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Apps PhoneMate - A glance of your iPhone's network, battery and disk status

Rynology

Rynology

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
131
1
Happy Watch Eve everybody!

As we all eagerly await delivery I thought I would share some information on an app we've created that we believe many will find particularly useful called PhoneMate.

With the iPhone being such an integral resource to the Watch, from running apps to providing internet connectivity, we wanted a simple way to easily view phone vitals, such as remaining battery life and the type of internet connectivity the watch is currently utilizing, directly from the watch.

FeatureImageSmall@2x.png


More details and screenshots: http://mcleanmobile.com/PhoneMate

Best of luck to all those looking forward to delivery of their Watch preorders in the coming days.
 
Working great. I wish the Glance would update every time I viewed it though.

IMG_5017.JPG
 
PhoneMate - A glance of your iPhone's network, battery and disk status

Just downloaded it great app looks fantastic!
Only criticisms I have at the moment though is the network status is displaying incorrectly. It's showing me as on 4G whereas I'm actually on 3G (4G isn't available in my area yet).
Also as mentioned glances doesn't update regularly if it updated each time you looked at it it would be great. Brilliant otherwise though

EDIT: The main app also doesn't seem to update often either
 
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Thanks for the feedback guys and glad you are finding the app useful! We are working on refinements this weekend now that we have our hands on an actual device :)
 
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Rynology said:
Thanks for the feedback guys and glad you are finding the app useful! We are working on refinements this weekend now that we have our hands on an actual device :)
Click to expand...

Many thanks. Please set the price point to .99 so we can support your work.
 
The PhoneMate update is now live in the store including the auto-refresh fix. Now any time you view the glance, or an item in the app, automatic sync will occur as intended. You can also manually refresh any item in the app via force touch.

Thanks!
 
Rynology said:
The PhoneMate update is now live in the store including the auto-refresh fix. Now any time you view the glance, or an item in the app, automatic sync will occur as intended. You can also manually refresh any item in the app via force touch.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Nice app. Does the SDK allow you to get the signal strength of a cellular connection? Ultimately, I want to get pinged or a haptic notification when there is no cell signal for a significant amount of time, but I don't know if Apple will allow something like that.
 
It would also be cool instead of saying "My iPhone 6" it could say the name I have set for my phone.
 
Like this - useful little app.

For me, though, the "killer" missing feature is the ability to see not only what my phone's data signal is, but also the phone signal. I have dodgy reception around where I live and it'd be great to know whether it was worth fishing my phone out of my pocket, or trying to make a call from the watch, without having to get my phone out to check whether I've got a signal.
 
BeyondtheTech said:
Nice app. Does the SDK allow you to get the signal strength of a cellular connection? Ultimately, I want to get pinged or a haptic notification when there is no cell signal for a significant amount of time, but I don't know if Apple will allow something like that.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the SDK does not currently permit the reading of cellular signal strength, otherwise this is something we would have loved to have included.

Hope you're enjoying the app - your support and feedback is much appreciated!
 
Rynology said:
Unfortunately the SDK does not currently permit the reading of cellular signal strength, otherwise this is something we would have loved to have included.

Hope you're enjoying the app - your support and feedback is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm totally thinking outside the box here...

What if your watch app could trigger your iPhone counterpart to take a screenshot of itself on demand? From there, you could "read" the captured screen and determine what cellular signal strength the iPhone currently has?

Here's some code regarding screencaps: http://www.binpress.com/app/ios-screen-capture-view/1038

I don't think Apple will have an issue with this. Technically, it should be no different than having a user look down at their iPhone screen. You're just doing it for them and redisplaying it on the watch.

There are apps that read screenshots like the ones that cheat for Words With Friends, but even if you don't have the know-how to do recognition, you could simply crop that portion of the screen and display it.
 
I posted my suggestion here (above) as well as emailed him directly on his website. Haven't seen him since here or got any response to my email. Either he's basking in all the new sales, or he's knee-deep in coding an update, but he's MIA.
 
BeyondtheTech said:
Ok, I'm totally thinking outside the box here...

What if your watch app could trigger your iPhone counterpart to take a screenshot of itself on demand? From there, you could "read" the captured screen and determine what cellular signal strength the iPhone currently has?

Here's some code regarding screencaps: http://www.binpress.com/app/ios-screen-capture-view/1038

I don't think Apple will have an issue with this. Technically, it should be no different than having a user look down at their iPhone screen. You're just doing it for them and redisplaying it on the watch.

There are apps that read screenshots like the ones that cheat for Words With Friends, but even if you don't have the know-how to do recognition, you could simply crop that portion of the screen and display it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the creative suggestion and enthusiasm for this feature. Unfortunately based on the existing API, it doesn’t appear possible to capture the screen of the host application in the way that you are hoping. We will continue to explore possibilities for capturing signal strength, and look forward to continued enhancements to PhoneMate.
 
Very Nice OP!

Other Pebble users can Chime in ( I do not have one )

A friend of mine use a watchface called SmartStatus

Gives the user lots of info w diff statuses

Really cool

Just something to look in to

I know SDK and API, limits things though w Apple
 
Rynology said:
Thanks for the creative suggestion and enthusiasm for this feature. Unfortunately based on the existing API, it doesn’t appear possible to capture the screen of the host application in the way that you are hoping. We will continue to explore possibilities for capturing signal strength, and look forward to continued enhancements to PhoneMate.
Click to expand...


Can you notify when there's no signal strength though? You are able to capture the network name and connection speed so if you have no service can you do a hectic notification?
 
Thank you so much for this app! One thing I've been annoyed about last week was not being able to see the battery life on my phone (since it lives in my pocket now thanks to the watch). This app solves that problem completely.

Again, thank you for this app, worth every penny!
 
Thank you everyone for all of your feedback and suggestions. It's really great to hear all of the positive feedback.
 
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