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Android Apps

Okay, I've installed an app (rather than widget) called "Simple Clock". it has clock/alarm/stopwatch/timer functions and the clock shows seconds out of the box. The clock has world clock functions which seem better than the Samsung offering, but I'm not sure I like the timer – you have to set up presets rather than just dial in the countdown ad hoc. I don't have seconds on the home screen, but I don't mind that – it was just an idea (the Simple Clock app offers a widget as a paid option, but I'm not sure that does what I want anyway).

It's in sync with system time, which is itself currently in sync with MSF. I'll report back if I notice any deviation.

I've previously considered it weird that when browsing the Play Store from my Apple iPad (!) the apps say something like "compatible with this device" (or not) and offer an install button. I thought "Oh yeah? Really??"... so this time, I tried it.

Google asked for my password and then reckoned the app would be available on my device soon, identifying it as a Samsung model.

I opened my phone and nothing seemed to have happened, appearing to confirm my scepticism, so I went to the Play Store to install the app and found it marked as already installed! Clicking "open" then popped up a message saying a short cut had been added to my home screen, and the app opened!

This is curious. It seems insecure that a push mechanism exists whereby apps can be installed to a phone without direct physical authorisation, regardless that Google itself might manage security at their end.
 
Black Hole said:
It seems insecure that a push mechanism exists whereby apps can be installed to a phone without direct physical authorisation
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The device is logged in to your Google account. Only you, or someone with your login details, can do remote installs. If someone else has your details unofficial app loading is the least of your worries.

I actually use it on occasions, particularly when about to go on holiday when I'm taking 3 devices and loading apps specific for travel and foreign.
 
MikeSh said:
Now I'm confused. I thought that was where you wanted seconds rather than having to go another layer down.
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You're not the only one! I thought, or perhaps I was led to believe, that it wasn't the clock on the home screen that was the problem but the clock that appears when you press the clock widget (eh?). Then we had images of clocks on the home screen with and without seconds. So I'm also confused.
 
I'd agree with MikeSh that you're logged in on both devices with the same details. Shouldn't be a problem - unless software managed by the Horizon lot.
I tried one of these installs and found a notification on the other device and a short cut already added. Now, since I didn't want Spotify I'll have to delete it. :)
 
You can also go to the playstore website on (for example) a laptop's browser and select to install an app to your Android phone.

I use a clock app that has a full screen display, shows (optionally) seconds, and has a night setting to use as a bedside clock. Text and background colours can also be set, though oddly it seems to be 24h display only with no 12h option. I quite like it, but when I tried to locate it in the playstore it no longer seems to be available :-(. FWIW It seems to be called "digital clock"; on its help screen it says "big digital clock v1.1.1". Still, there seems to be loads of alternatives in the playstore.
 
MikeSh said:
Now I'm confused. I thought that was where you wanted seconds rather than having to go another layer down.
Click to expand...
At the start of this thread I had seconds on neither the widget nor the standard clock app. I initially targetted the widget, but since there has been nothing but dead ends on that front I looked to see what alternative clock apps there are.
 
I brought time.is up in web browsers on two different machines, and they + Simple Clock are in sync (within 0.1s or there about).

Strangely, the default clock shown in the top right corner (and the Samsung clock app) is about 0.5s ahead of that, as if it might be rounding the system time to the nearest second before then stripping the seconds for the hh:mm display.

I've disabled automatic time and manually given the phone a (roughly) 90s deviation, and the Simple Clock tracks that despite having an Internet connection available, so that's pretty conclusive it's interrogating and displaying system time, and system time is near as dammit maintained at UTC over the 4G network. The moment I turned on automatic time again, it was back where it should be.

I think I'll turn off 4G overnight and check the drift in the morning.

I have found an oddity though: I have an analogue MSF clock, and an LCD digital MSF clock. The analogue clock is in sync, the digital clock is 1s slow!
 
Black Hole said:
I have found an oddity though: I have an analogue MSF clock, and an LCD digital MSF clock. The analogue clock is in sync, the digital clock is 1s slow!
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Brings back memories of control system programming. With the system running at about 1 second per cycle (complete iteration of the (main) code) coordinating time sensitive events reliably could be quite interesting.
 
:frantic:

With 4G turned off, the phone seems to have lost about 0.2s overnight (estimate, not measured). So I turned off airplane mode and system time jumped to MSF minus 1s! I checked that by setting manual time and then re-enabling automatic time. This is just weird.

Not that it really matters (to me), but I would have expected this kind of thing to work properly!
 
(Speculation!) I'd guess the MSF signal is direct. For the mobile phone networks who knows where the time is injected and the delays in the system. There are delays of at least 0.5s in some of my phone calls. So why not the time? :dunno:
 
EEPhil said:
And the prefix "speculation"!
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I don't think it's speculation. There are lags. There is latency in the wired internet (ask any gamer) and there will be more in the cell system. The mobile operators could probably improve the accuracy by making each cell tower do something clever, but the cost would not be worth it as most people aren't bothered by such minor discrepancies.
(Wasn't there something about the BBC pips lagging noticeably on DAB?)
 
Black Hole said:
Typical quartz accuracy shirley?
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Aside from MSF ones all the quartz clocks and watches I've had have drifted noticeably over time. Some more than others but about half a second a day (for your phone) would be a minute in 4 months and I think our current clocks drift more than that.

Black Hole said:
Perhaps, but then what's the likelihood of it having been pretty much bang on at other times?

I would say it's running 0.9s behind at the moment.
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If the subroutine runs every second then it's going to display anything between network time and network time +1 sec. So on average half a second slow. If the network time signal arriving at the phone is half a second slow then you have a display accuracy between half and 1.5 seconds slow. Different values will give different ranges obviously but I can't see it ever being exact. Even if the subroutine runs more often there will still be an average lag.
 
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