06
May
image

Keeping up with its trend of timely code release, HTC dropped kernel source code for the HTC One X today, the same day the device became available through AT&T. The code release includes kernel source for the One X across a range of carriers and regions, including Optus, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone, and more, though the list notably excludes AT&T.

image

While HTC's release of One X kernel source is certainly a step in the right direction, the AT&T variant's absence is unsettling, and many are no doubt still wondering when (or if) the device may be allowed into HTC's bootloader unlock program after a controversial statement from the manufacturer Friday.

18
Apr
image

As an Android developer, I like to keep tabs on the tools I use every day, especially ones as important as ADT for Eclipse and SDK Tools. As was the case several times before, the Android team in charge of both of them posted previews of upcoming releases of ADT 20 and SDK Tools r20, available for manual download ahead of the final releases.

Yup, you heard me correctly - 20, not 18 or 19. Even though the previous major release was 17, 18 followed up shortly after with some minor changes, and 19, even more minor, wasn't even posted to the downloads page (see here for the reason).

12
Apr
play
Last Updated: September 21st, 2012

While Android users in Czech, Israel, Poland, and Mexico have been happily buying apps from Google Play for some time now, up till today, devs in these countries haven't been quite so lucky. In fact, they haven't been able to publish any apps, unless they were free.

Today, however, all that changes - Google has decided to expand its list of supported foreign merchants, and Polish, Israel, Mexican, and Czech developers are now included! If you're interested in putting up paid apps and/or in-app products on Google Play, you can sign up now at play.google.com/apps/publish or see whether your country's included in the fun right here.

04
Apr
image

Marakana, a company that's been "helping IT professionals get better at what they do" since 2001, has been busy (since January) releasing the latest series of videos in its Android Bootcamp franchise, this time updated for Ice Cream Sandwich development.

For those not familiar, Android Bootcamp is a series of videos aimed at those looking to learn Android development. Some may remember a similar project by TheNewBoston, though Marakana has broken its set of tutorials into much larger chunks, with the 2012 series currently totaling 29 videos (that's over 20 hours of free instruction).

The videos are extremely comprehensive, and cover everything from security to threading to Android UI design.

29
Mar
image

Android developer console, which Android devs use to publish and manage applications, now supports multiple users without having to share a single account (and, more importantly, its password).

This may not be a big deal to one-person teams, but for larger companies it's pure gold. The addition of these user accounts also carries the benefit of fine-grained controls over permissions. Currently the only togglable permission is access to financial reports, but the Android team promised to roll out more in the future.

This is what the interface looks like before you invite anyone:

image

And here's what happens after you do:

image

Developers can check out the new feature under the Manage user accounts link in the console.

20
Mar
image

Sony released the Xperia S open source archive today, providing all the tools necessary to build a kernel and start cooking up ROMs for the Xperia S from Sony's source code. In a post to Sony Mobile's developer blog today, the company also noted that the opening of the Xperia S archive marks the first time Sony has published source code for a product built around Qualcomm's Snapdragon S3.

XperiaS

The post goes on to advise that in order to flash the software, users will need to complete a few extra steps and run a special script (which is linked, along with a proprietary firmware file, in the original post).

12
Mar
unnamed

If you've never heard of Mika Mobile, that's not a huge surprise - they're a small, but fairly successful mobile game developer that focuses primarily on iOS. Their number one title (in terms of recent sales) is Zombieville USA 2, which has over 68,000 ratings on the App Store, and the most recent version of the game has averaged 5 stars. So we're clear, that's no small feat.

Their first game, Zombieville USA, was released for Android last July. I reviewed it and, frankly, wasn't a big fan (particularly because the first release seemed plagued with bugs). It's a relatively mundane time-killing side-scroller in which you button-mash zombies to death with a variety of weapons and characters.

07
Mar
go_ww

The GO team is, by now, pretty well known - and for good reason. They offer an unbelievable number of ways to overhaul your phone - such as GO SMS Pro, GO Contacts, and GO Keyboard - not to mention dozens of themes for all of their apps. But they are perhaps most well known for GO Launcher EX, and the tons of widgets (and more!) Now, they've released a new one to go with the Launcher: GO Weather Widget.

go_ww1 go_ww2 go_ww3

Three widget sizes are offered (as shown in the left image above): 4x2, 4x1, and 1x1.

23
Feb
image

In preparation for the upcoming final releases, the Android team today released ADT 17-preview (Android Developer Tools plugin for Eclipse) and SDK Tools r17-preview with the following improvements that eager developers can try out without waiting any longer.

What's New

Out of all the additions and changes, I'm mostly excited about the new network usage tool, the fix for the dreaded "Conversion to Dalvik format failed with error 1" error when trying to use Proguard (oh, how many hours I wasted on this one), and the end to default ids for various layout elements. Sweet deal.

Here's the full changelog:

New Features

  • DDMS can now show the live detailed network usage of an app (More Info)
  • ProGuard
    • Bundled ProGuard updated to version 4.7.

22
Feb
android_privacy_investigation_580

Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.

Things like app permissions, which have been a part of the Android package installation process for quite some time, are nice, but let's face it: 95% of us don't read them. And if we do, we may not even be sure what those permissions really entail, or how the app will use those permissions to gather information, or even what kind of information will actually be collected.

Page 4 of 10«First...23456...10...Last»