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To watch almost anything on android you can use Emit app. It streams movies to the device and encodes them on the fly. If you want to watch them on the phone without streaming it supports pre-encode and download movies to the device. There is a free version of it ;) https://market.android.com/details?id=tv.wpn.biokoda.android.emitfree

Then what am I running?

When I got the tablet last week, I chose VLC Direct from the Android Market. Works just fine.

Guess this refers to a fully-free version, since this already-working project is a paid application...

Did you get an offer for source with your VLC binary? If not, it's probably infringing on the copyrights of the VLC developers.

Reading the description of VLC Direct, I suspect that it's not derived from VLC, but an Android front end for the VLC web interface which must be running on another machine to make it work. Though that approach probably has advantages, such as reduced power usage, it's certainly not the most flexible. VLC running natively on the Android device wouldn't require any transcoding server.

If "VLC Direct" is not derived from VLC, it's not copyright infringement, but it could be trademark infringement, since it's clearly causing confusion.

So where's the source code for this?

Not the sources, but they put out a couple of FREE iOS and Android Apps: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/network-test-networktest-org/id433948720?mt=8 https://market.android.com/details?id=com.measurement.frontend

I think you would have gotten a better response if you introduced your subject by saying you practice a memorization technique that works better if all number pads are the same, so you rebuilt your calculator's number pad to match your phone's number pad. Even so, one has to wonder why a phone number problem and a math problem would be considered in the same category

On a calculator, you'll rarely have to remember the same sequence of numbers. And if you have to remember a number, there's probably already a button for it on the calculator like the PI key.

Finally, as others have said, it probably would have been easier to find an alternate keyboard to load on your phone than it would be to rebuild your calculator. No soldering required.

For another alternative, check out my comment here:
"PlantStudio Evolutionary 3D Software"
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2443828&cid=37504222

For information about software my wife and I wrote for breeding 3D plants (about fifteen years ago):
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/userssay.htm
https://github.com/pdfernhout/PlantStudio/blob/master/README.txt

And now breeding music:
http://www.evojazz.com/
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.evojazz

For the plants, we tried to use rules similar to what nature uses for most plants. The music one is more random and could be a lot better.

So, yes, they could make this a lot better. In general, what such a tool needs is support for a parameterizable model, where the parameters can be bred, and eventually the models themselves can be bred.

But with that said, I agree with all the hype that this is a big part of the future of 3D. We got lots of positive feedback about PlantStudio. We just ran out of money to keep developing it back then, and had to work for years at places like IBM Research on unrelated stuff to repay living expenses debt we incurred while writing it and related software (an educational garden simulator) and then got distracted with various life events and other projects.

Anyway, I wish the Cornell people the best of luck as long as the system is free and open source. And if it is not open source (I don't know) they should read this: :-)
http://www.pdfernhout.net/open-letter-to-grantmakers-and-donors-on-copyright-policy.html
http://www.pdfernhout.net/on-funding-digital-public-works.html

We did this 15 years ago: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/

The approach and interface has a lot of similarities.

An open source version (in Python):
https://github.com/pdfernhout/PlantStudio/

Recent musical version: :-)
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.evojazz

Don't blame the person who submitted the question.

Blame the person who posted it.

Or blame no-one and JFGI.

I would argue this is not a new idea. The same basic concept exists in Android as Intents.

In android you can hook up javascript functions and have them call Android code. see addJavascriptInterface

They did it already.

Google already do this, and why the Amazon store is so interesting.

If you want to bundle the GApps and Market on a Android device, there is a checklist of things you need to have before Google gives the thumbs up. This list is why we are seeing non-phone Andoid device only recently.

http://source.android.com/compatibility/index.html

Google makes little noise about this on stage, as they want to appear as the thinker friendly corporation.

Don't forget drawable-xhdpi and other -ldpi, -mdpi, -hdpi, -xhdpi, -nodpi, -tvdpi, -large, -small, etc...
FYI: The guide has been recently updated http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

I use this software as my virtual wallet.

Me too, very impressed with it. However for me, the difficulty is in finding others in my local area that are also using it so we can transact.

Just hang out around the entrance to your local secure mental unit, maybe one of the inmates will be given an escorted day release.

I use this software as my virtual wallet.

Me too, very impressed with it.
 
However for me, the difficulty is in finding others in my local area that are also using it so we can transact.

The difficulty is going to be getting software for POS systems that accept money from my virtual wallet. It wouldn't be too hard if they also had an Android device, but some niceties for merchants would be missing from that solution.

I use this software as my virtual wallet. It works pretty well. I've sent money to friends and gotten it back. It's slightly more cumbersome than handing them cash in some ways, and slightly less in others. But it does work already. I don't need Google or PayPal taking their cut.

We have an android app and market stats say 5,600 galaxy tabs have our app installed (so probably more people installed and then uninstalled). Can't believe that 25% of galaxy tab users have our app installed.

Don't you think that 20,000 is too little?

The summary includes a link to the wiki article about it being killed by lawyers. This in turn includes the text of the DMCA takedown notice. Take a look:

lxxxxxxn@cbs.com to support-portal@google.com
Reply - More info Aug 23
Options

AutoDetectedBrowser: Internet Explorer 7
AutoDetectedOS: Windows XP
IIILanguage: en
IssueType: lr_dmca
Language: en
agree1: checked
agree: checked
android_app_developer_1: Moonblink
android_app_name_1: Tricorder
android_app_url_1: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.hermit.tricorder
companyname: CBS
country_residence: US
description_of_copyrighted_work: LCARS graphical user interface
dmca_signature: Lxxxxxxn
dmca_signature_date_day: 23
dmca_signature_date_month: 8
dmca_signature_date_year: 2011
full_name: Lxxxxxxn
hidden_product: androidmarket
location_of_copyrighted_work: LCARS graphical user interface, an example of which can be viewed at the URL below: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-trek-padd/id446277240?mt=8 represented_copyright_holder: CBS Studios Inc.

Now, I used to have an app on my Palm PDA that pretended to be a tricorder but didn't actually do anything (other than make some chirp noises and display various jokes). That's not what this is; this "tricorder" app displays the outputs from various sensors on an Android phone. You can get a magnetic compass, sound data from the microphone, GPS data, etc. The DMCA takedown isn't about this functionality, but just about the LCARS interface.

The solution is obvious: reskin the app, using an Android sort of theme, and for extra safety change the name. The result shouldn't bother CBS anymore.

I don't even really like LCARS much.

P.S. I presume that CBS will go after the people who install LCARS themes on their desktops. What a waste of time.

steveha

That sounds very much like Android Intents and Activities.

An Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between the code in different applications. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities. It is basically a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.

That sounds very much like Android Intents and Activities.

An Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between the code in different applications. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities. It is basically a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.

Actually, it's a PC game. There isn't a cellphone client, yet.

Maybe a little research before making an idiot of yourself would be worthwhile.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mojang.minecraftpe

It is not available on any phones, nor has it ever been.

My Sony Ericsson PLAY runs the official Minecraft for Android absolutely perfectly, thankyou.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mojang.minecraftpe

You want this to actually be in the X code? http://developer.android.com/resources/articles/gestures.html

Both my Android phone and my Android tablet run Netflix just fine.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.netflix.mediaclient&hl=en

The other big reason companies use Android now: APPS. Google has successfully built a vibrant and prolific applications development community. Not to say it's perfect by any means (and in any discussion, you'll get complains that it's both not open enough and not secure enough... sometimes from the same person), but it does very much help to create the market for Android devices.

And they've largely handled it right: if you want to develop, go to http://www.android.com/ download tools, develop. You get big company support there too, if you need it.

Apple understood the app thing, even if it took them a year to really get it. Microsoft seems to, even as they try to make a smartphone for people who don't actually want smartphones, a possibly dubious thing. Nokia and RIM never really got the whole application thing... Nokia didn't even launch an appstore until 2009, and even then, didn't install it on most SymbianOS phones.

And in other things, the phone guys largely get what they want with Android. No licensing costs, an OS that can actually compete against Apple, the freedom to change pieces they want to change but no requirement to write anything but drivers. And really, we don't need MS taking over, or a different proprietary OS per cell phone maker, either. Those were pretty much the long-term choices, without Android. Just as practically no one trusted SymbianOS with Nokia at the helm, I doubt any of the other HW companies would have been trusting of Nokia and MeeGo, or Nokia now an equal partner with Microsoft in Windows Phone 7.

Thanks to what some would call an unfair advantage in the UNIX-centric nature of the entire internet protocol suite, UNIX gained an early lead in internet sites (this was before the "web", you know)

So what about it was "UNIX-centric"? (No, "protocols like FTP were text-based, so they were UNIX-centric" isn't it - Dating back at least as far as RFC 454, in 1973, when UNIX was about 2 years old and not very ARPANETted, a text-command-based FTP was being proposed.)

Even though Apple and Google were taking UNIX systems, stripping the userspace, and replacing it with strange "mobile-optimized" front-ends,

At least for Apple, the "userspace" you're referring to presumably refers to the UI, rather than, say, the system library, which, in iOS is very much like the Mac OS X system library, i.e. it's what a UNIX person would call a libc (even if it's called libSystem). For Google, it's a bit different blah blah blah Dalvik blah blah blah, but at least as I read What is the NDK?, it sounds as if they're offering at least some low-level UNIX APIs to native applications:

[The NDK] provides a set of system headers for stable native APIs that are guaranteed to be supported in all later releases of the platform:

• libc (C library) headers
• libm (math library) headers

...

So what is this? We've seen 3 decades+ of growth, and now... it all ends here. Is there such a thing as "peak UNIX"? Cause this sure looks like it from here. The world has moved on, Moore's law has finally given us enough computing power to generate all the shiny bling we need to blind ourselves to what's under the hood.

"What's under the hood" is still UNIX (in the "even if you're not supposed to call it UNIX", i.e. the "little if any of it is based on AT&T UNIX code and it wasn't certified by running it against the Single UNIX Specification validation suite, but it's still recognizably UNIX in its the low-level APIs", sense) for the two fastest growing smartphone OSes, the top tablet OS (same as one of the two smartphone OSes), and at least one of the other tablet OSes (same as the other smartphone OS). Most application developers for those OSes probably don't end up using any of the low-level UNIX APIs in their code, however.

Microsoft is referring to the fact that Google withholds Android source from non-privileged partners.

Bullshit. I can download it right now, and I'm not even an OEM.

Where's the sense in offering an open platform and then sending out cease-and-desist letters to people who modify it?

And that, my lost-carrier friend, is the existential question. Why would Google do that?

Consensus is that Google has a slightly different meaning for the word "open". They support AOSP, which means that the Android core OS is open in the more-or-less conventional sense. AOSP is, after all the beginning of awesome mod roms like Cyanogenmod. But Google's sense of openness ends where their own service software (like Maps, or Market) starts. Those are almost as closed as Office for Microsoft. That's what the C&D was about: distributing Google Apps with the Cyanogenmod package. So GApps have been unbundled from the mod rom and you download those as a separate rom from heaven-only-knows-where. But it works. Certainly having a tool like ROM Manager helps locate and install all the pieces.

I would never have spent my money and mindshare on an Android phone if the architecture and most of the culture weren't modding-friendly. I don't need a mobile phone, but if I'm buying an ultraportable computer I'm buying one I can hack around on.

Signed,
idontgno, a happy CM-7.1.0RC1-BravoC user.

Switch, of course.

Disclaimer: my company.

I realize you are very likely joking, but a quick look at Google Market shows several Nethack ports :P

https://market.android.com/search?q=nethack&so=1&c=apps

haha, Actually for stuff like this:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/requirements.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4c26cc39(v=vs.80).aspx

There are plenty of tools to try to find free channels:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&feature=search_result

While I personally use that program, at least on my EVO (Synergy GodMode ROM) once it starts seeing 20+ APs it tends to bog down so much it's about useless, even in simple "list" mode.

HEX

How? What's the process for getting your patch accepted by google?

http://source.android.com/source/submit-patches.html

With very few exceptions about every free app in Google's market requests privileges that would alert any anti-virus and anti-spyware program.

E.g. look at the android market and its top free applications. Click on almost any of them and see what permissions they request.

Here is the list of one of tits topmost and most featured apps: the barcode reader
* full Internet access
* allow the application to read all of the contact (address) data stored on your device
* allow the application to modify the contact (address) data stored on your device
* read Browser's history and bookmarks
* allow the application to read all the URLs that the Browser has visited, and all of the Browser's bookmarks
*modify/delete USB storage contents modify/delete SD card contents
* allow the application to write to the USB storage
* modify global system settings
* allow the application to modify the system's settings data
* change Wi-Fi state
* allow the application to connect to and disconnect from Wi-Fi access points, and to make changes to configured Wi-Fi networks
* prevent device from sleeping
* allows the application to prevent the device from going to sleep

Pray tell, what does a barcode reader do with these priviledges it demands? The actual application is just a thin cover for a very intrusive trojan!

add kernel support so you can access your windows shared folders.

Does the Xoom need kernel modification for that?

I'm using the AndSMB app on my Asus to access my fileshares.

Now I know you're trolling; Firefox for Android DOES support Flash

If Firefox for Android supports Flash they're being pretty quiet about it. News reports announcing the Firefox 6 beta complain that it has no Flash support. User comments on the Firefox Beta page on the Android Market complain that it still has no Flash support. The release notes for Firefox 6 say Flash and other plugins are not supported. This bug report has been open since January and as of late June it just says "we're working on it." If you guys are using Flash with Firefox for Android I'd love to hear how you've managed it. Sounds like the Mozilla Foundation would love to hear about it, too.

Some people need to have their hand held when using gadgets. Those people need Apple to hold them close and assure them that as long as the money flows all will be okay and Apple will protect them from the big bad world out there.

Could you be a more condescending twat? I can hear the arrogance over here.

What I find funniest about your statement is the idea "as long as the money flows...Apple will protect" you, implying that Android is the key to having software support for a much longer period of time. In reality, many Android device manufacturers have seen fit to stop releasing software updates as soon as the stop selling the hardware. It's a huge factor in the crazy-wide distribution of version numbers in use. And Cyanogen doesn't really count; if you're going to run the Android equivalent of jailbreak apps you need to be intellectually honest.

So the information is entirely useless for someone trying to invade your privacy, unless there's something I'm missing

Suppose that there is a method to determine (with reasonable certainty) what your wireless MAC address is.

Suppose this method is just as simple as driving by a location where you are known to be present (ie: at home) while you're using WiFi.

What then?

Or: Suppose that you have legal reasons to be paranoid, and physical access to the device by armed thugs with jackboots is only a warrant away.

What then?

Or. Suppose that an app on your phone calls home with your MAC address.

What if it also knows your phone number?

What then?

So the information is entirely useless for someone trying to invade your privacy, unless there's something I'm missing

Suppose that there is a method to determine (with reasonable certainty) what your wireless MAC address is.

Suppose this method is just as simple as driving by a location where you are known to be present (ie: at home) while you're using WiFi.

What then?

Or: Suppose that you have legal reasons to be paranoid, and physical access to the device by armed thugs with jackboots is only a warrant away.

What then?

Or. Suppose that an app on your phone calls home with your MAC address.

What if it also knows your phone number?

What then?

Even if you count everything with 4" or larger as a tablet, you only get 5 million total.

Thank you for your replies. We have completed the review of your appeal. Your Android Market Publisher account has been suspended due to repeat violations of our Terms of Service. You may view these terms here: http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html http://www.android.com/market/terms/developer-content-policy.html We will not be restoring your account at this time. Please note that Android Market Publisher suspensions may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. Should your account become reinstated, we will notify you. We are unable to provide further details regarding this issue . Please do not register another new developer account. We recommend your utilizing an alternative application distribution system and payment method for future orders.

So basically, they shut down my account, but are unable to provide any details why. In speaking with lawyers, it is simply not cost effective to try to sue them. I would spend far more in lawyer fees than I could ever hope to earn back. Verizon and Amazon both specifically requested my application for their stores, and it is still happily listed and selling in them.

Thank you for your replies. We have completed the review of your appeal. Your Android Market Publisher account has been suspended due to repeat violations of our Terms of Service. You may view these terms here: http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html http://www.android.com/market/terms/developer-content-policy.html We will not be restoring your account at this time. Please note that Android Market Publisher suspensions may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. Should your account become reinstated, we will notify you. We are unable to provide further details regarding this issue . Please do not register another new developer account. We recommend your utilizing an alternative application distribution system and payment method for future orders.

So basically, they shut down my account, but are unable to provide any details why. In speaking with lawyers, it is simply not cost effective to try to sue them. I would spend far more in lawyer fees than I could ever hope to earn back. Verizon and Amazon both specifically requested my application for their stores, and it is still happily listed and selling in them.

up front disclaimer, I hate Apple, and will not buy any of their devices for the forseeable future. But I have good reasons for this hatred, not all of which I have time or room to fit here. Now, lets try actually citing some sources here, shall we?

The release of the iPhone 3GS (and later iPod Touch 3rd Generation) brought hardware-based full disk encryption (FDE) to the iPhone. This was designed to accomplish one thing: instantaneous remote wipe....Jonathan Zdziarski found that the iPhone OS automatically decrypts data when a request for data is made, effectively making the encryption worthless for protecting data.

source . Some of what Zdziarski says here. After a little more research, I discovered that apparently iOS 4 devices do use your passcode to encrypt the hardware keys, so they can't be read when you are logged out. source That is actually a reasonable system: the original one, not so much. Just because something uses "hardware encryption" doesn't mean it actually encrypts data effectively. As I said, the original system didn't, and wasn't intended to: it was only intended to make remote wiping your device faster (since you can just erase the key, not the whole drive.)

And as for why there isn't any iOS malware: seriously, stop and think for a second. If Apple reviews every last app on the official App Store, its kinda hard to sneak malware in, isn't it? Also, you might want to actually look up Android's security system. After about 20 seconds, I found that, surprise surprise, Android also sandboxes applications so that they can't read each others data. In other words: it doesn't matter if the passwords are stored plaintext, since other applications can't read them anyways. Hence, why all the Android malware I've ever heard about doesn't mess with the phone itself, but rather calls home/ phones premium numbers/ etc. Maybe there is an actual virus for Android that messes with the data on the phone. Never heard of it though.(edit:someone mentioned storing apps on SD cards, and then reading those. You can't do that from the phone directly any more than you can read the internal memory, and if you get physical access no encryption is really gonna help. And the same problem exist on iPhone... oh wait, you can't use SD cards with those at all. Apple likes the flash memory premium too much) If it breaks the sandboxing, sure, but if it does that on the iPhone it can do the exact same thing, password keychain or no (proof: they did). And precisely how you said they can't: through root. I'm not sure how passcode encryption effects this or what iOS version they were using, but I would presume its iOS 4.

And I never said an encrypted system wasn't better, I said it wasn't much better... which, as it turns out, it isn't. I absolutely think that passwords should be encrypted. But with another password, not a keychain stored on the device itself. Its just the tiniest bit better than plaintext, but not by much. I can't believe people on Slashdot still keep thinking "oh, encryption, that means my data is secure!"

And I'm not sure how "Google specifically designed" Android to be locked down. AFAIK all the phones that prevent custom firmware use an encrypted bootloader system, which has very little to do with Android itself. Please, inform me how Google is responsible for that. As for Honeycomb source: straw man much? Where is ANY iOS source? Android source will be out at least by Ice Cream Sandwich, relax, Google is just being prudent. For once. I know FOSS fanatics want absolutel

You want SenseUI? Without all the crap? HeLauncher does the job. It imitates the look of various proprietary launchers, and keeping some of the same functionality. It's the current default launcher on my HTC Dream running Cyanogenmod 5.

1. Install the Android Debug Bridge on your computer. http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html
2. Turn on USB debugging on your phone, and connect it to your computer.
3. Install Tetherbot http://graha.ms/androidproxy/ on your phone, and start the Socks Proxy Server.
4. Setup ADB to open a port on your computer that forwards to the port on your phone where the proxy server is listening: "adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:1080"
5. Set your browser to use localhost:5555 as a proxy server.

Now all your web browsing goes through your phone. If you run Firefox, you can get FoxyProxy to set up URL-based rules for which addresses go through your phone-proxy and which go through your regular company network connection. And no mayo gets on your phone.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zillionly.PermissionsRequest&feature=also_installed

interesting, thanks. I installed this and discovered PermissionsRequest: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zillionly.PermissionsRequest&feature=also_installed

I just installed DroidWall, which is a basic firewall for Android. You need to be rooted, and the UI isn't the greatest. But it lets you control which apps have permission to access the Internet (and you can choose WiFi and 3G/4G permissions separately if you so desire). What good is having my GPS location and contact list if you're unable to report it back home (Mr. Anderson)!

what exactly is an "unauthorized server?" Given that Android enforces constraints (permissions) when you install an app, are they claiming that there are apps which can get Internet access without explicitly being granted permissions by the user when installed?

I recently installed an Android game called Inotia 3:Children of Carnia, and on first glance, appears to be an honest old-school RPG without your fancy schmancy MMO tacked on. For once I thought I could play a single character game, moreover this was listed as free.
After entering the game, I found it has elements of free to play MMOs - that is, you can purchase additional items for real world cash. Still fine so far - I've played a few F2P MMOs in my time and the way they're designed you don't really HAVE to buy anything to progress.

Cut to the first boss fight in this game. I had 3 characters in a party, but the boss was ridiculously hard to beat. No matter what I tried, all 3 characters would die before 50% of the boss' health wore down. And when all 3 die - you get this lovely offer to purchase a resurrection scroll! I thought I'll still go ahead and see what this pay to play stuff is all about - for about $0.99 I was able to purchase scrolls, and get rid of the boss. Only to be catapulted into another boss fight 5 minutes later..which used up more of my purchased scrolls. So I defeated this boss too, after resurrecting, (and by this time my party had only 2 characters) only to have the game hang.
The next time I start up, I'm back at the boss fight, my progress is lost, and I AGAIN have to buy more resurrection scrolls?
Why not just charge for the damn game up front?

This is what gaming is turning into. Thanks, I'll stick with the oldies from the mid 90s and earlier.

• There are a ton of free (cost & licence) applications for Windows. For almost every Linux application, there will be an open source equivalent for Windows, often the exact same program.
• Do you know why most of the applications in the Ubuntu package manager are free? Because almost nobody develops commercial software for Linux.
• As to the cost of Android apps, Google only takes their cut if you sell through them. Unlike Apple's ecosystem, you have the choice to distribute through other marketplaces or just by throwing the APK online for people to download. I don't know if Google restricts the licences of apps distributed through their market, but no one can stop you releasing the source if you're distributing the app yourself.
• Android is, for the most part, open source. As for other distros, perhaps you've heard of CyanogenMod?
• Anyone can develop for Android. For free. Here's the SDK for you. And as I mentioned, you can freely distribute the APK once you've finished.