With yesterday’s release of the popular Car Home app directly into the Market, Google continued carrying on its mission to decouple Android applications previously integrated into the core of the Android OS. If you remember, the company did the same to Gmail last week, and Maps, Navigation, and Street View before that.
Have you been waiting to have one touch access to Pandora while driving or perhaps change that boring stock black background? The new Car Home allows users to add any application shortcuts to its dashboard as well as change the wallpaper. Excellent.
I have a shitload of information spread all over this blog. Robert from Battery Powered Games also has a shitload of information spread all over his blog. In order to help others with their game development on Android i therefore decided to create a fine MediaWiki titled “Android Game Development Wiki”.
What’s its purpose? First of all i want to gather all Android game development related information in one place which allows easy navigation and searching. Such information will mostly be about the pitfalls, bugs, device differences and specs and so on. You might not find any pages on “How to write Super Mario on Android!”. Additionally i want other people to be able to contribute to the Wiki by either creating new pages or help fill in detail in already existing pages. To facilitate that you can contribute anonymously by passing a captcha or simply register (no e-mail confirmation). We’ll see how those low restrictions turn out. If spam bots turn up i’ll have to tighten them a bit.
I also setup a project on Google Code which should house most of the example codes that you’ll find on the Wiki pages in a runnable form. The problem here is that only i can contribute to the project so far. But i’m willing to do the transfer of code from the Wiki to the project. If someone wants to help out here just drop me a mail.
Currently there’s no content on the Wiki and i’m in the process of creating templates. I’ll also transfer all the knowledge contained in this blog to the Wiki in an ordered manner over the next couple of weeks so the Wiki should eventually become valuable.
Robert will also contribute a couple of things, maybe. No commitment
If you’re not using the launcher that came with your phone’s version of Android, chances are you’re either using ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro. Launcher Pro may not be open-source like ADW is, but it includes some enviable features. This is not the total re-write that dev Federico Carnales blogged about a few days ago, but it is still an upgrade worthy of a new decimal increase.
Besides bugfixes, this latest update brings another cool trick to the table, specifically swipe-up pop-ups in your launcher’s dock which show details of relevant notifications. Currently there is support...
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Looking for a weekly nutshell of Android news? The Saturday Wrap is for you.
Welcome to another edition of the Saturday Wrap, where today we’ll be talking about the early release of the T-Mobile G2, the expansion of the Android Market, and we also have some giveaways you won’t wanna miss out on.
Device news:
With the official release of the T-Mobile G2 still pegged at October 6th, it’s a little surprising how many people have already received their devices. Those who have pre-ordered are already enjoying the QWERTY bliss, and there’s plenty coverage to prove it. From our very own John Walton unboxing his shiny new G2, to an unfortunate plethora of z-hinge and memory problems, there’s bound to be something to entertain everyone. Have you already ordered yours, or are you waiting for the final verdict? Whatever the case, be sure to stay with us here at DroidDog for lot’s of coverage to come.
The biggest story in software news this week may have seemed a little under the radar, but it’s big stuff. Thanks to the fine folks over at XDA Developers, we now have an official leak of Froyo 2.2 for the Samsung Captivate. Anyone brave enough to sort through the ~90 pages of info (yes, all the in one day) and try this out, let us know how it goes. Of course, you other Galaxy S owners may have seen some official updates, like the Epic 4G and Vibrant’s maintenance updates, but Froyo put’s those to shame. If things go accordingly, we should see Froyo for all Galaxy S devices soon.
In an “it’s about time” move from Google, the paid portion of the Android Market has now been made available in 20 more countries, with 18 more to come. That means that as of now, there are 32 countries that can download paid apps. Android really is becoming more and more about the apps. With Verizon releasing an app store, and Amazon being rumored to come out with one soon, users all over the world will have plenty of options on where to download apps by the gig.
Videos and reviews:
The featured video this week proves just how true the statement “Android is everywhere,” really is.
Thanks to an Arduino bluetooth board and a Nexus one, NASA may just be controlling space rovers, like the Senesta you see above, with Android. We’ve already seen a Droidcopter, so why not a Droidrover? You know, that’s the true beauty of making your software openly available to developers and manufacturers alike, the only limit is your own. Very impressive stuff.
John has been extremely busy this week and has put out several videos you won’t want to miss. Not only do you get to see the Epic conclusion of the Epic vs Evo series, but we’ve also got an unboxing vid of the G2 and R2-DROID2 to share. My personal favorite video of the week was the 4G showdown between the G2, DROID 2, EVO, and Epic, gotta love the competition.
MKB’s review of the week comes to us in the form of a video on the app Extended Controls. EC is a “highly customizable version of the stock Android power control widget that we’ve all come to know and love.” I myself prefer SwitchPro, and I’m sure you have you’re favorite as well. For a full rundown of Extended Controls, check out the video now.
Your’s truly took a second to review a simple, yet powerful app called Brightness Rocker. Essentially, it adds brightness control to your volume rocker. The best thing about it? It does it well.
Contests:
Everyone loves contests and giveaways right?! Well good, because we have two to share with you today.
First up, do you want an iPad? Of course you do. There’s a lot you can do with it… like… sell it for a Galaxy Tab, right? All you have to do is “like” PhoneDog on FaceBook, and you’ll be entered to win. In the words of John, “Go get yer likin’ on!”
- You must be following me on Twitter: @du57in
- You must Tweet the following between 9/28 and 10/16:
“Win an #Android myTouch 3G from DroidDog.com! Follow @du57in and RT for your chance to win. http://bit.ly/a0XDgB #MT3GAG”
- That’s it!
Please be sure to read the rest of the rules here, and good luck to everyone!
This isn’t the first we’ve heard from T-Mobile on Samsung Galaxy Tab for their network; they sent out some vague but official announcements on the day of Samsung’s big announcement. But now, as was the case with the G2, T-Mo has put up an equally vague page where users can sign up for email updates on the Galaxy Tab product. T-Mobile announced the new page via their Facebook account on Friday night.
With yesterday’s release of the popular Car Home app directly into the Market, Google continued carrying on its mission to decouple Android applications previously integrated into the core of the Android OS. If you remember, the company did the same to Gmail last week, and Maps, Navigation, and Street View before that.
