Google Docs, Enhanced For Android Tablets

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Google Docs team updated the Google Docs app for Android today to provide even better experience of Google Docs on your Android tablet. I was pretty pleased already how it behaved on my Asus EEE Pad Transformer but the new design makes it pleasure to work with. The Google DOcs team has customized the look to make the most of the larger screen space on tablets. The new layout consisting of a three-panel view, allows me to navigate through filters and collections, view your document list, and see document details, including a thumbnail preview of the document on one place.
No more opening of many documents before you find the right one.
All these are available in 46 languages on tablet devices with Android 3.0+ (Honeycomb) and above. Head over to the Android Market.

Ice Cream Sandwich, Universal Android, Coming In Early 4th QUarter

Ice Cream Sandwich, Universal Android, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The Ice Cream Sandwich, that will unify elements from Honeycomb and Gingerbread to create Universal Android,that will run both on Android smartphones and Android Tablets.is coming in September or October, Google's Eric Schmidt revealed.
Yes I am looking forward to Ice Cream Sandwich, it is too hot over here in SF Bay are today. Finally looks like summer has come.
Cool out with this video!

New Honeycomb Release Will Bring A New Mode for Apps on Large Screens

Android Development http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Android developer blog just published that an upcoming update fro honeycomb will bring a new screen compatibility mode to make few apps that does not behave properly on larger screen tablets.
We are just getting into Honeycomb development and hope to learn more about issues like this because one of our apps did not scale well on the larger screen (The app itself was not done properly in the first place, but we are on the path to make better apps.). According the article;

Beginning with the upcoming release, any app that does not target Android 3.0 (set either android:minSdkVersion or android:targetSdkVersion to “11” or higher) or does not explicitly set android:xlargeScreens="true" in the element will include a button in the system bar that, when touched, allows users to select between two viewing modes on large-screen devices

But not all need the compatibility mode, like apps that were designed for Android 3.0 and declare the either android:minSdkVersion or android:targetSdkVersion with a value of “11” or greater. These will scale well on larger and xtra larger screens. Like my Asus EEE Pad Transformer.

Android Developers Blog: New Mode for Apps on Large Screens

Honeycomb Animations And The New Android Animation System.

Android Developer / Engineer Chet Haase has posted an article covering Honeycomb's new animation system, a set of APIs in a new package, android.animation.
The new system is said to bring more functionality to Androids animation like extending the animation beyond the view objects and the widening of the scope to animate such as background colors of a view.

The new animation system in Honeycomb is not specific to Views, is not limited to specific properties on objects, and is not just a visual animation system. Instead, it is a system that is all about animating values over time, and assigning those values to target objects and properties - any target objects and properties. So you can move a View or fade it in. And you can move a Drawable inside a View. And you can animate the background color of a Drawable. In fact, you can animate the values of any data structure; you just tell the animation system how long to run for, how to evaluate between values of a custom type, and what values to animate between, and the system handles the details of calculating the animated values and setting them on the target object.

Rather than just describing the capabilities of the new Android animation system, Chet walks one through the main classes of the new system, and provides some sample code as well.

After a very lengthy write up, he says there is much more to the system and invites us to his blog at graphics-geek.blogspot.com for upcoming articles, tutorials, and videos on this and related topics. He also invites one to check out the API demos, read the overview of Property Animation posted with the 3.0 SDK, dive into the code, and just play with it.

Yes make those apps sleek and better! I am awaiting my Motorola XOOM, the WiFi edition.

Android Developers Blog: Animation in Honeycomb

Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) Final, Updated SDK Tools For Yours To Download, Develop And Consume.

Android 3.0 Final, Updated SDK Tools Yours For Download, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Android Developers announced today about the Final version of Android 3.0 and the updated Developer SDK tools have been released and available to download.
For more information on Android 3.0, if you have not already, could be found at Android 3.0 Platform highlights.
Of course with the new platform the newer and capable SDK Tools (r10) and ADT Plugin for Eclipse (10.0.0). Key features include:

• UI Builder improvements in the ADT Plugin:
• New Palette with categories and rendering previews. (details)
• More accurate rendering of layouts to more faithfully reflect how the layout will look on devices, including rendering status and title bars to more accurately reflect screen space actually available to applications.
• Selection-sensitive action bars to manipulate View properties.
• Zoom improvements (fit to view, persistent scale, keyboard access) (details).
• Improved support for layouts, as well as layouts with gesture overlays.
• Traceview integration for easier profiling from ADT. (details)
• Tools for using the Renderscript graphics engine: the SDK tools now compiles .rs files into Java Programming Language files and native bytecode.

There is also Android API Difference Report, (Between 9-10) and (Between 10-11) where we go to find the differences from version to version.

Hope you like the Honeycomb like we do!


Android Developers Blog: Final Android 3.0 Platform and Updated SDK Tools

Honeycomb In Your Android Phone?

Honeycomb In Your Android Phone http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
With Google giving us a preview of the Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, the word on the street and from Google is that the latest Android OS, Honeycomb is specially built for tablets. Like those innovative people who got Honeycomb running on a Nook Color, the tablet of the developer folks!
But the ever inquisitive Android Community did not take it in the face value of what is in the press, they dug in to the pre-release version of the OS and discovered when the display size is dropped from tablet dimensions of 1200 X 768 or WXGA to 800 X 400 WVGA, there is a visible difference in the Android UI that Google has been showing us on tablets.
Via Engadget

Let us see what happens on February 2nd when Google opens up some news on the Honeycomb, when I will drop the daily and pickup the Honeycomb. If you are not invited or too far away, watch the event live online at youtube.com/android.

Nook Color Gets Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Sort of!

#NookColor Gets #Android 3.0 #Honeycomb,  http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Looks like a developer / hacker from the Android land has manged to get Android 3,0, Honeycomb running on a Nook Color Tablet / ebook reader.
It is encouraging our team to get our hands wet in the Honeycomb drips. Better forget about The Daily, wake up late and watch Android 3.0 Preview event.
XDA Devs via Engadget

The Daily, Honeycomb On Feb 2nd, Purely Coincidental!

The Daily, Honeycomb On Feb 2nd, Purely Coincidental! http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Journalists or bloggers who never get sent out to big events might get a chance on February 2nd. Apple together with  News Corp is holding an event for the iPad app, the Daily and have sent out invitations. But those same group of people, who deliver news to us, got another invitation for the same day, it was from Google, for Android for Tablet edition, HoneyComb unveiling.
I am sure it was purely coincidental that both fell on the same day, even if it is not, Honeycomb sounds tastier than a boring News Corp Daily with Rupert Murdoch all by himself. Hope he will remember to thank Google for letting the vent run live, on Youtube,
Via Techcrunch

Android Development Tools (ADT) Plugin For Eclipse IDE, Honeycomb, Updates Galore.

drag-and-drop

#Android Development Tools ( #ADT ) Plugin For #Eclipse IDE http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
There are some goodies and instructions how to go about using them at Android Developers site. With the ADT plugin, one can easily setup Eclipse to manage all the Android Projects.
ADT plugin in revision 9.0 (January 2011) now and you need have SDK Tools R9 installed in order to run /use it.
This release brings many improvements to the Visual Layout Editor but;

• Navigation improvements: In the Layout Editor, double-clicking Views jumps to the corresponding XML element. In the Outline view, double-clicking opens the Properties view.
• The editor has Honeycomb style animation preview support.
• Improved rendering support for various Views (such as TabHosts and SlidingDrawers) in Honeycomb (Issues 3162 and 13092).
• Included layouts can be rendered and edited in the context of the layouts that include them. From a layout using an  tag, double-clicking on the element edits the referenced layout in the context of the current layout. Additionally, when editing a layout that is included by other layouts, you can quickly change between context layouts, by right clicking in the editor and choosing Show included in.... This feature is only available in Honeycomb.

seem to be my favorites as we are traveling in the direction of Honeycomb now. For a sneak peek at Android 3.0, Honeycomb, watch the video, below.

There are many bug fixes as well and according to the information, even Windows users could be smiling, "The SDK manager is more reliable on Windows" :)

There is good documentation on installing / updating the ADT Plugin on the Android Developer site. Follow the link below for a direct jump.
Eclipse ADT
There is blog post on the Android Developer bloger as well,  Android 3.0 Platform Review And Updated SDK Tools.

Motorola Preparing To Ship Closer To A Million Motorola XOOM Tablets In The First Quarter Of 2011

Motorola XOOM tablet

Million #Motorola #XOOM Tablets In The First Quarter 2011 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Motorola, reportedly  has placed orders for about 700,000-800,000 units of Motorola Honeycomb based tablet, Motorola XOOM, with four color options targeting the first quarter of 2011. The news comes from Digitimes' sources from upstream component makers. They also speculated that the orders might go up as high as one million units in the quarter.

The boom in the tablet PC market stand to make greater opportunities for large, (Taiwan-based notebook chassis makers such as Catcher Technology and Foxconn Technology), as well as to others ( handset chassis makers including Taiwan Chi Cheng (CCC) and Silitech Technology) in the coming year.

Google's Android 3.0 will be powering most 7- to 10-inch tablet PCs as the Android OS 3.0 also known as Honeycomb is specially made for tablets. Currently, Motorola and Samsung are Google's priority partners with LG Electronics and High Tech Computer (HTC) following behind for the Android 3.0, according to Digitimes.

The Xoom tablet PC is attractive tablet PC with a 10.1-inch touch panel (1280 by 800), powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor with 3G network capability which is upgradable to 4G. The XOOM has HDMI and USB ports,a 5-megapixel camera and front facing webcam for video conferencing. From the current tablet landscape, Motorola XOOM, stands out as the most attractive Android Tablet to me.

Digitimes

Android 3.0, Honeycomb, Build Specially For Tablets Is Official Now

#Android3.0, #Honeycomb http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
CES 2011 brought out many thing to day. It also leaked a version of Android 3.0, honeycomb. So with that Android team delivered the following on the YouTube page saying;
"Google's CES promo video for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) that got leaked and then made private." I think at least Motorola must be happy now that Google itself has said the Android was built for tablets. Motorola ad for the Honeycomb tablet laughs at Samsung Galaxy Tab for running Phone OS! With Entirely for tablets, Google Talk video calling will bring, well video calling over GoogleTalk.