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AndroidWS: learning by doing

Android UK — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:04:28 +0000

We are at the end of day 1 and my brain is really beginning to show strain at all the amazing info I have had to take in.

Even though this is an introduction course, the sheer scale of android means that you have to go at quite a whack to get everything in.

The main things that I picked up is that instead of learning by reading and experiments, you actually learn by doing. As the day has gone by I have become quicker and feel much more at home in android code. Its this confidence that is the hardest to get especially when starting a new language.

It’s also a great comfort to have a few other people around doing the same thing so if you do come across a hiccup, ( such as a missed full stop) that breaks your code, it’s easy to get a second pair of eyes to help you.

Its clear from above why paired programming can be so effective. With more than one eye on the code, the quality is better and mistakes are found 10x quicker.

Big day ahead tomorrow so I am going to head out to the gym for a good workout( or at least a a jacuzzi )

Head over to their site to find out more about starting your android journey with Android Workshop

Androidbloke is going to Android Workshop

Android Workshop Day 1 Start

Android UK — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:23:39 +0000

Its a fresh Thursday morning in London and we are at the heart of the London Tech Community, Techhub, to start a two day intensive course on Android Training courtesy of the Android Workshop.

Myself and 15 other developers, are setting out on a journey that by the end of the next 2 days of intensive training under the guidance of Richard Leggett(check out his blog here) , veteran android developer with a lot of apps under his belt.

The group is made up of developers from a variety of backgrounds. Some developers are moving from Java, IOS backgrounds (yeah!) , however the majority are Flash Developers and Web developers moving across to android.

So we have all got our Eclipse’s Engaged and we are all ADT’d up and are ready to roll!

Android workshop is going to be running some more courses for beginners and more advanced android developers- make sure you sign up to their mailing list to find out about future course

Androidbloke is going to Android Workshop

Android UK — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:53:36 +0000

As a mobile project manager, I get to work with a lot of great developers and brands to bring their mobile apps to life. There are many people out there who have great ideas or want to convert to developing for Android but don’t know where to start. Step in Android Workshop.

I am always keen to support initiatives and training schemes that help build Android’s development community. The more people that know about Android development, the better the quality of products. I get quite a few intros from various training companies, however Android workshop stuck out for 3 main reasons.

It has a great instructor who has worked on apps such as the awesome “Jamie Oliver’s Meals
It is based in the centre of London’s Tech City at the Tech Hub
You don’t have to be on a corporate spending account to do it, as its currently £375 for two days training.

The course is primarily aimed at those that have done another programming language before such as Java/ PHP/ Flash/ IOS. I am already getting prepped and have whipped out a copy of java for Dummies, just to make sure I am able to make the best of the 2 days.

For those of you going, looking forward to seeing you at techhub on the 24th and 25th! For those of you looking to register, there are only a few spaces left as the guys at AW want to keep things small. You can get your ticket from their eventbrite page:

Here is a link to the Android workshop main page

Android devs see red at Google maps tax

Android UK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:30:56 +0000

Free Location based apps on Android took a serious hit today as Google announced new charges for using the Google maps API. Developers’ costs look set to rise as Google Maps introduces charges for “heavy Users” of the product.

Google announced yesterday that they were seeking to introduce charges for developers whose apps use more than 25,000 hits a day on the Google maps api. These charges will be phased in starting from January, where developers will start to receive their first invoices from El Goog. In return Google Maps will offer increased features for Enterprise and a service level agreeement under their “Google Maps Premier” service.

Google defended the decision by saying that it only affected 0.35% of users. I think this figure is quite misleading given that every website, blog which uses a store finder needs to sign up for a google api key. Therefore a high percentage of those “heavy users” will in fact be Android and Iphone app developers who were encouraged by google to create location based services.

Dubbed the “Map Tax”, developers are up in arms, not just about the charges but at how little time they have been given to make changes to their app. One developer I spoke to said that since his app was free, he would have to introduce charges and that would definitely get him below the charging threshold.

What seems more likely is that developers will look to use alternative services such as Nokia’s newly launched Maps service( partnered with Microsoft) which works across multiple platforms including Android and IOS.

relook at the level of hits required before charges hit, potentially pushing it up to 50,000, as those developers are far more likely to keep using the service.

It seams to be a crazy mixed up world where Nokia and Microsoft are being chosen as a safe haven for developers to escape being charged by Google. Whatever next?

I hope that Google, will seriously

Here is the source to the announcement

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. iPhone 4

SimonW — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:11:12 +0000

One of the most striking things about the Sony Ericsson Arc and the Iphone 4 is the way they both look. The Sony Ericsson device is a nice change from standard touchscreen design. It’s a breath of fresh air to be honest, not that the iPhone is nothing but a very attractive device – it’s just nice to have a change.

We’re all used to the iPhone, with its industrial design of glass and brushed metal and the Xperia Arc could be described as the same. It’s a black on aluminium offering, though its arc shape and wide screen display make it different enough to give it its own identity.

Screen wise, the iPhone and the Arc share little in common. The iPhones excellent 3.5in screen and retina display is beautiful and is untouched for close up text and zooming in. The Xperia has it beat with a 4.2in LED screen with Bravia imaging technology that displays colours beautifully. The fact the Arc’s screen is so close to the glass, really gives the colours a sense of vivacity on screen. Its wide screen size also is great for watching films on.

1GHz of single core processing power powers the engines of these machines. They both cope really well with the general day to day tasks and media playback despite being slightly slower than some of the current offerings from other manufacturers.

However as far as operating systems are concerned both machines use latest releases of their current systems. The Arc uses the latest Android 2.3.3 with some amazing Sony inspired tweaks( including Facebook inside- more on that in another post) , making it a fast and responsive piece of technology. Apple’s iPhone 4’s iOS operating system is still one of the best and really is as attractive and intuitive as there is still.

Sony steams ahead in the camera spec, with a glorious 8.1mp flasher that even makes the most of bad light with its impressive Exmor R sensor. It outshines the 5mp camera of the iPhone and even will put many regular cameras to shame with its inclusion of cutting edge features including smile detectiona and auto scene selection. By the time the iPhone 5/4S sees release later in the year it will hopefully be sporting the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich update- however little things like having an accelerometer and front facing camera would have been some great touches to add.

The Apple is a thicker more solid device, as anyone who ever held one will tell you, it feels like quality. The Xperia design goes for light in the hand and sleek for the pocket/ handbag-it just oozes class and sophistication. Although I personally wouldn’t have you holding much hope of its survival if it thrown onto a concrete surface- probably not a phone that would be at home on a construction site!

The Xperia Arc is one of the latest Android phones to give the iPhone 4 a run for its money. Sony have come forward and said that they will keep offering the latest Android release updates on it for at least the next 18 months. Like many other Android handsets are already pushing new boundaries including Social media integration, which Sony seems to be leading the pack.

Look out for our full Sony Arc hands on review soon!

London Android Hackathon results are in!

Android UK — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:03:13 +0000

Take a load of London Android Developers and a furious night of coding fuelled by beer and Domino’s Pizza- this is what you get! The results are finally in!

After some 20 hours of hacking at Android apps for tablets with only a short break for some 2am yoga( seriously it happened!) , the London Android Tablet Hackathon is finally done. Overall the results are really great and it shows how meshing peoples’ skills, ideas and data sources can produce some amazing results in such a short time.

Some examples of the apps showcased were:

Tab Board- Android Tablet Dashboard

Voice activated Twitter Squawk box (using Google Android’s own apis)
Bubblepop- Really addictive multiplayer bubbles games built in Renderscript
Simple to learn- an educational app that makes learning fun, by using quizzes, twitter and text to speech.
Droidbridge- a tablet app that lets you use your phone to send texts, share clipboard and even receive phone call notifications direct to your android tablet.
Tab Board- A Dashboard builder that lets you pull in your favorite feeds and display them on a single display.
Hungry Lolcats – A Monty Python-esque take on hungry hippos ( please can you put this in the Android Store!)

The final overall winners were judged by the panel to be Droidbridge with Simple to learn coming in second. The winners were presented with their very own Motorola Xooms as a prize. I caught up with the guys from Droidbridge after the awards and unfortunately their app is not going be published on the market just yet. Using their new Xooms, the guys are planning on polishing it into a more presentable tablet product. Over the coming months they intend to add things like better filesharing and rolling it to support other device types (like TV??!)

Droidbridge clearly deserved their win, with tablets being so huge, it doesn’t make sense that these devices are used in isolation to their phone counterparts. There is far more power in getting them to team up- why not bring the full power of the phone to your tablet and make it easy for everyone. Great Job!

I have to finish with an obligatory picture of Hungry Lolcats- just because it was hilarious and so cute to watch.

Hungry Lol cats

Thanks to Mobile Foo and Londroid for organising a great event.

Countdown to London Android conference has started

Android UK — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:23:56 +0000

Attention Android developers – the UK Android event of the year has officially been announced. Droidcon London, is officially on and taking place in October.

The annual Community organised Android conference is ready to kick off and will be taking place at its usual location of the Business Design Centre in Islington, London.

The event is scheduled for 6 -7 October 2011 and this year promises to be the biggest and best ever with Android being the dominant platform for mobile.

According to the announcement:

Thursday is the barcamp, Friday is the conference day with tracks covering Development, Business, Design and valuable SDKs & APIs.

I am especially looking forward to seeing developers, manufacturers, networks and brands showcasing some great innovation and products in mobile, tv, tablets and especially around the recently released Android Open Accessory Developer Kit.

The Droidcon London website has announced that the first limited batch of advanced tickets have been released at a super low price of 50 GBP (which is a steal!)so get them here before they run out.

Via Droidcon London Website

Android Hackathon, London

Android UK — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:59:00 +0000

Whilst most of you are no doubt falling out of the pub on a Friday evening in readiness for the long weekend, a hearty band of 70 android developers have been tapping away at their keyboards working to produce cool android tablet apps in 24 hours.

Since kickoff, so far the developers have brainstormed lists of Apis and have started with knocking together their dream apps on the supplied Motorola Xooms. The developers are made up of all ages from as low as 10 years old to 50 plus and also from a range of skill levels from beginner to Android Ninjas.

Marine Barbaroux ( @miss_embe) who is one of the organisers sums it up best :

What is really great is that everyone is spending their time doing something they are really enjoying, they are collaborating, networking and most importantly learning by doing something cool and innovative.

Despite the event being organised with such a short timeline, the organising team have put together a really great event and even managed to get a team of Googlers on board to help bring the android tablet apps to the next level.

Final judging is going to happen tomorrow at 2pm- and will look forward to seeing what the final results will be. you can follow the event live on twitter: #tabathon

Thanks to Marine, for sharing her photos with me- check out her flickr account ( and thanks for the pizza!)

Motorola App Summit: Top 6 trends of where the future of mobile is going

Android UK — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:43:00 +0000

As part of my series on the Motorola App summit- ( Introduction is here)- I have annotated and added some items to my notes I took during the sessions- I hope they are useful! For this post where does Motorola see the future going? Find out below!

What is the next stage for Mobile?

1. Enterprise Mobility.

At the moment, business mobile apps are a tough sell however things are changing. IT managers are opening up to mobile devices. Not because they want to, but because they are being forced to. Mobile devices are high productivity tools, people are interested in using them, so much so that they are buying their own devices to use for work. ( My old blackberry is gathering dust in my drawer- whilst I use my Nexus for work related items) IT Managers need to figure out how to make it work and make it secure.

2. Multiple Screens

Last year’s problem was screen sizes getting bigger- how are developers going to cope with handsets supporting multiple screens? The experience is going to be about how these interconnects can give new experiences. A phone can be a remote control for your television, or the video its playing. It can be a presentation where you are projecting from the phone and reading notes from the handset. Multiple screens create multiple possibilities.

3. Content Everywhere

People are happy with having content everywhere- facebook, flickr, email- however the secret sauce of mobile will be allowing people to access it – using whatever context they happen to be in- be it television, mobile or tablet ( or car for that matter!)

4. Html5 Enhanced Web

The line between apps and mobile websites is going to become even more blurred. A lot of the functions that were traditionally only available to flash websites or native apps are already more easily accessible using the html5 capabilities of Android’s latest handsets. Think 3D, games, video, offline storage will be available for web experiences and how the future developers of mobile will use these tools, will add vastly to the users’ experience.

5. Convertible Mobile Phones

No I don’t mean a mobile with a soft top, but turning your mobile phone into a media centre or a laptop using an accessory can provide best of both worlds. ( See the Motorola Atrix promo video below for how this technology is right around the corner)

6. Anything Else you can think of?

More people can own mobile than PCs- because of the lower price point. Some people’s very first internet experience has been through a mobile. Over the next few years there will be new markets, new paradigms, new use cases and most important new user experiences that will take mobile onwards and further than most of us can contemplate. Enjoy the ride!

Motorola App Summit: An introduction

Android UK — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:39:00 +0000

Last week, we were lucky to be able to attend the Motorola Dev Summit in London. Instead of just filing my notes, I thought I would add to and share them so others can benefit. Click read more to view them below

Motorola has been in the android market for several years now. Its behind some of the android platform’s most successful landmark handsets and devices including the motorola Droid, Motorola Milestone and now the Motorola Xoom tablet. Motorola have just released their Q1 figures for 2011 and have announced that they have :

shipped over 4.1 million mobile devices with android and now 250,000 Motorola Xoom tablets

It’s clear that they are serious about Android. Over the past few months, Motorola has been leveraging it’s local offices to work with companies and developers to build support for Android and specifically Motorola branded devices. With this in mind they launched the Motorola App Summits to help meet and improve the knowledge and skills of developers.

The Motorola App Summit in London took place on the 15 April 2011 and covered developing Android applications with the Motorola Xoom and Android 3.0 ( honeycomb) I have included a link to the Honeycomb showcase video below for those that are unfamiliar with it.

The App Summit

Besides the talks they had:

a huge number of devices on show including a Motorola Xoom lab- where it was great to test my favourite apps and my own personal apps to see how they performed.
a demo of forthcoming handsets including the new Motorola Atrix handset, with a demo of the new Web top functionality and full Firefox browser.
Experts from MotoDev who were there to answer questions about SHOP4Apps( motorola’s own app store- currently in China and Latin America)
Experts from MotoDev studio- Motorola’s optimised Android development tool for producing your own apps.

Overall if you happen to have a Motorola App Summit event coming through to your country, I highly recommend that you attend.

Motorola and Android

Motorola’s key focus was on developing the software.

“The Primary engine for moving forward a product is software”

Motorola is driven to innovate around the hardware, which is why they selected Android. Android offers consistency whilst still being open enough to allow innovation around it. Innovation thrives in openess.
Motorola already has over 27 Models of android phone available right now.

To offer my own two pence on the above points, just looking at what software innovation has done to the pc market, with each version of Windows pushing the capabilities and hardware to the next level. We are experiencing this same effect right now in mobile, but perhaps at an accelerated rate. Apple was the innovator with apps on the phone, however Android phones were first to have compass built-in. Soon we will see NFC (Near field Communication ) chips in handsets which will open up more possibilities. Finally a dual-core low power processors have allowed tablets like the Motorola XOOM to finally hit the market. As Android develops- so will the hardware and the capabilities further expand.

Motorola’s pedigree for innovation and design can probably be best shown through the new Motorola Atrix handset ( link here to orange’s motorola Atrix page) This is the handset that I am probably the most excited about as it includes

includes a high res qHD display
fingerprint reader
dual core processor
HDMI connection ( for plugging into your TV)
The first handset to support Motorola’s “Webtop technology” which allows for a full web browsing experience using some of its accessories to gain extra functionality.

For a video demo- click below to view Conor from Orange’s excellent preview walk through.

From my perspective it’s really clear that Motorola gets the big picture. They are by no means perfect- a quick visit to various forums will confirm that, but what I did get was the fact that they are learning and listening to their customers. They understand that a phone is something that is extremely personal to someone – your phone is your friend, your mentor and your advisor and anything that interferes with that experience is not going to float with the average smart phone user. Hopefully the next few months will show if Motorola is delivering on the promise of leading world leading technology straight to the consumer.

Link to Motorola Quarter 1 results is here