Last month I attended the Android Developer Conference in San Francisco. Being an Android enthusiast, I felt right at home. During the 3-day conference, I was overwhelmed by how many devices are already running Android, and how many future devices will be—from phones to tablets to new devices called “wearables.” It seems there is no end to the future of Android development.

During the conference, I attended several classes and presentations that gave me the latest and greatest there was to offer in the developer realm of Android. Here are some of the highlights:

Android Fundamentals: What I Wish I Knew When I Started! [PDF]

Chris Haseman, author of Android Essentials and Lead Android Developer at Tumblr, gave a presentation that laid out some major Android Fundamentals. He discussed the Main Thread, the life line of the Android system, and the importance of developers limiting their interactions with it. As he put it, “Hang out with it as you would an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, which is to say, as little as humanly possible.” Haseman also highlighted the importance of testing apps as bugs are inevitable, regardless of the developer.

Pragmatic Android Layouts [PDF]

Kirill Grouchnikov, Software Engineer at Google, spoke about utilizing Android layouts to effectively display content. He emphasized that the layout system is a key factor in helping users navigate applications and presenting content in a clear, consistent way. He recommended that developers stop and sketch their design to get a visual before beginning development. His main advice? “Use screen estate to effectively display your content.” Responsive design is essential in achieving this goal now that new android devices have updated how users will view content based upon screen size.

Testing Sucks – But It Doesn’t Have To [PDF]

Apkudo’s CTO, Nicholas FritzRoy-Dale, gave a talk on the importance of testing apps. As he stated, “Not all devices just work,” and testing is a pivotal point in any android developer’s career. With all of the android devices on the market, how are you going to test them all? Apkudo is a testing company that offers testing on 289 different phones and sends back data on how many devices an app ran on and where errors occurred. In a study, Apkudo took one application and installed it on all 289 phones—54% of the time it wouldn’t install and 64% of the time it crashed. This goes to show you how important testing is.

See PDFs of all the conference presentations

I recently went on a trip to Belgium and shared it with my friends back home in real-time. My extraordinary vacation of breweries and historical sites turned into a mobile experiment that was just as rewarding. Here's how it all began.

In the process of getting ready for Belgium, I was reading up on culture, things to do and, more importantly, what breweries to visit. I kept thinking about how I wanted to share the beauty of Belgium with my friends, so I decided to create a website to house all the photos I planned on taking. However, I had a dilemma. How was I going to get the photos uploaded to my site from my primary camera (my phone) during my travels? With only two days to build the site before I left, I chose to use Google Picasa — I used the API to grab all the photos from my trip and serve them up on my site.

Pieces of the puzzle were coming together, but my site needed a little sprucing up. Since my phone can output my location via Google latitude every hour, I used the API to get the latitude and longitude of where I'm taking photos. I displayed these coordinates on a Google map.

With only a few final touches left, I announced my new site to friends and coworkers. It was my coworker Tom Hudson who suggested I create a Twitter handle so people could tweet me to do something in Belgium. It was brilliant — now I could interact with users while I was overseas. I made the quick update and set off abroad. 

While in Belgium I documented my adventures (pictures uploaded to my site with a WIFI connection). I didn't have time to reply to my Twitter requests, but it all worked out in the end. Upon my return, I received good reviews on the site and analytics revealed I had a lot of hits. I plan on utilizing this more when I'm on vacation or at events I would want my friends to
check out.