Development - 34/86 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

Want To Build Ice Cream Sandwich From AOSP? Bring Out The Heavy Artillery - This Is What It Will Take

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Development, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

As we know, the source code for Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" is going to be published fairly soon, which means developers of all trades will be able to download, modify, and compile it into ROMs. A few great examples of this are handset manufacturers (SE, Motorola, HTC, etc) working on incorporating ICS into new and existing devices as well as CyanogenMod developers merging the source with all the awesome modifications they've added into CM so far.

Have you ever wondered what it takes these people to build the Android source? I never really gave it too much thought, but whoa - never in a million years did I think that building ICS would take these kinds of resources (according to JBQ, a Google developer working on Android):

ICS will be a much larger release than any previous Android release.

Oct

Samsung Galaxy Note Source Code Now Available

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Development, Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), News

Last Updated: November 23rd, 2011

While the Galaxy Note still hasn't made its way to US shores (and possibly never will), that hasn't stopped this gargantuan beast from making a name for itself in other areas of the world. It's big, powerful, comes with a built-in stylus, and has an amazing display. What more could you want?

How about a little hack action.

For devs out there looking to work some magic on this tablet-meets-phone hybrid, Sammy just released the kernel source code to the Open Source Developers Center. Grab it while it's hot.

Samsung Galaxy Note kernel source code

Oct

There's A Bounty Out For The Kindle Fire: $200 For Reversible Root, $800 For "Basic" Honeycomb Or Ice Cream Sandwich Port

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Kindle Fire, News, Tablets

It looks like the HP Touchpad isn't the only tablet to have a bounty placed on its head - Kindle Fire Forum is now offering a substantial reward to the first person who's able to provide a reliable, reversible root method, or either a Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich port for Amazon's Android tablet.

The forum is offering a prize of $200 for a root method, and a whopping $800 for a "Basic" Honeycomb or ICS port. The original post outlines the goals like so:

Reliable Reversable Root Method - This one is self explanatory.

Basic Android Port – The stock Android home screen and apps boot.

Oct

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 Artem Russakovskii 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.

Oct

Device Frame Generator Updated For Galaxy Nexus - Your Screenshots Just Got Prettier

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, Galaxy Nexus, News

Late last week, Device Frame Generator made its debut in the Android Asset Studio, thanks to Roman Nurik. Mere moments after the unveiling of the Galaxy Prime at an event held by Google and Samsung, DFG has been updated to include a Galaxy Nexus template.

Developers can now create stunning, high-res images for their apps in mere seconds, framing their screenshots with the latest and greatest Android hardware. If you can't wait to check out how your app looks on a Galaxy Nexus, head over to the Asset Studio and give it a whirl!

Oct

Let's Get Ready to Google! April 24-25 Is The Date For I/O 2012

Posted by Zak Stinson in Android OS, Development, News

If the imminent announcement of ICS and the Galaxy Nexus isn't enough to sizzle your circuits, here's another little tidbit coming down from Mountain View. The date and location for Google I/O 2012 has been set in stone. 1 million or more developers, as well as journalists and lucky Google enthusiasts, will converge on Moscone Center West in San Francisco on April 24 and 25.

I/O has become a Mecca of sorts for tech fans, where gifts of tech from the not-too-distant future are bestowed on all, such as last year's special version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. As such, a ticket to get in the door is a hard thing to come by, and Google usually gets pretty creative with giving them away, holding developer contests and the like.

Oct

Sony's PRS-T1 Reader Hacked To Run Full Android... On Its E-Ink Display

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, News, Tablets

The Sony Reader PRS-T1, a 6" e-ink reader that debuted earlier this year, has been hacked to run Android. It's a known fact that the Reader has been running Android from the get-go, but it runs a heavily modified build, and many thought that it would never see true Android goodness. Any doubt users had, however, can now be laid to rest - an unnamed hacker has got the T1 running Android with AWLauncher, and a bevvy of reading apps in tow.

While this is certainly interesting news, don't get too excited just yet - the build is still very much a work in progress.

Oct

DIY Fix For Intermittent Audio From HTC Sensation Headphone Jack

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid)

It looks like the touchscreen isn't the only piece of hardware on the Sensation that works when it wants to. Posted today on XDA-Developers, Sensation owner zmfl recounted his experience with the audio signal coming and going on his phone, and having received confirmation of the issue from other members there, enterprisingly figured out the cause of the problem and its solution.

Put simply, the paint around the Sensation's 3.5 mm headphone jack tends to wear away or chip with use. This brings the pins of the cable plug into contact with the bare case metal and results in the audio cutting out or sending errant control signals to your media player.

Oct

Google TV SDK Goes Final, Start Coding!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Development, Google TV, News

Hey GTV fans: Fantastic news! The final version of the Google TV SDK went live today - Google TV is still alive! This is a follow up to the preview build released in August.

Apparently, the differences between this and the preview version are pretty minor: by popular demand, the Action Bar now renders horizontally (like tablets), and there are additional on-screen quick access keys, like picture-in-picture, fast forward, and channel buttons.

The finalization of the SDK means it's time for developers to really get cracking. So fire up your Linux box, grab the add-on from the SDK Manager, and get to work!

Oct

Google Debuts Dart, An Easy New Programming Language For Web Development

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Development, News

Earlier today, Google officially debuted Dart, their new programming language intended to make web development easy by offering a somewhat familiar structure with enough flexibility to open up new possibilities, including the ability to run on "all modern web browsers and environments."

Google's dedicated Dart website features the language spec and preliminary development tools as open source, giving developers a chance to get acquainted with the language during its early development. The site also has code samples and a few tutorials to get you started.

Lars Bak, a software engineer on the Dart team, describes the new language on Google's code blog as a class-based, optionally typed language, aiming to fulfill the goals of being structured yet flexible, offering a familiar and natural feel for developers, and ensuring that Dart offers a high standard of performance on "all modern web browsers and environments ranging from small handheld devices to server-side execution."

The code blog goes on to explain that Dart has the ability to be implemented on a native virtual machine, or through a compiler that translates it to JavaScript, allowing the language to fulfill its goal of running on each and every modern browser.