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September 1, 2019

Android developer news and features round-up (August 2019)

Hello and welcome to the September 2019 edition of Android Developers Monthly, where we’ll be recapping all of the excitement from the last 30 days.

August 2019 will forever be remembered as the month that Android Q became Android 10, but it’s also the month we got the stable release of Android Studio 3.5, new gestures, and more. You’ll find all the highlights below, along with lots of tutorials and features from Android Authority and the web at large.

Features and news from Android Authority.com

Save 83% on our Android Development for beginners course – You might have heard that we’ve been running a complete beginner course for Android development, run by the venerable Gary Sims himself. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time to act as you’ll be able to grab a massive 83% off if you’re quick. The offer ends soon, so don’t hang about!

Building your Android UI: Everything you need to know about Views – Android UI design largely revolves around arranging different views within activities. This post details all of them and how to use them effectively.

Inside Google’s massive Android rebrand – David Imel explains Google’s decision to rebrand Android. This is undoubtedly a relevant topic for Android devs that want to play nice with the new look and feel. The big shock news? No more sweeties! Android Q is now Android 10. Bummer.

Create a scrollable widget for your Android app – A comprehensive guide to making widgets for your apps. This is a great way to increase functionality and engagement.

How to become an Associate Android Developer, and is it worth it? – Android developers hoping to charge big bucks for their time need to prove they have the skills. Associate Android Developer status is one option for doing this.

Unity certification for developers: is it worth it? – This is another option for Android devs that want to bulk up their resumes, mainly pertaining to game devs specifically.

I want to develop Android apps – What languages should I learn? – This updated posts explains all the different options and routes for learning to code your own Android apps.

Dark theme, Thermal API, and Bubbles: Getting your app ready for Android 10 – Jessica runs over everything you need to do to prepare your app for Android Q AKA Android 10.

I made $50,000 from Android apps and you can too – My personal account of moderate app success. Hopefully there are some useful takeaways for other devs here.

What is ethical hacking? Learn how to hack and earn money – Another money-making avenue for techies and devs!

News and updates from Android Developers Blog

Android Studio 3.5: Project Marble goes into stable – Android Studio has been upgraded again with 3.5 no longer in beta. This isn’t the most exciting of updates on the surface, but brings improved stability, polish, and speed. You can get all of the gory details in this post.

Google releases source code for Google I/O 2019 for Android – As the title suggests, Google is sharing the source code for its Google I/O 2019 app. Seeing as the app comes from Google itself, you just know it’s going to have all those best practices nailed down. So study up!

Gesture Navigation: A Backstory – It turns out that gesture navigation is a somewhat controversial subject! This post explains Google’s reasoning and provides some behind the scenes for interested devs.

Final Beta update, official Android Q coming soon! – Just a few tweaks in the final weeks, mainly involving gesture navigation.

Features, news, and projects from around the web

Unity 2019.3 beta is now available – Game developers take note: the latest version of Unity is now in stable. This brings Asset Pipeline Version 2, updates to physics and graphics, and more. For Android developers though, perhaps the most exciting part is the Unity Runtime Library that will allow them to insert Unity features into their native apps.

Motion Intelligence: Build smarter animations – A post explaining the best ways to implement animations in a modern Android UI.

Better dependency management in Android Studio 3.5 with Gradle buildSrc Versions – One developer shares an open-source project for managing dependencies, which has been fixed with the updated Android Studio 3.5.

Feature Flags – Why you should care – A useful post on using feature flags in your code.

Android 10 will not get a dessert name, Google reveals new branding – XDA-Developers.com takes on the changes to Android’s brand and nomenclature.

August 28, 2019

Sirin Labs Finney mobile phone with cyber security features launched in Singapore, Tech News & Top Stories

SINGAPORE – That mobile phone you whip out to do banking transactions when tapping a public Wi-Fi signal may also be a way in for hackers up to mischief.

Concerns over cyber attacks have prompted technology companies to look at solutions, from simple mobile applications to the use of VPN to encrypt data. But these solutions require users to download apps, which can slow down the functions of the phone.

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August 23, 2019

Android developer news and features round-up (July 2019)

Hello and welcome to the latest Android development round-up! We’re recapping on July which has been an interesting month in a couple of ways. We’re edging ever closer to Android Q’s final form, and we got some new features to play around with. Meanwhile, there’s plenty here for those interested in the business-side of Android dev. Here at Android Authority, we’ve been helping people navigate the gig economy online, while Google has provided a bunch of useful new metrics for devs.

Features and news from Android Authority

Android Q (Updated to Beta 5): Everything developers need to know – We’ve updated out guide to Android Q for developers to reflect the minor changes that beta 5 has brought.

Getting started with the Facebook for Android SDK – This one from Jessica Thornsby explains how to integrate Facebook into your app by using the provided SDK. It’s a great tool for not only increasing engagement, but also discoverability!

Top freelance sites for finding paid work online – If you’re an app developer, then you should read this post! An accessible guide to the likes of UpWork and Freelancer, so you can find paying clients for your hard work.

How to use LinkedIn and land your dream job! – Another tool that is highly relevant to Android devs trying to find work online.

How to enable developer options on your Android device – It’s a tip that most devs will be familiar with, but a useful recap for those who aren’t!

News and updates from Android Developers blog

Android Q Beta 5 update – The big news this month is Beta 5, which Google launched on 10th July. It is now “very close” to the system behaviors we can expect to see in the final version. The changes are slowing down now, but 5 gives us some updates to gestural navigation (such as a new swipe gesture and “peek” behavior).

Capturing Audio in Android Q – Another new feature is the ability to capture audio from different applications in Android Q. This is accessed through AudioPlaybackCapture API and provides such opportunities as game streaming.

Make stronger decisions with new Google Play Console data – Google has unleashed some notable changes to the Google Play Console, including additional data that devs can use to increase performance and reach. New metrics include the likes of returning users and devices, as well as install methods and more.

Kotlin named Breakout Project of the Year at OSCON – Google has been showing a lot of love to Kotlin in recent months, and so it should come as no surprise that it was more than happy to share this news. If you’re not familiar with Kotlin yet, all the signs are saying that it’s probably time to get acquainted.

Android Dev Summit 2019 Registration is Open – As it sounds! Get your applications in quick if you want to be involved.

What’s new for text in Android Q – Android Q will be bringing some new fonts, as well as changes in the way that text is displayed, and typefaces are created. You can now use multiple custom fonts in a single TextView. Get the full scoop at the link!

Features and news from around the web

Preparing your app for Android Q – Another guide to getting ready for the big change!

Firebase Functions: Send Email using Google OAuth2 – Let’s face it, everyone uses Gmail. If you want to encourage people to use email via your app, then Gmail integration is key.

5 Important Lessons from FaceApp – FaceApp is enjoying its time in the spotlight for the second time thanks to its impressive image manipulation. We can learn a lot of business lessons from its meteoric rise – both good and bad!

That’s all the Android Developer news for this month! Check back again next month for more on everything from the world of Android dev.

July 28, 2019

AU to launch special drive for re-evaluation | Visakhapatnam News

Visakhapatnam: Vice-chancellor of Andhra University, Prof PVGD Prasad Reddy said, on Saturday, that the university will launch a special drive in the next 10 days to expedite the re-evaluation process. According to the vice-chancellor, more than 12,000 applications are pending with the university. The applications have been filed over the last nine months.
“The academics dean of the varsity will take care of the re-evaluation process. We have prepared a plan to launch the special drive,” he said.
The university has also decided to launch a mobile application for students who have applied for re-evaluation. “Details pertaining to students will be entered into the app. Every step of the re-evaluation process, including identification of the answer script of the student, the re-evaluation process and the release of results will be displayed on the app. We want to make sure that re-evaluation is completed within 15 days after an application reaches the university,” said Prof Reddy.
In other news, the department of journalism and mass communication of AU has launched a PG diploma programme as an evening course. The head of department, Prof P Boddy Vardhan said that the varsity has already released the admission notification.

July 7, 2019

Mozilla teases launch of Apple News+ competitor

By Amber Neely
Saturday, July 06, 2019, 10:36 am PT (01:36 pm ET)

Mozilla, creator of the Firefox web browser, has begun testing the waters regarding a paid news subscription service it plans to offer later this year.

Firefox gauges interest in paid news aggregation

Mozilla has started probing users to gauge interest in a paid news subscription, stating that a user can “support the sites you love, avoid the ads you hate.”

The service, currently referred to as “Firefox Ad-free Internet” would be a direct competitor to Apple News+, which launched in March of this year, wrangling in over 200,000 subscriptions in the first 48 hours.

Mozilla has partnered with Scroll, an ad-free news startup to offer this service. Scroll is still in closed beta but says it has ad-free access to websites such as Vox, Gizmodo, The Verge, and Buzzfeed.

The service would include access to audio articles, bookmarks synced across devices, news recommendations, and a news-focused app. It also claims that it will work whether a user is reading news on mobile or desktop, suggesting that it will be tethered directly to the users Firefox account, allowing the service to be used on any browser they’ve signed into.

According to the teaser page, the service will cost $4.99 a month, which would undercut Apple News+ by about $5. The page includes a link to take a survey and be offered the ability to enter into the beta.

July 6, 2019

Android developer news and features round-up: June 2019

It might seem like June was a somewhat quiet month following all the excitement of May, but there have certainly been a few interesting developments that might have flown under your radar.

For one, Android Q Beta 4 is now available and will allow developers to fully test their apps in anticipation of the OS update. Unity features will also be available for Android developers in library form, and Android Studio will soon be dropping support for 32 bit machines.

Here at Android Authority, we’ve also been busy adding new guides for programmers and techies looking to earn a living online, as well as the usual slew of tutorials and news coverage. You can check it all out below.

Features and news from Android Authority

How to work as a software developer online: Everything you need to know – If you want to go professional with your development skills, this post will show you precisely how to do just that. Learn how much pro programmers earn, where to find work, what qualifications you need and more.

Start sharing your code: Everything you need to know about Git and GitHub – If you intend on taking your skills professional, then knowing how to handle version control via Git is likely to come in very handy. As it can do for finding sample projects and more!

Android Q Beta 4 now available, developers can start updating their apps – Android Authority’s coverage of the latest Beta 4 release of Android Q.

Android Q (Updated to Beta 4): Everything developers need to know – The full lowdown on what you need to know about Android Q as a dev.

Exploring Android Q: Adding bubble notifications to your app – This post explains how to implement one of the most interesting new features from Android Q: the bubble notification!

Futureproof your career and salary as an information security analyst – Not strictly Android, but another great way you can earn money online using tech skills.

AndroidManifest.xml: everything you need to know – Get familiar with one of the most important documents all of in Android development.

Introducing Gradle for new Android developers – The master builder – Gradle giving you headaches? Not really sure what all those files do? This post is the one for you.

News and updates from Android Developers Blog

Android Q Beta 4 and Final APIs! – The big news this month was surely the release of Android Q Beta 4. The Beta 4 update brings with it all the promised APIs and everything you need to ensure your app is ready for the next generation of Android. It also includes some new features, such as “screen attention,” new accent colors, and a new WiFi icon. As of now, Google Play is also open to publishing apps targeting API 29.

Moving Android Studio and Android Emulator to 64-bit versions – From now on, 32-bit operating systems will no longer be supported by Android Studio. If you’re using older hardware, then it’s time to prepare!

Improved app quality and discovery on Google Play – Heed this advice from Google to improve your app quality, and thus make it more discoverable.

Google Play services and Firebase migrating to AndroidX – Two very powerful tools for Android devs are moving from the Android Support libraries to AndroidX. If your app uses relevant libraries, be ready for the exodus!

Advanced in-app billing: handling alternative purchase flows – This post from Google explains some best practices for selling pro app features and in-game items through Google Play.

Features and projects from around the web

Google releases Android Q Beta 4 – Another summary of the new Android Q version from 9to5Google.com.

Add features powered by Unity to native mobile apps – As of Unity 2019.3, you’ll be able to use Unity as a library in your native Android or iOS projects! This has potential to be extremely interesting for Android devs!

How to Build a Simple Basic Calculator App in Flutter – A very simple little tutorial that can help you get to grips with Flutter.

Android Paging Library with multiple view types – A useful tutorial for elegant UIs.

Burnout – An honest and open discussion on something that many of us experience as coders, but few of us talk about.

How I become top-rated Upwork Android freelancer and earned first $2000 – Another personal account, this time discussing the process of working as an Android freelancer through Upwork.

June 27, 2019

Apple News launches candidate guide ahead of 2020 Democratic debates

Apple today introduced a new candidate guide in Apple News, providing a timely, trusted and comprehensive look at the 20 individuals participating in the first Democratic debates hosted by NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo in Miami, Florida, on June 26 and 27. The candidate guide offers readers one convenient place to find information on each candidate from a diverse set of news sources, including ABC News, Axios, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Politico, The Hill, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, USA Today, Vox and others. Curated by the team of Apple News editors, the candidate guide is easily accessible within the News app on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

“The 2020 Democratic field is complex, and we want to offer Apple News readers a trusted place to learn more about candidates they’re familiar with and those they may be hearing about for the first time,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. “The candidate guide in Apple News is a robust and reliable resource, connecting readers to valuable at-a-glance information and to great journalism from our partners.”

June 22, 2019

Apple News+ offering exclusive covers, innovative storytelling from hundreds of publishers

“We’ve heard a lot of great feedback from the hundreds of publishers available in Apple News+. The latest updates to Apple News+ aim to best showcase their incredible journalism and put the most trusted news sources at readers’ fingertips,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Apple News+ customers are very engaged readers, with most visiting the News app daily. Hundreds of people at Apple, across editorial, engineering, marketing and design teams, are working to make Apple News+ the best experience for people who love reading their favorite titles and discovering new stories.”

Here’s what editors are saying about some of the new and specialized issues, covers and features available now in Apple News+:

The Highlight by Vox

“The Highlight by Vox on Apple News+ is an opportunity for us to step back from the daily news cycle and focus on stories that are enduring, important and deeply enjoyable to read. We’ve launched new, magazine-style issues in Apple News+, and our most recent issue demonstrates the full range of our ambition with this new format: we explore the radical revolution happening in a Harvard introductory economics course; the history of ‘electroshock therapy’ to treat depression; and the problem of how social media keeps us mired in the past. We also caught up with the boy from one of the internet’s first viral videos, ‘David After Dentist’ — he’s heading to college now! And we lay out the 25 most influential episodes in the history of television in a beautifully designed story.” — Eleanor Barkhorn, deputy managing editor of Vox

June 7, 2019

Android developer news and features round-up: May 2019

It’s time for another developer news roundup, where we look at biggest the news and best dev content from last month. April was a pretty busy time, with a new Android Q beta, the launch of Unity 2019.1, and Android Studio 3.4 — and Google I/O is just around the corner!

We’ve been pushing forward with a whole lot more dev content here at Android Authority over the last couple of months. There’s even more news coverage, tutorials, projects, and features to sink your teeth into. That’s going to be the status quo going forward, so keep your eyes peeled for much more coming soon.

For all the latest headlines, check the links below.

Features and news from Android Authority.com

NEWS Android Q (Beta 2): Everything developers need to know — This post explains everything developers need to know about the upcoming Android Q. Be ready!

NEWS Unity 2019.1 brings exciting new features for Android game developers — Unity’s 2019.1 update brings a lot of exciting new functionality that is relevant to mobile developers specifically. This detailed deep dive will bring you up to speed.

NEWS Developing for foldable devices: What you need to know — This post takes a look at what it takes to prep an app for the upcoming slew of folding devices. Also: how to test a folding device right now!

Build variants, Gradle tasks, and Kotlin: Mastering Gradle for Android — Still confused by what’s going on with Gradle? This post will explain all.

Converting speech to text: How to create a simple dictation app — Adding voice commands to your app can do wonders for accessibility and ease of interaction. This post explains how.

Become an iOS developer: How to start developing for iPad and iPhone — Android isn’t the only mobile platform out there. If you want to see what it would take to bring an app to iOS, this post will explain all.

Learn C# for Android part 2 – Classes and loops (also: rabbits!) — A continuation from last month’s C# tutorial. This one explains classes and loops and shows how to make the transition to Android development specifically.

How to make and share your own custom icon packs — Creating an icon pack is nowhere near as easy as you may expect it to be. This post will get you started, provide an open-source project to build from, and suggest alternative options.

How to use fragments in your Android apps for a powerful and dynamic UI (update) — Updated old post explaining how to use fragments for a powerful and dynamic UI.

Build an augmented reality Android app with AR core — AR is arguably still one of the most exciting things happening in mobile apps right now. Get involved, starting here.

Recognizing text, faces and landmarks: Adding machine learning to your Android app — Machine learning is the other big news, and this is another great project to get you started.

News and updates from Android Developers Blog

NEWS Android Studio 3.4 — Android Studio 3.4 is now available on the stable release channel. This release bears the fruits of the “Project Marble” initiative, which aims to improve fundamental features and workflow. There’s also a new app resource management tool, and a more efficient emulator with Android Q support. Much more detailed information in the post.

Android Q Scoped Storage: Best Practices and Updates — Scoped storage changes the way you store and access files from Android devices. This post explains the best ways to navigate the changes.

And the 2019 Google Play Award nominees are… — These are the apps Google will highlight at Google I/O 2019. These guys must be doing something right, so these are the apps we can be learning from.

Improving the update process with your feedback — Google has heard your complaints and is seeking to improve transparency and minimize workloads for developers when introducing policy and API changes.

Optimizing your subscriptions with new insights in the Play Console — New insights should provide useful data for apps on a subscription payment model.

A simpler experience for instant apps — The feature plugin and instant app plugin are deprecated as of Android 3.4. Developers should now rely purely on Android App Bundles, and the Dynamic Delivery system.

ML Kit expands into NLP with Language Identification and Smart Reply — ML Kit continues to get smarter with two new features.

Features and projects from around the web

Android Q – Implementing Bubbles — This is a great primer on bubbles, one of the new multitasking features coming in Android Q.

Playing with Foldables in Android Q — Another take on readying your apps for foldable devices.

Why Kotlin Sucks — It’s fun to take a controversial stance sometimes! Disclaimer: the author admits Kotlin does not suck. But it’s certainly not perfect either.

Flutter: Everything is Widgets Series — This post explains one simple truth about Flutter that should help new developers understand it better.

Xcode & Android Studio shortcut cheatsheet — Got to love a good cheatsheet!

PDF Rendering in Android – from raw/assets and internal storage — Useful if you want to make an ebook app.

Does a Programmer Still Need to Read Books? — A good question and a fun opinion piece.

And that’s a wrap for our developer wrap-up. See you next month!

June 3, 2019

UC Browser pivots to short-form content, Technology News, ETtech

UC Browser, a web browser developed by China’s Alibaba Group-owned mobile internet company UCWeb, has jumped on to the short-content bandwagon as part of a strategy to address the slowing growth of its user base in India.

Earlier this year, UC Browser launched a short-content channel on the application aggregating memes, jokes, GIFs, motivational quotes, funny quotes and images.

“Based on our internal research, short-form content has already started evolving and reshaping the content space. UC has taken initiatives to capture the trend,” the company told ET in an email. “We are glad to see a rapid growth of short-video creators on UC platform. As for now, the short video has accounted for more than 40% of overall newsfeed consumption.”

Technology content platforms are betting on “snackable content” that can be consumed by users in 15-45 seconds. TikTok, owned by Alibaba’s competitor ByteDance, has seen tremendous success across the world with continuous flow of 15-second videos. Bigo Technology’s Like and Facebook’s Lasso fall in the same category.

“Short-video content has seen a surge in 2018, with over 3.6 crore short videos aggregated on UC Browser. Short-form content, including short videos and snackable content, is UC’s top content priority for 2019,” the company said.

Read: Alibaba invests $100M in short video app VMate

UC Browser, which was launched in India in 2011, has seen a slowdown in user growth in India. First-time downloads of UC Browser declined 34% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019 to 30.2 million across both stores, down from 45.9 million in the year-ago quarter, according to app monitoring firm Sensor Tower. However, it was still among the 10 most downloaded applications in India during the period.

The company claims that it has 130 million monthly active users in India at present, just as it had 14 months ago.

“Now, UC is no longer limited to be a tool-based product. We have seen changes in the needs of local users and have taken a strategic shift to content, especially short content,” it said.

The short-content channel on application is populated with videos of movie stars, pranks, babies, animals, graphic news and plethora of clickbait videos with red circles or arrows pointing to accidents, fights and strange experiments.

Apart from a dedicated channel for short videos, the mobile application’s home page has more than 30 tabs showing content, including cricket, entertainment, news, technology, jobs, education, gadgets, fashion and relationships.

UC Browser started the news feed service in 2016 and has so far partnered with more than 500 media groups in India for content supply. The company said data shows that users spend 20 minutes on average on daily reading and watching contents provided by its news feed service.