Posts Tagged ‘software-news’

Sprint’s WiMAX Handset (Supersonic) to Launch by Summer

Sprint plans to have their first 4G WiMAX-capable handset on the market before the summer gets started. According to Forbes, the carrier told them that the device will arrive a few months earlier than expected. So which handset will this be? It's widely rumored to be the HTC Supersonic, which also boasts a 4.3-inch touch screen, Android 2.1, and the latest version of Sense UI. As of now, Sprint's WiMax network covers over 30 million people in 27 U.S. markets but the plan is to expand into new markets of the next few weeks. The goal for the end of the year is to blanket around 120 million people. Wonder if they'll be using Walmart to help build out the network? Thanks Jackson! Might We Suggest... HTC Supersonic in the Wild Here's the first look at the forthcoming HTC Supersonic. That is, if you want to believe it. Someone over at AndroidMobileOS was sent a couple of photos of what's likely to become one of the h...

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Google Shopper for Android

Google has unveiled their latest Android application , Shopper . Using the camera built into your Android handset, users can find information and pricing on CDs, books, DVDs, video games, and other products. There are a variety of ways to find results. Take a picture of the item, scan its barcode, or speak the name of it, and watch it go to work. Check out some of the other great features found in Google Shopper! Save your history and favorites - Shopper saves your history and lets you star your favorites for later. Share your finds with friends - Find something you want to share? Click on the share link to post to Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messagig, etc.. Detailed product information - Find prices, reviews, specs, and more. Shopper is powered by Google Product Search. Unlike Google Goggles, Shopper only needs Android 1.5 to work. That means CLIQ, Behold II, and Hero owners can download it today! Scan the barcode below with your handset and download it from the Android Market! Might We Suggest... Opinions From an Apple & Google Fanboy There has been plenty of spilled ink (and pixels) surrounding products released over the past few years by Google and Apple with both putting  out game changers or a iWhatever killers. A perceive...

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Motorola Milestone Now Available On Telus

From the carrier that brought you the highly acclaimed HTC Hero, Telus is now officially offering the Motorola Milestone. It is available for $199.99 on a 3 year term. As a bonus, Telus and Motorola have partnered to offer all customers who buy the Milestone a free car mount to help with in-car navigation. Details and features of the device have already been mentioned in earlier posts but here are some of the details available from the Telus website . Superior web experience on the touchscreen with the Google browser On-device Google Search™ to retrieve apps, contacts, songs, and more Sync email with Microsoft Exchange and set-up personal email Personalize 3 home screens with apps* and widgets Download free apps* from the continuously growing Android Market™ Want to win one free? Go to the Motorola Canada Facebook Fan page or click on this link to automatically be directed to the Motorola Facebook App. Enter your own personal milestone to be entered to win a free Motorola Milestone. Might We Suggest... Motorola Milestone Confirmed for Telus Telus has officially announced that they will soon be acquiring the Motorola Milestone(Similar to MotoDroid) into their mobile device line-up. It is exciting news for not only that Canada will be rec...

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Handling Multiple Screen Sizes, Part Two

This is the first part of a several part series on handling multiple screen sizes in your Android projects. This material is adapted from a chapter in The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development, Version 3.0 . The simplest approach to handling multiple screen sizes in Android is to design your user interfaces such that they automatically scale for the screen size, without any size-specific code or resources. In other words, "it just works". This implies, though, that everything you use in your user interface can be gracefully scaled by Android and that everything will fit, even on a QVGA screen. Here are some tips for achieving this "all in one" solution: Don't Think About Positions, Think About Rules Some developers, perhaps those coming from the "drag-and-drop" school of UI development, think first and foremost about the positions of widgets. They think that they want certain widgets to be certain fixed sizes at certain fixed locations. They get frustrated with Android layout manager (containers) and may gravitate to the deprecated AbsoluteLayout as a way to design UIs they way they used to. That rarely works well even on desktops, as can be seen by applications that do not handle window resizing very well. Similarly, it will not work on mobile devices, particularly Android, with its range of screen sizes and resolutions. Instead of thinking about positions, think about rules. You need to teach Android the "business rules" about where widgets should be sized and placed, with Android then interpreting those rules based upon what the device's screen actually supports in terms of resolution. The simplest rules are the fill_parent and wrap_content values for android:layout_width and android:layout_height . Those do not specify specific sizes, but rather adapt to the space available. The richest environment for easily specifying rules is to use RelativeLayout . While complicated on the surface, RelativeLayout does an excellent job of letting you control your layout while still adapting it to other screen sizes. For example, you can: Explicitly anchor widgets to the bottom or right side of the screen, rather than hoping they will wind up there courtesy of some other layout Control the distances between widgets that are "connected" (e.g., a label for a field should be to the left of the field) without having to rely on padding or margins The greatest control for specifying rules is to create your own layout class. For example, suppose you are creating a series of applications that implement card games. You may want to have a layout class that knows about playing cards: how they overlap, which are face up versus face down, how big to be to handle varying number of cards, etc. While you could achieve the desired look with, say, a RelativeLayout , you may be better served implementing a PlayingCardLayout or a HandOfCardsLayout or something that is more explicitly tailored for your application. Unfortunately, creating custom layout classes is under-documented at this point in time. Consider Physical Dimensions Android offers a wide range of available units of measure for dimensions. The most popular has been the pixel ( px ), because it is easy to "wrap your head around" the concept. After all, all Android devices will have screens with such-and-so number of pixels in each direction. However, pixels start to become troublesome as screen density changes. As the number of pixels in a given screen size increases, the pixels effectively shrink. A 32px icon on a traditional Android device might be finger-friendly, but on a high-density device (say, WVGA in a mobile phone form factor), 32px may be a bit small for use with a finger. If you have something intrinsically scalable (e.g., a Button ) where you had been specifying a size in pixels, you might consider switching to using millimeters ( mm ) or inches ( in ) as the unit of measure. 10mm is 10mm regardless of the screen resolution or the screen size. This way, you can ensure that your widget is sized to be finger-friendly, regardless of the number of pixels that might take. Avoid "Real" Pixels In some circumstance using millimeters for dimensions will not make sense. Then, you may wish to consider using other units of measure while still avoiding "real" pixels. Android offers dimensions measured in density-independent pixels ( dip ). These map 1:1 to pixels for a 160dpi screen (e.g., a classic HVGA Android device) and scale from there. For example, on a 240dpi device (e.g., a phone-sized WVGA device), the ratio is 2:3, so 50dip = at 160dpi = 75px at 240dpi. The advantage to the user of going with dip is that the actual size of the dimension stays the same, so visibly there is no difference between 50dip at 160dpi and 50dip at 240dpi. Android also offers dimensions measured in scaled pixels ( sp ). Scaled pixels, in theory, are scaled based on the user's choice of font size ( FONT_SCALE value in System.Settings ). Choose Scalable Drawables Classic bitmaps — PNG, JPG, GIF — are not intrinsically scalable. If you are not running in "compatibility mode", Android will not even try to scale them for you based on screen resolution and size. Whatever size of bitmap you supply is the size it will be, even if that makes the image too large or too small on some screens. One way to address this is to try to avoid static bitmaps, using nine-patch bitmaps and XML-defined drawables (e.g., GradientDrawable ) as alternatives. A nine-patch bitmap is a PNG file specially encoded to have rules indicating how that image can be stretched to take up more space. XML-defined drawables use a quasi-SVG XML language to define shapes, their strokes and fills, and so on. The next post in the series will look at techniques for when the above techniques fail and you need to provide specific support for specific screen sizes and densities. Might We Suggest... Handling Multiple Screen Sizes, Part One Learn how to handle multiple screen sizes within your Android project, in today's part of an ongoing series of posts, in today's episode of Building 'Droids!...

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Half-Baked Android 2.1 Leaks Out to Select Droid Eris Handsets

File under: Good News/Bad News We're hearing from a number of places that some Droid Eris owners are getting an OTA update. The good news is that this is the Android 2.1 update they've been waiting for. The bad news is that it appears to be nowhere near complete. According to reports, Sense UI disappears, users cannot log into their Google accounts, and apps and data is being wiped. Verizon tells Engadget that "the Eris update to a 'newer' Android is still in testing and hasn't yet been officially released." Sounds like something slipped through the cracks and has affected a few folks. For now, Droid Eris owners are advised to back up anything vital to the memory card or put it in the cloud. Also, be cautious of any updates over the next few days. Thanks to everyone who sent this in to us. Image source: Androinica Might We Suggest... HTC’s Sense Adds Pinch Zooming on Android 2.1 Home Screen [VIDEO] Ask around and you'll find that most Android enthusiasts are fans of what HTC did with Sense UI. Rather than pumping out stock Android handsets void of any character, they poured all kinds of things ...

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HTC Legend Coming to Google’s Android Store?

Will HTC's new Legend handset end up in the Google Android store with the Nexus One? Sindre Lia, of infoSync thinks it's a possibility and we're inclined to agree. One of the things mentioned when the Google store was unveiled is that other handsets will be sold through the channel as long as they brought something 'unique' to the portal. Looking at the Legend, we see plenty of things that differentiate it from the Nexus One, making it a potential store candidate. The Legend more than fills the gap between feature phones and super phones while the Nexus One sits near the top of the food chain. A lower price point could attract more eyeballs to the store The two phones have distinctive designs likely to appeal to completely different users The Nexus One offers the stock Android experience whereas the Legend features Sense UI When the HTC Legend was announced, HTC said that there were no immediate plans to offer it here in the United States. That could mean two things - a US version could come later (a la Sprint's Hero) or it could be made available through the store without any carrier attached. As of now, we can only guess as to what phones will arrive in the Google store. We're aware of Motorola's plans to offer something through the channel, but beyond that, your guess is as good as ours. Or as good as Sindre Lia's. Might We Suggest... Listen Up! Podcast #39 is On Demand Our latest podcast, #39, is in the can and available for downloads and streaming. Joining me this week was resident AndroidGuy Sam Herren, Nick Gray (HTC Source), and Andrew Kamika (Androinica). Als...

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Official Android Guys App… Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

It seems only right that we give our loyal readers the first look into the "oh-so-close-to-being-done" Official Android Guys App. Besides some unknown random errors you will fall head over heels for this app. It's got a sexy appeal, solid news, and extra goodies to back it up as a top-notch Android app. At Android Guys we look at this app as a way to get Android related news to our readers quicker and easier. It will also encourage new users to become part of the community that most of you are active members of, but also to get some of our part-time readers to really jump in and get the full Android Guys experience. Some select few of you did have a chance to see an Alpha version that got the job done, but you haven't seen anything good until you see our latest version. The latest version is now fully operational with a completely redesigned look thanks to the acquisition of Raphael Savina's impeccable design skills. Let me tell you about the features included in the most recent version of the app: Read Daily News from Android Guys Share articles with friends Listen to the most current and older Android Guys Podcast Weekly Polls from Android Guys Staff Application Picks, linking you directly to the Market Changeable themes and backgrounds Homescreen Widget to view the day's top articles The application is available to all from the Android Guys Google Code site for download. Please check the Google Code site often for updates, each version only lasts 15 days. Install the application to your phone via any method you deem easiest. You could send it as an attachment to yourself and use APKatcher to install it, use Astro File Manager, or ADB USB install for tech savvy users. Please use the "Report A Problem" button in the application Menu, or directly email myself the developer at the email address found below or on the Google Code site for any issues you may experience. When it comes time for the application to be released to the Android Market, it will come in two forms. The first being a free version with minimal advertisements and without the homescreen widget. A PRO version will also be available at an insignificant price for those who do not want the advertisements, and the widget will come as a bonus. So get a move on and try the app now! The Android Guys Developer Team Matthew Patience - Lead Developer (androidguys.dev(at)gmail(dot)com) Scott Webster - Planning and Back End Support Raphael Savina - Visual Design and Graphics Might We Suggest... App Review: The Settings Menu This review will give a full in-depth analysis of the highly acclaimed Settings Menu available now for Android. The Settings Menu has been through many changes and updates since Android was first re...

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Google CEO: “60,000 Android Devices a Day”

In a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave us a glimpse into exactly how many Android phones are moving right now. "We are now shipping more than 60,000 Android devices in the Android industry per day and that number has doubled over the last quarter. The growth rate is accelerating and we hope the growth rate, as well as the demand, will continue for a very long time." - Eric Schmidt We've been hearing for the last year or so how Android keeps growing and gaining on other platforms. Whether it's AdMob, Flurry, or another company telling us, we hadn't heard any hard numbers. Up until now, it's all estimates and guesswork. At the current pace, this equates to nearly 22 million Android phones poised to ship in 2010. What happens when we factor in all the new devices announced at MWC in addition to those still considered rumors? Might We Suggest... Mobile World Congress 2010 Mobile World Congress is starting this Monday in Barcelona, Spain and you will be lucky to have 2 Android Guys (Patryk Zabick and myself) walking through hundred of booths and meeting lots of com...

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See What Happens When Google’s ‘Goggles’ and ‘Translate’ Converge [VIDEO]

Google Goggles is an excellent concept - take a picture of something with your phone and get the same search results you would have were you to do a traditional search. See a bridge or monument and want to learn the name? SNAP! Admittedly, the mobile app for Android has some kinks to work out, but the promise is there. The same can be said for Google Translate. Run a website or block of text through their tool and have it exported into another language. We use it quite a bit for mobile tech sites that are done in German, French, etc. We simply run it past the Translate tool and it's transcribed to English. While this could be improved, it's already more than just convenient. It's downright helpful. So what happens when the two collide ? What can be done when optical character recognition (OCR) and real-time translation meet up? Here's a video of a Google engineer scanning a menu written in German. Goggles provides a rather quick translation into English. We can imagine this having plenty of practical uses in the real world - traffic signs, landmarks, products, etc. Source: Androinica Might We Suggest... Google CEO: “60,000 Android Devices a Day” In a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave us a glimpse into exactly how many Android phones are moving right now. "We are now shipping more than 60,000 Android device...

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Adobe AIR is Coming to Android

The news from Mobile World Congress keeps pouring in! We have learned that Adobe is currently in the process of readying a mobile version of Adobe Integrated Runtime for running both Flash and Web applications outside of a browser. Adobe expects to make mobile AIR available for Android and RIM BlackBerry devices, and perhaps for other platforms as well, said Adrian Ludwig, Adobe's marketing director for the Flash platform. Interestingly, the mobile version will provide users access to content they previously could not reach, Ludwig said. Users, for example, will be able to share screens across systems using the Adobe Acrobat Connect online service via AIR on mobile systems. "Our goal is to provide a consistent runtime that spans devices, inclusive of [mobile and] desktop operating systems," he said. For example, someone who uses an Adobe Air application on the desktop should in theory be able to use that application on a mobile platform provided the specs are there! For those interested, take a look at the AIR demo below! Click here to view the embedded video. Might We Suggest... WMC 2010 Round Up: Day One Mobile World Congress is a huge event in terms of information to cover. A good part of the show is related to hardware, applications and services targeted towards phone manufacturers, carriers,... so ...

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