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Shortyz 3.2.9

Hey everyone!

So as you have likely noticed, I haven't been doing a lot of work on Shortyz lately. I got several months ago at Bettercloud and it has been pretty demanding. This release is basically just a crash-fix release, and some pruning of the puzzle sources.

Sheffer and Joseph crosswords are not available anymore from King Features Syndicate's web site. They have worked up a new thing where they are partnering with their print partners to include those in their custom apps, so you might look around for those.

Also, you might have noticed the new Shortyz copies on the app store. Frankly, I am kind of pissed about these. Shortyz is open source under the GNU Public License. This means people are free to reuse my code as long as they make their code available. There are Shortyz forks on the Amazon Kindle store that I am generally OK with, just because I am not going to pay Amazon for the right to make something I make no money from available on their store. The stuff on the Play store, though, irks me. However, if you like these, feel free to use them.

On a final note, if you are still hard up for puzzles, check out Puzzle Express They sell bundles of puzzles in JPZ format. You can purchase these and put the files in your /crosswords/ folder on your phone and Shortyz will find them.

Thanks to everyone using

Previously: 3.2.7

The quest to shake down this thing continues. Again, I am sorry for the continued problems.

Lastly, some of you have asked about the fit-to-screen on Honeycomb+. Honestly, the way it was working, where everyone with a HC+ device got a puzzle scale the first time they entered the play screen, was never my intent, but it got left in there with the Google TV code, and a lot of you became accustomed to it. Since most of these devices have larger screens anyway, it worked pretty well.

I haven't put it back as the default, but there is a preference you can set for it.

Thanks

Previously: 3.2.3

First of all, thanks for your patience. Long time users know that I am kind of scattershot on releases with new versions of Android.

Seconds of all, I am sorry I can't get to everyone's emails anymore. Honestly, the emails that come in now that there are 400,000(!!!!) of you are overwhelming for one guy to get to. I try to triage them as best I can, but I just can't reply to everyone anymore. I might suggest you circle Shortyz on Google+. I try to post the state there as often as I can.

So some updates: I think I *finally* have the flicker issues in Jelly Bean worked out. Also, for people on "Large" format screens (read: 7" tablets, Google TV) the problem with using the "Native" keyboard option is sorted out, so you should be able to see the clues. Yes, I know that some of you don't like the clues below the puzzle, but I feel this is a better layout, and it will require some significant changes to make this an option. I will *try* to support using the phone-style portrait layout on "large" screens again at some point in the future.

Also, I have fixed the the Window Title issue on <=Gingerbread. Sorry about that. That was just an oversight

There are some more things coming. I wanted to get the two puzzle lists on tablets to sync properly, but it turns out this is more complex than I thought. Also, now that I actually own two devices with NFC, I intend to support using Android Beam to move your puzzle state from your phone to your tablet and vice versa. Look for these soon.

One last thing, because I don't want to shock people. Ben Tausig, the guy who makes the Inkwell and Onion crosswords has asked me to help him set up a pay service for his puzzles, and I am going to oblige. These puzzle will still be available for free on the web, but Shortyz will require a subscription to keep auto-downloading them. I can assure you the price Ben is wanting to charge is incredibly reasonable. I do Shortyz for fun, but Ben makes a living making crosswords. Shortyz has supported his puzzled to date because I don't make any money off of it, and Ben is a really nice guy. More on this to come, just a heads up.

Previously: 3.2.1

This release is mostly just cleanup for Google TV and JellyBean devices. If this doesn't affect you, you can ignore it.

Google TV is hiding the ActionBar properly again. The Nexus 7 now uses the Google TV landscape view and the ICS 10" screen portrait view. All the downloader bugs in JB have been fixed.

Previously 3.1.5

First, there is a new option on the settings screen to suppress marking hinted squares on the playboard!

Some bug fixes in this release, and updated to support GoogleTV.

Previously: 3.1.2

First, I have fixed some crash bugs that many of you have contacted me about. Thanks.

Secondly, some of you have emailed me about the "Cheated" boxes. Some of you seem to have taken personal offense at the implication that you are "cheaters". To that end, I have changed the word "cheated" to "hinted". As to the nature of the change, let me explain...

Lots of you play with the "Show Errors" feature on. This highlights your incorrect boxes as you fill in the puzzle. With the new change, boxes that have been highlighted as being in error are marked as red on the screen. Lots of people like to play this way as it makes the puzzles more approachable and can turn a puzzle that might take you an hour into something you can do on a 20 minute train ride. Previously, boxes were only marked as "Cheated" (with the pink indicator) if you used the "Reveal" function (and then the word cheated was what I called it internally, and was never presented to the user). However, to have an Apples to Apples scoring system for the "Share" option (and some future features) it is necessary to take into account that having "Show Errors" reveal an error is, functionally, the same as having the answer given to you, as you could just key every letter into the box until it showed as "Correct".

If you don't care about the "show errors" lights, just keep playing as you have. The only difference in your play will be some slight pink hues behind letters you have corrected. If you do want to work on your solve time, Press Menu -> Hide Errors you can still make typos, change your answers, whatever you want, and none of your overplays will not be counted as "hints".

Previously: 3.1.0

First, sorry to everyone who has emailed me recently. My life has been crazy and I have not been as good as I should about getting back to Shortyz users. I promise it will get better soon. :P

Anyway, this version adds good support for Ice Cream Sandwich for y'all, who like me, are chomping at the bit to get your hands on the Galaxy Nexus. There is also a new Puzzle Completion dialog that includes the option to share your information on via your social networking clients, email, etc. Also a fix so that broken puzzle URLs like the People puzzle from this week (they messed up on their end) don't linger around. Also, boxes that you have flagged with "Show Errors" now show as "Cheated" persistently.

Previously: 3.0.7

Quick changes to adapt to the NYTimes changing their site and changing the source of the LATimes crossword puzzle.

Previously: 3.0.4

Quick update: Sorry about the People Magazine problems. They don't publish their answers electronically. The app will no longer show you the incorrect values.

New Puzzles! People Magazine and Victor Fleming's "I Swear" puzzles have been added to the downloaders. Also the WaPo overwriting issue is corrected.

Previously: 3.0.3

As some of you long-time users will remember, at the request of LitSoft, the people who provided crossword software to CrosSynergy (The syndicators of the Washington Post/Houston Chronicle puzzle) requested that those puzzles be removed from the application a while ago. I included a link in the release notes where those puzzles could be downloaded for free from the chron.com web site. Well, CrosSynergy is no longer using LitSoft software to publish there puzzles, and I, therefore, no longer feel LitSoft has standing to request that those puzzles are excluded. Thanks to some new code from Jeff Davidson supporting the .JPZ puzzle format... The Washington Post Daily Puzzle is now supported again.

Other news in this release.

Briefly, some things that are on-deck but not ready for release: Support for .jpz direct download and file access for JPZ files. This is the new standard for Crossword Compiler and a number of indy puzzles. I hope that over the next few months this will let me support the Brit/Aussie puzzles everyone has been asking for -- presuming they upgrade from the old CCJ format to JPZ.

Previously: 3.0.1

First... Shortyz in the News!

In the lead up to the holidays, Shortyz got some nice press. It was listed on Game Informer's first list of Android games, and was also mentioned in the New York Times as a " Top Picks for Apps to Help You While Away the Minutes". As I have stated before, this is either a) a "scratch your own itch" Open Source project or b) a labor of love, depending on your preferred terminology, so this kind of recognition is really gratifying. But mostly, you guys rock.

As I noted many moons ago, the Shortyz user base has really been great. I have only gotten one nasty email, well, and the Litsoft affair. As always, feel free to email me with anything you want. I can't make categorical promises, but I do read all email.

Shortyz 3 now has new support for Android 3.0 Honeycomb! There are new screen layouts for large screens (Gingerbread tablets should see these too!) and it now takes full advantage of the new Action Bar.

Other changes:

Previously: 2.3.12

Just a quick fix to correct the problems with the new LAT site settings. Thanks to everyone who reported this. As always, if you are having problems, please email.

Previosly: 2.3.11

2.3.11 on 11/11. Happy Nigel Tufner Day!

This is just a quick fix for the NYT support. It will now give you a popup message if your password is incorrect (something I should have done ages ago). There was also a bug where if you entered an incorrect password, and tried to download using the download dialog, and not the regular scheduled download, it wouldn't register your updated credentials.

Big thanks to Michael Nash for helping me run this one down.

Previously: 2.3.10

Another sad one, but Brendan Emmet Quigley has asked that his puzzles be removed from the auto download feature since he has made an agreement with Standalone.

As far as I know, his puzzles will still be available for free from his blog. Since this looks to become a recurring theme, both his blog and this page where you can get the Houston Chronicle/CrosSynergy/Washinton Post are good pages to bookmark. I have added support for clicking puzzle links out of the browser to this version, so you may want to bookmark those pages.

Why, you may ask, is clicking on them out of the browser different than Shortyz downloading them on its own? That, my friend, is a good question. But as I have said before, this is a hobby, I am not rich, and I don't want to pick a fight with anyone.

Previously: 2.3.9

This update has nothing for most of you. Sorry. If you play the NYTimes puzzle, or you are using a generic Chinese made Android Tablet, you might care.

Many of you have noticed the NYTimes puzzles aren't updating. What happened is the NYT seems to have changed their policy on this and the FIRST download of an NYT puzzle will contain the correct answer key, so the update logic is no longer necessary.

If you have a puzzle that "isn't updating", long press on it in the list screen and select "Mark as Updated", and you will see the new key.

If you have a Brand-X Android tablet, and you aren't getting a keyboard popup, there is now a pref to force the keyboard onto the screen, no matter what the OS says about keyboard availability.

Previously: 2.3.8

Quick update. This will fix this weeks Onion AV Club puzzle, but you will need to delete and re download the puzzle. Also fixed a bug with the timer and the clues list screen.

Previously: 2.3.7

It is a sad day, but Litsoft, who, as I understand it, does online distribution for CrossSynergy (the provider of the Houston Chronicle puzzle available in Shortyz) has requested that I remove the puzzle from the list of puzzles that are downloaded.

It is my personal position that Shortyz does not violate any copyrights of anyone, since I do not copy, store, or duplicate any puzzles, but simply provide you, the user, with a means do directly download the puzzles onto your phone. However, because I do not wish to bring any litigation down on myself for a hobby project, I have complied.

You can still get these puzzles for free from either the Houston Chronicle website, or the Washington Post website for free. Unfortunately, you will need to do this from a desktop/laptop computer, since their mobile sites do not expose the crossword downloads. If you download the puzzles, you can store them in the "crosswords" folder on your phones SD Card and use them as usual (though the meta information in the menu will not be visible).

Previously: 2.3.4

Quick update:

Once again, if you have any problems feel free to email me. There is still a known issue with slower phones corrupting puzzles if you exit the app suddenly. I hope to offer some kind of solution to this soon, but for now, if you hit "Back" and go to the list screen before you leave the app, your puzzle will be safe.

Previously: 2.3.0

I would like to thank Debi Dorman for helping me work through the issues on Droid w/2.1. Again, there were some crazy issues that were unforseeable and she emailed me and I was able to work out what the problems were.

Also worth noting that during the last release cycle, Shortyz crossed the 50,000 downloads milestone, and is now the #1 crossword app in the market by Google's magic sort. Thanks so much guys. Again, I started this project as most good open source projects start: by scratching my own itch. It the history of this project, I have gotten one nasty email from a user. You guys are all great and helpful!

That said, I am starting work on a new Android project, so Shortyz is going to go into hibernation for a bit. There will be more releases to fix bugs, etc, but I have no plans for major new features in the near term. All you people who think the app updates to frequently will now be happy. :) Anyway, look for my second Android app in the coming weeks.

No big new features here but a number of bug fixes:

Previously: 2.2.17

Wow, so that last one had some problems. First thing: I would just like to ask everyone:

If you are having problems, email me!

I don't own every phone in the world. Really just the one. If there is a problem like this one, your comments in the Market don't help me fix it at all. If you want to drop your rating of the app, feel free, but if you want the problem fixed, scroll down and hit that "Developer Email" button. :P

Next, a bit of explanation: The problem here is that it seems that some phones from Moto and Samsung, with certain versions of Android don't include the full set of character encodings from Java. Specifically, MacRoman (the Mac OS western alphabet), which is used for some of the new puzzle sources. This was causing all kinds of havoc. The short version is this:

They should, however, now work most of the time. Again, I am sorry to anyone who had crash issues, and I am sorry for spamming everyone else who wasn't with updates. This was just something that testing in the emulators wouldn't catch and didn't show up on my phone.

Previously: 2.2.12

First of all, I would like to officially welcome Jeff Davidson to the "team." He has made a number of big contributions to this release:

Wow. I feel like a wuss now. Thanks so much. In other news...

We have also both made a pass at the "Ensure Visible" code. I think it is much improved now but there will be a few differences. If you nav off the lower edge of the screen, you will snap down the a full screen to the new cursor position. When you nav off screen into a new word, you will get visibility on the side of the word your cursor is closest to -- the beginning or end of the word.

From the "You can't please everyone" Department, Double Tap to toggle between default zoom and fit to screen is back. This time it is a setting that you can toggle. The behavior of "Fit to Screen" in the zoom context menu is unchanged.

Previously: 2.2.9

OK, everyone but me seems to hate the double tap scale. Moved Fit to Screen to the Zoom menu and works like a standard zoom setting now.

Previously: 2.2.5

Doin' the quickie dance:

Previously: 2.2.0

A Brief Note (release info follows):

Shortyz is free and open source. No ads, no whatever. Honestly, I started working on it because last fall when I switched from the iPhone world to the Android world, there wasn't an app that would let me do the NYT puzzle easily on the train ride to work. A number of people have asked about a paid version. Honestly, a paid version puts me into copyright issues territory, and I really don't want to get into that. This is not a business, and I don't want to give the appearance I am reselling anyone else's property. I don't host or copy the puzzles you download in the app in any way; you download them directly from their publicly available sources with the app.

So, I have added a donate button at the top of this screen. Want to buy me a beer? Feel free, but don't feel obligated. You won't get anything more or less out of the app than anyone else. Also, if you feel like spreading the wealth, consider visiting Ink Well and Brendan Emmett Quigley's site and buying their fine wares.

End of speech. At any rate. What is up with this version? Lots of stuff!

Previously: 2.1.8

Quick update. Mostly bug fixes. Two noticeable changes:

Previously: 2.1.1

Some updates here most of you won't notice. A few bug fixes. However, if you are running Froyo (Android 2.2) you now have pinch zoom on the play board and Shortyz will install to external storage, saving you that whole 100K on your internal storage. :P

There is also a new screen specifically to complain when the SDCard is unavailble. Hopefully this will reduce support issues for me.

Previously: 2.1.0

Sorry if you feel spammed the last few days with updates. I am using the holiday to try and get to all the feature requests and known bugs, so I am pumping them out. This time, though moving up a whole minor version number!

Lots and Lots of Changes:

Special thanks the following people for suggestions/testing for this release (in no particular order):

Previously: 2.0.30

Fast update, but this is mostly just bug fixes.

Previously: 2.0.26

Number of noticeable changes here, mostly just improvements to what is already there. Some highlights:

Previously: 2.0.22

At long, long last the first character bug in the clue list view is fixed. Sorry this took so long, but that was actually a deep bug based on how the Android list view works.

Cryptics! That's right Brits, there is now a cryptics source available. It is in the experimental scrapers section. Please read the help there. It is not enabled by default, so you will need to go to the settings page.

Number of other small bug fixes that only got one or two reports. Which brings me to

Thanks so much to you guys. The Shortyz user base is great to work with. If you are having problems or a suggestion, please email me at kebernet@gmail.com I can't make any promises, but I will do my best to address your issue/feature request.

Previously: 2.0.17

This version includes a number of small changes. There has been an upgrade to the playboard logic, so you should never end up with a focused empty square again.

Next, there is the new "Web Scraping" downloaders. The first of these is from cruciverbalist and Shortyz user Brendan Emmett Quigley. This feature allows for the inclusion of puzzles that don't come as part of a regular puzzle feed. See the info in the "Settings" screen for more information.

The zoom steps on the board have been changed from 50% to 25%

When "Skip Completed Letters" is on, typing over a completed square will not skip the next completed square. This should make correcting words easier.

Application options have moved to the bottom of the settings screen, after the puzzle sources

Finally, speaking of experimental, if you would like to try a web based version of Shortyz you can play on your desktop or laptop, try visiting http://shortyz.kebernet.net. This version is still under heavy development, but is quite playable right now.

Previously: 2.0.15

This is mostly work to address bugs that have been reported. If you are experiencing crashes, please install SendLog and email me your raw log files. This will help me diagnose and fix your problems.

Previously: 2.0.8

Shortyz has been updated based on some feedback from the user community. Much of what is new in this version are options for changing the UI behavior under Settings. These include:

Other fixes: