Android App Builder
Android App Builder provides invaluable advice, tips, and tutorials for mobile app developers who are coding, packaging, and marketing top-notch apps for today's cutting edge smartphones and tablets.
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What Facebook Home might mean for Android developers and Google
The Facebook Home apps suite has some folks scratching their heads. Here's a brief overview of what it is and an explanation of whether it changes anything for Android developers.
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Android v. iOS guide for newbies
If you're just starting out in app development and trying to choose between the Android or the iOS SDK, this basic guide might be useful.
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Corona Cloud introduces new possibilities for app developers
The launch of the Corona Cloud customizable platform and translator is generating talk about what else is possible with such app development tools.
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Dissect layouts using Android's Hierarchy View
The next time you see an Android app where the UI really shines consider using Google's ADT Plugin for Eclipse to dissect it.
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Working with Android's PopupMenu class
Android's PopupMenu widget takes all of the heavy lifting out of adding popup-like menu functionality in your apps. Here are the basics about PopupMenu.
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Pros and cons of cross-platform mobile app development tools
If you want to use platforms that allow development for both iOS and Android apps, keep these potential benefits and drawbacks of such tools in mind.
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A universal back key override for Android SDK
A good example of keeping your target base as broad as possible can be seen when handling the back key. Android developer William J. Francis provides more details in this demo.
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Android Jelly Bean ate my toast
Android app developer William J. Francis bids farewell to his once loyal companion the toast notification. Find out why.
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Show a progress bar in your Android app for a better UX
Users expect mobile apps to be responsive, and when nothing happens, they feel frustrated. Learn how to give users a better experience by adding a progress bar to your Android app.
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The legal basics of software licensing
Here's an overview of what app developers need to know about copyrights, licensing, and End User License Agreements.
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The ABCs of Android game development: User input
William J. Francis concludes his Android game development series with this tutorial on how to derive input from a user and how to use the input to influence the on-screen action.
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Check available networks for Android data
When developing Android apps, you can use your knowledge of available networks to improve the user experience. Here's how to acquire the necessary network information.
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The ABCs of Android game development: Detect collisions
In the fourth installment of his five-part app developer series, William J. Francis provides the code to be able to detect when the asteroid and the ship collide in this Android game.
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Learning iOS as an Android developer
Android developer Chiu-Ki Chan learned iOS to develop her Heart Collage app on both platforms. Find out her overall impressions of iOS development.
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The ABCs of Android game development: Animate sprites
In the third installment of his five-part app developer series, William J. Francis walks through how to use both kinds of sprite animation when developing this Android game.
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Browse SQLite data on the Android emulator
This demo shows how developer William J. Francis often debugs SQLite tables through the Android emulator.
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Create a custom checkbox in your Android app
When dealing with a checkbox in Android, a custom selector is assigned to the button property. This is important to know before following this Android tutorial.
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An Android coder's introduction to broadcast receivers
Android's version of a party line is its BroadcastReceiver class. This demo shows how to create, register, and use a broadcast receiver to listen for device orientation changes.
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Create slick transitions with Android's ObjectAnimator class
App developer William J. Francis explores Android's ObjectAnimator class, which manipulates object properties resulting in impressive animations that you can apply to any view or widget.
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Unit testing Android apps with Robolectric: advanced use cases
Learn how the Robolectric API is useful for various Android unit tests, such as when you're working with delayed and background tasks.
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Embedding HTML in your Android apps
Leverage HTML and JavaScript in your Android apps by using the web view widget. William J. Francis shows you how in this tutorial.
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Get social: Using Android intents to share a link
Social media is a great way to promote your Android app. Learn how to implement link sharing via social networking from within your app.
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A dog limps into a saloon: A tutorial on Android's ViewFlipper widget
It can be tough to figure out the Android ViewFlipper widget's sliding in and out animation transitions. William Francis explains how to use the widget in your Android apps.
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How to use Android animation listeners
This tutorial shows how to use Android animation listeners when simple time-based callbacks aren't enough and XML-based animation sets get too hairy.
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Getting your feet wet in Android's SoundPool
William Francis explains how the Android SoundPool library may save you from being accused of writing "an old man" app.
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Add custom transitions to Android alert dialogs
This Android developer demo shows how to replace the associated on and off screen transitions of an alert dialog with your own XML animation set.
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Teach your next Android app to speak
This tutorial demonstrates how simple it is to use the Android Text to Speech API.
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Take advantage of Android's GPS API
Android app developer William J. Francis walks you through the most basic of GPS usage scenarios in this tutorial.
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Create a network monitor using Android's TrafficStats class
William Francis provides an introduction to Android's TrafficStats class and shows how to use it to create a simple but effective bandwidth monitor.
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Android v. iOS guide for newbies
If you're just starting out in app development and trying to choose between the Android or the iOS SDK, this basic guide might be useful.