Published on May 17th, 2010
It’s very easy to send email via an Android intent. Here’s an example where we already have the subject and body prepared but want to let the user decide on the recipient:
final Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
emailIntent.setType("text/plain");
emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, subject);
emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, body);
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(emailIntent, "Email:"));
(It’s important to note that this should be attempted on a real device.) Sending HTML Email With Android Intent continued »
Published on April 27th, 2010
I have published a beta version of the “Predator Clock Widget” to the Android Market. The app started out as a simple app request on the Android Forums, but it quickly turned into something real. Though it is just a beta version, I wanted to get something out there early on. I have plans to add color customization (the code is already there; I just need to create the UI) and support for a 24-hour clock. The biggest thing after that is being able to switch between the Predator font and regular Arabic numerals.
I have to say that, as a whole, I am very happy with Android development. Though I didn’t have any real experience in Java before I started playing with Android, I found it very easy to pick up the basics. The syntax makes sense, even if it is a bit verbose at times. The Android SDK is pretty straight forward. Originally I was sticking to Vim, as it’s my editor of choice for pretty much everything, but I started to use Eclipse with the ADT plugin, which helped with all the necessary imports and catching some syntax typos. I think with a Vim interface Eclipse could be pretty cool, haha.
Published on April 13th, 2010
It seems like the longer I use my Nexus One, the more features I find. One of the things that I really love about the Android operating system is the interconnectedness of the apps and their ability to access system-level features. You can use AppAlarm to begin playing a Pandora radio station at a set time. A news application can open your favorite Twitter app to share a breaking story. You can adjust the brightness of your display while reading a book in Aldiko. You can turn your phone upsidedown to have an app disable all audio. The possibilities are amazing. Android URL Sharing And Shortcuts continued »
Published on April 8th, 2010
This is mostly just a note to myself, but I figured some other people might find it useful. When I connected my Nexus One, it was showing up as “???????????? no permissions” when I ran adb devices. I added the typical udev rule and had no luck. Running lsusb revealed the the vendor ID is different from the HTC G1. So, to enable debugging this device and the G1 in Ubuntu (and other flavors of Linux), create/edit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules and put the following in it:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"
You may need to run sudo reload udev and/or disconnect and reconnect the N1. Check adb devices again and hopefully you’ll see “HT9CSP123456 device” or similar.
Published on April 8th, 2010
“We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” That’s a quote from Steve Jobs about their lawsuit against HTC (i.e., against Android, really), but I think it applies pretty well to iPhone OS4, as announced today. Innovation definitely wasn’t the focus of the event.
The majority of the added features are already available in other mobile operating systems, but Steve does an excellent job of getting crowds excited about features they should have had long ago. Let’s take a look at the announcements (credit to Engadget’s coverage). Apple iPhone OS 4 continued »
