Google and HTC Working On a Chrome OS Tablet

Everyone is clamoring about tablets these days—ourselves included—so it’s not too surprising that Google and HTC are set to join the fray. They are reportedly working together on a Chrome OS Google Tablet.

Smarthouse, an Australian publication, reports that HTC and Google have been collaborating “for the past 18 months” and have produced “several working models of a touch tablet,” including one outfitted with Google’s Chrome OS. We wrote why a Google Tablet would be a good idea last month, and with the Apple Tablet discussion reaching a fever pitch, it’s harder and harder to get excited about a Chrome OS netbook from Google.

Having collaborated on the Nexus One, a smart phone that impressed us with its design as well as its hardware, HTC and Google partnering on a tablet seems like a promising prospect. But will it “compete head on” with Apple’s tablet as Smarthouse claims? Probably not.

From what we know, it seems like Apple is putting as much effort into their tablet’s content as they are into the gadget itself. We’ve written extensively on how an Apple tablet could redefine newspapers, textbooks, and magazines. In the last case, we’ve already salivated, more than once, over concepts for how magazines might evolve in a multi-touch future. Add that to Apple’s recent acquisition of Lala, a move that likely points to a cloud-based future for iTunes, and the reports that Apple is trying to secure TV show subscription packages for the iTunes store. Admittedly, not a whole lot is certain about Apple’s tablet. But you start looking at all of those pieces and how they might fit together around one device, you can easily envision a gadget that is focused on streaming the stuff you read, the stuff you listen to, and the stuff you watch.

It’s hard to foresee a future in which a Google Tablet tries to go head to head with Apple on the content level. That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t some compelling things that could be offered by a Google tablet. As the launch of Google’s Chrome OS made clear, they’re looking toward a future with a multitude of devices that can access the Internet quickly, cleanly, and cheaply. A Google Tablet could be just the thing to realize all of those goals. When we tried out the JooJoo tablet, we saw how a well-designed tablet for consuming web content could provide an engaging experience. A Chrome OS tablet by Google would likely work the same way, keeping typing to a minimum and offering a literal hands-on web surfing experience. [Smarthouse via Business Insider]

Six Android Tips for the T-Mobile G1

1. Replace the Bundled Music Player With TuneWiki
Android’s bundled Music program is fairly weak and clunky. Our suggestion: Ditch it and pick up TuneWiki off the Android Market. It’s easier to use than the bundled Music program, and has a lot more features (such as a fun karaoke function that searches for lyrics online and runs them with your song as it plays). Of course, you can download TuneWiki to any iPhone, but only if it is jailbroken and unlocked (which would void its warranty). This difference is emblematic of one of the key distinctions between Android and the iPhone—Android doesn’t ban applications that compete with or replace its own programs.

2. Use “Any Cut” To Put a Shortcut to Goog-411 On Your Home Screen
One of our favorite downloadable Android applications is a little program called Any Cut, which allows you to litter your home screen with shortcuts to any program, phone number, text-message recipient or menu setting. Use this program to create a home-screen speed dial to Goog-411—Google’s free directory assistance number—to cut the number of clicks it takes to get your digits-on-demand down to one. Bonus tip: Create a shortcut to text message GOOGLE (466453) for when calling’s just not convenient.

3. Play VIdeos in MPEG-4 H.264
The G1 has no built-in video player. That’s what the Android Market is for. When we were testing the phone, there was only one true video playback program available: Video Player. And while this program can only play MPEG-4 movie files, we should soon see other video-playing programs that will be able to handle all sorts of codecs. However, even when these options become available, you’ll still want to play your movies in MPEG-4 H.264 compression whenever possible. This is because the G1 has built-in hardware acceleration that makes this specific video format run extra smooth. Future programs will probably run Divx and Xvid and all those great files you’ve collected from Bittorrent, but the programs’ on-the-fly decryption and viewing will be far more taxing on the software, which could mean lags.

4. Search Google Maps From Front Page Widget
The G1’s default home screen features a Google search widget. While this obviously makes Google Web searches quicker, it is also is a quick way to tap into Google Maps. When you type the name of a place or location, you are given a typical Google search results page, with a map location at the top. Click this result, and the phone asks you whether you want to switch out of the browser and into the Maps program to finish your query.

5. Use the Hard Search Key
If there’s one company that understands the value of search, it’s Google. And one of the best parts of the G1’s physical keyboard is its hard search key (the one that looks like a little magnifying glass.) Pressing it from the home screen brings up the Google search bar. This is great, but what’s more interesting is its use within individual Google-made programs like YouTube and Maps, where pressing it brings up a search bar specific to that program, allowing you to find what you’re looking for in an app easily and quickly.

6. Focus Before Shooting
Camera phones are notorious for their blurry shots. The G1’s autofocus tries to change this: When you half-press the camera button on the side of the phone, it engages the autofocus (anybody who has autofocused with a stand-alone camera will find this familiar). When it’s done focusing, a green circle pops up in the corner of the screen, letting you know it’s time to take the shot by completely depressing the button. So remember when shooting to wait for the green circle for better, Facebook-worthy results.

The 50 Great tips for the G1 Android!

The T-Mobile G1 Android is the most talked-about phone in town.

It may not be a better handset than the iPhone – but with a plethora of apps and updates on the way, the G1 is certainly a major force to be reckoned with.

With that in mind, here are 50 great tips to help you squeeze as much usability out of your T-Mobile G1 Android as humanly possible

1. Customise your home screen

You can select any icon from the pull-out menu and drag it onto the home page. To return it to the menu you’ll need to press and hold it until the menu tab shows a trash can, then drag it onto the trash can icon.

2. Quick email set-up

You can set up most POP3 or IMAP email accounts with major providers in a couple of clicks. Go to Email, press Menu-Accounts, then Menu-add account, enter your email and password and you’re ready to go.

3. Email default

Not surprisingly, the G1’s optimised for GoogleMail and you’ll be prompted to set an account up when you start it up for the first time. If you’d rather use another account though, remember to click ‘Send email from this account’ when you set it up or it will default to your Gmail account.

4. Push email

You can set your G1 to update your emails automatically from every five minutes to every hour, or only when you ask it to. In Email, press Menu, then Account settings, then Email check frequency.

5. Check your memory

You can check how much memory you have left on your microSD card. From the home page, pull open the Menu. Go to Settings, then scroll down to SD card & phone storage.

6. Save memory

With the list of apps available on Market growing steadily, it’s only a matter of time before you run out of space on your G1’s built-in memory. Delete apps that you don’t use regularly – you can easily download them again if you need them.

7. Save your battery 1

Like many high-spec smart phones, battery life on the G1 is an issue. Get into the habit of pressing the end key when you finish using it to shut the screen down.

8. Save your battery 2

Reduce the brightness. In the settings menu go to Sound & display, then scroll down to Brightness. Even at the lowest setting it’s perfectly viewable. You can also reduce the screen timeout while you’re there.- minimum is 15 seconds.

9. Save your battery 3

Turn off Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth if you’re not using them – they’re all in Settings-Wireless controls. You can even turn off 3G and opt for ‘Use only 2G networks’ in Wireless controls-Mobile networks if you’re being careful.

10. Save your battery 4

And if you really want to stretch out your power line, you can turn off the ringer and rely on vibrate to receive calls. Go to Settings-Sound & display and click Silent mode while leaving Phone vibrate activated.

11. Notifications screen

Drag your finger downwards from the top of the screen to reveal the Notifications page. This will tell you of any pending emails, missed calls, downloads and other info.

12. Street View

Google Maps now has a Street View option which gives you 360-degree views of street scenes. Press Menu-Map mode-Street View (you’ll need to scroll down if you’re in landscape mode).

13. Problem with Street View

It’s a great little feature, but there are no Street Views for the UK yet. Paris is the nearest, but there are also Street Views in Spain, Italy, Belgium, and of course, loads in US and Japanese cities.

14. Android Apps

There are already dozens of third party apps available for the G1’s Android operating system, many of them free, and with more being added all the time – unlike the iPhone’s closed system, anyone can add them. Go to Market in the main menu for a full rundown.

15. Any Cut

Any Cut offers an easy way to make shortcuts to almost anything, including frequently dialled numbers, messages or even specific actions, just by pressing and holding the home screen.

16. ShopSavvy

Download this app from Market and you can use the G1’s camera to scan barcodes. It will then go online to find the best price for the product you’ve just scanned, along with any reviews or comments.

17. TuneWiki

Essentially an interactive community-based karaoke project you can search for songs and videos with accompanying lyrics and add your own. It’s a pretty good music player too.

18. Wikitude

This Market app uses Wikipedia and GPS to provide information on local points of interest wherever you happen to be. It’ll highlight places on the map but it’s best to use the trackball rather than your finger to access the info.

19. Shazam

Long available by dialling 2580, the track ID service is available as a free download, so when you need to know what that track on the radio is, you’ll only pay for your network’s data charges.

20. Memory card

The G1 comes with a 2GB microSD card hidden in a slot at the bendy end, just beneath the call start button.

21. Imeem music

This music streaming app lets you play music wherever you are. Select an artist and it will play a stream of related tracks from your chosen one and others. It’s like a jukebox in your pocket.

22. Zombie, Run!

This very silly but fun game uses the G1’s GPS system to identify zombies heading your way. Your task is to avoid them and get to your destination. It certainly livened up our mid-afternoon stroll down London’s Oxford St…

23. Screen errors

The G1’s capacitive touch screen is a thing of beauty – not so sensitive that you activate everything your thumb brushes against, but not requiring too much effort to press what you need. Sometimes it can be a bit slow to react though. In this case, hold your thumb on the link you need for a second or two – that should do it.

24. Security

You can set up your own security pattern to protect your precious G1 being vandalised by strangers’ manky fingerprints. Go to Settings-Security & location-Set unlock pattern. Then draw your own personal unlock pattern to connect at least four dots on the on the nine-dot grid.

25. Play video

The G1 won’t play video out of the box. Download Video Player from Market to play MPEG4 or 3GPP files. Expect to see other video players soon.

26. Switch network

Like the iPhone, the G1 has debuted exclusively on a single network and if you buy now you’ll be tied to an 18-month contract. But if the big pink one isn’t for you, wait until next year when you’ll be able to get a G1 that isn’t locked to any network.

27. Upgrade your memory card

With just 1GB memory on board the G1, you’ll need to add some more via microSD card if you’re going to get the best use out of it. It can handle up to 16GB which should set you back around £40.

28. Quick search

Google knows a thing or two about search. Get quick access to the Google toolbar by pressing the search key on the keyboard (bottom line, looks like a magnifying glass).
29. Keyboard shortcuts

You can manage your own keyboard shortcuts to any of the apps in your menu. Go to Menu-Settings and scroll down to Applications-Quick launch. There are a range of built-in shortcuts awaiting activation or you can set up your own.

30. USB security

If you’re concerned about security, there’s an automatic debug mode that swings into action whenever you connect to a computer via USB. Go to Menu-Settings-Application-Develeopment-USB debugging.

31. Non-Market apps

You don’t have to stick to third party apps from Market, but if you’re looking further afield, you’ll need to tell your G1 it’s okay. Go to Menu-Settings-Application-Unknown sources and tick the box.

32. Set MP3 as ringtone

If you really must have Tenor Saw’s Ring The Alarm or Anita Ward’ Ring My Bell as your ringtone, go to Music-Songs and press and hold the one you fancy. Then choose Use as phone ringtone.

33. Multiple apps

If you’re surfing the web, using your camera, whatever, and want quick access to your music player or email, just press and hold the Home key to superimpose your open apps menu.

34. Get Wi-Fi-ed

Put go-faster stripes on your internet browsing by connecting to a broadband network. From the Menu go to Settings-Wireless controls-Wi-Fi settings to search for available networks.

35. Quick silent mode

No need to fiddle through menus when you’ve just gone into a meeting with the G1 – just press and hold the call end button to activate silent mode. Press and hold again to bring the noise.

36. Speedy playlist management

It’s easy to add songs to playlists – just press and hold the track you want, then select the playlist you want to assign it to from the menu.

37a. Favourite contacts

You can set up a Premier League of your favourite contacts so you can keep all your essential numbers in one place. Open your contact’s details and press the grey star in the top right-hand corner – it turns gold, and that contact is in your Favourites list.

37b. Least favourites

There’s an option to automatically avoid any of your least favourite contacts. Scroll down in your contact’s details and check the box marked Send calls directly to voicemail. Et voilà – automatically screened calls.

38. Forward SMS and MMS messages

There’s no option to forward a message while you have the message open, so from your list of messages, press and hold the message you want to forward until a menu pops up. Select ‘Forward’.

39. Autofocus

The G1’s 3 megapixel camera has autofocus, but to make best use of it, half-press the shutter button (just like on many standalone cameras) before taking your shot. It will still work with a normal press, but with a longer delay.

40. Get your bearings

The G1 includes a compass to help you get your bearings in unfamiliar territory. Go to Maps-Menu-Map mode-Street view-Menu-Compass.

41. Zooming

Not as flash a mechanism as the iPhone’s pinch, but then you only need one finger. Tap the screen once in browser or picture viewing modes and zoom in and out keys appear. Press once or press and hold ’til you get the size you want. Easy.

42. Browsing shortcuts

The keyboard has some basic shortcuts for getting around. Try Menu+J for last page, Menu+K for next page, Menu+Space for home page and Menu+H to see your browsing history.

43. Quick zoom

Sliding the screen brings up zoom in and out buttons, but also a quick zoom in the bottom right-hand corner. This brings up a full webpage with a highlight window that you can move around until you find the bit you want to focus on.
44. Click to fit column

If you’re viewing a page with several columns of text, not all of it on the screen, tap on the text (so long as it doesn’t contain a web link) and the column will jump into the window.

45. Multi-page browsing

You can have several pages open at once when you’re browsing. Press the menu key and select Window you view your recent page history and open new windows.

46. Cut and paste

Get that feeling of superiority over iPhone users by cutting and pasting text from your documents and messages.

Cut – press Menu+ x

Copy – press Menu + c

Paste – press Menu + v

47. SplashPlay

Hmm, a phone-based guitar tutor that really works. It shows the fretboard of a guitar and illustrates the chords while a song plays – it could be one that you download or one from your own music collection that chords have been provided for. You can even press the strings on the screen to sound the notes.

48. IM

The default Instant Messaging client on the G1 is of course GoogleTalk but you’re not stuck with it as there are others available on Market including meebo and IM+, which supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo and others.

49. MMS

Got one over on smug iPhone users by taking a photograph, selecting Menu-Share and sending it on. If the pic’s too large it will prompt you to resize it.

50. Factory reset

And if everything should go to hell in a handcart, you can do a factory reset:

Switch off

Hold Home Key + End key for 20 seconds or until you see a triangle with an exclamation mark and a picture of the G1

Open the QWERTY keyboard and press Alt+W

How to Get Remote Root Access to T-Mobile G1

Well, someone figured out how to access the G1 phone via a telnet access. This is great stuff, I bet you can stuff a small web server on a G1 phone pretty easy. (Hmmm…I wonder if you can do SSH2 too…)

1. Turn on WiFihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIFI in the G1 (Settings > Wireless Controls > Wi-Fihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi ). Make sure you’re connected to a network.
2. Start up PTerminal (search in the Market) and you’ll get a prompt once its launched.
3. Enter cd system and hit Enter.
4. Enter cd bin and hit Enter.
5. Enter telnetd and hit Enter. You’ve now started telnethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TELNET on your G1.
6. Enter netstat and hit Enter. You’ll now see your G1’s IP address. You can also find this in the Settings > Wireless Controls > Wi-Fi > and click on your network you’re connected to. It will show you your IP.
7. Start up Terminal on your OS X machine, or bring up a command prompthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_line_interface on your Windows box. Type telnet [your.ip.address.we.just.found] and hit Enter/Return. So, if your IP was 192.168.1.101, you’d type telnet 192.168.1.101 and hit Enter/Return.
8. You are logged in as root now. To remount the system file as read write, type mount -oremount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system from the Terminal/Command Prompt and hit Enter/Return.

How To Upload Music To The T-Mobile G1 Android Phone!

The T-Mobile G1 Google phone has a pretty great music player, and the Marketplace has quite a good selection of downloadable video players to sort out the mobile movie watching side of things, but how exactly do you put them on there without some kind of iTunes-y saviour?

Well, it’s a lot easier than you might think, and thanks to me, you too will know how!

1. Connect your Googleicious G1 to the computer via a miniUSB cable.

2. You will see it come up with something along the lines of ‘Android Device attached.’ This is a good thing.

3. Open up ‘My Computer’ and the G1 will be listed here as a removable disk (hopefully). This is the microSD which is inside the G1, and ripe to have some music moved to it!

4. Check on the handset’s ‘Notifications’ pulldown tab from the top of the screen. There should be one new note saying ‘mount USB’ or something along those lines. Do it and then the PC can talk to the G1 properly.

4. Create a folder named ‘Music’ and another named ‘Movies’ for, you guessed it, music and movies!

5. Drag and drop your fave tunes and mp4 encoded movies into the respective folders, and you should be fine!

The Top Ten T-Mobile G1 Tips & Tricks

Product manuals are lame. The last thing we ever want to do when we purchase a fresh new gadget is sit there reading through a manual. Instead, we love to dive right into the gadgetry and start playing with our new toys. So we went through the T-Mobile G1’s horribly boring 48 page user manual to find 10 useful tips that you’ll really want to know.

1. Dial by Voice
The G1 supports voice dialing, and you can easily call a friend by stating their name if you press and hold the Send key on the G1. Bonus Tip: If you want to add in another caller while you’re on the phone, press the Send key while in a call.

2. Use an mp3 as your Ringtone
We’re not big fans of people using mp3s as ringtones, since the music selection is often pretty awful. Nonetheless, we’ll tell you how with the G1. Open Music > Songs > and hold your finger on your song of choice. Next, select “Use as phone ringtone.”

Read on for more.

 

3. Access the Applications Menu from Anywhere
If you’re surfing the Web and want to quickly bring up your music player to switch songs, you can quickly do this by holding down the Home button on the G1. This will quickly bring up your Applications menu. If you want to go directly to the desktop, just press the Home button once.

4. Turn on Wi-Fi
Phones don’t just automatically have Wi-Fi capabilities turned on. To do this, press the Menu key while you’re on the home screen.

Next, click Settings > Wireless Controls and select Wi-Fi
Open Wi-Fi settings to force the G1 to search for available networks.

5. Place your phone in silent mode on the fly
You just walked into a movie theater a few minutes late, and you want to quickly put the phone in silent mode without browsing through menus to do so. Avoid this by toggling silent mode without opening the G1. Simply press and hold the End key to put the phone in silent mode.

6. Add songs to a playlist
When you’re playing co-pilot on a long road trip, the music selection is up to you. Make the song selection smoother by creating a playlist ahead of time. On the G1, open up Music > Songs, and then touch and hold any song that you want to add to a playlist. A menu will pop up, and you’ll want to select Add to playlist.

7. Install a microSD card
You can install a microSD card for adding more storage or using your phone as a portable hard drive (see tip 9), and here’s how. First open the keyboard. Next, look for a small memory card cover below the Send key on the G1. Take your microSD card and slide it forward with the gold teeth facing down.

8. Typing Tips
Insert special character: Press ALT + Spacebar
Delete entire line of text: Press ALT + Delete
Turn on all caps: Press Shift Twice
Move cursor to end or beginning of text: Press Alt while scrolling Trackball
Insert a Tab space: Press Alt + Q
Highlight text: Press Shift and roll Trackball

9. Use your phone as a portable hard drive
The G1 supports high capacity microSD cards, which means you can add up to 16GB of storage to it. That’s as good as carrying a portable hard drive around with you. To treat your G1 as a portable storage device, you need to turn on mass storage.

Plug your G1 into your computer using a USB cable. Navigate to the home screen and select Menu > Settings > SD card & phone storage. Next, select Use for USB storage. Now a folder will pop up on your computer, and you can drag and drop music, videos, or any file of your choice onto the phone.

10. Cut, Copy, and Paste Text
Copying, cutting, and pasting text from Web sites or documents is easy with the G1.
To Cut, press Menu and x.
To Copy, press Menu and c
To Paste, press Menu and v

T-Mobile G1 Updating firmware manually

Generally, T-Mobile provides OTA updates to the OS, but if you have unlocked G1 or not in US/UK, you can still perform firmware update. Here, we will update firmware from RC-19 to RC-29. The firmware version( or Build Number) can be seen at Settings > About phone > Build number

As required with any phone mods, make sure the battery is fully charged or atleast more than 50%.
IMPORTANT : This update is known to work only on US G1 (TC4), don’t try this on your UK G1 (TC5)

Steps ::
1. Download the update zip archive.

2. Rename the archive to update

3. Copy the file to the SD Card.

Note : Connect the phone to desktop and then transfer the file. Don’t take out the SD card and use the card reader.

4. Turn off the phone. Hold the HOME button while turning on the phone. The phone will start in bootloader mode. You should see an exclaimation sign when it starts.

5. Press Alt + L, it will take you to the boot menu,

6. Press Alt + S, to start the update process. It will take a while so be patient.

7. When the update completes, it will prompt you to press HOME + BACK to reboot.

8 . After you reboot, the update will finalize and automatically reboot.

Thats it !

Android G1 Hits The UK

Today marks the start of the first Android powered handset to be released across the United Kingdom. Android fans queued from 7am at T-Mobile’s Oxford Street store in London to be amoungst the first people to get their hands on the G1.

According to a T-Mobile spokesperson, the first queues began to form at 5am outside their flagship London store. It has also been reported that more than 25,000 people had registered their interest online following the US release last week.

T-Mobile UK managing director Jim Hyde said:

It’s set to revolutionise the way we use the internet on our mobiles.

It’s uniquely built for effortless online communication whether you want to email, text or blog, and with access to some groundbreaking applications on Android Market, the possibilities really are endless.

The T-Mobile G1 handset is available free as part of an 18 month contract with monthly payments of £40.

Android SDK Installation Guide(How To Install Android SDK)

Here’s a quick start installation guide to get you up and running with the Google Android Software Development Kit (SDK). This guide will describe how to install the Android SDK and set up your chosen development environments. If you’ haven’t already done so you can download the Android SDK from the link below, then we can get started.

First you’ll need to download the Android SDK source files:
( http://code.google.com/android/download.html )

System Requirements

In order to first use the Android SDK code and tools for development you will of course need a suitable environment develop from.

Currently the following operating systems are supported:

• Windows XP or Vista
• Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later (x86 only)
• Linux (tested on Linux Ubuntu Dapper Drake)

You will also need to install a suitable development environment such as:

• EclipseEclipse 3.2, 3.3 (Europa)
  Android Development Tools plugin (optional)
• Other development environments or IDEsJDK 5 or JDK 6 (JRE alone is not sufficient)
  Not compatible with Gnu Compiler for Java (gcj)
  Apache Ant 1.6.5 or later for Linux and Mac, 1.7 or later for Windows

Installing The Android SDK

First you will need to download the Android SDK pack .zip archive, once downloaded find a suitable installation location on your machine and extract the zipped files.

Please note: This installation location will be referred to as $SDK_ROOT from now on through this tutorial

Alternatively you can add /tools to your root path which will prevent the need to specify the full path to the tools directory along with enabling you to run Android Debug Bridge (adb) along with other command line tools.

To add /tools:

Linux

1. Edit the ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc files looking for a line that sets the PATH variable.
2. Add the full path location to your $SDK_ROOT/tools location for the PATH variable.
3. If no PATH line exists you can add the line by typing the following:
4. export PATH=${PATH}:<path to your $SDK_ROOT/tools>

Mac OS X

1. In the home directory locate the .bash_profile and locating the PATH variable add the location to your $SDK_ROOT/tools folder.

Windows XP / Vista

1. Right click on the My Computer icon and select the properties tab.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. In the new dialog box dowble-click on Path (located under System Variables) and type in the full path location to the tools directory.

The Android SDK also requires a suitable development environment to work in, here’s the installation guides for each of the supported environments.

Android Eclipse Plugin (ADT)

If you choose to use the Eclipse IDE as your Android development environment you will have the opportunity to install and run a plug-in called Android Development Tools. ADT comes with a variety of powerful tools and extensions that will make creating, running and debugging your Android applications much easier and faster.

In order to download and install ADT you will first need to configure an Eclipse remote update, this can achieved via the following steps:

1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install….
2. In the dialog that appears, select Search for new features to install and press Next.
3. Press New Remote Site.
4. In the resulting dialog box, enter a name for the remote site (e.g. Android Plugin) and enter this as its URL: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/.
5. Press OK.
6. You should now see the new site added to the search list (and checked).
7. Press Finish.
8. In the subsequent Search Results dialog box, select the checkbox for Android Plugin > Eclipse Integration > Android Development Tools and press Next.
9. Read the license agreement and then select Accept terms of the license agreement, if appropriate.
10. Press Next.
11. Press Finish.
12. The ADT plugin is not signed; you can accept the installation anyway by pressing Install All.
13. Restart Eclipse.
14. After restart, update your Eclipse preferences to point to the SDK root directory ($SDK_ROOT):
    Select Window > Preferences… to open the Preferences panel. (Mac OS X: Eclipse > Preferences)
    Select Android from the left panel.
    For the SDK Location in the main panel, press Browse... and find the SDK root directory.
15. Press Apply, then OK

Updating the ADT Plugin

To update the ADT plugin to the latest version, follow these steps:

1. Select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install….
2. Select Search for updates of the currently installed features and press Finish.
3. If any update for ADT is available, select and install.

Alternatively:

1. Select Help > Software Updates > Manage Configuration.
2. Navigate down the tree and select Android Development Tools <version>
3. Select Scan for Updates under Available Tasks.

How-To Use Eclipse To Develop Android Applications

In order to begin development on your Android applications you will first need to create a new Android project and then configure a launch configuration. Once completed you will have the capability to write, run and debug your Android creations.

The following sections below will provide you with the necessary instructions to get you up and running with Android provided you have installed the ADT plugin (as previously mentioned) in your Eclipse environment.

Creating A New Android Project

The Android Development Tools plugins kindly provides a Wizard for setting up new Projects which will allow us to create new Eclipse projects relatively quickly for either new or existing code.

Select File > New > Project

1. Select Android > Android Project, and press Next
2. Select the contents for the project:

• Select Create new project in workspace to start a project for new code. Enter the project name, the base package name, the name of a single Activity class to create as a stub .java file, and a name to use for your application.
• Select Create project from existing source to start a project from existing code. Use this option if you want to build and run any of the sample applications included with the SDK. The sample applications are located in the samples/ directory in the SDK. Browse to the directory containing the existing source code and click OK. If the directory contains a valid Android manifest file, the ADT plugin fills in the package, activity, and application names for you.

Press Finish.

Once completed the ADT plugin will go ahead and create the following files and folders as appropriate for the type of project selected:

• src/ A folder that includes your stub .java Activity file.
• res/ A folder for your resources.
• AndroidManifest.xml The manifest for your project.

Creating A Launch Configuration For Eclipse

In order to be able to run and debug your own Eclipse applications you must first create a launch configuration. Simply, a launch config is used to specify which project to launch, which activity to start and the specific emulation options to use.

To create a launch configuration for the application, please see the following steps:
1. Select Run > Open Run Dialog… or Run > Open Debug Dialog… as appropriate.
2. In the project type list on the left, right-click Android Application and select New.
3. Enter a name for your configuration.
4. On the Android tab, browse for the project and Activity to start.
5. On the Emulator tab, set the desired screen and network properties, as well as any other emulator startup options.
6. You can set additional options on the Common tab as desired.
7. Press Apply to save the launch configuration, or press Run or Debug (as appropriate).

Running and Debugging an Eclipse Application

Once both steps 1 and 2 have been completed and your project and launch configs are up and running you will now be able to run or debug your application.

From the Eclipse main menu, select Run > Run or Run > Debug as appropriate. This command will run or debug the most recently selected application.

To set or change the active launch configuration, use the Run configuration manager, which you can access through Run > Open Run Dialog… or Run > Open Debug Dialog….

Running or debugging the application will trigger the following actions:

• Starts the emulator, if it is not already running.
• Compile the project, if there have been changes since the last build, and installs the application on the emulator.
• Run starts the application.
• Debug starts the application in “Wait for debugger” mode, then opens the Debug perspective and attaches the Eclipse Java debugger to the application.

Developing Android Applications with Other IDEs and Tools

Although it is recommended you use Eclipse with the Android plugin to develop your applications, the SDK also provides tools which will enable you to develop with other IDE’s including intelliJ (alternatively you could just use Eclipse without the plugin).

Creating an Android Project

Bundled with the Android SDK is a program called activityCreatory. activityCreator will generate a number of ‘stub’ files for your chosen project alongside a build file. This can be used to either create an Android project for new code or from existing code.

For Linux and Mac users the Android SDK provides a Python script called activityCreator.py, with Windows users receiving a btach script called activityCreator.bat. The program is used in the same way regardless of operating system.

In order to run activityCreator and create an Android project, follow these steps:

1. In the command line, change to the tools/ directory of the SDK and create a new directory for your project files. If you are creating a project from existing code, change to the root folder of your application instead.
2. Run activityCreator. In the command, you must specify a fully-qualified class name as an argument. If you are creating a project for new code, the class represents the name of a stub class that the script will create. If you are creating a project from existing code, you must specify the name of one Activity class in the package. Command options for the script include:

–out <folder> which sets the output directory. By default, the output directory is the current directory. If you created a new directory for your project files, use this option to point to it.

–ide intellij, which generates IntelliJ IDEA project files in the newly created project
Here’s an example:

/android_linux_sdk/tools$ ./activityCreator.py –out myproject your.package.name.ActivityName
package: your.package.name
out_dir: myproject
activity_name: ActivityName
~/android_linux_sdk/tools$

The activityCreator script generates the following files and directories (but will not overwrite existing ones):

• AndroidManifest.xml The application manifest file, synced to the specified Activity class for the project.
• build.xml An Ant file that you can use to build/package the application.
• src/your/package/name/ActivityName.java The Activity class you specified on input.
• your_activity.iml, your_activity.ipr, your_activity.iws [only with the -ide intelliJ flag] intelliJ project files.
• res/ A directory to hold resources.
• src/ The source directory.
• bin/ The output directory for the build script.

Once complete you will now be able to move your folder wherever you choose for development but you’ll need to bear in mind then you will need to use the adb program in the tools folder in order to send the files to the emulator.

How-To Build An Android Application

Here’s how to use the Ant build.xml file generated by activityCreator to build your application.

1. If you don’t have it, you can obtain Ant from the Apache Ant home page. Install it and make sure it is on your executable path.
2. Before calling Ant, you need to declare the JAVA_HOME environment variable to specify the path to where the JDK is installed.Note: When installing JDK on Windows, the default is to install in the “Program Files” directory. This location will cause ant to fail, because of the space. To fix the problem, you can specify the JAVA_HOME variable like this: set JAVA_HOME=c:\Prora~1\Java\. The easiest solution, however, is to install JDK in a non-space directory, for example: c:\java\jdk1.6.0_02.
3. If you have not done so already, follow the instructions for Creating a New Project above to set up the project.
4. You can now run the Ant build file by simply typing ant in the same folder as the build.xml file for your project. Each time you change a source file or resource, you should run ant again and it will package up the latest version of the application for you to deploy.

How-To Run An Android Application

In order to run a compiled application you will first need to upload the .apk file to the /data/app/ directory in the emulator using the adb tool:

1. Start the emulator (run $SDK_HOME/tools/emulator from the command line)
2. On the emulator, navigate to the home screen (it is best not to have that application running when you reinstall it on the emulator; press the Home key to navigate away from that application).
3. Run adb install myproject/bin/<appname>.apk to upload the executable. So, for example, to install the Lunar Lander sample, navigate in the command line to $SDK_ROOT/sample/LunarLander and type ../../tools/adb install bin/LunarLander.apk
4. In the emulator, open the list of available applications, and scroll down to select and start your application.

Please Note: When installing an activity for the first time you may need to restart the emulator engine in order for the activity to show up in the application launcher or before any other application can call. This is usually down to the fact that the package manager normally only examines manifests completely on emulator start-up.

How-To Attach a Debugger to Your Application

The following section details how to display debug information directly onto the screen (for example CPU usage). It also shows you how to hook up your IDE to debug running applications on the emulator.

The Eclipse plugin automatically attaches a debugger but you can configure other IDE’s to wait on a debugging port by doing the following:

Start the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS) tool , which acts as a port forwarding service between your IDE and the emulator.

1. Set optional debugging configurations on your emulator, such as blocking application startup for an activity until a debugger is attached. Note that many of these debugging options can be used without DDMS, such as displaying CPU usage or screen refresh rate on the emulator.
2. Configure your IDE to attach to port 8700 for debugging. We’ve included information higher up on how to set up Eclipse to debug your project.

How-To Configure Your IDE To Attach To The Debugging Port

DDMS will automatically assign a specific debugging port for every virtual machine that it detects on the emulator. You must either attach your IDE to that port, or use a default port 8700 to connect to whatever application is currently selected on the list of discovered virtual machines.

Ideally your IDE will attach to the application running on the emulator, showing its threads and allowing you to suspend them, inspect them, or set breakpoints. If you choose to “Wait for debugger” in the Development settings panel, this will cause the application to run when Eclipse connects therefore you will need to set any breakpoints you want before connecting. If you change the application being debugged or the “Wait for debugger” then the system will kill the selected currently running application.

This can be handy if your application is in a bad state, you can simply go to the settings and toggle the checkbox to kill it.

Debugging Android

Google Android has a fairly extensive set of tools to help you debug your programs:

• DDMS – A graphical program that supports port forwarding (so you can set up breakpoints in your code in your IDE), screen captures on the emulator, thread and stack information, and many other features. You can also run logcat to retrieve your Log messages. See the linked topic for more information.
• logcat – Dumps a log of system messages. The messages include a stack trace when the emulator throws an error, as well as Log messages. To run logcat, see the linked topic. …
  I/MemoryDealer( 763): MemoryDealer (this=0×54bda0): Creating 2621440 bytes heap at 0×438db000
  I/Logger( 1858): getView() requesting item number 0
  I/Logger( 1858): getView() requesting item number 1
  I/Logger( 1858): getView() requesting item number 2
  D/ActivityManager( 763): Stopping: HistoryRecord{409dbb20 com.google.android.home.AllApps}
  …

• Android Log- A logging class to print out messages to a log file on the emulator. You can read messages in real time if you run logcat on DDMS (covered next). Add a few logging method calls to your code.To use the Log class, you just call Log.v() (verbose), Log.d() (debug), Log.i() (information), Log.w() (warning) or Log.e (error) depending on the importance you wish to assign the log message.
  Log.i(”MyActivity”, “MyClass.getView() — Requesting item number ” + position) You can use logcat to read these messages
• Traceview – Android can save a log of method calls and times to a logging file that you can view in a graphical reader called Traceview. See the linked topic for more information.
• Eclipse plugin – The Eclipse Android plugin incorporates a number of these tools (ADB, DDMS, logcat output, and other functionality). See the linked topic for more information.Debug and Test Device Settings – Android exposes several settings that expose useful information such as CPU usage and frame rate.

Debug and Test Settings on the Device

Android enables you to set a number of options that will make it far easier to test and debug your applications.

To get to the development settings page on the emulator simply go to Dev Tools > Development Settings. This will in turn open up the development settings page with the following options (among others):

• Debug app Selects the application that will be debugged. You do not need to set this to attach a debugger, but setting this value has two effects:

It will prevent Android from throwing an error if you pause on a breakpoint for a long time while debugging.

It will enable you to select the Wait for Debugger option to pause application startup until your debugger attaches (described next).

• Wait for debugger Blocks the selected application from loading until a debugger attaches. This way you can set a breakpoint in onCreate(), which is important to debug the startup process of an Activity. When you change this option, any currently running instances of the selected application will be killed. In order to check this box, you must have selected a debug application as described in the previous option. You can do the same thing by adding waitForDebugger() to your code.
• Immediately destroy activities Tells the system to destroy an activity as soon as it is stopped (as if Android had to reclaim memory). This is very useful for testing the onFreeze(Bundle) / onCreate(android.os.Bundle) code path, which would otherwise be difficult to force. Choosing this option will probably reveal a number of problems in your application due to not saving state.
• Show screen updates Flashes a momentary pink rectangle on any screen sections that are being redrawn. This is very useful for discovering unnecessary screen drawing.
• Show CPU usage Displays CPU meters at the top of the screen, showing how much the CPU is being used. The top red bar shows overall CPU usage, and the green bar underneath it shows the CPU time spent in compositing the screen. Note: You cannot turn this feature off once it is on, without restarting the emulator.
• Show screen FPS Displays the current frame rate. Mostly useful for games to see the overall frame rate they are achieving. Note: You cannot turn this feature off once it is on without restarting the emulator.
• Show background Displays a background pattern when no activity screens are visible. This typically does not happen, but can happen during debugging.

T-Mobile G1 Google Phone Security Update Released

Owners of T-Mobile G1 phones with Google should have received an over the the air update (RC29) to their phones either in text message or automatically. The new version has the browser patch that was missing in RC28.

Developers in the Android community are saying that you can upgrade through downloading a file, unzipping it and loading it on to a microSD. They warn that data can be lost in the process.

Comments suggest that is better to wait for the update to be delivered to your G1 Google phone.

T-Mobile says that they understand that many have downloaded this update and seem to have it working, T-Mobile cannot support you in doing so. If you download and attempt to install this or any other update (regardless whether its from Google or not) to your device, and it is rendered unusable, you are out of luck. Even if we do exchange it, you will be without a device for several days.

The T-Mobile G1 ‘Google Phone’ is a tweaker’s delight

At first glance, the T-Mobile G1 (US$179) doesn’t seem to merit much attention. It looks like just another bland, HTC-manufactured phone. But use the G1–the first phone to run Google’s Android operating system — for 5 minutes, and you’ll start to see why it’s one of the best-designed phones you can buy. Not only is the G1 intuitive to use, but its customization options (via Android) makes it a tweaker’s delight.

Setup

From the start, the G1 offers a different, more intuitive smart-phone experience. At boot-up, the phone displays a cartoon graphic of an android, with an animated finger pointing at the android and instructions to “touch the android to begin.”

The ensuing screens are clearly presented, and walk you through the speedy setup process. You’ll need a Google account, the phone explains, for automatic syncing of your contacts, calendar, and e-mail with your Web-based Google data.

If you don’t already have an account, you can sign up directly from the phone. Otherwise, sign in to link your existing Google account and the phone. After the initial, over-the-air synchronization finished, my Google e-mail and calendar info was available to me on the phone, and the phone was ready for use.

Design

The phone itself has a candybar design with a matte black finish and slightly rubberized plastic back. It’s narrower than its chief rival, Apple’s iPhone, but slightly thicker (the G1 measures 4.6 inches by 2.2 inches by 0.6 inch, and weighs 5.6 ounces). The 3.2-inch capacitive touch-screen display dominates the front face of the phone; the physical buttons on the phone are well chosen and clearly labeled.

The lower fifth of the phone holds an easy-glide trackball (similar to the trackball found on RIM BlackBerry devices) and five buttons: a green talk button to activate the phone itself; a home button to return you to home screen; a back button to move to the previously viewed screen in the browser and throughout the phone; a red end button; and a rectangular, context-sensitive menu button. This last button is conveniently situated beneath the screen (double press the button to quickly release the screen lock; hold it down for a couple of seconds to get a shortcut screen to recently used applications) and directly above the trackball.

A full QWERTY keyboard hides beneath display; when you press the middle left part of the phone, the display smoothly slides up. At the same time, the phone automatically rotates the screen’s orientation from vertical to horizontal; you have to use the horizontal orientation for data entry tasks, as the phone lacks an on-screen keyboard (unlike the Apple iPhone 3G or the RIM BlackBerry Storm).

The roomy backlit keyboard made typing easy, though the buttons felt a bit too flat for my comfort (because the flat buttons butt up against the rim of the phone, pressing the bottom row of buttons was sometimes difficult; the same issue arose with the buttons at the far right). My right thumb had to work harder than my left because, in effect, the keyboard was deeply inset (my thumb had to reach around and over the bottom fifth of the phone to reach it).

The only other physical buttons on the phone are a volume rocker switch on the upper left side, and a dedicated camera shutter button on the right side. A microSD Card slot is hidden on the left of the phone; to access it, you open the screen and press a subtle tab; the card then pops out of the side (warning: you’ll need fingernails to get it to pop out easily). T-Mobile includes a 1GB card; the device has been tested with up to 8GB microSD Cards, and should support 16GB cards when available.

The rear cover pops off to reveal the unit’s battery and SIM card. Because (like other HTC-designed handsets) the phone lacks a standard dedicated headphone jack, you have to use the included wired stereo headset, which plugs into the proprietary jack at the phone’s base–the same jack that the charger plugs into. T-Mobile plans to offer a converter at extra cost, but the dongle approach seems as bothersome and inelegant as the original Apple iPhone’s nonstandard headphone jack was. It’s too bad, because the phone is certainly a capable media player.

Phone Use

The phone feels good in the hand, and it sounded great when I tested it. I received both 3G and EDGE network coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area; audio was clear, with no background noise or hiss.

In the PC World Test Center, the battery lasted for 5 hours, 51 minutes of continuous talk time–23 minutes longer than the iPhone 3G. In my hands-on use, the battery drained a bit faster than I had expected, though: After an hour of use (including phone calls, and music and application downloads), the battery had drained by 31 percent.

The Dialer application is simple to use. The on-screen buttons are well-spaced, and I had no difficulty using the app one-handed. Unlike with the iPhone 3G, I didn’t accidentally trigger buttons by running my finger over the screen. I particularly liked the streamlined process for entering contact data, and the freedom I had to customize a contact’s info to match the fields I wanted to fill. The Voice Dialer worked well when I tried it in a quiet environment.

Hardware and Software Integration: As with Apple’s iPhone and its software, the integration of the G1’s hardware with the Android software is crucial. Here, both the phone and Android shine: Thanks to its trackball and its slide-and-glide gesture-capable touch screen, the G1 had particularly intuitive and smooth ergonomics. Displays behaved as my fingers seemed to expect them to–except that I couldn’t swipe left-to-right to scroll through pictures in my photo library, as I could with an iPhone 3G. The touch screen was usually highly responsive, but sometimes when I’d touch a hypertext link in the browser, I had to press twice for it to take. I liked being able to use my finger to drag open the Notifications status to see additional details about incoming text, instant, voice, and e-mail messages; and calendar events.

As the first Android device, the G1 teems with potential, and exploring the new interface is fun. Google’s own clean, simple Web design has clearly informed much of Android’s interface–and how you interact with the applications. You can tweak and customize everything, either through the deep and varied Settings options or through suitable apps.

The opening home screen consists of a myFaves icon at the upper left, an analog clock icon in the middle, and four primary applications: Dialer (also known as the phone), contacts, browser, and maps. Hold your finger down on an app, and the phone will vibrate once and release the icon so that you can move it to another spot on the screen.

Swipe your finger to the right, and the wallpaper continues onto a second home screen, with a Google search bar permanently fixed at its top. Press or drag the tab at the bottom of the screen (in vertical orientation; in horizontal orientation, the tab shows at right) to reveal the other applications. The icons, arrayed in rows of four, will include all of your applications. Apps are arranged alphabetically; the icons are smaller and slightly less distinctive than on the Apple iPhone, but they’re comparable to what you’d see on a Palm OS or BlackBerry OS device. Hold your finger down on an icon to duplicate the icon on the home screen.

The phone has both assisted GPS and GPS. The Google Maps app built-in uses both, but in my casual tests in San Francisco, it didn’t exhibit the same level of accuracy in picking up my location as an iPhone 3G’s Google Maps app did.

At launch, the G1 doesn’t support the stereo Bluetooth profile, according to T-Mobile; however, the phone may support stereo Bluetooth at some future time.

Applications: The phone comes with a number of apps preinstalled–and you can add tons more via the Android Market. The versatile IM lets you configure instant messaging with AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. Because Android permits multitasking–and no app actually closes–you can receive IMs after you’ve left the IM app to browse the Web, for example. (With the iPhone, you won’t get your messages if you leave the IM app, and you have to log in again each time.)

Mail from Gmail gets its own icon, but you can set up other POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts as well, in just a couple of steps (the software automatically configures the server settings). The calendar syncs with your Google Calendar. I had no trouble viewing the various calendar entries I’m privy to, or adding an entry to my calendar, but I couldn’t add an entry to other Google Calendars that I have rights to. And bizarrely, Android has no Google Docs support at launch; the only way you can access Google Docs is through the Web browser–a bit of a pain. You can view Microsoft Word and Excel documents through Gmail, but you can’t save and view these docs through the Web browser. Similarly, you can open and read PDF files received through Gmail.

The Web browser handled much of what I threw at it, but it balked at some tasks (for example, it lacks in-browser Flash support). I missed having discrete forward and backward controls (you can go back only by clicking the universal hardware back button) and an option for offline viewing (as on a Palm OS-based Treo), but adding and retrieving bookmarks was simple.

Multimedia

The Amazon MP3 app is a useful alternative to iTunes, and music downloaded quickly and easily. I could queue up the DRM-free tracks for download, which occurred in the background as I did other things with the phone. Unfortunately, the selection is less extensive than the one on iTunes.

The music player application is easy to navigate, and great for finding and playing back music. Music sounded okay when piped through the built-in speaker (on a par with the iPhone 3G’s speaker). But the lack of a standard headphone jack limits the G1’s potential as a music player.

The camera app is a big disappointment. Though the device has a 3-megapixel camera, it lacks a flash, a zoom, and any controls for adjust image quality, white balance, or the like. There’s no camcorder, either, though T-Mobile says that the imaging sensor can capture video if someone writes a video capture app and offers it on the Android Market.

Final Analysis

T-Mobile’s Android-based G1 isn’t especially sexy or eye-catching, but it does a lot of things right. It’s a strong first-generation Android device, but the absence of a standard headphone jack, a video camera, and Google Docs (and support for Word and Excel) at launch are notable detractions. Still, I would recommend this versatile phone over countless other smart-phones; Android’s intuitive ease-of-use raises this phone above most Windows Mobile- and BlackBerry-based devices.

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