen went black and crashed back to google play.I can't get to the settings at all, the only way it will even open is if I touch the screen on my home page, select live wallpaper and choose MA and set as wallpaper. It will stay as live wallpaper, but I can't get in to the settings to choose any fish or buy any. On the Galaxy Precedent it worked without any problems.

[Jim Sachs]

So we have one instance where it works on a Galaxy S2, and one which doesn't?

I don't know anything about Androids, but are there OS updates or any other variables which would make these two devices behave differently?

[jimkraz]

Jim, some Andoid devices will still be operating Frayo or Gingerbread, IceCreamSandwich is newer but JellyBean is the latest of the Andriod operating systems, some devices cannot or will not be upgraded because of the hardware, some because the manufacturers would rather you upgrade your hardware to get the latest operating system. Jim

[Jim Sachs]

DWAX - Since you just got the Galaxy S2, I'm assuming it has the lastest OS?

Just trying to gather info to report to Acrodea.

[Jav400]

MY "OS" in my old phone is 2.3.4, NOT because it came that way but because I took the time to update the OS manually myself.

Generally speaking Jim S., you are limited by using whatever the manufacturer of the phone has or WILL release as an update for your particular device. I'm not counting rooting out the phone or doing something that the manufacturer doesn't endorse.

For comparisons sake, the Galaxy S3, the latest version my carrier sells uses Android 4.1.1 - ( The Galaxy S4 is on the horizon in a few months and is the one I am looking to update too. ) - realize my phone is 3 years old and there won't be any more authorized updates available for my phone. If I hadn't manually updated my phone myself it probably wouldn't run the program either. It will load and run on mine, it just doesn't have the cpu power to run it. Plus my honest opinion is that there are some quirks in their software as well. I don't see it a being written as well as you do.

That's why it's buy a new one time for me, not because I can't take phone calls it's all the rest of the junk that suffers with age..........

Jim, the Galaxy S2 is an older phone as well, just not as old as mine, so it probably doesn't have the latest software either, and could conceivably be older that what I am running.


DWAX - go on the main screen and hit the menu button, and then the settings button. Scroll down to the bottom of the list where it says "About Phone" and hit that. Look down that list and you will find the version number of Android that your phone is using.