16
Nov
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Interactive MIUI Mario Lockscreen Can Unlock Your Phone (But Not World 9)

Posted by in Applications, Development, News

In what is undoubtedly one of the coolest mods I've seen in months, developer picard666 has released an interactive Mario lockscreen for MIUI. So awesome, in fact, that words can't properly describe it. Take a look at the "diagram":

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The top cloud shows the current time, and the two clouds below show calls and messages (left and right, respectively). To unlock into calls or messages, you take control of Mario and have to make him hit the corresponding coin box - a coin pops out (optionally with the accompanying sound), then your phone launches the appropriate app. To unlock normally, just have him jump into the pipe to the right of the boxes.

16
Nov
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Amazon Posts Kindle Fire's Open Source Code

Posted by in Amazon, Development, Kindle Fire, News

Unlike some vendors which shall remain unnamed (*cough*, HTC, *cough*), Amazon didn't make us wait for the mandatory open source bits of the Android Fire's kernel and released them over at their Source Code page the same day the tablets themselves started arriving in consumers' hands. The download, which comes as a compressed tar.gz, weighs in at a whopping 809MB.

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The source code should allow for custom ROMs and tweaks to the OS, which we can hopefully expect soon, considering the Fire has already been rooted. There is still no word on whether its bootloader can be easily unlocked, however, so theoretically there could be a few potential bumps on the road to the first custom ROMs.

16
Nov
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How To: Root, Enable 3rd Party Apps, And Establish ADB Access On The Kindle Fire

Posted by in Amazon, Applications, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, Kindle Fire, News, Tablets

The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s content-subsidized tablet, has been arriving to the delight of people all across the U.S. The heavily-skinned Gingerbread Android device has left many questions in the minds of the Android and Gadget community. For instance, will we be able to install apps outside of the Amazon Appstore? How about using adb? And, of course, the most important question of all - can the Fire be rooted?

If you remember, Amazon said it wouldn't do anything special to prevent rooting or interfere with those who want to customize their devices in other ways (although the status of the bootloader is unknown at this time).

15
Nov
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Awesome Mod: Slide 2 Wake Kernel Wakes/Locks Your GSM HTC Evo 3D By Swiping Across Capacitive Buttons – Support For More Devices In The Works

Posted by in Development, News

Developer bponury, the mind behind WifiKill and FaceNiff, has created something that looks pretty awesome, if you're the owner of a GSM-enabled HTC Evo 3D. That something is the Slide 2 Wake kernel, which allows you to wake and lock your device by sliding a finger across your Evo 3D's capacitive buttons. The kernel is still in its very early stages, but seems to perform quite well.

While the kernel is only running on one very specific device for now, there is hope for at least a port to the CDMA variant of the 3D, and perhaps other devices with capacitive buttons as well.

15
Nov
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Developer Goodies: Eclipse ADT 16/Tools r16 Will Introduce Android Lint To Help You Automatically Catch Those Pesky Errors Early

Posted by in Development, News

To help Android developers automate some things and catch certain errors early on, the Android Tools team is pushing ahead with a new dev tool called Android Lint. Android Lint will be available in the next release of ADT (16) and Tools (r16).

If you're not familiar with the "lint" paradigm, a lint tool generally helps you validate your code using a certain set of rules in order to avoid common pitfalls. For example, PHP has PHPLint, JSON has jsonlint and so on.

As for Android Lint, its features at launch will include the following:

  • Missing translations (and unused translations)
  • Layout performance problems (all the issues the old layoutopt tool used to find, and more)
  • Unused resources
  • Inconsistent array sizes (when arrays are defined in multiple configurations)
  • Accessibility and internationalization problems (hardcoded strings, missing contentDescription, etc)
  • Icon problems (like missing densities, duplicate icons, wrong sizes, etc)
  • Usability problems (like not specifying an input type on a text field)
  • Manifest errors
  • and many more

You can find all the current checks Android Lint performs here.

15
Nov
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CyanogenMod 9 - The Countdown To Ice Cream Sandwich Begins

Posted by in Development, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

In case you were wondering or had any doubt at all, the CyanogenMod 9 wheels are now in motion (as promised), and in a few months (likely weeks for nightlies) delicious ICS will drip onto 68+ supported Android devices, some completely forgotten by carriers and manufacturers. If you ask me, that's the best thing that could happen to them anyway - what do carriers know about keeping their devices up-to-date with Android, right?

There's only one thing we can do now: wait [anxiously]. And don't forget the first rule of CM - do not ask for ETAs.

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Source: Twitter

Image credit: icecreamsandwichupdate

14
Nov
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[Video] Paradroid Is A Self-Navigating, Skydiving Robot Controlled By An Onboard Android Handset

Posted by in Android OS, Development, Videos

Adding to the list of awesome Android-related gadgetry, Tomer Weller and Yossi Sorin have created Paradroid, a self-navigating skydiving robot powered by an attached Android handset.

Beginning as a project for Google Developer's day ADK challenge, Paradroid is still a work in progress. That being said, it already seems to have some impressive capabilities, functioning from heights of over 1000ft., parachuting safely to the ground, and navigating to a predetermined location, all while sending back handy status reports.

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While it's already a pretty amazing device, it will be interesting to see how the project progresses, and what applications will be found for the Paradroid, outside being a fun curiosity.

13
Nov
2011-11-13 16h42_13

[Updated: Here Are The Winners!] Book Giveaway #12: Win One Of Five Books On Creating Honeycomb Animations Courtesy Of Packt Publishing

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways, Development
Last Updated: November 19th, 2011

Packt Publishing is back again with another new book, and to celebrate, we've teamed up for a giveaway. The book in question is Android 3.0 Animations: Beginners Guide, available now for $41 for a print copy or just $23 for the eBook (or $45 for both).

The Giveaway

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Written by Alex Shaw and spanning 304 pages, the book is devoted entirely to what is (sadly) an oft-neglected aspect of Android development: creating and utilizing animations. Though the emphasis is on Android 3.0+, many of the techniques can be used for previous versions of Android. You may be asking yourself why you would deal with animations in particular?

04
Nov
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[Monthly Home Screen Challenge, November 2011] Post Your Android Home Screen, Win An Android Police Shirt

Posted by in Development, Home Screen Challenge
Last Updated: January 3rd, 2012

Creating an aesthetically pleasing home screen for your phone or tablet has become an art in itself, and an entire ecosystem packed with widgets, themes, wallpapers, launchers, and custom ROMs has built up to support it. Sometimes, it can be tough to find a winning combination of elements to create a beautiful and enduring home screen that provides both form and function.

For this reason, we have decided to open up a call for gorgeous, well-decorated home screens of all shapes and sizes. Each month we will select the very best home screen configurations and completely break them down into their component parts, providing you with all the necessary information to create your own awesome home screen.

04
Nov
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[Monthly Home Screen Challenge] And The October 2011 Winners Are...

Posted by in Development, Home Screen Challenge
Last Updated: January 3rd, 2012

There were a ton of excellent entries for our first Home Screen Challenge, and whittling down all the home screens was no easy task. That's why we've chosen two winners this month - Xal and Austin C, who each showed us their own twist on a visually stimulating, yet practical home screen layout. Our winners will be contacted shortly to claim their AP shirts.

As promised, we've prepared a full overview of each of our winning home screens, highlighting each of their elements so that you too can create a home screen design that is both beautiful and functional.

Winner 1 - Xal

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Xal submitted both a lock screen and a home screen, both equally stylized and thoughtfully designed.

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