android Sending Emails on Android, Take 2 A while back, I wrote a post about how to send specifically send only emails on Android [blog.danlew.net/2010/08/19/sending_emails_on_android/]. Unfortunately, the solution I posted does not work 100% of the time. My previous solution was a hack and (as hacks are wont
android Drop shadow text Here's a little tip for creating a decent drop shadow effect in a TextView. The issue I ran into initially when trying the shadow effects on TextView is that I could rarely get it to look right - instead of a clean, single pixel shadow, it'd
android The True Problem With Google's License Verification Library (LVL) Google recently introduced a new method to fight piracy on the Android Market, the License Verification Library (LVL). It replaces the old system copy protection system, wherein your APKs would be put in a folder that you can't access. Unless you root. Oh, and anyone who can copy
palm Palm Shaking This is a small point, but I could find no one else who has ever commented on this issue before: minor filtering with Palm shake events via the Accelerometer. It's pretty easy to setup an event listener for the "shaking" event, just follow the instructions here
android Sending Emails on Android UPDATE 2/25/2011: There is a much better solution to the problem I have now posted [https://blog.danlew.net/2011/02/25/sending_emails_on_android_take_2/]. In this post I outline how to share information solely via email. There's some background information up front;
palm Palm and CRUD I've been working with some Calendar integration on Palm and it's a mess because their documentation is out of line with reality. The basic CRUD API I have some issues with because of their ill-defined error codes - for example, if I want to find out
android The Curious Case of the Missing HttpsURLConnection I ran into an Android OS bug recently that is pretty harsh related to HTTPS connections. Basically, what happens is this: 1. You want to setup a connection between the phone and a server, and you need to control both the input and the output. As a result, you use
android How to Change a ListView Row's Background but Keep Normal Android Selector Here's a problem which I thought would be super complex to solve but is actually rather simple. The solution assumes a bit of knowledge of ListView row types, though; if you've never dealt with them, here's a primer [http://android.amberfog.com/?p=296]
webos app-assistant handleLaunch and large numbers I've been working in the world of webOS for the last month, and while there's a lot of new APIs to learn I've not really run into an amazing "gotcha" moment until now. In our app, we show some banner notifications. When
android Android 1.5 Widgets, Google Maps API and VerifyError Here are two things that don't get along: Android 1.5 widgets and the Google Maps API. Trying to include both in your application results in a dreaded VerifyError when you try to create a widget on the home screen. The basic cause, according to Dianne Hackborn [http:
android Headset Blocker If you own a Nexus One, you may be familiar with this scenario: you load up your N1 with some rocking tunes. You plug in your headphones and go out exercising with it. Suddenly, the tunes start skipping. Why? The problem is that the headset jack is interpreting what you
android Android: Serializable Considered Harmful This is an old problem, but anyone I can convince not to use Serializable on Android will help the system as a whole. There is some data saved between launches of my application - a list of complex objects. When I first learned Android I assumed that the fastest way
android ViewFlipper "Receiver not registered" Error There is this error that plagued me for a few months. If you use a ViewFlipper, this error will pop up on Android 2.1 devices every once in a while: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Receiver not registered: android.widget.ViewFlipper$1@44b6ab90 It does not affect any devices before 2.
android Why They Can't Find Your App The Android Market is a mixed blessing; on the one hand, I much prefer the near-instantaneous publishing time for applications. It makes things a lot less stressful; if there's a terrible bug you can fix it quickly instead of having to go through Apple's approval process
android The Missing Manual - Android Drawables from XML I have been fairly frustrated with a gap in the Android documentation recently - the file formats for creating Drawables from XML. Drawables XML has been pretty useful to me in the past in creating gradients; I'd rather use it than create 9-patches all the time. However, the
android Uri and Android 1.5 I came across an interesting Android bug the other day that deserves some mention. I was creating an Intent, setting some data for it, then calling startActivity() . The data Uri was created via Uri.Builder. Let's say, for example, the Uri I wanted was "http://google.com&
android ViewFlipper and Memory Leaks Have you ever had a mysterious memory leak on Android when your code seemed clean as a whistle? I sure have, and I finally figured out why: ViewFlipper. It turns out that when you call ViewFlipper.startFlipping(), it sets up a loop via messages which flips between its child Views.
android Android Dialogs Created From Threads There are a lot of issues with Dialogs, but I've run into one recently that deserves mention. Suppose you've got a background task running with AsyncTask. At the end of this task (in onPostExecute()), you display a Dialog informing the user of success or failure. This
android Dynamically Retrieving Resources in Android Normally, when retrieving resources (drawables, strings, what have you) in code you use the automatically generated R.java to do so. However, I recently wrote a reference application wherein each item in a ListView has a different icon next to it. The data for all this is stored in JSON
android Android Add-On Applications I recently developed an add-on package for an Android application and thought I'd share some findings. That is, there is a base application and an add-on application which unlocks extras features in the base app. I chose to put all the functionality in the base application and simply
Welcome Starting a new blog because I keep coming across old blog posts other coders make that help me... I figure it's time for me to give back to the community.
