Honeycomb event breakdown

If you are interested in Android / Tablets or technology in general then you may want to check out the video from the Google Android Event 02-02-2011. The YouTube clip has this as the description : "A taste of what's new from Android. Join us for an in-depth look at Honeycomb and Android ecosystem news."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfJuigJebRg

As it's over 50 minutes long, we've broken it down into segments with timestamps:
Intro 0:00
Overview / demo of some new features 2:35
Panes demo in gmail 9:00
2D & 3D enhancements incl RenderScript 11:25
-- 3D Google Maps 13:47
-- 3D Google Body 14:40
3D Graphics / Games 15:25
-- Monster Madness 16:00
-- Great Battles : Medievil 17:00
New Camera app 18:25
Video Chat 19:10
-- CNN Video App (incl iReport) 22:30
Android Market Changes 30:00
-- Webstore 31:20
-- My Market Account 40:15
Purchasing Apps 41:18
In-App purchasing 42:00
-- Disney examples 44:30
Video Chat ptII (Lady Killer) 51:00

Android - Elf Shake App Challenge

We created this for the Androids in Auckland group as a training exercise to allow everyone to modify it how they feel fit and present their ideas along with any issues they have had in the December 2010 meet-up. Everyone can also see what it is like to post their application to the Android market. The winner will get a Free Motorola Flipout from Telecom NZ ( http://bit.ly/bE6V3H ) worth $599.

Remember that Due date: 2nd December 2010 at the Androids in Auckland meet-up.

Currently the Elf Shake application loads a Xmas tree background and has a single elf that falls when the phone is shaken (as seen to the right).

The General Rules:

1. Your application must contain an image of an Elf
2. The Elf must do something when someone shakes the phone

For a full list of the rules see http://www.meetup.com/Androids-In-Auckland/messages/boards/thread/9886387/0#38497020

This code as available as the basis to create your own fun application. Feel free to change any images, settings, code, anything – It’s your app!!! Source code including the Entire Eclipse project is available from this link (let me know if you want it uploaded as an SNV project). All you need is to have a working Eclipse with the Android SDK installed (How to guide is here ).

To import the project into Eclipse:

1. Download the file (ElfShakeApp.zip) from http://code.google.com/p/elfshake/downloads/list
   
2. Go to File > Import...
3. Select General > Existing projects into workspace
4. Select the "Archive File" option, and enter the location of ElfShakeApp.zip
5. Click Finish

You should now have the application in Eclipse that you can modify to your hearts content (See the Rules above).

What does this app do currently?
The main activity is nz.co.elfshakeappchallenge.ElfShakeActivity. This Activity picks up a shake of the phone and starts the Elf falling.

Under the ‘res’ folder there are:
- ‘drawable-*dpi’ - the standard drawable folders for a high, medium and low quality image – currently a elf and a tree.
- ‘anim’ – the animation descriptor for how the elf falls
- ‘layout’ – a single default layout with a background image and an ImageView of the elf.
- ‘values’ – the all important string / text that gets used in the application.

We’ve implemented a quick hack so you can test the falling elf on the emulator – just click the screen (onTouchEvent() which calls testShake() ) – you could remove these methods if you don’t want this functionality.

The one thing that I would suggest would be changing the package name - currently it is nz.co.elfshakeappchallenge so you may like to make it more relevant to you.

Please let me know via comment if you have any issues / suggestions for this basic application.

I am currently trying to get hold of a prize for the winner - I'll post it on the meetup site, if get any. - But the "winner" will be the person who made the app do the most but still remain functional and adheres to the rules above. Simon B, Julius and myself will be the judges!

[edit] Telecom NZ have given us a Motorola Flipout running Android 2.1 to give away as a prize - Thanks heaps Telecom!!! (phone details: http://bit.ly/bE6V3H) . Why not get your application started now!!!

Kind Regards,
Simon Collings
Solutions Manager

Getting a screen-shot of your Android phone screen

So you want to get the screen of your Android phone to display on your computer (and then onto a projector or take a screen-shot etc.)?!?!

The follow steps (based on the ones here http://bit.ly/9y5adU) will show you how although there is a small warning that if you are using this for a presentational is there is a lag and the refresh rate needs some work but there are options you can pass in to try to correct this if needed.

It may also be worth noting that if you are seeing bugs / errors on your phone, sending them an image of the issue may be helpful.

The Process:
The following will work if you can get you emulator to work on your machine - just Google how to do that :) - Please note that you don't actually use the emulator, it just sets up the adb bridge (software that connects your phone to your computer) , SDK (Software Development Kit) and USB drivers.

- Download source from http://github.com/commonsguy/droidex

- Copy the files DroidEx.jar and args4j-2.0.16.jar into a directory - just to make life simple

- Plug your phone into your computer - you may to enable debugging on your phone (On the device, go to the home screen, press MENU, select Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging).

- From that directory run the following command (note change the C:\SIT\Android\SDK path to be the path to your SDK)
java -cp DroidEx.jar;%CLASSATH%;args4j-2.0.16.jar;C:\SIT\Android\SDK\tools\lib\ddmlib.jar com.commonsware.droidex.DroidEx
(also to note - this is for a Windows machine but it should work for any platform with some minor modifications).

If you have troubles, drop us a message - more than happy to help Android developers :)

Cheers,
The team.

Android applicaitons we use almost daily

I thought that I would list out some of the applications we use all the time on our Android devices to hopefully make it easier for others. Please note that we have no link to any of these companies other the the last two which were some of our own creations.

Note Everything - SoftXPerience
Notepad type tool that can sync with Google Docs for backup
http://www.appbrain.com/app/note-everything/de.softxperience.android.noteeverything

GPS OnOff - CurveFish
Widget for easily turning on/off GPS
http://www.appbrain.com/app/gps-onoff/com.curvefish.widgets.gpsonoff

WiFi OnOff - CurveFish
Widget for easily turning on/off WiFi
http://www.appbrain.com/app/wifi-onoff/com.curvefish.widgets.wifionoff

iMobsters - Storm8
Game - build your mob, attach others, build an empire - player id is QJ5JX5
http://www.appbrain.com/app/imobsters%E2%84%A2/com.storm8.imobsters

BlueRss - Ufo411 - I still use this older version but it is now unsupported and replaced by
BlueRSS GR Demo - Ufo411
RSS and Atom reader - pull all your news sources into one place - e.g. Stuff http://www.stuff.co.nz/rss/ , BBC http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml etc etc
http://www.appbrain.com/app/bluerss-gr-demo/com.bluegorilla.bluerss.demo

Task Manager - Wing Tseng
Task manager - let you see what apps are still running
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-wingtseng123-systemmemorymonitor-qFC.aspx

Dophin Browser (tm) - Dolphin Browser
Tabbed web browser - kinda like FireFox - FYI the Android version of FireFox is called Fennec
http://www.appbrain.com/app/dolphin-browser%E2%84%A2/com.mgeek.android.DolphinBrowser.Browser


Of Course,
Blinky McBlink Face - Serendipity IT Ltd
Torch / flashing light app
http://www.appbrain.com/app/blinky-mcblink-face/nz.co.serendipityit.blinky

Magic Octo Ball - Serendipity IT Ltd
Magic 8-Ball style app - featuring Paul the octopus
http://www.appbrain.com/app/magic-octo-ball/nz.co.serendipityit.octoball

Android Mapping on an Emulator : API Key How To

So we've spent just over an hour trying to get maps showing up on our Android Emulator with messages like "ERROR/MapActivity(292): Couldn't get connection factory client" in the DDMS Logcat console (debug window). We were previously getting a grid that we could pan / zoom.

We have now solved it (by reading the docs). Apparently this isn't an uncommon problem so we've posted our solution here (Other than just reading the "Getting the MD5 Fingerprint of the SDK Debug Certificate" section of the "Obtaining a Maps API Key page")

Please note: all values have been altered and will not work for you!!!

On vista where Bob is the user: (see the note at the bottom of this page on how to get the location)
cd C:\Bob\Android\SDK\.android\debug.keystore

Generate the Keystore with the same credentials as the emulator is going to use:
keytool -genkey -alias androiddebugkey -keystore "C:\Bob\Android\SDK\.android\debug.keystore" -storepass android -keypass android

List the fingerprint back from the keystore:
keytool -list -alias androiddebugkey -keystore "C:\Bob\Android\SDK\.android\debug.keystore" -storepass android -keypass android

Then use that fingerprint at http://code.google. com/android/maps-api-signup.html to get your key - it also gives you a usage for your layout.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The most important bit of the Obtaining a Maps API key page is the following:
If you are using Eclipse/ADT and are unsure where the debug keystore is located, you can select Windows > Prefs > Android > Build to check the full path, which you can then paste into a file explorer to locate the directory containing the keystore.

Hope this helps other Android Maps developers!

The Team.

Android 1.6 Review of New Features

Looking over the Android 1.6 (Doughnut) release notes we came across a few new ideas that could or should be created. Firstly we've listed out a few of the new User and Platform Features (more info on them can be found here http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-1.6-highlights.html).

The New User Features in this release are:

• Quick Search Box for Android
• Updated interface to Camera, Camcorder, and Gallery
• VPN, 802.1x - Yes that is right you can now VPN into your corporate LAN from your android phone
• Battery usage indicator - usage per application
• Accessibility Framework
• Android Market Updates

The New Platform Technologies in this release are:

• Expanded Search Framework - Hello! it's Google, but now it's also on the phone data
• Text-to-speech engine
• Gestures
• Expanded support for screen densities and resolutions
• Telephony support for CDMA
• New API packages
• android.accessibilityservice - An accessibility service runs in the background and receives callbacks by the system when AccessibilityEvents are fired.
• android.gesture - Provides classes to create, recognize, load and save gestures. A gesture can have a single or multiple "strokes".
• android.speech.tts - Synthesizes speech from text for immediate playback or to create a sound file.
• android.view.accessibility - This class represents accessibility events that are sent by the system when something notable happens in the user interface.
• Linux Kernel Upgrade from 2.6.27 to 2.6.29.
• "The Linux 2.6.29 kernel really shines with OpenSSL and its RSA 4096-bit performance. The number of signs per second had doubled!"
• "The blur performance with GraphicsMagick had jumped from 25 [ed. iterations per minute] to 40 with Linux 2.6.29."
• Info taken from http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_2629_benchmarks&num=1
  

Some interesting opportunities can come out of this.
Security App
With the new Text-to-Speech API you could have the camera pick up movement and SMS you a picture of what it now sees. You could then reply SMS with the Text you would like said "I've called the police", "I'm watching you" or "Please say your name"- on receipt of this SMS the phone could Text-to-Speech it and announce it to the room. It could also start the voice recorder and after x amount of time SMS you back the voice file so you can figure out if that person should be there or not.

Accessibility
Come on people there are loads of opportunities here - read my messages to me, read me some selected text, vibrate or make a sound when I point my phone towards home (compass).

Gestures
"Developers can use the new GestureBuilder tool included in the Android 1.6 SDK to generate libraries of gestures to include with their application."
I'm thinking someone should create a generice GestureLibrary that can be imported into people's applications by default. That way there will be a consistent end user experience.

I hope this starts to get the juices going for you!!!

Regards,
Simon Collings
Solutions Manager
Serendipity IT Ltd

Income Models

When creating a business from an idea there are 2 main things that you should plan for - how to make money for the business and your exit strategy (preferably with the money you made).

Please note these are more income models not business models as business models take the following things into account; offers, customers, finance, expenses, revenue flows, key resources etc.

There are 3 main tried and true income models for making money:

• Customer Pays - This is the model used at clothing shops - the customer walks in a buys goods/services and leaves. This is a great model, very easy to understand from a customer point of view and easy to manage within your business. The only downside is that you have many paying customers so you need to control your financial books very well.

• Suppliers Pay - This is the model used on Txt Shopping Mall - It allows customers to pay nothing and therefore you would expect to get a greater uptake. The downside to this is that customers don't trust a free model (from their point of view). Usually this model relies on having a service to sell not a product.

• Clip the Ticket / In the Chain - Ticketek, the events ticketing agent is a great example of this model - This is used where your business makes life easier for customers and other businesses. Basically you offer other companies products / services to customers and charge a little both ways for the privilege.

There are other supplementary income models like Online Advertising that usually have specific requirements requiring a high volume of something, either online page views or SMS messages sent or similar. Please feel free to add other models that you think may be of interest, there are lots out there!! Wikipedia lists over 20 of them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_model .

So how do we use this information within Serendipity IT Ltd? We gather together all our ideas once a fortnight and try to figure out the 2 things mentioned above - how to make money for the business (which income model) and your exit strategy (preferably with the money you made). If you can decide these two things and they make sense, then you can progress that idea.

Hope this helps,
Simon Collings
Solutions Manager
Serendipity IT Ltd