Home screen lag in Froyo -- My $.02

Since the 2.2 upgrade, we were blessed with the lag time to display the home screen icons, as well as populate the app drawer. Its very frustrating. I have read many people trying different things to correct it. None of which have a lasting effect.

I think I may be on to something though. Most of us probably hit the home screen to get out of an app. I have started to use the back arrow button to get all-the-way out of an app. It looks like a decent work around. My home screen lag seems to still lag a bit but only when I pull it out of the desktop doc.

If this does help others, then it looks like the application stack is the issue. I have no other thoughts then that.

I have posted this in multiple forums. Here are the links to check out other users responses:

Android Forums, DroidForums.NET

Feedback here is also appreciated.

Development is underway

So I finally got my first app created. Apparently, its more of proof-of-concept. I saw apparently because when I tell people about it, they look at me funny. When I explained it to my wife, she said "um... it sounds like a free app". Implying that i should never, under any circumstances charge for it.

With that lovely intro out of the way, I give you ClockWatch. ClockWatch is an app that will allow you to keep an eye on multiple clocks. Not all clocks are the same so you can see what time it is on different clocks at once. This is helpful so you can now know what time your bosses clock says when he says your late. Thats just one example of this useful app. It is not yet on the market, but you can scan the code below to download it.

Here is a screen shot:	Scan code to download

More to come...

New Android development book... and its a good one.

I have been reading, "Hello, Android" Third Edition (The Pragmatic Programmer; Ed Burnette) for about two week.

Stay tuned for updates. This book is really good and easy to follow.

In the meantime, check out the books site: Hello, Android!

My first Android Development book.

For fathers day, my wife got me my first Android Development book, Professional Android 2 Application Development by Reto Meier,Click here to see the details. I was very excited to crack it open and start developing.

My development background for the most part has been vb.net and C#. As you have previously, I start to jump into the Java pool, and the kool-aid taste great. Well Fathers Day was June 19th, today is July 6th. I have only gotten though the first two chapters, but already built a pretty useless with the book. I'm not saying that the book is useless, but what i am saying is by chapter two, Reto is already showing you how to start creating apps, and that's a good thing.

The bad this is that it took 48 pages of background noise to get there. That is something that I am not familiar with. Much talk in the start of a technical book. It is something that is hard for me to get through. The chapters are long and wordy but hopefully it will work out in the long run.

I hope to keep you posted on my progess with the book. I also look forward to the Hello, Android book comming out this month. Click here to see that book.

Another day... Another successfull coupon applied

My wife, 2-year old son and I went out to eat at a nice little Italian place not to far from us located in a shopping center. Along with the Home Depot, Target and Walmart, there is also a Borders. That's right, a Target and a Walmart, with in a football field length of each other. AHHHHHH.... Any way, after we had dinner, we went to Borders. While my son was running around the store and my wife chased him, I told her I would be by the computer section. I was looking for a Java book. Java as in the programming language, not the drink, nor the Indonesian Island. I am not new to development (c#, VB.Net is my background), so I wanted to look for a book that was good enough for a beginner but not too beginnerish. I found Java in Easy Steps. It was only $14.99. I quickly pulled out the DROID and did a picture scan of it to get some reviews. The scan was successful, but no reviews found... Book goes back on shelf. I then found Java in 24 hours. Again, out comes the DROID, use the Shopper app to scan the cover (you can not scan the barcodes at Border since they place a sticker over it for their own code). The scan was successful and reviews were great. I look at the price, $34.99. Its a price I was not overly joyed about so I search the Droid Coupons app and WOO-WHOO "Save 33% off any one item at Borders". The phone went back on the hip and the book curled up in my arm. I then went to look for my wife and son. I walked up to the counter with my Borders card, Gift Card from Christmas and my phone with the coupon displayed. The cashier said, I see you have the coupon, I will apply it. 33% came right off the $34.99 sale price. A savings of $11.55. WOW. That is something to write home about.

Well this day-and-age "home" is a blog.

Playing time is over... Time to develop

So I have had the DROID of over a month and I am still amazed by it. Especially now that I have 2.1 with Live Wallpapers and Speech-to-Text (which could be better, or maybe I just need to speak more clearer, i dunno). Either way, It is now time to start creating apps for Android.

What do I want to create? I have no clue
Do I know how to develop apps? Not really, my development background is C# but since you can write Android apps in Java, I think the transition would be smooth, I just need to understand the API's and SDK. I started to look at the examples provided at http://developer.android.com. So far, I'M Hooked.

So I will keep you posted with my progress as I attempt to make some useful tools for the Android world.

2.1 is live on my phone... officially

The Easter Bunny came early last night and dropped off my Android 2.1 System Update for my DROID. This is the official release sent out by Verizon and anyone else that is involved. Now that I have it, its like a whole new world of apps opened update, since Android only shows apps available to your OS version.

There is one app out there called HelixLauncher. There are two versions of this app. (on for 2.01 and one for 2.1 only). I have tried both. What they do is changes your default home (application). I was not a fan of neither as they both "crashed" constantly. What is cool about HelixLauncher is that it allows you to have more then 3 home screens. The 2.1 version of HelixLauncher really only works for Nexus One and not the Droid, and this is a well documented fact, do I can not rant about it not working on Droid. I used at my own risk.

Anywho, since I just got the update this morning, I will take some time to poke around and be back with more.