Finally an Android Tablet Worth Buying?

I'm not going to lie, I have been pretty disappointed with most of the Android tablets that have come to the market so far.

The most important factor to me, and too a lot of other people I am sure, has been the price point, and Android tablets have been too expensive for me to consider buying.

But perhaps it will in the very near future.

Rumors are flying around that Amazon will finally release their own Android powered tablet on Wednesday, and that it could be priced as low as $250!

See this article below about how even Apple might be scared about the Amazon tablet.


http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/26/amazons-wednesday-tablet-launch-threat-to-apples-ipad-analysts-say/

Android ActivityNotFoundException

This article briefly describes how you can solve an Android ActivityNotFoundException.

One type of error that you may encounter while programming in Android is the "activity not found" exception. This error can be particularly perplexing at first, because as you look through your source files you will see no compilation errors.

Screenshot of the logcat output showing an ActivityNotFound exception

The solution is to modify the manifest for the Android application. The manifest includes all sorts of information about the application, included a list of defined activities that run in the application.

Update the manifest to include information about the activity that it couldn't find, and run your program again. You should not experience this error anymore.

Listed below is an example of a line of code you can add to your manifest to declare an activity.

<activity android:name="CatalogActivity"></activity>

Source Code Available from Github

The source code for the shopping cart tutorial part one is now available for download through github.

Pasted below is a link. Enjoy, and look for more projects to appear on Github in the near future.

https://github.com/dreamdom/Shopping-Cart-Part-1

Making a Full Screen Android App

This article demonstrates how to make an Android app that uses the full screen.

Why Make an App Fullscreen?

When you are dealing with portable devices you are usually dealing with limited screen real estate. This means that you have less room to display information to the user, and if your app chooses not to hide the title bar and notification bar you are left with even less space.

Personally, I think the title bar is kind of plain looking and generally not necessary. Usually you know what app you are currently using, and there isn't much space to make the title bar display anything interesting.

Screenshot of an Android App with Title Bar and Notification Bar

Change Anroid Emulator Soft Keyboard

This is a short tutorial that explains how you can change the Android Emulator soft keyboard to display in English.

For Some Reason...

At least twice when I have created Android Emulators, the system is set to display in English, but the soft keyboard that shows up contains Japanese characters. This can be a problem if you need to test specific inputs and don't know Japanese (sadly, I don't).

Have no, fear. This is a simple problem to fix.

If your Android Emulator Keyboard Looks Like This...

Emulator with Japanese soft keyboard

And you would like it to display an English based soft keyboard, then...

Android What Does DIP Stand For?

This article introduces the concept of DIPs for Android.

What Does DIP Stand For?

DIP stands for Density Independent Pixels. Density Independent Pixels are also abbreviated as DP.

One Density Independent Pixel is defined as one pixel on a 160 DPI (dots per inch) screen.

Starting Another Android Activity With Intents

This tutorial will demonstrate how to start a second activity with Android and how to debug an Android ActivityNotFoundException.

Using Multiple Activities

Most Android projects involve using multiple activities. This tutorial will demonstrate how you can create start a second activity from your application, and pass along extras as well.

Create Two Layouts

First, we will create two different layouts, main.xml and secondactivity.xml

Screenshot of the main.xml layout