New Dictionary Feature

Crossword Solver King iOS update with new built-in dictionary feature to look up word definitions:

Now available on the App Store

 

Crossword Solver King & Dictionary

 Crossword Solver King now has a built-in dictionary with over 100,000 definitions:

Note if the app cannot find a definition for your word or phrase, the app will search for a definition on the web. This feature will be available in v3.32 Android and v1.09 iOS - coming soon!

Get the app from:

PlayStore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mpdbailey.cleverdicandroid

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/crossword-solver-king/id1503152101

Weight Tracker User Guide

Welcome, this is the user guide for the Android Weight Tracker app. This app allows you to record you daily weight measurements and then see your progress as a chart or report.

Home Screen

The app is designed around the home screen, it is a navigation hub for the apps features. From the home screen you can:

• Add new daily weight measurements
• Review and edit your data
• See a chart showing your weight versus time
• Statistics about your weight and BMI
• Change settings like the weight units
• Share your readings with other devices

New Weight

Here you enter you daily weight measurements that you have taken from a bathroom scales.

The date will automatically be set to today's date, however to change the date press the - button to roll back one day, or + to roll forward one day. Pressing the date itself will pop up a date picker for you to select the date. Note that you can not enter time, the time recorded for the entry will be your device's current time.

The app will automatically set the weight to your last measurement, you can change it by pressing either the + or - buttons, or pressing the weight itself to pop up a text field where you can enter your weight via the keyboard. The + / - will change the weight by either

• 1/2lb if your weight unit is pounds
• 0.1kg if your weight unit is kilograms
• 1lb if your weight unit is stones

When done, press the ADD button and the weight measurement will be recorded and you will be returned to the Home screen. 

If you wish to enter more weight readings, check the Stay on the screen check box.

Edit Readings

Here you can view a list of your readings, you can also delete and edit your readings.

You can share your readings by pressing the share button, top right. The app will export readings to other apps such as Email clients. This is useful if you want to view your data in a spreadsheet. 

Touch a reading and you will be shown a screen similar to the New Reading screen, here you can edit or delete the reading.

Chart

You can view your weight measurements as a chart showing weight vs time.

The chart will show your all your data and fit the axes accordingly. However you can change the time scale via the menu top right, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 1 Year or all time. 

The graph will show a red trend line, the trend will depend on the time scale you have chosen. If you are close to your target weight the app will show it as blue horizontal line.

Pressing the share button (top right) will take a screen shot and allow you to share the image via other apps.

Sync

Here you can save and restore your data from your Google Drive, this is useful for synchronising readings between your devices.

Firstly the app will need permission to access your Google Drive, it will pop up a dialog asking you to choose an account. If you do not wish to use this feature, press back several times to get back to the home screen.

If you have allowed the app permission to access your Google Drive folder, the app will search for the latest weight readings in the folder and display the date and time at the top of the screen.  Press REFRESH LATEST button to make the app search again for the latest readings as Google Drive can take several minutes to Sync across your devices.

Press SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE to store your readings in the Weight Tracker folder of your Google Drive.

Press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE to load the latest the latest readings from the Weight Tracker folder on Google Drive. When loading readings, the app will synchronise them to those stored in the apps database, new readings will be added, same readings will be over written with the readings from Google Drive. 

Example 1

If you store your readings on your phone but wish to view them on your tablet, follow these steps:

1. On your phone, SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE
2. Wait a few minutes to allow Google Drive to sync
3. On your tablet, press REFRESH LATEST until you see the latest time stamp
4. On your tablet press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE

Example 2

View your readings in a spreadsheet on your PC

1. On your phone, SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE
2. On your PC open the Google Drive app (or website)
3. Wait for the readings to appear in the Weight Tracker folder

Note that Google Drive is a cloud service, so ensure you have WiFi or mobile data enabled to allow Google Drive to communicate to Google's servers.

Report 

 The report screen shows your BMI, statistics and trends.

Trends are calculated using line of best fit and are then used to work out if you are losing or gaining weight. The app will use the trend line to work out when you will reach your Goal weight.

Settings

Here are all the settings you need to configure the app for yourself, side swipe each screen to get to the next.

• Set your weight units and target weight you are trying to achieve.
• For BMI calculations you will need to enter your height

Auto Backups

Every seven days the app can save your readings to Google Drive, but first you will need to

1. Allow the app permission to use your Google Drive, eg go to Sync and choose an account.
2. On Settings, go to General Settings and check Automatic Backups

If you lose data, you can go to Sync and press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE to recover data from your last back up.

Weight Tracker Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Licence for the Android Weight Tracker app

Privacy Policy

The app will store your weight readings in a database stored on your device that only the Weight Tracker app can read and write to. Your settings are also stored on the device and only this app may use them.

The app will not share or transmit your data without your knowledge:

• The app will allow the user to share data with third party apps using the share functions.
• You may opt to backup/sync your readings to your Google Drive account

If you use the Sync feature, the app will ask you to log into your Google Account so that the app can access your Google Drive storage area. When saving your files to your Google Drive, the app will store them as in a plain text format in a folder that the app creates (Weight Tracker). When restoring data from your Google Drive, the app will query the drive for all files in the Weight Tracker folder and load the the readings from the latest file.

Google Admob and Firebase

The app uses Google Admob and Firebase analytics to deliver relevant targeted ads to you, to find out more about how Google uses information from this app visit: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/

Feedback Emails

I may temporarily store any emails you may send to me whilst I deal with any issues raised. Your email address will not be used for any marketing by myself or third parties.

Your email client may store sent or draft messages from yourself and replies from me.

Note that I use Yahoo! email service for my feedback, to find out more about Yahoo, an Oath company, click the link below:
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html

Terms of Service

By using this application you are bound by Google's Terms of Service

Using this app you agree that MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) are not liable for any information shown within the app.

MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) take no responsibility for the actions of any users of this app.

This software is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness for a purpose, or the warranty of non-infringement. Without limiting the foregoing, MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey)  make no warranty that:

• The software will meet your requirements
• The software will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free
• The results that may be obtained from the use of the software will be effective, accurate or reliable
• The quality of the software will meet your expectations
• Any errors in the software will be corrected.

The app EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The app makes no warranty that (1) THE APP OR THE CONTENT WILL MEET OR SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS (2) THE APP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP OR ITS CONTENT.

Licence

Weight Tracker is licensed under Apache License-2.0:

Copyright 2018 MPD Bailey Technology

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Privacy Policy (Food Hygiene Ratings iOS)

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Licence for the iOS Food Hygiene Ratings UK app

Privacy Policy

The app does not store any information except for the user settings, however the app uses third party services which may collect data and are detailed below. The app does not send any data to MPD Bailey Technology.

Google Admob

The app uses Google Admob to display banner ads on the results screen and establishment description screen. No other ads are show.

To find out more about how Google uses information from this app visit: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/

Feedback Emails

I may temporarily store any emails you may send to me whilst I deal with any issues raised. Your email address will not be used for any marketing by myself or third parties.

Your email client may store sent or draft messages from yourself and replies from me.

Note that I use Yahoo! email service for my feedback, to find out more about Yahoo, an Oath company, click the link below:
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html

Food Standards Agency

This app will display public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

All Food Hygiene Ratings information is provided by the live data feed from the Food Standards Agency. If you find any issues with the data please contact the relevant local authority. For more information visit https://www.food.gov.uk

Note that no ratings information or business information is stored in the app.

Apple Maps APIs

The app uses the Maps and Geocoding from Apple.

All map data shown is provided by Apple, using the MapKit framework.

When viewing an establishment on the map, the app will use the CoreLocation API to find the exact geo-coordinates.

Note that no Google Place information will appear on the map

Terms of Service

By using this application you are bound by Google's Terms of Service

Using this app you agree that MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) are not liable for any information shown within the app.

MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) take no responsibility for the actions of any users of this app.

The app EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The app makes no warranty that (1) THE APP OR THE CONTENT WILL MEET OR SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS (2) THE APP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP OR ITS CONTENT.

Licence

Food Hygiene Ratings UK is licensed under Apache License-2.0:

Copyright 2018 MPD Bailey Technology

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Food Hygiene Ratings v1.02 Release Notes

Release notes for Android Food Hygiene Ratings UK v1.02

Establishment Details

When you now view the details of the establishment the app will look up the establishment on Google Places to find its telephone number, website and any photographs. The place details and photos will be displayed in cards. If no place information can be found, a toast will be shown to notify the user that no place details are available.

A dark green floating action button is now displayed on the Establishment details screen, press this to see a map and location of the establishment.

When you now press the send email link on the Local Authority card, the email will be filled out with the establishment details.

Bug fixes:

• FSA link now works on the ratings card
• If no address, "Not specified" is shown instead.
• The map will no longer show for establishments with no address and instead show a notification.
• Local authority card text is now formatted not to wrap

Results

You can now search a list of results by searching for text contained with in the name or address. The results table will automatically update as you type.

You can also filter results by rating, by checking the appropriate rating in the menu.

Results are now grouped into business categories such as Takeaways/Sandwich Shop, Pub/Bar/Nightclub and Restaurant/Cafe.

Distance from the centre of the map is shown for map search results.

These features bring the app into line with the iOS version.

Maps

Map searches are now disabled by default, but you can enable them in the settings menu.
When enabled, a dark green floating action button (FAB) with a map icon will be displayed in the lower right corner of the screen.

Pressing the FAB on the home screen will show you a map of the UK, you can zoom and move the map and press the search icon in the menu bar to search for results.

Pressing the FAB on the results screen will show you a map of the area containing the results, which you can zoom, move and search again.

Maps have been disabled by default since the establishment's geo-coordinate information from the FSA is inaccurate.

Home Screen

The user interface has been updated to improve its look and feel:

• The background is now white
• The advanced search button has been moved to the menu.
• The menu search icon is now an icon to view the user guide 
• The find places near me button is now material design (borderless) and is centred
• The text field clear buttons will now only display when there is text
• The clear buttons are bigger and centred
• Clear buttons when pressed will set the focus on the textfield and open the keyboard
• The action colour has been changed from orange to dark green
• A small notice to say all data is from the FSA and is live is displayed at the bottom of the screen
• The keyboard is automatically hidden when navigating away.

Settings

New settings screen accessible from the home screen menu, settings are:

• Search radius (1-10 miles) for "find places near to me" and map searches
• Results text filter mode, find text contained in the name only or name and address
• Search timeout (10 seconds to 5 minutes) for FSA web server requests
• Enable map searches, when enabled shows a green button to bring up the map on the results and home screens.
• Google places - enable to lookup and show information from Google places in the establishment details.

About

The about screen has been updated with links to app's privacy policy and information about how the app uses Google Admob and Firebase.

Future Work

Favourites:  keep a list of establishments of interest and notify you when a rating changes
Google Places: If a place is not found, show the Google Place dialog for you to try to find it.

To keep the updates coming, please rate the app, send me feedback, tell your friends and keep on checking those restaurants with the app.

Food Hygiene Ratings Guide

This is a guide to using the Food Hygiene Ratings UK Android app. The app looks up food hygiene ratings from the Food Standards Agency, www.food.gov.uk. If you do not have the app, click the link below from your phone/tablet:

If you have an iPhone please visit the iPhone version of the guide

Notice

There is a bug in earlier versions of the app (eg v1.02.03) to do with the component scores for hygiene, structural and management. Some establishments have no published component score data however the app will show default scores of 0 (very good) for these establishments.  Ensure that you update the app to v1.03.00 where this is issue is now fixed.

Home Screen

From the home screen you can perform a quick search for establishments by entering a name and place, then press SEARCH.

If you want to find establishments near to you press the FIND PLACES NEAR ME button.

From the menu top right, you can view this guide, go to settings, do an advanced search and see information about the app including a link to the privacy policy.

Quick Search

The quick search allows you to enter a name of an establishment and a place. You could just enter a name or a place on its own. Here enter 'cottage loaf' for the name and 'llandudno' for the place, press search on the keyboard or press the search button.

The app will send your query to the Food Standard Agency's web server and wait for a response which usually takes a few seconds but can take longer if busy. All data is live and up to date, no 

information is stored in the app. 

As you can see the Cottage Loaf scores a 5 (Very Good) and you can see a bit of the address, press the result to get more details.

Details

Pressing on a result shows more details about an establishment. You will see the appropriate Food Hygiene Rating icon which should be displayed on the premises, the establishment type and when the rating was awarded.

FSA Website

You can also view the establishment details directly on the FSA website, by clicking the button on the ratings card on the details screen.

Google Places

This feature has been removed due to Google changing the Places API to a new version. Having looked at the pricing for new version of Google Places, I decided to remove Google Places from the App due to cost.

Scores

In the scores card there is a breakdown of the rating into scores for 3 categories: hygiene, structural and management, click MORE INFO for a brief description of the categories. These scores are like hazard points, so lower the score the better. The range of possible scores is 0-30 in steps of 5, with 0 the best and 30 the worst. You can find a more detailed explanation of the scores on page 35 of the FHRS guidance notes.

Details Map

Press the map button on the address card to view a map of the establishment.

The app will initially place a pin on the map based on the longitude/latitude data as returned from the FSA. However these geo-coordinates can be inaccurate, so the app will look up accurate geo-coordinates based on the address of the establishment and reposition the pin.

The map is fully interactive and you can zoom and move the map.

Note if the establishment has no address and no geo-coordinates, the app will not show the details map and pop up a notification instead.

Local Authority

On the local authority card you will see a contact email address and a web site address.
Pressing the SEND EMAIL button will open your email client, address it to the local authority and the body of the email will already be filled out with the establishment details.

If you are a business owner wishing to query any information, your local authority is the best place to start.

Near Me

The app can use the device's location to find establishments near to you. You will be asked to give the app permission to use location services.

On the home screen press the FIND PLACES NEAR ME button.

The app has found 432 establishments in my location of Llandudno. The results are grouped by business type, Takeaway/Sandwich Shop, Restaurant/Cafe, Pub/bar/nightclub etc.

Each establishment displays a coloured icon, a name, distance from your location and address. The icons have been designed for you to easily see poor ratings and good ratings.

Note that the default search radius is 1 mile, you can set this up to 10 miles in the app's settings.

There are quite a few results so the app allows you to filter your results to quickly find the place you're after.

Results Rating Filter

Open the menu (top right) to filter the results by rating. The results list will automatically update.

Results Text Filter

On the results screen press the search icon to search for text in the name and address of the establishment, the results will automatically be updated to show only those that contain the text you have entered.

You can search for text in the name only, go to the app's setting to set the appropriate Results Text Filter.

Settings

You can get to the settings screen from the home screen menu.

There are 5 settings:

1. Search Radius (Near Me / Map) which specifies the search radius 1 to 10 miles
2. Results Text Filter - search for text in the name and address or name only
3. Search Timeout - set the time out when waiting for a response from the FSA server
4. Enable Map Searches - check to enable map searches
5. Show information from Google Places  - check to show Place info such as photos

Map Searches

Map searches are disabled by default, to enable them you will need to go into the settings screen and check the Enable Map Searches setting.

Nota Bene the longitude/latitude data for each establishment is inaccurate, this means that the establishments will not be pinned in the correct locations on the map. Worse, the pins will usually be stacked on top of each other. This is why map searches have been disabled by default, only perform map searches if you are comfortable with the pins not showing in the correct location.

Once enabled a green button will appear in the lower right corner of the home screen and results screen. Press this to open up a map.

Pure Map Searches

Press the green map button on the home screen to show a map of the UK.

Pinch zoom and move to St Ives and press the search icon in the menu bar top right. Touch a pin to show a pop out to see the name and rating of a place. Green pins are 5* rated, red 1* star. You can press a pop up to see the establishment details.

In practice you will find that pins are placed in the wrong location and usually stacked on top of other pins. I recommend that you only use pure map searches for establishments in villages, suburbs or small towns.

Results Map Searches

Press the green map button on the results screen, the results will be displayed on a map.

In practice it is best to try and filter the results to whittle them down, here I entered "chip" into the search filter to find Fish & Chip places in Llandudno, as most chippys usually have chip or fish in their names.

You can move the map and hit search again, to find places in a radius (specified in the settings) about the centre of the map. Note that any filters will be cleared, but you can press back to see a list of results, set up a new filter and press the map button again to see the filtered results.

Advanced Searched

The advanced search replicates the features you may have seen on the food hygiene ratings website.

Let us say you are looking for  4* and 5* rated pub on Anglesey.

From the home screen, press the menu (top-right) and select Advanced Search

Select the business type to be Pub/bar/nightclub.

Select Anglesey for the area

Select rating 4

Select comparison GreaterThanOrEqual.

Press the search menu icon top right

The app finds 72 establishments.

Scottish Rating System

The app is UK wide and supports establishments that have been rated with the Scottish Ratings System, eg Pass/Pass Plus/Improvement Required.

P+ icon represents Pass Eat Safe rating

P icon is a Pass

! icon is an Improvement Required.

Trouble Shooting

Connection Timeout

The FSA database is often slow at times, so you may need to increase the timeout setting from 30 seconds to a minute or more, see Settings.

Occasionally the BBC / ITV feature Food Hygiene Ratings on consumer affairs shows such as Rip Off Britain. Suddenly huge numbers of folk are using apps and websites to check out food hygiene ratings. This puts severe strain the FSA database and usually makes it unavailable. Problems can last for several days afterwards. Please do not complain about the app being slow or not working.

Different Rating

I often see comments saying that the app is out of date and that the scores on the door do not match. The app itself does not store any data, it fetches all data from the FSA. So if you see a business is displaying a different rating to the app, it's possible that the FSA database has not been updated.

The app allows you to send an email to the Local Authority where you can request clarification. 

Please:

• Do not challenge the business about the rating (for your own safety!)
• Do not leave a bad review on the app store about it (be nice)
• Do not send me an email about the discrepancy (what can i do?)
• Do consider sending an email to the local authority for clarification.

If you are a business owner and are concerned with the data shown, please contact your local authority to check the status and details of your inspection.

Establishment Not Listed

You type in the name and place and your favourite take-away is not found, one problem maybe that the place you have specified is not in the business address, so the app will not find the business. So try widening the address, eg change Westminster to London.

Known bug! Some phones add a space after you type a word, this will throw the search query. Make sure that you delete any extraneous spaces. This will be fixed in a later release.

Another common problem is that the name of the establishment is different to what it is listed on the FSA database. Try part of the name to see if you can find the establishment. For example, a Fish & Chip shop near to me is listed as Riverside Fish Bar but its name now is Riverside Chippy.

Try finding the establishment on the FSA website, http://ratings.food.gov.uk/

If the establishment is found on the website, but not the app, please send me the name/address of the establishment so I can take a look.

Also bear in mind it may take several years for a business to be inspected, some local authorities have bigger back logs than others. So if a business is fairly new or has recently changed name, it may take time to have its rating listed on the FSA website.

If you are a business owner and cannot find your business, please contact your local authority to inquire about the status and details of your inspection.

Spurious Search Results

Search for Nando's and you will find also Lando's. The FSA database search algorithm is not so strict which is handy if you make spelling mistakes but can be frustrating if you are getting too many irrelevant matches. Fortunately the app is easy and quick to use, so browsing a huge list of results in combination with the filters, make it easier for you to find the establishment you are looking for.

Try the advanced search features to specify your search further, eg for The Swan at Stone, also specify the local authority area, eg Stafford, as there are lots of places called Stone.

Acknowledgements

All ratings information is provided by the Food Standards Agency, http://www.food.gov.uk

The app and this blog post are not affiliated and have not been endorsed by the FSA.

The app is free of charge and is ad funded. Ads are provided by Google Admob, the app will only display a banner along the bottom of the screen. 

Place information is provided by Google Places. See the apps privacy policy for more details.

Finally

Many thanks for using the app and I hope you use it every time you try a new place to eat or drink. It's also a good way of finding new places!

For any problems please send me an email via the feedback button on the About screen which you can access from the home screen menu.

To help keep updates coming, I'd be grateful if you could take the time to rate the app on the Play Store. Also spread the word, tell your friends about the app, you can do this easily by going to the About screen (menu option on the home screen) pressing the 'Email Friends' button which will share a link to the app via Facebook / Twitter (if you have the apps installed) or email.