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BackCountry Navigator PRO app developer's secret to success in the Market
William Francis interviews Android developer and CritterMap Software owner Nathan Mellor, who offers advice on marketing mobile apps.
Posted by William J. Francis | December 21, 2011, 8:48 PM PST
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Porting a WP7 app to Windows 8
Justin James shows how working with native Windows 8 apps is similar to writing Windows Phone 7 apps. Find out why the UI is one of the biggest pain points of the process.
Posted by Justin James | December 19, 2011, 3:09 PM PST | Latest comment by techrepublic@...
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Develop a surveillance app for Android: The planning stage
Kyle Miller discusses the preliminary phase of planning to develop a home surveillance app for Android that could also be useful for SMBs.
Posted by Kyle Miller | December 17, 2011, 8:17 PM PST | Latest comment by bkindle@...
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Study: Most developers still choose iOS over Android
A look at Q4 mobile development project starts by the firm Flurry shows iOS has approximately a three-to-one lead over Android.
Posted by Mary Weilage | December 17, 2011, 8:17 PM PST | Latest comment by realvarezm
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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.
Posted by William J. Francis | December 14, 2011, 9:28 AM PST | Latest comment by kaustubhvp
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Possible ripple effects of HP's plan to open source WebOS
How will HP's decision to open source WebOS possibly impact Android, open source developers, and the monetization of apps? Post your thoughts in the discussion.
Posted by Mary Weilage | December 10, 2011, 11:59 PM PST | Latest comment by echo9
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Five great features of the Android Fragments API
Kyle Miller says Fragments makes supporting portrait and landscape modes in his Android apps a lot more appealing. Here's an overview of the API's cool features.
Posted by Kyle Miller | December 10, 2011, 7:35 PM PST
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Say hello to my little friend: Android Asset Studio
If you're an Android developer who doesn't love to spend your days pushing pixels around in Photoshop, then do yourself a favor and check out Android Asset Studio.
Posted by William J. Francis | December 6, 2011, 12:08 PM PST
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Poll: What mobile OS surprised you the most in 2011?
Developer Justin James reveals the mobile OS that surprised him most this year is Windows Phone 7. Share your thoughts on the topic.
Posted by Justin James | December 2, 2011, 8:26 AM PST | Latest comment by Justin James
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Working with reminders in Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 Mango adds functionality that allows developers to create reminders and scheduled items. Here's how to use the feature in your WP7 apps.
Posted by Justin James | November 29, 2011, 9:21 PM PST | Latest comment by prashanth.ramakrishnan
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A context enabled grid view layout for Android
Android developer William Francis presents a step-by-step tutorial on his context aware grid view layout.
Posted by William J. Francis | November 28, 2011, 2:51 PM PST
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Don't overload mobile apps with features
We want to hear from app developers about whether they agree that a number of mobile applications have too many features.
Posted by Mary Weilage | November 26, 2011, 11:47 PM PST
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Implications of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for app developers
Developer Kyle Miller explains why Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has him confused about the future of his current apps.
Posted by Kyle Miller | November 26, 2011, 10:18 PM PST | Latest comment by chun.wai.wong@...
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Android's BatteryManager and ProgressBar two-for-one tutorial
Android developer William Francis shows how to combine the BatteryManager class with the ProgressBar class to get a functional battery monitor with only a few lines of code.
Posted by William J. Francis | November 22, 2011, 10:10 PM PST
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Find an audience for your app in online forums
Forum marketing can lead to valuable insights into aspects of your app that you might not have considered. Get the basics about this guerrilla marketing tactic.
Posted by Steve Dryall | November 19, 2011, 11:24 PM PST
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Create a lightweight version of PhoneGap in Android
In this PhoneGap tutorial, mobile developer Kyle Miller presents some tricks about how to use WebViews in Android and more.
Posted by Kyle Miller | November 17, 2011, 9:55 PM PST
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AnDevCon II: Less hectic and more focused than Google I/O
Android developer William Francis shares his impressions of AnDevCon II, including which keynotes and courses he found most engaging and practical.
Posted by William J. Francis | November 16, 2011, 11:12 AM PST
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Demise of mobile Flash may accelerate growth of mobile Web
Writing applications that run in a browser, instead of the native OS, changed the way the world viewed PC software. The end of mobile Flash may be a precursor to the same revolution on mobile devices.
Posted by Ken Hardin | November 10, 2011, 4:49 PM PST | Latest comment by Slayer_
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Using Android's AsyncTask to handle long-running I/O
Long-running I/O is one of the keys to managing state in Android apps. William Francis describes how to use an extension of AsyncTask to handle long-running I/O.
Posted by William J. Francis | November 9, 2011, 9:34 AM PST
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Poll: Does Mango change your decision to develop for WP7?
Take the poll to let us know whether the Windows Phone 7 Mango release has caused to change your mind about developing for WP7.
Posted by Justin James | November 7, 2011, 7:53 AM PST
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Why Android Studio looks very promising (a hands-on review)
After using the Android Studio Early Access Preview for 48 hours, William J. Francis walks you through the install, some surprises he encountered, and more.
Posted by William J. Francis | May 28, 2013, 4:35 PM PDT | Latest comment by Slayer_
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A quick tutorial on coding Android's accelerometer
The accelerometer is a hardware sensor used to detect a shake motion. William Francis shares the accelerometer code that he uses in his Android apps.
Posted by William J. Francis | September 16, 2011, 11:55 PM PDT
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Calling RESTful services from your Android app
Mobile developer William J. Francis demonstrates how easy it is to consume a RESTful service from your Android device.
Posted by William J. Francis | March 20, 2012, 7:55 AM PDT
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A newbie's guide to Android development
William J. Francis covers Android development basics, such as the necessary tools to get started and a typical project hierarchy.
Posted by William J. Francis | May 11, 2012, 8:41 PM PDT | Latest comment by elantech
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Project your Android phone's screen onto a larger display
Learn three ways to get your Android phone display onto a large overhead screen so you can show off your killer app during your next demo or presentation.
Posted by William J. Francis | April 18, 2012, 1:18 PM PDT | Latest comment by meister2681
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App store fees, percentages, and payouts: What developers need to know
Every app store takes a cut of a developer's sales. Find out how much of the earnings usually go to the app store and when you can expect a payment.
Posted by Tim Mackenzie | May 7, 2012, 1:03 PM PDT | Latest comment by Andrew Huttle
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The ABCs of Android game development: Prepare the canvas
In the first installment of his five-part app developer series, William J. Francis creates a drawing surface and a framework for controlling and updating the contents of an Android game.
Posted by William J. Francis | February 2, 2013, 9:52 AM PST | Latest comment by authorwjf
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Android's indeterminate ProgressDialog tutorial
Delve into how to use the Android ProgressDialog class to create a better user experience.
Posted by William J. Francis | May 7, 2013, 1:01 PM PDT
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Use Android's AlarmManager to schedule an event
This app development tutorial is the most basic implementation of the powerful Android AlarmManager class.
Posted by William J. Francis | May 14, 2013, 11:53 AM PDT
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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.
Posted by Joseph Parker | March 15, 2013, 11:58 PM PDT | Latest comment by Cyberience
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Use Android's gesture detector to translate a swipe into an event
When developing an Android app, you can use the intuitive Gesture Detector class horizontally, vertically, and diagonally to translate subtle motions into distinct events.
Posted by William J. Francis | August 30, 2012, 1:12 PM PDT
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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.
Posted by Tim Mackenzie | March 6, 2013, 11:01 AM PST
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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.
Posted by Joseph Parker | April 4, 2013, 11:20 AM PDT | Latest comment by HAL 9000
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Get started with Android fragments
After purchasing and using a Sony Tablet S, William J. Francis is sold on the idea of Android fragments. His tutorial shows how to create a functional fragment-based UI.
Posted by William J. Francis | March 14, 2012, 10:18 AM PDT | Latest comment by Aexyno
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Samsung Galaxy S4 stirs questions about Android customization
Can the Android OS be so customizable through fragmentation and app development that it ceases to be Android? Let us know what you think.
Posted by Joseph Parker | May 10, 2013, 11:53 PM PDT | Latest comment by Jennah Barnes
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Use Gson to work with JSON in your Android apps
In this Android tutorial, William J. Francis uses Gson to build up a standard Java entity and flatten it into JSON.
Posted by William J. Francis | July 3, 2012, 3:01 PM PDT
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Android's SeekBar your way
Learn how to customize the Android UI SeekBar widget by following this tutorial by mobile developer William Francis.
Posted by William J. Francis | February 14, 2012, 1:08 PM PST
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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.
Posted by William J. Francis | March 21, 2013, 2:42 AM PDT
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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.
Posted by William J. Francis | November 1, 2011, 2:07 PM PDT
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How app developers can get their pots of gold
There are more ways than ever to create and consume content. This is good news for software developers, who now have even more opportunities to strike it rich.
Posted by Steve Dryall | May 17, 2013, 4:02 AM PDT
