Yet more about next update

The options will be presented in terms of the level of guarding (less = greater convenience, more = greater encumberance + safety from pocket activity)

Most convenient/Least encumbered: Unguarded mode - Every key will do full unlock.

Mild to moderate guarding: advanced mode

Use this mode if you want to wake or unlock the device with your choice of buttons instead of just the power key.

• Weak - all keys wakeup the lockscreen, home/back will unlock from the lockscreen. Choice of any side key for full unlock from sleep, optionally. (a3 build has power key doing this full unlock)
• Stronger - enable slide to unlock instead of home/back unlocking
• *Advanced power save- Two options to save power- toggle the prevention of screen wakeup with any of the side keys (a3 build behaves this way with the volume and the camera focus locked down), and the option to reduce the screen timeout while the lockscreen is visible instead of locking down any particular key.

Very strong guarding: guarded mode.

Use this mode if you want the custom lockscreen but want it secured to the power button. No side keys can wake/unlock, so wake occurs only with power key, slide keypad open, or any keypad button.

• Weak - instant unlock on wake
• Strong - custom lockscreen on wake. Choose home/back unlocking or the extra protection of slide to unlock

Pattern security - Secure mode lets you use the custom lockscreen on top of the pattern unlock screen. It will actually work even without the pattern, you would just slide the regular unlock slider to proceed.

Any weaker tier is allowed to have a full idle timeout (strictly into pattern lock) or timeout into secure mode where you still get lockscreen on top of pattern prompt. You can specify how many minutes of idle need to occur to trigger the timeout.

WIDGETS for the custom lockscreen-

A basic implementation of widget customization will be available below the clock display in the custom lockscreen. Add any widgets you want, in other words. To do this, open the myLock lockscreen setup from app drawer. Press menu, choose add widget, then pick the widget you want. It will be added at the first available position.

This release should be functional for adding widgets in order, with option to reset them all. Repositioning/manual positioning & selective deletion will be implemented in a later minor update.

now have a look at a squished widget

Utility lockscreen first build progress

Just need to fix this to add the leading zero to the first 10 hours & minutes. This cap was taken while testing the secure mode first alpha code and it works perfectly as it is really very very uncomplicated compared to the lockscreen cancelling variant.

---Got it all fixed.. And yes visual enhancement isn't my forte, these are just plain Button elements that I've slapped the function labels on for now. And also added battery % to top left corner.

Alpha 2c launched in market as myLock beta v1

I decided launching in market would be a good idea to reach more people & get more feedback, now that we've given the build a whole month to make sure it's solid enough and realize the most important improvements.

Please take a minute to leave positive reviews if you have been following us.

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So far we've discovered a few new bugs.

The lockscreen appears to restore, possibly causing a conflict, when speaker or blutetooth is active and then you let the screen sleep during a call. when you then end the call lockscreen is restored, it appears to be an android bug

The cpu clock mods seem to cause a problem when set too low for sleep, also. This doesn't appear to impact the a3 revisions.

More about the first release to contain our utility lockscreen

Today I made some decisions to revisit the simpler idea of the replacement lockscreen. While I still want to implement open widget usage for greater end user flexibility, this is the vision I want to achieve for the first beta release containing the custom lockscreen:

• myLock utility lockscreen - featuring the utility widget with clock display, controls for vibrate/sound, brightness level, and also music player interface (album art will be able to display), and optional unlock slider interfaces, choose from the default horizontal slider or a vertical one you drag from the bottom of the screen. Available in secure mode or customized mode-
• secure mode - display the utility lockscreen on top of the pattern lockscreen so you can control music & preview notifications in one wakeup even while locked down with your pattern. Exit this lockscreen by pressing the back key, then completing your pattern. No button customization is available in secure mode.
• custom mode - customize Power, Camera, slider-open, keypad buttons, & volume keys to choose which will remain locked, wakeup the utility lockscreen, or skip it for instant unlock.
• simple lockscreen disabled mode - no customization, just exits the lockscreen anytime it would normally be shown.
• in the non-secure modes (custom & simple), pattern security will be disabled at the time myLock is started. You can choose an idle timeout if you would like pattern security to turn on again after a number of minutes idle, disabling myLock until the pattern is unlocked.

The stay awake and shake options should also be integrated as global preferences available to any of the modes.

Requests for having the slide to unlock as an option in the custom lockscreen

I was using a palm pre the other day (co-worker got one) and I liked how their unlock slider works just like a design idea I had earlier while I was still only brainstorming features- the slider is radial so you grab it from the very middle of the screen at the bottom, and slide it up past a boundary. You can slide whatever direction is natural for your thumb, as long as you take it far enough from the start point and cross the boundary, you unlock. My idea for a shortcut launcher that worked exactly the same was one of the earliest ideas I had with myLock.

The idea was to touch the android starting at the bottom middle of the lockscreen (and keep your finger there) to display the shortcuts, and slide it to any one of them to unlock while launching the app. I shelved the idea after it occurred to me that we could just let app shortcut icons be placed onto the custom lockscreen or just let the homescreen exist with shortcuts, with no lockscreen at all.

So when I do the slider I want to make the myLock version to take advantage of that idea, minus shortcut launching, but also use the source code from the existing unlock slider to provide the default one also as an option. The a3 feature release probably won't have either, making it so the back & home touch keys do unlock when you have awakened the custom lockscreen.

New alpha 3 (and beyond) to-do list

The 0204 revision illustrates where I am at with the solid Android 2.0 optimized lockscreen replacement. I have fixed every implementation bug I came across that at first made me think that it might not be feasible to create a replacement lockscreen.

This revision demonstrates the power key and slider open lockscreen skip. While it is capable of any button wakeup or unlock, and also shake wake or unlock, I don't have those options implemented yet. The custom lockscreen only displays a message at the moment and would allow the notification bar to be used when awake. If you ever see a delay, it is due to the load time of the app you are unlocking into. Example, I see the lockscreen for 1 second when I am unlocking into twidroid.

Here's what remains to be done to consider the alpha 3 feature version ready for market release. I plan to get it into the market and go one update at a time into beta. These are just the loose ends that I need to get done, not things I need to test/learn how to do-

• Finish implementing the shake option and stay awake setting into the custom lockscreen.
• Implement button customization settings screen, where you can specify a functionality for each side key (locked, wake lockscreen, or skip lockscreen), and choose whether you want the slider to cause unlock or remain locked, and whether keypad buttons should be kept locked or do unlock when the slider is open

Here's some next priorities that will bridge the gap to beta:

• Add polished looking clock for the lockscreen itself. I really wanted to place small brightness and vibrate mode toggles somewhere on the clock display, one on each side seems feasible. This element will be a widget, but will be default in the lockscreen until full widget customization is implemented.
• Slide to unlock interface- optional, it has been requested. Without it, home key and/or back key can be used to unlock the awake lockscreen.
• Get the volume keys configured to let music be controlled while screen is asleep. A possible addition would be to allow camera key to pause or advance track, also.
• Create the pattern mode idle timeout allowing myLock to disable itself if left asleep for a user-specified amount of time

I am very pleased with the response and interaction from users out there; this has kept me excited about polishing this project. Keep the ideas coming.

If you get a specific conflict with any app or notice a behavior that always happens in response to something you do on your phone, please email me the details to mylockandroid at gmail, this will really help us improve for the feature alpha 3 release.