BeerSmith Android Brew Buddy

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I used to try and use some cheap brewing apps on my phone. They were, of course, very limited and not very accurate or useful. I currently use my netbook w/ beer smith on brew day, which works better than if the same thing were on my phone. After looking at your updates, I want to go out and purchase a tablet and wait anxiously for you to be done. Keep up the good work!

Sorry if you are already mentioned this, but what about strike temperatures? let's say when I printed my brewsheet my grains where at 75 degrees, but on brew day there were actually 68. Would be cool to quickly edit that information, and have the right strike temp value.

theschick said:

Sorry if you are already mentioned this, but what about strike temperatures? let's say when I printed my brewsheet my grains where at 75 degrees, but on brew day there were actually 68. Would be cool to quickly edit that information, and have the right strike temp value.

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After I get the first release settled and done, Ill look into how difficult it would be to add in features like this as how I have the tools set up I can easily add more for quick calculations that dont involve changing the recipe (things like this would fall into this category I think), however everyone (not just you) needs to understand this is a partner app for beersmith, something to view your recipes and use during brew day.

So while there are tons of features would be nice to have, they start getting into me making an android version of beersmith. Which in itself would be great, except im not a professional programmer and I dont have hours each day to spend on this. So this will stay as a brew day buddy to read recipes with some nice features to help out.

I have gotten in contact with the beersmith guy and have talked to him, and depending on my progress and how he likes it, we might end up do a partnership for the android app. But he is working with me to insure compatibility.

Also, I do plan on making a phone version after I finish the tablet version, since all the coding will be done, just need to change how it displays it, which I have an idea for how to get a similar display on a phone to work. But dont expect this anytime soon as Im focusing on the tablet version, and also work and masters takes up a lot of time

Good News, followed by more good news:
The Good news:
-My List of items to do to get all features working is very small: Help Page, Timers, Main Display Logo
- My list of things to do to make it nice and presentable, is a little bigger as I need to make new layouts for smaller devices running 4.0 and other versions

The More Good News:
- After doing some research I think I found a way to make the current features I want to use on 3.0 work on 2.3.3 devices (technically I could go back to 1.6 but most phones have 2.3 at least), So this means the one release will work on phones and tablets.
- Which means I have to make all new layouts for the new screen sizes which will take awhile, but shouldnt be too hard as its just playing with XML

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Update once again:
Fine tuned the Recipe View, and brewsteps, got all the tools finished, got the timers working and have a basic alarm for events worked out,

What needs to be done still:
-Need to figure out how to calculate estimated OG from the data available in the BSMX file
-Need to highlight items in timer list when they need to be put in, and make it capable of deleting the items once put in
-Ads/Donate button
-Help page
-Make it so you can update the files on device with the measured data
-Phone layouts and pre android 3.0 support

Most of the stuff shouldnt take too long once I figure out how to do it. Running into a few problems here and there, but progress is mostly done. Will post screenshots later today

Heres some screenshots enjoy:

One more:

Looks great! Im very excited for this!

Great job!
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This looks really promising! Can't wait!

Wow... thats really all i can say! :rockin: I can't wait till I can download it!!! How much do you plan to charge for it?

PS: I am running 2.3 if you need a BETA tester

Its going to be Free, ad supported with a monthly donation of $0.99 to get rid of ads if you want to get rid of them. Still working on the pre 3.0 version. But give it a couple weeks and I should have it released hopefully its almost done

I had always planned on supporting this app since you announced it, Adeering. Primarily because I have wanted something like this for a while, but also now because it will turn off the ads (which were recently shown to have a massive drain on your battery in comparison to the power requirements of the actual app).

Is there any way I could pay you a flat fee and kill the ads for a year or so? I'm one of those people that's going to look at that $0.99 each month and immediately think "FRAUD!!!" and then realize three seconds later what it's for.

Obviously not a major problem, but after working in the banking industry for a few years, I'm paranoid about odd charges to my account like that.

PistolsAtDawn said:

I had always planned on supporting this app since you announced it, Adeering. Primarily because I have wanted something like this for a while, but also now because it will turn off the ads (which were recently shown to have a massive drain on your battery in comparison to the power requirements of the actual app).

Is there any way I could pay you a flat fee and kill the ads for a year or so? I'm one of those people that's going to look at that $0.99 each month and immediately think "FRAUD!!!" and then realize three seconds later what it's for.

Obviously not a major problem, but after working in the banking industry for a few years, I'm paranoid about odd charges to my account like that.

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I am in this boat... if it works well, I would be willing to pay quite a bit to not have adds and not have to pay every month. It's paired with Beersmith which is $30 and thats it.

I do think the "free trial" version with ads will help you greatly to get people confident enough to support the ad free version.

I'm brewing this weekend and have my recipe in beersmith if you need a tester. I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 running 3.2 Honeycomb that I can test with.

So not sure what im going to do for the ads exactly, the more I get the phone layouts done the less I enjoy the ads, however I do need some method of compensation so trying to figure out what to do. Will let you know, but will try to make it as cheap and fair as possible, will probably switch to a one time donation to get rid of ads

Give a free trial period (a month or so) then have it diable unless paid for.

If you make it so that a single owner/buyer can install to multiple devices that would be best (I have an android tablet and phone now). Or make it $4.99 for one device (perpetual licenses, so good for all future versions) or $9.99 for two or more devices. If it tests well for me, I'd pay the higher amount so that I can use it on my two devices (might get more in the future).

Have you looked into in-app purchases to take care of the ad removal? Make it a free app, and then offer to remove the ads forever for $10 or something. Then, its a single APK you're dealing with, which means one entry on the store, one pool for reviews, etc.

EDIT: Also, I think having a trial period is an absolutely horrible idea. If someone wants to live with seeing ads, I don't see why they can't just continue to provide ad revenue to the dev. Cutting them off from the app after 30 days will only piss people off who don't mind ads. Personally, I'll be paying to remove them, but only if its not a subscription.

Updated my post, Im probably going to do the one time purchase of ad removal for something like $10

or make it $4.99 for one device (perpetual licenses, so good for all future versions) or $9.99 for two or more devices. If it tests well for me, i'd pay the higher amount so that i can use it on my two devices (might get more in the future).

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+1

So made a decision, Im going to make it a free app with a one time donation of 4.99 to get rid of ads. The phone version the ads kinda suck, but ive got them the best I can without interfering with the data. Also additional donations are always accepted

Now as long as I get my research paper done for my masters this week as planned I should be able to get the initial release out either this week or next

This probably some of the most exciting beer software news over heard in awhile. I used brewpal on my iPhone but since switching to android the options have been pretty lacking. Can't wait to see the phone version.

I am looking forward to this app!

So Completed the 3.0 and above version, releasing it tomorrow and will start work on making it pre android 3.0 as well. If you install it please report all errors so I can fix them right away. Thanks and will post link to android page later

Great news, Adeering! Can't wait to load it on my tablet and donate the $$ for your hard work!

Version 1.0 for android 3.0+ is officially released. I have no way of testing the inApp purchase as of yet, it should work and ill test it tomorrow when it becomes available to test. So here is the link for the download: Brew Buddy

And for your added viewing pleasure here are some screenshots of the phone layouts (which is available if you have a 4.0 device). As for the ads, on the tablet layout they will just dissappear, for the phone layout they will go away and youll get the extra space once they are gone.

Is this currently available for phones that are not currently on ICS? I would love to be able to run this on my Droid Bionic!

Is there any sync functionality with Beer Smith? This would be the best! I could sync my recipes to this and use this on my phone to keep track of my brew day.

not for my phone

Yeah, I went to the the store and it says it is not compatible with my device...

Galaxy s2 not compatible? Looks like a great app and terrific idea!! Wish I could use it.

Adeering, the app won't let me sync with dropbox - says it's still in development mode

So here are some things:

1. Please read the posts before responding, its said many times on here (almost every update) that it currently is for 3.0 and above for now. I am working on making it compatible with 2.3 devices shortly.

2. BeerSmith Syncing is not possible at the moment, once BeerSmith's new version is released and he has his cloud in place there will Syncing possible

3. As it states in the app description, updating of recipes is not available yet, there will be small ability to update recipes with measured data and notes in future release, still working out those details.

@MisterPhoton-See below

@Railroadhooch- Currently it only works on 3.0 and above, the Galaxy S2 runs 2.3, Im in the process of making it compatible, just requiring a little workaround for a few things.

Update: Sorry but app is unpublished for now, something is wrong with the inapp billing and to prevent people from paying and not having it save the data im pulling it for the time being. Ill work on it later today to try and make it work

MisterPhoton said:

Adeering, the app won't let me sync with dropbox - says it's still in development mode

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sorry ignore previous respons to this, i overlooked activating the app with dropbox, so just my test device works. My Bad

I have it on my Samsung tab 10.1, opens fine but when i go to folder and then select my recipe from my sd card i get a box saying "do you want to open this recipe" and when i hit yes it force closes. I changed my default folder to my /sdcard/ if that matters.

Wish all developers were as quick and honest with there responses!! You my friend should continue your app development ventures don't just stop with this one "great" idea.

cperry7467 said:

I have it on my Samsung tab 10.1, opens fine but when i go to folder and then select my recipe from my sd card i get a box saying "do you want to open this recipe" and when i hit yes it force closes. I changed my default folder to my /sdcard/ if that matters.

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It shouldnt matter, but I didnt change the folder when testing, small oversite, ill look into it when I get home. Thanks for the descriptive report though that should be enough to figure it out



Would love if I could make a living making apps, but unfortunately im in the military as a pilot which means I have very little time

What's the default folder it looks in?