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New cache notification with an Android Phone


trevorh7000

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Just got Samsung Galaxy Ace

 

Am trying out c:geo

 

More importantly how do I make the phone notify me in a memorable and unique way so that I know its a new cache by the sound of the unique ringtone.

 

Currently my cache notification go to my gmail address (gmail is setup on my phone) but by using filters they by pass the inbox and go to a label called GS - this is bad anyway as I always miss new notifications as they do not come in my inbox and I have to scroll down to see the GS label.

 

So to recap I want the phone to buzz in a special way when a new cache is published - do any of the caching apps take care of notifications or is email the only early warning system.

 

I might add that i don't care to know when other emails come in or they will be special cases where I want to be notified of very specific emails - I can't help think filtering in gmail will be the key - even if the mail I want to know about is forwarded to another gmail account which the phone can pick up and notify me of!

 

Had an unacceptable situation tonight - 6 caches published at 9pm in my FTF zone and Henzz (well done) from out of town and cism/yelena (well done but you wimped out of doing them all! ;) ) previously engaged in music find these things before I am even aware of their presence ;)

 

Help desperately needed! Also any other Android caching tips appreciated - will soon be attempting AVATAR no that I have a Wherigo player installed.

 

thanks

 

trev

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There are probably a number of ways, but here is what I have set up...

 

First off, c:geo has no way of automatically checking for new caches, that I am aware of.

 

Step 1: Set up a separate gmail account for the sole purpose of notifications and then register it in your GC account. Then update all the notifications that you want to receive on your phone, to be sent to this email account and leave any others like 'Event Caches' to be sent to your primary account.

 

Step 2: (Optional) Because I don't monitor this 'notifications' account on my computer, but still want to receive notifications there, I set up forwarding on the new account to send a copy to my primary geocaching gmail address.

 

Step 3: Set up the new notification address on your phone. I personally don't use the Gmail app, but prefer to use the Email app because I have several email account (not all gmail) that I may want to access. It also allows you to have different settings for different accounts.

 

Step 4: Assuming you do the same, and set up your account(s) in the Email app, long press on the account name and tap 'Account Settings'. Here you can set up the check frequency and a little further down you can select a different ringtone.

 

Hope that Helps

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Just to add to MnCo's comments.

 

As far as I am aware the only way to get notifications is by e-mail.

I have not come across any of the geocaching apps that do give notifications.

 

I also set up another gmail account purely for geocaching and then set it as my primary account at geocachng .com

Then just set only that account to "buzz" when an e-mail comes through.

 

Andy

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Hey Trev

 

I am afraid that with Gmail you either have notifications on or off. You can have notifications for one account and not the other if you have multiple Gmail accounts so this may be your best option. What you can do is automatically sync only one of the gmail accounts which can be set up in settings, accounts from your home screen. Make sure the green sync symbol is highlighted for the account you want and off for the ones you don't. You can also change what notification tone is used for that account but not for individual emails within that account.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Cheers

Evan

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Thanks for all the help guys

 

I kind of thought it would have to be a solution like this

 

So I have done a little bit of a reverse to MnCo - I did create another gmail account for notifications and I did load it to my GC account but then decided not to use it - I now use filters in my primary gmail to forward cache notifications to my notification account which as per MnCos suggestion I set up using the email app rather than the gmail app. I then made sure it was set for notifications and changed the tone to something different from my primary gmail. This works with a test email I send to my notification account. Just waiting for the first new cache notification to see if I am alerted in real time. I also set the polling time to 5 minutes - will chow battery no doubt but there is no point setting it to any less as then the advantage of knowing immediately is lost!

 

However here's the rub - a millisecond chirp is not going to be very audible or effective especially if the phone is in my pocket or if I am asleep - that will never wake me up.

 

Can I make the phone full on ring when a new message comes in or am I limited to just a fleeting beep! Or is there some other action the phone could take when a message to the notification email account is received?

 

Thanks - I now feel I have the same competitive advantage as the other serious FTF hounds!

 

Trev

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Ok Android Gmail User Fans

 

I have just found an app R6.20 that sets different notifications on different lables - so you have to set up your gmail app to sync the labels you want then you set up those same labels in the Gmail Label Notifier App and select a unique notification sound. Then there are lots of options about repeating the notification till you acknowledge it and times where you do not want the notificatiosn to be audible.

 

So this is a much more elegant way of doing things than setting up mulitple gmail accounts - if you do not already use gmail that advantage is lost! At the moment my phone is tweeting away as I set it to keep notifying each minute till I acknowledge - just have to work out how to acknowledge as I have read the test email.

 

I will just now have to tweak my filters and labels as I have all the other GS notifications goinf to the same label and I only want to be buzzed on NOTIFY messages.

 

I will report back in a week if the app was worth it.

 

The app can be found here - https://play.google....mailnotifierpro

 

While this repeating alarm is better than a single one that can be easily missed I woudl still prefer some more violent and loud ringing - anyway to choose your own tones for the notifications - all the stock ones are too soft and too short

 

Trev

Edited by trevorh7000
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Can I make the phone full on ring when a new message comes in...

 

You can set up a custom ringtone/notification using an MP3.

 

Account Settings > Select Ringtone > Goto My Files

 

Thanks Mark - I must say I could not find that exact menu option but I did download a app called ringdroid which allows you to make custom ringtones and more importantly custom notification tones. So I made a longer one and added it and then I could select it but it did not play the whole file - but that may be because it was interrupted by the general gmail notification - I will keep trying and will report back on my successes or lack of thereof.

 

Ok it was interrupted and because I have it set to repeat at 1 min intervals until i acknowledge it - it played the whole file on the second go - just very softly - so I need to boost the audio file or just use a loud mp3 - i recorded my own voice message using ringdroid - see here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ringdroid&hl=en

 

So I think my solution is complete - unique long notification tome for only messages I select and filter in gmail using only my primary gmail account. Far more elegeant I think than multiple accounts and forwarding!!!

 

You will know I have had success at this when my rate of FTF's for Urban Drive By Low difficulty caches climb - yay for Android.

 

Only thing is all these apps are mothing but data suckers and I am the sucker for using them. Why woudl a ring tone editor need or want access to my contact details - data collection for greedy evil doers is the only reason I can think of which is a great pity - I would rather even pay a small amount for an app that respects my privacy - but my info is worth more to their little evil plans than a few rand is.

 

Trev

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I must say I could not find that exact menu option...

 

That is odd. You should have v2.3 "Gingerbread" on that phone, so you should have an option to choose your own mp3 as a ringtone/notification (which plays for as long as the song is until you open the email) for each separate account. If for some reason you don't or you have an older OS without that menu option, then the alternate method is to place your mp3 audio files in "media/audio/notifications/" or "media/audio/ringtones/" folders as necessary. If these do not exist, create them. Now the mp3 files will show up in the default notification and ringtone lists respectively.

 

Only thing is all these apps are mothing but data suckers and I am the sucker for using them....

 

I'm not a big fan of using apps to do things the system can already do, as they also suck battery besides the data. Also keep in mind, that you are going to be using quite a bit more data, receiving all your emails on your phone in order to get only a few notifications. Polling my notification account every few minutes uses almost no data, so its only the notification headers/emails a few times a month that use any kind of real data.

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I read all this with a wry smile knowing that if I set up instant notifications on my phone I would probably be sleeping on the couch! The "Boss" already thinks I am obsessed - we of course know that however!

 

So I guess I will still be relying on luck and long climbs.......

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I must say I could not find that exact menu option...

 

That is odd. You should have v2.3 "Gingerbread" on that phone, so you should have an option to choose your own mp3 as a ringtone/notification (which plays for as long as the song is until you open the email) for each separate account. If for some reason you don't or you have an older OS without that menu option, then the alternate method is to place your mp3 audio files in "media/audio/notifications/" or "media/audio/ringtones/" folders as necessary. If these do not exist, create them. Now the mp3 files will show up in the default notification and ringtone lists respectively.

 

Only thing is all these apps are mothing but data suckers and I am the sucker for using them....

 

I'm not a big fan of using apps to do things the system can already do, as they also suck battery besides the data. Also keep in mind, that you are going to be using quite a bit more data, receiving all your emails on your phone in order to get only a few notifications. Polling my notification account every few minutes uses almost no data, so its only the notification headers/emails a few times a month that use any kind of real data.

 

Thanks Mark - after install ringdroid I also read about using those folders - I think ringdroid just automates that although when I went to look for those folders they were not there. dumping files into folders is a bit obscure anyway - there shoudl be a default option to choose your own mp3 as ringtone / notifcation tone.

 

As far as getting all my emails - I did not think that gmail app uses large amounts of data - surely it just shws you the email headers and onlyuses much data if you look at the email. In any event at home and at work I am connected to wifi so don;t care about data usage. I have a data usage monitor app so I will be able to see exactly what apps are using bandwidth - living and learning - the other thing is to set the inbox not to sync - I had to special specify the label that I use for notifications to sync

 

Anyway I will be buying a second USB cable so I can kepe the thing charged at work and at home - then the 3 hours usage before battery dies should be enough to do most of the caching and what not - and then a third and 4th cable for the car and bike will charge the phone between destinations.

 

Final reult is I now have a funcitoning alert system that plays AC/DC Back in Black (about 20second clip) and repeats it till I dismiss it when a cache notification comes in. SO unless my phone is off or I left it at home - I should never miss another cache notification. Now just to wait for the next published cache to make sure it all works live!!

 

Next time we meet - next event? - I will pick yours and Andyt1s brains about these devices

 

Thanks

 

Trev

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As promised a field report of my setup.

 

Was gloriously woken at 4am'ish by the sounds of AC/DC Back in Black belting out of my phones little speaker. New cache alert! I could not even read the email as the phone was too bright and my glasses were not at hand, I just rolled over and went back to sleep - this time - as I was shall we say just a little under the weather getting an getting FTF was a much lesser concern than getting some quality sleep time.

 

But now I am set to never miss another opportunity should I wish to take it!

 

Thanks to all who contributed to the thread.

 

Trev

Edited by trevorh7000
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(got this info from Jors many moons ago)

 

I have a number with MTN.

and one can register an email account with them which is:

<cell phone numbner>@mtnloaded.co.za

 

When that email account gets an email, you are sent the notification via SMS that a new email has arrived.

So with this solution there is no need to poll the server.

 

The problem though is that the SMS notifications do not always come through.

But I would say they do 70 to 80% of the time.

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I have a number with MTN.

and one can register an email account with them which is:

<cell phone numbner>@mtnloaded.co.za

 

I'm guessing this is working for you, but I tried this as a solution many moons ago... before I got my first smartphone... but it never worked for me :huh:

 

Anyway, thats all in the past and now we have much more sophisticated methods of indulging in our obsession... um, hobby :unsure:

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I use a similar setup with Vodacom, where my email is 082xxxxxxx@vodamail.co.za and it sends me an SMS whenever I get a new email to that account, I am only aware of missing a new notification once.

 

Interesting - that is great to know and I am sure that using this method and the MNT method will be useful for all those who do not have a smart phone and who wish to have that competitive advantage of knowing when a new cache comes in! If any one has other tips on leveraging notifications on non-smart phones keep the tips coming. Sharing is caring!

 

Nice one - I have just registered at vodacom and sent my self a test email and it took about a minute to arrive as an sms on my phone. So there you go vodacom subscribers now all you need to do is set your Groundspeak notifications to be sent to you cellnumber@voda.co.za address and you will be notified by sms - you will not dout not see much detail but at least then you can get to a pc and check your email. So I woudl recommend you use gmail or other webmail account that has filters so you can get the message on your phone and on your email. Just remember the forwarding will not work well with offline clients such as thunderbird and outlook as this will be dependent on your pc being on with the client running and actively polling for new mail. If you have a desktop pc you alwasy leave on no problem.

 

Trev

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So I would recommend you use gmail or other webmail account that has filters so you can get the message on your phone and on your email. Just remember the forwarding will not work well with offline clients such as thunderbird and outlook as this will be dependent on your pc being on with the client running and actively polling for new mail.

 

Forwarding should always be set up in gmail (or on the server if you run your own domain), rather than an email client, so that the server handles it and forwards are instantaneous. Using a rule to do this in an email client should be a last resort solution.

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