Android Development Quick-start

pforhan — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:24:30 +0000

I’m trying to pick up a bit of Android development experience. Here’s some tips for getting started from scratch. I have a lot to learn…

Documentation and Tutorials

What is Android? — Quick start on architecture .

Application Fundamentals — Terminology and Components

Hello, World tutorial — very basic tutorial

Notepad tutorial — nice tutorial with “problems” to work though, as well as a clear goal. Demonstrates different parts of an app’s lifecycle.

Development Set-Up

You’ll have to go through several steps to get a fully working development environment. Start with the Android SDK. Download to somewhere reasonable, then cd into {android’s home}/tools and run android. This brings up the SDK/AVD manager, which can pull down samples, documentation, and runtime environments for the different Android versions. It also is where you set up and launch the device emulators.

Get the Eclipse plug-in for Android next, if you like that sort of thing. Be sure to configure the SDK location in your preferences. Note that you can launch the SDK/AVD manager right out of Eclipse, if you like. If you don’t want to use the plug in, be sure to check the documentation for the command-line tools, which can do many (if not all) of the Eclipse plugin’s functions.

Googly Nexus One — Pricing and Plan breakdown

pforhan — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:33:22 +0000

While looking around for an online loan amortization creator (nice one here), I came across a Google ad for the Nexus One, the “Google phone” that there’s been much buzz about. Apparently, it just came out today, while the great Snomaggeddon blankets the world (or at least Missouri) and I’ve been oblivious.

I had just been pricing out Android phones at T-Mobile last month, so I was a bit interested. Here’s a quick breakdown of the options, buy-first, or 2-year contract:

Phone	T-Mobile Plan	Phone Cost	Monthly Cost	2 years of monthly	Total cost after 2 years
myTouch 3G	Even More 500 (subsidized)	$150	$70	$1680	$1830
myTouch 3G	Even More Plus 500	$400	$60	$1440	$1840
Nexus One	Even More 500 (subsidized)	$180	$80	$1920	$2100
Nexus One	Even More Plus 500	$530	$60	$1440	$1970

You’ll notice the subsidized plans are not the same — the Nexus’ plan includes unlimited text messages. If they allowed you to drop that, the subsidized Nexus 2-yr price would be about $1860, not too bad. I kinda doubt they’d let you drop that, though.

Also, I’m a bit curious what the plans look like family-style. Again, can you change the Nexus plan to be a family plan? A casual glance generally shows a 750 minute minimum, and another $20 baseline, and $10 per extra phone.

And finally, some crazy folks propose dropping voice altogether, and going data-only, for an apparent $40 / month + a Skype subscription for $3 a month.

Recently, our AT&T GSM reception at home has improved from 0 to 1 or 2 bars… I wonder how T-Mobile would perform?

MuddyHorse Farm and Tech » android

Android Development Quick-start

Documentation and Tutorials

Development Set-Up

Googly Nexus One — Pricing and Plan breakdown