It is done. Google Earth for Android has been published. I just ran it on my Nexus One and it seems to work fine. Very smoothly, nice 3D graphics and all the layers in there with your favorite restaurants. Zooming in and out as well as panning in the 3D world works totally fine. Besides that it is not doing much, but it shows your current location on the earth, of course. Still, well done Google!
Check it out here:
Though the Nexus One does not seem to be a best-seller, it seems it found its way into Linus Torvalds’ hands. You know, the “Finnish software engineer [who is] best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel and git revision control system” (Quote from wikipedia).
I already wrote some stuff about the Nexus One and even about unboxing my device. Now Linus has one too and guess what he wants to use it for? He didn’t get it for the phone function or messaging because that would be too distracting during work. Well, he is right. It seems his favorite is “Google Navigation”; perhaps I should check that out too, some day?
Image source: wikipedia.org
IMHO, this is quite chic. I have to say that I am kind of surprised by the design. While the OS itself is pretty much the same on all devices; we distinguish Android phones more by their design and usability. Respectively, reviews say that the phone feels very fast – faster than all other Android phones on the market. Well, the huge processor must be there for something. But despite that the Nexus One just looks cool. I think I have to get one for “testing purposes” … 
No seriously, this is one of the pretty phones I have seen so far. Not just Android phones, I am talking about all smartphones you can compare the Nexus with. Well, the iPhone still looks great and I am actually loving the design of the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 as well.
The best thing is that you can get it unlocked without any SIM card limitation for just US$529 directly from Google. That is exactly what the developer community needs. A quasi standard phone for cheap which can be used for developing anywhere. They tried that already with the G1 for Developers but that didn’t work that well. For example, I was not able to order one because they could not ship to my country or whatever. Anyway, the Nexus One seems to be great and it will kick off the Android developer community as we get a great phone for less money!
Technical Specs
Power and battery
Processor
Operating system
Capacity
Location
Size and weight
Display
Camera & Flash
Cellular & Wireless
While the technical specs are interesting but not that astonishing let’s take a closer look to the supported formats:
Image
Video
Audio encoders
Audio decoders
Well, not much new in here too as those formats are supported by Android already. Still, I like the phone though. Well done Google!
More about the Google Nexus One:
I just read that Google plans to sell its own Android phone in two versions:
This brought up some memories on how BlackBerry devices are distributed. For those of you who don’t know: BlackBerry devices from Canada’s biggest and S&P 500’s fastest growing company Research In Motion are only available through Wireless Network Carriers; mostly branded. It is impossible to get such devices without branding (unless you are a BlackBerry Alliance partner and get an internal device for testing).
For Google it is a good move to have their device at network carrier’s shelfs because that is where customers get their phones mostly. I guess the mainstream user (not you and me) doesn’t really care much about what phone it is and who made. The phone user’s decision is usually based on
Obviously user’s of Apple’s iPhone have their preferences sorted differently. Well, the above sorting is mine, and I have to say: even though the iPhone looks cool and is supposed to be “hip”; and the Android phones are kind of geeky (from a technological point of view); I am still using a BlackBerry as my main device. In fact, as I am on the road right now, I am using two!
People now might say: “Why the f*** is that? You are running an Android blog man!” Well, I have to say: Android is not there where I would like to see it at – yet. I really like the Android approach of Android OS and I truly believe it will have a bright future for all of us, but there is still some way to go. The gap to Google’s competitors gets closer and closer but it is still there. Fortunately, our business is such a fast growing one that our world order could be upside down next year.
I am really excited about the mobile future; this includes but is not limited to Android. What devices are you using?
More about this on Two Google Phones Coming in January? (Reuters via internetnews.com)
The Android Market just took the leap and jumped above the count of 20,000 applications. While the iPhone’s iTunes App Store is still ahead with about 100,000 applications, I have to say respect guys!
Hammering out 20,000 applications in such a short time without the devices and market power (like Apple has for example) is not that easy. I know there are still a lot of ideas in your heads (as in mine) which just want to be brought to paper life. So get started! Open your Eclipse, hack some lines into it, press compile, test, sign and upload it to the Android Market. No matter if free or paid, every new app brings more variety, more diversity and more attraction to the Android Market, every Android phone and therefore it makes the whole platform more attractive to users all around the world.
Get more about this on internetnews.com
Well, in two words: you can’t! 
Everyone knows that, but there is some sort of a workaround to fuzz. Get a Google Checkout Merchant account. Yes, Google Checkout only allows a couple of countries and if you don’t come from one of these you cannot get such an account.
Especially a lot of our developer buddies are not located in “the west” and come from “exotic” countries like the Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Belarus, Qatar, Brasil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina, and so on. You get the idea. I have read forum entries and blog articles of so many such great developers who have awesome apps but can’t get them sold on Android Market.
Here comes the trick: Fortunately, one of the supported countries is the United Kingdom. It is very easy to setup a Limited company in the U.K. as they have a very liberal law on this and every entity (individual or company) can incorporate a Limited company; no matter which nationality. There are lots of agents that provide an easy company setup (mostly even just online) which in the end they do online at the U.K. Companies House as well. A U.K. Limited company also allows to have the principal bank account in your local country. In that way you can withdraw the cash on your Google Checkout account to your local bank account (may be even through an intermediate bank).
All of this of course, costs quite some fees and needs time to be set up. However, it is better selling apps and get 80% out of it than not selling any and get 0%.
FYI: A U.K. Limited company setup might set you back US$1,000 in setup fees; a bank account setup may be US$250; yearly company maintenance costs might come up to US$500 per annum.
So find your agent now and get it going! It worked for me. In the meanwhile, learn more about How to earn money with your application through the Android Market.
P.S.: Let us know how you got it! Leave a comment.
Motorola is releasing this beaty very soon! Somehow it reminds me very much of the Google G1. A bit sharper edges and stuff but that seems to be “in” right now. Therefore, most specs are the same with one highlight: the screen resolution will be 854 x 480 pixels. That sounds pretty nice to me! Moreover, Motorola put a capacitive 3.7 inch display in there which means the display definitely supports multi-touch. Micro-SD, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, 5 MP auto-focus camera with double-flash.
The US CDMA model will be available for $200 with a 2-year contract on Verizon. Check out the Droid does website.
By the way, I found that note on Golem.
Hi folks,
as you might have already mentioned, I have not published an article for quite a while. I also haven’t published a proper developement article for even a longer while. Honestly, I really want to change this, but I got one problem: I am lacking in time. I don’t see much more space in future but I will definitely try to squeeze in more time for this blog. I really like the Android platform and basically the whole idea it. It is worth and fun to write about it!
Anyway, what I actually wanted to ask you guys: Is anyone interested in sharing simple code samples with the community?
(Example: DialANumber)
What I can see from the day-to-day increasing access to this site is, there are definitely lots of people interested in this blog and its content. This means I did something right with my previous articles
So if there is someone out there who would like to share his / her experience with the Android platform please drop a comment below this article. I am sure we can make the world better, and bring useful information to the Android community.
Android Phone from Huawei
About a week ago Huawei announced an Android powered phone at the Mobile World Congress ‘09. Huawei is not really known outside of China except as a mobile infrastructure provider. Though many people outside the People’s Republic do not know that brand, everyone in China knows it. Being the biggest mobile phone market (more that 400 mio. mobile subscribers) speaks for itself. The phone itself looks like a direct iPhone copy but with a good OS
Android on ASUS Eee PC
Besides the Chinese dudes I just read from other (free) Chinese dudes in Taiwan over at ASUS. They are working on a custom version of Android to run it on their Eee PCs which come with Windows XP right now. Google’s Carolyn Penner said that Android hasn’t been designed for phone exclusively. It is rather been intended to run on any kind of mobile device – this would include the Eee PC as well. Especially on such extreme mobile device it is quite important to use as less resources as possible. Microsoft’s Windows – no matter if it is XP, Vista or even WM Mobile – was never really fast.
HTC Magic w/o SIM Lock
I just found: HTC confirmed that the Vodafone / HTC Magic will not come with a SIM Lock like the T-Mobile G1. This is good news!
If you want to publish an Android application you first need to write it
The result of your programming will be an .APK file which is the actual program binary of your application. However, the .APK file your compiler creates can only be used with the emulator on your desktop PC or Mac. You cannot use the same .APK file to install and run your app on your Android phone (like the G1, Kogan Agora, or else).
Why is that? Well, Google wants to protect its phone users from installing and running fraudulent software on their devices. Therefore, each and every application needs to be signed with a valid certificate that ensures where the application comes from. Meaning: the developer (you!) signs the application with his/her certificate to make sure it is always traceable where the application comes from. There are a bunch of more reasons to this so lets check out what Google is saying about this topic:
The important points to understand about signing Android applications are:
- All applications must be signed. The system will not install an application that is not signed.
- You can use self-signed certificates to sign your applications. No certificate authority is needed.
- When you are ready to publish your application, you must sign it with a suitable private key. You can not publish an application that is signed with the default key generated by the SDK tools.
- The system tests a signer certificate’s expiration date only at install time. If an application’s signer certificate expires after the application is installed, the application will continue to function normally.
- You can use standard tools — Keytool and Jarsigner — to generate keys and sign your application .apk files.
3 Easy Steps for getting what you need to sign Applications
(this needs to be done once only)
Once you installed a Java SDK you can use the default keytool application to create your own keystore. A Java SDK is installed by default on Mac OS X machines and can also be installated additionally on your Windows PC or Linux machine. If you have Java SDK running on your system just go to any prompt and type in the following:
Windows: START»Command
$ keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-release-key.keystore -alias alias_name -keyalg RSA -validity 10000
Windows: Mac: Terminal
$ keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-release-key.keystore -alias alias_name -keyalg RSA -validity 10000
You will be asked to enter a password for your keystore. Choose it wisely and remember it! You will need it every time you sign an APK file. Follow the instructions and finalize the creation of your keystore.
/Users/YOUR_NAME/Documents/workspace/DialANumber. However, as mentioned before a more global approach might make so I copied the keystore to the directory:
/Users/YOUR_NAME/Documents/workspace/androidkeys
So we got our keystore prepared for signing now.
Download: Signing Script for Easy .APK Signing
Once you have done this we are ready for signing our application!
3 Easy Steps for getting your Application signed
(this needs to be done each time you build a binary that is going to be published)
Right click your Android project in Eclipse and select Android Tools » Export Unsigned Application Package.... Follow the instructions and remember the directory your placed the .APK file at. E.g. cd /Users/YOUR_NAME/Documents/workspace/DialANumber/deploy/
cd /Users/YOUR_NAME/Documents/workspace/androidkeys/
./sign-mac-example.sh ../DialANumber/deploy/DialANumber.apk
Enter passphrase:
After you entered your passphrase the application should be signed.
You can now upload your app to your server and install it on an Android phone or you can even publish it on the Android Market!
Sources:
P.S.: The complete signing process (the part you need to do each time you sign an app) could be integrated better into Eclipse. I hope Google improves this in future. They could add an entry like Android Tools » Export Signed Application Package... so the developer just needs to enter the passphrase in a GUI dialog. This would make everyone’s life much easier. Perhaps a bored Eclipse PlugIn developer might want to write a plugin for this? It would make many people happy I guess
