After few months developing a little try under Android API, I wanted to make feedback on benefits of the Google OS. I want to achieve the first version of my project and then make a constructive criticism about Android regarding to other graphical or mobile APIs, like the iPhone.
Since the beginning of the year, I established a personal project to develop a small Android application, quite independent,
using GUI at maximum of its capacities, a database (SQLite) and a few onboard Google Maps onboard. I'll give small screenshots in a way that says enough along on the usefulness of the program, because I do not know yet exactly what I will do with my application.
My first impressions over development were:
- Firstly, the ownership of the GUI as a developer is quite long: you cannot learn to make a good GUI in a week, it takes more time (about 2 months). But when you play well with this API, you have fun. The GUI is certainly more easy to control than the Swing one, my only point of comparison in Java.
- Despite this, the GUI is not as good as the iPhone one: technologically, it lacks important points (difficult to achieve, I know): the multi-touch is not supported at all and will probably never (or only partially, if we can hope?); the fluidity of the scrolls with the finger is not as impressive as on the iPhone and at the same time it lost ergonomism; the sequence of screens and transitions between them are not automatic: you must integrate or develop it by yourself: it has its advantages but also disadvantages: each program will behave differently on transistions, resulting in a loss of landmarks for the user; API adopted by Google is a little too oriented "1 screen means 1 Java class", which is sometimes a strong constraint to generate clear source code.
- The screen resolution of Android is variable! Several resolutions will be possible: this advantage allows manufacturers of phones to have screens of different size depending on the targeted markets: it is good for them. For developers, that's another story! You must design applications with screens nor too rich (to fit on small screens), nor too poor (to avoid empty large screens), or (solution that I had adopted) set up screens for each resolution. This work is long, and if an application does not handle many resolutions (as I saw many applications as ADC Challenge winners...), small screen will not display everything, and therefore the application does not run properly on low resolutions, which are - I presume - being the first resolutions to emerge on the market, given the current technological possibilities.
- Application side, we do what we want, as long as it is possible in Java, and if it is not too heavy to execute : we must not forget that Java is a language interpreted by a JVM, and it is basically heavy and power consumer. On a small phone, we have the computing power of a PC made five years ago. See how Windows Mobile is slow: it will be worse under Android, unless you have a very big phone tht cost a lot (see the dimensions of the HTC Dream / G1, the first android phone to be released, for about $300).
- Synchronization side, between Android / Desktop, is for the moment inexisting: either I missed a big detail in the framework, or it is a huge mistake made by Google: I have not found any tool in the emulator to synchronize laptop with a PC... If every developer must do its own synchronization program, there will be problems quickly. I intend to look at this at the end of my project to analyze the feasibility and simplicity to develop a database sync.
- Finally, as the framework version 0.9 was released recently, I was able to experience a transition of versions with my application. The changes in the API showed me about 550 errors in Eclipse. Classes have disappeared, others are displaced or have become private. Many methods have been renamed (without any logical intention), and Google Maps API has changed a lot. I had to fully rewrite the classes of my application using MAPS. For 550 errors, 30 hours were needed to bring my application up to version 0.9 (the gain is still significant in terms of fluidity, features ...).
It's a big news, Android finally opened up the Android SDK v0.9, and Eclipse plugins that comes with.
You can find information on the following sites :
- Android Developers Blog
- Android developers Google Groupes
- Mobile Android (fr)
- Download page on code.google.com
In few days, I will add a post to comment the migration of an Android application from M5 version to 0.9beta. I can say today that for a little application like mine, more than an hundred of errors appeared in my project with the new SDK (moved/removed API classes, deprecated methods, etc...)...
Good luck for migrations!
About two weeks ago, the first ADC is over, and winners are published.
This post will comment few winner applications, positive and negative points on them.
Firstly, I saw in a recent RSS feed that ADC judges are mainly from the Handset Alliance. I think this is quite unfair for some kind of application. Judges are from constructors like HTC, NVidia, Samsung, Telefonica, Motorola, T-mobile *, ASUS, etc... and for a lot of them, they are mobile contructors. By this way, many applications are designed to be winners because of the marketing concept that constructors like to use for selling a mobile. For example, many winners are social networks. I understand that this kind of application will be very used by majority of people (if they have enough money to stay connected to the Internet everytime they use their mobile...), but other applications, that could be really usefull but that are not a very good subject for marketing could be disadvantaged.
A second point that I want to highlight is that in a lot of these winner applications, the user interface is made for a very high resolution. Think that first mobiles using Android won't have such a resolution. In this case, the winner application won't work correctly on many of these phones...
Yet, I was impressed by some of these applications. For example a biometric application called BioWallet that scan eyes for iris based authentication (yes, you will need a very good camera on your mobile now...), or the ability to scan 1D and 2D barcodes.
The past month, I tried the Android SDK, and I enjoyed the easy way to make efficient user interfaces.
The next post I will put on this blog will be about first steps in Android SDK.
The following links talks about the 50 winners of the ADC. See them and imagine what Android will be in few months:
http://www.frandroid.com/369/116-juges-et-46-descriptions-dapplic...
http://code.google.com/android/images/adc1r1_deck.pdf
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/05/android-developer-cha...
http://www.anddev.org/viewtopic.php?p=7911#7911
http://www.mobile-android.fr/?p=74
http://www.netvibes.com/xaviergouley#Android
User interface addict? Mobile phone user? Disappointed by the iPhone and its capacities/price?
Today, I wish to share my passion for Android, the user interface of my future mobile phone. Android is like an operating system on a mobile phone, but it is an open source, easy to program, and maintained by the giant Google.
Android is only at the stage of its development, it is thus still difficult to know what will be the final result, but it promises a lot, because built by the best Java developers from all over the world, and leads to creativity by a challenge of $10'000'000...
It runs on Java under an embeded and enhanced JVM, itself running over a linux kernel. Since few months, the SDK is available, with an emulator; many developers communities were formed; the challenge increased creativity and numbers of program tries. Soon, a first giant step will be made by google in the mobile phone world.
I can only advise you to go to throw a glance, as well on the Google workshops as on Youtube to see some basic demonstrations, as “how to create an application like a contact list in about 5 minutes and 15 code lines".
Next Android steps:
- 14th April 2008: Challenge deadline, end of the first step,
- 28th/29th May 2008: Google I/O, for much more details about Android
Some interesting links:
- http://code.google.com/android/
- http://code.google.com/p/apps-for-android/
- http://android-developers.blogspot.com/
- http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/whats_new.html
- http://www.mobile-android.fr/
- http://www.anddev.org/
- http://www.frandroid.com/
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