Running HSTouch in background - always connected

[lj502]

I see alot of talk about keeping HSTouch running and connected so I got this started, without this setup I'm not sure I would use my system as I do. This is a simple guide to Jailbreaking and setting your device to run HSTouch in the background and stay connected.

First, go into Itunes a perform a backup of you Iphone, Ipod, or Ipad
Plug in your device and let Itunes recognize it, right click on your device name and choose backup.

You will need a program called Absinthe 2.0 ( http://greenpois0n.com/ ) has directions for downloading and usage.

After you have Jailbroken your device you can now open Cydia (an app store of sorts, used for installing and removing your jailbreak apps) and install a few apps.

Backgrounder - Used to force apps to stay running in background

SBSettings - a utilty to turn system settings on and off quickly

PreventSleep - Used to keep you wifi connection alive

Nolockscreen - Used to bypass the slide to unlock screen (not neccessary but very useful)

There are hundreds of other reasons to Jailbreak but with these installed your HStouch will become much more usefull, and your SPeaker client still plays even if your phone is asleep.

I will add so mre info about settings for each app.

John

[lj502]

Backgrounder is the app that will force HSTouch to stay running as if it was "on top" After it is installed you need to set up a rule for HSTouch with instructions on how it will run. Open Backgrounder and select "Overrides" then select "Add" in the right top of screen, select HSTouch from App list and then select "Forced" for method and select "Enable at Launch" to have it automatically start with Backgrounder enabled then select "Stay Enabled" to keep it running and finally select "Badge" to let you know HSTouch is still running from your home screen. When inside HSTouch you can disable Backgrounding by holding the device's home button down untill it disables and shuts HSTouch down, I rarely even shut it down, it just reconnects if
I leave my home (loose wifi) and return.

John

[mwaite]

This is a great post! Appreciated!

One question though if you know, my company's Exchange Server requires the iPhone to have "Auto-Lock" enabled otherwise emails won't be permitted. Is there any problem with jail-breaking the iPhone with this type of rule, or any other possible complication?

[lj502]

Mike, I don't think it will affect anything as you do not have to set it up to bypass your lock screen, but my phone is still setup to autolock after 1 min, the NoLockScreen app does not alter the way your phone locks it just removes the swipe to unlock screen and goes straight to your springboard. When you install Backgrounder and SBSettings another tool named Activator is installed to give you accesss to system settings or to change what your home button or others do while in or out of apps, think taking a photo with the volume up button but only while in that particular app. Any changes made after jailbreaking are easily toggled on or off in SBSettings which makes it very easy to test out differant configs.
Let me khow if this makes any sense to you.

John

[lj502]

SBSettings is one the most usefull apps out there for adjusting or toggling system settings. Once installed a simple swipe from left to right across the info bar at the top of your screen drops down a menu that has one touch icons for toggling on and off things like wifi, airplane mode, bluetooth, screen brightness, and new settings like installed through jailbreaking such as NoLockScreen or PreventSleep, really almost any function. It also alows you to hide icons you may not want, on my Ipods I have wall mounted the only icons are HSTouch and IPeng, no way to do any damage or any reason to mess with with it. I have another app I use with this that allows you change settings based on time of day of location, I'll list that also.

John

[mwaite]

Mike, I don't think it will affect anything as you do not have to set it up to bypass your lock screen, but my phone is still setup to autolock after 1 min, the NoLockScreen app does not alter the way your phone locks it just removes the swipe to unlock screen and goes straight to your springboard. When you install Backgrounder and SBSettings another tool named Activator is installed to give you accesss to system settings or to change what your home button or others do while in or out of apps, think taking a photo with the volume up button but only while in that particular app. Any changes made after jailbreaking are easily toggled on or off in SBSettings which makes it very easy to test out differant configs.
Let me khow if this makes any sense to you.

John

OK, sounds pretty benign. Thanks John!

[Guest]

I remember using backgrounder on IOS 3

[drozwood90]

That's about the jist of what I did with my ipods! Great write-up!

Now if you could only get something like that to work for Android! Everything I've tried, including the RAM Manager Pro just does not work for my phone. It is too aggressive with the way it managers things.

I'm almost to the point of setting up a recurring event in Tasker to just bring HSTouch to the foreground every few minutes.

--Dan

[cheaha]

Ok. This does seem to keep the application fully active with ONE glaring exception. In my testing on 5.0.1 is does NOT allow for TTS. I can send a message to the speaker when the app has focus, but when it is backgrounded nothing happens. I have verified that the app is truly active in the background (forced), and that the connection to HS has not been dropped.

To me this is the entire point of keeping the connection active, otherwise what is the point? My hopes are to reproduce the option available on android, which is to have my phone capable of speaking any hs.speak events whenever they occur even when the app doesn't have focus. Has anyone gotten this to work on iOS?

I see that in the description of this thread that you describe having hspeak work even when the phone is screen off, but this has not been my experience. What am I missing here?

iOS 5.0.1, backgrounder enabled for HSTouch in forced mode.

[bobsegal]

Has any body got this working

Did anyone get this working with IOS 5.1.1
would like to remove a notebook the runs the speaker client for Caller ID.

[bobsegal]

New jailbreak for version 7 and backgrounder WORKS

With the latest ios verion 7.x and the new jailbreak i now have iPad running Hstouch in the background and TTS sounds working. Use latest Background Manager ($0.99).

[Automated]

Yep, been running mine this way since the early days. I can't stand this whole HSTouch setup without it. There are also some other nice things you can do, like changing the app to be launched from another app, and such through the URL schemes. I have no idea why they neglected to implement such basic features, but at least we have the workarounds. Just don't lose your jailbreak during a period where no one has figured out the jailbreak for said newest version.

[rayhurst]

First let me say I am completely new to HSTouch. I had HS2 and I recently installed a new system with HS3PRO, added some devices and events. I got HSTouch setup on iPhone 5S with iOS 7.x and it seemed to work fine. But after a while when I take my phone out again and try to open HSTouch, it just hangs and will not load. Then I have to forcequit HSTouch and relaunch once or twice before it reconnects and works again. Is this normal behavior?

After reading several threads, it seems like others have trouble with HSTouch staying connected, but since this seems like the most basic of functionality I can't believe this is normal. Is it?