Database Info

S/W Newbie. If you have a moment

Hello
In the begining there was the XDA, and then the XDAII, and now, in the post to me as we speak (I hope) is the XDAIIs.
Ive spent the past hour surfing around this site, and been quite amazed at some of the things you guys and gals can make these devices do. A recent change in company has moved me from my beloved hardware engineering onto software, nothing spectacular at the moment, editing .ini, .bat, .exe and a few other types of files. It has however got me interested in playing with my phone, but the problem is I don't know where to start, I see programs called mkrom which need to run on a unix like system (which I don't have) and RomKitchen ?
Are there any recomendations on a place to start ? whether its online tutorial or a good book you have bought from somewhere, and I mean books that start from the very bottom of the pile. Again, I know bits and pieces but nothing substantial in this area.
At the moment its more the applications for the today screen I`m interested in.
Any info will be much appreciated
All the best
Nikki

Welcome aboard Nikki. You can start here:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/wiki/FAQ
and move on from there. The forum has tons of info on what apps run best on our beloved XDA. Cheers.

mate, regarding "At the moment its more the applications for the today screen I`m interested in. Any info will be much appreciated"
there are loads of apps you can put on the today screen such as:
1) animated today - animation on your today screen
2) today launch apps - allows you to put icons / shortcuts to your favorite applications
3) weather
4) phone profiles
5) system information showing you amount of memory used, battery remaining, program terminator or switcher
6) nothing on your today screen...just the background pic/theme
7) world time which displays around 6 times zones
8) quotes
9) games on the today screen (e.g. baseball...but if you ask me i'd go for footy)
10) note screen for scribbling
11) let's see....oh you can also put a different kind of clock or date format
12) calendar or task summary
13) and a whole bunch of others...
no need to buy anything really; just hop on over to the 02 and xda websites...not to mention this forum as your means of gaining tons of info.
you can try these links:
http://www.freewareppc.com/
http://ipaqsoft.net/
http://www.pdagold.com/themes/
hope that helps. cheers then

the faq does not satisfy my needs!!!
dear bravo2zero the faq available does not explain everything
it only covers 2 old pdas what about the blue angel & what are the diffrence in the
Rom version
radio version
Protocol version
ExtRom version
Where can we find the tools to edit it ?? & what each tool can do ??
if i'm reading a post i have to open 6 or 7 windows at a time & follow links to many diffrent sites...
Where can we find all in 1 tidy place ??!!!
Thanks

Thats the beauty of it. There is no one single place since this forum evolves out of everyone's contribution. This isn't like a commercial website that offers downloads in a nice structured way. Like everyone else, you just have to read through a lot of posts to get to where you want to be.

Possible convert my iPhone-app to Android?

Hi!
Ive just finished an iPhone-application, and Im looking into the possibility to convert it to an android-application.
Let me tell you the basic structure of the app:
- It has a simple drill-down-menu, with three levels of lists. Pressing a list-item will bring you deeper down into the hierarchy, and pressing a back-button will take you up a step.
- At the bottom of the hierarchy is a webview that loads a unique webpage depending on the hierarchical path the user has taken. These web-pages (html and javascript) are all localized on the device so it never goes online.
- The webpages has two main resources: images, and sound (mp3). The sound should be playable from within the webpage. All these resources are also loaded from the device.
- When exiting the app, it should save its location and when relaunched it should reopen that location.
As you can see, its a pretty simple application. Im wondering if anybody could detail a little what I need for this to come alive on Android. Perhaps the application-layout Im after is so generic, even, that there is a template for this?
My background as a programmer is mostly C++ and C#, so Im more at home with the Java-syntax than the awful Objective-C that iPhone uses.
So far Ive installed the development-environment, and have tried out the basic "Hello Android"-sample. Thats about it for the moment.

porting your iphone add to android
hi there,
i'm a android programmer and did many games already. you can see my games at:
not sure you still need help to port your iphone app to android. may be you can send me the source code. i can do it for you. very easy for me.
Tony Chan
[email protected]

Android uses java syntax and java libraries
so if you like java, then you would probably like android
layouts are done in XML

chingy1788 said:
Android uses java syntax and java libraries
so if you like java, then you would probably like android
layouts are done in XML
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hehe well said

I don't think anybody can tell you what you need to do. Just start by reading through all of this: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html and you should be able to handle this.
Note: your application appears to be trivial.
One thing that I suggest is that you forget about locally-stored web pages and just rewrite those pages in Android/Java. The reason I suggest this is that unlike apple, you can't make any assumptions about what browser the user has installed (if any), or what rendering engine their browser happens to have, or javascript engine, etc. There are AT LEAST three different rendering engines in use on Android, including khtml, gecko, and presto. There are at LEAST two different JAVASCRIPT engines, including SquirrelFish and V8, and soon you will be able to add SpiderMonkey to this list (when Firefox launches). And no, you can't force your application to call on a particular browser since this would violate the modularity designed into the platform.
DANNEMAN101 said:
Hi!
Ive just finished an iPhone-application, and Im looking into the possibility to convert it to an android-application.
Let me tell you the basic structure of the app:
- It has a simple drill-down-menu, with three levels of lists. Pressing a list-item will bring you deeper down into the hierarchy, and pressing a back-button will take you up a step.
- At the bottom of the hierarchy is a webview that loads a unique webpage depending on the hierarchical path the user has taken. These web-pages (html and javascript) are all localized on the device so it never goes online.
- The webpages has two main resources: images, and sound (mp3). The sound should be playable from within the webpage. All these resources are also loaded from the device.
- When exiting the app, it should save its location and when relaunched it should reopen that location.
As you can see, its a pretty simple application. Im wondering if anybody could detail a little what I need for this to come alive on Android. Perhaps the application-layout Im after is so generic, even, that there is a template for this?
My background as a programmer is mostly C++ and C#, so Im more at home with the Java-syntax than the awful Objective-C that iPhone uses.
So far Ive installed the development-environment, and have tried out the basic "Hello Android"-sample. Thats about it for the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

look at the NDK

Freedomcaller said:
look at the NDK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The NDK is *NOT APPLICABLE*.

Why don't you create a converter from iPhone to Android? There are few Italian app.. only this is better than Android for Italian user.. but I love Android!

I have an app that has been created for android, and I need help creating it for the iphone. I'll share the source code if someone will create the app for me please.

DANNEMAN101 said:
Hi!
Ive just finished an iPhone-application, and Im looking into the possibility to convert it to an android-application.
Let me tell you the basic structure of the app:
- It has a simple drill-down-menu, with three levels of lists. Pressing a list-item will bring you deeper down into the hierarchy, and pressing a back-button will take you up a step.
- At the bottom of the hierarchy is a webview that loads a unique webpage depending on the hierarchical path the user has taken. These web-pages (html and javascript) are all localized on the device so it never goes online.
- The webpages has two main resources: images, and sound (mp3). The sound should be playable from within the webpage. All these resources are also loaded from the device.
- When exiting the app, it should save its location and when relaunched it should reopen that location.
As you can see, its a pretty simple application. Im wondering if anybody could detail a little what I need for this to come alive on Android. Perhaps the application-layout Im after is so generic, even, that there is a template for this?
My background as a programmer is mostly C++ and C#, so Im more at home with the Java-syntax than the awful Objective-C that iPhone uses.
So far Ive installed the development-environment, and have tried out the basic "Hello Android"-sample. Thats about it for the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to post this in the Q&A and not development section?

sparksco said:
Is it possible to post this in the Q&A and not development section?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is from the first half of 2009, I highly doubt that they care where it should be posted (now).

Converting iPhone app to Android will be greate.
I would like to have All My Recipes iphone app in my Galaxy Tab

It was be great if somebody can port the secret of mana game from iphone to android ! =)

How to get startmenü icons in one row?

Is there any app out there which could manage to have the start menü icons in one row, that means e.g. 4 icons beside each other?

I agree!!! I don't like the hexagonal/honey comb grid either. Is there a tweak which we can change the grid ??

+++++++++++

Benz-Driver said:
Is there any app out there which could manage to have the start menü icons in one row, that means e.g. 4 icons beside each other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly what you are looking for but there's a cab available for simple list start menu.
Take a look here.

nice but i would prefer the same WM6.5 menu but without honeycomb

Sorry to say but is it possible to use a Iphone-look-a-like grid !!! Just aligned icons next to each other. And are the size of the icons adjustable ??

I have been looking for grid start menu since the diamond!
i think the list menu posted above is a total waste of time, if you like me and have 20+ apps installed a list takes ages to find anything.
I have seen a 4 column grid menu on a different device with a qvga screen but the author never messaged back to di it for vga of wvga screens which is a shame.
the grid can be done, it is just finding someone who can do it!!
personally i could like 4 & 5 column grids!
Really hope someone can do this!!
MG

MS copies many thing from Apple, why didn't copy Iphone's UI?

biou said:
MS copies many thing from Apple, why didn't copy Iphone's UI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Err, i dont think so! the iPhone only has half the functionality of this device!
you could say that the iPhone is a HTC Hermes with a flashy interface!!
Maybe apple should copy M$ in the fact that their OS ACTUALLY does something:
E.G.
1: What kind of company releases a phone that has no bluetooth? Apple.
2: What kind of company releases a phone that CANNOT MMS? Apple.
3: What kind of company releases a phone that operates between such small temperature variations, if you go on holiday your phone shuts off unless it is sat on the Air Con? Apple.
4: What kind of company releases a phone that requires Extra software to use it (iTunes)? Apple.
5: What kind of company releases a phone that cannot log onto a wifi network without being told to? Apple.
6: What kind of company releases a phone that CANNOT copy, cut and paste in a text message? Apple.
I can go on!!
do you think MS should copy this as well?
MG

I was looking for a solution for this too, because the honeycomb is very inefficient. With a grid I could fit 33% more icons on the same surface. I think it is also easier to scan through the icons in a grid, itis much easier to miss an icon with this layout. I actually think that the honeycomb is a little more visually appealing, but I would gladly sacrifice that for the efficiency of a grid.

no answer yet
im really dying for an answer to this problem. i really want an aligned icons in my start menu. too bad this thread has been dead for months already and no answers yet have been realized. (the list-style of icons is ineefficient for said people with hundreds of programs in their phone.)

try here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=682722

MysticGenius said:
Err, i dont think so! the iPhone only has half the functionality of this device!
you could say that the iPhone is a HTC Hermes with a flashy interface!!
Maybe apple should copy M$ in the fact that their OS ACTUALLY does something:
E.G.
1: What kind of company releases a phone that has no bluetooth? Apple.
2: What kind of company releases a phone that CANNOT MMS? Apple.
3: What kind of company releases a phone that operates between such small temperature variations, if you go on holiday your phone shuts off unless it is sat on the Air Con? Apple.
4: What kind of company releases a phone that requires Extra software to use it (iTunes)? Apple.
5: What kind of company releases a phone that cannot log onto a wifi network without being told to? Apple.
6: What kind of company releases a phone that CANNOT copy, cut and paste in a text message? Apple.
I can go on!!
do you think MS should copy this as well?
MG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice post,totaly agree with you,im anti iphone i think

[AIR]Making/Testing AIR on Eclair

Hey all.
Sony Ericsson have stated quite clearly.. "No Flash on X10". Despite being quite categorical, there is much more to the story... so sit back with a coffee, and allow me to explain;
{disclaimer: i've only had an Android smartphone (Nexus One) since about June, so my experience had been exclusively using Froyo until now}
As far as i'm aware, Flash-Lite ran on certain HTC devices with Android Eclair (2.1) but this was done thru the device's default browser using webkit's plugin permission.
Flash 10.1 on the other hand is designed to run on Froyo (2.2) using a more direct Google plugin to the browser. (possibly an API not reliant on webkit as default, thus allowing other browsers to gain plugin access)
Anyway.. Sony Ericsson, for whatever reason, hasn't included either of these methods in this Eclair release. Conspiracy theorists may point to the coming PSP-phone as one reason to omit Flash.. ie. free multiplayer web-games.
So anyway, that's the bad news! No browser-based Flash unless it gets hacked into X10 by someone, or the bootloader get cracked, etc etc.
Ok, now the good news;
Hardware performance isn't a factor, as X10's Arm7 CPU IS supported by Adobe Flash + Air when running Froyo, as it clearly states X10's compatibility on their developer page.
Even better news for flash aficionados;
Lucky for us, Adobe made an early version of Air (ie. Flash outside the browser) for Android which runs just fine on Eclair. Although it's no longer under development (hasn't been since June) it's therefore unsupported by Adobe, and missing the odd feature such as GPU acceleration.
However, my early tests show it runs pretty well, comparing it to my Nexus One at least.
There are some limitations such as only running newer Actionscript3, (and no multi-touch, ha-ha ;O) ..but i can still see a great opportunity promoting and supporting Air on the X10. More so since every Air app or game i've seen so far only runs on Froyo.
As i see it, there's now a distinct niche supporting Air for Eclair userbase, so i hope some of you will consider helping me to exploit it. I'm here to help however i can, like porting as much stuff as possible to run on our Eclair devices, and ask anyone who's interested to offer support such as testing, designing, coding, or whatever. (PM or post here if interested to help out) I also propose a unique identifier; 'EPX'. The meaning will become obvious later.
To kick things off, i've attached a splash image, the Air Runtime for Eclair, and a sample game to test it. Here are the details about the game;
-------------------------------------
- Called "Code Bummer" made by Jesse Freeman, Dan Wolfe, Sean McCracken. (renamed "Hobo" with new icon, and recompiled to run on Eclair)
- Source code; http://github.com/jessefreeman/codebummer (a very clean example of a flash game for Android!)
- Description; http://www.appbrain.com/app/code-bummer/air.com.gamecook.CodeBummer (members will notice it says "Your device has Android 2.1. However this app is for Android version 2.2 and higher")
- Performance Tip: I find that after starting the game, the responsiveness is a bit slow, so i press back button (out of the game) then reload back into the game, and performance is much more playable.
-------------------------------------
Enjoy!
[UPDATE]
Anyone interested in developing Air for Eclair apps or games (that will also work on the latest Air for Froyo runtime) should stick to ONLY using the June 3rd SDK here...
(AIR25_win_sdk_20100603.zip)
http://www.mediafire.com/?m19cetvay9xqx38
Or the June 3rd CS5 Air Extension here...
(AIRforAndroid_FlashCS5_060310.zxp)
http://www.mediafire.com/?22hewf5kg98u3sd
Both of ^these are for Windows developers only.
We are also looking for the existing Linux and Mac SDK's dated the 3rd of June. If you have one of these, then please let us know, so that we may share it with everyone who needs it.
Cheers!

hi
that`s really good news(?) for us
unfortunately I have no knowledge in these areas but no doubt that I make available to serve as guinea pigs (?)
just hope this idea don`t die young and devs who had the knowlage will help you on this

Air for Android Developer Links
Thanks. It's a big catchup being couple of years behind the java devs, but strength in numbers helps.
Useful links for anyone getting started with Air development on Android;
"Using AIR for Mobile Development" (slideshow) *new*
"How to Add a Splash Screen to Your Air for Android App"
"How to Import MovieClips into a Flash Builder ActionScript Project"
"Optimization Techniques for Air for Android Apps"
"Sample Employee Directory Application using Flex and AIR for Android"
Using The Accelerometer Sensor in ActionScript 3
...

All my knowledge goes to AS3 and that is it. No Java or anything else. But testing wise, I am all here to help.

Is it not possible to port the Plugin from 2.2 to 2.1 or to install HTC Browser?

great it works quite laggy but a great start!

cuddles100 said:
great it works quite laggy but a great start!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear it.
If you follow the performance tip (written above in red) then it runs as smooth as the original 80's coin arcade classic that it's based on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger

Nimche said:
All my knowledge goes to AS3 and that is it. No Java or anything else. But testing wise, I am all here to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh.. that type of "flash junkie" haha. I thought you meant flashing roms.
Anyway, Air on Android is pure AS3 development, unlike the desktop version which could run Html or Javascript seamlessly...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Integrated_Runtime#JavaScript_frameworks
In fact, coming from Actionscript background, i was impressed enough with it's implementation to switch almost entirely to Javascript coding in the early versions of Adobe Air which were codenamed "Apollo".
So although the desktop version of AIR includes the WebKit HTML rendering engine, this is not supported in Air for Android. (i'm guessing the overhead of running webkit alongside AS3 engine was too heavy for general smartphone use)
However something called "StageWebView" appears to be supported, so i'll look into how that works.

Wolfbreak said:
Is it not possible to port the Plugin from 2.2 to 2.1 or to install HTC Browser?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An attempt was made...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6569529&postcount=16
^That whole thread makes excellent reading if you're deep into webkit hacking!

Air for Eclair Source Code
Keeping to the same theme as Code Bummer.. here's a bitmap side-scroller sample by 'theflashbum'...
https://github.com/theflashbum/BitmapScroller/downloads
The size is 9mb cos it includes 29 images. The images are truely funny for any hardcore flash coders, but the side scrolling to way too jumpy to be of any use as is. (...unless you want a migrane as an excuse not to go to work today! lol)

I7redd said:
Glad to hear it.
If you follow the performance tip (written above in red) then it runs as smooth as the original 80's coin arcade classic that it's based on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didnt read that bit. lol. Yeh the lag pretty much disapears when u do that awesome!

cuddles100 said:
Didnt read that bit. lol. Yeh the lag pretty much disapears when u do that awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the confirmation. (tip now highlighted)
It does the same on my Nexus running Froyo, so not sure yet what's causing that to happen. We need a few more sample games to see if it happens on Air generally, but for now it's quick fix that works.

I7redd said:
Ahh.. that type of "flash junkie" haha. I thought you meant flashing roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did mean both of them. Flash phone and development for AS3. Hope to make something out of this.
Cheers,
Edit> That was nice. OT, how do you pack an apk off flash?

> how do you back an apk off flash?
Not quite sure i understand.
To "back out of flash" means pressing hardware back button. The game suspends, so when you go in again (pressing game icon) it continues where you were, but also plays smoother.
To back up an apk can use normal backup app like Titanium.

I7redd said:
> how do you back an apk off flash?
Not quite sure i understand.
To "back out of flash" means pressing hardware back button. The game suspends, so when you go in again (pressing game icon) it continues where you were, but also plays smoother.
To back up an apk can use normal backup app like Titanium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fixed it 4 minutes before your post anyways I meant pack an apk. How do you turn air application into android app?

Nimche said:
...development for AS3. Hope to make something out of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool.
These XDA forums have developer sections, thou to me at least, they seems slanted towards rom development, not apps, so I thought i'd start off a topic about testing Air, and see how the response is.
If there are people who are also keen to develop using Air for Eclair, then i'm happy to help get them started, or organize a group project. Will see how it goes.
For myself, i'm using Flash Builder 4, so switching between Froyo or Eclair involves overcopying the respective SDKs in Flash Builder folder..
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4\sdks\4.0.A
For Froyo we use latest build [09/30/10] ...but for Eclair we have to use the older SDK dated the same as the Eclair Runtime [06/03/10] that i attached on the first post. I've uploaded (18mb zip) the older "Eclair SDK" for those who want to try compiling something...
http://www.mediafire.com/?m19cetvay9xqx38
Any issues, let me know.

Nimche said:
I fixed it 4 minutes before your post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh. I didn't reload the page before answering. (also a bit slow typing with a cat on my lap)

Nimche said:
How do you turn air application into android app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After building your SWF file.. use (windows) dos command something like..
adt -package -target apk -storetype pkcs12 -keystore cert.p12 -storepass password my_app.apk my_app.xml my_app.swf
Quick way is to put ^that into a make.bat file.
Then put "adb install -r my_app.apk" into an install.bat file.
Then put "call make.bat & call install.bat" into a run.bat file.
Then double-click run.bat and it's all done in 1 step.

very good stuff! I will glady test stuff for you's
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

I7redd said:
After building your SWF file.. use (windows) dos command something like..
adt -package -target apk -storetype pkcs12 -keystore cert.p12 -storepass password my_app.apk my_app.xml my_app.swf
Quick way is to put ^that into a make.bat file.
Then put "adb install -r my_app.apk" into an install.bat file.
Then put "call make.bat & call install.bat" into a run.bat file.
Then double-click run.bat and it's all done in 1 step.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool sh*t. I will make some stuff for testing. Happy that AIR works here and I was going to be disappointed but now I have more purpose for using 2.1//

[Q] Animated GIF Support Within libwebcore.so

Hey everyone,
I've done a lot of reading lately on how can animated gif support be enabled for devices with ARM6 (like the HTC Hero). Basically what i have to do is recompile the package \lib\libwebcore.so and re-flash in on my device.
What i have in mind: within the "ImageSourceAndroid.cpp" file from "WebCore / platform / graphics / android" i have to force the should_use_animated_gif() call to return "true" everytime it is called.
*btw, you can find the above *.cpp file here
**btw, i believe someone has done this before, see here
Now, the part with changing the code is easy stuff.. however, i'm not quite sure that i'll be able to recompile the library so easily. So my questions are:
1. Can anyone point me in the right direction? How do i rebuild this library into something that i can flash on my device?
2. Can anyone tell me if what i want to do will indeed enable the gif support
Thanks!

Also, related to the above, is there any way that i can deploy *just* the libwebcore.so library?

cool beans! good work!

here's what google dev says:
[...] you want to work around this with your own Android build, you’ll need to modify C++ code, rebuild, and reflash your phone. You’ll need to make two fixes to the released sources. 1) edit the function should_use_animated_gif() in external/webkit/WebCore/platform/graphics/android/ImageSourceAndroid.cpp (around line 217). Return true to animate gifs 2) Change setRGBA() in /WebCore/platform/image-decoders/ImageDecoder.h (around line 173) to call*dest = SkPackARGB32(a, r, g, b) *dest = SkPackARGB32(a, r, g, b) instead of instead of*dest = (a << 24 | r << 16 | g << 8 | b) With these changes, gifs will animated correctly on large memory devices like Droid and Nexus One There’s no code path for animating gifs in arbitrary applications like Gallery, except by rewriting it to host a WebView modded as described above[...]
the post above has been taken from here
I'll just post more info on this topic as i go along with it. If someone has additional hints or something, please feel free to comment.