21
Jan
AppInvBlue

App Inventor Goes Open Source At Its New MIT Home

Posted by in Apps/Games, Google, News

Looks like we missed it, but back in December of 2011, Google officially stopped developing App Inventor (it was a result of the company’s shutdown of Google Labs), allowing MIT to take the reins of a very similar project. Today, that project went open source, and though there’s very little in the way of documentation or guides, you can download the code now and begin modifying the Inventor.

Additionally, MIT hasn’t yet opened its servers, so you’ll have to find your own place to upload your modified version(s) of the file – but hey, if nothing else, at least MIT deems you “free to use the term ‘App Inventor’ and the puzzle-piece Android logo” in your work.

07
Jan
soulcraftthd_appicon_thumb

SoulCraft THD Open Beta Hits Android Market – Experience Apocalypse, Fight Angels, Demons, And Humans From Your Tegra-Powered Device

Posted by in Games, News

Remember SoulCraft THD, the awesome action RPG game we mentioned last month? Well, the open beta finally hit the Android Market today, bringing angels, demons, apocalypse, and rich, realistic environments to your Tegra device. Check out the video below for a taste of the action:

SoulCraft THD allows you to play as an angel (with human and demon options coming later), taking part in a compelling story, set at a time when humans are on the brink of discovering the secret of eternal life.

The game takes players through several real (and realistic) locations including Venice, Rome, and Hamburg (with more locations coming soon), using weapons and spells to battle "lots of different and diversified enemies" as you decide who will win this epic war.

19
Oct
1a396244-d4d3-4752-a304-3632cd3dd4d4

Interview With Android UX Lead Matias Duarte: "Google Is Taking Design A Lot More Seriously"

Posted by in Google, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Interviews

Let's get the preliminary question off the plate first: who is Matias Duarte? Well for one thing, he oversaw the designing of a few small projects such as webOS, Sidekick OS, and Helio (the little carrier that could... be bought out). And, oh yeah, he also played a large part in Honeycomb's development.

Yesterday he sat down with Joshua Topolsky of This is my Next (soon to be The Verge) to discuss the "philosophy" of Android and, more specifically, Ice Cream Sandwich. It certainly provides some interesting insight into the man behind ICS' fancy new UI, and while we highly recommend you read the full interview, we'll be providing a few highlights below so as to save you some time (the unabridged version is quite lengthy).

19
Oct
image

Android Engineer: Ice Cream Sandwich AOSP Source Code Will Be Released, But Not Before Galaxy Nexus Goes On Sale

Posted by in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Google, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Since I'm seeing questions inquiring about Android 4.0's source code drop every 5 minutes here and there, I thought it would be a good idea to point out this blurb in a recent post by an Android engineer Dan Morrill, aka morrildl:

  • To reiterate, these servers contain only the ‘gingerbread’ and ‘master’ branches from the old AOSP servers. We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it’s available on devices.

    • Since the Galaxy Nexus is the first ICS device, rumored to go on sale sometime in the beginning to mid November, we shouldn't expect the source code to be publicized until about that time either.

    19
    Oct
    image

    CyanogenMod Team: There Will Be No Official SDK Port Of Ice Cream Sandwich By The CM Team - CM9 Will Arrive When The ICS Source Does

    Posted by in Development, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

    At the end of today's Ice Cream Sandwich unveiling, we found out that the ICS SDK (API 14) was available immediately, but a much more important bit - the source code - was not mentioned at all. It didn't really come as a surprise - historically the source was released about a month after the SDK (with the exception of Honeycomb), but I'd like to clarify something right away for those confused between the SDK and the source code.

    The SDK (software development kit), which includes the Android emulator, does not contain any source code whatsoever, which means any ROMs built from source, like CyanogenMod, will be waiting for said source to be released before we see any ICS releases.

    19
    Sep
    Let Android Be Android, part 2

    [Editorial] Let Android Be Android: One Year Later

    Posted by in Android OS, Editorials

    Introduction

    It's now been exactly a year (minus one day) since I published my very first editorial for Android Police, Let Android Be Android. A lot has changed since - dual-core CPUs are now table stakes for a high-end smartphone; Android has evolved from an exclusively mobile OS to a software powerhouse for phones and tablets alike; and we've been given several seminars on stretching the truth about the speed of a wireless network (yep, that would be the "4G" drama).

    Sadly, one thing has remained almost entirely stagnant: the diminutive amount of vanilla Android devices on the market. In fact, it would be more than accurate to say that the skin situation has been exacerbated since my article on it last year.

    10
    Sep
    image

    And The Two... No, Let's Make It Three Winners Of O'Reilly's Android Open Conference Tickets Are...

    Posted by in Contests / Giveaways

    O'Reilly's Android Open conference, which is happening October 9-11, is our first real media sponsorship of an Android event (yay!), and as media partners, we were given 2 free tickets to the event, along with an exclusive 20% off code: AN11AP.

    image

    Since nothing would make us happier than giving away the 2 free tickets we've gotten (worth $1295 each) to the most deserving AP readers, I had Cameron immediately fire up the giveaway last week. After receiving about 50 entries, it's now time to announce the two winners who would be getting entry to the conference and Sunday workshops for free.

    11
    May
    image

    Inspiration For Developers: Want Examples Of Excellent Android Code, Including The Fragments API? Google Just Open Sourced The I/O 2011 Android App

    Posted by in Applications, Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

    Beginning and experienced developers will appreciate the latest altruistic move by the core Android team member Roman Nurik who, now that the Google I/O conference is over, revealed the full sources for the I/O 2011 Android app for everyone to see.

    If you haven't used the app yet, I am here to tell you that it's an Android masterpiece, in both UI/UX (user interface/usability) and coding paradigms. The app utilizes the new Fragments API heavily, so the source should provide plenty of implementation guidelines for those just picking it up. Thanks to the said Fragments, it runs great on both Honeycomb tablets and phones, making its code the perfect example of a relatively complex Android app done very-very right.

    05
    May
    at&t

    Hell Freezes Over: App Sideloading Coming To AT&T - Maybe The World Really Is Ending This Year

    Posted by in Android OS, AT&T, News

    AT&T has taken a lot of heat from Android fans, and for good reason - they were the last of the four major US carriers to truly embrace it, and even then they made the controversial decision to block users' ability to sideload apps - i.e., install apps not offered on the Android Market. Their intentions were only to protect users from "bad apps," but of course this also meant that users have been unable to install any type of beta apps or, more notably, the Amazon App Store. Fortunately, they plan to reverse this decision going forward, as Senior VP of Mobile Devices Jeff Bradley announced:

    "I think we'll go more open.

    24
    Mar
    honeycomb bee

    Google Delays Public Release Of Honeycomb Source, But Don't Panic - There Is A Good Reason, And Tablet Manufacturers Can Cut In Line

    Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

    There has been quite an uproar as of late over Google's handling of the source code for Honeycomb, their most recent version of Android. The company announced this week that it would be delaying the release of the Honeycomb source in order to iron out some issues, specifically ones involving running it on small-screen devices (i.e. phones). Andy Rubin gave an explanation as to why these issues exist:

    Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization...We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones.

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