Posts

Working on Chess for Android Again!

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I am getting excited about adding new features to Chess for Android again! I am in the process of working around the menu button issue on Samsung devices. Furthermore, I am extending UCI engine support with the ability to set a book opening for each engine, as well as allowing a wider variety of number of threads (six in the example below). If you have any urgent feature requests for engine support, this would be the right time to ask.

Android Applications Update

I just released minor updates for my Android applications, as usual available on Google Play or as direct download . These versions allow opening the options menu with a simple "swipe up" gesture over the screen. Chess for Android also fixes a problem with importing engines. Reversi v2.5.1 Checkers v2.6.3 Chess v5.1.2 As some background, my applications still use the older options menu, introduced in the days that Android devices still had a physical menu button. Newer models without a physical button sometimes allow accessing the options menu through a virtual button (shown as vertical dots) or through long-pressing the activity switch button, or sometimes don't provide an easy way at all. This release hopefully makes accessing the options menu easier again. Note that, apparently, a recent Samsung update broke the options menus completely for any application (not just mine) on some models (like the Galaxy S6 edge). This update does not fix that problem. I

"Supermoon" Eclipse 9/27/2015

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Reducing Carbon Emissions

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We are doing our part with these electric vehicles! :-)

Chess for Android v5.0.2

A quick update right after the previous one to fix some issues with the new time controls and a few other issues. Improvements include. start clock on first move in tournament mode rigid check prior to sending engine's ponder move back eng-eng tournament corner case bug fixes cleanup logs option network socket engine bug fix (network version only) added more choices in time control

Chess for Android v5.0: Time Control

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After some delay, I finally released version 5.0 of Chess for Android, available on Google Play or as direct download . New features include: Time control to define a chess clock for both sides with a choice between the number of moves between time control (possibly the full game), thinking time per time control, and an optional time increment per move. Double engine analysis lines during tournaments, especially useful with pondering on. Re-factored a lot of the engine handling code, with improved cleanup of hanging engines. This is a relatively major release, so please let me know if you encounter any issues. Also, as usual, suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Time Control: it is coming!

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Teaser: almost ready to release!

Chess for Android 4.5.1

Long overdue, but I finally published an update for Chess for Android: version 4.5.1. No major new features, but simply a few minor improvements: localization of the spoken text (so hopefully no longer a funny mixture of English and the local language while announcing moves) and some under water improvements to engine management. As usual, available on my Android website and Google Play . Also as usual, comments welcome.

Chess for Glass Update!

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Luckily, the feedback on the first release of Chess for Glass has overall been positive. Criticism I have seen, and also agree with, focus on (1) mistakes made by voice recognition with similarly sounding files (since b, c, d, e, and g all sound similar) and (2) placing the voice menu over the chess board. The next release addresses the first issue with the ability to enable a  phonetic alphabet for voice input. In this mode, voice input uses the phonetic alphabet for files (alpha, bravo, charlie, etc) without further from or to designation. Example: "ok glass, pawn, echo two, echo four" plays the pawn from e2 to e4. Although uncommon in chess notation, this form of voice input is less prone to sound ambiguities. As for the second issue, I am afraid that showing the voice menus over the board will stay for a while though. One of the reasons I wrote Chess for Glass was to demonstrate some features of the GDK (the Glass SDK) since I work in that team in Google[x]

More on Komodo 8

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Because Komodo 8 , the world's #1 engine, is distributed as an Android Chessbase compatible engine, it is immediately available for import in Chess for Android on your phone, tablet, or smart-watch, and in Chess for Glass on your Glass device. Many thanks to Mark, Larry, and Jeremy for making this amazing engine available. I wish I could have shared my excitement over this with Don too.

Komodo 8 for Android

The extremely strong Komodo 8 chess engine is now available for Android (see the playstore link and the developers website ).  It runs directly in Chess for Android and potentially even in Chess for Glass (by sideloading the APK). How exciting to see this powerful engine available on my favorite platform!

Chess for Glass

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Besides Chess for Android, I have been working on another project, which has been officially released today! Chess for Glass Chess for Glass is Glassware that runs directly on Glass. You can enter moves by simply saying the moves, or by using the touch pad. Other features include a choice in board color, spoken move announcements, and the ability to import any third party chess engine to replace the friendly built-in Java engine. Chess for Glass recognizes all Android Chessbase compatible engines that are installed on the same Glass device, and supports both the popular UCI and XBoard/WinBoard protocols.

DJI Phantom 2 Vision Clips

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Some clips I took together with Karina during the long weekend.

DJI Phantom 2 Vision+

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A few weeks back, I got a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ for my birthday. This quadcopter is very easy to fly and the recorded videos are very stable thanks to the built-in high precision 3-axis camera stabilization system. I have posted several recordings of the first test flights on Google+ already, so make sure to follow me there too!. I plan to post some videos here too. Stay tuned!

It is coming!

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Chess for Glass