Protocol documentation

InputStick protocol documentation is finally available for download. "Security" chapter will be added sometime in December.

USB Remote v1.14

New features introduced in 1.14 version:

• Danish keyboard layout.
• Screen orientation can now be locked in portrait, landscape mode or set to auto (default).

Most new changes are related to "Text" tab:

• "Type automatically" option - after completing Scan, Speech or Copy from clipboard action, text will be automatically typed.
• "Auto enter" - Enter key will be pressed after each typing action.
• "Continuous scanning mode" - after completing QR/barcode scanning action, text will be immediately typed and next scan will be automatically launched. This will repeat until user uses "Back" action to return from scanning. This option will make scanning a lot of QR/barcodes way faster than before. Also, locking screen in landscape mode will prevent from constant orientation changes.

USB Remote v1.13

• Added: United Kingdom, Finnish, Hebrew, German (Mac), Italian, Swiss (DE & FR) keyboard layouts - it turns out that for some languages, Mac computers use slightly different keyboard layout. Note about Hebrew and Swiss (DE) layouts: SGCap mechanism is not yet supported, some characters won't be available.

• Added "function" ("Fn") keys screen - can be accessed from both custom and system keyboard screens. 

• Fixed performance issue (custom keyboard) - due to a bug, screen was refreshed 20 times a second, instead of only when necessary. This caused performance problems on slower devices.

• Added non-US backslash key (custom keyboard, depends on selected layout) - this key will only appear when it is present in currently selected keyboard layout.

• Fixed special characters problem for some non-US layouts (system keyboard) - sometimes US layout was used instead of currently selected layout.

Additional key "non-US backslash" will now appear in some keyboard layouts (like German). Use "Fn" button to access function keys activity.

Function keys activity.

USB Remote v1.12

Update will be available via Google Play in a few hours. Here's list of new features and improvements:

• Added: French, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish keyboard layouts - this is a result of using latest version of InputStickAPI. At the same time it solved some other problems (more info here).

• Mousepad can be displayed when system keyboard is used - you must adjust its height manually, depending on your screen resolution and how much space is occupied by your virtual keyboard (make sure that mouse buttons are not covered by the keyboard). Note: some virtual keyboards can block access to other UI elements when in landscape mode. Looks like nothing can be done about this problem.

System keyboard with mousepad enabled.

 

New settings for system keyboard.

UI elements inside red outline are blocked by the virtual keyboard!

• Auto fullscreen and auto leave fullscreen options - these options will make it a bit easier and faster to use system keyboard in fullscreen mode. If you use system keyboard option (instead of custom keyboard) you should definitely give it a try.

• Tips messages - brief tips messages will be displayed in various places. Each message will be displayed only once. There is also a button which will immediately disable all tips messages.

• Added info dialog about required hardware - looks like a lot of people expect this app to work over USB cable, without even reading two sentences of app description. Well, I guess that the name can be misleading after all, so I hope that the new info dialog will help at least a bit. This message will be displayed only once.

• Minor UI modifications - new toggle buttons, "inputstick.com" button, some changes in Settings screen (keyboard options are now spitted between custom and system keyboard).

New API (September)

New API is now available here: download. Here's list of what's new:

• more keyboard layouts:

French ("fr-FR"),
German ("de-DE"),
Norwegian ("nb-NO"),
Polish ("pl-PL"),
Portuguese (Brazilian) ("pt-BR"),
Russian ("ru-RU"),
Slovak ("sk-SK"),
Spanish ("es-ES"),
Swedish ("sv-SE"),
US/English ("en-US"),
US/English (Dvorak) ("en-DV"),

• fixed problem with: "<", ">" and "|" characters missing from some layouts,
• "deadkeys" are now properly supported
  

New API

Latest InputStick API is now available here.

Previous API-related posts:

API & Demos,

Keyboard layouts.

What's new in latest release of InputStickUtility (GooglePlay update will be available within next few hours):

• Firmware upgrade to v0.93,
• Reminds to update firmware, if new version is available.

Most important new features introduced in latest version of InputStick API:

• fixed buffer-related problems (slow typing speed, missing characters), which could occur under some conditions,
• supports new features introduced in latest firmware (v0.93),
• OnEmptyBufferListener,
• it is now possible to get error code and message,
• Dialog, which will ask user to download InputStickUtility, if it is not installed,
• available keyboard layouts: Dvorak (en-DV), English (en-US), German (de-DE), Polish (pl-PL), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt-BR), Russian (ru-RU), Slovak (sk-SK),
• new demo: TypeTextFile.

Although all API and firmware versions should be compatible with each other, it is recommended to upgrade to the latest available versions.

MainActivity of TypeTextFile  demo app, which shows most of new API features.

InputStickUtility 1.1

New version of InputStickUtility will be available on GooglePlay in a few hours. Here's a list of what's new in this release:

• Bug fixes,
• UI modifications,
• Firmware upgrade (v0.92),
• Security options (AES-128 based encryption and authentication),
• Status Bar notifications,
• Change Log.

As you can see, now you can upgrade firmware of your InputStick to the latest version: 0.92, which (finally) provides most important security features: data encryption, password protection and allows to remove password protection if necessary (more on that later).

Some of this features were already available in previous version, which was not released on GooglePlay.

UI modifications.

Main list looks a bit different now.

You can display full list of options after clicking on "More" button.

New status window, you can also see that now there are Status Bar notifications.

Firmware upgrade.

You can upgrade firmware of your InputStick to the most recent version: 0.92, which will allow to use password protection and encryption. The upgrade process is very simple and takes just a few seconds: make sure that InputStick is plugged into USB port, open Firmware Upgrade activity and press "Flash" button.

Security options.

Let's take a look at security options now:

In most cases you'll need only "Set/Remove device & app password" button. When setting password, it is possible to also store plain text version, but it is recommended only if your Android device is already protected by lock screen pattern or similar mechanism. 

If you are using your InputStick with more than one Android device, you'll need to provide the same password for all of them. In this scenario you must use "Set app password" button. In such case having plain text version stored might come in handy: you can simply display your password using "Display app password" button.

Last but not least: there is always a possibility that you will forget the password, and it won't be possible to recover it because:

• there is no plain text version stored,
• you lost your smartphone,
• application data was erased

In such case, the only way to remove password protection from InputStick is to restore it to factory defaults.

Restore defaults.

Restore procedure is a compromise between making it easy for the user to remove password protection when necessary and at the same time preventing other people form exploiting it. In order to successfully perform restore procedure following conditions must be met:

• InputStick must be plugged into USB port,
• you must have access to PC's keyboard,
• you must be able to remove InputStick from the USB port,
• restore procedure takes at least 10 minutes.

I assume that if someone can already physically access your PC and USB ports, then the possibility that he/she may remove password protection form your InputStick should be the least of you problems.

Once restore procedure is started, you'll be asked to set specific state of keyboard LEDs (NumLock, CapsLock and ScrollLock). Every 60 seconds the state of LEDs will be verified. If it is correct, the procedure will advance to next step. To make things clear, state of each LED is marked with green (correct state) or red color (you must toggle the LED):

After completing all 10 steps, password protection is removed. But it is not over yet! InputStick must be removed from USB port before you can use it again.

If state of LEDs is not correct during check event, restore procedure will be terminated and you must start over again!