L-Clock

L-Clock is an Android app that fetches data from NASA.gov and SpaceflightNow.com and creates a formatted list of upcoming rocket launches. Touch an item in the list to display the launch date/time and a countdown.

Currently in beta. There are a few obvious issues that will be fixed before v1.0.0, but the basic concept is mostly functional.

Links

• L-Clock on Android Market
• L-Clock on AppBrain
• L-Clock issue tracker (view or submit problems and suggestions)
• Direct download APK (all versions available; not recommended for most users)
• L-Clock.com (forwards here)

Changelog

v0.6.5 [2012-01-01]

• Fix NASA parsing, again.
• Fix Spaceflight Now parsing of dates containing "NET".
• Remove touchscreen requirement. (Makes compatible with Google TV)
• Update AdMob and AdWhirl SDKs. (Was using very old versions due to a significant visual bug with house ads in newer versions of AdWhirl including this version, decided the potential benefit of new features outweighs the bug)

v0.6.4 [2011-12-09]

• Fix SFN calendar parsing.
  • Fix incorrect calendar date when both GMT and EST dates are given (separated by /).
  • Remove " on [day]" before parsing calendar.
  • Remove underline tags before parsing list.
• Fix NASA parsing failure.
  • Remove HTML comments before parsing.

v0.6.3 [2011-10-13]

• Add indeterminate progress indicator to title bar when list is refreshing.
• Fix occasional crash when opening list, mostly on some slower devices. Caused by the list adapter being read and written in two different threads at the same time and the read happens on an empty list before the write; fixed by combining into single thread with read after write.

v0.6.2 [2011-10-11]

• Make ready for translating. Let me know if you want to translate! (note: this does not apply for list data)
• Fix more NASA parsing issues. Notably support for future years and fixing error after the site had minor design changes.
• Initial countdown shows next launch (first that hasn't passed) instead of first.
• Fetch and parse data in a separate thread, preventing GUI from hanging while it waits for data.
• Access to menu/preferences from lists.
• Pre-load cache when app is started.
• Use database instead of saving as raw file.

v0.6.1 [2011-05-15]

• Fix date/time parsing for most languages/locales and a few launches.
• Connectivity is checked before attempting to download data or fetch ads. Requires ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE (view network state) permission.
• Only create alerts for launches accurate to the minute or better.
• Format time of launch (above clock) to not include missing time information.
• Parts of clock change to red to indicate inaccuracy of schedule information.
• Change countdown clock to L -/+ clock.

v0.6.0 [2011-02-24]

• Alerts!
• Preferences.
• Data is cached - cache loaded if unable to download.
• Fix NASA descriptions cut off at the beginning.
• Fix crash when no connection.
• Hide ad space if no ad is loaded.

v0.5.2 [2011-02-23]

• Preserve list (don't re-download) on orientation change.
• Indicate that launch cannot be confirmed by saying "supposedly".
• Keep launch time in countdown area after launch.
• Fix text on main screen in landscape orientation.
• Fix text parsing issues.

v0.5.1 [2010-12-15]

• Better workaround for determining launch year in Spaceflight Now list.
• Context menu option to view location in Google Maps.
• In Spaceflight Now list, changed empty Mission column to Payload and populate.

v0.5.0 [2010-12-15]

• Initial release to the Android Market!
  

Started development on 2010-11-14