When writing up the Samsung KNOX release recently – it’s a means of managing secure data access, in a corporate environment – the company stated it was built upon Security Enhanced (SE) Android. What is that, I wondered? Time for another in our What is…? series, looking at aspects of Android…
One of the things that make a smartphone smart is its ability to detect movement, orientation and aspects of its environment (temperature or humidity).
Tilt it, twist it or shake it and a smartphone app can possibly detect the movement and display application appropriate responses. What that is exactly will…
Butter? Why was Google’s performance optimisation of the Android interface called Project Butter? Grease, perhaps, as in greased lightning, but butter? Bread and butter? Butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths? The answer of course is ‘smooth as…’ The idea was to take a functionally operating system (Ice Cream…
We recently wrote about USB chip specialist FTDI’s progress into Android, supporting – via open accessory mode – connecting an Android device to peripheral hardware over USB. It immediately provoked the question, what exactly is Open Accessories Mode? How exactly would your Android phone control, for example, your customised home gadget…
This one cropped up at Apps World in a presentation on app testing. What is Anymote I asked myself? Time for another in our What is… series (heavily relying on the info already available on developers.google.com/tv/remote/docs/anymote). Basically we are the region of Google TV…
I’m showing my ignorance here, but I did not really know what rooting an Android device really meant. Time for another in our What is…? series.
Basically, it is the process – for smartphones or tablets – of gaining full privileges. In other words, taking unto yourself “root access” – a term…
The vast majority of Android apps owe their existence to Eclipse. It is an open source IDE (integrated development environment) for Java projects (and more). Basically, the place where the application software is crafted, being supported through various stages of its lifecycle. Google officially supports it, and has created the…
Welcome to the second in my series of ‘finding out about things that sound important but about which I have no clue’! The topic in question, this time, being Android Native Development…
Basically, this is the means by which you can develop parts of your Android application using code other…