Please note that as reported on the Xbox blog, changes are coming to xbox.com in the next few days which may break Spark 360 for a time (as that’s where Spark gets its information). I’ll do my best to keep the app’s brokenness period to a minimum, but depending on the changes, it may be a while before an update will be available for download from Market. When that happens, I’ll post an update here.
UPDATE It has happened (11/10/11). Please be patient
Since the release of Trophies over a year ago, Spark 360 and Trophies have been completely standalone applications – yet for the last couple of months, I’ve been wanting to streamline their operation, to somehow allow the two to access each other’s data transparently, but securely. Today’s releases do just that – for those who have both Trophies and 360 installed, either application can manage the other’s accounts – view, add, edit, or delete them. To get most functionality, please make sure you have the latest versions of both – you can grab Spark 360 v4.00 and Spark Trophies v2.50 from Android Market.
Joystiq and Ars have recently reported of a spate of Xbox Live hacks which revolve around stolen points, changed passwords, and, oddly enough, FIFA games. While I have no idea if these are related my earlier post, and no additional information seems to be available about the “FIFA” hacks, I would like to take this moment to mention again the importance of using good passwords and being wary of pirated software. The legitimate versions of Spark Trophies and Spark 360 do not funnel your account information – they communicate solely with PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, respectively, and are therefore about as secure as your phone’s web browser.
I’ve been working on proper tablet (Honeycomb) support in Spark for a while now, and while the work is still not complete, here’s a sneak preview of the first release.
So why no release yet? I’ve largely been struggling with the new lifecycle model of Fragments – the modular views introduced in Honeycomb. While the model is not very different from the usual, when dual-pane views, tabs and device rotation are thrown into the mix, things become somewhat problematic – panes occasionally get out of sync, resulting in all sorts of annoying visual glitches. This, coupled with the fact that Google still refuses to release Honeycomb source makes figuring things out.. difficult, at best.
In any case, I’m still working on it, and while I still don’t have a release date, do expect a bugfix release within the next week. Among other things, there should be a fix for the Xbox Server Status tool.
The Xbox Live/Windows Marketplace merger came and went without any serious issues – a minor change broke “Last played date” in Game History, resulting in all games having been last played almost 40 years before an Xbox 360 would become available (this was addressed in a fix shortly thereafter). Another change that several of you may have noticed is reordering of the “Compare Games” list – opponent’s games are now listed in alphabetical order – for privacy reasons no doubt.
Anyway, “coverflow”, not dissimilar to that of the NXE is coming to the next Spark 360 release. The feature will be optional, enabled in landscape mode for friends by default.
Coverflow
And finally, not related to me, but still worth mentioning is fMSX for Android - Marat has released fMSX for Froyo and Gingerbread.
As various game sites have already reported, Windows Marketplace will be merging with Xbox.com next week, July 11th. Depending on the magnitude of the change, this may cause temporary problems for Spark, as Spark 360 parses Xbox.com for its information. If you notice errors with the application around next Monday, please hang in there – I will try to address them as quickly as possible.
In the near future, look forward to considerable additions for both Spark 360 and Spark Trophies. Trophies will see the release first, and should include various new features that have been sorely missing. While 360′s new features are slightly more low-key, I imagine they will be welcomed as well.
Finally, Spark 360 has been reviewed for the next release of Android Tips, Tricks & Apps, published by the same company that is responsible for my favorite magazine, Retro Gamer. As far as I know, this is the first time Spark 360 will appear in print, so it’s a pretty big milestone. Until the “bookazine” is released in August, you can read the review here – it’s an overwhelmingly positive one 
I apologize for the lack of weblog updates lately. Time for side projects has been steadily dwindling as of late, and even something as basic as throwing together a couple of descriptive lines on a website seems to require time I can’t much afford.
Since the last post, there have been at least two or three updates to Spark Trophies and Spark 360 – I haven’t posted about them here, because Android Market already does a decent job at notifying users of new updates. I will most likely stop posting about each and every update here – I will, however, randomly post on stuff of interest, as I’m about to do.
A new Spark 360 update adds a few improvements to the Friends list and message viewer, specifically:
Friends list improvements
I'm also a pretty big fan of classic computing, chiptunes and video games (which are the reason I got into computer programming to begin with).
This weblog was initially dedicated to my PSP emulator porting efforts; it has since been expanded to include my Android projects, and may also be used to detail other programming exploits.
Latest PSP releases