MJ App Factory

The UtterIt app is here!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:59:00 +0000

I've been quietly working for over a year now on a new app, which is now released in the Windows Store. It's called UtterIt and is a note-taking and text management app that specializes in speech recognition for hands-free recording and operation.

For further details, please visit the official app site: utteritapp.com

Download UtterIt from the Windows Store

Cool Times app - Release 1

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Mon, 19 May 2014 18:24:00 +0000

I've released a new app in the Windows Store called Cool Times. Look here for a complete description and to download it: Cool Times for Windows

I developed this app primarily as a real-world test of my ICE technology and to lay down a framework of standardized, reusable components that make it much faster and easier to develop new apps for Windows and Windows Phone. But in this initial process, I think I've come up with something really useful and cool -- "Cool Times". Here's a high-level view of some of the coolness:

Alarms
You can set up any number of alarms, which can alert you in various ways, including Daily, Weekdays, Weekends, Sunday through Saturday, One-time, and Any frequency. You have total flexibility in setting up custom alarms exactly the way you need, and they remain active and accurate even if your machine is turned off!

Timers
Set up timers for fixed-duration events, such as cooking a dish, administering a timed exam in the classroom, etc.

Stop Watches
Stop watches are handy for timing races with laps, measuring events and event intervals, and anything else where you need to know how much time something takes.

Sharing
Share any of your time information with your friends and family, using the handy Share function.

Search
Use Search to quickly locate one of your alarms, timers, or stop watches when you have set up a lot of items and need to find one of them.

Customization
Customize the appearance of your app to whatever you like by selecting your own background image or highlight color.

Conversions enhancements and News

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 18:29:00 +0000

After spending time in Colorado for our sweet new granddaughter's birth, I've made more progress on the unit conversion functions in the Cool Conversions and Cool Grader apps, namely in adding new units:

- Power: BTU per hour, BTU per minute, BTU per second, Foot-pound per minute,
     Foot-pound per second, Horsepower, Horsepower (electrical), Horsepower (metric),
     Kilowatt, Ton of refrigeration, Watt
- Pressure: Atmosphere, Bar, Inch of mercury, Kilopascal, Millibar, Millimeter of mercury,
     Pascal, Pound per square inch, Technical atmosphere, Torr
- Length/Distance: Angstrom, Hand, Link, Rod, Span
- Speed: Light speed, Mach

Two new unit categories were added in these latest updates: Power and Pressure:

"Power" unit conversions

"Pressure" unit conversions

To see a complete list of all units currently supported, please visit the MJ App Factory website.

Also, I'm making progress on the Windows 8 (desktop/tablet) versions of Cool Conversions and Cool Grader. More news on that later ...

Conversions enhancements

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:17:00 +0000

The Cool Grader and Cool Conversions apps have been enhanced to have a simpler user interface for the Conversions page and provide more detailed, useful measurement-unit information. For one, the page has been changed to no longer display unit information at the bottom; it instead displays the detailed unit information on a separate page. The new format for the main Conversions page is shown below:

Volume conversions

This new format has more room for displaying the unit lists and the conversion results, making the units easier to select and the results easier to read and more informative.

To see the detailed unit information, the user may touch the (i) information button for either the From or the To unit, and the information is displayed on a separate page:

Detailed information for Liter

The user may scroll the page to see all the information available for the selected unit:

Remaining information for Liter

In addition, several web links are provided at the bottom for each unit, under the heading "More Information". For example, touching the "Direct" web-link for the Liter unit displays the following page:

Direct web-link info for Liter

These enhancements to the Conversions page provide more detailed and easier-to-read information for each measurement unit, and a side-effect of the underlying code enhancements is that the page displays and scrolls more quickly and smoothly, especially when using a low-memory phone.

The new app versions containing these enhancements are Cool Grader 2.3.0 and Cool Conversions 1.3.0, which should be publicly available within a few days. If you wish to view the detailed information for either of these apps in the Windows Phone Store, visit the following links:

Upcoming Conversions app enhancements

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 13:59:00 +0000

I'm about to port the Windows Phone apps (Cool Grader & Cool Conversions) to the Windows 8 / Tablet platform. In preparation for that process, I've made some underlying code architecture improvements. More visibly, I'm adding some additional units to the Conversions page (in Energy/Heat, Angles, and Pressure), and I've also enhanced each unit category to display detailed web information for each unit, as shown here:

Detailed unit information is
displayed from the web.

The information button ('i') is available
for both the 'From' and the 'To' units.

Cool Conversions™ and Cool Grader™ now available!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 20:42:00 +0000

The new Cool Conversions (version 1.1.0) and Cool Grader (version 2.1.0) apps are now available in the Windows Phone Store.

For details, please visit the following links:

Cool Grader 2.1.0 now in beta test phase

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:51:00 +0000

Cool Grader now contains the code to support a trial version of the app, which allows people to download and use it for free before they buy it. The trial version lacks a few important functions but provides some basics and allows the customer use the app before purchasing.

This new version also contains the Conversions system, which performs conversions between various measurement units, such as Area, Heat, Length, Mass, Speed, Temperature, Time, and Volume:

Conversions now supported

Length/Distance conversions

Beta-testing for Cool Grader 2.1.0 should be complete by this weekend, and pending evaluation and addressing any outstanding issues, the new app upgrade should be publicly available next week.

Search now supported

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:45:00 +0000

Based on user requests, I have added a Search function to the Unit Converter, which allows you to search for a measurement unit or unit category, as shown in the following example:

Starting from any point in the Converter screen, you may touch the [Search] button to bring up the Search display:

You may then type some or all of a unit name or category, and the matching items will automatically display:

In the above example, "mp" was typed into the 'Search for' box, and the units or categories that contained "mp" were automatically listed. When you see the listed unit you are searching for, touch that unit to automatically display it in the Converter:

In the above example, the search item "mile per hour" was selected, and the Converter automatically displayed the "Speed" category and the "Mile per hour" unit.

You may also use the Search function to select a unit category. For example, touch the [Search] button and scroll to the category you want:

If you want to see Mass units in the Converter, touch the "Mass" item in the search list, and the Converter will display that category with the previously-selected units:

Conversion table now supported

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:26:00 +0000

The Converter now supports display of a conversion table, which contains a list of converted values for all units in the currently-displayed unit category. For example, if the Temperature category is displayed, a conversion result may be:

You may touch the [Table] button to display a conversion table, which in this example would look like this:

You may then touch any displayed information to copy the table to the clipboard, which allows the conversion table to be pasted into other apps, such as e-mail, a document, etc. The format of the clipboard text in this example is:

Temperature Conversion Table

0 °Celsius (°C) =

--------------------------------------------------------------
°Delisle
150 °Delisle (°D)
--------------------------------------------------------------
°Fahrenheit
32 °Fahrenheit (°F)
--------------------------------------------------------------
kelvin
273.15 kelvin (K)
--------------------------------------------------------------
°Newton
0 °Newton (°N)
--------------------------------------------------------------
°Rankine
491.67 °Rankine (°Ra)
--------------------------------------------------------------
°Réaumur
0 °Réaumur (°Ré)
--------------------------------------------------------------
°Rømer
7.5 °Rømer (°Rø)

Unit Converter -- near completion!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Finally completed initial set of conversion units in the Cool Grader Converter! After some finishing touches and additional testing, I will publish the converter in both a Cool Grader update and in a new, separate app, dedicated to unit conversion (name to be announced at publishing). Additional conversion units and measurement categories will be added in future app upgrades.

The initial set of conversion units includes:

Area
acre (ac), hectare (ha), section (sect), square centimeter (cm^2), square foot (sq ft), square inch (sq in), square kilometer (km^2), square meter (m^2), square microinch (µin^2), square micrometer (µm^2), square micron (µm^2), square mile (sq mi), square millimeter (mm^2), square nautical mile (sq NM), square yard (sq yd), survey acre (ac [survey])

Heat
British thermal unit (Btu), calorie (cal), Food calorie (kcal), joule (J)

Length/Distance
astronomical unit (au), chain (ch), centimeter (cm), decimeter (dm), foot (ft), furlong (fur), inch (in), kilometer (km), league (lea), light year (ly), meter (m), microinch (µin), micrometer (µm), micron (µm), mile (mi), millimeter (mm), nanometer (nm), nautical mile (NM), parsec (pc), picometer (pm), survey foot (ft [survey]), survey mile (mi [survey]), survey yard (yd [survey]), yard (yd)

Mass/Weight
carat/metric carat (ct), grain (gr), gram (g), hundredweight long UK (cwt), hundredweight short US (cwt-s), kilogram (kg), long ton (ton), metric hundredweight (cwt-m), microgram (µg or mcg), milligram (mg), nanogram (ng), Newton (N), ounce (oz), pennyweight (dwt), picogram (pg), pound (lb), short ton (ton-s), stone (st), tonne/metric ton (t), troy ounce (oz-t), troy pound (lb-t)

Speed
foot per second (ft/s), kilometer per hour (km/h), kilometer per second (km/s), knot (kn), meter per second (m/s), mile per hour (mph), mile per second (mi/s)

Temperature
Celsius (°C), Delisle (°D), Fahrenheit (°F), kelvin (K), Newton (°N), Rankine (°Ra), Réaumur (°Ré), Rømer (°Rø)

Time
century (c.), day (d), decade (dc), hour (h), microsecond (µs), millenium (mn), millisecond (ms), minute (min), calendar month (mo), nanosecond (ns), second (s), week (wk), year (yr)

Volume
bushel (Imperial) (Imp. bsh), bushel (US) (US bsh), cubic centimeter (cc), cubic decimeter (dm^3), cubic foot (ft^3), cubic inch (in^3), cubic meter (m^3), cubic millimeter (mm^3), cubic yard (yd^3), cup (US) (cup), cup (metric) (cup-m), dry gallon (dry gal), dry pint (dry pt), dry quart (dry qt), fluid ounce (Imperial) (Imp. fl oz), fluid ounce (US) (US fl oz), gallon (Imperial) (Imp. gal), gallon (US) (US gal), gill (Imperial) (Imp. gi), gill (US) (US gi), kiloliter (kL), liter (L), microliter (µL), milliliter (mL), peck (Imperial) (Imp. pk), peck (US) (US pk), pint (Imperial) (Imp. pt), pint (US) (liq pt), quart (Imperial) (Imp. qt), quart (US) (US qt), tablespoon (Tbsp), tablespoon (Australian) (Tbsp (A)), teaspoon (tsp)

Converter integration with Calculator

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:08:00 +0000

I've integrated the Converter with the Calculator to allow passing values between them. This allows for entry and editing of values in standard scientific notation (ex: 1.234E18 [1.234 x 10^18]) and for performing calculations on values in the Calculator and passing them back into the Converter.

For example, suppose you have the following conversion from light years to meters:

You can then change the light-years value by first swapping the units (touch either "From" or "To"):

Then touch the [Calculator] button to send the light-years value to the Calculator:

Perform a calculation on the value (ex: divide it by 1000):

You may then touch the result value in the display area to copy the value to the clipboard, touch the [Done] button, and paste the new value into the Converter's "From" value box:

A new conversion will be performed and the result will be displayed automatically:

This is of course a simplistic, contrived example. Another use of the Calculator integration is to enter a number in scientific notation. For example, you may touch the [Calculator] button, enter a new value, and touch it to copy to the clipboard, such as:

Touch [Done] to return to the Converter and paste the new value into the "From" value box. This will automatically perform a new conversion:

More later ...

Current Converter status

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:20:00 +0000

In terms of time, I'm about half way done with the Converter screen in Cool Grader. The Converter now supports converting between the following units:

Mass	Length	Volume
carat grain gram hundredweight long UK hundredweight short US kilogram long ton metric hundredweight microgram milligram nanogram Newton ounce pennyweight picogram pound short ton stone tonne troy ounce troy pound	astronomical unit chain centimeter decimeter foot furlong inch kilometer league light year meter microinch micrometer micron mile millimeter nanometer nautical mile parsec picometer survey foot survey mile survey yard yard	bushel (Imperial) bushel (US) cubic centimeter cubic decimeter cubic foot cubic inch cubic meter cubic millimeter cubic yard cup (US) cup (metric) dry gallon dry pint dry quart fluid ounce (Imperial) fluid ounce (US) gallon (Imperial) gallon (US) gill (Imperial) gill (US) kiloliter liter microliter milliliter peck (Imperial) peck (US) pint (Imperial) pint (US) quart (Imperial) quart (US) tablespoon tablespoon (Australian) teaspoon
Area (incomplete)
acre hectare section square foot square inch square meter square mile square yard survey acre

Cool Grader 2.1 upcoming release

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:59:00 +0000

I've been working hard on the unit-converter to be included in the upcoming release 2.1 of Cool Grader. The initial unit-conversion tabs to be included on the Converter page are Mass/Weight, Volume, Area, Temperature/Heat, Length/Distance, Speed, and Time/Date. Here's a sample from the Mass/Weight tab:

Cool Grader app, version 2.0.1, now published

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:27:00 +0000

A minor update to Cool Grader is now published in the Windows Store. This update addresses some minor bugs involving screen swiping and adds an Auto-save option to the built-in camera. You may view detail about this release, or obtain the app, at Cool Grader 2.0.1

The new Auto-save option is explained on our website (at Cool Grader):

Cool Grader app, version 2.0, now published

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:49:00 +0000

The new version 2.0 of the Cool Grader app is now available in the Windows Store. You may view the store information on the following page: Cool Grader 2.0. You may also see our website with detailed app information on the following page: MJ App Factory.

Enjoy!

Cool Grader - publication status and website

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:06:00 +0000

The Cool Grader version 2.0 app upgrade has been submitted to Microsoft for certification and publishing. We expect it to be available in the Windows Store for phones by this coming weekend.

Our website has been updated with detailed information about the new Cool Grader. You may see it by selecting the following link: MJ App Factory.

Cool Grader - final screens

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:31:00 +0000

I am now in the field-testing phase of the app, and here are the final screen shots. Please note that the background image is customizable -- the user may choose whatever picture they want for the background from photos saved on their device or from a new image captured with the camera built into the app.

Main panels

Grader

Calculator

Text color

Background image

Information about the app

New calculator-detail screen

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:41:00 +0000

I have implemented a new screen in the Cool Grader calculator to display the calculator detail, as shown below. This finally makes the initial version 2.0 of Cool Grader "feature complete", since no new major functions are planned for this next product release.

At this point, I am having "beta test" teachers use the app to grade their student assignments. When this testing phase is done, the app should be ready for publication in the Windows Phone marketplace.

Calculator screen

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:44:00 +0000

Got the main Calculator function incorporated today also :)

Cool Grader - Grader screens

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:16:00 +0000

Getting closer to market publication! Here are a couple more screen shots from the new Grader page:

Cool Grader 2.0 screen shots

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:56:00 +0000

Here are a few screen shots from the new Cool Grader version 2.0 update I'm planning on publishing next month in the Windows Phone Marketplace:

What's happening lately

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:49:00 +0000

The last couple of months, I've been doing a lot of work preparing for the new Windows 7/8 Phone app and Windows 8 tablet development I've planned. The fun things I've been bogged down with include:

Research into Windows 8 and Windows 8 Phone details, including new software development stuff from Microsoft
Continued enhancement of my underlying ICE framework, including (for those who know the lingo) full XML support for app-data persistence and cloud data sharing and synchronization between devices running my apps
App feature requirements and detailed design work
Cross-platform support for Windows 8, Windows 7, phones, tablets, and web pages

Doesn't all that sound like loads of fun?

After a few more technical tweaks to my underlying framework stuff (and completing some more documentation for other programmers using it), I'll dive in to development of the prototype for the Cool Grader app upgrade. Hopefully, I'll have it ready for review by testers within this next week or the next. One hopes, anyway.

What fun ... :)

The existing product to be upgraded

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:28:00 +0000

For those not familiar with the current Cool Grader app, here are some screen shots to give you an idea of the existing product to be upgraded in this next release (see 'First app development in a year ...' below):

Grading screen

Menu (displayed via '...')

Calculator

Help information

First app development in a year ...

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:19:00 +0000

Some real news from Mr. Winkle ... Now gotten to the point where some actual app development can continue, after all this time developing some underlying technology I needed ...

First project is a paid upgrade to Cool Grader, which will include a new average sheet, a grading table, and a random number generator. Storage of the average sheet(s) will allow for later retrieval of previous grading sessions. Also, various improvements will be made in the user interface, to make new features easily accessible and dress up some of the existing display elements.

Bulletin just in: RV Winkle awakes

noreply@blogger.com (MJ App Factory) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:39:00 +0000

Sources today disclosed that RV Winkle (usually known as "Rip" or "Van the Man") has finally awoken and is stirring again. He was recently found to have resurfaced within MJ App Factory, apparently working as a software developer of all things. According to our sources (who asked to remain anonymous since they were not authorized to disclose details), Mr. Winkle plans to announce some "big things" soon, although what those big things are have not yet been explained. Our sources only hinted vaguely about things like 'frameworks' and 'data sharing', although what those meant was not clarified.

We will stay on top of this developing story and bring you updates as soon as they are available.