Read your text messages while you play games on a Nexus One

Arduino Computers & Mobile
Read your text messages while you play games on a Nexus One

follower, the creator of the Handbag “Android Arduino Accessorizer”, wrote in with this excellent use of Android’s Open Accessory API, Arduino, and an LCD screen:

The Android App is invisible and starts automatically when you connect the accessory. (You probably need to approve the running of the application within a few seconds or the accessory may time out.) A background service is started which displays a notification of the accessory found, listens for new text messages and starts sending the current time to the accessory for display. You can use your phone as normal while the service is running in the background.

When the accessory is disconnected the notification is removed and the background service cleans up after itself before stopping.

Dual-screen Nexus One by follower

12 thoughts on “Read your text messages while you play games on a Nexus One

  1. Matt Richardson says:

    I’m a happy iPhone user, but seeing what people can do with Android and the Open Accessory API is very enticing to me. Anyone out there make the switch?

  2. Gregg says:

    Is Make’s blog following Hack a Day? I have that here:
    http://hackaday.com/2011/07/01/external-text-display-for-nexus-one/

    1. Anonymous says:

      Hi Gregg, I’m not sure what you mean. I do read Hack a Day, but follower (the author of this project) wrote me to let me know about it. If I’d learned about it from Hack a Day, I certainly would have added a [via] link to credit them properly!

      1. Gregg says:

        Oh okay. What I meant then is that I saw the exact same thing on Hack A Day. So I was confused. Sometimes they get their tips from reading the Make blog. I understand your comment about crediting them.

        1. Anonymous says:

          Thanks, Gregg. Yeah, sometimes we get stories from one another, and sometimes makers will write in to both sites to let us know about something awesome they’ve done.

  3. Gregg says:

    Is Make’s blog following Hack a Day? I have that here:
    http://hackaday.com/2011/07/01/external-text-display-for-nexus-one/

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I'm a tinkerer and finally reached the point where I fix more things than I break. When I'm not tinkering, I'm probably editing a book for Maker Media.

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