Almost There

Well, after a long hiatus, I can post again!

I've been hammering away like a mad thing and learning a lot about application lifecycles and stability as well as a bit of graphics!

I have developed my first app and in the next two weeks you should see it popping up in the market.

Currently in v0.8 and private beta, it's an Interactive Gamebook in the same vein as the adventure stories where you choose what page to turn to, thus controlling your character's story.

The application itself is called "Navigate Fate" and the first story is called "Envoy", thus the app will be called "NF: Envoy" in the Android Market, but I hope to use the same engine for several user-submitted stories.

I'll be doing a more complete run-through of the app with screenshots during the week.

Check out the links above and if you'd like to participate in the short-running private beta or even submit a story, just email!

Waypoint Reached

As previously mentioned, my plan to get into Android development is pretty methodical.

1. Get comfortable with Java.
2. Get comfortable with Android.

Pretty thorough, right? :P

Today, I finished working through the resources mentioned in my previous post. I've typed through every tutorial; hit countless bugs; pimped many of the tutorials with my own additions; hit more bugs and done all kinds of other exciting things! Adding it all together I've probably gone through about 100 to 150 hours of work to get to where I am now. (My girlfriend being away for a fortnight helped! :P )

While I'm a long way from actually being able to call myself a developer, I feel that I have enough of a grasp for the basics that I can now move onto step 2 and start working through the Android tutorials. 

Not much of a blog post I know, but I feel pretty excited about the momentum I've maintained and at the same time a bit annoyed that I haven't been able to post many updates during that time. 

I hope to post more now that I'm moving onto Android proper and start to work through any of its particularities. 

So, time to get back to work and say "Hello Android"!

Tangent 1 in a Series of a Gazillion!

So I've been hammering away at my keyboard trying to figure out Java and am making progress. I'm one of those annoying methodical types that stops after each page and dreams up all kinds of ways of implementing the knowledge gained thus far. Sure it makes for slow progress but I'm happy that I feel like I'm properly digesting the stuff I'm learning.

Meanwhile I've tried out one of the hello world apps on the Android Dev page with no major hiccups. 

Reason for this post is just to harp on about how great I feel to have finally interacted with my phone meaningfully (my girlfriend complains, but baby steps). The ability to install a non-market .apk is probably my number one favourite thing for developing. No need for special developer hardware, just stick it on and see what happens.

Unfortunately it seems that AT&T across the pond is limiting this great feature for cod knows what reasons. 

That SUCKS!

I stand by my opinion that any modern smartphone is not measured by its hardware nor even its software but by its performance as a platform for developers. Nokia and Blackberry outsell the competition but are virtually invisible from a media perspective because they rely on internal innovation whereas the iPhone and Android can tap their developer user base for innovative feature enhancements via the apps that are available on the platform.

The modern smartphone is not a standalone device, but a skeleton which is customised and built upon by the end user with the help of developers. 

By kneecapping this feature in Android a barrier to entry for budding developers (like me) is erected. Let me repeat for emphasis...

That SUCKS!

In the end we'll just have to see how the market lets this one play out, there's not much developers, or even Google, can do about it. The relatively open source nature of the system and its concomitant customisability are both its greatest pair of features and its greatest weaknesses. 

Tangent complete.