In the previous article we explored some of the difference in developing for Google TV compared to the Android phones and tablets that we’ve become accustomed to. In this concluding article in this series, we’ll have a look at some UI & UX considerations that we need to take in to account when designing apps…
Tag: androiddev
Google TV – Part 2
In the previous article we got an overview of Google TV and some of the features which offer developers the potential to create some interesting apps. In this article we’ll look at some of the differences between developing for Google TV compared to the Android phone and tablet devices that we’ve become used to.
Google TV – Part 1
Recently those nice folks at Google sent me a Logitec Revue which implements Google TV. Having played with it for a few weeks here are some initial thoughts about how best to design your UI / UX for this platform.
More Drawables – Part 2
In the previous article we looked at a tiled background pattern. In this article we’ll look at how we can create a panel with a 3D effect border created using drawables.
More Drawables – Part 1
In recent articles on Styling Android I have diverged a little from pure UI and covered some more subtle aspects to improve your UX. In this series we’re going to return to something that was covered in the very first post to Styling Android: Drawables. Previously we have looked at how shape drawables can be…
Memory Cache – Part 4
In the previous part of this series we implemented a simple memory cache based upon WeakReference. It certainly improved performance when we were using the same image multiple times within a short period, but it is easy to predict that our cached images would not survive an intensive operation, such as an Activity transition. Also,…
Memory Cache – Part 3
In the previous part of this series we looked at why caching images may help the performance of our app, so let’s firstly look at a technique for creating a short-lived cache. The items in the cache will only survive until the next GC if they are not strongly referenced, but this can sometimes be…
Memory Cache – Part 2
In the previous article we looked at the theory behind weak references. In this article we’ll look at one use-case where a simple memory cache may speed things up.
Memory Cache – Part 1
Previously on Styling Android we have discussed how important it is to make your app as fast as possible because making your user wait for things to happen is a sure way to drive them away from your app. Also, you have to be quite careful when it comes to using images within your app…
Background Tasks – Part 6
In the previous article we discussed the Android Service architecture and looked at how to properly implement your Service to both behave well and avoid being killed by the OS or a TaskKiller. In this concluding article in this series well look at IntentService and look at ways that we can trigger UI updates from…