ActiveEMS - Phoenix

[AZScanner]

Hi gang,

I've written an Android application that may be of interest to members of the Arizona RadioReference community. If you have an Android phone, like to listen to the Phoenix Fire department and would like to take their live online incident list with you wherever you go (and don't mind parting with a couple of bucks for my time and trouble) then I invite you to take a look at ActiveEMS - Phoenix. (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.activeems.phoenix)

The app does more than just format the incident list for you - it also monitors the list in the background and notifies you of major incidents in real time. You can also long-click an entry to pull the location up in Google Maps. If you are a news journalist, incident notification dispatcher or firebuff, this app will be your new best friend!

Proceeds for the app will (hopefully - if there are enough copies sold) go towards a new PRO-197 scanner which will be used to host a replacement for our long lost East Valley live scanner feed.

Thanks for looking!
-AZ

 

[InlandAZ]

My better half (well, my other half) has a droid thingy - I'm going to make her buy it

 

[AZScanner]

My better half (well, my other half) has a droid thingy - I'm going to make her buy it

Excellent! Thank you sir!

If anyone has bought the app and liked it, please take a minute to post a rating and comment in the market, it will be a big help and much appreciated! Please also feel free to contact me either here via PM or through the market's "Email the Developer" function to report any bugs or to suggest new features. I want to make sure the app works correctly and that I've included as many features as possible/practical.

Thanks everyone!
-AZ

 

[AZScanner]

Hello again gang,

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you folks know that I've released an update to the app. The update includes some bug fixes and a new feature. Click on the link in my sig or in the first post to take a look. Also, a big thank you goes out to those of you who have purchased the app and provided bug reports and feature requests. I'm still working on custom notification criteria.. look for that in the next release!

Thanks again,
-AZ

 

[AZScanner]

A new update went up today, if you have purchased the app, please go update it and report back if the issue with text getting "bunched up" on the incident list has been fixed. It never happens on my phone, so I can't troubleshoot it very well... hoping for some help from the user base on this one...

I've also revamped the ADOT view (you can select other freeways/cameras now and pull it up at will).

Still working on custom alert criteria and the ability to view in portrait or landscape mode. Hopefully in the next week or so I can add that.

And of course (shameless plug) if you haven't bought it yet, why not? It's only a couple of bucks and I'd really like to sell enough of these to upgrade to a new digital scanner so we can have an east valley feed again. My BC796 just won't cut the mustard, gang. If you don't believe me, I'll put a feed up so you can see/hear/wince for yourself!

Thanks for looking!
-AZ

 

[AZScanner]

Hi gang, yet another update to tell you about, and this one is a big one: You now have the ability to set up your own alert criteria. The default is any call with a BC or DC will alert, but now if you want to change this so that you only get alerts about working fires, calls that the PIO is notified about or even a particular location or fire station, now you can set up ActiveEMS alerts any way you like.

Here's an example of how to set this up (go to Menu->Set Alert Criteria in the App to pull up the dialog):

Nature Code Contains: WORKING; DROWN; MOUNTAIN; AIRCRAFT; ALERT THREE;

This will alert you to any call that has any of the above keywords in the Nature Code. Each keyword string must end in a semicolon, including the last one, as shown above. You can set up similar keyword strings for the location and units as well. One thing to note is that if there is a keyword match in ANY of the 3 criteria fields the call will alert. At this time you're not able to say "alert me only if it's a working fire and BC171 is responding." Everything is an OR condition at this time.

Clear as mud? If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit me up using the Email Developer link on the market, and thanks once again to all of you who have bought the app.

-AZ

 

[APSN556]

This app has revolutionized my work as a reporter. ANy chance it will be available for the iPhone market or as a PC app?

 

[AZScanner]

This app has revolutionized my work as a reporter. ANy chance it will be available for the iPhone market or as a PC app?

Hi Chad,

Glad to hear the app is working so well for you! I always love hearing good feedback like that.

There's currently no plans to make an iOS version of it at this time. If the demand were there, I'd look into it, but my cost of entry into the iOS market would be about $2000 or so when factoring in necessary equipment, software and licensing. Android was so much easier and cost effective to develop for. I spent maybe $150 total on everything to get started. Even so, at the much lower buy in, I still have a ways to go before I recoup that investment. A PC version is doable though, if there's enough demand for it. I'd be glad to write a PC version for newsdesks or scanner enthusiasts to use. Let me know if anyone is interested and what you feel a reasonable price point would be.

Also, please feel free to tell your coworkers and fellow media types about the app! I've been trying to get it in front of someone in the Phoenix news media because I'm sure many spot news reporters would find it useful, but I'm not quite sure how to go about doing so. So far most of my sales are coming from scanner listeners and radioreference users (go figure), because they're the only ones who actually know the app exists.

Thanks again,
-AZ