BitcoinSpinner

[hgmichna]

I have already mentioned it in private, but I think it should be published too:

I believe BitcoinSpinner is a milestone for bitcoin itself, because it is the first reliable and easily usable bitcoin client for Android.

There was and still is an earlier bitcoin wallet, but I have yet to see it work reliably on any smartphone, and I have tried it on about half a dozen, because I desperately wanted it to work.

There is also My Wallet, but that is just a web site. It also seems to work well and may be the current first choice on the iPhone, but it certainly does not beat BitcoinSpinner on Android. My Wallet is also 20 times more costly, demanding BTC0.01 for each transfer.

[slush]

Btw I vote for PIN protection of the GUI, too. As I understand, the private key is stored in some secure place already, but I will feel much more comfortable when it won't be so easy to steal my coins when I'll leave my phone alone for a moment.

[hgmichna]

Btw I vote for PIN protection of the GUI, too. As I understand, the private key is stored in some secure place already, but I will feel much more comfortable when it won't be so easy to steal my coins when I'll leave my phone alone for a moment.

Why not lock the entire phone?

If it gets stolen, you have to load the private key into another bitcoin client from backup and transfer the bitcoins before the thief gets to it.

[slush]

Why not lock the entire phone?

I'm using gesture for unlocking the phone, but it's incredibly easy to see the gesture if you're near me. Of course using 10-character pin for unlocking the phone every ten minutes will be more secure, but also very annoying.

Using pin for BitcoinSpinner is definitely better way to secure my coins, because PIN isn't used so often and it's easier to check that nobody is watching my fingers.

EDIT: It does not need to be numeric pin, but simply any password securing the client's GUI.

[P4man]

I think its already on Jans todo list, but it will be optional IIRC, and  I certainly hope.
And if you implement a pin, please make it numerical. I hate nothing more than typing passwords on a soft keyboard.

[slush]

I hate nothing more than typing passwords on a soft keyboard.

What keeps you from using numerical pin when the password field accepts alphanum characters?

[P4man]

What keeps you from using numerical pin when the password field accepts alphanum characters?

Android shows a different keyboard if you can only enter numeric. Like a dial pad, nice big buttons.

[westkybitcoins]

What keeps you from using numerical pin when the password field accepts alphanum characters?

Android shows a different keyboard if you can only enter numeric. Like a dial pad, nice big buttons.

Perhaps he could allow all three options: no PIN, numeric PIN, or alphanumeric PIN. Might be a little redundant, but shouldn't be much more coding either.

(And if not, I suppose one could always tweak the code... a change like that might only take a moment.)

[kwukduck]

A setting to enter a custom server address would be nice too i think. Or some other way to get my bitcoins out when the program no longer works.
Right now if the server goes down for whatever reason, my bitcoins become unusable unless i grab the source, edit it, recompile it, install it, import my wallet. Also the stuff with the server is probably very complex?

[P4man]

You can backup your wallet, which contains your private key, and import it in any other client. Its already possible (though tricky with the current official client). You dont rely on the server.

[Jan]

it seems to crash consistently when it runs in the background for a while. I've sent a report.

I can reproduce this now.
Root cause: On android devices apps may be resumed on any activity (screen) when they have been sent to the background. I knew that, but what I didn't know is that the app's process may be killed entirely and its resources reclaimed by the OS AND then the app may be resumed in any activity it was in before going into the background.

On low end devices this apparently happens all the time when you put the app into the background and start another app or two. I am pretty sure this is what you observe. Basically this means that the app needs to be able to re-initialize on any activity. I have a fix in mind, but it may take a week or two before I get it in. Please be patient.

Version 0.4.5b is out which fixes the re-initialization issue reported by vuce (thanks).

Update details:
This is a bug fix upgrade that addresses the two remaining known BitcoinSpinner bugs:

• Fix for re-initialization bug that occurs after BitcoinSpinner's process/resources have been reclaimed by the OS. BitcoinSpinner now handles this gracefully on any Activity (screen), meaning that if you send BitcoinSpinner to the background on any screen (Send bitcoins, Transaction history etc) and the OS decides to reclaim the process to make room for other processes, then the app re-initializes properly and shows the right screen when you bring it to the foreground again.
• Fix for the "have network connection but not internet connection bug". Sometimes you have connection to a wi-fi network that does not allow you to reach the internet. This is for instance the case in many hotels where you are redirected to a web-page where you have to accept some terms or pay money to get internet access. Previously this caused BitcoinSpinner to block during initialization forever, showing a black screen.

Since these were the remaining two bugs I can concentrate on address book and PIN enhancements. If you find any other issues or the update for some reason does not fix these issues please post in this thread.

By the way, you should try out the Donation feature in BitcoinSpinner, which is reachable when you choose options on the main screen. It hasn't been tested much 

[BTCurious]

By the way, you should try out the Donation feature in BitcoinSpinner, which is reachable when you choose options on the main screen. It hasn't been tested much 

Ahahaha, fair enough man, have some reward

[realnowhereman]

Since these were the remaining two bugs I can concentrate on address book and PIN enhancements. If you find any other issues or the update for some reason does not fix these issues please post in this thread.

On transaction history, all "received from" entries show my bitcoinspinner address rather than the true "received from" address.

If I had to guess I would say that you've accidentally set it to show the "to" field for both "send" and "receive" type records.  It should be "to" for "sends" and "from" for "receiveds".

[realnowhereman]

By the way, you should try out the Donation feature in BitcoinSpinner, which is reachable when you choose options on the main screen. It hasn't been tested much 

I thought that 0.005 went to the server operator for larger transactions?

[Jan]

Since these were the remaining two bugs I can concentrate on address book and PIN enhancements. If you find any other issues or the update for some reason does not fix these issues please post in this thread.

On transaction history, all "received from" entries show my bitcoinspinner address rather than the true "received from" address.

If I had to guess I would say that you've accidentally set it to show the "to" field for both "send" and "receive" type records.  It should be "to" for "sends" and "from" for "receiveds".

Previously the transaction history showed "Received from" and then the receiving address (not the sending address), which was a bug . Now it displays "Received with" and still the receiving address.

Displaying the receiving address (your bitcoin address) when receiving coins reflects how the satoshi client shows transaction records. The reason why this was chosen is probably that often there are many sending addresses containing fractions of BTC that are sent to one receiving address. I could change it to show all the sending addresses, but I am afraid this will clutter the UI. Instead I am thinking about letting the user click a transaction to see all the details.

[Jan]

By the way, you should try out the Donation feature in BitcoinSpinner, which is reachable when you choose options on the main screen. It hasn't been tested much 

I thought that 0.005 went to the server operator for larger transactions?

No unfortunately not 
BitcoinSpinner is totally free, and depending on donations. The 0.0005 BTC fee (less than a cent) goes to the miner who includes your transaction in a block.
Some Bitcoin nodes (depending on which version they run) will not forward your transaction unless it contains a 0.0001 BTC fee per 1000 bytes of transaction size (or the input for the transactions are 'old'). Some miners (depending on software version etc) will not include your transaction in a block unless it contains a 0.0005 BTC fee per 1000 bytes of transaction size.
More info on transaction fee calculations here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51081.0

The fee structure is there not only to give the miners an incentive to mine, but also (and importantly) to avoid that someone floods the network with microscopic transactions. If you have to pay 0.0005 BTC for each transaction a flood attack will cost you real money.

[realnowhereman]

Since these were the remaining two bugs I can concentrate on address book and PIN enhancements. If you find any other issues or the update for some reason does not fix these issues please post in this thread.

On transaction history, all "received from" entries show my bitcoinspinner address rather than the true "received from" address.

If I had to guess I would say that you've accidentally set it to show the "to" field for both "send" and "receive" type records.  It should be "to" for "sends" and "from" for "receiveds".

Previously the transaction history showed "Received from" and then the receiving address (not the sending address), which was a bug . Now it displays "Received with" and still the receiving address.

I have the absolute latest version installed, 0.4.4b, and it says "Received from:" and shows my own wallet address, not the address of the sender.  It is in no way the "received from".  It's also not useful: I know my address, I want to know who originated the transaction.  Perhaps this is a problem because there can be multiple sending addresses ... okay, but if there is only one, show that (as most of the time it is).  Or at least change it to "received by" or "received to".

[Jan]

Since these were the remaining two bugs I can concentrate on address book and PIN enhancements. If you find any other issues or the update for some reason does not fix these issues please post in this thread.

On transaction history, all "received from" entries show my bitcoinspinner address rather than the true "received from" address.

If I had to guess I would say that you've accidentally set it to show the "to" field for both "send" and "receive" type records.  It should be "to" for "sends" and "from" for "receiveds".

Previously the transaction history showed "Received from" and then the receiving address (not the sending address), which was a bug . Now it displays "Received with" and still the receiving address.

I have the absolute latest version installed, 0.4.4b, and it says "Received from:" and shows my own wallet address, not the address of the sender.  It is in no way the "received from".  It's also not useful: I know my address, I want to know who originated the transaction.  Perhaps this is a problem because there can be multiple sending addresses ... okay, but if there is only one, show that (as most of the time it is).  Or at least change it to "received by" or "received to".

The latest version is 0.4.5b

[vuce]

The fix seems to be working, no crashes since the update.

[realnowhereman]

On transaction history, all "received from" entries show my bitcoinspinner address rather than the true "received from" address.

If I had to guess I would say that you've accidentally set it to show the "to" field for both "send" and "receive" type records.  It should be "to" for "sends" and "from" for "receiveds".

Previously the transaction history showed "Received from" and then the receiving address (not the sending address), which was a bug . Now it displays "Received with" and still the receiving address.

I have the absolute latest version installed, 0.4.4b, and it says "Received from:" and shows my own wallet address, not the address of the sender.  It is in no way the "received from".  It's also not useful: I know my address, I want to know who originated the transaction.  Perhaps this is a problem because there can be multiple sending addresses ... okay, but if there is only one, show that (as most of the time it is).  Or at least change it to "received by" or "received to".

The latest version is 0.4.5b

It is now... yesterday it wasn't.  However, I've just upgraded again and it now shows "received with".

I don't know if you're a native English speaker or not, but the phrasing is a little weird.  "with" isn't the right preposition.  "to" or "by" would be better (i think "by" in this case).  "with" is to describe the thing that did the receiving, not the destination.  So "received with bitcoinspinner" might be reasonable but "received with <bitcoin address>" is a bit off.

It's not a major issue; just in case you care; and just in case the above is helpful.