System Explorer Updated

Jul 04

AndroidWorkzAndroid, Applications, Development, News, System Explorer, Updates , , , No Comments

I upgraded System Explorer this morning.

What’s New

  • Users can now send files via email – tested with Gmail
  • Fixed a couple of bugs with the menu context
  • Added tabs to the bottom of the window
  • Added Help
  • Added Quit button

Get it here: AppBrain or here: Android Market

Indication of things to come?

Jun 04

AndroidWorkzApplications, Development, News , , , No Comments

Another huge difference between the iPhone OS and Android is the development cycle. I don’t know Objective C but I can’t imagine that it is easier to write applications in than Java and if the truth be told when I was looking through the documentation for Objective C it gave me a headache. From a career standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense for me to learn a language that I see as proprietary… it’s the same reason I don’t code in Visual Basic or J++. I CAN learn to do it if I want… because almost all object oriented programming languages share the same basic principles… it’s only a matter of learning syntax (which can be helped by syntax hinting in most good IDE’s). This brings us to a possibly revealing announcement yesterday from Layar that has shocked alot of people.

Amsterdam, June 2nd 2010. Today Layar introduces a new way to browse with the latest Layar Reality Browser (version 3.5). The rapid growth of content within Layar increases the need for real time location based search. With the new version of the browser users can now easily discover and experience Augmented Reality without the need to enter a search query or open a specific layer. Users will immediately see the most interesting content nearby whenever they open the Layar Reality Browser, taking Augmented Reality from novelty to utility.

What’s interesting about this announcement is that if you visit their site and read the press release you find this:

Layar Reality Browser version 3.5 with Stream Technology is available now for download in the Android Market. The iPhone release will be available soon.

So basically, they have released the Android version but not an iPhone version yet… since the release is merely an update for an application that is already on the iPhone apps market they don’t have to wait for approval… so that leads to the speculation that seems logical. It’s easier to develop applications for Android and they released the application that was completed while they are continuing development on the iPhone version. What do you think happened?

Layar’s Reality Browser revolutionizes mobile content discovery, by simply presenting the most interesting mobile content based on a user’s location & preferences. When launching the Layar Reality Browser users will be presented with a dynamic list of the most interesting content at their location. The list is sorted by time, location, proximity, popularity and preferences. The benefit of a list is that discovery is now possible without the need to hold the device up. It lowers the threshold to find interesting content, encouraging daily use.

About Layar
Layar is the world’s leading Augmented Reality Platform and browser on mobile. The Layar Reality Browser has more than 2 million users and serves 2.4 million augmented objects every day. The browser comes pre-installed on tens of millions of phones from leading handset manufacturers and carriers by the end of the year.

Over 700 layers are published on the Layar Platform with over 2500 in development. These layers are developed by the global community of 3500 Layar publishers and producers, and by leading brands and agencies. Layar is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company is VC funded and has 32 employees.

The free Layar Reality Browser is available on Android devices and iPhone 3GS. The Layar Platform is available for anyone to create their own Augmented Reality experiences on.

How to make an application that opens your website

Jun 01

AndroidWorkzDevelopment, Tutorial No Comments

This short tutorial will explain how to make an application that launches your website inside of the application when it is launched using the WebKit. This tutorial assumes that you have Eclipse installed with the ADT plugin and that you know how to start an Android Application project in Eclipse

The WebView
A WebView allows you to create your own web browser Activity. In this tutorial, we’ll create a simple application that will load your website in it’s own window (not the browser).

The Project
1. Create a new project/Activity called WebViewDemo.
2. Open the layout file layout/main.xml. Insert a WebView so it looks like the code below

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:orientation="vertical">

    <WebView
       android:id="@+id/webview"
       android:layout_width="fill_parent"
       android:layout_height="fill_parent"
   />

</LinearLayout>

3. Now open the WebViewDemo.java file. At the top of the class, instantiate a WebView object:

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package com.androidworkz.webview;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.KeyEvent;
import android.webkit.WebView;
import android.webkit.WebViewClient;

public class WebViewDemo extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    WebView mWebView;
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        mWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
        mWebView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
        mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewDemoClient());
        mWebView.loadUrl("http://www.androidworkz.com/");
    }
   
    private class WebViewDemoClient extends WebViewClient {
        @Override
        public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
            view.loadUrl(url);
            return true;
        }
    }
   
    @Override
    public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
        if ((keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) && mWebView.canGoBack()) {
            mWebView.goBack();
            return true;
        }
        return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
    }
}

4. Because our application needs to access the internet, we will need to add the permissions to the Android manifest file. So open the AndroidManifest.xml file and replace it with the following

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
     package="com.androidworkz.webview"
     android:versionCode="1"
     android:versionName="1.0">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <activity android:name=".WebViewDemo"
                 android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"></uses-permission>
</manifest>

5. Now run your application in the emulator by clicking the run icon on the Eclipse toolbar or pressing the keys CTRL + F11

Here are some screenshots I took of the application working on my Droid. The first is the mobile version of the site and the second is the non mobile version in landscape mode.

I hope this tutorial helped :)