Apps that work together

Android applications can easily be linked together using intents. One example of this involves Shazam, MySpace, and the Amazon MP3 Store. Once Shazam has identified a song, you can also search for the artist's official MySpace profile page or buy the song via via the Amazon MP3 app. Here, the three developers behind these apps talk about how they accomplished this:

To hear more about how the MySpace app for Android was built and lessons learned, watch Matt Kanninen:

http://www.youtube.com/p/3A4E4D83B9614552

Tomasz Zawada of Shazam also talks about his opinions on the Android platform and has some tips for developers building Android apps:

http://www.youtube.com/p/A131466774A03834

These and the other Android app developer videos can be found here.

Behind the apps: Amazed

This week's developer video features Jason Tomlinson of Hands-On Mobile. He wrote Amazed, an application open sourced in the apps-for-android project. Things Jason mentions in the videos include:

• Amazed was built primarily to get familiar with the accelerometer. This helped him in his work on Guitar Hero® World Tour Mobile for Android.


• Using traceview to track down which methods take the most CPU cycles.

http://www.youtube.com/p/CA02FE9FE7C73ADC

This and other Android developer videos can be found here.

Behind the apps: Amazon and imeem

Last week we introduced a couple Android developers who shared how they built their Android apps and gave their insight into Android app development. This week, we have videos of two developers who've built music-related apps.

The first is of Allan Hsu—he wrote imeem's Android app. A couple of things he mentions in his videos:

• Using SQLite databases and regular expressions
  


• Completing the app, including rewriting many of their Activities and web service API calls, in just 6 weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/p/BA628CBDCC757924

The second video features Casey Langen—he wrote the Amazon MP3 for Android app. Things he mentions in the videos include:

• Using Apache HTTPClient to download data from their servers. Also used ListView in all activities and the MediaPlayer for song previews.


• Developers new to Android should get familiar with ViewGroups and how they're implemented.

http://www.youtube.com/p/4B06E93EB35CAF13

Check out other Android developer videos here: Android App Developers.

The stories behind the apps

As we mentioned yesterday, the Android Market is now open for developers to upload their applications. I'm pretty excited because Market, along with the availability of the first Android-powered phone and the Android 1.0 SDK, puts the basic pieces of the Android platform into place for developers to create and distribute their apps.

To help developers better understand what's available to them, we've collected stories from some Android application developers. In the videos, you'll hear them talk about how they built their apps, their takes on the Android platform, and also some tips they want to share with other developers. I think they have a lot of insight to share about Android application development, so I hope you'll find these videos useful.

Here are the first two developers in this series:

Jeff Sharkey is an ADC finalist—he built CompareEverywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/p/244B4A3471F3FFB9

Jacob Abrams is from Glu Mobile and helped to build their first Android app, Bonsai Blast.

http://www.youtube.com/p/794E752F51BB4320

Keep an eye on this blog, our YouTube channel, or the playlist for this series for more of these videos in the coming weeks.

Android Market: a user-driven content distribution system

When we talk to developers, a common topic is the challenge of getting applications in the hands of users. That's why today I'm happy to share early details of Android Market—an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices. The concept is simple: leverage Google's expertise in infrastructure, search and relevance to connect users with content created by developers like you.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. We chose the term "market" rather than "store" because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.

I also wanted to share some early details to help with planning your efforts so that you can be ready as our partners release the first Android-powered handsets. Developers can expect the first handsets to be enabled with a beta version of Android Market. Some decisions are still being made, but at a minimum you can expect support for free (unpaid) applications. Soon after launch an update will be provided that supports download of paid content and more features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, analytics, etc. Below are some screenshots that illustrate some of the security features and workflow.

With the addition of a marketplace, the Android ecosystem is becoming even more robust. I am incredibly energized by the support and amazing content I've seen so far. We will share more details as they are available and I look forward to working with many of you in the coming months.