This is a minor update release, with lots of translation updates and various small user interface improvements.

As usual, if you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker, join us in the Forum or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

This release fixes a problem that caused notifications of updates to your installed applications to not be displayed.

As usual, if you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker, join us in the Forum or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

Andor’s Trail is a classic RPG. Your brother, the Andor of the title, has disappeared, and via a series of interlinked quests your job is to find out what’s happened to him.

The action takes place on a tiled top-down map, which although not complete yet, covers a very large area with a wide variety of environments. The world is populated by various humans to help and hinder you in your quests, and the obligatory range of wild animals and mythical beasts, all of which deliver up the usual combination of gold, experience and dropped objects when killed via combat in the classic turn-based stats-driven style.

The conversation system works really well, and provides the means by which all the quests are driven. The dialogue can seem rather strange at times, but once you get used to the idea of wizened old wizards talking in the style of a grumpy American teenager, it’s not a big problem.

If you have any interest at all in this style of game, you’ll find a vast amount of gameplay here already, with a lot more to come as time goes on. Although this is definitely a work in progress, in terms of the map and quests being expanded, everything that already exists is very polished and not at all buggy.

Additionally, the availability of various editing tools for the maps and quest systems means it would be easy to get involved with the building of the world.

Vital Statistics

• License: GPL
• Web Site: http://andors.techby2guys.com/
• Source Code: http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/

You can install it from the FDroid repository client, or download the APK directly if you prefer.

The latest release of the FDroid Repository Client, version 0.23, is now available. You can get it from the repository page or, if you already have an earlier version installed, just update.

The main changes in this release are:

• Categories – a filter at the top of the main screen now allows you to filter the current list by category of application.
• New ‘Dependencies’ anti-feature – on the preferences screen you can choose to filter out applications that have dependencies on non-free software.
• Various translation updates, and several new languages.

If you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

This release contains numerous minor fixes and user interface improvements, but the main changes since the previous release are:

• Applications that are incompatible with your device (e.g. requiring a different Android version, or hardware you don’t have) can now be filtered from the lists.
• Applications that require root privileges can be filtered from the lists.
• Various translation updates.

If you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

The main changes since the previous release are:

• Donate option – for applications where we have a link to a donate page, hitting ‘Donate’ from the menu on the application’s page in the client will take you straight there. You’ve been able to do this when browsing on the web site for a while, but now it’s available direct from the client too. If you’re an application developer accepting donations and we don’t have a donate link for your application yet, please let us know.
• The application list now shows the build type for each package (APK, or version) available. This can either be ‘source’ or ‘bin’. Source means it is built automatically from the source repository and signed by the FDroid build server. It’s a guarantee that the source is actually available, and matches the binary file you’re installing. For this build type, you can also download a source tarball from the web site, which is ‘normalised’ such that simply downloading it and running ‘ant release’ should always work. Bin means it’s a binary file released by the original developer of the application and signed by them. Note that due to the signatures, switching from one type to another requires you to uninstall the old version first. There will be more detail about signatures and related issues in a forthcoming blog post here.
• For Galaxy S devices, and possibly others, there is a major performance improvement when updating the repository index from the server.

If you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

It seemed like a shame that although there are two choices of FOSS application to keep track of the busy FOSDEM schedule on your phone, you were told, or indeed forced, to use proprietary software to get your hands on them. Well no more – they’re both in the repository now.

FOSDEM

Option one is the dedicated FOSDEM application, as seen in the first screenshot.

On my device, this had quite a few visual flaws – half chopped off text in the lists, and even in the main logo.

Also, a greyed-out button tells me I need to press a ‘Search’ hardware button I don’t have in order to search Hint: the SDK docs explain how to do search properly.

On the other hand, being a dedicated app it’s easier to use, packed with detailed information and works very well.

Giggity

Option two is Giggity, which is a more generic solution. Although it comes preloaded with the data for this year’s FOSDEM, it’s a generic schedule viewer that can load and display xcal/Pentabarf XML files for any kind of event.

This one could save you from having to have a different app for every conference you attend.

Summary

Both apps can remind you of upcoming events you’ve favourited. Each application has its strengths and weaknesses – maybe you should grab both to be on the safe side. Search for ‘FOSDEM’ in the FDroid client, or get the APKs direct from here and here.

The main changes since the previous official release are:

• Signed repository index. Although all the applications in the repository are cryptographically signed, and also verified by an md5 sum before installation, the index itself was not previously. It is now. The client is still compatible with unsigned repositories, and will automatically upgrade to using a signed version where available.
• Faster repository updates – the signed repository index is a JAR file, and is therefore compressed. For the main FDroid repository, this makes it a fifth the original size.
• Fixed a crash that happened if you rotated the screen while a repository update was in progress!
• New language – Serbian. As the application is developing rapidly, the translations may lag behind on new features for a while. If you want to help translate into your language, see here.

If you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

The main changes since the previous version are:

• Search – this has started to become an essential feature as the repository grows. Use the Search option on the menu on the main screen to search for applications.
• The Updates tab now shows the number of updates available on the tab itself.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.
• A warning if you attempt to install an application with a different signature to the version you already have installed. (This will be explained fully in an upcoming post about signatures).
• Settings, disabled by default, to allow the client to show applications with various types of ‘antifeatures’ – for example, applications that include adverts. There are no such applications in the repository currently, but this would allow us, or someone else, to include them in a repository later, while still allowing you to opt in to seeing them.
• New languages – French and Swedish. As the application is developing rapidly, the translations may lag behind on new features for a while. If you want to help translate into your language, see here.

If you have problems or feature requests, talk to the issue tracker or visit #fdroid on FreeNode.

No prizes for guessing that Sokoban is an implementation of the classic game Sokoban. Unless you’ve never heard of it of course. I’ll assume that’s the case, otherwise this would be a very short review.

Sokoban is 30 years old, and is a puzzle game that involves moving your character around and pushing multiple things onto targets. Originally the things were boxes (Sokoban is Japanese for warehouse man) but in this version they’re some kind of shiny red gem. Sounds simple? The tricky part is that these things get in each others way, and your way. In practice, it’s hard, and in the process of completing the first 67 levels I’ve declared many of them impossible and closed the application in disgust before going back and trying again later. Clearly it’s addictive too.

This version has a total of 354 levels to play through – the only question is whether you can complete that many without either frying your brain or smashing up your phone.

The graphics are nothing to write home about, and the menu screens are particularly sparse (standard Android buttons and nothing else) but this doesn’t matter at all. The game plays perfectly, with nice touches such as zooming in and out with the volume buttons, and undoing a move with the back button. You can move with the direction buttons/pad/whatever-new-fangled-thing-your-phone-has but it seems much easier to use the other option of just dragging your finger around the screen.

Definitely give this one a try if you like puzzle games.

Vital Statistics

• License: GPL
• Web Site: http://mobilepearls.com
• Issue Tracker: https://github.com/mobilepearls/com.mobilepearls.sokoban/issues
• Source Code: https://github.com/mobilepearls/com.mobilepearls.sokoban

You can install it from the FDroid repository client, or download the APK directly if you prefer.