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Oct

ADW Launcher Updated To 1.20, ADW Notifier Companion Released

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

One of the most popular alternate launchers, ADW Launcher, perhaps known best for being bundled with CyanogenMod, has just received a welcome update. Version 1.20 now grants you the ability to fluidly resize your widgets, much like the launcher provided by MOTOBLUR. This allows you to treat your desktop much more like a customizable canvas than a rigid set of squares.

Along with this update, developer Ander Webbs also released an auxiliary service called ADW Notifier. Put simply, ADW Notifier puts a counter tag on application icons showing how many notifications it currently has. The tag works equally well on the desktop or in your dock.

Oct

HTC Desire Z Joins Rank With The T-Mobile G2, Has Its Source Code Exposed To The World

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire Z (Vision), Froyo 2.2, HTC

Looks like T-Mobile's G2 isn't the only HTC-built Android device having its source code outed today - the Desire Z (better known as the international version of the G2) has just had its source code revealed as well.

We shouldn't expect to see anything too surprising here since the Desire HD, which runs the same new version of Sense UI, has already had its firmware leaked. However, rest assured we'll keep you posted just in case somebody over at xda-developers or the like discovers a gold nugget hidden inside the code. Or something. Permanent root, anyone?

Source: HTC Developer Center via Android Central

Oct

Samsung Releases Galaxy S Froyo Update Source Code

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Android OS, Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Today, Samsung updated its open-source portal with what seems to be the final Android 2.2 source code for JPM Galaxy S i9000s. This might not mean much right now to those of you running carrier-branded Galaxy S phones (Captivate, Vibrant, Epic 4G, Fascinate), but it is a positive indication of things to come and may mean that the Froyo ROMs for your handsets will be showing up sooner rather than later.

Oct

Fennec Dev Discusses Differences, Benefits, And Challenges Of Bringing Firefox To Android

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Development, News

We've seen Fennec (or Firefox for Android as it's now called) gradually progressing over the last few months, reaching a state of real usability in the last couple of weeks. There are many excited by Fennec's journey and the ability have a browser with near-full-desktop functionality, but it seems that even more struggle to see a place for another browser on their phone. After all, the stock Android browser is lightning-quick and works well enough for a pretty satisfying web experience.

Mozilla mobile developer Matt Brubeck recently penned a blog post set to explain the reasoning behind Firefox for Android, and why he believes it is a worthwhile addition to both Android and Mozilla families.

Sep

Project Porting MeeGo OS To Android Phones Starting To Yield Results

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, Devices By Manufacturer, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

People like Android because they like openness and because they like choice. The ability to boot a second, open-source operating system on your Android device is then a pretty compelling proposition. Following a flurry of activity around various fora, some progress has been made in booting the Linux-based Maemo 5 successor, MeeGo, on select Android devices. These devices, namely the Nexus One, Streak, and Desire are all based on the Snapdragon QSD8250 and it is that chipset the development community is focusing on.

Credit: vgrade/M.Brook

Right now, it’s unclear exactly how functional the OS is, and, as usual, the development is suffering from issues with driver cross-compatibility and other similar obstacles.

Aug

Rockbox For Android Now Semi-Functional

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

The popular, open-source media player firmware Rockbox has recently been made available for Android. Rather than run as an operating system, Rockbox operates as a standalone application that you can install as usual with an APK. Development is still on-going, but Rockbox dev kugel has a few pre-compiled APKs hosted for you to try out if you’re interested.

Download:

240 x 320 320 x 480 480 x 800

These builds are unofficial and are purely for demonstrative purposes, but they seem to work pretty nicely. Currently the navigation/control interaction method is touchscreen only, and screen rotation is not supported - Rockbox will only run in Portrait orientation.

Jul

Motorola Droid X And Samsung Captivate Open Source Code Released

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Captivate, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Motorola, News, Samsung

Last Updated: November 23rd, 2011

As part of the Android's open source Apache license, manufacturers are required to publicly release all of their own modifications and improvements made to the Android core. Today, both Samsung and Motorola decided it would be the perfect time to drop the Captivate and Droid X code to their respective open source sites.

This will allow ROM developers to figure out all those little quirks specific to the hardware and incorporate them into their releases.

Note, however, that the Android license doesn't cover proprietary extensions, such as custom vendor applications and widgets, and therefore does not require manufacturers to open source them:

Licensing

With the exception of brief update periods, Android has been available as open source since 21 October 2008.

Jul

More Developers Have Experience Developing For Android Than Any Other Mobile Platform

Posted by David Ruddock in News

Last Updated: July 15th, 2010

An interesting chart published today by BusinessInsider reveals that mobile developers, or at least the 401 surveyed, more often have experience developing for Android than any other mobile operating system, including iOS. Given Android’s growing market share, it seems only natural that developers are flocking to the increasingly attractive (and large) customer base Android devices provide.

While Android’s lead over iOS in this regard isn’t massive, it certainly isn’t insignificant either. Nearly 60% of developers have experience developing on Android, while the number for iOS hovers around 50%. Meanwhile, Blackberry and Windows Mobile sit even lower at about 40%. While Apple’s App Store certainly offers developers greater upfront financial incentive in selling their applications, apps supported by Google Ads are clearly just as, if not even more, lucrative.

Jun

The Wait Is Over - Android 2.2 Froyo Source Out Today!!!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, News, Nexus One (Passion)

What a day! We were hoping for this but never expected it to actually happen - Andy Rubin, VP of engineering at Google and one of the main guys behind Android, just announced that the Froyo source is going to be available today:

1:41PM Andy Rubin: "If you're a third party developer who's built an app for Android, you can talk to it from the cloud." Talking up Froyo -- it's being open-sourced as of today.

That's right - the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is seeping through into the public source tree as we speak.

Check it out right here - http://android.git.kernel.org/?o=age