Review: Nexus One

I received my Nexus One earlier this week after snatching up a bargain from eBay. It came in such good condition that I actually thought it was brand new. I’m completely blown away by how fast it is compared to my Hero. Here’s what I think after 3 days of use:

Speed – it is FAST. There’s no such thing as lag. I open as many applications as I possibly can and still it handles everything fine whilst closing older apps in the background as Android does. Everything runs very smoothly, including all animations, games, video streaming to Qik, watch video on iPlayer. The browser is superb too and takes a mere few seconds to load a full webpage even on 3G.

Camera – another massive improvement.  The quality is excellent with pictures and video now being far superior to the Hero.  I’ll take some photos later on and upload so you can see for yourself.  The Flash works perfectly and taking pictures in low-light conditions is no longer a problem.

Applications – absolutely tonnes of applications to choose from.  As you probably know, or if you didn’t know, then the Android market saw over 9000 applications added in March alone, but bear in mind a large per cent of these will probably be spam apps.  Games are great to play now, no lag, smooth graphics and very responsive touch.  Here’s a list of a few favourite apps and games I have installed right now:

• Act 1 Video Player – video player
• BeebPlayer – iPlayer app
• FarmFrenzy – farm game
• idemolished – puzzle game
• LightUp – awesome puzzle game
• Layar – uses the camera and GPS to provide all different kinds of information about your surroundings
• Pkt Auctions – eBay app
• Qik – stream video from your phone to web

User Interface – I was always concerned about getting a Nexus One thinking that after using the Hero, I would always need Sense on my Android phone.  In fact, I only bought the Nexus after reading that Paul at Modaco had launched the Desire ROM for Nexus One’s.  After receiving the phone and playing around with Vanilla Android I’ve realised that I don’t actually care much for Sense any more.  The novelty of so many widgets has pretty much worn off after using the Hero for so many months.  I only really need the Power widget and and links to a few favourite apps.  I did install GDE which is a desktop replacement for the default launcher.  It’s application dock widget is fantastic, and so’s it’s launcher.  I’ll try to get some screenshots or videos of my Nexus up soon.

Problems – despite having so many positive things to say about it, it’s not all been a smooth experience.  The display is very crisp, bright and even outdoors under the Sun the AMOLED isn’t a problem with auto-brightness turned on.  No, the main problem lies in the responsiveness of the touch screen.
When I’m holding the phone in one hand and controlling the touchscreen with the other it’s no problem.  However, when I’m in bed trying to do anything, it completely misjudges the location I’ve touched and does something completely random for instance typing a message and hitting the letter ‘q’ might sometimes decide it wants to go to the Home screen!  Sometimes it just acts like you’ve not even touched it.  As you can tell, it gets very frustrating very quickly and I’m hoping so hard that this is a bug that can be fixed by a software update.

Verdict – Overall, superb phone, very responsive.  I love the display, the speed, the camera and the actual feel of the phone.  The problem with the touch-screen not responding correctly is the biggest drawback, but I still think it’s worth getting.  Lack of Sense wasn’t a problem, in fact it gives more space for applications for people that don’t root their phone (I haven’t root mine(yet)).

Regards! MAriano!

Install Android SDK 4.0 for development (ADT + Eclipse)

3. Installation

The following assume that you have already Eclipse installed. For details please see Eclipse Tutorial .

3.1. Eclipse and automatic Android SDK

Use the Eclipse update manager to install all available components for the Android Development Tools (ADT) from the URL https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ . If you are not familiar with the Eclipse update manager the usage is described in Eclipse update manager .
After the new Android development components are installed you will be prompted to install the Android SDK. You can do follow the following wizard or go to the next section to learn how to do it manually.

3.2. Manually install Android SDK

The previous step downloads the Android SDK automatically for you. You can also download the Android SDK manuallz from the Android homepage under Android SDK download . The download contains a zip file which you can extract to any place in your file system, e.g. I placed it under "c:\android-sdk-windows". Avoid using spaces in the path name otherwise you may experience problems later.
You also have to define the location of the Android SDK in the Eclipse Preferences. In Eclipse open the Preferences dialog via Windows → Preferences . Select Android and enter the installation path of the Android SDK.

3.3. Install a specific Android version

The Android SDK Manager allows you to install specific versions of Android. Select Window → Android SDK Manager from the Eclipse menu.

The dialog allows you to install new package and also allow you to delete them. Select "Available packages" and open the "Third Party Add-ons". Select the Google API 14 (Android 4.0) version of the SDK and press "Install".

Press the "Install" button and confirm the license for all package. After the installation restart Eclipse.

3.4. Android Source Code

The following step is optional.
During Android development it is very useful to have the Android source code available as Android uses a lot of defaults.
Haris Peco maintains plugins which provides access to the Android Source code code. Use the Eclipse update manager to install the Android Source plugin from the following update site: "http://adt-addons.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/source/com.android.ide.eclipse.source.update".
More details can be found on the project website .

4. Emulator Shortcuts

4.1. Create an Android Emulator Device

The Android tools include an emulator. This emulator behaves like a real Android device in most cases and allows you to test your application without having a real device. You can emulate one or several devices with different configurations. Each configuration is defined via an "Android Virtual Device" (AVD).
To define an AVD open the "AVD Manager" via Windows → AVD Manager and press "New".

Enter the following.

We can also select the box "Enabled" for Snapshots. This will make the second start of the virtual device much faster.
At the end press the button "Create AVD".This will create the device and display it under the "Virtual devices". To test if your setup is correct, select your device and press "Start".
After (a long time) your device should be started.

4.2. Using the emulator

Obviously you can use the emulator via the keyboard on the right side of the emulator. But there are also some nice shortcuts which are useful.
Alt+Enter maximizes the emulator. Nice for demos.
Ctrl+F11 changes the orientation of the emulator.
F8 turns network on / off.

4.3. Performance

Try to use a smaller resolution for your emulator as for example HVGA. The emulator gets slower the more pixels its needs to render as it is using software rendering.
Also if you have sufficient memory on your computer, add at least 1 GB of memory to your emulator. This is the value "Device ram size" during the creation of the AVD.
Also set the flag "Enabled" for Snapshots. This will save the state of the emulator and let it start much faster.

5. Error handling and typical problems

Things are not always working as they should. This section gives an overview over typical problems and how to solve them.

5.1. Clean Project

Several users report that get the following errors:

1. Project ... is missing required source folder: 'gen'
2. The project could not be built until build path errors are resolved.
3. Unable to open class file R.java.

To solve any of these errors, go to the project menu and select Project -> Clean.

5.2. LogCat

The LogCat view shows you the log message of your Android device and help you analyzing problems. For example Java exceptions in your program would be shown here. To open this view, select "Window -> Show View -> Other -> Android -> LogCat" from the menu.

5.3. Emulator does not start

If your emulator does not start, make sure that the androd-sdk version is in a path without any spaces in the path name.

5.4. Error message for @override

The @override annotation was introduced in Java 1.6. If you receive an error message for @override change the Java compiler level to Java 1.6 via right-mouse click on the project -> Properties -> Java Compiler -> Compiler compliance level and set it to "1.6".

5.5. Missing Imports

Java requires that the classes which are not part of the standard Java Language are either fully qualified or declared via imports. In your editor use the click mouse click, select "Source-> Organize Imports" if you see error message with "XX cannot be resolved to a variable".

5.6. Eclipse Tips

To work more efficient with Eclipse, select Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Save Actions and select that the source code should be formated and that the imports should be organized at every save.

How Android was born? ... and Today, what?

The 5 of November of 2007, Android was presented to the people powered by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, but...it´s only that? Even though a company named Android was stared in 2003 by three well known personalities ( Andy Rubin :co-founder of Danger; Rich Miner-co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc; Nick Sears - VP at T-Mobile) , the company operated secretly, revealing only that the company is working on a new mobile operating system.

In 2005 Google acquired Android Inc and the road map of the company was reset according the the interests of Google. Google basically wanted their powerful searching technologies to be on mobile devices and working hard towards achieving that objective through Android acquisition. In 2007, they applied to obtain several telephone technology related patents apparently proving this speculation.

In 2007, again several well known companies got together and formed an alliance known as " Open Handset Alliance" and the idea behind was to develop "open stand" for mobile devices. The companies that were involved were, Broadcom Corporation, Google, HTC, Intel, LG, Marvell Technology Group, Motorola, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and Texas Instruments .

As a result of all these efforts, first product , Android, a mobile device platform built on the Linux kernel version 2.6 was introduced. 


Android application developers now deal with multiple versions of the operating system, geared for either phones or tablets but not both. They also have had to cope with customized interfaces, making it tough to build applications to run across the variety of Android units on the market. "I'm anticipating [the operating system upgrade] hotly," said Brian Hardy, a software engineer and instructor at mobile software developer Big Nerd Ranch. "It's always nice to see what's new, but it will be refreshing to be able to develop on one platform at some point in the future." 


Currently, developers can use the Android 2.x platform for smartphones and 3.x platform for tablets. Google has released a compatibility library for sharing some functionality between 2.x and 3.x systems, but does not solve all problems, Hardy said. As an example, he cited that the action bar functionality is not available in the library.

Fragmentation has even affected Android's WebKit browser engine, said Mike Burns, a developer at Thoughtbot. "This is part of the fragmentation problem. They fix bugs in one version and introduce bugs in another version," he noted.

Android 4's arrival is anticipated as part of a Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone debut in Hong Kong scheduled for this evening in U.S. time zones. Google has emphasized the unity the operating system upgrade is supposed to bring to the fragmented Android landscape. "Our goal with Ice Cream Sandwich is to deliver one operating system that works everywhere, regardless of device. Ice Cream Sandwich will bring everything you love about [the Honeycomb release of Android] on your tablet to your phone, including the holographic user interface, more multitasking, the new launcher, and richer widgets," wrote Hugo Barra, Google's product management director for Android, in a May blog post.

But "Ice Cream Sandwich" will not solve all problems with the platform, said David Cao, organizer of the Silicon Valley Android Developer Group and vice president of mobile at BeyondSoft. He is not a developer himself, but said Android still has problems in which Google controls the release of code and some device vendors get the code before others, he said: "Android is somewhat open, but it's not completely open."

Android 4.0 is with us, now we can use this new version and I still waiting for the stable version Android 5.0. 

Best Regards,see you, Mariano Salvetti!

BootCamp Android Rosario 2011

People, this is going to be here in Rosario, are all invited! is tomorrow, Saturday November 5!

Want to program in Android? On Saturday November 5 at NJambre (France Av 889) we'll be kicking off so you can create the application you want plus a few other useful tricks to teach more advanced. Only you have to register yourself, you come with your computer and you get your first program going! To view the contents and more information you can visit our website http://rosario.gtugs.org/eventos_futuros/android-bootcamp-2011 We are waiting! G o o g l e Technology Users Group Rosario