GSS Daily
Solutions For Mobile Developers
Best Resources In Android Development – July 22nd 2011
Jul 23rd
Best Resources In Android Development – July 22nd 2011
Another great week has gone by with many developers still learning the ins and outs of the new Android Ice cream SDK.
Here are the top new resources on this site from the past week ordered by popularity:
Android Accelerometer handling tutorial
This tutorial explain how to use Android accelerometer. Its using SensorManager class to get x,y,z planes values.
The accelerometer in mobiles is used to measure the orientation or vertical and horizontal positioning of the phone. The most basic application of this is the device knowing when to alternate the view of the screen depending on how you are holding it.
In addition this feature allows app developers to utilize this feature in games and other programs.
Android Menu Handling Tutorial
This tutorial explain how to add menu in Android application. Follow this tutorial step by step.
Android advanced Custom ListView tutorial
This tutorial explain how to develop complex custom lists in Android application. Adding ImageView, TextView, Button etc on ListItem.
Programmatically using weight in Android LinearLayout
Android Developer should not hard code UI Controls height and width. Insted use weight feature on Android. This tutorial explain how to add weights to UI controls programatically.
Android BlueTooth Querying paired devices
This code snippet searches paired devices and send querries to them.
Downloading HTTP file to Android SDcard with progress bar
This code downloads file from given location.
Get the phone’s last known location using LocationManager
This code gives last known location of device.
All tutorials provides step by step implementation guide and complete source
code. Don’t forget to download attached source code zip files.
Google I/O 2011 Video: Android Development Tools
Jul 10th
Google I/O 2011 Video: Android Development Tools
Following video explains all about AVD, DDMS, TraceView, Hierarcy Viewer, Android application UI designing using XML designer etc Android development tools.
Android platform distribution
Jul 9th
Google just updated the Android version distribution charts and confirmed the continued exponential growth of Gingerbread. The latest smartphone version of the platform has managed to more than double its market for a second month in a row and is now the second most popular Android release.
This page provides data about the relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform. This can help you understand the landscape of device distribution and decide how to prioritize the development of your application features for the devices currently in the hands of users.
The following table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Android Market within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.
|
Version |
Market Share, 1 June | Market Share, 5 July | Change |
| 1.5 Cupcake | 1.9% | 1.4% | ▼0.5% |
| 1.6 Donut | 2.5% | 2.2% | ▼0.3% |
| 2.1 Eclair | 21.2% | 17.5% | ▼3.7% |
| 2.2 Froyo | 64.6% | 59.4% | ▼5.2% |
| 2.3 Gingerbread | 1.1% | 1.1% | ▼0.1% |
| 2.3.3 Gingerbread | 8.1% | 17.6% | ▲9.5% |
| 3.0 Honeycomb | 0.3% | 0.4% | ▲0.1% |
| 3.1 Honeycomb | 0.3% | 0.5% | ▲0.2% |
The outdated Android smartphone distributions are, unsurprisingly, continuing their way down, with 1.5 Cupcake, 1.6 Donut and 2.1 Eclair losing a total of 4.5 percent points of their market share. Their shares now stand at 1.4%, 2.2% and 17.5% respectively.
Finally the tablet-ready Android Honeycomb is continuing to make baby steps forward, gaining 0.3 percent points this month. The later distribution, 3.1, is now holding a 0.5% share, while 3.0 has gained 0.1 percent points to a total of 0.4%.
With Android daily activations now over 500000 we expect to see the current trends carry over in the upcoming couple of months. Gingerbread will certainly continue catching up with Froyo, which is now past its peak. If manufacturers and carrier do a good job of the expected updates we might see Android 2.2 and 2.3.3 neck and neck in a just a couple of months.
Best Resources In Android Development – July 9th 2011
Jul 9th
Best Resources In Android Development – July 9th 2011
Another great week has gone by with many developers still learning the ins and outs of the new Android honeycomb SDK.
Here are the top new resources on this site from the past week ordered by popularity:
1. Android Activity Switching Tutorial -
This tutorial is for novice users. It explain step by step implementation on multiple Activity handling on Android.
2. Android stream audio from online sources
This code snippet shows how to play sound files from remote location.
3. How to uniquely identify an Android device?
This code snippet shows how to uniquely identify Android device.
This code fetches content from the web without blocking the UI (runs in the background in a Thread). Once finished, it posts a Handler that is picked up by the UI as soon as possible.
5. Android Accelerometer handling
This code snippet shows how to use Android accelerometer features. Accelerometer gives three values- Azimuth, pitch and roll.
All tutorials provides step by step implementation guide and complete source
code. Don’t forget to join our mobile developer forum.
Related post -
Best Resources In Android Development – June 21st 2011
Future of Android Platform
Jul 5th
Future of Android Platform
“In future Android will be like today Windows desktop platform. It will run on more than 80% smart devices, which includes Tablets, TV, Set Top Boxes, Watches, KIOSK screens, etc”
Way back in November 2007 when Google announced Android, Andy Rubin said “We hope thousands of different phones will be powered by Android.” But now, Android’s growing beyond phones to new kinds of devices. So, I wanted to point out a few interesting new gadgets that are coming soon running the latest versions of Android.
It’s easy to believe that Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad will be more appealing to developers when it comes to potential revenue over Android. Google is just now expanding paid applications to different countries, and they still have a long way to go. With only a few exceptions, Android only allows Google Checkout, which requires users to sign up for yet another payment service. It will take cooperation with the carriers to offer users another way to purchase applications, like having the option to buy an application or game and charge it to their phone bill, as T-Mobile has done.
When it comes to the best operating system in other hardware outside of a smartphone, most developers chose the little green robot. A staggering 72% of developers chose Android, with iOS at 25%, when asked about the OS best positioned to power a large number of connected devices in the future. That said, developer interest in Android tablets is still pretty low, as we really haven’t seen too much hardware. Because of this, the iPad took 84% of the developer interest, as far as tablets are concerned.We expect the iPad to be the go-to tablet until it has some decent competition from any operating system, not just Google’s.
Devices like Apple’s iPhone and the various versions of Blackberry smartphones are revolutionizing computing. Phones and phone-like devices are increasingly blurring the lines between notebook computers, netbooks and phones. The mobile computing revolution is on!
One platform, however, truly stands out as a potential game changer. That platform is the Android platform from Google. Is Android the future of mobile computing? There is certainly a strong potential for Android to shape the future of mobile computing.
Android’s strength comes from its openness. The Android SDK is open source and the license governing Android itself allows any handset manufacturer to use and modify it. This allows Android to shape the future of mobile computing by making it available to any hardware manufacturer that wants to use it. This means that Android is likely to be the OS of choice for future mobile computing hardware like tablet PCs or e-book readers.
Android’s openness also applies to the selection of mobile carrier. This is one area where many users have been unhappy with Apple’s iPhone. Android is widely available which means that most wireless carriers have an Android handset available. Customers want choice. By giving them choice, Android positions itself as the future of mobile computing.
The biggest danger to Android’s dominance over the future of mobile computing is fragmentation. The ability of hardware vendors to extend Android without contributing their changes back to the Android project could lead to various incompatible versions of Android. To some extent, this has already happened as developers have had to struggle some to make their applications to support different hardware capabilities. This fragmentation of Android would make it harder for application developers to write code for Android. Since the support of application developers is crucial to the success of any computing platform, fragmentation could be a serious threat to Android as the future of mobile computing.
Android’s greatest strength, however, is its development kit. In the history of computing, the platforms that supported the application developers best became the clear winners. Failure to support application developers with robust tools killed the really Apple platform and IBM’s OS2. This is a mistake that Apple seems to be willing to repeat with the iPhone. The iPhone development tools are difficult to use and the application approval process seems terribly subjective at times. This makes iPhone application development unprofitable for many developers. In contrast, the Android development tools use Java and even C/C++. This allows developers to write applications for Android using languages they already know and use. Additionally, it allows them to use the tools they are already using such as Eclipse. The Android SDK also provides a very robust emulator so that application developers can test their Android applications without relying on physical hardware to do so. The future of mobile computing will largely be determined by the availability of the applications that end users want and need. In this regard, Android is a clear winner.
Android started on phones, but Android is growing to fit new kinds of devices. Now Android app can run on almost anything, and the potential size of your audience is growing fast. But to fully unlock this additional reach, developers should double-check app and tweak it if they need to, so that it puts its best foot forward.
Great Videos On iPhone OpenGL ES
Jun 21st
Apple has recently released a couple of terrific videos on iPhone OpenGL ES from their Tech Talk. I have not finished watching the videos, but already had some takeaways that I’m going to implement immediately.
You can get the videos free here on iTunes: Advanced Videos From Apple
You will definitely want to check them out if you have not already.
Best Resources In Android Development – June 21st 2011
Jun 21st
Best Resources In Android Development – June 21st 2011
Another great week has gone by with many developers still learning the ins and outs of the new Android honeycomb SDK.
Here are the top new resources on this site from the past week ordered by popularity:
1. Android Advanced LinearLayout Tutorial
This Android linear layout tutorial gives advanced details on Android LinearLayout handling.
2.Android Alert Dialog List View Handling Tutorial
This Android Alert Dialog List handling tutorial gives all details about Android Alert Dialog and its event handling. Tutorial provides complete source code.
3.Android DigitalClock Tutorial
Digital clock is like Analog clock but digital. It shows in seconds.
This tutorial shows step by step implementation of DigitalClock. Tutorialprovides complete source code.
4. Android AnalogClock Tutorial
Its normal Analog Clock. This tutorial shows step by step implementation of AnalogClock. Tutorial provides complete source code.
5. Android DatePicker Tutorial
To provide a widget for selecting a date, use the DatePicker widget, which allows the user to select the month, day, and year, in a familiar interface.
DatePicker is a widget for selecting a date. The date can be selected by a year, month, and day spinners or a CalendarView. The set of spinners and the calendar view are automatically synchronized. The client can customize whether only the spinners, or only the calendar view, or both to be displayed. Also the minimal and maximal date from which dates to be selected can be customized.
This tutorial shows step by step implementation of DatePicker. Tutorial providescomplete source code.
All tutorials provides step by step implementation guide and complete source
code. Don’t forget to download attached source code zip files.
Samsung launched Android developer forum
May 21st
Samsung has launched a new developer forum, just for its Android application developer community. The forum, linked to from Samsung’s existing developers website (http://developer.samsung.com), will include “additional features and functionality,” according to the handset maker. Currently, the forum is offering news, updates, technical advice and support, plus many other development tools and SDK plugins.
Google Android new version launched – Ice Cream Sandwich
May 21st
Google at Google IO announced the next version of its Android mobile operating system. As previously reported, Google is carrying on the dessert theme for Android names and dubbing the update Ice Cream Sandwich.
Google says the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android will “all be open source,” including APIs for face-tracking and other new features. Developers will be able to account for all form factors within this same version of the OS, and Google will be adding a lot of UIs to accommodate Android devices of all shapes and sizes.
The announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich followed news of Android 3.1, which carries desirable features like resizable widgets in the application launcher. Android 3.1′s trip over to Google TV will also carry with it the Android Marketplace and the usability of USB devices. At the keynote, Hugo Barra, director of Android product management, demoed the use of an XBox 360 controller with an Android game.
Android Open Accessory Platform Announced at Google IO
May 21st
Google has said before that its Android operating system is not just for mobile phones, and that’s already become true as the operating system moves onto tablets. The company showed off an even more ambitious vision at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, where it announced two new device platforms — the Android Open Accessory Platform and Android at Home.
At Google I/O this week, the company introduced their new Android Open Accessory protocol as well as a new ADK. That ADK is a physical piece of hardware; a reference design based on a standard Arduino.
The open accessory platform looks like a way to control other devices using an Android phone or tablet.
