Android « PocketMagic

How to scale an Android UI on multiple screens

Learn how to scale an user interface to maintain the same aspect ratio, while running the same code on various Android devices.

by Radu Motisan | April 15th, 2013 | Tags: Android, bitmap, drawable, ImageView, interface, resize, scale | Category: Android, Software | Comments (1)

Building a robot – Part 2

Building an autonomous robot using a rover platform and advanced electronics is not an easy job. Kevin asked me to build a robot that would follow its user. A companion, very much like a robo-dog. See the project log here.

by Radu Motisan | February 7th, 2013 | Tags: A4WD1, Android, atmega128, bluetooth, control, H-bridge, lynxmotion, microcontrollers, robot, Sabertooth, uart | Category: Electronics, Hardware, Robotics | Comments (5)

Programmatically Injecting Events on Android – Part 2

A JNI Library for Android, to inject keys and touches but also listen for incoming input events to and from all applications, available as Open Source under GPL.

by Radu Motisan | January 30th, 2013 | Tags: /dev/input/, Android, Inject Keys, Instrumentation, IWindowManager, jni, MotionEvent, Mouse Events, open source, root, ServiceManager, Touch Events, WindowManager | Category: Android, Security, Software | Comments (29)

Android Overlay Mouse Cursor

Learn how to create a mouse cursor in Android OS programatically, using Overlay Views.

by Radu Motisan | July 27th, 2012 | Tags: Android, Cursor, mouse, Overlay, TYPE_SYSTEM_OVERLAY | Category: Android, Software | Comments (42)

Android default orientation and orientation change events

Find the default orientation on Android devices, and intercept orientation changes even for activities locked in portrait or landscape mode.

by Radu Motisan | July 24th, 2012 | Tags: Android, development, getRotation, orientation, Sensor.TYPE_ORIENTATION | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Anoto Bluetooth Digital Pen on Android OS

A digital pen solution for Android OS.

by Radu Motisan | May 26th, 2012 | Tags: Android, anoto, bluetooth, digital pen, hid, symphony | Category: Android, Research, Reviews, Software | Comments (12)

Programmatically Injecting Events on Android – Part 1

Three possible solutions for injecting events (both keys or touch events) in Android.

by Radu Motisan | April 29th, 2012 | Tags: /dev/input/, Android, Inject Keys, Instrumentation, IWindowManager, MotionEvent, Mouse Events, ServiceManager, Touch Events, WindowManager | Category: Android, Software | Comments (50)

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Emulator How-to

A quick guide on how to configure an Android 4.0 Emulator image.

by Radu Motisan | December 10th, 2011 | Tags: Android, emulator | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android BluetoothClass Major Service Classes, Minor and Major Device Classes

Learn how to get over some limitations in Android Bluetooth SDK to read the Bluetooth COD (Major, minor classes) for a given Bluetooth device.

by Radu Motisan | October 26th, 2011 | Tags: Android, bluetooth, class, cod, getBluetoothClass, major, minor | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android getSharedPreferences NullPointerException

Avoid the NullPointerException error when using the getSharedPreferences on Android.

by Radu Motisan | October 16th, 2011 | Tags: Android, getSharedPreferences, NullPointerException, Singleton | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Auto Start Android Service on Boot

Learn how to make an autostartable service on Android OS, using the BOOT_COMPLETED notification.

by Radu Motisan | October 16th, 2011 | Tags: Android, autostart, permissions, service | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android “Unable to open sync connection” error

How to fix the Unable to open sync connection, displayed in Eclipse Console by Android SDK tools.

by Radu Motisan | July 22nd, 2011 | Tags: adb, Android, error | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android overriding Menu key to disable keyboard popup

The standard functionality on Android devices makes the software keyboard popup every time the Menu is long pressed. This may be annoying or unwanted. Here’s how to disable it.

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: Android, key down, menu long press, override key | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android 9 Patch images for custom controls

Design custom shaped corners Edittexts or TextViews, or any other kind of Android interface controls, using 9 patch images that keep their aspect when stretched.

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: 9.patch, Android, background, custom control, custom edittext shape, TextView | Category: Android, Software | Comments (4)

Android Contacts – a simple Contact Selector

The Android Contacts tutorial part 5, here I show a robust solution for selecting a contact from a list. A filter/search mechanism is also implemented using the SimpleCursorAdapter.

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: Android, Contacts, development, Filter, FilterQueryProvider, ManagedQuery, SimpleCursorAdapter | Category: Android, Software | Comments (15)

Android Contacts – Searching for contacts

Part 4 of Android Contacts tutorial presents an easy way to programatically search and retrieve a contact and all the fields we are interested in such as Phone, Email, Web, Company, Address, etc.

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: Android, Contacts, contacts api, Search, sql | Category: Android, Software | Comments (5)

Android Contacts – Invoke the Edit Contact Intent

In Android Contacts tutorial part 3, I present a simple way of opening a contact in the System contact form using the ACTION_EDIT Intent .

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: ACTION_EDIT, Android, Contacts, LOOKUPKEY | Category: Android, Software | Comments (1)

Android Contacts – Custom Contact column to get the LOOKUPKEY

Part 2 of the Android Contacts tutorial, showing how to add a custom column to a contact, and how to use that to identify a newly added contact and read its LOOKUPKEY.

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: Android, contacts api, ContactsContract, ContentProviderOperation, custom column, development, LOOKUPKEY, new contact, sql | Category: Android, Software | Comments (3)

Android Contacts – Add a new Contact using ContentProvider

Part 1 of a tutorial on working with Android Contacts: add a new contact programatically, including name, email, company, phone but also a thumbnail contact image .

by Radu Motisan | March 19th, 2011 | Tags: Android, contacts api, ContactsContract, ContentProviderOperation, development, new contact | Category: Android, Software | Comments (4)

Android WebBrowser using WebView

A few easy steps for an Internet Web Browser for Android. Learn how to use a Webview, load pages, inject Javascript, read the HTML source code and more.

by Radu Motisan | March 18th, 2011 | Tags: Android, custom, dynamic, get html, inject javascript, internet browser, webview | Category: Android, Software | Comments (10)

Android GUI with Header+Scrollable Content+Footer

Create an Android GUI with Header, middle scrollable content, and a footer.

by Radu Motisan | March 18th, 2011 | Tags: Above, Android, Below, footer, header, interface, RelativeLayout, scrollable | Category: Android, Software | Comments (17)

Android PhotoPicker using Intents and Gallery

Learn how to Invoke the Android Gallery Intent to pick a photo and get the path in your application. This photo picker returns the image path directly in your application.

by Radu Motisan | February 2nd, 2011 | Tags: Android, gallery, intent, invoke, photo picker, pick photo | Category: Android, Software | Comments (2)

Android Custom Complex Listview with Header (no XML)

Create a dynamic (no XML) listview with header with all the bells and whistles. Learn how to use the item position to change its background and content for a complex result.

by Radu Motisan | February 1st, 2011 | Tags: adapter, Android, complex, control, custom, development, dynamic, header, header listview, listview, onclick | Category: Android, Software | Comments (5)

Android Unique Device ID

Learn to read an unique device ID from your Android phone or tablet. Use the ID to generate software security keys or for cryptography applications.

by Radu Motisan | February 1st, 2011 | Tags: Android, code, device id, G1, hardward id, identifiers, java, phone number, READ_PHONE_STATE, secure code, Security, serial key, unique, unique id | Category: Android, Security, Software | Comments (48)

Developing for Android – the SDK – update 2011

Get started with Android Java development – a tutorial with detailed steps and lots of pictures to help you make your first android application. Use Eclipse and the Android SDK.

by Radu Motisan | February 1st, 2011 | Tags: Android, c, development, eclipse, G1, htc desire, HTC Leo, java | Category: Android, Software | Comments (2)

Android Vertical TextView / Custom Angle Text

Learn how to create a Custom TextView class that can draw vertical text or rotate the text to any given angle. Easy!

by Radu Motisan | December 15th, 2010 | Tags: Android, custom, TextView, Vertical | Category: Android, Software | Comments (3)

Android on HD2 (HTC Leo) INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE

You can boot an Android image, from the SDCard of an Windows Mobile HTC HD2 Pocket PC, using Haret. Be careful to use a 2GB max SDCard!

by Radu Motisan | November 22nd, 2010 | Tags: adb, Android, Haret, HD2, HTC Leo | Category: Android, Software | Comments (1)

Android NDK Cygwin make error 127

Android NDK Cygwin make error 127, but only on some computers. I suspect there’s a conflict with other development tools (based on PATH, etc).

by Radu Motisan | November 18th, 2010 | Tags: 127, Android, error, make, ndk | Category: Android, Software | Leave a comment

Android Native Play Sound using /dev/msm_pcm_out

Directly interface the PCM device, using low level native C programming. Play sounds by sending data to /dev/msm_pcm_out

by Radu Motisan | November 18th, 2010 | Tags: Android, native code, ndk, playsound | Category: Android, Software | Comments (6)

Android Native Screen capture application using the Framebuffer

Learn how to do a programmatic screen capture on Android, using the framebuffer and some native C code. See how to correctly save a BMP file.

by Radu Motisan | November 18th, 2010 | Tags: Android, capture screen, framebuffer, native, ndk, screen capture, screenshot | Category: Android, Research, Software | Comments (101)

Android C native development using the NDK under Windows

Learn how to compile your C code to native Android executables, using Windows, Cygwin and the Android NDK in just 3 easy steps.

by Radu Motisan | November 18th, 2010 | Tags: Android, compile, cygwin, native, ndk | Category: Android, Software | Comments (21)

Reinstalling Vending.apk (Market) on Android

Learn how to reinstall the Market application on your Android, using the Vending.apk installer.

by Radu Motisan | November 8th, 2010 | Tags: Android, market, reinstall, vending.apk | Category: Android, Software | Comments (7)

Android controlled robot (via Bluetooth) – Part 1

Learn to connect a bluetooth module to an ATMega micro controller via the UART serial interface and even further, discover it using a bluetooth enabled Android phone. The 9600bps serial link established, can than be used to exchange data: read sensors or control the robot.

by Radu Motisan | November 1st, 2010 | Tags: Android, bluetooth, control, microcontrollers, robot, uart | Category: Android, Electronics, Hardware, Research, Robotics, Software | Comments (167)