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Archive for category: Software Development
Preparing Android Apps for Market
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android on September 09, 2010
This week's Upward Mobility Column @ Linux Magazine discusses preparing your Android applications for the Android Market. This article includes exporting the unsigned application from Eclipse and signing it with your newly created release key. A follow on article will demonstrate the steps in actually publishing the application to market.
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Android tutorial featured on IBM developerWorks
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android on September 07, 2010
A recently published tutorial on creating an Android application to generate dynamic forms is being highlighted on IBM's developerWorks website. The tutorial demonstrates an architecture for building a data collection system. I've got some ideas for a larger, more general data collection system which can leverage the dynamic properties of JavaScript running on Android devices. This is one of those ideas that is fun to think about but would need some more time, attention and funding to become a product or better yet a service. Perhaps someone will build on this idea? If you are interested in this get in touch with me at fableson at msiservices dot com.
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First draft of Unlocking Android 2.0 is complete
Posted by: Frank Ableson in General Business, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on September 06, 2010
Unlocking Android, Second Edition, is under review. A bunch of edits to take care of over the next week or so, then on to the copy-editing process that is exciting for the editors but challenging for the authors... and then on to the printer before too long. The book should be on shelves sometime in November or December of this year.
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First Lego League challenges released
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Fun, General Business, Software Development on September 05, 2010
The First Lego League competition season is under way. On Friday, September 3, this year's Lego competition details were released. The First Lego League is an organization started by inventor Dean Kaemen (guy who brought us the "Segway" transportation "thing") a number of years ago. FIRST stands for For Innovation and Research in Science and Technology. My children and their friends on their team just refer to it as "Robotics". It is a lot more than just messing around with the Lego Mindstorm. In addition to programming a robot to navigate a course and solve a number of challenges, they also need to conduct a research project and prepare a five minute presentation.
The entire experience is good training in teamwork, research, engineering, presentation skills and performing under pressure. Oh, and they have a lot of fun doing it all.
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Drive your Lego Mindstorm NXT Robot with Android
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Fun, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on September 02, 2010
We have just published a free demonstration application to the Android Market named SenseBot. This application was written as a demonstration for the Unlocking Android Second Edition title soon to be published. The application demonstrates the use of the Bluetooth and Orientation Sensor functionality of the Android platform.
The application connects via Bluetooth to a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot in a "stock" configuration: two motors connected to the B and C ports of the robot.
Once the application is connected to the Robot (which must be named NXT) you simply tilt the phone to drive the robot. Tilt forward, back, left and right. Even though it is arguably not the most attractive or best performing remote control -- it is a bit addictive and fun.
Search the Android market for "Lego Mindstorm" or "SenseBot".
The application requires a minimum level of Android 2.0 as that is when the Bluetooth data functionality was made accessible to third party developers.
MSI Services provides consulting and software development for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and on occassion Palm WebOS.
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AIRTIME-Manager for iPhone version 1.2
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Software Development, Technology, iPhone on September 01, 2010
Version 1.2 of AIRTIME-Manager for iPhone was accepted for download into the Apple App Store today. This version adds enhancements for the stopwatch feature as well as support for the Associate dictation software from PortNexus.
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Monitoring Android Events
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 31, 2010
This week's Linux Magazine Upward Mobility column demonstrates the use of a BroadcastReceiver. OK, so what is that you ask? A BroadcastReceiver is a coding mechanism within the Android operating system permitting you to avoid polling -- in other words, it is your friend. The article demonstrates listening for power connection events.
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Hybrid Android applications article @ IBM Developerworks
Posted by: Frank Ableson in IBM, Software Development, Technology, Android on August 25, 2010
A new article written by MSI's President, Frank Ableson, presents strategies for developing Hybrid applications for Android.
A "hybrid" application uses an embedded WebKit user interface control to permit sophisticated user interfaces and programmatic interactions. You can read the article here. The article demonstrates extending the browser's JavaScript environment with custom application code available to be run by an underlying Android application. The popular Phonegap open source project uses a similar approach to bring cross-platform development capabilities to Android, iPhone and recently, BlackBerry.
MSI Services, Inc.
Northern New Jersey's Trusted Technology source
http://msiservices.com
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Handling user interface clicks with Android Buttons
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 24, 2010
There are a number of "right" ways to perform certain programming practices. In fact, the whole topic of which way to write code is closer to religion than science. In this week's Linux Magazine Upward Mobility column we review three different techniques for setting up Buttons in an Android Activity.
MSI Services, Inc.
Northern New Jersey's technology leaders
23 Route 206
Byram Township, NJ 07874
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Launching Android Applications
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 11, 2010
One of the strengths of the Android platform is the ease with which one application may launch another. The latest installment of Upward Mobility @ Linux Magazine demonstrates techniques for expanding the reach of your Android application.
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