DailySmartPhone.com Key Ring Review
Happy belated New Year everyone! I thought I’d kick off our first 2010 post with latest Key Ring review from DailySmartPhone.com. Thanks Mitch for the very informative review!
android/a2b in China?
Help me figure this one out…. again, Flurry analytics continues to provide interesting data. Apparently, a2b is being used in China and has been on a consistent basis since April 13th/14th. Not just on one network, but 2 ~ China Mobile and China Mobile Communications Corporation. I have no idea if these companies are one in the same but they both show up as separate networks on the Flurry report. More »
How to Design an Android App Podcast
If you’re interested in learning how to design you’re own android application or hearing about the pros/cons of being involved with android, you might want to check out this podcast. Randy and Suzanne from Motorola development ask me a series of questions and I provide Froogloid’s honest feedback. It’s a thriller… check it out :)
Enjoy! If you have any questions, comments or your own experiences, post em up!
MOTODEV Podcast Featuring Froogloid
Hi everyone, quick heads up ~ Froogloid will be featured on Motorola’s development podcast tomorrow 4/22 morning. If you have any android / Froogloid related questions feel free to post them here and I’ll make sure Motorola is aware.
Here’s link to podcast info: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/motodev/2009/04/22/MOTODEV-Android-Podcast-1
Date: 4/22/09
Time: 11:00 am cst
How to design your very own android application
Occasionally I receive an email asking if it’s hard to design and build android applications and what’s the best way to get started. So, I figured it made sense to post a quick how-to on our blog on how to make a design. Unfortunately, I’m not a developer so I’ll only be covering the design aspects of the process. With that said, stay tuned for future dev how-to’s from Froogloid’s master android developers.
First, chose an application idea that’s do-able. For example, don’t try to invent a time traveling mobile application your first time out the gate :) Once you have your idea, do some research to see who else is offering a similar product. If someone has already built an application that’s very similar to your idea, don’t be discouraged. The reality is, your idea is probably not an original. Study what other people have built and figure out a way to add additional features and streamline the apps usability. Often times it’s better that someone has already built a product similar to your idea so that you can learn from their design shortcomings.
Now that you have your idea, let’s get started with the design. First, if your not familiar with the Microsoft office application “visio”, I HIGHLY encourage you to learn. It’s a simple application that will allow you to create screenshot designs very easily and fast. If you’re a newbie check out the visio how-to video’s on youtube. Here’s one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmDjmm0btO8 Here’s the best part…. a company by the name or artbitfuls has created a custom visio stencil specifically designed for android UI creation. You can download the stencil here and also see some of the designs they’ve created using visio. Keep in mind that visio is very helpful in regards to designing your layout and picking which android widgets to use. However, visio is not a great tool to design custom buttons and graphics. I would strongly encourage you to use photoshop for this. When designing, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The android SDK has provided a wealth of existing widgets to use in your design. USE THEM! Trust me, it will make your life so so so much easier! The previously mentioned visio stencil provides graphics of most of the widgets however, go here for a complete list.
When I make design I try to focus on one thing ~ “make the application as user friendly and intuitive as possible”. Here’s a tip: try to find the most non-techie person you know, in my case it’s my girlfriend, and without telling them anything about the application you’ve designed ask them to review the screenshots and provide a play by play on what the application does and how the user will interact with it. If you’ve designed, let’s say, a bowling game and they think you’ve designed a baseball game you’ve got a problem :) It’s best to change your design as early in the process as possible. Otherwise you’ll have a very angry developer :)
Here’s a couple before and after screenshots of a2b. You’ll notice the layouts are very similar but the actual graphics are different.
Visio Designs:
Built Application:
Welcome Germany and Austria!
We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know when! Austria and Germany now have access “paid” apps in the adroid market.
How do I know? Well, I just checked Froogloid’s google checkout account for a2b and we have received sales from both Austria and Germany! 3 European countries now have paid apps support ~ UK, Austria, and Germany.
Latest a2b Updates
Hey everyone, I’ve been meaning to post about this for some time now but Chris P, Simmone, and I have been heads down lately with Key Ring and some other stuff. The good news is Key Ring is moving right along :) For those of you that downloaded a2b via the android market, you likely saw an email I sent last week explaining some of the new features. This post will expound upon on that email and will include screenshots. Enjoy :)
On a related note, thanks to everyone who provided positive feedback on the android market regarding the latest update. Your feedback is VERY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU!
Manually enter location. Select “save location” => “map” tab => menu => “manually enter location”.
GPS Settings. You can now configure GPS to automatically turn off when you exit the application. Go to the home screen => menu => “settings”
New Home Screen Background Graphic. We wanted more contrast between the save and find buttons and the background. Hopefully this new background will do the trick :)
Turn by Turn / Driving Directions. You’ll now have the option to navigate to your saved location using turn by directions. Unfortunately it’s against google’s terms of service to integrate turn by turn directly within a 3rd party application otherwise we would have a built a custom view. Nonetheless, google maps seamlessly integrate with a2b. Select “find location” => select the location you’d like to navigate to via the list => find “map” tab => menu => “Driving Directions”
Email Saved Location. Once you’ve saved a location you can share it with anyone you’d like via email. If you’ve taken a picture and/or created a free text note this will also be sent when emailing the location. Select “find location” => select the location you’d like to share via the list => find “map” tab = menu => “email saved location”
Update Menu. When you download an updated version of a2b you’ll now be able to reference what updates were made. Go to the home screen => menu => “updates”
Several UI Enhancements. Progress circles between screen transitions, pop up toast for playing audio, background color for find map tab distance, manage application description, and various other tweaks.
Android Development Challenge II
Until now it’s been radio silence from out friends at google regarding the 2nd android development challenge. I ran across an interesting blog today at phandroid.com where they were able to dig up some news regarding the next android developer challenge. Google was origianlly slated to communicate time-lines, rules etc for this contest by the end of December 08. The good news is that the 2nd development challenge has not been canceled, only delayed. Here’s what google said:
“Regarding the second Developer Challenge, it definitely isn’t canceled but we haven’t announced plans for it yet. We said we would by last year (sorry about that), but we’re still working on how to structure it. The world is quite a bit different now than it was when we ran the first ADC, so we want to make sure the new rules/structure make sense, and we are of course taking into consideration everyone’s experiences with the first ADC. The second ADC will definitely not be a clone of the first ADC. We expect to have all this finalized and announce rules within a couple months. The event itself will likely run in the second half of the year.” – Dan Morrill
If you’re not familiar with the android development challenge here’s a summary of the first challenge:
- +1788 developers submitted applications
- +open handset alliance partners picked 50 finalists and each received 25,000 to either pocket or reinvest in their app
- +top 50 finalists were given an opportunity to make a another round of edits and then submitted apps as final
- +open handset alliance partners selected 20 winners! 10 received $100,000 and 10 received $275,000
- +total prize money awarded was $5,000,000
If you look at the number of submissions v. the number of winners you’d have roughly a 3% chance of walking away with any money. The odds weren’t exactly in your favor! Keep in mind 1788 people submitted applications for an operating system that wasn’t even available for sale on a device! And, 100% of development and testing had to be done via your PC! Now that we have more than a million android devices out there and MANY more on there way who knows how many people will submit applications for the 2nd development challenge! Nonetheless, Froogloid isn’t discouraged and we’re always up for a challenge!
