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Hello there,
I'm a relativelly experienced software developer and im looking to develop applications for the smartphone ambient.
The thing is... i don't know the first thing about smartphones OS other than who the big boys are, so... this is where the actual knowledgeable guys come in...
I need help with some questions:
1) Which is more developer friendly (IDE, libraries, languages, allowing for custom applications, etc)?
2) How much support is there for developing great eye candy applications in each major smartphone OS? Or just state the one with the best support for cool looking applications.
3) I heard that in Windows mobile you better code in .NET or C++ or you're screwed... Is there really no better alternative?
4) What other languages / framework can one use in Symbian, RIM, IPhone?
I'm not a WinMo dev (yet?) but I can answer a few of these questions.
2. iPhone strives to have a consistently beautiful OS by providing easy to use APIs for GUI creation. Since every app uses the same APIs, they all have the same smooth scrolling action and animations. As far as I know, Windows Mobile does not have APIs for a consistently good looking UI. So far, every app I've seen uses its own implementation of finger scrolling, even within HTC's own apps.
3. What alternatives are you thinking of? If you want to use Java, you could code for J2ME and Jbed. They don't look as good as native apps though, are less flexible, and tend to have greater overhead. Not great for mobile devices.
Soaa- said:
I'm not a WinMo dev (yet?) but I can answer a few of these questions.
2. iPhone strives to have a consistently beautiful OS by providing easy to use APIs for GUI creation. Since every app uses the same APIs, they all have the same smooth scrolling action and animations. As far as I know, Windows Mobile does not have APIs for a consistently good looking UI. So far, every app I've seen uses its own implementation of finger scrolling, even within HTC's own apps.
3. What alternatives are you thinking of? If you want to use Java, you could code for J2ME and Jbed. They don't look as good as native apps though, are less flexible, and tend to have greater overhead. Not great for mobile devices.
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Click to collapse
Thank you that was really helpfull. Whats your take on Symbian or Android?
Soaa- said:
2. iPhone strives to have a consistently beautiful OS by providing easy to use APIs for GUI creation. Since every app uses the same APIs, they all have the same smooth scrolling action and animations. As far as I know, Windows Mobile does not have APIs for a consistently good looking UI. So far, every app I've seen uses its own implementation of finger scrolling, even within HTC's own apps.
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Click to collapse
For the record, 6.5 has gestures support (including kinetic scrolling) built in so it will work across all applications.
For all members who've been putting their eyes on questions in the Dev&Hack section. it is now ALLOWED to ask development related questions in the D&H section while all other questions go in the Q&A section.
cheers
Noone who can give me a quick rundown on these OS's?
Thaks in advance.
SEE....
http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/
http://www.trajectorylabs.com/win32.html
This is the most I've been able to turn up in any of my searches, least in terms of an API for common GUI controls.
http://fluid.codeplex.com/
Haven't had much time to play with it lately tho. Hopefully that will change toward the end of next month.
*EDIT*
Then theres also the non free stuff.
http://www.resco.net/developer/default.aspx
I know that when Android began development their focus was on apple and they wanted to compete with the iPhone. Which is a commmendable goal because the iphone ineluctably changed the mobile device world for the better. This makes me think Android has a lot they want to do with the stock ui and not just fixes to further stabilize the software but to give the UI a seeker look and add functionality.
On the other hand I've read here that Google just wants to make a stable UI available for companies like MOTO and HTC to skin and for developers to customize and improve.
Id like to think that Android has big plans for my new nexus one.
So do you guys think Google looks at HTC's sense and says " its all going according to plan, companies are taking our software and vastly improving it so we do the leg work and get our software on mass amounts of phones and manufacturers can customize it to their liking and their customer preferences" or do you think they say " wow HTC has really made phenomenal improvements on our software so we need to step up our game and make 2.2 and on more competitive"
I do understand its open source implying the intention for third party customization. but if android didnt want their own ui to be the preferred ui i don't think theyd even offer phones that way, i just hope android isnt stopping short on purpose to let developers put the finishing touches, thats a great option to have but id rather not be compelled to root.
I'm not saying android stock isn't very solid. Other than sense its the best ui available. I'm just trying to clarify whether android wants stable software by them at the heart of every mobile device and customized by those manufacturers or if they want android stock to be competitive in and of its self. Personally I'm hoping for the latter.
Your thoughts?
I don't know if their focus is so much of pushing people to make their own but more of focusing on the availability. They seem to want to always have the availability of customization and freedom. I think they see Sense UI as "Hey people actually love our work and are willing to spend days/months on working to make something of our product."
Unlike with Apple, they're like "WTF? You're not allowed to do this! No you can't see the specs of our phones you have to guess!!"
Unlike with Apple, they're like "WTF? You're not allowed to do this! No you can't see the specs of our phones you have to guess!!"
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touche.....
i can't see google having any problems with sense UI, any improvement is great. Anything that will make more people use android and use google's services, im sure they will be happy with. Somehow i don't think they are happy with the deals the other companies have made with bing and yahoo though.
DMaverick50 said:
but if android didnt want their own ui to be the preferred ui i don't think theyd even offer phones that way
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You're completely missing the point about why Google wants Android.
They don't care if the stock UI isn't the best or most popular.
They don't care about Blur.
They don't care about Sense UI.
You're missing the big picture here.
Every time you search...
Every time you use maps...
Every time you use voice input, Google Goggles, Gesture Search, Listen, etc.
Every time, they're collecting that data, selling it, using it to improve their services even more and thereby making even more profit on their improvement in services..
Mobile ads within apps, and elsewhere within the UI...
Not to mention taking a cut out of sold apps.
Nothing is free, especially not data, and you can bet your ass Google is cashing in on it since that's what they do best.
Stop thinking about the UI, and start thinking behind-the-scenes. Look at the big picture.
O
Paul22000 said:
You're completely missing the point about why Google wants Android.
They don't care if the stock UI isn't the best or most popular.
They don't care about Blur.
They don't care about Sense UI.
You're missing the big picture here.
Every time you search...
Every time you use maps...
Every time you use voice input, Google Goggles, Gesture Search, Listen, etc.
Every time, they're collecting that data, selling it, using it to improve their services even more and thereby making even more profit on their improvement in services..
Mobile ads within apps, and elsewhere within the UI...
Not to mention taking a cut out of sold apps.
Nothing is free, especially not data, and you can bet your ass Google is cashing in on it since that's what they do best.
Stop thinking about the UI, and start thinking behind-the-scenes. Look at the big picture.
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Click to collapse
I definitely understand what you're saying, that they want their software on as many devices as possible. That was actually the first of the two possibilities I offered. Officially google initially indicated they wanted to compete with apple (the second possibility I offered) and as a nexus owner I hoped for the second but it makes a lot more business sense to make their software/applications ubiquitous. And at the end of the day, google has a bottom line to worry about. So I guess in the end the manufacturers using android but customizing it probably offers a more thoughtful interface (though many, many prefer stock) but having stock android is more likely to receive updates fastest while some customized skins may not receive them period. Seems like a win-win for consumers regardless of android and Google's strategy.
I never saw Android as a competition to iPhone. There are huge differences between them. To start with, iPhone is a hardware and Android is an OS.
Android is not just targetted towards phone.. but also a more lucrative platform buisness. Android is targeted towards Windows and Linux and not iPhone.
Windows CE and Linux are pretty much the only choice for platforms. Many GPS units, car control systems, Controllers for many equipment etc.. are all Windows CE or custom linux. Android is targeting this market share. Therefore it is not surprising that Android has similiar policies like Win CE and linux to keep the core seperate from UI. Customers can choose their UI to adapt their implimentation. e.g. many of us don't even relaize that our car GPS has windows in it or our routers has linux in it.
Of course there are other advantages of controling a platform. They have been nicely sumarized by paul.
Do you think think there will be anything in the ios4 that will be very unexpected? I think just the implementation of multitasking will be a big improvement for iphone users. Hopefully froyo will get all Android phones up to the same OS level. I am expecting that Gingerbread to be the version that brings a UI overhaul and many other features.
All this competition will benefit us a lot
it's not the OS, its the apps and android is seriously missing the apps. i want to stick with android so bad but the quality of the apps as compared to iphone is pathetic. i hope this changes or i'll be back to apple.
pnd4pnd said:
it's not the OS, its the apps and android is seriously missing the apps. i want to stick with android so bad but the quality of the apps as compared to iphone is pathetic. i hope this changes or i'll be back to apple.
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Click to collapse
I agree with you on that android seriously needs to attract some more app developers. Not switching back to apple though.
pnd4pnd said:
it's not the OS, its the apps and android is seriously missing the apps. i want to stick with android so bad but the quality of the apps as compared to iphone is pathetic. i hope this changes or i'll be back to apple.
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Click to collapse
I only partially agree. Which apps are present in the Apple Store that are not present in Android Market are you referring to?
Even if the iPhone 4G isn't better than the Nexus, the news and media will make it so that it is better than the Nexus in every shape way and form. Though, that app thing is true - but I do prefer free over paid. App developers have been iWashed by Apple, they won't switch to Android till they really need to.
Don't see why they won't just port their apps though, that way they would be making twice the money..
Most of the games by Gameloft and EA games arn't on android yet.
where to start...
not available:
cbs sports
southwest airlines
beejive
dish network dvr
quality sucks
facebook
msnbc
usatoday
this is just off the top of my head. i dont care about games whatsoever. even the apps that are there don't have the professional look the iphone apps have. google needs to do something to attract developers....
HEY OHHH.... Let the games begin!
Personally, I am excited to see what the future brings us. I know that no matter what, i will be buying the iPhone HD (supposedly, thats its name), and the next google product. Let the games begin!
Just use a bookmark for SWA. Mobile site looks just like an app.
pnd4pnd said:
where to start...
not available:
cbs sports
southwest airlines
beejive
dish network dvr
quality sucks
facebook
msnbc
usatoday
this is just off the top of my head. i dont care about games whatsoever. even the apps that are there don't have the professional look the iphone apps have. google needs to do something to attract developers....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where to start:
Available:
Flyscreen
shopsavy
Goggles
Beatiful Widgets
SetCPU
xScope Browser
GDE
Starfield 3D Live Wallpaper
Gesture Searh
I own a Ipod Touch and I can tell you Android have more useful apps than Iphone,but is safe to say they are even.Now in games is different,Android needs Gameloft.
android has beejive. i just uninstalled it 2 days ago...
android has beejive. i just uninstalled it two days ago
Yeah seriously, the Android Marketplace is pathetic in comparison to the AppStore. Half of the apps are "crapps" that are essentially apps using the built in web-browser going to a website.
There's a browser. What's the point of building an app that just goes to one web-page anyway? If iPhone OS 4.0 gets multi-tasking, that will totally neuter the only advantage Android has over the iPhone.
The app quality is lacking. The media player is crap and Google has no good way for me to sync and manage my media unlike the iPhone. And because it's Google, and their revenue does come from people using their web-services, there will be no incentive for them to favour the Android over the iPhone when it comes to the provision of their services. An example of this would be gmail, contacts and calendars push synchronisation. What used to be a unique feature of the Android phone is now available on the iPhone. Pretty much anything I can do on the Android, I can do on the iPhone.
I prefer the ability to mold the os to my needs not mold my needs to the os. This is the major downfall of the iphone for me and I suspect many others, I just cant fiddle around with it enough to satisfy. Unless that changes the iphone will have to spit out naked & horny supermodels before Im on the wagon. Now assuming THAT happens I will be more than willing to set aside my differences.
Agree with the app issue, it needs to have more developers becoming involved.
pnd4pnd said:
where to start...
not available:
cbs sports
southwest airlines
beejive
dish network dvr
quality sucks
facebook
msnbc
usatoday
this is just off the top of my head. i dont care about games whatsoever. even the apps that are there don't have the professional look the iphone apps have. google needs to do something to attract developers....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if you stay an Android user, you'll continue to build an Android user base.
Once that % of users gets high enough, you'll see that developers realize they ought to port their app to the other system. Hence certain cool apps like Swype, Facebook, Digg realize this and have made apps for both platforms.
So yeah, just stay on Android and support a bit more
xanatos00 said:
Well if you stay an Android user, you'll continue to build an Android user base.
Once that % of users gets high enough, you'll see that developers realize they ought to port their app to the other system. Hence certain cool apps like Swype, Facebook, Digg realize this and have made apps for both platforms.
So yeah, just stay on Android and support a bit more
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Click to collapse
I read an interesting article that a lot of the top iPhone app developers are not working on iPad stuff because they are too focused on developing Android. Android seems to have hit a tipping point, and is taking off really fast and furiously. Give it 6 months to a year, and we won't have anymore fan boys flaming our forums with "we have more apps and a better app store" BS.
Want to talk about pointless apps, App Store has them too... how many fart apps? How many "ring-tone packs" counted as an "app"?
Hello,
i have recently decided getting into android application development and now the first big question arises.
Which IDE should i start on if i have no previous experience ?
I m guessing that all of them are pretty much equal to what they are capable on and it mostly goes down to developers preference so i assume i will not find a definate answer here but perhaps an upside/downside comparison for some of them.
As i have found out as of Google I/O 2013 the Android team has moved to IntelliJ Idea with the new Android Studio IDE.
Even if its not superior to the IDEs currently available it might be in the future so my choice is swinging towards Android Studio with no valid arguments why.
I would like to hear some opinion about Android Studio if there are any major downsides compared to other IDEs available and if its a good idea to give it a shot without previous experience.
Thanks in advance,
D
Hmm. Nobody use Android Studio?
druvisk, I think Android Studio is a good choice for you.
Android Studio should be okay for beginners I suppose.
I looked at it a while ago, and as far as I could tell, there was no support for native code/the NDK, and I need that for my apps, so I'm just sticking with Eclipse.
I'm using eclipse i think it's not that hard for beginners (i am a beginner too)
I think you should seriously consider using a multi-platform development environment, so that your final product can work on both Android and iOS, hopefully also on Windows Phone (or maybe even desktop PC). There are tons of those - affordable and high quality. Use google to find those. From the top of my head: Cocos2d/3d, Moai, Marmolade, Corona, Unity, Gideros, GameMaker, and many more....
Hi, I think that you have to go ahead with Eclipse.
You only need to download it in the android developers main web and you can already follow some official tutorials without searching the options on the Android Studio IDE. (That can be different)
After you get some experience you can go with Netbeans or the Android Studio itself.
Only TRUE cross development tool
druvisk said:
Hello,
i have recently decided getting into android application development and now the first big question arises.
Which IDE should i start on if i have no previous experience ?
I m guessing that all of them are pretty much equal to what they are capable on and it mostly goes down to developers preference so i assume i will not find a definate answer here but perhaps an upside/downside comparison for some of them.
As i have found out as of Google I/O 2013 the Android team has moved to IntelliJ Idea with the new Android Studio IDE.
Even if its not superior to the IDEs currently available it might be in the future so my choice is swinging towards Android Studio with no valid arguments why.
I would like to hear some opinion about Android Studio if there are any major downsides compared to other IDEs available and if its a good idea to give it a shot without previous experience.
Thanks in advance,
D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend Gingee IDE. Super easy to use, and most important - helps you to use one code to generate an app in any desired OS, with no extra optimization needed.
Let me know if you need to hear more details. Or just go to gingeegames dot com.
Android Studio is great for those who haven't really been into Android before
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I'm working with Eclipse since the beginning and I'm quite happy with it. You can install ADT plugin, control the SDK manager and even profile your app with DDMS view.
I'd vote for Eclipse ...best IDE for beginners..
Eclipse. Android Studio still needs improvements from what I hear. Stick with Eclipse and you'll have everything you need.
RED_ said:
Eclipse. Android Studio still needs improvements from what I hear. Stick with Eclipse and you'll have everything you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct.
Eclipse is the best right now.
Android Studio may be the best but Google really isn't in a rush to help developers out.
adrian.adamiak said:
I think you should seriously consider using a multi-platform development environment, so that your final product can work on both Android and iOS, hopefully also on Windows Phone (or maybe even desktop PC). There are tons of those - affordable and high quality. Use google to find those. From the top of my head: Cocos2d/3d, Moai, Marmolade, Corona, Unity, Gideros, GameMaker, and many more....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like the original poster I'm also a newcomer with only basic knowledge of coding. I'm looking for a multi-platform dev environment thats more a GUI possibly with drag and drop features so I don't have to code. I see there are plenty of app making websites available but rather than cloud based I'm wanting a programme I can download.
Gingee looks good and one of it's features they're marketing is that you can "build your app/game without writing one line of code". Would the options mentioned above be similar to Gingee or do you have any other recommendations to meets my criteria?
I would go with Android Studio, since it's under heavy development, and Google is replacing Eclipse with AS, so you won't have to switch to an other IDE in the future.
I think IntelliJ Idea is the best IDE for Java developers. I tried Eclipse several times, but still can't understand, why would anyone switch from IntelliJ Idea to anything else.
andras_k said:
I would go with Android Studio, since it's under heavy development, and Google is replacing Eclipse with AS, so you won't have to switch to an other IDE in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AS replacing Eclipse, I dont see that happening ever. Google never dedicates time and effort into anything, and an IDE is a big project.
I use netbeans with ndk for android c++ development
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=53586100&postcount=4
Stick with Eclipse
I would recommend sticking with Eclipse as there is not many examples on using Android Studio for the newbies ... Now this is if you are looking to build native android applications.
I would not recommend any IDE that states you can build a application without coding ... Learn to code would be my honest suggestion.
Livecode??
I am disappoint.
Not one mention of LiveCode!
For anyone who has EVER used HyperCard on an old school Mac, you'll know how to use LiveCode. And they have a community open source edition, and can deploy to pretty much any target, save for Windows Phone.
I've written all kinds of one off custom apps with it.
To code for Android I have only been using Eclipse until now, and it meets all my needs. I think it's a very good tool ... as long as it's working, and to be honest this is not always the case. There where some incompatibilities of the ADT some month ago with the current licensing library, so I downloaded the very new version of Eclipse and ADT this month. Eclipse found some weird errors in Google's very own appcompat library ... I guess this is not my fault at all. Frequently Eclipse simply gets stuck loading content, and the only way to get rid of this problem is rebooting Windows. I don't know if such weird stuff is also occurring on Android Studio.
Hi there,
Is there a tweak or hack that connects android wear to iphone? Since google now is an app on the iphone, it might be possible to connect the wear to iphone. Please post on this thread if possible.
Cheers,
I have been looking around everywhere for a way to get iMessages / notifications on to Android wear with no success, Subscribing to this thread ...
Anything is possible but someone would have to compile the android wear app for android into ios porting simple apps takes time so something that hands up tooth connectivity and notification handling and device manager etc makes it all the more complex. Also if the app is closed source it needs to be reverse engineered. Nothing is impossible but don't hold your breath.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
It's a big job to make anything very useful.
Majority of iPhone owners will buy iWatch when it comes if they want a smartwatch.
So, if anyone does it, it will not be to make money, it will be a "love of hacking" that would drive it.
And a "love of hacking" likely means they would prefer to do projects that hook Android Wear to regular Android.
Android Wear does what it was designed to do, connect with Android phones. This question would be better asked in the Crapple forums. They're used to people asking "Why won't my iPhone do what the Androids do?"
Long story short, thats a solid no. But if you wanted to theres a lot to change, youd basically have to rewrite the entirety of the android wear app to work with ios, and ios api's, plus then you have to rework the bluetooth protocal and tweak it on your watchs operating system so that your android watch can talk to ios, bevause apple made it so that you cannot ever communicate with an android device over bluetooth, so that means you would have to basically rewrite the android wear app and how it handles messages, email, how it communicates with google now, and then procede to tweak and modify the operating system on the watch, and then theres the issue of how ios handles apps, and background processes, and on top of that youd probably need to customize ios. Theres no simple work around to do this, and there never will be. Some one would literally need to redo everything, from almost every standpoint.
http://9to5mac.com/2015/02/22/android-wear-iphone-hack/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter seems to be someone getting it to work