It’s been a long time since I did a new release! Too many projects at once…

This new one, Tunnel Blocker, provides a work-around for a problem on many Galaxy devices. The problem is that music apps that use the audio-tunneling feature will bypass music visualizer apps like Audio Glow. I found out about the cause of this issue from developer Haruki Hasegawa, and he has an explanation here.

Tunnel Blocker creates a music player in the background that is paused, but attempts to use the audio tunneling feature so other apps won’t. Give it a try if you have a Galaxy device haven’t been able to get Audio Glow to work consistently.

Now you may have noticed a similar issue on your Nexus device. This is a different problem, and I unfortunately don’t have a work-around for it. Haruki Hasegawa speculates it happens to apps that use the low latency feature in Android.

There’s a new Audio Glow update out that adds a swipe controls feature, as well as a new visualization that’s available as an in-app purchase.  Android Police did a nice quick write-up about it.  Here’s a video:

Audio Glow - Strings

Android Tapp put up a nice review of Audio Glow! I hadn’t submitted it to them for review, so it’s a nice surprise.

Android 4.2 has a neat feature that allows you to set a clock or animation or almost anything as a sort of screensaver, called a daydream. These show up when your phone is docked or plugged in.

Naturally, live wallpapers are a good fit for this feature. I just released a simple app that lets you use the current live wallpaper as your daydream. The limitation is that it must be the current live wallpaper. This is due to Android security–other apps cannot start live wallpapers on their own.

March 12, 2014 update:
See here.

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Here’s an update on what I’ve found regarding the “flatline” issue on some Samsung phones for Audio Glow.

It is caused by the built-in DSP that many Galaxy phones come with. It results in blocking audio data from certain media players from sharing their data with music visualizer apps. This issue can also be reproduced on non-Samsung phones by downloading certain DSP apps. I also had a user with an HTC Rezound (which also has built-in DSP) who had the flatline issue and fixed it by disabling the DSP. He was only able to do this because his phone was rooted.

I have not seen any consistency with which media players it blocks, and many users with these phones never see the problem at all.  So I do not plan to prevent Samsung users from downloading it. If this issue comes up for you, I apologize for your time. If you purchased the wallpaper, just email me and I’ll refund your order. But I do recommend trying the free full screen music visualizer first if you have a Samsung phone or HTC Rezound.

I am still looking for a solution, but it seems to be some kind of Android bug, or bug in the DSP code.

One user told me that the built-in Android music visualizer live wallpapers do not flatline while Audio Glow does.  If this is the case for you, please let me know about it. I have read through the code for these live wallpapers, and they acquire audio data exactly the same way that Audio Glow does, so I don’t think there is a solution to be found there. But if a lot of people have no problems with these built-in wallpapers, that could be a good lead toward a solution.

I also want to thank the makers of Music Visualizer and Epic Audio Visualizer for sharing with me what they have learned about this issue. It seems to be a problem for all music visualizers, because we all use the same Android Visualizer class for obtaining audio data.

Audio Glow is now available on Google Play!

It got a great mention over at Android Police. Thank you to the staff over at Android Police for the nice write-up!

Almost ready! This music visualizer will come in two flavors: a full screen version and a live wallpaper version.

As always, many color and shape settings to tweak. This time, you can save groups of settings as themes, and use the included Tasker/Locale plugin to swap themes!

Stay tuned for the release. Should be up on the store tomorrow!

 

 

Introduce your toddler to animals from around the world with Animal Time!

This fun, interactive app for young children is a collection of scenes, brought to life with continuous motion and ambient sounds. See and hear the pufferfish inflate as waves ripple over the coral reef. Watch a toucan flutter over the treetops.

Kids will also see and hear the names of the animals as they tap on them.

Music and SFX by Gavin Keese.