Apple Inspiration

Posted on June 11th, 2011 by Ian G. Clifton

There have been plenty of posts already on how iOS 5 is essentially a “catch up” release, primarily offering features that are available on other platforms.  The notification system, Twitter integration, lock screen widgets/info, iMessage, tabbed browsing, location-based reminders, etc. are all features that are offered either natively or through third-party apps on other platforms.  Does that mean Apple is just copying everyone else?  That’s arguable, but it is clear that Apple is not years ahead of the competition, jumping ahead with unforeseen features. Continue reading →

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Simple Android Developer Mistakes

Posted on May 22nd, 2011 by Ian G. Clifton

I would really like to write more tips, tricks, and tutorial posts relating to Android, but I’ve been extremely busy on apps both professionally and personally, and I am also doing technical review on an Android dev book due out later this year. So, while I don’t have time to go in the level of depth I’d like to, I thought I could work on a post with a bunch of short pieces that could be written when I have a few free minutes here and there and save the longer posts that require a greater chunk of continuous focus for later. This post talks about some challenges that you may run into early in your foray into Android development. There isn’t really any sense of order to these; they’re more-or-less a brain dump of issues I’ve experienced or seen that take seconds to solve if you know what you’re doing or hours if you don’t. Continue reading →

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Android Layout Optimization: TextViews

Posted on April 6th, 2011 by Ian G. Clifton

One of the best things you can study when first learning Android is how to approach layouts in a way that keeps them simple and logical. Typically, you start with learning LinearLayouts and Views that commonly go in those (TextView, ImageView, etc.). The next thing to learn is how to eliminate the nesting of LinearLayouts by using RelativeLayouts. After that, it comes down to implementing common UI patterns; this blog post focuses on eliminating LinearLayouts by using TextViews. Continue reading →

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Counting Android Tablet Apps

Posted on March 29th, 2011 by Ian G. Clifton

Steve Jobs said that Android had “at most 100 apps” that make use of the additional screen space offered by the tablet form factor; clearly, this wasn’t intended to be an exact figure but an estimate designed to show the contrast between the “65,000″ iPad apps and the relatively few Android tablet apps. More recently, Justin Williams wrote a blog post entitled An Updated List Of Android Apps For Honeycomb, where he (originally) counted just 12 tablet apps for Android that Apple Insider picked up on. Continue reading →

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Tablet Evolution

Posted on March 22nd, 2011 by Ian G. Clifton

I had the opportunity to play around with a Xoom last week, and it got me excited for what will undoubtedly be an exploding market. Tablets prior to the iPad were largely based around productivity and giving a complete desktop/laptop experience in a slightly different form factor. The iPad’s very iPhone-like features made clear that many people are interested in tablets largely as consumption devices. The Xoom is the first of many Android Honeycomb-based devices, and it brings an interesting blend of desktop features to that phone-like tablet experience. It’s a very cool device. But I’m not buying one. Continue reading →

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