Thursday 15 December 2016

Privacy Policy

This post is about the Privacy Policy for Pig Dog Bay apps, including CleverDic Crossword Solver, Anagram Solver, Angram Solver iOS, Weight Tracker, Mortgage Calculator and Codeword Solver.

I am a developer based in the UK, I work as a sole trader under the name MPD Bailey Technologies. I produce Android apps which I distribute through Google Play under the developer name Pig Dog Bay. I also produce iOS apps which I distribute through the App Store under the name MPD Bailey Technology.

My apps may contain advertising delivered via Google Admob, I trust that Admob will not harm you or your device but please let me know if you have concerns about any ads that are shown.

Your privacy is important to me and I do not collect or store any of your personal information. My apps will however gather anonymous usage statistics via Google Play Services, Google AdMob and Firebase. These statistics are completely anonymous to me and allow me to monitor such information as the daily Google Play downloads. 

Weight Tracker will automatically back up your data to your Google Drive account. Your Google Drive account is private to you. The app also allows you to share your readings, I cannot be held responsible for how you share your data from this app or any other apps.

Note that comments posted to the Pig Dog Bay Facebook, Google Play, Twitter and Blogger pages are public and may show your name and photo.


Disclaimers

My 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, I make no warranty that:

  1. the software will meet your requirements
  2. the software will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free
  3. the results that may be obtained from the use of the software will be effective, accurate or reliable
  4. the quality of the software will meet your expectations
  5. any errors in the software will be corrected.

The Weight Tracker App is for information purposes only and is not intended to be used for medical purposes. I am not a doctor or have any medical training.
Warning, CleverDic Crossword Solver, Codeword Solver, Anagram Solver and Anagram Solver iOS apps use large dictionaries and so may contain words that may be offensive to you. Any offence caused is completely unintended.

Finally
I am a software engineer, not a lawyer! I write apps for fun, learning, a little money and the hope that many others will enjoy using my apps. 

Mark Bailey

Codeword Solver v1.0

Codeword Solver is a new App for Android to help you with your Codeword puzzles. Codewords, also known as Codebreakers are puzzles like crosswords but without any clues, instead each square is given a number, 1 to 26, and you have to find the corresponding letter for each number. Some puzzles typically give you a few letters to get you going, but even so it can be hard to get started, this is where this app comes in!

Photographed from the Staffordshire Sentinel 15th December 2016, the sentinel.co.uk
Okay, lets try to solve this Codeword, we begin by entering the known letters.


Get it on Google Play

Open the app and enter the known, letters T and I. Press and hold the 2 square on the keyboard, select T. Press and hold the 9 square and select I, like below



Lets try the longest word first, which has squares 9-7-11-14-20-2-9-14-21


Straightaway the app has found a unique single match from over 280,000 words! The app has found you the letters MPARL


Press the + to add the letters to the keyboard. Hold the backspace key to clear the query. You can look up word definitions by touching and holding a word:


Select from a list of web / app options to find the words meaning, below I chose the English Dictionary Offline app, which is free on Google Play:



You now have more than enough letters now to get started and crack the Codeword by yourself. The Codeword above was fairly easy since it contained a long word with several known letters.  I don't recommend it, but the app will make mince meat of the rest of the clues:


Other code words are more tricky and you will have lots of possible words to choose from. The app can help here by spotting any common letters:



Here the app has spotted that A and Z are common and so gives you the option to add these letters.
If you are getting 100 matches (the maximum) try other clues, also take a guess at one or a few of the letters. The app is there to help you with the puzzle and not solve it for you, as where is the fun in that?


Get it on Google Play


Crack those Codewords!
PigDogBay



Tuesday 29 November 2016

Weight Tracker v1.18 and Pro v2.02

At long last a new version of Weight Tracker and Weight Tracker Pro is now available for Android on the Google Play Store.

The main new feature here, and the most requested, is the ability to sync your data across devices, quickly and easily. To do this, the app now backs up your data to your Google Drive account which most Android users will have by default.

If you are an existing user, the app will ask you to Connect to Google Drive:


Before starting, make sure you have an internet connection as Google Drive is a cloud based service. Press CONNECT and wait a few moments as the app attempts to connect you to Google Drive. Once connected you will be asked to choose an account and to give permission for the app to use Google Drive:


Select the Google Drive account you would like to sync your data to. Next the app will make its first back up of your readings to Google Drive,  from then on it will make weekly back ups automatically.

Save -Success, your readings have been saved to Google Drive
Press the back arrow on the top left to return to the main menu.


If you are a new user, the app will help you get set up on Google Drive in the Welcome Wizard:


Before starting, make sure you have an internet connection as Google Drive is a cloud based service. Press CONNECT and wait a few moments as the app attempts to connect you to Google Drive. Once connected you will be asked to choose an account and to give permission for the app to use Google Drive:


Select the Google Drive account you would like to sync your data to. If you are upgrading to the Pro version of the App, or may already have existing readings, press the Restore Readings button



Previous readings successfully retrieved.





On the main menu, the help button has now been replaced with a Sync button



 Press the Sync button to go to the new Sync Readings screen




This screen allows you to save readings to and retrieve readings from your Google Drive account.
To transfer your readings to another device, say from your Phone to your tablet:

  1. On your phone press SAVE
  2. Wait a few minutes for Google Drive to upload your data
  3. On your tablet, press the REFRESH button, check the date and time reported is when you did your save. You may need to press a few times as G Drive will take a few moments to load any new files.
  4. On your tablet, press RESTORE, the app will load all readings and sync them to your existing readings. New readings will be added and updated readings will overwrite your current existing ones.
  5. That's it, press back!

Other New Features

The Pro version of the app now lets you print out your reports:




If you don't have a printer, the report can be saved as a PDF file.


A few extra BMI stats have been added, so if you're BMI is 31.4, the report will show you the weight you need to be to achieve a BMI of 31, 30 and 29. This is handy when you need to set yourself a new weight goal.

Note the print icon, top right


The app has had a lick of paint and now uses Material Design, so buttons are now borderless. The Pro version of the app has a sky blue color scheme and the standard apple blossom. You can still change the background color but not the toolbar colors.

The app no longer uses the SD-Card to back-up or transfer your readings, the reasons are:

  1. The app now uses Google Drive
  2. Android 6 (Marshmallow) requires explicit user permission to read/write to the sd-card
  3. Some devices do not have sd-cards
  4. The app now longer requires the permission to access your photos / music
  5. Transferring readings was a pain, I get a lot of emails asking for help.


Ads

Good news the banner ad now only appears on the chart. I've also placed a native ad in the middle of the report, these ads will scroll with the screen content and are less intrusive and harder to accidentally click. All ads are provided by Admob, a Google owned company. The pro version of the app is completely ad free.


Hope the diet goes well in 2017
Happy New Year
PDB

Friday 30 September 2016

CleverDic Pro v1.01

A new release of CleverDic Crossword Solver Pro v1.01 will be available from 1st Oct 2016.
The free ad supported version will be available from 4th Oct 2016.

It has been a long time since the last update but all good things take time and there are plenty of exciting new features.


Material Design User Interface

The user interface has been redesigned using Material Design to give a modern standard Android look and feel. My goal was to make the user interface much clearer, icons are simplified and I've used large mono-spaced fonts in the query field. You can also change the font size for the results, there's even an x-large mono-space option.

The help system has been overhauled so that you can quickly scroll through the tips and interact with the tip to see it in action.




Filter and Sort Results

Often times you will hit 500 results, far too many to wade through. So I've added sort and filter options to help you refine your results.



Press the sort icon (top right) to toggle through 4 different sorts, A to Z, Z to A, by length ascending and finally by length descending.

Press the filter icon (bottom right) to set up your filters






Blank Letters

For Scrabble fans you can use + to represent blank letters


The blank letters are highlighted green


Two Word Anagrams

Previously you would enter manchester united and CleverDic would find all the 10/6 words. Now it will try to find all word size combinations.


Dictionary Definitions

You are now spoilt for choice on how to look up a word's meaning:

  • Google
  • Merriam-Webster
  • Dictionary.com
  • Wikipedia
  • Copy to clipboard
  • Livio's English Dictionay Offline App

You can either press the spy-glass icon to look up a word using your preferred method (as set up in the settings screen) or long press a word to bring up a menu



For those who don't have t'internet, you can download the free English Dictionary App that works offline and seems to have most words. There is a link to the app on one of the help cards.


Settings

You can access the settings screen by pressing the menu button in the top right, and tweak the app to how you like it.



I told you it was a big update :) Many thanks to all the folk who have send me feedback, kind messages and comments on Google Play... And keep them coming!


Never a Crossword!
Pig Dog Bay


Tuesday 20 September 2016

Anagram Solver v1.08

Anagram Solver v1.08 for Android will be available from 20th September 2016

Get Anagram Solver


New Search Features

Blank Letters - use + as a blank letter, eg scrabb++ will find scrabble
Supergrams - find larger words containing your letters, enter starwars to find warmheartedness
Colour Highlighting - Blank letters and supergram letters are shown in a different colour
Settings Menu - You can now change the results font size and there is also an option show keyboard
automatically.
Native Ads - New Native Ads Express from Admob, shown as cards in the help screen
Interstitial Ads - Shown when user presses clear/back 20 times
Banner Ads are now only shown on the results screen


Blank Letters

Settings Menu

Supergrams
Native Ads







Tuesday 9 August 2016

Anagram Solver Pro v1.03

Release date: 12th Aug 2016



The user interface has been revamped, the tips are now displayed as cards and you can press show me instead of typing the suggestion:



You can now use + to represent a blank letter, very useful for Scrabble! Thanks to Warwick Tudepole for the feedback.




Thank also to Arvind Persaud for suggesting to use a dictionary app for offline use. Press the magnifying glass icon to the right of a word to look up the word in the free Livio dictionary app. You can still press and hold for web definitions.


Wildcard letters are now highlighted, you can select the color in the settings menu.


A new settings menu allows you to choose the standard or pro word list, the text size of the results and the highlight color.

Take a look a the app on the Play Store


Happy Crosswording
PDB






Sunday 31 July 2016

Anagram Solver v1.07

Release Date 3rd August 2016


Anagram Solver has been completely revamped with a new Material Design user interface. The tips are now displayed as separate cards and you can press the show me button to save you typing.

Results now appear much more clearly using a mono-spaced font


Looking up a word's definition is easier, you can press the spyglass icon to the right of the word. You can now install an dictionary app to look up words whilst offline:



Press GET APP to install the free Dictionary app from the Google Play Store. Anagram Solver will try to look for the word's definition using the dictionary app, if the app is not installed it will do a web search. You can still press and hold a word for web-search only.



Sub-anagram searches now go all the way to 1 letter, that is if you don't first hit the 500 results limit.


A new version of Anagram Solver Pro will also soon be available with the new features above.




Hppya Sovlnig
Mark