December 2011
1 post
Improving the Android ListView
I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about my experience using the ListView in Android. For my non-developer friends, the ListView is the widget that organizes information in an item by item structure that scrolls when necessary. It’s used to implement your contacts list, among many other views in Android.
I’ll often refer to the ListView as the most important widget in the...
November 2011
2 posts
Yes, the Galaxy Nexus is still coming
The Galaxy Nexus has to be one of the most anticipated phones this year, if not the most anticipated. In the US, we’re still in the dark as to when we can hand over our money to Verizon and actually purchase it. This has caused all of the Android faithful, myself included, to scour the Internet practically daily to find any information about the phone we can. It’s gotten to the...
Android 4.0 will change the game
A lot of information has come out today about Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, that has really impressed me and leads me to think ICS will change everything we think about Android.
This morning I saw that ICS will prompt you to join Google+ upon activation. If you look around at all of the screenshots and videos we’ve seen from ICS in the last month, you’ll find Google+ icons...
October 2011
5 posts
Understanding Android Resources
A lot is made of Android fragmentation these days. It’s hard to read a popular tech blog without at least a mention of the “massive fragmentation of Android”. It’s a popular thing to say, and keeps the Apple followers (see what I did there?) happy with said publication.
Some of the concern is related to the physical differences in devices such as software/physical...
“Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less”
– http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/27/apple-iphone-4s-battery-life-suck-less/
Android 4.0 - Face Unlock
I’ve seen a number of podcasts and blogs where the face unlock feature of Android 4.0 has been questioned on it’s performance and whether it will be used in the wild. A number of people are chalking it up to be like FaceTime on iOS; a great tech demo but not something people use very often, if ever.
While we won’t know how often it’s used until the OS is actually...
Android 4.0 Consistency
The more I see from Android 4.0, the more excited I get. I went through two articles today from Android Police which detail the differences between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich versions of Gmail and Google Talk. The differences are dramatic even though the core stays the same. The consistency between the two, and refinement of contextual actions in the way of the split Action Bar, is such...
Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich
To say I was nervous about what we were going to see from Google for Android 4.0 was an understatement. I really felt that the unification of the phone and tablet platforms was going to be the big feature, and perhaps it will turn out to be. Yet, as I watched the presentation of what’s new in ICS, and what the motivations were for the changes, I was very impressed. In my mind, there...
August 2011
3 posts
At $699 on contract, Jetstream is DOA →
Okay HP, Let’s Make Some Lemonade →
So, they’re suggesting HP should do what Google (mostly) did with Android, and yet they bash Google constantly on how they’ve handled Android. Got it.
What is Motorola thinking?
The big Android news of the day was about the practically infamous Droid Bionic finally getting a release date and price. What was shocking to me was the price; $299 on a 2-year contract. All I can think of is that whoever ran the launch of the Xoom must also being handling new Motorola phone releases.
The Xoom in it’s original, 3G-only, configuration was completely overpriced at $599....