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Continue reading Google details low-level Renderscript API for Honeycomb

Google details low-level Renderscript API for Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Development frameworks don’t make for exciting gadget news, but HP’s Enyo is kind of a big deal. It’s the little dealie that allows new webOS apps to stretch between vastly disparate screen resolutions — say, tablet and phone — and still work just fine, and since it’s based completely on web technologies, they can also run in a PC browser with no formal emulator or OS install required. While dev team lead Matthew McNulty pitched the browser functionality as a debugging boon, we’re starting to wonder if that’s how HP could bring webOS to PCs to start — rather than a dual-boot or a UI layer, it could simply make your favorite apps available in a web store. Sound like fun? HP says you can download the basic package right now for free if you’re a member of the webOS developer early access program, and start cracking on some apps of your very own. We’ll have video of an Enyo-powered app on PC in just a tad, so keep your eyes glued to this post.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading webOS Enyo framework free to developers today, brings pixel density agnostic apps to phones, tablets and PC (video)

webOS Enyo framework free to developers today, brings pixel density agnostic apps to phones, tablets and PC (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following up on its Android event on Wednesday, Google is giving us an in-depth look at Honeycomb’s Fragments API: a tool designed to make developer workflows more fluid. As the name suggests, Fragments are smaller pieces of the larger UI puzzle, allowing you to independently control and reuse certain aspects of an action in their own modular space. These modules, like the panes that came before them, are also meant to make the transition from different screen sizes (tablet to phone, for example) simple and functional. We got a glimpse of Google’s new API in action with a demo of CNN’s new tablet app, and despite its everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic, it looks like an easily navigable interface. While Honeycomb is currently a tablet-only OS, Matias Duarte hinted strongly that it would eventually make it to phones, and indeed, the screenshots of Fragments in use are all suspiciously phone-sized. What’s more, Google intends to bring Fragments to older Android versions through a static library — there’s no timeline, but the plan is to go as far back as Android 1.6. Now that’s Android fragmentation we can get behind.

Google shows off Fragments API for Android 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already heard of some changes that Google’s planning to make to boost app purchases in the Android Market, and it looks like it’s now also undertaking a considerable in-house effort to increase the number of quality apps that are available. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to hire “dozens” of software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and “others who have ideas for mobile apps,” and it’s apparently already shifted some of its current employees to work in this new “apps lab.” As you might expect, that’s being done at least in part to close the so-called “app gap” with Apple, and it looks like the new apps will reach far beyond Google’s usual properties — the WSJ even specifically mentions games as one area they’ll focus on. The apps would also apparently all be free (but possibly ad-supported), and Google is said to be trying to woo developers with its distribution power, noting that it will be able to promote the apps in the Android Market and even have them pre-installed on many phones.

Google said to be hiring ‘dozens’ to boost Android app development originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Apple’s iPad dominated tablet sales in 2010, there may be room for change in 2011. Enthusiasm for Android app development is rising fast in the coding community.

And that means the apps available to Android users is set to grow — fast.

A recent global survey of app developers by research firm IDC shows 74 percent of respondents as “very interested” in developing for upcoming Android OS-running tablets, up from 62 percent three months ago.

The survey, which questioned over 2,200 app developers around the world, cites the surge in new tablet debuts for 2011 as the reasoning for increased developer interest. At CES in January, manufacturers debuted 85 new tablets, the majority of which were running Android.

“My intuition is that Android is picking up that Linux, open-source crowd that feels excited to move from iOS development to an open platform,” Andreas Schobel, CTO of popular Android app developer Catch.com, told Wired.com in an interview. “The way you can weave Android applications together with Intents makes it a very sexy platform, but one that requires a lot more discipline and effort. Like a powerful, yet complicated, science kit.”

And they’ll be cranking out the apps at a breakneck pace. Respondents to the survey plan to develop an average of 6.5 apps in 2011, almost twice as many as last year. Apple’s App Store has over 400,000 apps currently available for download, while the Android Market offers around 200,000 apps.

2010 was Apple’s year to shine in the tablet market. In the company’s recent earnings report, Apple reported 7.33 million iPads sold in the fourth quarter of 2010. We’ve yet to see that type of traction from an Android tablet — Samsung reported sales of 1 million of its Galaxy Tab in December.

And the iPad still leads the tablet pack in terms of developer interest, with 87 percent of respondents expressing interest in it. But developers aren’t necessarily beholden to one specific platform. Those surveyed plan to develop apps for four different devices on average, the big four being the iPhone, iPad, Android phone and Android tablet.

Although the pack seems eager to produce more Android apps in the coming year, developers aren’t without their concerns. About half of the respondents expressed concerns around version fragmentation. Google has been in the habit of pushing two Android updates per year, which means multiple versions of software for developers to configure for multiple platform versions. Handset manufacturers tweaking the firmware for each model of phone can also be hell on a developers’ workload.

It’s the cost of doing business with an open platform like Android. And judging by IDC’s numbers, it’s a cost developers are willing to pay.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

See Also:

• Android Comes of Age at Google Developer Conference
• Android’s Rapid Growth Has Some Developers Worried
• Indie Coder Proves Android Apps Can Make Money, Too
• Google Muscles Android Developer, Offers Olive Branch
• Android Fragmentation Declines, But Older Versions Still Rule …
• Half of All Android Phones Now Sport Android 2.1