Archive for category Events

Google Android Seeding

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Events, phones on March 8th, 2010

nexusoneI have just received confirmation that I’ll be receiving a Nexus One. All developers with a rating of 3.5 stars or higher and more than 5,000 unique downloads will be receiving either a Droid or a Nexus One.

In my opinion, 5,000 downloads is actually quite low. I have three apps at the moment totalling over 120,000 downloads. I think Google is giving phones out to developers to encourage earlier developers to test their older apps on newer devices as well as encourage more apps to be written.

Purchasing the latest phones is an issue for developers. It can be costly ensuring an app runs on all phone variants. In my 14 year mobile career I can only remember having received (as a developer) an iPAQ from Redmond and very recently a Satio from Sony Ericsson.

Conversely, as a blogger I have received many more phones. Phone OEMs and network operators have been far more interested in getting the word out on new phones than ensuring that applications continue to work/continue to be developed. As usual, Google is taking an engineering rather than marketing driven approach. Seed developers with phones and see what happens.

Motorola MOTODEV

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Coding, Events, Motorola on May 21st, 2009

motodevMotorola have just announced their new Android Developer web site. New resources will include…

  • a weekly podcast series with Android developers, service providers and experts in the community – don’t miss our live podcast next week from Flurry, Inc. headquarters in San Francisco right after the Google I/O Conference
  • blog posts all about app development and distribution
  • a Silicon Valley Android MeetUp hosted by Motorola in Sunnyvale, CA on June 16th
  • tips and tricks for installing and configuring the Android SDK and navigating the wealth of Google documentation on Android
  • two dozen Fast Track partners focused on accelerating your path to market with Android

I joined the first live podcast yesterday but there were teething problems and people couldn’t hear anything. The podcast is now archived on Blog Talk Radio. Hopefully, they will get things working for the next live podcast as it’s the questions and interaction that might make these things more interesting.

For now, the Motodev Android site has a great section on distributing your apps. It includes features on pricing models, the Mogees payment platform and publishing via Big in Japan.

Deep Inside Android

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Events, Getting Started, Linux, My Freeware on March 26th, 2009

I came across some useful slides recently. They are entitled ‘Deep Inside Android‘ from a presentation by Esmertec, an OHA member, at the OpenExpo 2008.

esmertecandroid
The presentation is useful for people who want to learn a bit more about Android Linux internals. The later slides also cover Android programming essentials.

How to Disable the Keyguard

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Android Market, Coding, Events, Getting Started, How to on March 25th, 2009

There are some types of application where you need to programatically disable the keyguard. It’s also sometimes useful to temporarily do this when you are presenting a demo.  com.android.alarmclock.AlarmAlert in the Android OS source code provides and example how to do this…

    private synchronized void enableKeyguard() {
        if (mKeyguardLock != null) {
            mKeyguardLock.reenableKeyguard();
            mKeyguardLock = null;
        }
    }
    private synchronized void disableKeyguard() {
        if (mKeyguardLock == null) {
            mKeyguardLock = mKeyguardManager.newKeyguardLock(Log.LOGTAG);
            mKeyguardLock.disableKeyguard();
        }
    }

where

mKeyguardManager = (KeyguardManager) getSystemService(Context.KEYGUARD_SERVICE);

I have also come across a great class, ManageKeyguard in the source of SMSPopup. This provides an example how to disable the keyguard, show your activity and re-enable the keyguard without letting someone get past the keylock to other activities. There’s also more about this discussed on the Google groups.

UK Android Developer Event

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Events on March 18th, 2009

mobileI was contacted today by Mobile Magazine who are thinking of putting on a UK Android Developer Event. However, before they do this they would like to gauge numbers and speak to a few developers to fine tune the event.

Here’s some additional information they sent…

“This Mobile magazine event will happen in the first half of this year in London. It will give Android application developers a unique level of access to the UK mobile industry’s key personnel including operators, manufacturers, distributors and dealers. The day will comprise of a range of speakers and networking sessions. The event will be comprehensively covered in Mobile magazine - which is a great opportunity for you to put your name more firmly on the radar for the UK mobile community.”

Mobile magazine has great experience in organising of industry events such as this. A big part of their brand is facilitating the opportunity for the various cogs of the industry to share knowledge.

They are interested in hearing from Android Developers in the UK or even outside the UK if they are willing to travel. Please contact Chris Illman (chris.illman@nhmedia.co.uk), Communities Editor for further information.