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My first steps into Android development
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Loading ...After owning an Android phone for over an year, and using it on daily base, I thought it might be time to look into how easy it would be to start developing for the Android OS. As any good developer I first started reading a bit on how to develop for it, and what requirement’s I would have to meet.
Now I’m not going to be boring you with all kinds of tutorials on how to develop on Android, or give you any other clues on this subject. I just don’t know anything about Android development, well not yet anyhow. But some good reading material to get you on the right path might be:
- The Android development guide, all you ever will need to know about Android development (bit technical though)
- Writing your first Android app, good tutorial to get started in Android
The only thing I have learned so far is that I don’t really like the way of designing a UI for the Android. It’s just way to basic with XML files describing how the UI should look like. Feels like going back to 1990 when designing a UI was done in code rather then with a UI design tool.
The hunt for a tablet
A couple of months ago I decided it was time to finally take the plunge and purchase a tablet, but which one. There are so many to choose from. My wishes where simple, it had to have a decent battery live and affordable.
Decent battery live and build quality means most of the 300$ and less models are out of the question. These type of tablets are nice if you don’t expect to get many features, longevity or power out of the tablet. So for me those type of tablets where just not good enough.
On the other end of the scale you have tablets like the iPad and Motorola Xoom, both are decent and have plenty of features. But both cost an arm and a leg and I can’t justify the price for the amount of features they have.
This left the mid-range devices, like the Asus Transformer and the Acer Iconia A500 series. Both of these are good tablets, and both cost roughly the same. So it would have to come down to features and what I wanted to do. The hardware of both devices is almost identical. Both are running on the following:
- Android based tablet
- nVidia Tegra 2 CPU/GPU
- 32 and 64 GB models
- Bluetooth / Wifi B,G,N
- 3G option (the Iconia A501)
The only thing that separates them feature wise is that the Transformer has a far superior display with its IPS technology. So far for the specs, since both of them are almost identical I had to give both a try in the store. I was unpleasantly surprised that my favorite, the Transformer, didn’t feel all that sturdy. In fact it felt as if the device was rushed out of the factory. The case can be pushed and flexes way to much. It makes me worry its gonna get seriously damaged if I carry it in a bag.
So the Iconia A500 became the tablet of choice and now that I’ve had it for a couple of months I feel that I can write a decent review on this device. Below is a small overview of tablet and who they would serve best.
Please note that the feature difference between the mid-range and the hight end is minimal, especially for the Android tablets. You will mostly be paying extra for the brand name and the designer looks. If you have any devices you would like to see added to the list leave a comment and I’ll update the post.
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Update 2 nov 2011: Fixed some broken links in the article
Testing for mobile devices
As you might know this blog is also available through an own developed mobile edition, at http://m.narnio.com. It’s based on a plugin that I developed. But how do you go about with the testing for mobile platforms, when you don’t have all of them.
I mean who has the money to buy every possible phone out there, or every tablet. Well there are some ways to do this without having all of the devices. Here is a short list:
- Run it through the validator at http://validator.w3.org/mobile/
- Use a simulator for testing like:
- Doing a simple resolution check, for IE this can be done by hitting F12 and selecting Tools -> Resize
- Checking the load times on different connection speeds, using Fiddler 2 by changing Rules -> Performance -> Simulate modem speeds
So what are resolutions to check for with mobile devices, well here is a short list.
- 480 x 800 (default Android 1.5 – 2.2)
- 540 x 960 (newer Android phones 2.3.3)
- 640 x 960 (iPhone4)
- 1280 x 800 (various Android 3 tablets)
