Android :: Development Tips Tricks & Gotchas

Jan 19, 2010

I'm starting down the road of Android Development. At this point I'm looking for some insight from other developers who have been doing 'droid development and have some experience to share with someone who is just starting out. This can be anything from API to AVM to IDE. Any unexpected things come up while building your apps? Any tips for project layout or organization that help facilitate the deployment process to the Android AppStore? Any patterns which specifically helped in a particular situation?Even links to great blogs or sample apps and resources beyond those which you can grab from Google Code

Android :: Development Tips Tricks & Gotchas


Samsung Captivate :: Android - Tips And Tricks

Aug 17, 2010

I am new at using android so new tips and trick would be appreciated.

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Android :: Voice Command Tips And Tricks

Apr 21, 2010

So I am enthralled with the voice search - especially for navigating.I say, "navigate to the nearest wal greens" - and it's always right.Does anyone have any other cool voice commands that they use?The word "nearest" would be the cool portion I guess.

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HTC Incredible :: Swype Tips & Tricks

May 2, 2010

Well after you have swype installed and ready to go here are a few tips to help you get the most out of it:

1. Use the built in tutorial. This tutorial takes 5 minutes to complete but will show you the ins and outs of using its keyboard, its very handy and a must if you intend on using it.

2. If a word you swype in does not come up correctly or offers you choices that are not even close, just click the X and then type it in one letter at a time, using the peck-a-key method. This adds it to the dictionary and the next time you swype it in, it'll work.

3. The built in dictionary is not as complete as you may want it, but over time it will learn how you type/swype and will work better as time goes on. After a week or so it should work with most or all the words you swype in, but give it time. They exclude some words on purpose (cuss words etc) or words that aren't very commonly used to keep the size of the file small so it doesn't take up too much space on your device with words and patterns you don't use.

4. Holding down a button will change the letter to the symbol above the letter. This comes in handy when you need to insert a couple numbers or commonly used symbols and don't want to switch screens. I find its much quicker to just hold a button than switching, hitting the key and then switching back.

5. Holding down the back key will delete full words at a time. That way you don't need to keep hitting the back key repeatedly, this is a time saver if you need to delete a full sentence for example.

6. Pushing shift will change the symbol keyboard to the symbols/characters above the numbers. This just makes it quicker to choose a symbol instead of long pressing the key to achieve the same result.I'll update this post and add more tips as i can think of them or others post them.

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HTC Incredible :: Google Navigation Tips & Tricks

Apr 30, 2010

While using Google Navigation (beta) i've come across some helpful tips that may enhance your experience with it. Google Navigation (beta) is accessable from the Car Panel or via Google Maps. I'll share some of these tips below.Home Screen Navigation/Destination Shortcuts: One of the first things i noticed was the inability to store places you frequently navigate to within the app itself. In order to have a shortcut to the destination of your choice do the following.

1. Navigate to the Home Screen you wish to put the shortcut icon.
2. Press the + symbol at the bottom right hand side of the screen next to the Phone button.
3. Press Shortcut.
4. Press Directions & Navigation.
5. Type in the address of the destination. You can also use GPS coordinates if you don't know the address.
6. Type in the name of the shortcut you are creating. IE: Home
7. Select an icon, such as the the arrow pointing to home.
8. Press Save.
9. The icon will now show up on your home screen, you can then move it around where ever you wish.

Create GPS Shortcut Folder: If you notice your screen filling up with shortcut icons you can always create a folder using the above instructions but choose "Folder" instead of Shortcut in step 3. Then name the folder GPS or whatever you like and you can store all your destination shortcuts within it.

Receiving a Phone Call: While using Google Navigation if you recieve an incoming phone call, you can take the call and google navigation will continue running in the background. It will even alert you of directions while you are talking so you don't miss your turn. Once the phone call is completed it will go right back to navigating you on your route.Playing Music while Navigating: When you play music with the built in Music app and while using Google Navigation it will automatically cut the audio of the music out while giving you speech alerts during your route. This is done so you do not miss the directions it is giving you. Many aftermarker GPS devices do this as well when playing music from built in apps.

Enable Street View: This is a really cool feature but is not really talked about much within the Google Navigation guide. While you are on your route you can double tap the screen and if a street view is available it will show the street view of where you are heading and where you need to turn. This can be really handy when navigating in town or large cities where streets are in close proximity of one another. You can also zoom in to get street view, but you will need to keep zooming in until it shows the street view which can require many button presses.Adding Layers to the Map: You can also add layers on top of the map which may help you located points of interest along your route. To do this while en route press the menu buttom and choose "Layers". It will then give you a choice of: Traffic View, Satellite, Parking, Gas Stations, ATMs & Banks, Restaurants. Just make your selection(s) and it will update the map to reflect the changes.

Turn off the Screen: While using Navigation you can manually shut off the screen and the voice navigation will continue giving you turn-by-turn voice alerts. This can help save your battery if you left your charger at home on accident. Also Google Navigation by default will keep the screen from falling asleep unless you follow this tip. Credit: Boomstk Exit Navigation: Menu > Exit Navigation Change Route: After your route is displayed, select the menu button, then select route info. on the map itself you will see a route icon. Select that and it will display multiple routes if they are available. Home Screen Navigation/Destination Shortcuts (Alternate): While in the phones regular phonebook. If you edit an entry, then under "Others" click "Add", there's a "Postal Address" option. You can put in their address from there.When you want to navigate to there, you can view the contact and a "View Home address" link will show up (or "View Work address, etc"). Click on it, it starts up Google Maps. Click on the Blue "Up" arrow that appears on the screen and it will navigate to that entries address. Credit: PaulRivers

Misc Tips:

1. When navigating, touch the ETA estimate in the lower left corner. This will make the display pop up to an overhead view of the route, complete with traffic overlays. This is handy if want to avoid bad, red traffic and wish to go another route. It won't give you options, but it will reroute if you deviate off course. Credit: dibs ODDJOB

General Tips:

1. Make sure to keep Google Maps up-to-date. Whenever an update is available its best to update your map as soon as possible to reflect any changes that may have occured.

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Samsung Fascinate :: Swype Shortcuts / Tips And Tricks

Oct 16, 2010

Hey does anyone know any swype shortcuts or tricks? For instance does anyone know how to make smileys quickly? If this thread develops I'll edit and consolidate tips and tricks!

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HTC Incredible :: Battery Tips And Tricks - Uninstall Monitoring Widget

Jun 22, 2010

With all of the questions and threads regarding battery usage, life and monitoring, I thought this might be a good time to share my thoughts of what has helped me *deal* with this issue.

I want to preface this by saying that:

-Yes, the stock battery supplied with our phones is probably inadequate.
-Yes, having to buy a better battery after purchasing a "Tier One Phone" sucks.
-Yes, usage is subjective and dynamic and one persons heavy usage is another persons light usage.
-No, this will not address extremely short battery life (other problems are causing that)
-No, this will not account for the phone seemingly giving a false 100% indication.
-No, this will not help anything but your psyche

That said, I think we (myself included and maybe the most guilty) are putting too much emphasis on what our battery widgets and indicators are telling us. The blessing/curse of our phones is that they report battery life in 1% increments which is great for keeping accurate battery life information, but its not great for our sanity. Think about that logically for a moment!

Here is my experiment for anyone who obsesses over battery life but can make it through a day with no worries of their battery dying!

1) Next time you fully charge your battery, after you remove it from the charger, keep an eye on the widget as it drops down to between 95% - 90% and then take notice of your default battery indicator. It will still look fully charged! Do this for a day or two if you want!

2) When you are satisfied that what I'm telling you is reality, uninstall your battery monitoring widget or app and just go about your day as usual for about a week.

I am willing to bet that those of you like me, who actually have respectable battery life but still obsess over it, will not go back to what I call "percentile battery monitoring". Of course their will be exceptions as some people just need that number, but I really believe this may help some people get over their battery monitoring obsession!

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Android :: Web Kit Gotchas For Android / Iphone Development

Jul 15, 2010

If I wanted to develop my mobile app's front end using js,css,html in order to target both Android and iPhone, what gotchas do I need to look out for?I'm not looking for the comparison of native vs web development as much as I'm concerned about performance and development issues.

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Android :: Collection Of Android Tips & Tricks

Feb 6, 2010

I've taken the time to write down a collection of Android tips and tricks (along with a few tutorials) based on my own experiences and what I've learned in various forums. For those of you who want to check it out, here's the link:Android Tips & Tricks and Tutorials I wonder if anyone know of a trick that isn't listed in the guide? If so, please share it with me My hope is that the collection will grow.One thing I learned today actually is that when you type with the on-screen keyboard on the HTC Hero, instead of hitting then space for a new sentence, you can just double tap on the space bar and it will do a full stop, space, and then capitalize the next letter. It's much smoother.

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Android :: Android Emulator Tips And Tricks

Oct 29, 2010

What is your Emulator feature that you could not work without? Which unknown great shortcut, console command or startup option is there that you discovered and you think has to be also known by all other Android devs?
Share your Emulator wisdom with us.

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Android :: Phone App Embeds Activity From Contacts / Tricks For That?

Apr 13, 2009

I searched this forum and someone said for the security reason, we can only embed the activity we own, but I am wondering how the phone app embeds the activity from contacts? Is there any tricks for that?

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HTC Droid Eris :: Applications To Get And Tricks To Do First?

Dec 24, 2009

I have been reading this forum for a couple weeks and I wanted to get your advice on what mods/apps I should make/install first? A little bit about me. I am a Family Practice Physician Assistant and I also work part time in an ER. I have a few apps on it but rarely use them because it's not all that easy / quick to use. I also have an Ipod touch that I have loaded with medical apps that I will transfer over to my new phone. All of the apps I use seem to be available for Android except for epocrates - but according to their website this is coming "soon" which could mean days or months. I wanted to have ONE device to use medical apps and actually use as a phone/web browser, and since I REFUSE to EVER deal with AT&T, and I really didn't like the keyboard on the droid, the ERIS seemed perfect. And now that Verizon is running a buy one get one free deal, with my $50 credit from Verizon I will be getting BOTH phones for only $49. My wife will probably only use texting and the basic smartphone tools - calender, text etc, so she is pretty happy with whatever. So I ask you experts and tiral and error veterans out there. what apps should I get first? What mods/tricks should I do to the phone first? What has been the best thing you have done with your phone?

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Media :: EPUB Format Conversion Tricks?

Oct 10, 2010

I know that any format conversion sometimes (or most of the time) produces less than desirable results. So what are some tips for converting from text files to ePub format? For example, the best way to get chapters identified so they show up in a table of contents?

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Samsung Behold 2 :: Anyone Got Any Tricks For Update In Alaska?

Mar 2, 2010

Anyone know anyway to get the update here in alaska. I have a tmobile card and i primarily use att. We have one tmobile hotspot up here think i could hit there network through that?

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Android :: How Can We Set Balloon Tips In Google Map

Aug 16, 2010

i want to set balloon tips in android google map... please tell me how can we set and display balloon tips ?

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Android :: Tips For Light Weight Applications

Jan 4, 2010

i am starting to develop Android applications and i would like to know if there are any tips for creating lightweight applications. This is my first attempt to write applications on a mobile platform but i hope that my experience in programming will help.I have in mind the "Better, Faster, Lighter Java" book, but will this be "the" answer to my question? Are there any tips specific for the Android Platform that will allow me to build lightweight applications?

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Android :: Best Practices To Integrate Tips In Application

Apr 22, 2010

What are the best practices people have used to integrate help/tips in their application? One way I can think of is having html snippets in resources or assets - perhaps as html files - maybe as formatted strings. However, I think it would break down once an html file linked to another html file or an image or icon. I'm sure some of you have apps that are so wonderfully intuitive that they don't need any help. And I admire that. But I'm not making that assumption for my app.

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Android :: Tips For Saving Memory When Coding Under Phone?

Sep 6, 2010

I'm currently developing a software under android and im getting quite quickly some OutOfMemoryException.... I did modified some part of my code to use more static variables instead of making new allocation with the "new" operator but is there any things else to do ? or any other tips ? Any advices would be welcome.

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Motorola Droid :: Some Tips From A Seasoned Android User

Feb 15, 2010

I wanted to go over a few things with everyone. Don't any of you take this the wrong way as I am just writing this to try and help everyone new to the scene.

When I first got into Android I had a G1, that was a little over a year ago. I used it stock for about 2 months and then started going to a site called xda developers. Some of you probably know about it, for those who don't it is a site that focuses on developing and hacking WinMo and Android. I learned a ton of stuff there, but at first it was SCARY, so much information and so many new technical terms I had never heard of before. I took my time reading things and asking people questions for about 2 weeks and when I was finally confident in myself I rooted my G1. It took me like 2+ hours to do it, I installed a new Recovery, flashed a new SPL and Radio, I even got a Sense UI ROM installed on it. It felt great.

Now here we are with a much higher spec'd phone, the Droid, and it has attracted a TON of new users. It is great because now Android is evolving faster then it ever has, and we are getting tons of new developers creating some amazing stuff. It has all happened so fast and a lot of you are trying to learn everything as quickly as possible. The Sholes SMUpdater app has made all of this VERY easy for anyone to do, but the problem with this is that now when something goes wrong you have no idea how to fix it. When you want to do some modifications that involve ADB or Terminal Emulator you have no knowledge on how they work. By skipping all the hard parts you have basically shorted yourself on TONS of knowledge which, to me, is sort of a requirement to rooting/rom flashing.

Now I agree that SMUpdater is a great tool to save time from having to learn everything, and it makes it easy to get the newest Sholes ROM. But there is SOOO much more to Android hacking/development then Sholes. When you want to try something new and different then what will you do? This is why I HIGHLY recommend that everyone does some heavy researching, take a weekend, or some blocks of free time, and read. Read until you can't see straight. Let it all sink in, and practice practice practice. I promise you will become such a better user, you will understand what is going on with the system.

If you don't study and learn, then what happens when something breaks? You can't always expect someone on a forum to come to your rescue. Of course there will always be things that happen which require some really advanced users to fix, and even I have t ask for help from time to time. But to not learn even the basics is just absurd, it hurts you and it hurts the community because we have to spend all our time fixing very basic and simple problems.

I hope no one here took offense to this because I am doing this to really help everyone here out. The more we all know then the more we can do.

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Android :: Tips - Tools For Working With SqlLite In Phone?

Nov 14, 2010

I'm a .NET developer starting to dig into an android application. One thing that seems a little abstract is working with SqlLite. In a .NET application, I can do my Database setup, query testing and profiling, and enter in some test records through Management Studio for MSSQL. In fact, I'm constantly in Management Studio checking something - so I'm finding it difficult to work without a similar tool.

What are some good tools/tricks to use when developing SQLLite on Android? The tool doesn't have to have a GUI, but would be nice if I could run it as a desktop app and have it look at the same DB as my emulator.

For instance, something that will allow me to run a simple SELECT statement against a table to view records without having to do it through android?

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Android :: Tips For Optimizing A Website For Droid's Browser?

Feb 14, 2009

I'm looking for tips, tricks and resources on optimizing a website design for Android's browser.

I'm building an Android app and some of the functionality will be accessible through a web interface.

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HTC Desire :: Tips For A Newbie To Android / Whats Os For Rooting - Roms Etc

Aug 28, 2010

I'm soon to be getting my first android phone, htc desire on t-mobile UK (so from what ive heard it will be branded), i will be rooting it and ideally a custom rom. im happy with the rooting process (done quite a bit of modding with consoles), im just at a loss with custom roms for it at the minute, if anyone could suggest one that would suit my needs it would be awesome.

Im after a fairly similar to stock, idealy 2.2, but with some performance tweaks, im after:
-HTC sense
-a2sd
-the ability to overclock (and ideally auto underclock settings when in sleep mode)
- battery performance tweak

and also what is the difference in omoled vs slcd screens when it comes to custom roms and rooting, and also just generally in day to day use? are there any differences in quality, display etc?

and also whats the best os for rooting, roms etc? i mainly use a mac but also have xp, vista, 7 and linux. i understand theres no software currently for mac? and id rather stay away from 7 if at all possible (my copys not that stable) all help would be greatly appreciated, and i hope this is in the right forum

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Android :: Tips To Write App That Fetches Data From Website And Displays It On Screen

Mar 1, 2010

I am new to android programming and have a strong keen interest to learn it. I want to write a program that fetches the data from a website, segregates it and displays it on the screen of the phone. The data could be grocery list from a supermarket or sale items in a mall. Could you please suggest as to how I can go ahead and start this.

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HTC Incredible : Want Tips For Hitting Spacebar

Aug 4, 2010

The worst thing about this virtual keyboard both vertical and landscape is hitting the spacebar. It always is the bottleneck to my typing on it. Any tips?

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HTC EVO 4G : Looking For Tips / Way To Have Good Battery Life

Aug 27, 2010

New to the Evo just wanted to know, when i first get it what should i do to get the best out of the batt life? Drain it then charge it, or should i just throw it on charge for some amount of hours first. I have heard different things from people and just wanted some tips.

Also at night when not using the phone should i turn the phone fully off does that help in anyway or is it OK to just have the phone on all the time and never turning it off.

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HTC Droid Eris :: Tips Regarding Applications - Updates?

May 25, 2010

I am in need of some tips tricks and advice on all the exclusive stuff such as applications, Updates, and other miscellaneous stuff like that. Anyone got anything that could help?

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Motorola Droid X :: Any Good House Cleaning Tips For X

Nov 4, 2010

Now that we have all had this device and loaded, unloaded, reloaded.....apps and data, etc. Are there any good "house cleaning" tips anyone has for keeping the X running smooth and efficient.What tips and tricks have you tried successfully?

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HTC Desire : Need To Delete Google Account / Newbie Tips?

Aug 20, 2010

I've got my desire today and am already frustrated because there's so many things needing to be sorted on it! I've started from scratch with the 7 welcome screens and need to build those up (any tips much appreciated 4 example how to get the wi-fi switch etc etc back)

As for syncing my contacts Facebook has mucked everything up. Any chance i can stop info being taken from facebook and just importing them myself?
Also i set up a google account but had to delete it immediately (on my pc due to the email address being entered wrong) Now I've set up a new one how the hell do i change it on the phone.My phone still thinks I'm using the one I've deleted.

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Motorola Droid :: Google / FB Calendar Sync Cool Tips

Dec 5, 2009

i have it synced with us holidays, thats just a google calender thing as well as facebook friend birthdays and facebook events.... does it sync with any other things that are useful? i want it to sync with a forum calender, but i cant find a file to download or a way to do it

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Sprint HTC Hero :: Tips For Good Widgets / Icons Or Lockscreens?

Sep 24, 2010

I'm new to rooting and custom roms, and just started using fresh 2.4.0. I was wondering if anyone has any good tips for places to find some new widgets, icons, or lockscreens to customize the phone a little more with?

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