I want to know when the Nexus 4 is available again. So I decided to hack together a script to email me (and a friend) when it launches. I'm relying on Google removing the words "Sold out". As I said, it's a hack. Alternatively, I guess I could have stored a snapshot of the page's source code and compared for changes.

#!/usr/bin/python
#Script by Rishab Arora (spacetime)
from urllib import urlopen
import smtplib
import logging

sender = 'my.email.id@gmail.com'
recipients = ['me@gmail.com', 'friend@abc.com', 'someone@gmail.com']
subject = 'Nexus 4 back in stock!'
body = 'Check Google Play Store!'
contents = urlopen("https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_16gb").read()

if contents.find("buy-hardware-button") != -1: #Found magic button!
    message = "\r\n".join(["From: " + sender,
                           "Subject: " + subject,
                           "To: " + ", ".join(recipients),
                           "MIME-Version: 1.0",
                           "Content-Type: text/html",
                           body])
    try:
        session = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
        session.ehlo()
        session.starttls()
        session.login('my.email.id@gmail.com', 'secretpassword')
        session.sendmail(sender, recipients, message)
        session.quit()
    except Exception:
        print logging.exception('')

Added this in my crontab:

*/5 * * * * python /home/spacetime/nexus.py

Which basically runs the script every 5 minutes (Too much? ) on my US-based VPS.

Important: Do test the script at least once if you are using Gmail's SMTP server! One way you can test the script is by changing

if contents.find("buy-hardware-button") != -1:

to

if contents.find("buy-hardware-button") == -1:

And running it. An easier (and more accurate) way would be to change the URL to, say, Nexus 7 16 GB. (Remember to chmod +x) The first time you run it, you will see something resembling:

SMTPAuthenticationError: (535, '5.7.1 Please log in with your web browser and then try again. Learn more at\n5.7.1 https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answe
r.py?answer=78754 abcdefgh.4')

Log into your account from a browser and there will be a notification at the top with steps on how to allow the script to work.

Edit 1: The script now looks for "buy-hardware-button" which appears when you can buy stuff. Thanks to Anarcie on reddit.

Edit 2: I can add a few names to my script, fill this Google Form

Edit 3: Yes, I realize the script spams you till I switch it off. That's a design decision. ;) I want my phone to keep ringing till I read it. You can mark the email as spam when you're done and it won't bother you. About 150 people on the alert list! =)

If you like/hate it or notice any problems, please leave a comment!!!

If you wish to see the sendmail version I'm using: click here for the github gist.