Android Developer Challenge 2 Details Appearing

Google has announced some early details for the next Android Developer Challenge. Submissions will begin in August across ten categories. In this challenge, there will be two rounds. It's the first round that's new and exciting for developers and users:

Users get to download, rank, and rate specific, but random, applications submitted to the challenge by, what else, but an Android application! This round will result in 200 finalists: twenty in each of the ten categories. The second round will be rated with Google-selected judges, as before, but their ratings will only count for 55% of the total score, with the other 45% coming from the community ratings. Three winners from each category will be chosen to win $100k, $50k, and $25k US dollar prizes. From all of the entries, overall winners (best of all entries, regardless of category) will be awarded an additional $150k, $50k, and $25k.

Finally, Google has provided a little teaser to encourage developers to go to their events:

attendees of selected developer events will be provided with devices intended for use in developing submissions for ADC 2

The categories for this challenge include the following:

• Education/Reference
• Games: Casual/Puzzle
• Games: Arcade/Action
• Social Networking
• Lifestyle
• Productivity/Tools
• Media
• Entertainment
• Travel
• Misc

Terms and conditions for the challenge are forthcoming. It's still unclear who is eligible, what applications will be eligible, and so on. Find out more as details become available from the Google Android Developer Challenge site.

Android Development Tip: Managing AVDs with the Eclipse Android Development Tools Plug-In

I've updated my Eclipse development environment a number of times in the past few weeks, what with the Android 1.5 preview, then the release version. I checked for updates this week and noticed yet another version of the ADT Eclipse plugin was available. One interesting new feature added in the latest version is an Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager, accessible from within Eclipse.

All emulator instances using the Android 1.5 SDK require an AVD configuration. Sure, you can use the android command line interface to create and manage AVDs, but if you just want to create a simple AVD quickly, you can now use the little wizard provided with the ADT plugin. The AVD manager button is added to your Eclipse toolbar. It looks like a little black cell phone.

Simply click it and the AVD manager will launch, listing all AVDs on your system. You can Add and Delete AVDs, as well as Refresh the AVD listing.


When creating a new AVD, you can set the following information:

• The AVD friendly name
• The Target Android system
• The Skin
• Whether or not to create an SD Card Image
• 
  You cannot create custom hardware profiles. That, you still need to use the android command line tool for.

Android SDK 1.5r1 Available for Download

Release 1 of the Android 1.5 SDK is available for download now. Additionally, a system image for the ADP1 (Android Developer Phone from Google) is available for 1.5 now, as well.

This is the third full release of Android, corresponding to API Level 3 (Android 1.1r1 was Level 2 and Android 1.0r1 and 1.0r2 corresponded to Level 1).

This time, though, the Google map services are in an SDK add-on. A vanilla API Level 3 distribution may not contain these. Testing this is made possible through an emulator target that contains these services and one that doesn't, where even clicking on a map link from within an application won't work.

This capability opens the door to other third-party add-ons, a very exciting potential.

Android 1.5: Going Live Within The Next Few Weeks

The much-awaited Android 1.5 SDK update is coming soon to a development environment near you. This update is based on the Cupcake branch of the Android source project and features substantial improvements and additions to the Android APIs, as well as developer tool suite updates and some much-needed UI polish and performance improvements to the overall Android user experience.

You can find a short list of highlights coming in Android 1.5 as part of the Android Developer SDK 1.5 preview on the Android Developer website as well as download the pre-release ("preview") version of Android SDK 1.5 and give it a spin.

You may also find the Cupcake branch roadmap useful.

The SDK 1.5 is expected to be released within the next few weeks. An over-the-air update will likely be sent to Android phones in the field soon thereafter.

What are you looking forward to in this release? We're looking forward to being able to create home screen widgets.

Android Wireless Application Development Book Available for Pre-order!

We're exciting to announce that our book, Android Wireless Application Development, is now available for pre-order from Safari Rough Cuts!
You'll be able to start reading chapters in advance of the print copy if you buy it now. The rough cuts program also allows people to comment on the book and help make it better. Let us know what you think!

Android Application Market for Paid Apps

Paid applications are now being accepted for the Android Market. This is great news for developers who want to make money and create premium applications. Collecting money uses Google Checkout, so developers will also need an account with Google Checkout. Paid applications will be available next week for US customers, and in other countries over the next few months.

Read more at the Google mobile blog entry and at the Android Market publishing site.

Android 1.1 in Distribution

If you follow gadget blogs, you've probably seen that Android 1.1 is heading out to T-Mobile G1 handsets. Until today, though, you may have wondered if this affects you or not. Well, it might.

The Android 1.1 SDK Release 1 is a now available from Google. All Android 1.0 SDK applications will function without change on 1.0, according to Google. However, if you want to begin using the new APIs introduced in Android SDK 1.1, you'll need to download it and begin using it.

The Android 1.1 firmware is being pushed out to all G1 users. According to T-Mobile, everyone with a G1 should have received the update notification within a week or two. This means that if you're developing an application that could benefit from the SDK changes, it probably is reasonable to require the upgrade.

As for changes in the new firmware and SDK, they include some bug fixes and a few new features. Many of the features are in built-in applications, but there are a few for developers:

• Can now determine user ID programmatically for app
• Can now get padding for a View, useful for implementing new ones
• Support for Marquee in TextView
• Can now broadcast SMS and WAP PUSH via new permissions

Download the new SDK here.

(P.S. He's supposed to be smiling. :o)