Archive for: devs
Now before you get all frothy at the mouth, turning over every little pebble for the download link, we must stress that this is an alpha — expect bugs.
Thrown together by infamous Android dev, Cyanogenmod and the many talented folks over at XDA, G1/Magic owners can finally relish in the Froyo limelight.
One thing you should know is the list of non-working functions: WiFi/GPS, camera, some wallpapers, external audio and flash. It seems kind of lacking now, but the list of working items should prove adequate: calls, 3G, LEDs, call audio, gapps and the notification bar. Don’t be too bummed though. These guys are fast — really fast. As of writing it appears to up to the 15th build of this particular ROM so there’s no need to worry about stagnation.
If you’re up to it, jump on over to this forum thread and get caught up to speed.
Since Twitter’s inception, the main profile page hasn’t really changed. Conversely, other aspects of the popular micro-blogging site like the login page have. On top of physical looks, numerous actual features have been added, with the more recent (and prominent) one being geo-tagging.
A new posting on Dribble by Twitter’s lead designer, Doug Bowman, shows what is a fairly revamped UI — and a nice one at that I will add. It has that typical Mac-like styling I think. You know, the muted colors, matte finish, and rounded, soft on the eyes corners free from harsh jagged edges. I think it looks awesome.
Any official announcements as to a global rollout are no closer to us than Pluto is to being reclassified as a planet. *sigh* Don’t fret. It gives us something to look forward to.
Along with the revamped UI, Twitter is also hard at work upping the feature set. It’s no secret that they are challenging 3rd party Twitter app developers as the founders want Twitter.com to be the defacto standard, doing away with the need for individual desktop clients. Anyway you look at it, a great web portal is universal and carries over to any platform or OS unlike dedicated apps.
Needless to say, the next 12-18 months for Twitter will be some of the most interesting yet for the company and end users alike — 3rd party developers, perhaps not so much.
What are your thoughts on the new direction the styling and the company overall is going?
Switched > AlleyInsider > Mashable
If you’re not in the smartphone tinkering scene, you probably haven’t the slightest clue what/who/where XDA is. To keep it short: it’s a massive collection of nerdy, intellectual knowledge all centered around (mainly) one common brand of smartphone — HTC.
There’s been a few exceptions here and there along the way, but over the years, the forums have remained mostly true to their origins. Some hate it. Others admire them for it. Whatever side of the fence you’re on, taking a simple stroll through the forums will reveal one of the most diverse and helpful communities of any type of tech/gadgetry. With the onslaught of Android, the Windows Mobile-based HTC phones of years past have started giving away to their Android brethren. New development, new OS, new possibilities. You know how it is.
With all of that said, what better way to celebrate/further promote community support than with an official XDA app? This isn’t a WinMo or Win7-only app. In fact, it’s not even for those two OS’s at all. It’s 100% Android support through and through.
A quick glance at reviews and the few screenshots available show a very simple to navigate app. That simplicity pays off well however as there are literally thousands of pages spanning years of information. Thankfully whomever put this little gem together took the common sense no frills approach. In this particular instance, it worked and worked wonderfully. But it’s early in the game and not many people have even heard about the app yet. So, now that you know, get downloading, get using, and come back here letting us know how it all went. Hell, even though I don’t own an HTC phone I’m still getting this app. There’s plenty of geeky stuff to take in regardless if you’re an HTC user or not.
Am I weird/nerdy? Yes. Are you? We’ll see…
IntoMobile
Apparently ruffling the feathers of countless devs and customers over the whole Boobie Ban of 2010 wasn’t enough. Besides, if you sit there long enough, you could rationalize that porn really isn’t that big of a market. But what about something more useful, say WiFi scanning apps? While bare bones basic WiFi scanning is built into the phone for when connecting to a WiFi network, there are numerous WiFi scanner apps that divulge a slew of helpful information regarding IP addresses, DNS’s, etc. etc.
Apparently Apple has a problem with them, particularly because of a private API that a number of these apps were using. Solution: rip them all out of the App Store. Brilliant idea. /sarcasm. To be clear, GPS and database driven apps are still in the all clear. It is the apps which actively scan for networks on their own that are getting the axe.
I can somewhat understand removing xxx rated apps from the App Store (even considering the parental controls already built into the device and platform), but just because a private API is used — really? From the WiFi scanners I’ve seen so far, I’ve never seen anything malicious or shifty in what the app did. So why get all anal about it?
And since we’re at it, if this was such a big deal, why the hell wasn’t this private API caught the first time around? Seeing as how there are dozens of WiFi scanner apps being yanked, it’s not like it was simple oversight on a single app.
…and another shot in the foot for Apple…
Pocket-Lint > The Register
The oft forgotten about Droid Eris may be the slightly less pretty (read: ugly as sin), fat ugly step sister, but that doesn’t mean someone out there doesn’t have some love for it. (Everyone needs some lovin’, right?) While the bigger and more powerful DROID sucks up most of the attention with it’s egotistic male machismo-like attitude, any and all good news about the “lesser” CDMA Android device for VZW goes to deaf ears. Well folks, if you happen to contain one of those red headed step children in the palm of your hand, today is your day.
Some of the ever talented folks at XDA got there mitts on a unofficial official Android 2.1 firmware for the Eris. Mind you, it isn’t perfect and is lacking a few things — namely Live Wallpapers — that other 2.1 builds contain. But really, it’s not worth getting all upset about — it’s XDA for crying out loud. Just about anything you could ever want done with the coded word has been done by these people before. With that said, all you want is that precious Eris 2.1 firmware, am I right?
Head on over to XDA and pick up your copy now.
PhoneArena > Android and Me > XDA
- February 25, 2010 4:41 am
Well, that was a short lived “fix”. The new explicit App Store category that was displayed yesterday has been effectively killed, for now. To many who were part of the 5,000 victims of the boobie ban of 2010, such a category seemed like a warm welcome. It seems that at this point however, Apple is fresh out of “warm loving feelings” for the “others” in the App world. To fall back on, there is that comment Gizmodo garnered from Apple in response to a distraught iPhone developer that stated: “if we do add an Explicit category, it won’t be anytime soon”. So that’ how it is, huh?
Naughty iPhone devs: are you ready to get off this raging roller coaster of emotion?
Macnn
- February 8, 2010 11:42 am
Say what? To pretty much everyone in world who has seen an iPhone, the iPhone is the pinnacle of mobile computing/smartphones. Till this day, no one has quite copied the ease of use and cohesiveness of the hardware, software, and features. Though the platform isn’t without it’s problems. Most notably, the walled garden that Apple has erected around the iPhone has caused controversy since day 1. The iPhone walled garden has been called many things. A “mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer” by the name of Peter-Paul Koch has surprised me however by whipping up a new comparison…
To Koch, the iPhone is the IE 6 of the modern age. How can anyone compare easily the worst browser still in existence to one of the best smartphones in existence? Koch’s rationalization is pretty lengthy and expletive filled (my how we love a colorful blogger) though goes on to highlight how the entire world bending over backwards to cater to the iPhone is a bad, bad thing. Even worse, as the world moves more and more towards an “iPhone compatible/iPhone app” version of their products and services, those developers and companies are alienating those who do not use an iPhone. And contrary to popular belief, that number is quite large — much larger than the number of actual iPhones users.
One question keeps popping up in my mind: What happens in 5, 10, or more years when Apple and the iPhone platform are no more or drastically different? What happens to all of those iPhone-formatted web pages, special iPhone apps, and other iPhone specific aspects of the internet? It goes to waste. Developers spend countless amounts of time and money developing strictly for the iPhone. Consumers likewise spend copious amounts of money on the same platform.
That is precisely what Koch is hinting at. Just as IE6 gained it’s popularity back in the day, that is, “it was where the money was at”, the iPhone too treads down this path. Developing and catering to a single platform instead of universal standards is a dangerous thing to those not on board with whatever platform is popular at the moment.
The sad part is, the iPhone and all of it’s specially designed apps and services won’t be here forever. Then what?
Guardian UK
[Image Source 1] [Image Source 2]
- December 15, 2009 10:19 am
Apple may have surpassed the 6 digit mark when raw available apps are concerned, but a myriad of other factors make the Android platform and Android Market equally tempting. With 2009 rounding out rather favorably and 2010 already shaping up to be the year of several eye raising Android devices, the platform as a whole will only grow. If app counts are anything to go by, Android is in deed on the way up as today the Android Market finally moved passed 20,000 available apps for download.
Similar to Apple’s App Store, the raw number is not indicative of actual *useful* apps available. Still, the greater the selection and continuing growth only go to show that devs are interested in the platform and that Android is on the uptick. Thoughts?
MobileCrunch
- November 11, 2009 9:08 pm
**Update inside: webOS in Joe’s Crosshairs?…
Apple may be rolling out a new window — albeit small window — that allows iPhone devs to peer into the inner workings of the App Store approval process, but is it too little too late? The link in the previous sentence goes to an article I just wrote on how Apple can make this new found gesture of “openness” actually useful. Again, that’s already old news. It happened several hours ago. The fact of the matter is, Apple has taken so long to get to this point and stepped on so many toes, they are now pushing away the very core of the iPhone platform. Don’t believe me? Let’s just take a look at the story of Joe Hewitt, the lead ex-lead developer for the Facebook iPhone app.
Now before we go more in depth, we have to throw out the appropriate question: “It surely can’t be all Apple can it? I mean, is it just some anti-Apple bias bubbling to the surface of my inner being? Not quite. Joe admits himself that Apple is the reason he’s ditching the iPhone platform…
