Exploration of Thought

This is a simple post in which I'm going to show you how you can create a simple notification on top of an existing button that looks just like an iOS/OSX notification, as shown below: Concept I want to do this WITHOUT any 9 patch images whatsoever. If you look closely, you'll see that the…

Here's a quick tip to spice up your Android applications. A lot of people perform Android input validation when a button is pressed and display the validation message in a dialog as shown below. However, there's a much easier (and elegant way) to do this by using the built in setError construct of the EditText…

If you attended the "Whats new in Android Tablet" development class this morning at AnDevCon then THANK YOU. :) Below are the slides that are from the class. Enjoy!   Download slides

For those of you who attended todays workshop at AnDevCon II, here is the PDF of the presentation that we covered today.   Enjoy!

This post is for anyone attending the  Hands-On Android Tablet Programming class at AnDevCon. Below are the details about the class that should get you up to date. Beginner-to-Intermediate Level Please note, this class is not an introduction to Android. It is a beginner-to-intermediate level class in which I expect that you have a beginner…

I'm teaching a free Android Tablet Programming class (hands-on style) October 25th at Gangplank. Please only register if you're 100% sure you can make it as we have limited space and I want to make sure as many people can get in as possible. Registration & Class details are here (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/791143331).

The way that Android implements Locales (from my understanding and readings) will leave your apps mis-behaving and acting oddly for users if you need to access cross-region features in your app while in another country. A Real World Locale Problem Imagine the scenario where your sell products pertinent to a location, like daily deals (think…

In this post I'll show you how two use the layout_weight attribute in a LinearLayout to force an item so act as a "spring loaded view". A picture is worth a thousand words. Assume you have some dynamic text such as city name and your name. You need to display your name on the left…

Sometimes in Android you want to add a little depth and personality to your android layouts. A basic layout is rectangle with square corners and is quite ugly. I'm going to show you how to create this:

This post/article came out of frustration of working at various engagements over the course of my career. From full time gigs to on site consulting to my current position(s) - a) Building my startups (Qonqr, AgileMedicine, Barcodes.io, etc) and b) Remote consulting with very infrequent in person face to face meetings. I decided years ago…

This post is a follow up to CrazyBob's great post on the same subject. A big thanks to him for posting it as it helped me and my team get to our final result of getting Android to communicate with a custom CA (Thawte in this case). The Original Problem In short, I was getting…

If you've recently upgraded to IntelliJ 10.5 and are using it for Android development you might run into an odd issue where when you try to debug IntelliJ hangs and says "Waiting for ADB" and then freezes. The IDE does not respond to any events and eventually you have to kill it. Something changed in…