Developers rejoice! One of my favorite Android libraries to date has recently been upgraded to becoming evenmore awesome than before. Jake Wharton’s ActionBarSherlock library has been updated!

ActionBarSherlock is an extension of the compatibility library designed to facilitate the use of the action bar design pattern across all versions of Android with a single API.  It allows the easy addition of the action bar Android UI paradigm to applications without having to worry about compatibility with older versions of Android.  I am a strong supporter of this paradigm and try to use it whenever possible!

From his Google Plus:

Major updates in this version:

• Completely redone menu and action item support. This has been backported from the progress made on ABS 4.0 and provides a much more stable and logical layout of action items and management of the menu.
• The compatibility library base has been updated to r6. I have also re-added the *Compat classes that were duplicated by this library and marked them as deprecated.

Download the new version from http://abs.io/. The samples on GitHub and the Android Market will be rolling out this evening as well.

Updating your projects making use of the old library is ridiculously easy.  Just download the new library and any desired .jar files, add the library as a project to your eclipse setup, and replace the references in your project to the old libraries with references to the new libraries.

Do you have any experiences using the ActionBarSherlock Library?  Would you like to see a guide for how to get up and running on ActionBarSherlock?  Drop us a comment below or tweet us @droidweb!

Making Android apps is easy. Making good Android apps is another story. Personally I’ve been trying to perfect the craft for almost four years now. Throughout the years I’ve made leaps and bounds towards making betters apps and I’ve tried to share what I’ve learned with you readers here at Droidweb, but, honestly, there are still things I want / have to learn in the finer points of app making.

Google knows this and is releasing a new repository of information for us developers: Android Training. Here they attempt to provide one of the things developers like me have been begging for for some time now: A place that lists ‘best practices’ for doing some very common things in Android, complete with source code and other annotations. Over the weekend I will be combing through this resource, picking up tips and tricks and reaffirming some of the things I already knew about Android development. If you’re a developer, I suggest you do the same.

Find any really helpful tips that you didn’t know before? Leave a reference to it in the comments below or tweet us @droidweb!

From [talkandroid]

Following our idols over at Android and Me, we had to jump aboard the Google+ bandwagon.  Check out our page here. Not much content there yet, but that will change over time, especially with help from you, our faithful readers!  We’d love to see all our fans on Google+.  If you’re in need of an invite, just leave us a message in the comments below or fire us a tweet via @droidweb.  Lets do our part in making Google+ a sucess!

Since grabbing one of the few Asus Transformer’s in the wild a bit over a month ago, there have been a flurry of @droidweb posts about the device.  While I promise this will slowly cool down and focus on other devices (such as the Droid X2 I’ve got on the way in the mail XD), I want to do a quick shout out to a forum dedicated to one of my favorite devices.  Transformer Forums is a relatively new site catered to questions, answers, tips, and tidbits about the Asus Transformer, including news about Asus’ upcoming tablet releases.  If you’re a tablet enthusiast like myself, I’d go check it out.  Maybe we’ll even run into each other there?

In the world of computing there are always going to be bad guys.  And by rule of thumb, the number of bad guys for any given platform are proportional to the number of people on said platform.  So its only natural that as Android has increased in popularity, that bad guys have come knocking.  As an end user,  you have to take steps to protect yourself in the digital world.  A large part of this is to remain informed and to exercise common sense.  In light of these two points, I’m going to discuss a newly found Android exploit (informing you) and discuss how this exploit should never have worked en mass (the common sense part).

Security experts Lookout have recently written a blog post about a new Android Trojan GGTracker. This trojan spoofs the Android market (damningly well, btw) and tricks users into manually installing their malware application.  Read Lookout’s blog post for full details on the exploit; here’s a summary of what this app is and how it works:

1. User gets directed to a malicious website, usually by clicking on an advertisement link
2. Website advertises an innocuous free application… say a wallpaper app, a ringtone changer, or a slideshow of sexy girl
3. To install this application, the app instructs the user to download and install an .apk file.
4. User installs app and gets nailed with spyware, SMS charges and all sorts of ugliness.

Android Market Trojan Spoof

Now that we’re informed, lets point out some common sense things about Android that will save you from malware every time. Google has done a pretty good job locking down the platform with reguards to security, while leaving it open and flexible enough to support a wide range of applications. Most (I daresay all) malware attacks occur from user error, a.k.a. an end user installed the malicious app on their device. Malicious apps take many forms. Remember those old ‘free smiley’ IM plugins that used to (and sometimes still do) be advertised everywhere? Most were really viruses with a nice face in front of them. In the same way, there have been apps on Android promising ‘free sexy wallpapers’, ‘free ringtones’, and in this case ‘free battery widgets’ which are really malware in disguise. Never manually download an app that you weren’t looking for first. This the same reasoning that drives the advice that you are to never give your account information to a ‘bank rep’ who calls you or otherwise initiates the contact.

In the same vein of be careful what you install, note that the Android Market and Browser Applications are two totally seperate programs. If you see a ‘market page’ with a URL at the top (like the screenshot above), STOP. You’re about to do something wrong. If your browser downloads an .apk file and instructs you to install it, Don’t do it unless you absolutely know what you’re installing. Frankly the only apps that are not going to be in at least one of the Android markets (Google, Amazon, GetJar), are going to be application betas or specialty apps that you’ll seek out (like the custom Google Voice .apk for tablets we featured a few weeks ago).

Even when going through legitamate means (a Market), still be wary about some apps, especially if you haven’t heard of it before. Usually you’ll find reviews for most legit apps on your favorite Android site(s) [including yours truly Droidweb of course!]. A quick google search will save you a lot of headache. As always, check out the permissions needed for that app. A unit conversion app shouldn’t require access to text messaging services. If something seems suspicious, don’t download that app; do some research before you proceed. One of the benefits of having such a tight knit community of fellow Android enthusiasts behind you is that you can ask around and expect to get a response about just about anything, including “has someone downloaded this app before? Is it legit?”

As always in the digital world, be sure to excercise caution. However, don’t be afraid to experiment and explore the capabilities of your device as long as you know what you’re doing and you’ve got some information on hand to help. To all our readers: Be safe and Happy Androiding!

• ‘Performance fixes’
• Updated App Switcher
  • It scrolls!
• Widgets are now resizable (Applause ensues)
• Dock update
• New apps:
  • Zinio Reader
  • Movie Studio

Get the update via either of the mirrors below:

Multiupload
Megaupload

How to apply update:

1. Move update.zip to SD card. See Moving files onto Android 3.0+ devices if you need help doing this. NOTE: The update must be placed on an external card, not internal memory.
2. Plug Transformer in (Skip step if you have 50%+ battery power left)
3. Power off
4. Power on by holding power key and volume down key at same time.  Hold until ROM boot screen comes up
5. Press volume up button within 5 seconds of boot screen popping up to begin update.

After applying update and rebooting, a keyboard update notification should pop up as well.  Follow on screen instructions to apply this update as well.  Enjoy!

Answer: Yes

Android keeps data located stowed away in files called cache.cell and cache.wifi located within the /data/data/com.google.android.location/files/ directory on your Android devices. To access this information, you need root access. While this amount of data captured by Android is considerably less than that captured by the iPhone, it is still there. Android records the last 50 mobile towers and last 200 wi-fi access points it has seen. Compare this to a years worth of data saved by Big Brother Jobs and Apple. To turn off this ‘feature’ off go to Settings -> Location and Security and uncheck the “Use Wireless Networks” box. This removes the files on 2.3 devices and stops recording to the files on older Android devices.

If you’re computer savvy and curious and want to know what sort of data is saved on you Android device about your wearabouts, check out this python script for reading the data points from Android files: android-locdump/. There you can analyze the location dump files and get aggregate lists such as follows:

Do you think its right that both Google and Apple are keeping user location data like this? Comment below…

When you deal with data pulled from an online source, it usually comes in one of two formats, either XML or JSON. Today we’re going to look at how to deal with JSON, and I’m going to introduce you to some tools I use to make the process as painless as possible.

Firstly, what is JSON? JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a “lightweight data-interchange format” used transfer data between servers and client applications. JSON is touted as being XML’s low-fat brother, as it doesn’t use the sometimes bloated tag structure that XML does. Instead, data is organized into objects and arrays. Objects may contain arrays and vice-versa. Quite simply put, objects are unordered name: value pairs where the name and value are separated by a colon and the pair is separated by a comma. Arrays are denoted by brackets “[]“. For a complete explanation of JSON, including examples, check out either the wikipedia entry or the JSON.org website

Now that we know what JSON is, how do we use it? There are many ways to process JSON, including via third party libraries. However I prefer to keep things simple and handle the data using the built in java library code. Generally I make a call to a URL which returns the JSON string via an ASYNCTask (gotta keep that URL processing out of the main UI thread). I then create a JSONObject from that string and parse on the fly using a combination of .getJSONArray(), .getJSONObject(); and custom getObject() methods available through the default org.JSON.* libraries.

While writing the code for processing JSON on the fly, I find a few tools out there helpful:

JSON Lint (http://www.jsonlint.com/)

This tool simply validates a given JSON string. If I’m dealing with a small snippet of JSON that I have to process, I’ll drop it into the given window, which will neatly validate and format the code. Reading unformatted JSON outputs is a pain; don’t do it. Use a tool such as this to clean it up, so you can see what’s going on.

Json Editor (http://jsoneditor.net/)

When the JSON gets a little more complicated, pull out this tool. JSON editor lets you see the data in a tree format, which is useful when writing code to parse the JSON output on the fly. In addition, its a Json Editor, meaning that, if necessary, you can write up your own edits to the JSON and get that back as a revised JSON file.

Developers, what are you favorite tools for dealing with JSON? Do you use IDE plugins? Online site? Emacs? Let us know in the comments below or via twitter @droidweb

There are a plethora of Get Things Done (GTD) and to-do apps out there on the market.  My problem with most is that (1) they try to cram in too many unnecessary features and (2) I just get bored with the app and stop using it because of interface (or lack thereof) or its isolation from my every day workflow.

Taskos is a lightweight to-do list for Android.  Currently in version 2.11, the app supports sync with Google Tasks (a must for me), voice to text, scheduling, and more.  However, more importantly, it does all this via a slick, non-intrusive interface.  If you don’t want to use a certain feature of the app, then you won’t be inconvenienced about it being there.

Taskos currently supports Android 1.5 and higher.



Feature List

• Speech to Text support
• Simple user interface
• Google Task Sync
• Easy calling from within the to do list
• Auto-complete support (contact, popular verbs etc.)
• Small Widget (1X4)
• Big Widget (3X4)
• Scheduled alerts
• Pre-defined Categories
• Set Importance
• Edit Notes
• Easy Sorting
• Tasks Sharing

Rating

Conclusion

Taskos is a feature-rich, minimalist to-do app.  A great find for those who just want to ‘get things done’.

Get TaskOS

programmatore android

Taskos To Do List | Task List
taskos
FREE
>250,000
Link Android Market