LittleBrother for BlackBerry® Devices [Changelog]
with OS 4.5 or higher

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LittleBrother [β] Changelog The "ZERO-power consuming" tracking solution CellTower based - supporting CDMA and GSM Network (IDEN experimental)

LittleBrother Changelog Details

2012/01/21 - LittleBrother 0.9.8.7

Quick OTA-Update Link

• update your existing LittleBrother installation OTA

What's New?

• It was suggested by Daidumbace @ crackberry that in contrast to the automatically CheckIn it would be handy to get just a notification instead (that you are nearby a previous configured venue and you could probably CheckIn).
  By displaying a popup letting you know that you can CheckIn the chance of a false/accidently CheckIn is massively reduced which is a great enhancement in my point of view. This notification-mode have become the default for all new 4sq venue Sector definitions that you create in LittleBrother.
  Once you are nearby of a 4sq Sector LittleBrother will alert you (configurable via the BlackBeryr global alert configuration 'LittleBrother - foursquare Venue check-in Reminder') and display a global Popup which gives you the following choices:

  • Perform the foursquare CheckIn (by pressing 'OK')
  • Ignore this venue for the next 6 hours (by pressing 'Cancel')
  • Discard the dialog so it will be displayed again on the next 'New WLAN Location'-Event (by pressing the 'ESC' or BlackBerry Menu Button)
  If you still prefer the automatic CheckIn (like I do it for my work place) you can enable the 'Do Auto-CheckIn' checkbox in each of your foursquare Sector definitions. Please note that your already existing 4sq Venue Sectors have already the checkbox marked (only new created sectors have Auto-CheckIn OFF by default).
• The new build will show in the Sector Definition overview a '[A]' or '[P]' for 4sq Venues - a [P] is indicating that this sector will be currently ignored/paused for a CheckIn because the last CheckIn is less then 24h ago.
  An [A] is indicating that as soon as you are IN for longer then two minutes that then LittleBrother will perform a CheckIn (or show the notification dialog).

2012/01/10 - LittleBrother 0.9.8.5

-HOTFIX-

• Creation/Modification of Sectors could not be saved if LittleBrother was not connected with Facebook.
  Fixed in v0.9.8.5 - no connection is required.

2012/01/09 - LittleBrother 0.9.8.4

• General information about connecting foursquare & Facebook
  In order to connect LittleBrother with your account both services requires you to login to the site and grant LittleBrother the permission to act on your behave. Of course LittleBrother will only do what you configure in the LittleBrother app.
  The requested permissions are the minimum required set - so if you feel uncomfortable with the requested permissions that do not expect that LittleBrother can work correctly. Simply disconnect LittleBrother from the app in this case. This can be done via the web sites of Facebook or foursquare at any time.
  For both Services LittleBrother need to create a web browser like screen that is going to establish an https connection (secure) to the Facebook/foursquare web site which will going to display a login screen.
  This web browser like screen does not act very user friendly - sometimes it takes quite a long time to react on the user input - sometimes it takes a very long time to display any information.
  I am very sorry for this inconvenience but all this comes more or less directly from the OS with very limited options for me as developer to influence the behavior of this browser like screen.
  To connect LittleBrother simply go to the General Options and press the 'Connect'-Button - this will open the web browser like screen and display the login screen. Once the login and the additional dialogs have been confirmed you will be redirected back to emacberry.com. This should automatically close the screen and you should see a confirmation popup letting you know that now LittleBrother is connected with the Service.
  Alternatively there is also a more manual process to establish the connection between the Service and LittleBrother. This alternative can be initiated from every web browser running on a PC or Mac (for details see further below).
• foursquare
  With the newly introduced WLAN-Monitor and the precision of the WLAN based location service it is now possible for LittleBrother to auto-checkin at your preferred foursquare venues.
  • After your foursquare account is connected, LittleBrother allows you to define a new Sector type: "foursquare venue" Sector.
    1. To create a such a new 4sq Sector simply open the Sector Definition and select 'Add foursquare location' (or use the key short cut [F])
       Please note that it's required that LittleBrother has a valid location information in order to create a 4sq Sector.
    2. After a short while LittleBrother will display you the first 50 venus in a range of 5km (aprox. 3mi) around your current location.
       When you are looking for a specific place, you alternatively can start a custom 4sq venues search by selecting 'Add foursquare location (extended)' (or use the key short cut [SHIFT]+[F])
    3. After you have selected a foursquare location from the popup list you can specify how LittleBrother should broadcast your automatic-checkin:
       • Select between public or private
       • Broadcast checkin on your connected Twitter Account
       • Broadcast checkin on your connected Facebook Account
       • Specify an additional Shout-Message (once a Shout-Message is specified the broadcast type will be automatically set to 'public')
  • In order that LittleBrother will perform a foursquare auto-checkin, you have to be at least for more then two minutes in a range of less then 150m (aprox. 500ft) from the venues location.
  • A re-checkin at the same venue will happen either after a pause of 24h or when LittleBrother had auto-checkin at a different venue in the meantime.
  • Each foursquare auto-checkin will be logged in the LittleBrother LOG that can be accessed via the LittleBrother options.
  • Please note that auto-checkin only works on base of the WLAN location service that was introduced in LittleBrother v0.9.5.6 - you need to enable the WLAN-Monitor in the General Options and accept the LittleBrother Hotspot-Client installation/configuration.
• Facebook
  Once you connect your Facebook account with LittleBrother (via the General Options) LittleBrother can automatically create new wall posts that will include a personal message and a link to GoogleMaps displaying your current position (similar to the eMail notifications).
  • You can specify for each Sector separately IF a Facebook post should be created.
    Please note that the additional text input fields will only appear (in the sector definition screen) when you have connected your Facebook account with LittleBrother.
    Simply leave the additional fields empty if you do not like that a Sector event will be published at your Facebook wall. That is the default for all existing & new created Sectors.
  • Of course you can also specify for each sector separate, if the IN-, OUT- or BOTH events should be posted and of course you can modify the main message to your likings (only the GoogleMaps link will be some sort of static).
  • Each creation of a Facebook wall post will be logged in the LittleBrother LOG that can be accessed via the LittleBrother options.
  • Like LittleBrother on Facebook
• General functionality improvements
  • WLAN-Monitor syncs now with pending/working location requests. In the past it could had happen that the the request was killed (instead of waiting for the completion).
  • RemoteLocation Request PIN's now also show the associated contact name (from the time when the PIN was added to the permitted PIN list). So updating the contact information has no influence on the displayed information in LittleBrother.
• Connecting LittleBrother manually to Facebook or foursquare
  1. In the web browser on the PC (Mac) enter one the following URL's:
     • For Facebook: http://www.emacberry.com/appsrv/startfb.php
     • For foursquare: http://www.emacberry.com/appsrv/start4sq.php
  2. Login on the Service with your user and password - then confirm the requested permissions.
  3. If everything was entered ok you will be redirected back to the emacberry.com website where you should see an input field with a 'cryptic looking' code.
  4. Copy this code into your clipboard and transfer it to your Blackberry device - do not try to type it manually. [One of the simplest (not necessary the most secure) ways to do this is by sending yourself an eMail with the code in the message body]
  5. Now back on your Blackberry device: Select again the code text and copy it into the clipboard of your device
  6. Open the LittleBrother General Options and select 'Enter XXXX Access Token' from the Menu
  7. Paste in the input field of the popup dialog the Access Token code (if this did not already has happened automatically)
  8. Press 'OK' to complete this procedure and you are finally done!

2011/12/24 - LittleBrother 0.9.6.2

Quick OTA-Update Link

• update your existing LittleBrother installation OTA

What's New?

• Distance Units are configurable (Metric, Imperial, Nautical) - So finally you can select if you will see the distance information in meter (km) or feet (mi).
• Storing 'recent' WLAN position - LittleBrother will now keep the last recent WLAN position in the device memory so that the app can make use of this information at any time.
  If the last known WLAN position is older then 5 minutes it will be automatically invalidated.
• At the bottom of the Location Information Screen the available Location information (CellTower & WLAN) will be displayed. A '[Loc]' behind the Cell or WLAN information is indicating that LittleBrother was able to retrieve also a Location Information for the CellTower/WLAN.
• The recent WLAN position will be displayed in the Map when you are viewing any CellTower location. Please note that this functionality is only supported when make use of BlackBerryMaps.
• An incoming 'Remote Location Request' will send the WLAN based location information (if present & not older then 5 minutes) otherwise the CellTower based location will be send.
• The WLAN Database List will calculate the displayed distance based on the last recent known WLAN location (and not current connected CellTower)
• The database lists (CellTower & WLAN) have the possibility to check all locations via 'Check Locations' from the menu.

2011/12/20 - LittleBrother 0.9.5.6

What's New?

• WLAN-Monitor
  In urban areas LittleBrother can use the visible WLAN (SSID/MacAddress) information in order to determine your current location. Depending from your area this information can be surprisingly precise. For example with just the Mac-Addresses of the WLAN-Routers of my neighbour and myself the location can be determine with a precision of less then 100m.
  Of course this is being far away from the precision of the GPS-Antenna - but way more accurate then just the cell tower information.
  • Please note that the BlackBerry Device does not need to be connected to any WLAN - LittleBrother is just scanning the available WLANs nearby you and gathering based on the visible WLAN Mac-Addresses your approximate Location.
  • Since the sending range of a typical WLAN is not more then few hundreds of meters the functionality will most of the time not work while you are driving with higher speeds - simply cause of the fact that you are passing by potential WLAN-Access-Points way to fast and your BlackkBerry Device does not take notice of them. So by combining CellTower location information [when traveling with higher speeds] and WLAN location information [for lower speeds (walking)] it's some sort of scary to see how detailed you are able to track & log where have you been recently.
  • Because the device automatically scan for new WLAN-Access-Points frequently and automatically notify LittleBrother about any changes there is no need to specify an own update interval for the LittleBrother WLAN-Monitor. As soon as the Device will see new WLANs LittleBrother will automatically try to get the location information.
  • In order that a location can be retrieved at least two WLANs have to be visible for the device at the same time. If there are more then two Access-Points visible for the Device the two with the strongest signal will be chosen.
  • The "Location Request" functionality will not make use of the WLAN-Monitor (yet).
  Activating the WLAN-Monitor

  • Go to the LittleBrother General Options and activate the WLAN-Monitor checkbox.
  • In order that LittleBrother will be notified about available WLAN's the application need to instantiate a so called HotspotClient.
  • The installation of this HotspotClient requires the confirmation of the user.
    Normally during this process you can provide your login credentials - but since LittleBrother does not need any connection to a WLAN there are no information that need to be entered.
    Just confirm the HotspotClient installation and you are done.
    LittleBrother should automatically take you to the WiFi configuration of your BlackBerry Device in order to perform this HotspotClient installation. If this does not happens automatically please open the corresponding Dialog manually.
    Please note that when you reinstall/update LittleBrother you need to repeat the HotspotCient installation/confirmation.
  • Once the LittleBrother HotspotClient is instantiated it will be listed as LittleBrother [WLAN-Monitor] in your 'Saved WiFi Networks' of your BlackBerry device.
    Again: This HotspotClient only has only the functionality to be notified about the visible WLAN's for the device - it does not do anything else!
• Additionally to the ability to create CellTower List Sectors, the new Version allows you to do the same for a list of WLANs. Please note that you can't combine CellTower and WLAN Lists in a single Sector definition.
• Updating the [IN]/[OUT] of Sector information that is displayed in the Sector overview will now happen in real time.

2011/11/30 - LittleBrother 0.9.2.6

What's New?

• Request Remote Location/CellTower Information
  With this new functionality you can request the CellTowerInfo based Location of any other BlackBerry Device that have also installed LittleBrother. Of course you can't request the location from anybody - there have been added plenty of options and settings to allow you to restrict access to this new functionality. All this can be done via the new 'Remote Location Request' Options.
  • Enable Remote Location Request Service: Of course first of all you are able to turn this new feature completely ON and OFF. When the Checkbox is unchecked all incoming location requests will be ignored.
  • Restrict access to PINs: You can restrict the location requests to only specific PINs. This means as long as a Location request does not come from a PIN that is in your list, the request will be ignored.
  • To add a PIN to the list you need to press the 'Add Contact' Button. This will display all contacts of your BlackBerry Address Book that have a PIN assigned. If your list is empty please ensure that you will edit your BlackBerry Contacts so that people who should be able to request your location have a PIN-Info in our AddressBook.
  • To remove a PIN you can select the PIN and press the 'DEL'-Key or select 'Delete PIN XXXXXXXX' from the Menu.
  • Keep PIN-Messages: By default LittleBrother auto deletes the incoming LittleBrother-PIN-Request and Response Message. Turn this Option OFF if you like to keep the requests and responses.
  • Audio Alert if Location is requested: If you like to be alerted when somebody is requesting your location LittleBrother can trigger an Audio Alert. Please note that you need to configure the Alert in the Global Device Alert Settings - It's listed as 'LittleBrother - LocationRequest Alert'.
  How to Request a RemoteLocation?

  1. Open the LittleBrother Options (simply via the application icon from the HomeScreen)
  2. Open the BlackBerry Menu
  3. Select 'Request Location'
  4. Now all your contacts of your Address Book that have a PIN assigned will be displayed
  5. Select the contact...
  6. Wait...
     Please note that if the remote contact have enabled the 'Restrict access to PINs' option then he needs to have your PIN in his PIN-list.
  7. Once you have received a Remote Location request Reply the received location will be displayed as Popup Dialog on your BlackBerry Device.
  Since my wife owns a BlackBerry as well since a couple of month, this function became very handy.
• Fix for mass pending CellTowers requests (after a long period without data coverage)
• OS7 Icon size adjustment
• MCC typo correction (uuups)

2011/05/19 - LittleBrother 0.9.0.1

What's New?

• New Sector IN & OUT Handling:
  In the previous Versions of LittleBrother the App have always triggered an IN (or OUT) of Sector event when you have entered (left) a Sector. Depending on your update interval and the direction of your movement it could happened that shortly after one event occurred the opposite event was fired. In the worse case this could end in a lot of IN & OUT messages when you are traveling along the border line of your defined sector.
  With the new build of LittleBrother this have been solved by adding multiple techniques in order to detect and ignore unwanted messages and re-send previously ignored messages when they become important. Details about how this functionality have been implemented can be understand when you take the time to read the LittleBrother LOG.
  Since I had this repeated IN & OUT of Sector messages myself in the past with the previous Versions of LittleBrother (like v0.7.x) and with the new v0.9 they have been completely gone, I am very confident that you will appreciate this enhancement [I have tested the new build every day over the last 2 weeks and it has worked rock solid - I am looking forward to your feedback].
• LitteBrother LOG:
  LittleBrother will now come with a own LOG that allows you to keep track of the actions of LittleBrother. Also the LOG allows you some quick actions to modify existing sectors.
  • The LOG is accessible from the LittleBrother Options
  • When the CellTowerLocation is known then you will find for the LOG entry a button that allows you to show a map of CellTower that have triggered the LOG entry.
  • On a OUT-OF-Sector Event for a CellTowerList based Sector you can simply add the CellTower that have triggered the event to the Sector (this is a very simple way to extend existing CellTowerBased Sectors)
  • For a CellTower for which no location could be detected/requested you are able to enter the Latitude & Longitude values manually (if you know them)
  • Beside looking into the LittleBrother LOG you can dump the content as TXT to the file system of your device [the path is hard coded: In the BlackBerry user home directory on the device (not on the SDCard)]
  • The LOG stores a maximum of 200 log entries (then the oldest entries will be removed)
• WiFI Activated & WiFi Deactivated Messages have been removed from the GUI (you will find them now also in the LOG)
• Ignoring invalid CellTowerIds. [A colleague of mine had issues with a imaginary CellTower that occasionally be reported by the OS/RadioInfo/SIM (CellId:65535 & MCC:65535) - this had happened at various totally different locations.]

2011/03/15 - LittleBrother 0.7.0.14

What's fixed?

• After the update to OS6.0.0.448 or OS6.0.0.526 using the Torch touch screen causes the context menu to be displayed in unwanted situations (like in the CellTowerDB Screen) - the new build have implemented a workaround for thise issues.

2011/03/15 - LittleBrother 0.7.0.12

What's new?

• In the past LittleBrother made use of Google 2DMaps to show you last 25 Locations as well as the overview of your Local CellTower Database. The use of Google 2D Maps have some disadvantages (concerning the amount of possible markers and the ability to zoom & pan)
  With this new build LittleBrother makes use of the native BlackBerry Maps application (if installed) to display the local CellTower Database (depending of the size that can take a couple of seconds) or to display the last locations you have passed over time (since the last device reboot) - with BlackBery Maps you now can zoom or pan in order to get a bit more details about the CellTower locations.
  Please note that on some BlackBerrry devices BlackBerry Maps could not be launched if the size of the provided location information document extend a certain size. So you can configure in the General Options the maximal size of the document [of course smaller sizes means that probably not all locations will be displayed in BlackBerryMaps].
• In previous builds the number of Last Locations was hard coded to 25 CellTowers - with this new build this is now configurable - select between 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 or 100 CellTowers (the number of CellTowers will have an effect on the memory consumption of the LiittleBrother application - so now it's up to you)
• With the new support of BlackBerry Maps you can select if you still would like to use the Google 2D Maps (setting in the General Options).
• Did you knew that you can Zoom IN and Zoom OUT with the Menu and Keyboard shortcuts when you display a single CellTower Location (Popup Window) using Blackberry Maps?
• From the LocalCellTowerDatabase you can now add multiple CellTowers (multiselect) to a existing CellTowerListBased Sector (so you can extend an existing Sector very easy).

What's fixed?

• New created sectors have been ignored till device was rebooted (sorry!)

2011/03/04 - LittleBrother 0.6.1.5

What's new?

• WiFi Control on two different Modes available:
  • Strict-Mode (initial LittleBrother WiFi Control implementation)
    In Strict-Mode WiFi is only enabled when you are in a Sector that have WiFi-Enabled in it's Sector configuration. When you manually enable WiFi elsewhere LittleBrother will turn OFF WiFi again automatically (depending on your update interval).
    You should use this mode if you do not like to waste battery power cause you have somehow forgot to turn WiFi OFF.
    • Define Sectors in which WiFi should be automatically enabled when you are entering a specific location
    • As soon as you are out of any Sector that have WiFi enabled then LittleBrother will automatically turn OFF the WiFi of your BlackBerry Device in order to save power
    • Strict Mode implies that when you want to use WiFi (turn it on manually) out of any of your current defined sectors you either have to turn LittleBrothers WiFi Control OFF or create a new Sector for your current location
  • AdHoc-Mode (new in v0.6.1.5)
    AdHoc-Mode allows you to manually enable WiFi at any time you might need it. This implies that you might can forget to turn off WiFi again.
    But when you are leaving a WiFi enabled Sector LittleBrother will also turn WiFi OFF. But in contrast to the Strict mode LittleBrother will not observe any longer if you manually enable WiFi in between (while out of any WiFi Sector). So when you turn on WiFi manually it will stay on till you turn it off again [or till you enter and then leave again a WiFi enabled Sector].
    • Define Sectors in which WiFi should be automatically enabled when you are entering a specific location
    • As soon as you are leaving a WiFi enabled Sector the WiFi-Antenna of your BlackBerry Device will be turned OFF in order to save power
    • AdHoc-Mode implies that when you manually turn on WiFi you have to remember yourself to turn it OFF again.
  • Of Course you can also completely disable the WiFi-Control feature of LittleBrother in the General Options

What's fixed?

• Permission Configuration Dialog should be displayed only once

2011/02/26 - LittleBrother 0.6.0.3

What's new?

• WiFi Control - enable/disable your WiFi depending on your current location
  • Define Sectors in which WiFi should be automatically enabled
  • This implies that as soon as you are out of any Sector that have WiFi enabled that then LittleBrother will automatically turn of the WiFi of your BlackBerry in order to save power
  • When you want to use WiFi out of any of your current defined sectors you can either turn LittleBrothers WiFi Control OFF or create a new Sector for your current location
  • Enable LittleBrother's WiFi Control in the LittleBrother General Options Section
• Support for IDEN Networks (experimental)
• If RIM's CellTowerLocation Service is available LittleBrother will make use of it (required for IDEN) - You can check in the Location Information Section of LittleBrother if the CellTower Location Service of RIM is available (or not)
• Check required application permissions after the installation

What's fixed?

• Minor GUI issues
• Editing a CellTower location that is part of an existing Sector will update also the Sector definition

2010/12/31 - LittleBrother 0.5.1.7

What's new?

• For debugging purposes you can specify faster sample rates: 30sec, 10sec and each 5 seconds [this will be removed later - that's why they are at the end of the list]
• As location definition your can enter any postal address and LittleBrother will retrieve the location information from the web
• Possibility to activate/deactive a Sector definition - only active sectors will trigger the sending of IN and OUT notifications
• Quick Enable & Disable SectorDefinitions via the Sector list (use Key shortcut: [A] to toggle between active/inactive)
• SectorList will display IN/OUT of Sector status
• Possibility to edit a CellTower location in your local CellTowerDB. When you are connected to one or more Femtocells it is not possible for LittleBrother to provide a correct location - in this case you can correct/enter the location information for these CellTowers (aka Femtocells)
  This feature could be of course also used if you are not satisfied with the precision of a CellTower location that was provided by LittleBrother
• Possibility to add complete new CellTowers (incl. the location) to your CellTowerDB

What's fixed?

• Fix for inactive Sectors on system start
• Fix for Sectors that based on a CellTowerList that consist of only a single entry

2010/10/25 - LittleBrother 0.5.0.5

What's new?

• LittleBrother now supports the definition of up to 50 different Sectors - each Sector can have it's own recipient (list) and own custom IN- & OUT-Messages.
• Select a list of CellTowers (from the Local CellTower DB) and define a new Sector from this selection - The IN and OUT Sector calculation will then work on the base of the selected CellTowers.As long as you are connected to one of the CellTowers from the list LittleBrother treat this as IN-Sector as soon as the phone connects to a different CellTower the OUT-of-Sector message will be send to the defined recipient(s).
• When you realize that an additional CellTower should be added to a CellTowerList based Sector then this CellTower can be added to an existing Sector via the LocalCellTowerDB List (via the #Menu)
• For CellTowerList based Sectors an overview map could be displayed.
• Delete a CellTower from a CellTowerList based Sectors at any time.
• Additional checkbox for Out of Sector-Notifications: Notify after device reboot [OFF by default] - What does this mean? With the new feature to define multiple sectors the possibility that you are outside of one or more of these sectors is quite high. This would mean when you reboot your device (or do a battery pull) that LittleBrother would send to all recipients of these sectors the the Out of Sector-Notification. In order to disable the notification for a sector on a device reboot the checkbox can be unchecked.
• When displaying a CellTowerLocation via the BlackBerryMaps popup then this map can be ZOOMED-IN [Key: i] and ZOOMED-OUT [Key: o].
• GUI-Enhancements (like in all other emacberry.com applications: InputFields with Border etc...)

What's fixed?

• When a location for a CellTower could not be retrieved for three times this CellTower will be ignored for the next 24h
• Torch/OS6 related fixes

2010/07/28 - LittleBrother 0.3.7.0

What's new?

• Map Requests (Last25 & LocalDB) could be canceled
• CellTower location requests that could not be performed cause the phone is is use will be performed later when the data transfer is possible again

What's fixed?

• Distance Calculation for notifications was messed up in 0.3.5.x - sorry!
• Another possible NullPointer Fix

2010/07/23 - LittleBrother 0.3.5.1

What's new?

• Personalize/Customize the Out of Sector and Back in Sector Messages
• Options reorganized into different sections
• Button to Cancel all running Requests
• Local CellTower Database list will be sorted by distance
• Delete single CellTower Database enties by pressing DEL-Key
• Perform a manual Update Check

What's fixed?

• Improved request queuing
• Possible NullPointer Fix (for v0.3.5.0)

2010/07/05 - LittleBrother 0.3.0.2

2010/06/28 - LittleBrother 0.3.0.1