Screen Looks Really Small on a Smartphone

With the new screen on smart phones, web sites that previously looked good now look tiny.
The solution is using viewports.  This article explains how to do this for an iPhone but this will work for any mobile device with the new style screens.

Small Web Pages on Smart Phones

If you have any tips tricks or resources you would like to share please email them to chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com

Need flash for Android 4.x

If you need flash for your Android 4.x device you can click this link from your device to download it.
Note you will have to go into your setitngs an allow apps not from the Android Store.

http://mdc.gd/ineedflash

Thanks to Modaco for the Article

Samsung S II and possibly S III reset vulnerability

Amazing how the web browser could have this much power over your phone.  This article describes how the iframe works to reset your phone.

Samsung Touchwiz Reset Vulnerability

If anyone is aware of a fix from Samsung to this vulnerability please post a comment here.

Ever wonder what you would do without technology...

JJ Abrams does a decent job showing the results of technology disappearing. Yes its not 100% realistic but if it was NBC would not be able to show it.

However from watching this episode, it gives you an idea of what would happen to that rich guy at Google.

Check out the pilot episode available on NBC.

Android Runtime for Blackberry 10?

This is an awesome step. It means you can focus on creating your Android 2.1 app and then it will work on the Blackberry 10 as well. That is a bonus as you can focus your development efforts on one platform and get the benefit of supporting two. Pretty awesome

Android Runtime for Blackberry 10 beta

If you have any tips, tricks, resources or interesting Android related news please comment here or email it to chrisw_88@hotmail.com and we will post it here.

Getting Started With Android Development

For those just getting their feet wet on Android Development, here is a list of places to visit to get you started.
By following these links you will go from hello world to applying some of the key features of most Android applications.

1. Setting Up Your Machine
2. Hello World
   • Hello World at a high level
   • Hello World - hello world at a lower level
3. Menus and Layouts - The Next step after hello world is to organize a real app. This tutorial provides insight into menus and layouts.
   
4. Tabs - Menus and Layouts are great but with a lot of info to show on low real estate tabs make a difference.
5. 10 open source Android Apps - These are 10 apps that show you some of the interesting things you may want to do in your app
   

If you have any tips, resources, or sample code you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will add them here.

Android update 17 and Cannot Rename Folder

I did quite a lot of searching for the solution and finally found it on a comment at:

Issue 4410: folder failed to be renamed or moved on SDK install

Here is the solution provided by Marty MacGyver:

Comment 13 by MartyMacGyver@gmail.com, Mar 29, 2010
I had the same problem: the latest update failed to install because it couldn't
rename the tools folder in android-sdk-windows. I'm using Avira antivirus and
disabling it didn't help, but I don't think it had anything to do with the AV program
anyway.
Fact is, running the Android SDK setup apparently uses items in the
"android-sdk-windows\tools" directory. I'm on Win 7 x64 so maybe that causes some
unique situation - I'm not sure.
Solution:
- I made a copy of the tools folder itself (keeping it at the same directory tree
level, thus "tools" and "tools-copy" were both in the "android-sdk-windows" folder).
- I ran Android.bat from that copy
- I ran the update without problems (it updated the original,
not-being-used-at-the-moment tools folder, among whatever other items it needed to).
- I closed the SDK, deleted the folder (I had to kill the adb.exe process first - not
sure why that always persists but you can't delete the folder without doing that).
- I restarted the SDK from the normal (now-updated) tools folder. Worked like a charm!
Note that simply killing adb.exe was NOT sufficient to get around the original
issue... only by copying the tools folder and using the copy to run Android for the
duration of the update process was enough to rectify the problem.
I hope this helps others... it's quite vexing to have to spend time resolving basic
issues like this just to run an update.

Hope it helps you install your update. If you have any tips tricks or resources you would like to share with the guild please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com

market now missing from desktop

Android is great but sometimes google makes bad decisions.
like today when they upgraded market to play. all the sudden the desktop icon is gone.
this will prompt you to search the applicationd. not there
if you have gesture you may be tempted to use that. but when you find it this will not run.
it turns out the solution is simple.
in the applications look for play store.
this is the new market drag it to your desktop to replace the hole google left.

next time warn people of upgrades or at least replace the icon properly.

Galaxy Nexus coming to Canada a day Early.

See Apple, Canada deserves products early too.  This is why Android is gaining market share.
They don't try and lock customers to only apps they approve and they don't delay launches of products
for Canadians.

Some stores are even giving away android shaped ice cream sandwiches to people waiting.
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/4/2610812/galaxy-nexus-canada-availability-bell-virgin

My only hope is that I will be able to install Ice Cream on my Samsung Infuse phone.
I love the phone but saw some of the new things in the new OS and would love to do even some of those things on my Phone.

If anyone hears of anything on this please post comments.

Froyo - How to try it on your computer

Eli Robillard just tweeted this awesome step by step article on gizmodo that lists the steps you need to install froyo on your computer.

http://gizmodo.com/5544988/how-to-try-android-froyo-on-your-computer

Thanks Eli. Hope this saves some of the guild members some time.

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share please email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

iPhone 3.0 is out but upgrading will cost you $10

Some of the service providers are covering the cost but if you have an iPod Touch. (In other words you were an early adoptor for Apple) you are stuck paying or looking for a cracked version all to get something as simple as cut and paste.

It does not seem fair. Let's hope when then next version of android comes out that they make it free. That will give Apple users a reason to switch.

I look forward to hearing comments from iPhone users especially if you have the 3.0 update. I would like to know what else you got for your $10.

So the new phone is out there!

Now that the new phone is out there with Android on it, I was wondering if anyone has found anything that they like or dislike about the phone. I was thinking about picking it up but would like to know more first.

I look forward to your comments. Susan Fischer susan@clinchportal.com

Perpetual Beginner

For those just learning some of the newer technologies such as subsonic, linq, mvc, etc this is going to be fast becoming the place to go. It is definitely a blog to keep an eye on. The perpetual beginner, Jesse Naiman, will soon be a name you will remember.

Here is the link to his blog: http://alt-net-guild.blogspot.com/

Introduction To Android

There has been a lot of buzz over Android. The hope here is to clear
up some of that mystery and help us all start using it for our mobile development.
It is my hope that we can share tips/tricks, assistance, job leads with each other through the guild. First let's start off with a couple questions and answers.

Question: What is Android?

Android is a software stack for mobile devices. The hope is that there will be a standard api that will allow mobile development across a large number of devices with one api.

Question: Why is this so important?

Back when I worked at Classwave Wireless and Bluetooth first came out there were so many phones, stacks, sdks, all programmed in different languages and all having different features. Most of our time was spent trying to make our apps work on all of them. With Android, you can focus on application development not what device you are on. This gives us the ability to create apps faster and have more time to spend on design.

I have only started to delve into the SDK but so far it looks awesome and this is only a first edition. I look forward to sharing and collaborating in this new era of computers. If you have any tips/tricks, ideas for articles please email them to me at chris@clinchportal.com or chrisw_88@hotmail.com or post them as comments on my articles here.