Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Gingerbread OTA for Nexus One will happen in the coming weeks.

Announced in Google Nexus Twitter:

The Gingerbread OTA for Nexus One will happen in the coming weeks. Just hang tight!

Link:
http://twitter.com/googlenexus/status/16974464310845440



Monday, December 20, 2010

Coca-Cola Live Wallpaper Campaign

The AdMob team at Google recently worked with the Coca-Cola Company to produce a live wallpaper celebrating the holiday season based on their annual holiday commercial. Live wallpapers are animated homescreen backgrounds that respond to both touch and phone movement, and can also react to the time of day and a device’s geographic location. This is the first time the AdMob team has worked with an advertiser on creating this type of mobile experience.





MINDdroid and LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0


MINDdroid by LEGO SYSTEM A/S, LEGO® MINDSTORMS®, is a 2.1+ Android Application for the real-time direct action remote control of LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robots utilizing direct BlueTooth wireless connection between both devices - Android phone and your NXT robot and built-in accelerometer and tilt sensors found on most Android powered hand-held phones and devices.


LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0

  • The intelligent NXT Lego brick features 32-bit microprocessor, a large matrix display
  • Three interactive servo motors; four sensors(Ultrasonic Sensor, 2 Touch Sensors and the all-new Color Sensor)
  • Color Sensor has triple functionality: Distinguishes colors and light settings, and functions as a lamp
  • Easy-to-use software (PC and Mac) with icon-based drag-and-drop programming and 16 fun building and programming challenges
  • There are 612 pieces in this product
  • Batteries not included with this product
  • Building instructions for 4 new amazing robots
  • Four input and 3 output ports, and Bluetooth and USB communication link



Friday, December 17, 2010

Learn about Android Graphics & Animations from Google's Android UI Toolkit team


Learn how to create awesome visuals and animations from Android UI Toolkit engineers, Romain Guy and Chet Haase.

In this presentation Romain and Chet will drill down into architecture, graphics and animations. You'll also get a look at some of the new Android API's coming in these areas.

** Get the slides from the event at http://marakana.com/f/212 **

Didn't make it to Devoxx 2K10? Well find out what you might have missed, as this is the same presentation Romain and Chet delivered at Devoxx. Through demos, slides, and code exmamples you will:

- get a detailed look at the Android architecture
- learn about formats, and how to optimize for performance
- get a few points on what's coming in Gingerbread
- learn about drawing tools (Paints, Shaders, ColorFilters, Xfermodes, and Bitmaps)
- How you can take advantage of animation to spice up your UI

** see more videos and tutorials on open source at: http://marakana.com/techtv **




Wednesday, December 15, 2010

App Inventor: Create your own Android App begins in your browser

You can build many different types of apps with App Inventor. Often people begin by building games like MoleMash or games that let you draw funny pictures on your friend's faces. You can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.

But app building is not limited to simple games. You can also build apps that inform and educate. You can create a quiz app to help you and your classmates study for a test. With Android's text-to-speech capabilities, you can even have the phone ask the questions aloud.

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a professional developer. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior.

http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/

App Inventor in Action
A 60 second video showing an app being made with App inventor for Android.




Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Android Market will be updated on devices running Android 1.6 or higher

According to email from The Android Market Team, Android Market will be updated on devices running Android 1.6 or higher.

* The details page for every app will now utilize and display the app’s “Promotional Graphic” assets at the top.

* Users will be able to filter applications by content rating. Applications or games without a rating will be treated as “Mature”.

* The purchase refund window will be reduced to 15 minutes.

* The maximum size for .apk files will be increased to 50MB, from the current 25MB.

* Market will support filtering based on screen sizes and densities, as well as on GL texture compression formats.

* If app includes wallpapers or widgets, Market will automatically add them to new “dynamic” categories.

“I Want my Google TV!” contest

Google TV brings television, apps, and the entire World Wide Web directly to your living room...so you can watch even more YouTube, only now on the biggest screen in your home. And because it’s the season of giving, the crew here at YouTube and Google are excited to announce a contest to give away 100 free 46” Sony Internet TVs powered by Google TV.

Links: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/12/announcing-i-want-my-google-tv-contest.html





Mobile web Gmail NOW in 44 languages


The latest version of HTML5 mobile webapp of Gmail (gmail.com in your iPhones running iOS 2.2.1 and above, or all versions of Android) now support 44 new languages. Now expanding to Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and American), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (for both Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (for both Spain and South America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu and Vietnamese.



Monday, December 13, 2010

Motorola DEFY. Official TV Commercial

The Motorola DEFY TV Ad, directed by award winning Carl Erik Rinsch, tells the story of how important the resilience of a mobile phone is on a fun night out. Motorola DEFY is the first Android™ smartphone that is water resistant, scratch resistant and dust proof, so it can survive the pool party, the dance floor, and the beach -- ultimately, it's life proof.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

New Android Market client


Over the next two weeks, a new Android Market client to all devices running Android 1.6 or higher will be rolled out.

This new Market client introduces important features that improve merchandising of applications, streamline the browse-to-purchase experience, and make it easier for developers to distribute their applications.


Source: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/12/android-market-client-update.html

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Android Wireless Application Development Second Edition


Product Description

Android™ Wireless Application Development  Second Edition

Lauren Darcey
Shane Conder

The start-to-finish guide to Android application development: massively updated for the newest SDKs and developer techniques!

This book delivers all the up-to-date information, tested code, and best practices you need to create and market successful mobile apps with the latest versions of Android. Drawing on their extensive experience with mobile and wireless development, Lauren Darcey and Shane Conder cover every step: concept, design, coding, testing, packaging, and delivery. The authors introduce the Android platform, explain the principles of effective Android application design, and present today’s best practices for crafting effective user interfaces. Next, they offer detailed coverage of each key Android API, including data storage, networking, telephony, location-based services, multimedia, 3D graphics, and hardware.

Every chapter of this edition has been updated for the newest Android SDKs, tools, utilities, and hardware. All sample code has been overhauled and tested on leading devices from multiple companies, including HTC, Motorola, and ARCHOS. Many new examples have been added, including complete new applications. This new edition also adds

  • Nine new chapters covering web APIs, the Android NDK, extending application reach, managing users, data synchronization, backups, advanced user input, and more
  • Greatly expanded coverage of Android manifest files, content providers, app design, and testing
  • New coverage of hot topics like Bluetooth, gestures, voice recognition, App Widgets, live folders, live wallpapers, and global search
  • Updated 3D graphics programming coverage reflecting OpenGL ES 2.0
  • An all-new chapter on tackling cross-device compatibility issues, from designing for the smallest phones to the big new tablets hitting the market
  • Even more tips and tricks to help you design, develop, and test applications for different devices
  • A new appendix full of Eclipse tips and tricks

This book is an indispensable resource for every member of the Android development team: software developers with all levels of mobile experience, team leaders and project managers, testers and QA specialists, software architects, and even marketers.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Introducing Nexus S


Introducing Nexus S, the new Android phone from Google. A brilliant Contour Display, super speed, Gingerbread, and all the Google you can get.



Andy Rubin with Motorola Tablet Prototype with Honeycomb


Andy Rubin with Motorola Tablet Prototype with Honeycomb - All Things D



Monday, December 6, 2010

Android 2.3 User's Guide


Android 2.3 User's Guide is available to be downloaded: http://www.google.com/googlephone/AndroidUsersGuide-2.3.pdf

Android 2.3 Official Video


Highlights from the latest Android platform release

Android 2.3 is here!



Android 2.3 is now available for the Android SDK. In addition, new tools and documentation are available, plus a new NDK that offers more than ever. For more information about what's in Android 2.3, read the version notes.
If you have an existing SDK, add Android 2.3 as an SDK component. If you're new to Android, install the SDK starter package.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

CyanogenMod-6.1 Stable Has Landed!


CyanogenMod's crew of 10000 monkeys at 10000 typewriters have finally managed to crank out a new stable release. Versions for each device are rolling out now, and are available in the forums or via ROM Manager.
If you haven’t been tracking the release candidates, 6.1 is a major upgrade with tons of new features, support for a few new devices, new languages, and extra awesomesauce added :) Check out the CHANGELOG for a full list of what you can expect.

What CyanogenMod is

CyanogenMod (/sɪˈænoʊdʒəŋmäd/) is a customized, aftermarket firmware distribution for select Android devices.

Intended as a replacement for the software (also known as the "firmware" or "ROM") that comes factory installed on your smartphone, CyanogenMod is based on the Android Open Source Project – the same base software used in all Android phones. However, CyanogenMod offers several benefits over the pre-installed firmware, including vastly flexible interface andcustomization, a wider set of new features, and sometimes significant improvements in performance.
CyanogenMod's features may allow you to bypass software limitations imposed by carriers, which may prevent you from using the handset in a manner that they do not support. Such features include, but not limited to, the ability to overclock the phone's CPU, tether your phone to your computer, or fully back up your phone to your SD Card.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Firefox Mobile Add-ons Cup has arrived!

Develop a mobile add-on for Firefox and showcase your innovation to millions of mobile users. The Mobile Add-ons Cup is looking for compatible and innovative add-ons to extend Firefox on the Android and Maemo mobile platforms.
We’re looking for the best example in each of the six prize categories below:
  • Sports/Games
  • Commerce/ Shopping
  • Geolocation
  • Productivity
  • Sharing/Social
  • Novelty/Innovation
We invite developers of all experience levels to participate in creating awesome add-ons for Firefox mobile. You'll be rewarded with tons of exposure between now and January 7, 2011 when the contest wraps, and six winners will receive fantastic prizes.

Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Cup



Google doodles for your phone

Google announced that more doodles will be bring to phone with Android 2.0+ and iOS 3+ devices worldwide. Almost all of the doodles show on desktop homepage will now have corresponding mobile versions on these phones. When the doodles are available, just go to google.com in your mobile browser to see them.