Ever since Google announced it was buying Motorola, industry watchers have speculated if Google was going to make Android a proprietary/closed source platform exclusively for Motorola's devices. That will never happen and here's why.

The Financial Perspective: Revenues & Gross Margins

Open Source Strategy

Comparison of Revenues & Gross Margins

Google's Options

1) Sell Motorola's Hardware Business

2) Hold on to Motorola for now

Hello everyone…

In today’s tutorial I will show you how to create a custom toggle button in android. Often in our applications we don’t need a default toggle button, so I will show you how to change that to make a toggle button according to your need.

First I will create a fresh project named “CustomToggleButton” and name the main activity “CustomToggleButtonDemo”.

Now These are the two images that I am using to create the toggle button.

First the layout file main.xml that contains the toggle button.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/hello"
    />
<ToggleButton
	android:background="@drawable/btn_toggle_bg"
	style="@style/OurThemeName"
	android:checked="true"
	android:id="@+id/ToggleButton01"
	android:layout_width="wrap_content"
	android:layout_height="wrap_content">
</ToggleButton>

</LinearLayout>

This will create a toggle button.

Now we will make an xml that contains the resource definition that applies when the button toggles and the background of the button.
We will make the button background transparent and for toggle action we will create another xml that contains the “on” and “off” resource for the button.

Create a new file inside the drawable folder and name it “btn_toggle_bg.xml” and copy this code to it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+android:id/background" android:drawable="@android:color/transparent" />
    <item android:id="@+android:id/toggle" android:drawable="@drawable/btn_toggle" />
</layer-list>

Now create another xml inside the drawable folder and name it “btn_toggle.xml” and it contains …

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_checked="true" android:drawable="@drawable/add_icon" />
    <item android:state_checked="false" android:drawable="@drawable/delete_icon" />
</selector>

This means that when the button is on(true) the image will be “add_icon.png” and when “off” the image will be “delete_icon.png”.

Now we are going to write a theme that is to be applied to the toggle button that overrides the default android theme.

Create a new file called “themes.xml” inside the strings folder and copy this code to it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- Overwrite the ToggleButton style -->
<style name="Widget.Button.Toggle" parent="android:Widget">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/btn_toggle_bg</item>
    <item name="android:textOn">Add</item>
    <item name="android:textOff">Del</item>
    <item name="android:disabledAlpha">?android:attr/disabledAlpha</item>
</style>

<style name="OurThemeName"  parent="@android:Theme.Black">
    <item name="android:buttonStyleToggle">@style/Widget.Button.Toggle</item>
      <item name="android:textOn"></item>
    <item name="android:textOff"></item>
</style>
</resources>

Please look at the main.xml file where this theme has been applied.

Here

<ToggleButton
	android:background="@drawable/btn_toggle_bg"
	<strong>style="@style/OurThemeName" </strong>
	android:checked="true"
	android:id="@+id/ToggleButton01"
	android:layout_width="wrap_content"
	android:layout_height="wrap_content">
</ToggleButton>

OK now our custom toggle button is ready. Go on and run it.

Actually we dont need the activity java file because everything can be done in the xml itself.

In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it seems that at least one customer ordering an HTC Amaze 4G from T-Mobile.com has been alerted that shipments of the device have been delayed "due to an unforeseen issue with receiving the product from the manufacturer." It looks like T-Mobile is sending out emails to customers informing them that  they have no "estimate as to when the product will be available," and suggesting that customers explore other options in the meantime.

Of course, with the recent shipment halt of AT&T's One X and Sprint's Evo 4G LTE, one is tempted to speculate that this delay may be due to HTC's current patent spat with Apple, but no one (outside T-Mobile or HTC) knows if that's the case just yet.

Official Android Police t-shirts are now on sale, with over 25 designs to call yours.

• Sprint Officially Confirms That The EVO 4G LTE Launch Is Delayed Due To US Customs, Provides Pre-Order Cancellation Options
• United States Customs Halts HTC One X And EVO 4G LTE Shipments At Ports Pending "Investigation" Of Apple Patent Claims
• Verizon Shipping Bug – A Few HTC Incredibles Shipped Early
• HTC Amaze 4G (Formerly Known As Ruby) Is Official, Packing "Advanced Camera" Features And More
• LG Ally Delayed Until May 27

Orders For T-Mobile's HTC Amaze 4G Delayed, Possibly Due to Apple Patent Dispute was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Recently, we talked about the Google Play Music deauthorization issue. For those who aren’t aware, users of Google Music signed in randomly one day and could no longer deauthorize accounts on their Google Music. While this wouldn’t be a big deal for most unrooted users, for root users—and especially flashaholics like yours truly—this is was a pretty big deal, as users were finding that with every new ROM flash, Google would add a device to the authorization list. Once full, users used to be able to deauthorize the duplicate or unneeded devices. However, Google limited deathorization, much to the dismay of its active root users.

Much like Facebook a few weeks ago, Google realized that they upset many users and have since eased up on device deauthorization. This allows rooted users to use Google Music as they had before this policy took affect. While it’s not exactly clear why Google suddenly dropped the new policy after taking the time to explain it to so many angry users, one can only assume it was prompted by massive amounts of music disappearing from their servers and a whole bunch of angry yet-to-be-answered emails. In any case, this short, yet frustrating time in all our lives is over and Google has, presumably, learned its lesson.

Now, if only Motorola would learn from Google, then there’d be some real progress. For now, though, baby steps.

For anyone who wants to check out the discussion of the matter, head on over to the discussion thread.

[Thanks to XDA Senior Member bfspider and Google Plus user James Mason for the heads up!]

Hey kids! Looking for an early taste of the new Touchwiz? Well you're in luck! A leaked Galaxy S III rom is out in all it's bandwidth crushing glory! A whopping 800MB download awaits those eager to get their hands on Samsung's latest.

The Galaxy S III and its new version of Touchwiz will make about a million additions to Android. Somewhere in this download are things like S-Voice (A Siri-style virtual assistant), Pop-up Play (a floating video window), and Smart Stay (which uses the front facing camera to refresh the screen timeout), just to name a few. Developers (and eager bloggers) should start ripping into it immediately.

Official Android Police t-shirts are now on sale, with over 25 designs to call yours.

• Want Touchwiz UX On Your Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Now? No Need To Wait - Flash This
• Samsung's Budget-Minded Galaxy Mini Revealed, Has Froyo - Cue Angry Mob
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Touchwiz UX Update "Coming Soon"
• No Need To Wait, The Motorola Droid RAZR Teaser Photo Was Hidden In Plain Sight
• Samsung Galaxy S Continues World Takeover, Headed To Rogers

Full Galaxy S III Android 4.0.4 ROM Leaked, S-Voice And All The Other Goodies Up For Grabs was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

For the second in our series of XDA Pro Tips, XDA Elite Recognized Developer AdamOutler shows the basics of turning your device into a file server with secure shell (SSH) and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP).

He demonstrates the Google Play application QuickSSHD and offers the free alternative of market application SSHDroid. AdamOutler then goes on to show how to connect to a desktop, the programs used and how to set it up on Linux or Mac while offering Windows users some options as well.

For more information on accessing your Android device using SSH see this article.
Android Server Apps:

• QuickSSHD
• SSHDroid

Windows Desktop Apps (Not required on Linux or Mac):

• putty
• WinSCP
  

Be sure to check out the first Pro Tip and other wonderful and informative episodes on XDA TV. Stay tuned for even more Pro Tips!

Make sure to check out the Samsung Smart App Challenge 2012!

One of the reasons I love my Android tablet is because I can play games on it. Yes, iOS devices have more high-quality titles; and yes, they also usually get games before Android. But still, that’s not to take anything away from Android’s gaming prowess.

Eventually, I believe Android will surpass iOS in terms of gaming – both quantitatively and qualitatively. While we wait for that to happen, here are 4 games that you should look forward to playing on your Android device in the (very) near future.

N.O.V.A. 3

ETA: May 2012

This one is pretty big. From the trailers we’ve been fed with and also reviews from our iDevices toting brethren, this is one monster of a game from Gameloft. For those who loved N.O.V.A. 2, this should naturally be on your gaming list, while for casual gamers, the game ought to be checked out at least for its graphical prowess if anything else.

Bladeslinger

ETA: June 2012

Bladeslinger was supposed to be released before the end of last year. But the developers decided to add more depth and length to the gameplay, so it’s release date has been pushed back by quite a bit. Bladeslinger is another game worth checking out for its amazing graphics once it’s released, and will initially be available for Tegra 3 devices only.

Mass Effect: Infiltrator

ETA: Within 3 months

This game is going to be a favourite for fans of the Mass Effect series since it naturally expands from there, and also for those who played Dead Space as it’s developed by the same studio. Like N.O.V.A 3, it released on iOS first. The iOS version reviews suggest the gameplay is short, but the graphics are nothing less than brilliant.

Max Payne Mobile

ETA: June 2012

The mobile version of the game was supposed to be released before Max Payne 3 was out for PC, but one delay after another has pushed back its release date. The iOS equivalent was out in April, so this is another case where Android has been getting second-class treatment from developers.

Yes, believe it or not dear readers, there are roughly 75,000 people working hard right now to manufacture the Samsung Galaxy S3. If you’ve read the recent report saying that there are 9 million pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S3, you must be wondering whether these people can actually make 9 million units in time for its release? The short answer is yes, they can.

How did we arrive to the said figures? We’ll spare you the horrid details (not to mention the math) and just give you a brief recap of a feature ran by ExtremeTech.com. In the article, Sebastian Anthony uses various statistics from Apple and Samsung to estimate the workforce necessary to churn out the millions of Galaxy S3 phones that the market demands.

Just to give you an idea of how the estimation was made, Anthony starts from the capacity of Foxconn’s production lines, a figure revealed earlier this year in the diary of a worker.

Now applying that with the production line of the Samsung Galaxy S3. Samsung’s factory will at least need 60 production lines to make 5 million units of the Samsung Galaxy S3. That equals to around 38,400 workers. So to make the 9 million units of the phone who are up for pre-orders, then it will require roughly 75,000 people to work on Samsung’s manufacturing plant. And these are the same number of workers who will make Samsung Galaxy S3 units beyond the 9 million pre-orders.

Those are the bare facts about the production of the Samsung Galaxy S3. Those are the number of people who are working so hard to deliver what we have all been waiting for all these months. Hopefully, the working conditions of Samsung workers in Korea are not as bad as the Foxconn employees who make the iPhone.

So by the time you get hold of the Samsung Galaxy S3, think about these people and thank them for their hard work just to make us happy, Samsung Galaxy S3 owners.

NEXT: Report: 9 million units of Samsung Galaxy S3 have been pre-ordered

Samsung Galaxy S3 comes a day early for pre-order customers in the UK Samsung Explains Why the Galaxy S Lineup and Galaxy Tab Did Not Make the ICS Cut

Though Sony’s LT29i Hayabusa has already been sighted in the wild, we’re still in the dark about the phone’s official Xperia branding, at least one that we know of. Unwired View believes that the flagship phone will be named as the Sony Xperia GX, the same phone that DoCoMo just introduced a couple of days ago for the Japanese market.

Sony Xperia GX has similar specs to the LT29i Hayabusa. The phone will ship with a 4.6-inch HD screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 13.2MP rear camera, 1,700mAh battery, and Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. Given the slight difference in specs, it is possible that the LT29i Hayabusa is simply the international version of Sony Xperia GX.

This conclusion was reached after checking out leaked hands-on pictures and video of the Hayabusa, which showed a phone with many similarities to the Xperia GX in looks. Though the phone in question doesn’t seem to carry any DoCoMo branding, we could see hints of DoCoMo in the phone’s menu. Hence, we’ll add a speculation hashtag to the story for now.

Eprice

Regardless of the name, Sony has a winner on its hands judging from the specs of the Hayabusa alone. Apart from the expected combo of dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and Adreno 320 GPU, the phone will come with a 4.55-inch HD Reality display, 13MP rear camera with HDR video recording, and a 2,200 mAh battery in a 7mm casing.

It’s really going to be an interesting second-half of the year with so many manufacturers unleashing their flagship phones. Is the Sony LT29i Hayabusa one of your favorites? Leave your feedback in the comments below!

NEXT: Hayabusa and Tapioca: two new Sony smartphones sighted

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to launch in Japan with NTT DoCoMo Leaked Photos Show Sony Ericsson Xperia duo

Flip a Few Franks in Bush Hot Dog for Android

  George Walker Bush has been known for a lot of things including being our President. Well thanks to Bush Hot Dog from Billiongamee you get to see our ex-president in a whole new light as a Hot Dog Vendor… Bush Hot Dog is a time management game that puts you to work making Hot Dogs in different parts of New York City. The gameplay is similar to Diner Dash where you’ll basically take orders and serve up customers as quickly as possible. As you progress through the game more items will be added to you food cart, and you’ll also have to start having to keep an eye out for thieves; if you see someone quickly move away after getting their food you’ll want to click on them to collect before they get away. Bush Hot Dog lets you sell dawgs’ in 5 different locales ranging from the Bronx to Wall Street, and the developers have stated there’s a “surprise” location thrown in as well. I have no idea what it is, but am hoping we’ll see good old GW selling them overseas or at least in Texas. Verdict Hot Dog Bush is a simple game, but quite a bit of fun with its quirky graphics and quick gameplay. It’s also pretty deep considering as well considering you have to work your way through the week at each location. That being said, the controls could use a little fine tuning as it’s difficult to select the right thing at times, but it’s Bush selling Hot Dogs not Angry Birds Heikki so I can live with it. If you want to sell a few Hot Dogs you can pick up Hot Dog Bush on Google Play for free. Hot Dog Bush

Android Games

Announced at the same time as HTC’s One X flagship Android phone, the smaller One S sits on the top tier of the current HTC line-up as a phone boasting a nice selection of attractive features such as 4.3-inch screen, super-fast dual core processor and the latest Android 4.0 operating system with Sense 4.0 user interface. It certainly ticks all the boxes for what most smartphone customers will be looking for in a new device, but is it just a trimmed-down younger brother to the One X, or does the One S hold it’s own?

;

Price

The HTC One S is available on a 2 year contract from £21 per month. Deals can be compared using uSwitch and directly from O2 who kindly provided the One S and One X for us to play with.

The unlocked / SIM-free handset will cost around £400 at the time of writing.

Phones in Category

The HTC One S joins a shortlist of Android handsets including:

• HTC Sensation XE
• Samsung Galaxy SII
• Sony Xperia S

Highlights

The Good Stuff:

Good screen
Good camera
Build quality
Looks and feels great
Built for Android 4.0

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

Battery – can’t be removed
Micro-SIM will be a pain for some users
No SD card slot
Settings not exactly intuitive for inexperienced users
Rather easy to mark the battery cover

In The Box

HTC One S handset
Wall charger
MicroUSB cable
HTC headset
Quick Start Guide

Handset Tour

Front Face: On the front face is the stylish 4.3-inch screen surrounded by the polycarbonate chassis, with the capacitive buttons for Back, Home and Recent Apps along the bottom. The front speaker and front-facing camera at the top on the front panel built in to the.

Top: Along the top of the One S is the main power button and 3.5mm headphone socket, which looks rather large in such a slim phone. The real panel at the top of the One S can be removed to reveal the Micro-SIM slot.

Left Side: The MicroUSB port in on the left side of the One S, about one third the way down from the top. The position of the port is really well thought out, just like the One X. It means you can comfortably hold and use the phone when the USB cable in plugged in.

Right Side: The volume rocker button is on the right side edge near the top. It’s a low-profile physical button made from the same polycarbonate material as the rest of the chassis and looks nice.

Bottom: Small opening for the microphone. The bottom edge feels really nice in the hand thanks to the smooth rounded edges.

Rear Face: The main camera lens with it’s funky looking metallic red bezel and single LED flash are found top-centre on the rear panel. The main audio speaker is behind a grille along the bottom edge.

Proprietary Apps

Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Calculator, Car, Flashlight, HTC Friend Stream, News & Weather, Navigation, Messages, Email, Task Manager, Voice Recorder

The Display

The One S comes with a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with the same 4.3-inch size as the Sensation and Sensation XE, and has the same 540×960 resolution with around 256 PPI (pixels per inch). With the display turned off, the screen looks very attractive with it’s black, glossy appearance. Turn on the screen and crank up the brightness and you’ll be rewarded with bright, vivid colours that, from a short distance, seem to project out of the screen. The AMOLED technology does mean that whites are ever-so-slightly ‘off-white’, especially when placed side by side with the LCD2 display on the One X, but standing alone there’s little to complain about. Closer inspection reveals some slight pixilation around the edge of curved text which is due to the relatively low (by One X standards) resolution. It wouldn’t win a side-by-side battle with the One X, but it’s certainly far from being a poor screen, as the users of the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy SII will testify.

Android 4.0 & HTC Sense 4.0

HTC have deployed their Sense launcher interface on their Android handsets for a long time now; some love it and some hate it. The main criticism has been that Sense is too bloated – on a software code level there’s too much going on under the hood which can slow things down slightly and take some of the speed and slickness out of the whole process when compared to the stock Android OS underneath. With the launch of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS), Google made their OS slimmer, faster, more powerful and highly functional. The good news is that HTC have done a lot to build on these improvements when creating and implementing their latest launcher, Sense 4.0.

The new launcher comes complete with 7 homescreens that you can flick through by swiping left or right, with the default screen placed in the centre at position 4. Pinch any homescreen and a thumbnail preview of all 7 screens are displayed for fast access, which is useful because there’s no longer an option in the settings to allow the endless scrolling when you reach the last homescreen. Accessing the Personalize settings gives you a great selection of options for customisation of how the phone looks and sounds, from simply changing the wallpaper to adding a complete theme or skin, with the option to download more content from HTC.

Scrolling between the homescreens is fast and nicely animated, but occasionally there seems to be a very slight lag or ‘jitter’ when scrolling between homescreens or pages in the app list. You really wouldn’t notice it unless you used the One S side-by-side with something like the One X, which suffers no noticeable lag whatsoever, but it’s there. In real terms this is something of a non-problem.

The One S shares the same capacitive button layout as the One X, with the biggest change being the lack of a dedicated Search and Menu buttons. The Menu button in particular will cause a little confusion to most experienced Android users at first, as normally the Menu button works differently in context with what is on the screen at the time, and this new arrangement will take time to get used to. The features available via pressing the Menu button are still there, but are handled differently. On the homescreen, the Menu and Settings are found by pulling down the notification bar, and within apps you’ll now see a new icon (3 dots) somewhere on the screen that performs the Menu button action. The problem is that the new Menu icon could be positioned in a different place in each app you use, so it’s a bit less intuitive as the previous method.

The app list is accessed using the familiar button in the middle of the dock icons, and there are a few interesting changes on the One S. The app list now gives you three options for managing the applications on the device labelled as All, Frequent and Downloads, accessed via the three tabs at the bottom of the apps list screen. These options give the user a useful filter when locating apps rather than scrolling through the entire alphabetical app list. At the top of the apps list is the Search button, a direct shortcut to the Play Store, and the new contextual Menu button for managing, sorting and sharing your applications. However, for some strange reason HTC have decided to make the apps list scroll left to right instead of the familiar and intuitive up and down scrolling that’s used in the phone’s Settings menus and in just about every application on the Android platform. It’s a small change, but it can be a little annoying until you become familiar with it.

Camera

The main camera on the One S is very good. In terms of performance and speed, the 8MP snapper can be taken from standby to shooting in less than 2 seconds and almost immediately it’s ready to take the second shot. The quality of the shots is also impressive and indicates that HTC have given a fairly high priority to the camera features on their latest devices. This is a good stance to take considering that most users want to have the ability to take great photos spontaneously without having to carry a dedicated digital camera. Flash duties are handled by a single, super-bright LED and this managed to shed a reasonable amount of light around the environment to capture those low-light images, especially indoors.

The front facing camera is 1.3MP VGA and produces quite good results for video calling or those essential self portrait shots! Obviously the quality can’t match the main snapper but it’s fit for purpose and works well.

But there are a couple of negative points (no pun intended). The inclusion of an on-screen shutter button rather than a hardware button on the edge of the case is a shame, which can be a bit fiddly to operate at times. There’s also a flip side to the cameras ability to take super fast shots in that the auto-focus often didn’t have time to set itself up correctly, resulting in a blurred image. Blur was also occasionally present on shots involving movement. These issues are common to practically all digital cameras so it simply highlights the need to try to compose each shot as good as you can to get the best results. A fast snap isn’t always a good quality snap.

Camera Gallery

Here’s a sample gallery taken using the One S showing the range of filters included within the HTC ImageSense camera software as standard. The first photo has no filter, and then the pics had the filter applied to the shot before each photo was taken.

Photographs below were taken in bright / slightly overcast conditions with the primary camera in the default settings with no effects or filters applied:

The One S shares the same easy-to-navigate on screen menu system, giving you quick access to the most commonly required features and settings within one or two taps of the screen. Features such as the flash mode, filters and shooting mode are instantly available, while a comprehensive range of set-up options are available a little deeper inside the menus.

One of the nicest shooting modes is Panorama (see below) which provides on-screen directions for moving the camera around a fixed point and the One S takes a series of 5 separate photos and combines them together into a single shot. Click the photo to see the original image.

VIDEO

The camera quality extends to the One S’s video capabilities too. The phone can be made ready for shooting very quickly – as fast as the still camera in fact – because they both share the same main camera screen. You simply choose camera or video before you take the shot. Most users will be more than happy with the 720p HD default option for video shoots, if for no other reason than to keep the saved file size to a minimum! But 1080p Full HD is also included, and both options produced rather nice footage. Image stabilisation was good rather than great and the final quality is quite dependant on the user holding the One S steady as much as possible.

The following video was shot in 720p using the default camera settings, in the same bright / overcast conditions as the still photos above:

Music

As mentioned earlier, HTC have done a good job of improving the camera and camera software to meet the needs of today’s snap-happy smartphone users, and the same kind of philosophy seems to have carried over to the audio preparation on the One S.

There are a number of music related apps pre-installed on the One S, and these can all be found in a handy music ‘hub’, which is accessed by tapping the Music icon from the apps list.

My Phone takes you to the familiar music player app that contains all the music and audio files on your device, with easy to use controls for playback and navigating through your collection. The 7digital online music store lets you purchase and download new content directly to your phone, while TuneIn Radio gives you access to internet radio and podcast streams. Finally, there’s the SoundHound app which will be familiar to many users already. This app ‘listens’ to any music track you’re listening too – either on the phone itself of from any external source via the microphone – and grabs information about that track from the interwebs. It works really well too, rarely failing to identify things.

The on-board speaker is better than most and, although the sound isn’t very weighty due to the small size, it manages to do a fine job when playing soundtracks from media content such as YouTube videos and gaming effects.

Plug in a set of decent ear buds, however, and things improve significantly. The One S comes with HTC’s now familiar Beats Audio preparation and the overall playback quality through the 3.5mm jack is rather pleasing, whether it’s with a set of £50 Beats Audio buds or a budget £20 set. The HTC branded headset included in the box does an OK job, but they’re uncomfortable to wear for long periods and even a budget third-party headset of the –in-the-ear variety will usually result in improvements.

Unfortunately, there’s also a downside: the storage on the One S simply isn’t good enough for a top-end smartphone where the audio preparation has been implemented so well. Of the 16GB-or-so total storage available to the user, only about 10GB seems to be available for user content (apps excluded), which is too small for many users. And the problem is intensified by the lack of a MicroSD card slot, so there’s nothing that can be done at any price to increase the available storage.

Gaming

You would expect a modern smartphone with a great screen, 1GB of RAM and a 1.5mhz dual-core processor to be more than capable of meeting the needs of the gaming users, and the One S does a fine job. It handled the fast paced mayhem that is Temple Run with no problems at all, and the presentation of graphically stunning yet less GPU stressing games like Angry Birds in the way you’d expect from a handset of this calibre.

Pictures appear crisp and sharp on the screen, and at 4.3-inches there’s enough on-screen real-estate to use the touch controls without covering up too many vital details. The accompanying audio was also well presented thanks to the good quality speaker.

Battery Life

The 1650mAh power cell performed rather well, and did a reasonable job of keeping all the main phone features chugging away for most of the day without needing a top up. Obviously, using the One S for video streaming or gaming had the inevitable effect of draining the battery faster, but under what would be considered ‘normal’ use conditions for a modern smartphone it was quite easy to last all day on a full charge and only plug in when it’s time for bed. Continue with the regular charging arrangements that smartphone users will already have in place and you won’t have any problems at all.

Benchmarks

There’s a good case for not doing benchmark tests these days. If the phone does everything you want it do do, and it does it well, who cares? I doubt many users will purchase Handset A over Handset B simply because handset A has a better benchmark score, but here at Land of Droid we aim to please all our readers so, in the interests of completeness, here’s the AnTuTu scores for the HTC One S:

I carried out 5 tests in total, with the final 3 scores within +/- 40 points of the score in the above screen grabs.

Hints & Tips

The first thing you should seriously consider doing is getting a slim gel case to protect the One S. While it looks and feels excellent in it’s naked form, the rear cover seems susceptible to greasy finger prints and accidental marks from coins, keys and some hard surfaces. Keep it looking perfect, protect your handset.

Final Thoughts

There’s certainly a lot of good things to be said about the HTC One S. When it was announced at the HTC Event alongside the One X, it was tempting to think of this phone as a One X with ‘less’, for the more cost-conscious consumers. After spending time using the One S for my usual daily smartphone tasks, I’m happy to say that those initial thoughts were wrong.

The One S stands it’s ground as a top end handset and, regardless of what the spec sheets say in direct comparison to the One X, it’s hard to find any part of this phone where corners of been cut. It’s got a smaller screen, but the screen is excellent. Is has a dual-core CPU rather than a quad-core, but the CPU is excellent. It looks well, feels great to hold, and does everything you could possibly ask of it via the latest Android OS.

However, when I say it’s hard to find where corners appear to have been cut, it’s not impossible. The key issue is that woefully small internal storage for media content and lack of SD card support. For a large number of users that won’t present a problem, but for many more people it simply prevents them from using their One S as the fully-featured multi-media device they’ve been longing for. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying – the internal storage works really well in terms of handset performance, but what storage is there just isn’t enough.

The lasting impression I have after using the One S is that it will suit some people more than the One X. Screen size, for example, governs the overall handset size, and many users (myself included) will find the narrower body of the One S a better fit in the hand, especially during one-handed operation. Screen type (AMOLED vs LCD2) is also somewhat of a meaningless spec-sheet factor in real world use cases – both the One X and One S have gorgeous screens and only a side by side direct comparison with highlight the differences. Take either handset on it’s own and they are both highly impressive.

So, should you get the One S or the One X? If you have to have the biggest and highest spec Android phone available today then the One X is probably for you. However, if you prefer the look and feel and price of the One S then get it, and smile. You’re certainly not settling for second best.

Our Rating 4.5/5:

HTC One S Specifications

Our HTC One X was kindly provided by O2 UK

2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100

SIM Type: MicroSIM

Dimensions: 130.9 x 65 x 7.8 mm

Weight: 119.5 g

Screen Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours, Multi-touch

Screen Size: 540 x 960 pixels, 4.3 inches (Approx. 256 PPI pixel density)

Screen Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass

Alert types: Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones

Audio Output: Loudspeaker, 3.5mm jack, Beats Audio

SD Card Slot: No

RAM Memory: 1GB

Total Internal Storage: 16 GB (of which 2GB for apps, 10GB for user media)

Mobile Data: GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA

WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth: v4.0 with A2DP

USB Connectivity: microUSB (MHL) v2.0

Primary Camera: 8MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Primary Camera Features: Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection

Video: 1080p@30fps, stereo sound rec., video stabilization

Secondary Camera: 1.3MP VGA front facing

Operating System: Android v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8260A Snapdragon

CPU: Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait

GPU: Adreno 225

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email

Browser: HTML, Adobe Flash support

Radio: Stereo FM radio with RDS

GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support

Java: Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Po 1650mAh, non-removable

Colors: Black

Features:
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- Document viewer
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input

• Added preferences to ignore news and update notifications.
• Stopped notifications causing OverviewActivity from starting twice.
• Improved dictionary - added 17 words, removed 6 based on user dictionary changes.
• Fixed error reading news for Android 2.1 and below.

iPad vs. Android: Market Share Trends

Right now my family is made up of my wife and I so to tell the truth, we haven’t really tapped the whole power of the Cozi app. I will tell you, though, that since picking it up and using it, life has gotten quite a bit easier.

If you haven’t heard of Cozi yet, let me tell you a bit about it. Cozi is an all-around tool for keeping your family on the same page. It’s a web app (which is what the wife uses) but it’s also an Android app (which is what I use the most). It’s actually several tools in one: A calendar, A to-do list, A shopping list, and a family journal.

By themselves, these tools may be a dime a dozen but together, the synergy is amazing. These tools not only work closely together in tandem, but they also make it possible to easily collaborate with all of the members of your family. Seriously, all these tools in one helpful app AND the ability to collaborate with almost no effort.

Check out the full review I wrote for Android.Appstorm.net:

Keep Your Life and Family Organized With Cozi

Try Cozi out for yourself and tell us what you think!

Andromo App Maker for Android version 1.10.1 has been released!

Here is a list of changes in this version:

• The Custom Page activity now only embeds images if they have been uploaded to Andromo.
• Updated the icons used in Andromo apps to use the modern Android 4.0 style.

Andromo App Maker for Android v1.10.1 is now live at www.andromo.com.

Start making Android apps online today – for free. There’s no coding required, so anyone can do it!

We've brought you some pretty outlandish and ridiculous apps, but this week we've reached an entirely new level of cool. Let's be honest: we've dabbled in some immoral apps, so it's time we attoned for our sins with a Jesus-themed app. Ever thought it was possible to make something as cool as Mario except with a Jesus on jetpacks? Think again because this week's WTF App of the Week is: Jesus Christ Hyperspace. 

(This is a preview - click here to read the entire entry.)

Barley Studio releases ThemeHospital for Android

If you’re an old school gamer or a fan of simulation games, you probably remember Theme Hospital. Well, remember no more because thanks to Barley Studio you can now play the classic on your Android device. For those of you not familiar with the original, Theme Hospital is a simulation game that lets you run a hospital and take on medical related tasks. You basically start out in an empty hospital and will have to meet financial goals, cure patients, and generally keep people from dying. You’ll have to build an environment that will attract patients, and you’ll have to nudge or influence patients to get them taken care of. The patients roam freely around the hospital and they can cause problems if get upset or die which can lower your hospitals stats. You can force cures on patients as well although you may kill them depending on their ailment and condition. There are plenty of diseases to cure, patients to see, and disasters to avoid as you try and make your way through the world of Theme Hospital to the final stage known as Battenburg. Verdict I was a fan of the original Theme Hospital, and generally loved all of the old school sim games. Barley’s version of the game looks to be true to the original, and should satisfy fans of the game. That being said, they seem to be a new company, there isn’t a demo version to try, and I personally haven’t played this one so I’m not going to necessarily recommend it. I’m always a little leery of any game that uses the “read sensitive log data” permission, and Theme Hospital does.  It doesn’t mean that they are doing anything shady, but there’s no good reason for a game like this to use it to in my opinion. Don’t shoot the messenger folks… just putting the info out there as a lot of folks skip the permissions section when they get excited about a game and being installing. If you want to give it a go, you can try you Barley Studios Theme Hospital for $1.99 on Google Play.   Theme Hospital

Android Games

As if Rovio isn't doing good enough...as if the Finnish company isn't making enough bank and record profit...and as if there aren't already enough Angry Birds titles floating around right? Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, which is exactly what Rovio is apparently doing. Even though it was less than 3 months ago that we saw the newest Angry Birds entry (Angry Birds Space) come to the Play Store, Rovio is keeping to their roots and releasing an all new title next month (don't roll your eyes...No matter how tired of AB you say you are, MOST of you WILL end up downloading it :-D).

(This is a preview - click here to read the entire entry.)

Zombie Wars – build & battle with others online in this turn-based Zombie game is a post from: AndroidTapp.com

Hello all……

I have posted two posts on how to customize a progressbar in android.

1. Custom Indeterminate progressBar for android?
2. How to build a custom progressBar in android- Part 2?

Here is another one with update text on top of the progressbar.

Here is how we start.

After creating a fresh project create a new java file and name it “TextProgressBar.java”.

Now copy this code to the above file.
This file extends the progressbar to add additional functionality.

package com.coderzheaven.pack;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.widget.ProgressBar;

public class TextProgressBar extends ProgressBar {
	private String text;
	private Paint textPaint;

	public TextProgressBar(Context context) {
		super(context);
		text = "0/100";
		textPaint = new Paint();
		textPaint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
	}

	public TextProgressBar(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
		super(context, attrs);
		text = "0/100";
		textPaint = new Paint();
		textPaint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
	}

	public TextProgressBar(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
		super(context, attrs, defStyle);
		text = "0/100";
		textPaint = new Paint();
		textPaint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
	}

	@Override
	protected synchronized void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
		super.onDraw(canvas);
		Rect bounds = new Rect();
		textPaint.getTextBounds(text, 0, text.length(), bounds);
		int x = getWidth() / 2 - bounds.centerX();
		int y = getHeight() / 2 - bounds.centerY();
		canvas.drawText(text, x, y, textPaint);
	}

	public synchronized void setText(String text) {
		this.text = text;
		drawableStateChanged();
	}

	public void setTextColor(int color) {
		textPaint.setColor(color);
		drawableStateChanged();
	}
}

OK the progressbar class is now complete.

Now the xml in which the progressbar contains.

main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
	<TextView
	    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
	    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
	    android:text="Custom ProgressBar Demo from CoderzHeaven"
	    android:textStyle="bold"
	    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    />

	<com.coderzheaven.pack.TextProgressBar
		android:id="@+id/pb"
		android:layout_width="fill_parent"
		android:layout_height="wrap_content"
		android:max="100"
		android:progress="0"
		style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleHorizontal"
		android:maxHeight="20dip"
		android:minHeight="20dip"
	/>  

</LinearLayout>

Take a look at this line in the xml

This adds the custom progressbar in the xml.

OK Done now we have to just implement in the custom progressbar.

Now the main java file that is calling the progressbar.

package com.coderzheaven.pack;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;

public class CustomProgressBarDemo extends Activity {

	int myProgress = 0;
	TextProgressBar pb;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        pb = new TextProgressBar(this);
        pb = (TextProgressBar) findViewById(R.id.pb);
        new Thread(myThread).start();
    }

    private Runnable myThread = new Runnable(){
	  @Override
	  public void run() {
		   while (myProgress<100){
			    try{
			    	System.out.println("SSS");
			    	pb.setProgress(myProgress);
			    	pb.setText(myProgress+"/100");
			    	myHandle.sendMessage(myHandle.obtainMessage());
			    	Thread.sleep(500);
			    }
			    catch(Throwable t){
			    }
		   }
	  }

	  Handler myHandle = new Handler(){
		   @Override
		   public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
		    myProgress++;
			pb.setProgress(myProgress);
			pb.setText(myProgress+"/100");
		   }
	  };
	};
}

OK Go on and run the project you will get these results.

Desktop VisualizeR – Ultimate Android App for Personalizing your homescreen is a post from: AndroidTapp.com

A new Kickstarter project aims to revolutionize the way Android tablets look and work for users.

read more

Android UI Engineer Kirill Grouchnikov has posted his slides from his AnDevCon III talk in responsive mobile design (for Android of course!) and putting that into practice on the Google Play Store app (even showing some of the layouts in use in the real app).

read more

Boasting an easily pocketable form factor with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, the affordable, easily customizable LG Optimus Elite is powered by the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS and it features an 800 MHz processor, 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, and up to 7.3 hours of talk time.

And despite its color choices of titan silver and white, the Optimus Elite is actually very green. It earned ULE Platinum Certification — the highest in the industry — for the high percentage of recycled plastics in its casing, energy efficient charger, and carbon-free certification.

The Optimus Elite also joins Sprint’s stable of phones with Near Field Communication (NFC), which enable you to pay using your phone at participating retailers like Bloomingdales, Toys “R” Us, CVS, Gap, Macy’s, and more. (Learn more about Google Wallet from this AmazonWireless Blog post.) And for a limited time, Sprint will give you up to a $25 credit added to your Google Wallet upon successful activation of the Google Wallet service (see details for this offer).

LG Optimus Elite 3G connectivity Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS 800 MHz processor 3.5-inch touchscreen display 1 GB memory + microSD expansion 5-MB camera + camcorder NFC-enabled + Bluetooth 3.0 + Wireless-N Wi-Fi Virtual keyboard

Which Optimus Elite will you choose: titan silver or white?

The new Android flagship phone is nearly here and t-mobile are selling it

Yesterday, I had the fortune to have a quick go on a friend’s Samsung Galaxy S3 and I was blown away! The screen looked amazing, its was ridiculously fast. The only thing that really startled me was just how large it is- but wow does it look great.  With less than 12 days to go before it hits our shores, I have already had reports that there are already 7 million handsets on pre-order so if you are looking to get hold of one, make sure you arrange your pre-order.

T-mobile are offering it  on their “Full Monty” tariff for 49 quid one off payment  and 24 months contract at 36 quid per month.   Its also available on tariffs from 10 quid per month, and shorter contracts from 18 months.  I

Here is the link and  the details below: 

Samsung Galaxy S III Pebble Blue 16GB on The Full Monty

Plus get all this each month:

• Unlimited internet and texts
• 2000 minutes to any networks
• Plus unlimited T-Mobile calls
• Order now for delivery after 30 May

Related posts:

1. Samsung Galaxy S3: Smartest Android phone launched!
2. DELAYED! Samsung Galaxy Nexus in UK shipping 2 December
3. Samsung Galaxy S2 beats iPhone to phone of year

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has been rooted. It is extremely easy to root your tablet once you have ClockworkMod installed on your device. Please make sure to install ClockworkMod before attempting to root using this method.

Step 1: Download cwm-root-gtab2.zip onto your Galaxy Tab 2 10.1.
Step 2: Boot into Clockwork Mod Recovery by holding the volume down button while the tablet boots up. Then press volume down to move the selection to the left and volume up to select it. You can also use ADB to boot into recovery if this does not work.
Step 3: Toggle down to “install zip from sdcard” using the volume keys and select it with the power button.
Step 4: Toggle to “choose zip from sdcard” and find the cwm-root-gtab2.zip you downloaded earlier.

Now you have root access on your tablet. Look in your app list for Superuser to confirm that the root process worked.

Related posts:

1. How to root the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
2. How to install ClockworkMod Recovery on the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
3. How to return to stock software on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi (USA)

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 came out over the weekend and now ClockworkMod recovery is available to be installed on it. ClockworkMod is a custom recovery that allows for backing up your device, installing custom ROMs, rooting and more.

Step 1: Download the Odin
Step 2: Download recovery.tar.md5
Step 3: Boot your Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 into Download Mode by holding the volume down button while your tablet just turns on. Then press volume up to select Download Mode and volume down to continue. You can also use ADB to boot into Download Mode.
Step 4: Open Odin and plug your Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 into your computer.
Step 5: Click PDA and select the recovery.tar.md5 file you downloaded earlier.
Step 6: Click start.

Be sure to check XDA for more up to date links if these ever go down.

Now that you have ClockworkMod Recovery, you can root your tablet using this tutorial.

Related posts:

1. How to install ClockworkMod Recovery on the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
2. How to root the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
3. How to root the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

I had the privilege of speaking on Android Services Black Magic at AnDevCon 3, in Burlingame, CA to an amazing group of Android developers. This is similar to the talk I gave at Android Builders Summit, but slightly expanded, so I wanted to use this opportunity to post the updated slides and the screencast.

The kerfuffle over an Apple patent claim that has left palettes of HTC EVO 4G LTE and HTC ONE X phones in limbo has caused retailers to shuffle the deck on release dates. The EVO 4G LTE was originally scheduled to be released on May 18th. Best Buy, who had been taking pre-orders, have been contacting customers with a revised release date of May 23rd.

HTC provided The Verge with a statement on the current state of the situation.

HTC is working closely with U.S. Customs to secure approval for shipments of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE. We have not made any announcements about a new launch date and will provide an update on availability as soon as we can do so confidently.

Source: The Verge

Best Buy Changes HTC EVO 4G LTE Release Date To May 23rd is an article from everything Android, sponsored by the Everything Android Store.

It looks like the pre-orders for Samsung's newest high-end Android phone, the Galaxy S III, has jumped the borders of the UK and are now available for U.S. residents to pre-order. Both the white and blue models are up on Amazon for pre-order at a cost of $799 and up.

Read more...

The World of Midgard third beta, which is a public beta, has been updated once again and a new download is now available. Officially named Faction Wars, the third beta has been updated on a fairly regular basis, almost every other week to be exact, since it went public.

Read more...

A number of years back, I read yet another complaint about someone having trouble finding a computer with Linux preinstalled.

So I did something about it: I created LinuxSi.com, where it is possible to register computer stores in Italy (this was an Italian Linux mailing list) that are helpful towards people wishing to buy a Linux machine.

Fast forward past getting married, having kids and buying a house, and LinuxSi.com is not something I have much time to run any more.  I still think it's a useful service, even if the site itself is a bit creaky.

In any event, I've put it up for auction with Flippa.com, and there's one week left on the auction.  Right now, it's going for just $10, which even with the low amounts of adsense income it brings in, you'd make back pretty quickly.

I hope that it goes to someone who cares about promoting Linux in Italy - if nothing else, the domain name is a good one that could be employed for many things.

The NBA Jam Android App by EA Sports is an old school arcade basketball game featuring 30 NBA teams in this classic 2-on-2 arcade basketball game. This old school console game has been ported over to Android and EA did an excellent job with it.

The graphics are well done without losing the original game feel. The controls are on the touch screen and feature all the same buttons that you had for the console editions. The game features 3 modes of gameplay which include:
• Play Now – Select a team and jump right into the ballgame.
• Classic Campaign – Defeat all other teams to win the championship, and unlock legends, hidden players, and outrageous cheats.
• Local Multiplayer – Go big head 2 big head against a friend via local WiFi or Bluetooth.

Overall, this is a great port of an classic old school console game that is now available on the Android platform. The Local Multiplayer feature is a nice addition and ensures that no gameplay mode from the console version is left out. At the time of this review the NBA Jam Android App is $4.99.

Download NBA Jam Android App

Sports teams and community clubs are now able to create their own custom app to share news, images, and events – all without programming. Using Andromo App Maker for Android, a free do-it-yourself service for creating professional quality Android apps, teams and clubs can build their own app as quickly as they can point and click.

(WINNIPEG, MB) - Sports teams and community clubs can now design their own app in-house with new Andromo App Maker for Android. Andromo is an online service for creating professional quality Android apps without having to know how to program. Groups of all sizes are already making apps with Andromo to share news, photos, team schedules, fundraisers, events, and more.

Nowadays, people are getting their news and information through their smartphones, and teams and clubs are no exception. With over 350 million Android devices worldwide, Android apps are a must-have item for any organization that wants to keep connected, and keep up with the times. Using Andromo’s new online app making service, any team can have a custom app of their own with little effort required.

Andromo’s visual, no-coding approach is ideal for any group that wants to make its own Android app. Using Andromo, the designer simply selects the desired app features from a list of popular activities. For instance, sports teams can include their website and Twitter feeds where they post current news and schedules. Community clubs can make apps that display photos galleries and YouTube videos from club events, and connect their members directly to their Facebook page. Other app features include interactive maps, music, ‘about us’, and much more.

“With websites, Facebook and Twitter, the days of using the club bulletin board are obviously long behind us,” says Andromo founder Colin Adams. “Today’s communication tool of choice is the custom app, and Andromo makes this available to groups of any size. There’s no programming and no need to spend a fortune, so any team or club can benefit.”

Over 69,147 people have already signed up with Andromo to quickly and easily design Android apps. To sign up to start making Android apps using Andromo, sports teams and community clubs can visit http://www.andromo.com and click on the ‘Start Making Android Apps‘ button. Signup is free.

About Andromo App Maker for Android

Andromo is a trademark of Indigo Rose Software Corporation. Privately held, Indigo Rose Software has been creating award-winning software development tools since 1991. Our programming tools – AutoPlay Media Studio, Autorun MAX!, MSI Factory, Setup Factory, TrueUpdate, and Visual Patch – have been used to deliver software to hundreds of millions of systems worldwide.

The Avengers Live Wallpaper Android App by Cellfish Studios features the superhero team’s logo hovering over a destroyed New York City street with Hulk and Thor in the foreground.

Download The Avengers Live Wallpaper Android App

The pace of life always seems to quicken, rather than stay at a constant speed. And if you’re feeling that your 3G phone is having a hard time keeping up with your fast-paced on-the-go mobile lifestyle — whether it be streaming HD video, uploading photos, or collaborating on graphics-heavy presentations with coworkers — maybe it’s time to consider an upgrade to a 4G smartphone.

With a phone running on a 4G network, you’ll experience speeds up to 10 times as fast as 3G networks. For example, the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network features download data speeds of between 5-12 megabits per second (Mbps), which compares to peak 3G download rates of around 2 Mbps. Uploading files is also faster over 4G, with speeds between 2-5 Mbps on the uplink (compared to an average 730 Kbps speed for 3G networks).

If all these numbers are making your head spin, here’s the basic takeaway: 4G is lightning fast. But more than just increased speed, a smartphone running on a 4G network gives you more freedom. With faster data speeds, you’ll spend less time staring at your screen and waiting for something to download and more time to enjoy the world around you.

If you’re ready to upgrade to a 4G phone, you’ll first need to find out if you’re eligible to upgrade to a new phone. AmazonWireless makes it easy to check your status with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless via this online tool — no need to call your carrier and wade through an endless phone tree to find out. And you’ll find a list of upgrade phones (many of them 4G-enabled) that will cost you just a penny, including the Samsung Stratosphere.

Samsung Stratosphere 4G 3G/4G connectivity Android 2.3 1 GHz processor 4-inch Super AMOLED display 4 GB memory + 4 GB microSD card 5 MP camera + 1.3-MP front camera DVD-quality video recording Slide-out QWERTY keyboard

Check your upgrade eligibility today and start shopping for your new 4G smartphone.

HBO GO, the video streaming service which offers episodes of HBO series and their current run movies, has been strangely unavailable on the latest version of Google’s mobile OS. While Netflix made sure their application worked on Android 4.0+ in a timely manner, the HBO GO application has kept ICS users waiting for the last 7 months.

While HBO subscribers with ICS devices will no doubt be happy about this bit of news, it does highlight a serious problem within the Android ecosystem. Problems linked to Android’s fragmentation are often blown out of proportion, but when it directly effects users of Google’s flagship devices like the Galaxy Nexus, it’s easy to see how the vast array of different Android versions and devices can make using the platform more confusing for consumers. Imagine a user who upgraded his phone to a Galaxy Nexus, only to find he was unable to use the HBO GO app he was just previously enjoying on his two year old device.

As if to further confound users, this update manages to skip over ICS powered tablets entirely. So users of ICS powered phones will be able to stream the latest episode of Game of Thrones, but tablet owners (arguably where people are more likely to watch a full episode or movie) are left out in the cold. For them, winter is still coming.

The HBO GO App

If you subscribe to HBO through your cable provider (unfortunately, there is no way to access HBO GO without an active cable subscription), you can download the app from the Play Store and get access to not only the movies and documentaries in HBO’s current rotation, but every episode of their most popular series.

"The Sopranos" via HBO Go

While this represents a considerable amount of content, there are some logistical issues with the service. Older series which proved very popular like The Larry Sanders Show and Six Feet Under don’t appear, and the rotation of HBO’s movies is so rapid that users have very little time to watch them before they have been replaced with a new group.

Still, there is no additional cost to use HBO GO for existing HBO subscribers, so it’s worth taking a look now that it’s device support has been expanded to cover the latest and greatest Android handsets.

"Star Trek: First Contact" via HBO GO

ownCloud, the open source file storage and syncing service, has recently released the first version of their Android application. While it isn’t in the Google Play Store yet, users who want to get an early look at the new application can install a test build from the ownCloud blog.

ownCloud

Storage in the “cloud” is all the rage right now, with services like DropBox and Google’s own GDrive taking the center stage. The concept of storing your files on a central server is of course nothing new, certainly, we’ve all been doing it in some form or another since the first days of the Internet. But what DropBox and others brought to the table was an easy to use way to do it from all of our devices.

ownCloud aims to offer a similar experience to the industry leaders, with some very big differences: it’s free open source software, and you can run it on your own hardware. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want their files stored by a corporation who makes their money by selling their users advertisements, this may be the service you’re looking for. The ability to put the ownCloud software on your personal server is a very interesting proposition for users who are looking for secure file storage for themselves, friends, and family.

ownCloud is licensed under the Affero General Public License (AGPL) a service-provider oriented version of the standard GNU General Public License (GPL), which was created specifically to address loopholes in the GPL in cases where users interfaced with free software remotely rather than on the local machine. Using AGPL for ownCloud shows a strong commitment to the values of free software, something very refreshing considering the stance of it’s competitors in terms of privacy and transparency.

ownCloud Android App

The recently released Android application allows ownCloud users to upload, download, sync, and manage their files from their Android 2.3.6+ device. ownCloud estimates it will be available in the Google Play Store, as well as for iOS, within 4 to 6 weeks; but in the meantime has offered up a test build to get early input from its users.

The Android application continues the ownCloud’s commitment to free software, being itself licensed under the GPL. The full source code can be downloaded from Gitorious.

ownCloud for Android

According to HTC, the new HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE are being delayed at customs and US availability will be delayed. HTC was found guilt of patent infringement last year. As a result, the US International Trade Commission ruled that future phones found to be in violation would be blocked. HTC believes they have  a workaround as to not violate the patent. This software workaround has been implemented into both the One X and EVO 4G LTE.

A quick check of AT&T and Sprint will reveal that both devices are out of stock.

HTC’s official statement:

“The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.”

This is getting ugly. Hopefully this gets resolved sooner then later.

Source: Phonescoop

HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE Held At Customs Over Apple Patent Violation is an article from everything Android, sponsored by the Everything Android Store.

Every mobile phone user is in danger of one thing, no matter the operating system, manufacturer or service provider. That is of having unwanted users snooping on their phone. It could happen any time you leave your phone sitting around. You could even have the unfortunate happen and leave it behind someplace (like a Walmart restroom – don’t ask). In any case, I hope other operating systems have apps available that Android does.

Of course, Android has security measures built right in that you can make use of that allow you to lock it down. Go to settings>Location & security>set up screen lock. Here you can set a pattern, PIN or password. That’s the built in way. The Google Play Store on the other hand has many good options to choose from. Here is a list of 4 awesome screen locking apps you can try and see which you would prefer:

1. APP Lock

If you’re looking for an all-around good screen locking app, APP Lock is certainly an awesome option. Several of the most notable features are the ability to use a password or pattern and the ability to use it to lock down virtually any app you’ve got installed.

Another awesome tweak you can do with APP Lock is called “allow short exit” which lets you set a specific amount of time that the app stays unlocked even when closed so you don’t have to repeatedly re-enter the password or pattern.

2. iLockit for Android ($0.99)

iLockit allows several different types of actions you can use in order to unlock your phone. The built in pattern lock screen is simple: you trace a previously set pattern to get into the phone. iLockit lets you use an image of your choice and gives you several actions you can perform using the image as a reference:

• tap – tap a specified area of the image
• hold – press and hold a specified area for a specified amount of time
• trip – set two areas, with an imaginary line connecting them, and swipe through the line, effectively “tripping” it (not tracing it)
• multi – press two different specifies places simultaneously.

You can use one or several of those actions in a row in order to lock down your device. This does away with a snoop’s ability to use finger smudges on the screen to trace out your pattern.

NOTE: Photo Lock Screen is a somewhat similar app that happens to be free.

3. Mirage

Mirage takes pattern unlocking to a whole new level. With it you can do several very cool things. Imagine being able to set a different unlock pattern to specific apps you want locked down. With mirage, you can do that with up to 5 different apps. Also, you can set a specific unlock pattern to open a drawer full of many specified apps. For instance, you can set up patterns for your own categories of apps. Finally, you can set patterns to open to specific launchers.

The other awesome part about using Mirage is that the lockscreen contains a shortcut to a contact number in the case you lose your phone and someone honest finds it. There’s even a shortcut to an emergency number and 911 so there’s no rigmarole to go through in the case of an emergency. Add to that themes and you’ve got one awesome choice!

4. Visidon AppLock for Android

Although Visidon, as far as I can tell, doesn’t actually lock users out of the whole phone but only specified apps, it still makes this list for the pure amount of coolness in embodies. With Visidon, your face becomes the secret pass key which locks down your apps. Yes, now your phone can recognize your face to verify that you’re authorized to use it!

If something funky happens and your face just isn’t cutting the mustard for some reason, don’t worry because you also provide a pass code to bypass the facial recognition if the lock app farts.

Is it possible that the Plus version of the app includes an actual lockscreen?

Conclusion

This list is only of 4 really cool locking apps you can use to help lock people out of your Android phone. I’m sure you have your own favorite so please, do share!

We are happy to announce another preview release of RAP mobile. Version 0.5.8 adds support for even more widgets on the Android side while improving stability and performance on iOS and Android.

The new release brings improvements to the mobile client side but RAP itself has undergone some minor changes as well and we highly recommend that you update your target definition. The changes will also impact your server-side code slightly as the wording of some RAP classes has been refined.

Most notably the ApplicationConfigurator is now called ApplicationConfiguration and the ApplicationConfiguration has been renamed Application. Simply replace the names in your code and organize the imports.  You will also need to update your dynamic service declaration which now provides an org.eclipse.rwt.application.ApplicationConfiguration implementation. For more details check the great post from Ralf.

And now for the new and noteworthy features of RAP mobile. If not noted otherwise all features described here are available on Android and iOS.

New and Noteworthy

Support for the SWT Group widget

The Android client now supports the SWT Group widget. The appearance of the groups is derived from the Android holo theme with its simplistic title and horizontal line. In addition to group.setText() you can also use group.setForeground() to colorize the title and horizontal line.

Support for right-click via long-press

The right-click is a common ui metaphor on the desktop but has no clear parallel in the mobile space. In an SWT application the right-click is usually used to open a contextual menu. The RAP mobile framework therefore uses the method Control.addMenuDetectListener() to register a listener that is activated when the user long presses on an item.

Entry point discovery mechanism

RAP mobile supports a special mechanism to help you find the available entry points configured for an Application. You can append the special identifier “/index.json” to your url, which delivers a JSON document, listing all the available entry points. The RAP mobile client uses this list to let you choose the app to start. As part of that feature we also simplified the Android start activity as you can see in the screenshots to the right. On iOS the discovery menu is activated by doubletapping on the status bar at the top.

Client side caching of images

Up until this RAP mobile for Android release an image has been loaded from the server every time it was requested. We have now integrated client-side image caching on Android as well which greatly reduces the bandwidth and power requirements when an image is requested multiple times. Try out the “/virtual-tree” demo which displays the same icon dozens of times.

Improved handling of server session timeout

Since the state of a RAP mobile application is bound to a session on the remote server, there is always the possibility of a session timeout. We’ve recently improved this (expected) behavior so that you can now restart your session from the message dialog.

Android Specific

Enhancements and Bugfixes

• Toolbar has a fixed height
• ScrolledComposite supports simultaneous horizontal and vertical scrolling
• Shells now have title support for setting text and icon

There was a recent request to go over what equipment was used to produce the podcast. This is subject to change, and in fact, there are plans to rearrange it in the near future. Currently, the system includes the following components:

• Behringer Xenyx 1204USB mixer
• A MXL 990 Condenser Microphone
• A microphone scissor mount (Recently replaced a hacked Ikea lamp mount)
• A Pop Filter
• Behringer Shark FBQ100 Automatic Feedback Destroyer – Used as a Microphone PreAmp with a noise gate
• Behringer headphone amplifier
• Sennheiser headphones
• Droid 2 Global, which acts as a soundboard for voicemails, the opening music, etc, and could be patched in to add VoIP capabilities if needed.
• A UCA202, which provides the sound to/from the Skype hookup with Jere Jones
• An Asus TF101 Transformer on which the show rundown is read
• Tascam DR-40 Linear PCM recorder

Guru’s Podcast Studio is a post from Android Buffet Podcast - Hungry for Android? Get all you can eat at the Android Buffet Podcast...live on Mondays at 10PM Eastern. All Rights Reserved.

HTC have announced the new HTC Desire C with Beats audio and its perfect for the pocket- both size and price-wise.

HTC have had a great history of releasing popular budget handsets. The wildfire and wildfire S have all been massive sellers in the android market.  The latest generation follows hot on the heels of the current Android leading HTC One series.

Here are the high level specs that will be of interest:

• Ice Cream Sandwich ( HTC Sense 4 customisation)
• Beats Audio
• 3.5-inch HVGA screen
• 600MHz processor (  enough for email, music playback and other apps- might struggle on some games)
• Dropbox integration and free 25MB storage.
• Near Field communication essential for Future proofing your phone for the next generation of apps and services.

T-Mobile UK today announces pricing for the new HTC Desire C. The handset will be free on Pay Monthly plans from £15.50 per month (24 months), or for £169.99 on Pay As You Go. It will be available in-store, online and via telesales in early June.

 

Available in white and black, and coming with HTC Sense 4.0 integrated with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the HTC Desire C is great as a first smartphone or for those upgrading from an existing one. Packing a powerful battery and offering access to thousands of apps, games, music and movies – available through Google Play – you will always be connected and entertained whether at work, home or on the move.

 

“Listening to music is one of the most popular things people use their phones for, so it’s more important than ever that we deliver the power and emotion artists capture in the studio,” said Jason Mackenzie, President, Global Sales and Marketing for HTC Corporation. “The HTC Desire C offers customers excellent design, easy access to content and fast connectivity – making it the perfect all round device.”

 

Authentic sound without compromise

The HTC Desire C features a powerful, yet rich studio-quality sound experience that is enabled through the combination of optimized Beats Audio and amazing hardware.  This integration enables a rich, clear audio experience to customers no matter if they’re listening to music or playing a game.

 

Premium design taken to a new level

Combining a durable metal frame with precision engineering, the HTC Desire C is ideal for those who want a premium-designed phone. Boasting a micro-drilled earpiece for sharp in-call sound, hyper-viewing angle display and metal camera bezel, this compact smartphone offers an unrivalled level of design and user-experience for its class.

 

Designed for sharing

Packing the latest mobile technology into a neat, eye-catching design, HTC Desire C’s vibrant 3.5-inch HVGA screen makes it easy to browse the Web, view photos or connect with friends and family. If you like to share personal experiences with your social network, HTC Desire C’s 5 megapixel camera and instant sharing capabilities will allow you to post any moment, seconds after it was captured.

 

Through HTC Desire C’s deep integration of Dropbox and 25GB of free online space[i], you also have the freedom to securely back-up, browse and share thousands of photos, videos and documents, whether stored locally or in the cloud.

 

Ensuring that HTC Desire C keeps pace with new mobile services as they become available there is also an NFC variant of this model, allowing users to make payments or access information and offers.

Availability

HTC Desire C will be available from Tesco Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media, Three.

Related posts:

1. Samsung Galaxy S2 beats iPhone to phone of year
2. HTC goes for number 1 in their new range of handsets
3. Samsung Galaxy S3: Smartest Android phone launched!

No studio audience this week, instead…a guest.

Show Notes

• Special Guest – Pat Davila – His first computer was a Commodore Vic-20…Pat currently resides in Pennsylvania and runs a collection of Linux machines, as well as Android devices and MythTV setups. He is the co-host of the MythTVCast with former guest Dan Frey, and also of The Linux Link Tech Show. Pat joins us to talk about why Pulseaudio is a bad idea on Android.
• In honor of Mother’s Day…Me, Android, and my Mom..Son makes ultimate sacrifice, shares tablet with mother. 
• In other News
• Wi-Fi Blocking Wallpaper may be commercially available next year. Blocks wi-fi signals, but not cell phone signals
• In-Flight VoIP call on a smartphone gets founder of Viber escorted off plane. 
• The Floppy Disk means Save and 14 other anachronistic icons…Radio Buttons, Clipboard, Bookmark, Address Books and Calendars, Voicemail as a Reel to Reel, Manila Folder, Handset phone icon, Magnifying Glass and Binoculars, Envelopes, Wrenches and Gears, Microphones, Polaroids, Televisions, Carbon Copy, Blueprints…
• Wolfenstein 3-D turns 20 years old, and there is a free browser version.
• Wi-Fi Alliance is making headway with Passpoint Initiative, which will certify hotspots and routers to handle seamless handoffs between cellular and local wi-fi.  For example, if you’re on AT&T, your phone could potentially transfer to a certified hotspot at a nearby Starbucks (which uses AT&T’s land line broadband connection to serve its Wi-Fi) without having to log in using a browser-based landing page or even an SSID/password combination. T-Mobile is the only carrier committed to Passpoint, the other carriers have indicated interest, but haven’t comitted. 
• Platform News
• There’s a new spammy ad system called SellARing that allows associated apps to replace the sound you hear after dialing a number with 10-second audio ads. 
• Thai government has signed a $32.8 million deal to deploy 400,000 Android 4.0 tablets from Shenzen Scope at $81 each, with an option for 530,000 more. 
• Are smartphones ad other personal gadgets making us mentally ill?
• Android is Google’s weapon in the Ecosystem War. 
• Companies may accept sturdier Android Tablet. There may be stronger interest in Android tablets due to customization possibilities for ruggedized constructions.
• Requiring a warrant to use cell tower location data would ‘cripple’ criminal investigations, says to DOJ. 
• The future of Cyanogenmod 7. CM9 continues, but CM7 will continue. 
• AT&T CEO says that Google determines update schedule for phones, Google denies this.

Episode 95 – Anyone Want to Sell Guru their Phone? is a post from Android Buffet Podcast - Hungry for Android? Get all you can eat at the Android Buffet Podcast...live on Mondays at 10PM Eastern. All Rights Reserved.

This message is brought to you by Nex, thanks mate!

In order to reduce overhead in the Android backend when putting values into Preferences, we’ve updated the implementation to not commit changes until flush() is called on the Preferences object. Previously, every time you put a value into Preferences the Android implementation would create an Editor, put the value, then commit it. While this was good for ensuring that values would be persisted quickly, it also meant File I/O for each and every value placed into preferences. When putting more than one or two values, this could create noticeable slowness.

This may sounds like a big deal, but this actually brings the Android implementation more in line with the other backends, which have always required flush() to be called in order to persist the changes. It also mirrors the normal workflow for working with SharedPreferences in normal Android development.

TL;DR Version: You must now call flush() in all cases where you want changes to Preferences to be persisted.

Hello all!

So, it’s time to culminate our initial discussion on layouts. Till now, we have looked at the WYSIWYG editor, the code for the layout and a visual editor for playing with strings. Now, we shall come to the query raised in the last post, i.e., the value taken by the android:string attribute of the TextView which is described in the line:

android:text=”@string/niktechs” 

For those who have been following this blog, it must be really easy now. But, still I should give the details for the sake of completeness.

Clearly, @string is a way to tell the compiler that the variable which will follow after a ‘/’ represents a string. This is necessary to distinguish the different types of variables. Yes! There are other kinds of variables which represent color, dimension, array, etc. Right now, I am not going to discuss how to use those variables. But, if you are one of those who really like to stay ahead, open the strings.xml and click on add. You will see the following dialog box.

Now, it’s on you to explore!

Also, the name that follows the ‘/’ is the name of the variable whose value is to be given to the android:text and thus, is to be displayed on the screen. Here, since the name is niktechs, the text that is displayed on the screen will be same as the value of the variable niktechs which is Developing Android Applications with Nikhil Gupta.

Now, I think I have laid the foundation of discussing the other way of changing the text on the screen. Remember, in the post titled Laying out the screen!, we saw how to use WYSIWYG to change the text on the screen. For a quick flashback, we used the edit text option and created a new R.string whose value was the text that we wanted to display.

The other way results from our discussion in the previous post. There, I created a new variable of type string named Blog. Now, instead of using the WYSIWYG editor, we can simply change niktechs (in the code describing android:text attribute) to Blog and save the file.

Now, look at the GUI (click on main.xml and then, choose Graphical Layout tab). What do you see? Yes, the text has been changed to Android Development which is the value of the variable Blog. Why does this happen? I hope that it’s now trivial for all. Since Blog is just another string type variable like niktechs (discussed in the previous post), replacing the two will result in replacing the values of the android:text attribute and hence, the text on the screen.

So, we have looked at the basic layout features and understood each and every concept related to it. But there are various attributes that can be used in the code for layout which can greatly vary the screen. It’s up to you to explore them. I may discuss a few of them, but only in the later posts. If you want to explore, go to a tag, type android: and press Ctrl+Space. You will see the entire options that are possible.

In the next few post, we will finally go into the JAVA coding. So, a lot more interesting stuff coming soon!

Till next time, BYE!

In this presentation from DevCon5, Dir. of Product Management at Qualcomm, Sy Choudhury talks about how the future of mobile computing will impact app development.

Could moving content from desktop to tablet save a life? When it comes to making it easier for doctors to view medical images, it just might.

Converting from desktop to mobile opens up new possibilities in form factor and workflows, but it also changes how information is consumed and shared. And even these seemingly small changes can completely reinvent an existing solution.

This piece is the first in a series exploring the transition from desktop to mobile, with attention to the less-considered opportunities and differences it surfaces. We’ll begin with a medical case study in which simple tactile differences result in a much richer and more consultative overall experience.

Case Study: Mobile Medical Consultations with SeeMyRadiology
With SeeMyRadiology – a system that offers instant access to medical images and reports via the cloud – moving to mobile brought a new ease to scanning through images. Doctors can flip through hundreds of images from CT scans by sliding or swiping a finger. This provides greater animation control and makes it significantly easier for a doctor to spot irregularities.

Unlike its desktop counterpart, the SeeMyRadiology mobile interface lets users dynamically resize an image, tapping and dragging on the screen to bring about even better clarity. The nature of a handheld device makes it effortless to bring the image closer for inspection.

While the desktop version offers similar basic functions, mobile introduced a better way to view and control images.

Creating a Consultative Experience
SeeMyRadiology’s mobile solution empowers doctors, health care professionals, and patients by giving them immediate access to images and medical charts on an iPad. Using a tablet, doctors can quickly provide diagnoses and consultations from any location with access to an internet connection.

But the consultative aspect isn’t specific to healthcare. While desktop monitors are larger in size, there’s a discernible barrier created by the information being tied to an stationary screen. As more industries begin to utilize tablets to power field enablement solutions, they’re discovering that this experience naturally encourages collaboration in a way that desktop has not.

Since many desktop products are made for individual experiences, they haven’t been matured for for the consultative, collaborative aspect. This transition not only requires clear visuals, but a completely new way to think about how you manipulate and access information.

Taking Users Beyond Desktop
With enterprises moving from rigid desktop programs to major mobile solutions, they should be aware of how great an impact even the smallest adjustments can be. The transition in mobile isn’t just a change in software, but a change in expectations and possibilities.

Hi everyone!

In the last post, we looked at the code for the layout of an android application. But we didn’t discuss discuss the strange value taken by the text attribute of the tag “TextView” and how it decides the text display by this TextView. Were you able to find any correlation?

In this post, I will discuss about strings in an android app. The concepts discussed in this post will be used to anwer the above query in the next post. So, let’s start!

Click on the values folder (It’s in the same directory as the layout folder). Do you find something which is related to our interest? Yes, a file named string.xml. Let’s open it! What do you see?

You can see that strings.xml opens up in an interactive editor. This editor is used to add Resources (to be discussed later) to our android application. For now, it’s sufficient to know that strings are treated as resources in an android app and hence, this editor allows us to make, modify or delete strings.

We can see three Resource Elements (as specified in the header), all being of type String as mentioned in the brackets beside the name. Thus, our android application has three resources, all of them being strings. The names that are visible are the names of the variables that are used to store the string type values (similar to the fact that x is a variable used to store integer type values when I write int x = 10 in C). Thus, hello and app_name are two string type variables which are automatically created during the creation of a project.

To look at the values stored by these variables, simply click on them. On clicking hello, you will see a panel in the right which displays the name of the variable and it’s value. Now, looking at the value of the variable hello, I hope that you can make out how the text displayed at the screen originally came about. Yes!, the value of this variable is Hello World, HelloWorldActivity!, the original text on the screen.

You must have seen another line of text in the screen of the app. Look at the value of the variable app_name and try to find out the place at which it is used. Comment below if you are able to find it!

Now, do you see why a variable named niktechs is there in the list? How it was created? Do you remember, while editing the text on the screen (Refer to the post Laying out the screen) , we made a new string variable? Yes, that variable is the same as displayed here. The value given to the field R.string there, is the name of the variable and the value is the same as given that time. Thus, when we changed the text displayed at the screen, we actually created a new string variable and gave its value to the TextView.

As mentioned earlier, we can create a variable by using this editor. Simply click on Add. A dialog box opens up. Don’t be afraid to see so many options. We will look at them as we proceed. For now, simply select String. In the resulting window, simply set the name (let’s set it to Blog) and the value (I am setting it to Android Development) as required and save the file. This creates a new String type variable.

We can modify a string by simply changing its value and saving the file. To delete a variable, simply select Remove. 

Thus, we have seen how to play with strings in an Android Application. What is left to discuss is how to use these strings in the app. How these variables relate to the text displayed on the screen? How it answers the query raised at the beginning of the post?

All of this coming in the next post!

Till then, BYE!

Hey there! Dynamite Jack is available now! The store on my website gets you a DRM-Free copy of the game for Windows / Mac / Linux AND a Steam code (Windows / Mac).

If you want to learn more about the development of Dynamite Jack, I’ve done dev blogs about it over the past month.

Enjoy!
-Phil

There is a fairly extensive thread in progress on the android-developers Google Group, discussing the behavior of long-running services.

Unfortunately, the original poster on that thread drew incorrect conclusions from his market research. He found that there were other apps like the one he wanted to create, that used long-running services, and that those apps had decent ratings. His conclusion is that there is no problem with long-running services. Along the way, he ignores not only all the problems with his analysis (including low sample size and sampling bias), but also all the evidence that points to the contrary, such as the millions of users of so-called “task killers”.

However, he does have a point. Long-running services are not intrinsically user-hostile. The issue is not the service — the issue is the control over the service.

For example, let’s examine two apps that I always have installed on whatever phone I’m carrying at the time: United Airlines and Ambling BookPlayer Pro.

If I examine the Running tab of the Apps screen in Settings on my Galaxy Nexus, I see that both of these apps have “1 process and 1 service”. Yet, I am sincerely frustrated at United Airlines and worry not a whit about Ambling BookPlayer Pro.

Why? Control, and to a lesser extent, sensibility.

It is entirely possible that there is a reason why the United Airlines app would need a service. However, there is no obvious need for why it would need a service running all the damn time. I have not run the app in days. I have no control over whether this service is used, short of getting rid of it from Settings. I tend not to bother, but it frustrates me, and I can easily see other users attacking the United Airlines app with task killers to try to get rid of the service.

Contrast that with Ambling BookPlayer Pro. It too has a service running all the time. In fact, its process consumes almost twice as much RAM as does the United Airlines app, so in theory I should be twice as annoyed. But I am not.

Why?

• I know why the service is there — it is waiting for headset plug events

• I value the service being there, as I like being able to just plug my phone into my Prius and not necessarily have to fumble with the touchscreen to get the audiobook playing again

• It is a foreground service, so I have an icon that I can get to where I can stop the service through the player’s UI

The only thing that it is missing is an obvious way to prevent the service from running in the first place, albeit at the cost of not handling headset plug events.

Ideally, you do not have an everlasting service in the first place, and use polling or other techniques. If, however, you have a technically justifiable reason for trying to have a service run constantly, ensure that the user knows why the service is there and give the user the ability to control the service behavior, including disabling the service outright at the cost of some functionality. Those items should help improve user acceptance of your everlasting service and reduce the percentage of bad reviews because of your service.

The CoPilot range of paid GPS apps has been joined by a new, entirely free option today, with the launch of CoPilot GPS on the Google Play Store. This offers a simpler approach to satnav than the company’s full price apps, removing a few features, but still offering offline map access, Points of Interest, route planning and local business searches.

And it looks like this:

The money-making part of the deal for the maker would appear to come by asking users to pay for a “premium” upgrade to an enhanced version of the app that includes 3D mapping and voice navigation. Can’t hurt to try it, eh?

Read more over on the CoPilot blog.

[This post is by David Chandler, Android Developer Advocate — Tim Bray]

Honeycomb introduced Fragments to support reusing portions of UI and logic across multiple activities in an app. In parallel, the showDialog / dismissDialog methods in Activity are being deprecated in favor of DialogFragments.

In this post, I’ll show how to use DialogFragments with the v4 support library (for backward compatibility on pre-Honeycomb devices) to show a simple edit dialog and return a result to the calling Activity using an interface. For design guidelines around Dialogs, see the Android Design site.

The Layout

Here’s the layout for the dialog in a file named fragment_edit_name.xml.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/edit_name"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center" android:orientation="vertical"  >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/lbl_your_name" android:text="Your name" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
      
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/txt_your_name"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"  android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:inputType=”text”
        android:imeOptions="actionDone" />
</LinearLayout>

Note the use of two optional attributes. In conjunction with android:inputType=”text”, android:imeOptions=”actionDone” configures the soft keyboard to show a Done key in place of the Enter key.

The Dialog Code

The dialog extends DialogFragment, and since we want backward compatibility, we’ll import it from the v4 support library. (To add the support library to an Eclipse project, right-click on the project and choose Android Tools | Add Support Library...).

import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;
// ...

public class EditNameDialog extends DialogFragment {

    private EditText mEditText;

    public EditNameDialog() {
        // Empty constructor required for DialogFragment
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_edit_name, container);
        mEditText = (EditText) view.findViewById(R.id.txt_your_name);
        getDialog().setTitle("Hello");

        return view;
    }
}

The dialog extends DialogFragment and includes the required empty constructor. Fragments implement the onCreateView() method to actually load the view using the provided LayoutInflater.

Showing the Dialog

Now we need some code in our Activity to show the dialog. Here is a simple example that immediately shows the EditNameDialog to enter the user’s name. On completion, it shows a Toast with the entered text.

import android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentManager;
// ...

public class FragmentDialogDemo extends FragmentActivity implements EditNameDialogListener {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        showEditDialog();
    }

    private void showEditDialog() {
        FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
        EditNameDialog editNameDialog = new EditNameDialog();
        editNameDialog.show(fm, "fragment_edit_name");
    }

    @Override
    public void onFinishEditDialog(String inputText) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Hi, " + inputText, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}

There are a few things to notice here. First, because we’re using the support library for backward compatibility with the Fragment API, our Activity extends FragmentActivity from the support library. Because we’re using the support library, we call getSupportFragmentManager() instead of getFragmentManager().

After loading the initial view, the activity immediately shows the EditNameDialog by calling its show() method. This allows the DialogFragment to ensure that what is happening with the Dialog and Fragment states remains consistent. By default, the back button will dismiss the dialog without any additional code.

Using the Dialog

Next, let’s enhance EditNameDialog so it can return a result string to the Activity.

import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;
// ...
public class EditNameDialog extends DialogFragment implements OnEditorActionListener {

    public interface EditNameDialogListener {
        void onFinishEditDialog(String inputText);
    }

    private EditText mEditText;

    public EditNameDialog() {
        // Empty constructor required for DialogFragment
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_edit_name, container);
        mEditText = (EditText) view.findViewById(R.id.txt_your_name);
        getDialog().setTitle("Hello");

        // Show soft keyboard automatically
        mEditText.requestFocus();
        getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(
                LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_VISIBLE);
        mEditText.setOnEditorActionListener(this);

        return view;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onEditorAction(TextView v, int actionId, KeyEvent event) {
        if (EditorInfo.IME_ACTION_DONE == actionId) {
            // Return input text to activity
            EditNameDialogListener activity = (EditNameDialogListener) getActivity();
            activity.onFinishEditDialog(mEditText.getText().toString());
            this.dismiss();
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

For user convenience, we programmatically focus on the EditText with mEditText.requestFocus(). Alternatively, we could have used the <requestFocus><requestFocus> tag in the layout XML to do this; however, in some cases it’s preferable to request focus programmatically. For example, an OnFocusChangeListener added in the Fragment’s onCreateView() method won’t get called if you request focus in the layout XML.

If the user focuses on an EditText, the soft keyboard will automatically appear. In order to force this to happen with our programmatic focus, we call getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(). Note that many Window operations you might have done previously in a Dialog can still be done in a DialogFragment, but you have to call getDialog().getWindow() instead of just getWindow(). The resulting dialog is shown on both a handset and tablet (not to scale):

The onEditorAction() method handles the callback when the user presses the Done key. It gets invoked because we’ve set an OnEditorActionListener on the EditText. It calls back to the Activity to send the entered text. To do this, EditNameDialog declares an interface EditNameDialogListener that is implemented by the Activity. This enables the dialog to be reused by many Activities. To invoke the callback method onFinishEditDialog(), it obtains a reference to the Activity which launched the dialog by calling getActivity(), which all Fragments provide, and then casts it to the interface type. In MVC architecture, this is a common pattern for allowing a view to communicate with a controller.

We can dismiss the dialog one of two ways. Here we are calling dismiss() within the Dialog class itself. It could also be called from the Activity like the show() method.

Hopefully this sheds some more light on Fragments as they relate to Dialogs. You can find the sample code in this blog post on Google Code.

References for learning more about Fragments:

• Fragments Dev Guide

• “Basic Training” on Fragments

• Updating Applications for On-screen Input Methods

• OnEditorActionListener

• EditorInfo and IME options

Since we now have Android Lint to use I modified PMD and Cehckstyle configuration files to decrease false positives, etc. These current files are for android tools 20 or higher. You can find them here:

CodeDroidCodeQA

Since I am currently testing androdi tools 20 it is android tools 20 or higher which I imagine Google wil release soemtime at the ned of May.

So in October of 2011, Ludum Dare hosted a second October Challenge. I had so much fun the last year, despite canceling my game, I decided to give it another go. I was really attached to the idea I felt I was approaching with Stealth Target, so I wanted to give it another try. Since I realized the aesthetics and UI were the biggest problems, I decided to take the game back to “Glorious 2-D” and use the aesthetic from my earlier Ludum Dare game Anathema Mines for the starting point of this game.

Here are cut-down versions of the blogs posts I made during the October Challenge 2011. Additional commentary included below the quotes.

Oct 13th – October Challenge, take 2

I’m doing brute-force ray casting here and it works great. It’s really nice to be targeting the desktop using C, so I can do stuff like that. (The older LD version was in python so I had to code it smart, and if I were targeting mobile I’d have to be more optimized.) Anyway, my goal is to have this game selling on the Mac App Store before the end of the month for a few bucks.

TECH: I’ve done a fair bit of optimization here, but really, the main gist is that I raycast from the center of the light until I hit something. I have a few optimizations and whatnot that help make this faster, but nothing super clever. A win for the component object system was that I’m able to change the size of the shadows each object has, which helps for the fine tuning of the look. If you look carefully you can see the size of the player’s shadow get larger when he dies and falls down.

BIZ: I changed my mind about the Mac App Store before the end of the month. I soon realized that this game was coming out really good and that it was going to be worth taking the extra time to really polish it up before releasing it for sale.

Oct 14th – More lighting stuff

I re-did my lighting systems in the game so now I can have various colored lights and I can add ambient light to corners of the caves.

TECH: Each tile on the map is given an RGBA “lighting” component. Each frame I color where light is on the map, and then I blur the coloring of the map. Then I draw the flooring and tiles using the lighting values. I use a different averaged color for each corner so that the shading is nice and smooth. When the player walks you can see the lighting jump ahead by tiles, it’s a technical shortcoming, but it “feels okay” because it feels like the light is flickering a little.

Oct 15th – Technology .. explosions!!

Some new goodies today. Well, the explosions I’ve had for a while, but I just added in the technology that you have to destroy in order to defeat the evil over-lords or whatever. The technology is RED that’s how you know it’s EVIL technology.

DESIGN: If you remember back to Dynamite the core game mechanic was exploding the load bearing pilars in the game so that the building would collapse. I decided that collapsing the cave like that didn’t make much sense, and that glowing alien technology would just look way cooler. I had to come up with a way for blowing up the tech to have a purpose, so requiring the user to explode all the tech of a single color to unlock some doors seemed like a straight forward design choice.

DESIGN: You can see the black “pit” below the explosion. In the prototype of the game, the explosions actually created holes in the floor that were impassable. I decided I wanted my game to never back the player into a corner, so I now have the explosions only break down walls and give the player more area to move in, instead of less.

Oct 18th – Level editor thing

So, here’s my level editor thing. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to set up the level entrances / exits / pathways throughout the level. Sort of some kind of cryptic code system. I’m not sure how complicated I want it to be. Depends on if I will have the level editing open to the general public or not.

DESIGN: I was thinking about some really bad ideas at that point …

That said, I think I want it to be editable by normal people. So I think I’ll probably pass on using those weird codes. But at least now I have those cool hex icons for no reason.

DESIGN: I quickly came to the conclusion that if the editor was going to be too hard for a “normal person” to use, I would also eventually get sick of it. So I made sure to only include things in the editor that I felt everyone could use, not just myself. This really helped me when creating the levels for the game. Since I’m not hugely into creating levels, having a super easy to use editor was what made it possible for me to create the 28 levels for the game.

Oct 22nd – Anathema Mines – now with animated characters

UPDATE: Using my cool-sauce edge generation script, with just a few minutes of graphics work I can get a totally different look to my game. This is going to be super helpful to giving my low-budget game the appearance that it has art in it (maybe).

TECH: This is the one place that I really used some fun python code. I created these interesting mini drawings of the walls in the gimp, one of the ones I use in the final game looks like this:

TECH: I then use a python script to use sub-sections of that image and face them in all different directions to generate the 200+ possible wall tiles for that style of wall. It took a fair bit of messing around to get this to work perfectly, and in fact the “red technology” has two separate layers to give it the look it has. I also save alpha data about each of these 200 sub-tiles which I use for the light ray-casting collision detection. I also use the same data for just plain collision detection.

Oct 27th – More shadows, levels, and editor tweaks

Not entirely sure if I’ll make the Oct.31 deadline, but I’m making quite a bit of progress. I’ll keep plodding along and see where I’m at in a few days!

BIZ: I missed the deadline, but I came pretty close … My new objective was to send Valve a pitch video of the gameplay footage to see if they would want the game.

Nov 1st – Anathema Mines: gameplay video footage

Here’s my gameplay demo video. I’m attempting to “monetize” the game as of Oct 31st, so I’ll report back on how well that goes.

BIZ: I didn’t report back, but I will now. I sent the video to Valve along with some of what I was planning. They were interested! Had they said no, I would not have spent more time working on the game. This was my way of attempting to “fail early” on this project by seeing if the game looked good enough to have mass market appeal.

DESIGN: You can see how the guards reacted to seeing your flashlight in the distance in this video. I changed this later on in development as it made the game too hard. Also the other “scientist” characters had that ability, so I decided it would give the game more variety if they behaved differently. You can also see how the guards turn around counter-clockwise in this video. This was somewhat random at one point, but now they always turn clockwise when going between two points. This makes tracking their paths much easier when playing.

It’s been a great month working on this. The game is coming along super-well, I imagine it’ll actually be released publicly in about a month now.

BIZ: I obviously have some rather poor time estimation skills. It is now six months later and the game is finally coming out this week! The amount of work and polish that went into this game were way beyond what I imagined, but it’s been totally worth it! I’m super pleased with how this game came together.

The game is coming out on Thursday, May 10th! Be sure to check it out then

-Phil

P.S. The prototype was named “Anathema Mines”. I almost named the final game “Escape from Anathema Mines” but enough people couldn’t pronounce or remember the name that I decided to change it. A TON of ideas were thrown around, but eventually Dynamite Jack stuck

• Changed name to "Lexathon".
• Revamped dictionary.
• User modifiable dictionary.
• Added shuffle button to landscape layout for small/mid sized devices.
• Nine letter word highlighted in gold.
• Fixed error restoring app on some versions of Eclair.

That’s the politically incorrect 1970s premise behind new Android gaming release Angry Wife, which is one of the latest batch of new Android games released by indie developer Atomicom. Atomicom used to call itself Playbox, and is/was behind the excellent 3D runner game Switch among others.

This is quite different to that, though. This is a 2D puzzler where you avoid objects.

How on earth did she get that fridge out of the window? It took two workmen to deliver the thing. Angry Wife is on the Play Store here (free) and here (paid).

Meanwhile, Atomicom has also released gem-based puzzler Tiny Jewels, silly 2D shooter Cats & Bombs and a high-spec 3D racing tech demo it calls Hawthorne Park (above) that’s specifically for Tegra-based machines.

Hawthorne Park costs a whopping £10, but the developer promises the money will be used to help fund the final release, which demo buyers will get for free, Kickstarter style, along with their names in the credits.

Version 0.6 of the omnibus edition of The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development, as re-envisioned as part of The Big Book Reboot, is available to most subscribers. Those who subscribed after around 8am Eastern Time on May 4th will start getting the Omnibus with the next update.

This release adds ~200 pages, including a bunch of brand-new material:

• Nine new tutorials

• A largely rewritten chapter on Internet access

• A partially rewritten chapter on Intents, filters, and broadcasts, incorporating some material originally found in The Busy Coder’s Guide to Advanced Android Development

• A slightly revised chapter on services

• A largely rewritten chapter on large-screen strategies and tactics

• A largely rewritten chapter on backwards-compatibility strategies and tactics

This release tweaked the PDF format a bit, arranging for all chapters to begin on the right-hand page, to work better when printed.

The next update, 0.7, is expected to be out in about two weeks, with the rest of the new tutorials, plus a few more chapters.

If you encounter problems with the Omnibus or have other Omnibus-related feedback, please contact me at omnibus /at\ commonsware.com.

So with all this talk about Android market share and the copyright/IP trial it might be helpful to understand what the Android OS and Android Application System is and their relationship to the Mobile Device Indsutry as far as new innovations are concerned.

Mobile Industry Background

Although there were many mobile OSes in the beginning years before year 2000, mobile did not really take off until Nokia partnered with some of its competitors to come up with a new mobile operating system. Right before and during that time Motorola came up with a way to run java on a mobile device by stripping out major parts of java and getting Sun Microsystems to declare a new java edition catering to mobile devices.

While Java2Me gave us an application system to build on multiple OSes it was hamstrung by the OEMs into this we will never update the JVM/Application part of the OS and thus was a nightmare to develop and maintain mobile applications. Some middleware firms saw this road block as an opportunity to develop a new JavaOS for mobile outlook. Sun even bought one of the firms and its IP became javaFX.

Competing Smartphone Definitions

Its at this point that two firms decide to not rely on OEMs and comeupwith their own versions of Mobile OSes and redefine what a Smartphone is as Nokia originally defined the smartphone in its first release of a Series60 device sometime ago. Apple of course came up with a Mobile OS that mimic their MacOSX in the mobile context with a embedded Webkit Webview, GPS, etc;.

Of course Google at the same time came up with their own definition after having bought the startup Android INC.

What is Android?

Android is thinking about the mobile OS as the empowering the human user operating as the a human recognized mobile computing device serving humans hence the term android which ,means a robot like computer in a recognizeable human form. But how does that go beyond say just embedding webkit into a mobile OS for touch-based mobile devices?

The Android Operating System

We have some layers:

• Application Layer
• Application Framework Layer
• Core Librariues in C and an Android Core runtime library along with the Virtual Machine Dalvik
• Linux Kernel andmobile device drivers

Everything in blue is what the developer relies on in the form of APIs to write the Android mobile application. Everything in the yellow layer is the Virtual Machine called Dalvik. Everything in green is in C++ and provides such things as OpenGL WebkitWebview and other media libraries. Everything in red is the OS kernel.

Android Magic: Application Structure

Themagic that Google added to Android is in the application components. First and foremost, each application runs in ina dalvik VM instance and as a separate Linux process and under a separate user. This is why we do not have a traditional multi-user with mobile android devices amd its a security quirk you have to be aware of when designing mobile applications as most people from time to time hand over their device to their friends to show an application.

In an android application we have these possible components:

• Activities
• Services
• Content Providers
• Broadcast Receivers
• Intents

These components allow us not only to talk to the indiidual components of the application but to talk to other installed applications and components. If you will, an android nervous sytem interface in the same way that a human organ hooks into our own nervous system.

Activities

Each androdi application is broken down into manageabe activity units with one main activity identified in the androidi manifest as the applicaiton starting main activity. Activities represent single user screens and are often indepentn of one another.

Services

You saw the IPC component in the Linux Kernel of the Android Architecture diagram, right? The services component of android applications allows us to integrae with the IPC and run things in background, for example file downloads such as a downloaded application. Its just a service and no user interface is provided.

Content Providers

A content provider is an abstract of application data that happens to be tied to the SQlite component of the android OS system. Because we have a multi-user system where each application is its own user, each application with the right user set permissions can query this application data through the content provider.

Broadcast Receivers

Its actually the object that receives notifications in form of Intent Objects. The notification bar on your android device displays results of receiving such Intent Objects. These are special Intents known as system wide boradcast annoucements. However, applications can also receive broadcasts from other applications to start an application component.

Intents

An Android Intent is this magical application call,notice I said application call? For example, Webkit Webview can send an intent upon receiving a user click on a mobile telephone link and open the dialer to make the call. But that is not all, you can as an indvidual developer send intents to user installed applications.

Android Nervous System

Its the Android Nervous System that connects application components to each other and other applications both system applications and user installed applications that makes the Android OS unique among Mobile Operating Systems. Other Smartphone Operating Systems are less human or if you prefer less social.

Whenever we talk about server-side apps and RAP mobile, one topic always comes up: how to access native functionality like Geolocation or the Camera. With this post I want to show you how we access this functionality on the server-side. At writing, we’ve implemented Geolocation Support, and more additions are planned for the near future.

I have to point out one thing first.  When you take look at RAP mobile from a very abstract view, it is nothing more than an object synchronization mechanism. That is, if a button (or any other widget) is created on the server it also needs to be created on the client. This is exactly the same for native functionality. When the server needs the location of the client it has to tell the client that it needs the location. Then, the client has to tell the server the location and this cycle starts over again. The challenge in this approach is to hook the location to the right session. Fortunately, RAP’s server side has solved these issues a long time ago, and it’s pretty easy to hook this information together.

One issue that remains is that SWT has no API for native access because it was made for the desktop. So, a new API is required that needs be an abstraction for all devices. But wait a minute – this sounds like a well known problem that has been solved already. I’m referring to Phonegap/Cordova. This technology created a JavaScript abstraction for accessing native functionality within HTML5 Apps. And, IMHO, these guys did a really great job and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. We decided to take the Phonegap API as a template and created a very similar Java API. Our first result is the Geolocation API which is located in the RAP mobile server code. As mentioned in previous posts, everything on the server side is open source, including this API. The RAP mobile server code is located in the com.eclipsesource.rap.mobile*.jar and is included in the demos target. You can also take a look the Geolocation API here at github.

We have created a demo for the Location API, which you can see in the videos linked below. The source code for this demo is also located on github. To conclude, I can proudly say that with RAP mobile it’s now possible to access the Geolocation API of iOS and Android from Java by writing the code only once!

When managing the inventory of your paid applications, you can choose any one of the following options:

1. Stock a number of copies for sale
2. Provide a number of static license keys that you pre-generate for each copy for sale

OR

3. Use the new SlideME [Remote Keys] Licensing API to dynamically license keys for each copy for sale

How does this remote licensing option work differently than using static keys?

read more

The sounds of keyboards clicking and caffeine-loaded sips. If someone walked in unannounced, they’d think it a head-phoned cult summoned by their master to type.

Nope, just another Mutual Mobile hackathon.

Designers and engineers met on the weekend at high noon for the latest smack down. Throwing out app ideas gathered prior to the event, participants piled them into good, decent, and those “not so great.” Clear winners included an Instagram global map and a Jira status board, and from there it was all about how to divide and conquer.

Ryan Engle, an engineer focused on building the Instagram app, said, “My goals were to first display a 3D globe that showed the real-time position of the sun, then import the top photos and their location information, finally displaying them on the globe.”

A big part of the hackathon is dividing tasks amongst participants, so they don’t conflict with each other’s implementation to make the most of crunch time. Hackers stopped to ask each other for advice or clarifications, but mostly it was a day of headphones on, straight-up coding. “My drink of choice was Mountain Dew, and snacking on Goldfish,” said Engle.

There’s hope for an even bigger and better turnout for the next one, since any hackathon’s success lies in a group of people truly passionate about creating, willing to get it done at any cost. That energy is where the next big idea is born.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is perhaps the most anticipated smartphone of 2012, only challenged for this title by the iPhone 5 / new iPhone. The Galaxy S2, launched in 2011, was one of the biggest selling smartphones of all time and the biggest threat to the iPhone's as yet unrivalled supremacy. This was no doubt the main underlying reason for Apple suing Samsung left right and centre and deciding to ditch to Korean firm as its main source for iPhone components.

Apple of course denies that it feels threatened by the Samsung Galaxy range, instead insisting that the spate of lawsuits were in response to Samsung slavishly copying Apple's products and designs. Images were produced in various courts throughout the world showing the similarity between TouchWiz, the Android interface used on most Samsung phones, and Apple's own iOS. Then there was the whole issue of the solitary central home button found on the S2, and Apple was quick to point out that it invented centrally aligned buttons on phones, app icons and even rectangular devices.

But in some respects Apple are correct – Samsung have been copying Apple's ideas. Apple has a knack for creating a foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria around its product launches, shunning the rest of the industry and insisting on doing things its own way. Apple does not attend industry events such as the Consumer Electronics Show or Mobile World Congress, instead opting for its own launch events which give the company an air of exclusivity and of being something quite unique.

MWC – Where is the S3?

Although Samsung did have a few smartphones on show at Mobile World Congress, many had their hopes dashed by meeting with the Galaxy Beam instead of the Galaxy S3. Instead, Samsung promised that the long awaited flagship would make an appearance at a separate event at an unconfirmed date later in the year. This vagueness created a buzz with onlookers wondering if each successive Samsung press conference would be the one where the S3 finally made an appearance.

Samsung has also taken cues from Apple by maintaining the utmost secrecy surrounding the phone, refusing to even confirm a rough estimate of its launch. Apple famously keeps its employees under strict control regarding prototype iPhones and iPhone components, even launching raids on the homes of people who seem to know too much. This secrecy leads everyone and anyone to speculate on what they think might make an appearance on the device.

New smartphone models need testing, in real world conditions and on various networks across the globe, which means that they inevitably need to come out of their top secret hidey hole at some point. This is usually when the blurry leaked images start to appear online, and much of the mystery surrounding the phone is dispelled.

Samsung has taken unusual steps to prevent this from happening, by sending the phone's components for testing in a non-descript plastic box. This box allows third parties to run their necessary tests without having any concrete knowledge of how the phone will appear once it is released. Again, this is a tactic that is also employed by Apple, who has reportedly been providing test models of the iPhone 5 contained within iPhone 4 cases. The lack of any concrete knowledge about the phone ensures that the frenzied interest is maintained at its highest level until launch day.

Leaked Images

Without the usual leaked images available to feed people's curiosity, a vacuum is created for anyone with a modicum of Photoshop knowledge to produce their own mock-up and attempt to fool the world with their vision of the future. Here are some of the more prominent "leaked" images that have appeared online in the last few months:

This first image is of a phone featured in a Samsung video. The phone has not been identified, and Samsung has not commented on the device. But as it is a genuine Samsung phone that at least existed at one point it is the leaked image with the most weight behind it.

This next image was released by Eldar Murtazin, and industry insider with a lot of important connections who has a habit of releasing rumours which turn out to be fairly accurate. Unfortunately this one was not. Murtazin claimed this "press shot" of the S3 from February was from an upcoming launch of the device at Mobile World Congress, which we all know never took place. The phone also looks suspiciously like the Galaxy S2 with a few Ice Cream Sandwich buttons added to the bottom.

Steve Blank is known for his teachings on the Silicon Valley type of entrepreneurship, with his ideas forming the basis for the "lean startup movement" amongst other things.  He writes frequently on entrepreneurship, and with a great deal of credibility, having been involved in various startups in a number of roles.  He has, without a doubt, walked the walk in terms of startups, and now seems to be spending his time helping other people learn how to walk the same path.  That's a noble thing to be doing when, with the money he's made, he could probably be off doing pretty much whatever he wants.

If you've heard of Steve Blank, you've probably also heard his famous phrase: "get out of the building", an admonition to startup founders to get out and talk with their customers to validate their ideas, rather than huddling in their offices building something that may or may not have a market.

With that in mind, when I saw he had a new book out, The Startup Owner's Manual, I thought "great, that's one I'll get without hesitating!".  Unfortunately, though, an eBook wont' be out until "2nd half of 2012"!  Ouch.

To me, his ignoring eBooks is indicative of a need to get a bit further outside the building, though.  "I want an eBook" was probably the biggest request on his blog post announcing the new book, along side messages of thanks for writing the book.

After reading, on Blank's blog about the availability of the book from BookDepository Ltd, who offer free worldwide shipping, I went ahead and ordered it even if I would have prefered the eBook.  Since they're in the UK, and I'm in Italy, I figure it can't take that long, right?

Wrong.  I ordered on March 15th, and as of April 13th, it still isn't here.

Compare and contrast with the other books I'm currently reading which I was able to order and start looking at in just a few minutes on my Kindle.

Granted, Steve Blank surely isn't doing this for the money, and from that point of view has little real need to listen to his customers - it's not wrong to say he's doing the world a favor by writing the book in the first place.  If he thinks a paper version is far superior, that's his perogative.  However, I think he's doing a lot of his readers a disservice by not making the eBook available sooner.  I know I would have liked to start reading what he had to say last month, rather than waiting for a paper book to make its way (by mule train?) down here to Italy.  The crux of the matter is that while he may well be right in thinking a paper book is "better", for some people, an eBook is the only option, and for them, an "inferior" eBook is a heck of a lot better than no book at all.

Also, on a more constructive note, with eBooks, you can get pretty creative.  For instance, if you have a tabular worksheet, you can simply hyperlink to it in, say, Google Docs, so that those with more advanced devices like iPads can open up the link and start working with a real, live spreadsheet immediately, rather than a chart in a printed book.  Granted, that means 'giving away' the worksheet, but presumably it's not that valuable on its own, and makes for great advertising if it gets a lot of attention.

Finally, since I actually run a business that does eBook conversions , on the blog post announcing the book, I offered to donate our services, so he'd get his book done for free, so you can't accuse me of just complaining!

Mr. Blank, get out of that building and make an eBook available, please!

[This post is by Francesco Nerieri, engineering team lead for C2DM — Tim Bray]

In the upcoming weeks, some of the older Client Login authentication keys will expire. If you generated the token you’re currently using to authenticate with the C2DM servers before October 2011, it will stop working.

If the response from the C2DM servers contains an Update-Client-Auth header, you’ll need to replace the current token with the one included in the header.

  // Check for updated token header
  String updatedAuthToken = conn.getHeaderField(UPDATE_CLIENT_AUTH);
  if (updatedAuthToken != null && !authToken.equals(updatedAuthToken)) {
    log.info("Got updated auth token from datamessaging servers: " +
        updatedAuthToken);
    serverConfig.updateToken(updatedAuthToken);
  }

We suggest that you start using the Update-Client-Auth response header to update tokens regularly, as keys will expire periodically from now on. For example, have a look at the Chrome to Phone service hosted on code.google.com; this code takes care of authenticating via Client Login and then sending a message:

Alternatively, you can manually generate a new Client Login token now and replace the one currently in use. ClientLogin can be used with any application that can make an HTTPS POST request. The POST request should be structured as a form post with the default encoding application/x-www-form-urlencoded, like this:

POST /accounts/ClientLogin HTTP/1.0
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

accountType=GOOGLE&Email=johndoe@gmail.com&Passwd=north23AZ&service=ac2dm

If the POST succeeds, the response contains the authorization token, labeled "Auth", which is your new token. You could even do this from the command line:

curl -d \
  "accountType=HOSTED_OR_GOOGLE&Email=johndoe@gmail.com&Passwd=north23AZ&service=ac2dm" \
  https://www.google.com/accounts/ClientLogin | \
  grep Auth

If your request fails or if you are prompted for captchas, please read ClientLogin for Installed Applications. And of course, if you updated your code to use the Update-Client-Auth header after the keys had expired, then you will first need to manually generate a new token.

Have fun with C2DM!

Hello,

For a change, it’s not Rohan here. Work on Camera is still a WIP. Code for the camera libraries are closed source with NVidia and getting around the camera sub-system is taking longer than expected.

Having said that, if you are waiting for the camera update, voicing at Tegra Forum might help though most of the questions are either deleted or never replied. Here is one of the dev for Adam voicing for support, but even the last suggestion suggests to move on to OMAP

As the lead for the sw, it is extremely important for us to make sure that the roadmap doesn’t break anything on Adam 1. The only option (and better one) was to opt for RenderScript.

RenderScript is hardware independent (though can be tweaked) and development on RS will make sure that Adam 1 stays in SW support for at least 2 more years.

RenderScript and SVG are going to be in out focus for next two-year here at Notion Ink. Below is a very small sample of RenderScript rendering an A3D model of simple sphere, with Earth Map (from Nasa), bump map created using GIMP, couple of lights and animation (not obvious from an image).

Frankly sharing anything on development on next versions of Eden doesn’t make sense till the camera issue is resolved. That’s the last piece of puzzle, and if you can help sport your voice on that forum, possibly we can fix things faster.

As an ex developer of a leading brand you all know about, it is really fascinating to even absorb the idea of how community has made more than 200 ROM variants for Adam. Unlike Adam 1, there will be no short-cuts for 2. If something not working, it won’t go out. Our roadmap is built for next 4 years, so there will be speed differences. But one thing is clear and that’s what I bring here at NI, great products needs stronger fundamentals, and that’s what we will build first.

Last words on the next generation SW approach. We are approaching the era of micro-apps. Every app cannot be tuned in for a particular user. A doctor may have 15 years of formal education and 25 years of practice, but when it comes to sw, he can’t possible build one. But if see clearly, IDEs and APIs like Android SDK and iOS SDK have worked till now to ease the development of the programmers to attract more developers, making things sometimes as easy as making a “task flow” like an accountant would do, “refer” a value in one cell of a sheet to another cell. There is a truck load of information yet to come, but first things first.

Best

V

Hello All,

We are back from hibernation now! Sorry for the break (much-needed on our end).

Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!

Regards

Rohan Shravan

When i was in SF we worked on a pretty resource intensive app that easily goes beyond the Java heap limit on Android if one counts native resources against the Java heap. We received quite a few OutOfMemoryExceptions, which would happen if we’d have used Android’s Bitmap class, which stores pixel data on the native heap, but counts it against the Java heap. We did not use Bitmap, so it was puzzling to us how our app could throw OOMs. On the Java side we barely scratched the 10mb barrier.

To communicate with native code (non-Java, e.g. C/C++) one has two options. Either transfer data from the Java heap to the native heap, or allocate space on the native heap in the first place, circumnavigating the Java heap completely. One mechanism to do the later is to use direct buffers, A Java object that wraps the address and size of a native heap memory location. The VM usually doesn’t count the native heap memory of a direct buffer against it’s Java heap memory. Turns out Android’s Dalvik VM is special in that regard compared to say Hotspot.

The first, generally known, situation where the Dalvik VM counts native heap memory against the Java heap memory is the use of the Bitmap class. A Bitmap is a thin wrapper around a native heap memory area that stores pixel data. To enfore application memory limits, that native heap memory of the Bitmap is counted against the Java heap, which is limited to 16-25mb on Android. Hard to cope with for Android developers at times (see Stackoverflow), but understandable from the perspective that a mobile device has limited resources, even more so if you have true multitasking.

For direct buffers i assumed the situation to be different. Direct buffers provide a way to allocate memory outside the bounds of the Java heap memory and are not counted against the Java heap on most VMs. Let’s see what happens on Dalvik. Observe the following code:

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/java/java/nio/BufferFactory.java#L92

This method is called when one allocates a new direct ByteBuffer through ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(int numBytes), which returns a ByteBuffer that points at a native memory area of numBytes bytes. Following through we get to

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/java/java/nio/ReadWriteDirectByteBuffer.java#L47

which calls

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/java/java/nio/DirectByteBuffer.java#L64

This is where it gets interesting. The first statement in that constructor allocates the native memory through a call to PlatformAddressFactory.alloc(). The second statement tells the address wrapper object (SafeAddress) that this memory area should be automatically deallocated when the buffer instance (and thus the address wrapper instance) is garbage collected. Let’s see what the PlatformAddressFactory.alloc() method does.

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/java/org/apache/harmony/luni/platform/PlatformAddressFactory.java#L128

It calls into OSMemory.malloc(), which invokes a C++ method that actually allocates the native heap memory. Also observe line 140, where the memorySpy is informed of the newly allocated memory area. We’ll get to that later, as it has some more implications.

What happens in OSMemory.malloc()? This:

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_luni_platform_OSMemory.cpp#L43

It actually tracks the native memory allocated and counts it against the Java heap:

jboolean allowed = env->CallBooleanMethod(gIDCache.runtimeInstance,
            gIDCache.method_trackExternalAllocation, static_cast<jlong>(size));

This will return false if the requested memory size would exceed the Java heap. In line 64 we see that the first 8 bytes store the size of the buffer so memory can be subtracted from the used Java heap size again if the buffer is deallocated (when it’s GCed), see

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_luni_platform_OSMemory.cpp#L72

The second issue is the memory spy thing i mentioned above. What does that do? Bucket of salt: this is my understanding of it which might be wrong.

Every time we allocate a new direct buffer (and thus PlatformAddress) the memory spy is informed of that event. It keeps so called PhantomReferences to all of these PlatformAddresses. These references allow us to get information on whether a Java object was garbage collected. The problem is that you have to poll that information, as you can’t register a callback that gets invoked when the GC kills a Java object. So, the designers of that code had to come up with a mechanism to frequently do that.

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_libcore/blob/gingerbread/luni/src/main/java/org/apache/harmony/luni/platform/RuntimeMemorySpy.java#L50

This method is called whenever we allocate new native heap memory. The first couple of lines poll the reference queue, if a platform address was GCed, the spy can also free up the native heap memory (orphanedMemory(ref)). Due to this design you always leak one direct buffer, as you have to allocate a new buffer so that the polling mechanism is kicked off.

Games written in C/C++ do not suffer from these problems. They can allocate memory all day long without Android ever getting angry about it. Games like Shadowgun wouldn’t be possible without that ignorance of Dalvik. If you write a pure Java game for Android you’ll suffer from that problem.

For libgdx games you don’t have to worry as we added a very nasty 3 line hack that will ensure that the memory allocated for a ByteBuffer is not counted against the Java heap. While i completely understand that there have to be memory limits, the situation is different for games. Adding this little “hack” at least allows us to cheat just as the native guys do. (See BufferUtils#newUnsafeByteBuffer()).

I’d like to introduce a new change to libgdx, where we do not load any resources from disk anymore. Instead we cache everything (pixel and vertex data) in memory. This would mean we’d have to change the semantics of a few things for the better. Any unmanaged textures would be managed now, e.g. textures constructed from Pixmaps.

HTC is continuing to expand its affordable range of Android powered smartphones with the latest rumours suggesting that a handset called the Golf is soon to join its catalogue of products.

The HTC Golf will be an entry level smartphone which is pitched to replace the HTC Explorer, which has been on the market for just a few months now.

Information leaked about the HTC Golf suggests that it will sport a 3.5 inch touchscreen display, which is a little larger than the 3.2 inch panel found on the Explorer.

It will also feature Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the latest iteration of Google`s mobile operating system. Powering this will be a single core processor clocked below the 1GHz mark, although you will get a 512MB allocation of RAM to help Android run smoothly.

HTC has been attempting to present a more united front in 2012 after it saw profits slip in 2011 due to its oversaturation of the market with smartphone after smartphone. The HTC Golf looks like it could be a worthy addition to the lower price bracket and could be one of the most affordable ways to experience Android 4.0.

Of course if you are already in possession of the Samsung Galaxy S2, last year`s most critically acclaimed Android smartphone, then you may be wondering when an update which brings Android 4.0 to the table will arrive.

Samsung recently confirmed that the rumours of an imminent update were true, before eventually dismissing them as incorrect. This may seem like it is toying with its fans, but closer inspection reveals that there was simply a bit of confusion within the firm itself.

The dual core power of the Samsung Galaxy S2 will be a perfect fit for the advanced capabilities of Android 4.0, so fans will be anxious to see an update arrive, particularly if they are tied into a 2 year contract.

However, the approach of the Samsung Galaxy S3, which should be launched and in stores by the middle of the year, could easily overshadow Android 4.0`s arrival on the Galaxy S2.

The Galaxy S3 has been kept under wraps by Samsung so far, although it was originally going to make its debut at the Mobile World Congress 2012 back in February.

While not much is known about the technical aspects of this handset, it is assumed that it will pack a quad core processor, a high definition display and Android 4.0 as standard.

People who have invested in the Galaxy S2 will not be too disappointed to see the Galaxy S3 arrive and trump their handset as long as Android 4.0 is available via an update. Of course those with a smaller budget to spend on Android mobile phones may be more interested in the arrival of the HTC Golf, because it is always good to see a value-oriented handset getting some high end features.

Did you know you can easily promote your apps on websites, blogs, and forums using SlideME Widgets like the one below?

Get the OfficeSuite Android app from SlideME.

SlideME Widgets work a lot like ads, except they can provide more details than simply a purchase link. These widgets are designed to display relevant up-to-date info about your apps straight from the SlideME Market, such as the developer, price, or even your application icon. Using the provided HTML code, you can embed these widgets into nearly any internet medium that provides HTML capability. You could place them on your website, on a company blog, within internal or external forums, or even marketing emails. We provide a variety of Widget designs you can implement with little effort.

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So, hands up if your notification bar looks like this:

I see similar levels of clutter when other people show me their phones, and this just isn't a good user interface. These icons mean all kinds of different things, and the level of urgency of each one is really not clear. They're just ordered by most recent update first. On CyanogenMod I can turn off the clock to fit all 9 of them in, but really, a lot of them shouldn't be here.

There's an excellent Android Design article on notifications, highlighting many of the common reasons for notification clutter. If you see one of those anti-patterns, you should definitely bug the app developer about it (by email please! - again, we can't reply to Market comments), but that's not what's happening here. Let's look through them shall we? (I clicked in a text box, so now there are 10.)

Now we can see: 3 I really want, 3 system ones that aren't really notifying me of very much, and the other 4 are just background services that I really want to keep running. Apps like that have to show a notification, even if they've nothing to say, to avoid being killed, in line with an API change that was made in Android 2.0 (and here's the relevant API doc).

I think that was the right decision for Android at the time. As that article says, there was very much a tragedy of the commons problem with background services before then, with every app declaring itself to be high priority, the platform unable to make good decisions about what to kill, and users getting the short straw with slow phones where the apps they wanted to keep running would keep getting killed. So with that change, apps had more incentive to limit their use of background services, and users were much more likely to notice and take action when an app they didn't want was hogging resources.

The problem now is that this phone has a dual-core 1.2GHz chip and 1GB of RAM, and can happily run much more stuff in the background than can sensibly be prominently displayed to the user all the time (a nice problem to have). It means there really needs to be a better UI for managing background functionality. I don't have a definite answer to this problem, let alone a plan to migrate all the existing background apps to it, but here are a couple of ideas:

• Ditch these notifications in favour of the "Running" tab under "Manage apps", which could perhaps be surfaced as a second tab of the notification drawer? Or just a shortcut to it on that top line with the date?
• Remove their icons from the status bar, and keep them in the drawer, at the bottom, in a dedicated section which by default is collapsed to just icons. Have an expand/collapse button, and persist that state.

A big difficulty here is identifying which notifications serve no other purpose. Often a notification on which startForeground() is called is also displaying useful information, or acting as a shortcut for something that the user will frequently want to switch to without using the home screen. The second idea above seems safe-ish to apply to ongoing notifications from existing apps where a custom layout is not used, but you might have one app whose detail text you really want to see, and then you have to keep the whole thing expanded all the time. Still, even putting non-ongoing notifications first seems like an improvement to me.

For myself, I might put a band-aid on it by adding a CyanogenMod option to hide the icons of ongoing notifications from the status bar. Even then, I'd like the pull-down drawer to at least prioritise notifications that are, y'know, notifying me.

Better ideas, anyone? Bueller?

Comments preferred at http://chris.boyle.name/2012/03/android-foreground-service-notifications using OpenID/Facebook/Twitter (comments elsewhere are unlikely to reach me).

Rather than doing a time-based scrolling feed of today’s event, this time we’re bringing you a curated summary of the important announcements. For a more conventional scrolling liveblog, see CNET’s Apple iPad live blog. After the event, be sure to join Tech Republic’s Let’s talk iPad webcast.

Major announcements:

• New iPad announced, available March 16, pre-orders open today starting at $499
  • Retina display (2048×1536 resolution / 9.7in = 264dpi). Existing apps will be scaled up automatically, but developers can add support for retina display
  • A5X dual core processor with “quad core graphics”, estimated at 2x faster than iPad2, 4x faster than Tegra 3
  • iSight camera: 5 Megapixels, backside illumination, 5-element lens, autofocus, face detection, 1080p video
  • Voice dictation: microphone icon in the keyboard
  • 4G LTE:  21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, LTE at 73Mbps. Supported networks: AT&T, Verizon, Telus, Rogers, and Bell
  • 9.4mm thick, 1.4lbs. Comes in black or white.
  • Battery rated for 10 hours on 3G, 9 hours on 4G.
  • WiFi: $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB
  • 4G: $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, $829 for 64GB (=$130 premium)
• iPad 2 reduced in price to $399 for 16GB WiFi, $529 for 16GB 3G.
• New Apple TV announced, supports 1080p. Coming March 16, $99. Pre-orders open today.
• iOS 5.1 available now, includes Japanese Siri
• New iPhoto for iPad completes the iLife suite there, supports editing, beaming, and journals

Miscellaneous facts:

• 315M iOS devices sold, 62M in Q4 2011
• 55M iPads sold, 15.4M iPads in Q4 2011
• 200K apps custom built to take advantage of the iPad screen
• iPad 2 had 3.1Mbps on EV-DO, 7.2 on HSPA.

Notable demos on stage:

• Namco showed “Sky Gamblers”, a flight sim game
• Autodesk showed “Sketchbook Ink”, a drawing app that focuses on line art (available in April), supports exports up to 100Mpixels.
• Epic Games showed “Infinity Blade: Dungeons”, a 3rd person RPG game
• Apple apps such as iWork, GarageBand, iMovie (still $9.99) and new iPhoto.
  • Connect up to 4 iOS devices together with GarageBand over WiFi or Bluetooth for a live jam session.
  • iMovie for iPad can create movie trailers like the Mac version does.
  • New iPhoto app can beam pictures to other iPads, heavy use of gestures including bezel gestures. Edit, straighten, and fix. Supports up to 19 Mpixels.
  • Share pictures into a journal, annotate with text, maps, even weather info.

In case you’re wondering, it looks like the new iPad is just called “The New iPad” or “The 3rd generation iPad”, not iPad3 or iPad HD or any of the other names that were rumored before the event. You can call it the “4G iPad” if you like, but 4G is extra cost. The new iPad uses the same dock connector as the current iPads, which debunks another rumor.

The A5X is described as a “dual core CPU with a quad core GPU”. I’m not sure exactly what that means. Most GPUs are way more than quad core - for example the Tegra 3 has 12 graphics processors that operate in parallel. Also unknown is the chip’s clock rate and the size of the iPad’s memory. These details will probably come out next week when people start tearing them apart.

For more coverage see:

• Apple’s new iPad: First Take
• New Apple TV announced at iPad event
• Meet Apple’s new iPad, now with a Retina Display
• Apple announces HD iPad, AppleTV and iOS 5.1

Didn’t see that one coming. Instead of giving up on its heretofore failed foray into music, books, and video, Google announced today it was combining all of its entertainment offerings into one site: Google Play:

Starting today, Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore will become part of Google Play. On your Android phone or tablet, we’ll be upgrading the Android Market app to the Google Play Store app over the coming days. Your videos, books and music apps (in countries where they are available) will also be upgraded to Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music apps. The music, movies, books and apps you’ve purchased will continue to be available to you through Google Play—simply log in with your Google account like always.

Despite being far-and-away the most popular part of the new service, Android apps are relegated to last place on the screen. The other items are not even available yet in most parts of the world (music is currently U.S. only, movies in the US, UK, Canada, and Japan, and books in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia). And don’t even get me started on the prospect of selling serious business applications on something called the “Play Store”.

Links to the Android Market are already being redirected to the new Google Play web site, and Google is rolling out updates to rebrand their apps on all Android devices running 2.2 and above. Developers should read the Google Play FAQ for Android Apps Developer page and the updated Android Branding Guidelines page.

• Support for Motorola Razr, Photon, other large screens
• Move to SD Card
• Minor bug fixes and tweaks

In your Fragment class, if you create listener on a particular interface, and make the parent implement that interface, you can communicate via events.

First create the interface:

public interface OnNewFragmentPressed {

void onNewFragmentPressed();

}

Then create a listener method of that interface.

public static class NewFragment extends Fragment {

    private OnNewFragmentPressed mListener;

…

Then in the onAttach() method of your Fragment, use the passed in Activity to make sure it implements the interface, and set the listener to that.

@Override

    public void onAttach(Activity activity) {

        super.onAttach(activity);

        try {

           mListener = (OnNewFragmentPressed) activity;

        } catch(ClassCastException e) {

           throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString() + ” didn’t implement OnNewFragmentPressed”);

        }

   }        

Now you can call methods of that interface, thereby interacting with your parent Activity.

In your FragmentActivity, you can call getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(“tag”), or findFragmentById(R.id.frag), to access the child Fragment. From there you can call its methods.

Similarly, in the Fragment, you can call getActivity() to get access to the parent FragmentActivity().

Two requested features landed in this new release:

• The ability to use the volume buttons to navigate between items
• The possibility to control the feed items limit per feed

Playing games on your mobile phone may have once seemed anti-social, but thanks to the multiplayer game, this needn’t be the case. If you fancy sharing a game with friends, then here are just a few of those which we would recommend.

4 Player Reactor

This fast-paced reaction-testing game can actually be customised to accommodate 2, 3 or 4 players. If you think your super-fast reflexes are a match to other, then test them other with this quick-moving game. You’ll need to think fast and stay focused in order to win.

Guerrilla Bob

This multiplayer game first appeared on iOS devices, although it has now made the transition to Android, and is a must-have for fans of first-person shooters. The impressive graphics of Guerrilla Bob are particularly well-suited to large-screen devices, such as the O2 or the HTC Sensation XL. If you want to be both amused and entertained for hours, then this is the app for you.

Words With Friends

Scrabble has made the move to android, and is quickly becoming one of the most popular multiplayer games around. It’s easily to use, and will get you thinking about letter and word combinations quicker than your morning crossword. What’s more, you can have up to twenty games on the go at the same time – so all your friends can get involved.

What the Doodle

Another multiplayer android game which takes its inspiration from the traditional games, What the Doodle is perfect for fans of Pictionary. Simply sketch a word which you are given, and other players will guess what it is that you are trying to draw. It’s also free to download to your android device, and will keep you amused for hours.

Incoming search terms:

• multiplayer android games

Hamster: Attack! is now published by Backflip Studios on Android, the developer of the top games Paper Toss, Ninjump, and many others on iOS.

And with the new release, there are no more coins required to play any of the first 90 levels, including six that are completely new!

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