Supporting Honeycomb pt1: targetSdkVersion=11

Since the day I started at Google I've been trying to find the time to update all of my Android apps to support Honeycomb. However, I'm into my 3rd month and various distractions, like the awesome I/O, have meant that I haven't touched any of them.

So, here we go, part 1, Honeycomb support for 3 of the 9 apps I have live in the Android Market. I'll confess now that I've chosen the easiest 3, in fact they are all so easy that there is just one line to change. The apps are Auto Bright, Dimmer (Night Mode) and The Cleaner.

These apps all run in compatibility mode on Honeycomb, which means it shows the 'menu button' in the system bar to the right of the previous tasks, home and back buttons. To sort this out all you have to do is update the AndroidManifest to ensure it includes:

<uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="11"/>

Now that extra compatibility icon will vanish and technically these apps will support Honeycomb, perfect!

For the sake of completeness I've taken this opportunity to also furnish 'The Cleaner' with support for Honeycomb's Lights out Mode. This mode reduces the system bar elements on a Honeycomb device to small dots, making them less distracting. It is usually used for immersive experiences in games, video players, image galleries, etc...

To set Lights Out Mode on a view, just set the system UI visibility to STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN.

v.setSystemUiVisibility(View.STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN);

--- Updated 24/05/2011 ---
As WarGoth points out there is no need to use reflection to maintain backwards compatibility, simply wrapping the code in an android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT>=android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB check is sufficient. Clarification in the comments from Weeds that this only applies to Android 2.0+, the class loader would throw a java.lang.VerifyError on 1.5/1.6.

if(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT>=android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
    v.setSystemUiVisibility(View.STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN);
}
--- End ---

I did it slightly differently by using reflection to maintain compatibility with older versions of Android without duplicating classes:

Class classView = Class.forName("android.view.View");
Method methodSetSystemUIVisibility = classView.getDeclaredMethod("setSystemUiVisibility", int.class);
methodSetSystemUIVisibility.invoke(v,1);


The full source of these apps is available on Google Code

Part 2 of this series will take on converting one of my more complicated applications.

Android Nexus 1 Flashing - assert failed: write_raw_image("/tmp/boot.img", "boot") - solved

NOTE: I've since noticed that WiFi doesn't work with the method outlined below, however it does work with "fastboot boot boot.img" so further investigation is required. Some other users are saying that reflashing the hboot helps, but there are drawbacks to that as well.... Still if you are having this error and want to try gingerbread asap then the solution below is good:

It is a fun error isn't it, thousands of Nexus 1 users are happily flashing the latest ROMs onto their devices with no issues and when you try it you get something a little like this:

Installing update...
assert failed: write_raw_image("/tmp/boot.img", "boot")
E:Error in /sdcard/update.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

Same here, however there is light at the end of the tunnel. The problem is a lack of space to flash the new boot image, the cause could be one of two things:

1) You have some corrupted memory in the boot space, shrinking the size of the available boot partition and not allowing larger boot images to reside there.
2) This is a guess and I'd be interested in feedback: The Nexus 1 I use for custom ROMs is from the very very first Google seeding back in late 2009. I wonder if these devices had slightly smaller boot partitions.

Either way, there is a solution! The boot partition and the recovery partition are physically very similar, so after flashing the latest Gingerbread ROM (Gingerbread-Rooted-Gapps-v.06-signed.zip in this case, from the awesome XDA forums), I do this:

1) Extract boot.img from the ROMs zip file
2) Connect my N1 to my PC via USB
3) Boot the N1 into Fastboot by holding down the trackball when turning it on.
4) Flash the boot.img into the recovery partition:
"fastboot flash recovery boot.img" (fastboot is in the platform-tools directory of the SDK these days)

Now when I boot my Nexus 1 I hold down the trackball to get to Fastboot and then choose recovery mode, et voila Gingerbread launches.

If you need to get back to a real recovery mode you can either boot into Fastboot then boot a recovery image from your PC e.g. "fastboot boot recovery-RA-nexus-v2.0.0-CM.img"
Or reflash a recovery image, do your thing and then reflash the boot image.

I found this trick out at XDA Forums (where else?), here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731657

1 day into a relationship with the SonyEricsson LiveView

I absolutely love its geekiness. I'm running it with a stock Nexus 1 on 2.2.1. Yes It does disconnect all the time and I spend quite a lot of time turning it off and on again, re-pairing the bluetooth and generally willing it into life. But, I'll definitely knock a couple of apps up for it in the hope that SonyEricsson make a second generation device with a higher res screen, full touch support and a longer battery life. Some say the battery life is pathetic, but that is an understatement, a watch that doesn't get through half a day is crazy.

So far the best use for it is remote controlling the music players, i've had no problem with the built in Music remote control and my Nexus 1. It supports play/pause, volume control, next/previous track. The Where Am I plugin is ok, brings up a map of your current location on the LiveView. The GMail and SMS plugins don't seem particularly reliable, but I'll keep persisting.

Providing your Android Activity with a Theme

I've recently been asked a couple of times by new Android developers how 'Tech Buzz Widget' manages to overlay itself ontop of the desktop, allowing your wallpaper to show through. Assuming that it is easier to Google the answer than ask me, it may be somethiing that there isn't enough detail on already. So here is my 10 cents.

The main detail is to set the correct android:theme for your activity in the AndroidManifest.xml. For Tech Buzz Widget we used android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar"

So the activity looked like this:

<activity android:name=".FullArticleView" class=".FullArticleView"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar"
android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Once you've done that you you'll see that any elements of your layout that are transparent or unfilled will show through onto the underlying application or desktop. To make this more obvious in Tech Buzz we put a margin around the entire layout.

The exact details of all the activity themes available in the current Android platform are available in the Android source here: http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/frameworks/base.git;a=blob;f=core/res/res/values/themes.xml

Search for Theme.Translucent and you'll get the idea. There are fullscreen themes as well if you want to get rid of the notification bar. You can also define your own themes in a similar way.

1 Million Installs of Battery Widget for Android!!

As far as milestones go I'm thinking that this is a pretty big one. I've just returned from a trip to the Le Mans 24 hour race to find out that the first Android app that I submitted to the Market has shot through 1m installs. Fingers crossed that this is the one that gets you an E-mail from Mr Rubin ;)

Battery Widget is currently ranked 24th 'top free' application in the Productivity category in the UK and has been in the top 30 for over a year with a top 5 spot for a while. I'm thinking it may be time to revisit the app and sharpen it up for the higher res screens of today's Android devices and allow a few different colour combinations.

Although I'm super happy that Battery Widget is staying up the Android charts it is a double edged sword. As an Android fan-boi super-user fanatic there is definitely still an issue with freshness and churn in the top spots of the Free/Paid Android apps/games in the Market. The Market algorithm that is keeping Battery Widget up near the top for over a year is also making it hard for new apps to break through and for me as a user to find those exciting new applications. I'd 100% definitely sacrifice the popularity of this app for a more harsh ranking of older applications. I wonder what it would take now for a new application to enter the store and knock Battery Widget down a spot or two? It is still getting more new installs a day than all of my other apps combined.

You may say that the Market is favouring new Android users and making it easier for them to setup their devices with top apps, but there should be a better way for long time users of discovering new awesomeness without trawling through hundreds of pages of 'Just In' apps. The awesome apps are out there and I usually find multiple new great apps or games each time I have 15+ minutes to spare to 'trawl'. No doubt Google are fully aware of this and it'll just be a matter of time.

Thanks to all who have downloaded! Here's to the next Million.