Android Developers on Google+

[This post is by Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead. — Tim Bray]I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with Android since the 0.9 preview SDK was released to developers back in 2007. A lot has changed since then, but one thing that hasn’t is the rapid pace at which new tools,...

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Say Goodbye to the Menu Button

[This post is by Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com. — Tim Bray]Before Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), all Android-powered devices included a dedicated Menu button. As a developer, you could use the Menu button to display whatever options were relevant to the user, often using the...

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Southern-hemisphere Developer Labs

We’ve just scheduled Android Developer Labs for Melbourne (January 31), Sydney (February 3), and Auckland (February 8). The material is not introductory; it’s aimed at people with existing apps who want to make them better in the era of Ice Cream Sandwich and tablets. You’ll want to show up with the SDK installed, and a couple of devices.If this describes you, drop by the ADL page and sign up. ...

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Introducing the Android Design site

[This post is by Christian Robertson, who leads the Android visual design group. He is also the designer of the Roboto font family. —Tim Bray]Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is our biggest redesign yet — both for users and developers. We’ve enhanced the UI framework with new interactions and...

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Levels in Renderscript

[This post is by R. Jason Sams, an Android Framework engineer who specializes in graphics, performance tuning, and software architecture. —Tim Bray]For ICS, Renderscript (RS) has been updated with several new features to simplify adding compute acceleration to your application. RS is interesting for compute...

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Holo Everywhere

[This post is by Adam Powell, an Android Framework engineer who cares about style. —Tim Bray]Android 4.0 showcases the Holo theme family, further refined since its debut in Android 3.0. But as most developers know, a new system theme for some Android devices isn’t a new or uncommon event. For developers new system...

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