Issue #156

June 7th, 2015

Articles & Tutorials

 
link image   Android Design Support Library (android-developers.blogspot.com)

With a little help from the new Android Design Support Library, Google is bringing a number of important material design components to all developers and to all Android 2.1 or higher devices.

 
Google I/O Summary: What’s new in Android Development Tools (robovm.com)

The guys over at RoboVM have written a nice wrap up of what's new in Android Development Tools.

 
link image   Google Cloud Test Lab (developers.google.com)

Google Cloud Test Lab is an instant device testing closet, with automated reports and scaling support. Tests will run on emulators and real hardware. This is a huge step forward in getting more quality to Android apps.

 
Design Support Library Part I: Navigation View (antonioleiva.com)

In this article, Antonio Leiva takes an in-depth look at the Navigation View

 
Android 'M' Permissions and Legacy Applications (newcircle.com)

Google announced that the upcoming Android 'M' release will include a runtime permissions system. Dave Smith provides some additional clarity to what has been set forth so far.

 
Android M "App Links" implementation in depth (chris.orr.me.uk)

At Google I/O 2015, a new feature was announced that allows "app developers to associate an app with a web domain they own." Here's a look at how to do that.

 
How to add ink ripple touch feedback to an image (plus.google.com)

Nick Butcher shares a couple approaches on how to add ink ripple touch feedback to an image without having to add additional views to your hierarchy which would hurt performance or memory use.

 
New annotation for testing (plus.google.com)

With the latest support library release 22.2.0, we added an @VisibleForTesting annotation to support-annotations. This annotation denotes that a class, method or field has its visibility relaxed, so that it is more widely visible than otherwise necessary to make your code more testable

 
Manual Layout Transitions – Part 4 (blog.stylingandroid.com)

In this fourth article on Layout Transitions, Mark Allison looks at removing the restriction from the sample app that any Views in a starting layout must have corresponding Views in the destination layout.

 
Introduction to Android reference counting mechanism (pierrchen.blogspot.com)

Anyone working on the Android native framework can't get around several utility classes that are used almost everywhere by the native C++ code. sp, or StrongPointer, is one of them.

 

Sponsored

 
link image   Still reporting bugs the old way? Time to change! (www.instabug.com)

Stuck with an inbox full of bug reports without context? Wasting too much time logging bugs manually? Instabug captures a screenshot of the app, allowing testers to annotate it and sends all details you need; device, OS, logs and tracks users' steps. Integrate Instabug SDK with one line of code!

 
link image   The Most Powerful, Lightweight NDK Crash Reporting (try.crashlytics.com)

To fix native crashes, you need a solution that not only gives you total visibility into your app’s performance but is also dead simple to integrate. Trusted by Path, Rdio and other top apps on Google Play, we offer unlimited developer seats at no cost. Enjoy it on us!

 
link image   Meet 2,000+ companies in one week! (hired.com)

Whether you're looking for a new job or just testing the water, Hired is there for you. In 1 week you'll get 5+ offers from top tech companies around the US and UK. Want to learn more? Check out Hired today!

 

Design

 
link image   Redesigning Chrome Android (medium.com)

How do you design a UI that is supposed to be as minimal and forgettable as possible while demonstrating our new visual direction without ever overpowering the content that we are here to serve?

 
Material Design: Why the Floating Action Button is bad UX design (medium.com)

While FABs seem to provide good UX in ideal conditions, in actual practice, widespread adoption of FABs might be detrimental to the overall UX of the app. Here are some reasons why.

 

Jobs

 
Android Engineer (Washington, DC (remote accepted))

LivingSocial is looking for an experienced Android Engineer to join our talented team that wants the opportunity to make a difference and deliver value on a regular basis.

 
Android Developer @ ustwo (London)

We’re looking for a Senior Android Developer with the skills and passion to help us build innovative digital products for a wide range of clients, and also our own products and services. We value collaboration and happiness to enable our teams to deliver products that make a real difference.

 

Libraries & Code

 
Bottomsheet (github.com)

BottomSheet is an Android component which presents a dismissible view from the bottom of the screen. BottomSheet can be a useful replacement for dialogs and menus but can hold any view so the use cases are endless.

 
EventBus 3 beta announced at droidcon (androiddevblog.com)

EventBus 3 beta, with its new annotation based API, is available on Maven central.

 

Tools

 
Idea-live-templates (github.com)

A collection of useful live templates that you can use within your AndroidStudio or IntelliJ IDEA installation.

 
Support Annotations (tools.android.com)

The Android Support Annotations library documentation has been updated with all the latest annotations.

 

Videos

 
Introduction to Voice Interaction API (www.youtube.com)

Whether your app uses system or custom voice actions (https://g.co/VoiceActions), there might be times when the app would like to ask the user a follow-up question before performing the action.

 

Specials

 
Survey: Which tools do you use? (vmob.me)

The Developer Economics research program tracks developer sentiment across platforms, revenues, apps, tools, APIs, segments and regions. This is the most ambitious developer survey to date, spanning across mobile, IoT, desktop and Cloud. The key insights from the survey will be given back to the community as a free download in late July.

 
link image   AnDevCon Boston, July 29-31 (www.andevcon.com)

AnDevCon, July 29-31 in Boston, is the world's top Android apps event. Free expo. Use code ANDROID for $200 discount.