I have just released an app to open/use Apple PassKit passes on ubuntu touch:

https://open-store.io/app/passes.s710

The app allows to import passes in .pkpass format and display them in a list, similar to iOS' wallet. Each pass will be shown with it's entire information, including the respective code which can then be scanned.

Core features:

• Import passes (.pkass files) into the app
• Share passes from within the app
• Fetch updates for a pass (in case it provides a webservice for updates)

Feel free to leave comments, and let me know if you encounter any pass which won't work with the app.

Got it, after googling even more. Some guy at the QT forum revealed:

   Connections {
      target: Qt.application

      onAboutToQuit: {
         audioPlayer.stop()
      }

This works

Teaser:

When trying to switch to UT, one of the blockers for most people could be the messenger apps, especially WhatsApp.

I personally will be unable to pass on WhatsApp, since I have too many contacts there, who are not willing to use other messengers. In addition, basically every organization of group events (birthdays, vacations, etc.) takes place in WhatsApp groups.
This forces me to keep on using WhatsApp, although I would like to replace it.

Now when making the switch to UT, this would mean I will need some sort of replacement, or ways to access my WhatsApp chats by other means.

Currently, I am aware of 3 possible solutions:

• Use WhatsApp web
• Use waydroid + WhatsApp native
• Use some sort of bridging (e.g. matrix)

I have tried all 3 of them, and found that all 3 of them are sub-par, and rather a pain to use than good.

• WhatsApp web is slow, not a real app, and not feature-complete.

• Waydroid can't be kept running 24/7 since it consumes too much battery. Also, its not (yet?) very well integrated, means you will always have a full android window.

• Matrix bridge works in a way, I have this running on a private home server for over a year. While it suddenly stopped syncing (for no obvious reason) during several months, and suddenly continued to sync (for no obvious reason), it basically allows me to chat with WhatsApp contacts using a matrix messenger (currently using Cinny). However, it has a whole bunch of disadvantages; matrix + bridge setup is overly complex, their documentation is severly lacking/incomplete as well as confusing, matrix will update year-old chats every now and then with some meaningless events ("Your security code with XXX changed"), audio-messages don't work at all.

So the question is, what is your solution for using WhatsApp on UT, and how happy are you with your solution?
(And please, for the love of god, don't spam this topic with "Just don't use WhatsApp" and the likes).

One thing that actually came to my mind recently was about the recently introduced European Union guideline for big messengers to force them to provide interoperability between messengers. E.g. WhatsApp must connect to Telegram, to allow WhatsApp chats within Telegram and vice versa.
Would this be a potential approach which was viable for UT also? So imagine we had an official UT messenger, and we could integrate with WhatsApp directly, this means we would have a native WhatsApp client? What you guys think about this?

... has just been published to the store:
https://open-store.io/app/scooter.s710

Its a port of my existing SailfishOS app, now its available on UT.

The app provides the following features:

• Log into an existing Bird account using E-Mail/confirmation code
• Show profile details
• Show scooter locations and restricted areas on a map
• Ring scooter
• Unlock scooter / start ride by scanning the QR code on the scooter
• Show pending/active rides which have not yet been stopped

This means that an existing Bird account with associated payment information is needed. It is not possible to create a new account with my app (use official iOS/android app).

Since undocumented APIs are used, there are several limitations. While it is perfectly possible to unlock scooters and take a ride, it is not possible to:

• coupon codes / ride passes can neither be displayed nor used. This means that even though a user buys a ride pass for free unlocking on e.g. iOS or android, using my app will not consider this, and the user will be charged more than necessary. I think this is caused by a recent change in the API, since some weeks ago the API would return the actual cost as well as "cost_without_coupon" when ending the ride, and charge the discount price, which no longer is the case.
• price information is displayed in USD, regardless of the user's country
• no interaction with the profile/payment information is possible, neither is the creation of accounts
• group rides and purchasing ride passes is not possible

If anyone is good in reverse engineering and wants to help, contact me

I have contacted Bird (as well as a number of other scooter providers), asking for help/documentation of their API in order to provide a better user experience, but I am not that optimistic.
Bird is the only provider of electric scooters I found where parts of the API are documented, including scooter unlocking/riding, however in case I get a response from other providers, or anyone comes up with API endpoint documentation for other providers, I can add them to the app.

In case errors occur during app usage, theres a log view in the settings, which can be used to send logs to me which might help analyze issues.

I added:

{
    "policy_groups": ["location", "networking"],
    "policy_version": 16.04
}

And now the map works as expected. Thanks again.

@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:

I thought that was hilarious. Got another answer I wanted to share since it s outta my field of competence:

"1. Don't you think supporting Ubuntu Touch using the website is enough : https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/appdev/webapp/index.html

2. the mobile app is made using React Native, unfortunately, https://github.com/status-im/react-native-desktop-qt is no longer supported but maybe there is an alternative?"

What do you think ? What should I answer ?

Didn't get to this until now. Give me a day or two, and I will see what kind of app I can come up with. Will be a native UT app.
In case it's enough, it would be maybe worthwile offering it to them and/or asking for improved API usage agreements.

@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:

@s710 Wow, awesome. I guess it won't be using ReactJS then ? Do you think I should let them know sth is being worked on native-wise and pass along your suggestion of extended API rights ?

Correct. I have a working prototype, which is able to pick images from your camera or gallery, and then use their API to identify it. Currently I am working on displaying the results / designing the UI for the results.
As I don't have time to work on it today, I would say by the end of tomorrow I will be able to provide screenshots of the app, which you could then send them if you want.

Basically, there are no technical issues or blockers here, its just a matter of time to get the UI nice and polished now.

Great!

I think I forgot to add a function which either converts images (e.g. PNGs) into jpeg, or warn the user. I think Pl@ntNet only accepts jpeg. This might lead to unspecified errors when someone tries to upload non-jpeg images.

Gonna add this soon.

@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:

@arubislander Well how do they make their own android app work then ? I don't get it.

Yeah well, maybe they're using non-public APIs. Those, of course, can also be reverse engineered from the binary.
I am no expert in reverse engineering, but I was told that virtually anything can be reverse engineered with enough efforts. For example, someone reverse engineered the HTTP APIs used by the Bird Scooter app (which, btw, enabled me to make a scooter app).

Unless you're using a dedicated authentication (user must login within the app), there is virtually no way of publishing something secure, you simply cannot ship credentials/hidden stuff. Of course, this is from a pure security perspective. The owner might still decide to ship apps like this and rely on no one caring about reverse engineering, which might be an acceptable risk.

In the end, it completely depends on what Pl@ntNet wants to do. I just wanted to point out that if I was given a dedicated API key, and Pl@nNet would increase limits for this single key, I would need to ship it within the app, which would be insecure per design. Of course, I can try to occlude it as best as I can, but it won't be bullet proof. If Pl@ntNet accepts this approach, I don't see any real issues, since I guess that not so many people would be that eager to get into possession of a Pl@ntNet API-key with increased limits so that they would actually take the efforts of reverse engineering it out of my app.

When trying to switch to UT, one of the blockers for most people could be the messenger apps, especially WhatsApp.

I personally will be unable to pass on WhatsApp, since I have too many contacts there, who are not willing to use other messengers. In addition, basically every organization of group events (birthdays, vacations, etc.) takes place in WhatsApp groups.
This forces me to keep on using WhatsApp, although I would like to replace it.

Now when making the switch to UT, this would mean I will need some sort of replacement, or ways to access my WhatsApp chats by other means.

Currently, I am aware of 3 possible solutions:

• Use WhatsApp web
• Use waydroid + WhatsApp native
• Use some sort of bridging (e.g. matrix)

I have tried all 3 of them, and found that all 3 of them are sub-par, and rather a pain to use than good.

• WhatsApp web is slow, not a real app, and not feature-complete.

• Waydroid can't be kept running 24/7 since it consumes too much battery. Also, its not (yet?) very well integrated, means you will always have a full android window.

• Matrix bridge works in a way, I have this running on a private home server for over a year. While it suddenly stopped syncing (for no obvious reason) during several months, and suddenly continued to sync (for no obvious reason), it basically allows me to chat with WhatsApp contacts using a matrix messenger (currently using Cinny). However, it has a whole bunch of disadvantages; matrix + bridge setup is overly complex, their documentation is severly lacking/incomplete as well as confusing, matrix will update year-old chats every now and then with some meaningless events ("Your security code with XXX changed"), audio-messages don't work at all.

So the question is, what is your solution for using WhatsApp on UT, and how happy are you with your solution?
(And please, for the love of god, don't spam this topic with "Just don't use WhatsApp" and the likes).

One thing that actually came to my mind recently was about the recently introduced European Union guideline for big messengers to force them to provide interoperability between messengers. E.g. WhatsApp must connect to Telegram, to allow WhatsApp chats within Telegram and vice versa.
Would this be a potential approach which was viable for UT also? So imagine we had an official UT messenger, and we could integrate with WhatsApp directly, this means we would have a native WhatsApp client? What you guys think about this?

Okay nevermind. Although the bootloader was already stating "DEVICE STATE - unlocked", and every reboot remindst of the bootloader being unlocked, I had to do fastboot flashing unlock_critical (which would ask again if I wanted to unlock the bootloader), and then the flashing tool for FF4 would run fine.

Android was successfully reinstalled.

I successfully installed 20.04 on a new FF4. Now I want to revert to Android. Following the official guide (https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405858261777) leaves me at executing the flashing script, which aborts with the following error:

*** Fairphone 4 flashing script ***

INFO: The procedure will start soon. Please wait...
INFO: The package type is "user-factory"
INFO: The build number is "FP4K"
INFO: You are using a Linux distribution.

INFO: Validating the integrity of the package.
      This might take a while. Please wait...
INFO: Validation complete.
WARNING: Flashing this image wipes all user data and settings on the phone.
         It will also remove the Google factory reset protection.
         Are you sure you want to continue?
         Type "Yes" (case sensitive) and press enter to continue: Yes
INFO: Looking for connected device(s)...
INFO: One Fairphone 4 in fastboot mode found (serial number: xxxxxxxxxx).
ERROR: The critical partitions are not unlocked.
       Please refer to our support articles for help.
ERROR: Aborting now (press Enter to terminate).

How can I unlock critical partitions? What does this even mean?

I am the author of the Scooter app (https://open-store.io/app/scooter.s710), which supports operating Bird eletric scooters.

I have support for another provider in the works, and therefore needed to also change Bird-related code.

However, unfortunately, Bird withdrew from my hometown, so I no longer have accessto Bird scooters to test my app.

Therefore I want to ask if there was someone in the community with access to Bird scooters & UT phone willing to help me test the existing Bird functionality of my app? Basically I would supply an updated version of my app, and it should be tested whether or not searching for scooters, locking/unlocking and so on still works as before.

@sven said in Which phone ?:

@s710 You can compare with Geekbench 5 scores if you keep in mind that all Vollaphones are variants of Gigaset phones. (Yes, Geekbench is Android based, but it should be a good indication for Linux, too.)

The first Vollaphone corresponds to the Gigaset GS290; I see a single-core score of 150 and a multi-core score of 902. The FP4 is much faster: 642 and 1878.

BTW: The Vollaphone 22 corresponds to the Gigaset GS5 and is somewhere in the middle, with scores 352 and 1296.

Can you maybe share some details about UT usage beyond the benchmark numbers? Eg opening times of apps, stuttering, slow downs or other kinds of issues while using the app switcher, gallery, browser, other apps and so on?

Btw do you run the 20.04 channel or 16.04?

@sven Nope I have the normal Volla Phone. But tell me anyway.

Does anyone have a comparison between FF4 and the Volla Phone?

I do have a Volla Phone, but I find the performance to be rather disappointing (of course this is personal perception/preference). I see that the FF4 has a mid class CPU, but no OLED. How is performance and display quality compared to the Volla Phone?

I am quite excited by the FF4 and love the concept, and I’m happy that it will be so well supported, but I am more of a sensible person in regards to responsiveness and performance (coming from an iPhone 11 pro where everything (including the gallery of 5k photos) opens and happens instantly). I am trying to get as close as I can, so I am also looking into the OP7 direction (since a port is being worked on), or the S10 which should also be quite powerful.

Not yet using UT as daily driver, but I want to in the future.

@domubpkm said in New music track recognition app:

@s710 I tried Shazam under Volla OS (AOSP) and the identification of music tracks matches very simply without creating and registering a personal account. Only access to the microphone is requested. Maybe something similar is doable under UT?

Yeah as I said, shazam seems to provide a public API. This might mean that it could be possible to create a UT native app which uses shazam cloud services to recognize music.

But as I understand it, there is existing apps for UT which are capable of recognizing music?

[edit] Actually I think I got it wrong. There is official client libraries for Apple and Android, however those cannot be used.
But there is a reverse-engineered python library which seems to be fully featured, which could probably be used.

@domubpkm said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:

If one day there can also be a small app for identifying music tracks, that would be great !

Well, as it seems, Shazam actually provides 3rd party app APIs, so this could be a thing

@dobey said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:

@s710 You should probably just make it such that the user would have to acquire their own API key, and provide a UI for entering it in your app. Otherwise, do you plan to pay the fees for going over the number of requests, or even paying €1000/yr?

The contract PDF you linked to is very much oriented toward scientific organizations building applications for research, and doesn't seem to be oriented toward people who want to occasionally query Pl@ntNet for what plant they find while out on a walk.

The app works like this. The user needs to provide the key.
I was under the assumption that they know we make an app since they do not provide one for UT, and they are okay with it. So they should be aware of the fact that there are only to ways it can work: 1) per user developer key 2) dedicated shipped key with special limits.