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Android 1.5 SDK Is Released
RadiusK writes "Starting today, developers can get an early look at the SDK for the next version of the Android platform. Version 1.5 introduces APIs for features such as soft keyboards, home screen widgets, live folders, and speech recognition. At the developer site, you can download the early-look Android 1.5 SDK, read important information about upgrading your Eclipse plugin and existing projects, and learn about what's new and improved in Android 1.5."
# Camera & Gallery
* Video recording
* Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
# Bluetooth
* Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
* Auto-pairing
* Improved handsfree experience
I've done some doodling, nothing serious. The Eclipse plugin with emulator integration is very nice to work with.
Be Safe! Sleep with a Marine. Semper Fi!
Picking up Android development was as easy as it could be.
Just downloaded Eclipse and installed the Android plugin. Everything is just standard Java that everyone already is familiar with. Standard OpenGL for the graphics stuff.
Tons of well documented example code and documentation.
The best part has been the people from Google so far. They are the most helpful and bright employees I've ever encountered or dealt with doing development support.
The only thing that has been an occasional pain has been there were some major changes from the pre-1.0 Android SDK that lost of old code was written for. Sometimes when looking for an example of a certain API feature you will get tripped up looking at old code. This is getting less and less of a problem as time moves forward, but there are still Android dev books that come from ancient versions of the Android APIs.
In a word, yes.
I have a G1. It works well considering it is 1st generation hardware/software. No A2DP, but same situation as iPhone (3.0/Cupcake). Other than that, software-wise the widgets are smooth, and you can actually run services in the background. Some of the applications need improving, like the mail client needs IMAP IDLE support, etc.. but it's getting there. You can get a custom cupcake build for the G1 now which fixes a lot of those problems.
Hardware-wise, the G1 is not as pretty, but the upcoming devices should give the iPhone a run for its money. The really good thing about it though is that it's got the right number of real buttons, which make navigation a lot more manageable.
Talking about the N800, OS2008 is great. Nokia has been doing a lot for mobile Linux and I plan on upgrading my trusty ole 770 running OS2008 to whatever device they have for Maemo 5.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
I did a project for the Android Challenge.
I'm working with a Mac and Eclipse is not the most user friendly IDE on this platform.
The process is smooth enough, forget about Linux, it's all Java based. I do Java stuff 10h a day so I felt right at home. It takes a couple of days to feel right about the suggested class design. Appart from that, I felt it was all very standard stuff, nothing really amazing, persistence is nice enough with sqlite but that's about it. You won't find any major revolution in there, it's very close to a simple standard Java application. So I didn't do more code since (it was based on SDK 1.1 if I remember correctly) and since I didn't even win the right to carry on with the Challenge, I left everything as it was (I got good technical marks, but the profitability of the idea wasn't there...). You see, if you didn't win somehow you didn't have access to the new SDK, unlike all the other lucky bastards. So why bother...
Now I've got to get back to the Web SDK of the iPhone and the CSS transformations, these are rocking my days (actually more my nights).
Android 1.5 Highlights
April 2009
The Android 1.5 platform introduces many new features for users and developers. The list below provides an overview of the changes.
User interface refinements
* System-wide:
o Refinement of all core UI elements
o Animated window transitions (off by default)
o Accelerometer-based application rotations
* UI polish for:
o In-call experience
o Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
o SMS & MMS
o Browser
o Gmail
o Calendar
o Email
o Camera & Gallery
o Application management
Performance improvements
* Faster Camera start-up and image capture
* Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
* Smoother page scrolling in Browser
* Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling
New features
* On-screen soft keyboard
o Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
o Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
o User dictionary for custom words
* Home screen
o Widgets
+ Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
o Live folders
* Camera & Gallery
o Video recording
o Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
* Bluetooth
o Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
o Auto-pairing
o Improved handsfree experience
* Browser
o Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
o Copy 'n paste in browser
o Search within a page
o User-selectable text-encoding
o UI changes include:
+ Unified Go and Search box
People with Android phones, shockingly, buy them because they work well and get on with their lives.
That's why I bought my iPhone. That's why everyone I know bought an iPhone. Because we wanted something that Just Works and so many phones before, had Just Not Worked Worth a Damn.
They aren't lifestyle choices. They aren't something that fills a hole in their sad and empty lives.
Well I don't know how empty your life is, but it's certainly sad that instead of enjoying your phone you see fit to bring down other phones you fear people perceive as "better". I myself like the Android platform a lot, I just see it's not as mature yet.
Carried in the most visible way everywhere in public places hoping everyone will notice just how 'special' they are for what phone they own
Honestly, who does that? I have never seen a person just carrying one around to display. They are usually tucked away in purses or pockets - just like other phone.
Used in the most annoyingly over manner in public places with a desperate and sad hope that people will ask them about their phone
So because iPhone owners actually USE the phones they carry they are arrogant? Seems like you are the one proclaiming how much better a person you are because of the brand of phone you own. I personally don't care what phone other people have, or if they know what I have.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
cool. But Android doesn't use JVM bytecode, they developed their own, called Dalvik, to get round Sun's licencing.