You’re going to be crazy for this one…

… or not.

Every now and then there comes along a game so far out there, so weird and tantalizingly ostentatious that you’ve got to love it. If Robot Unicorn Attack was redone by a group of lolcats while they were banging seven gram rocks you’d have Techno Kitten Adventure.

Premise

“Navigate a kitten by jetpack, fueled by hopes and dreams, through a fantastical world of techno music.”

Yep. That about sums it up. You control a kitten with a jetpack on his back through a world of narwhals, rainbows, shapes, and colors which all move, flash, and shimmer across the screen in a number choreographed to the beat of a hardcore trance song.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Techno Kitten Adventure is really simple. Just press the screen to ascend and release to drop. Your goal is to avoid obstacles throughout the level and, to a lesser extent, enjoy the psychedelic atmosphere elements of the game. Check the video below for examples of gameplay:

Comments

Great premise for game, though the execution is shaky on a few levels. Its hard to tell what elements on the screen are just there for atmosphere and which elements are actually a part of the gameplay. For example its hard to tell what things you really need to avoid to avoid dying until you’ve died to that object a few times. I also don’t like how they’ve done the free version. This version only allows you to get up to 30,000 points, (maybe 45 seconds of gameplay without dying) at which it prompts you to either replay the level or buy the game. If you’re going to do a demo, you’ve got to provide a bit more gameplay to draw the player into the game, making him / her willing to spend that $0.99 for an upgrade / unlockable.

android

Techno Kitten Adventure
21st Street Games
FREE
10,000-50,000
Link Android Market

Often when importing Android code into my Eclipse workspace, I find that there are a lot of new ‘errors’ introduced to the code.  These errors were closely linked to my overriden classes (something you’ll find quite often in android code) and read “The method X must override a superclass method” .  For the longest time I’ve wondered how to reliably fix those bugs (until now I had been removing and re-adding the @Override keyword as appropriate to make the compiler shut up).  This morning I stumbled across a Stack Overflow thread that finally solves this problem.

You see, the problem is related to which version of Java the code is checked for compatibility errors against.  Eclipse defaults to using Java 1.5, which only allows the use of interface methods if super() is called.  Java 1.6 allowed the use of the @Override keyword to designation the interface implementation which is current standard way of overriding interface classes in Android coding.

To fix your problem you just need to do a bit of tinkering in the project settings in Eclipse.  Go to your project preferences and under Java > Compiler set the java compiler to 1.6.  While this might fix the error, it is more likely that you’re going to have to change the project specific value for compiler level as well.  Select ”Configure project specific settings” and change the java compiler value there to 1.6 as well.  After an automatic rebuild of your project, you should see all of those pesky error messages disappear!

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!

This is really starting to irk me. Yet another great Android device comes to market and, as usual, the launch was botched, marring the public Android perception and proving once again that Google ain’t no Apple (for better AND worse).

This isn’t the first time I’ve been unhappy with an Android launch (see my rants about the ASUS transformer launch here. (Quick aside: I take my words back at the end of the article about being concerned by ASUS’s support of the device. That end has been wonderful and I wish more manufacturers would keep up. I’m looking at you Motorola…). But this is the newest Nexus device for Christ sakes! This is the device that is supposed to embody pure stock Android; essentially the best the platform has to offer before carriers get in and muddy the waters with their bloatware, superfluous software and, now, Carrier IQ. This latest Nexus launch ruined all that and here’s why:

Bloatware

Bloatware. That ugly word that describes the pre-packaged software that comes with a lot of devices being sold by a particular carrier. The Android Nexus devices were supposed to be free of this stuff. Sure there are only two apps thrown in (My Verizon Mobile and Verizon’s backup assistant), but its more the violation of principle and the Nexus methodology at stake here than any particular application. The Nexus devices are supposed to be free of all bloatware and pre-installed software. Keep it that way. I’d hate to see the 6th iteration of the Nexus line shipping with MotoBlur (or even worse TouchWiz).

Timing

I have to go back and look up exact dates here, but the Galaxy Nexus timeline looks roughly as follows:

• Google Announces Ice Cream Sandwich; shows off some of its features
• Google Delays Galaxy Nexus announcement to respect the passing of Steve Jobs
• Google finally officially announces Galaxy Nexus in Hong Kong
• Everyone wonders where the heck the Galaxy Nexus is for almost six weeks
• Rumors fly that the Nexus is launching later this we— oh wait just kidding
• Repeat last step several times
• Verizon is selling the Galaxy Nexus starting three days after the day before yesterday! Oh wait… that’s tomorrow.

Critics will point out that the GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus has been available for a few weeks now, at which I will ask them how many of those devices sold? Until Verizon officially started selling the Galaxy Nexus, the device has not been considered ready for public consumption, which is the date that people really care about. You can’t harbor hardware in beta forever. Sorry, the market is not that forgiving.

What I’m really getting at is that the device should have been ready to go right along with the announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus is Ice Cream Sandwich’s flagship device, right? So why isn’t it ready to go when the ICS hype was first peaking? While all the techies and some not-so-technical people were salivating over the new operating system with its new features, that was the prime time to release the device. I know software delays and hiccups happen, but Google is a big boy; they should have been able to account for these things. If that means lighting a fire under Verizon’s tail to make sure they are ready to go ASAP, or God forbid nixing the exclusivity BS in favor of a fair market situation in which whoever could effectively port ICS the quickest and best gets to sell it first, so be it. What happens when Apple announces the ‘next big thing’? They’re already got a release date and distribution channels set up so the public knows when and where they can get their hands on the newest shiny thing. They capitalize on the market hype. That’s why their devices sell so much better. Its this minute attention to detail (or lack thereof) that leaves IOS feeling like a polished product and Android as some engineer’s side project they’ve worked on (hard too mind you, dumping many hours of mountain dew, sweat, and coding into) while stashed in their mother’s basement. Sorry I had to go there, but someone’s got to say it. Step your game up Google.

Marketing

Which brings me to another point. Where was the marketing for the Galaxy Nexus? The actual launch date came as a surprise to me, and I’m sure it did the same to many others. Why weren’t there more definitive advertisements saying THIS DEVICE WILL BE RELEASED ON XX/XX/XXXX? Lets take a look at another launch done right: Skyrim (its what all my friends have been talking about since forever ago. Bear with me). Everyone knew the date Skyrim came out months in advance of the actual release. People planned social events around the release of this video game y’all!!. I strongly believe that if Android devices are marketed properly and the software experience continues to progress as it has been, a Nexus launch could generate similar hype.

The release of the Galaxy Nexus had great potential. Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) brings some really great features to Android, and this phone was to be the first to show all that off. The Galaxy Nexus was supposed to be ICS done right; it was supposed to set the bar for all subsequent ICS devices to be released. It hasn’t. I really hope Google gets its act together with respect to the finer points of selling tech hardware (as opposed to offering software as a service) like Apple has done. Of course that leads us down the road in which one argues that Google is not selling Android hardware, they are just selling the software to promote usage of their other products. But that’s an argument for another day. Maybe we’ll discuss it in the backchannels (via via twitter or Google Plus)

I know this isn’t in the direction of my usual Android stuff, but I really want to spread the word about a local conference that is doing some great things in my area with respect to open source!

POSSCON is a conference all about open source technologies. They discuss how business are implementing and taking advantage of open source solutions, how you and your business can benefit from open source software, why and how to become part of the open source community and much much more. There are tracks for developers (technical), businessmen, educators, and much more. Some topics covered include:

• Cloud Computing
• Virtualization
• Big data and Hadoop
• Databases – Row vs Column vs NoSQL
• MySQL for Linux administrators
• Best Practices for open source adoption
• Secure cloud hosting
• The open source project lifecycle
• Boost libraries training
• C++ 11
• Open source email
• FreeNAS 8
• Open source licenses
• Open source eLearning
• Open source GIS
• Open systems in eCommerce

Interested? Good. Registration for the conference just opened yesterday (Dec. 15th) and continues until seating sells out (there are limited seats). The event takes place on March 28th and 29th in downtown Columbia. Yours truly will be there (just look for the guy talking about Android).

Check out POSSCON’s conference site for more details.

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!

Let’s be honest.  Sometimes creating icons for you Android Application can be a bit tedious.  There are three different resolutions you have to shoot for (mdpi, ldpi, and hdpi), and several iterations you have to create (launcher icons, menu icons, notification icons, and, now that Icre Cream Sandwich is coming out, Action Bar icons).  I, for one, can never remember all the proper resolutoins and have to keep running back to the Android Developers Icon Design Reference to get it right.  Even then, I’m a bit artistically challenged, so I’m never happy with the final result.

Enter Android Asset Studio.  This simple tool lets you create most, if not all, or the icons in your application quickly and easily.  There are wizards for creating Launcher icons, Menu icons, Action Bar Icons, Tab Icons, Notification Icons, and device framed screenshots.

For each type of icon, there is a simple to use wizard that allows you to choose, the artwork you wish to display on your button (you can upload your own artwork, use predefined clip-art pictures, or just use text).  After choosing artwork, add in trim, color, and shading values, and viola!  You have a set of icons.  This is a nice tool that all you independent developers should check out!

From [talkandroid]

One of the newer devices in Verizon’s Android offerings is the Droid X2. Sporting the same sleek form factor as its older brother the Droid X, this device sports a dual core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, 1Gb of RAM, 960×540 pixel high resolution screen, and much much more.  However it also sports the customary bloatware and tripe that has become standard with carrier branded Android phones.  This, among several other reasons, compel users to root their devices.  While I’m not going to get into another comprehensive discussion on why to or why not to root your device, I will provide a quick and easy solution for rooting your X2.

The X2 can easily be rooted through Gingerbreak, the one-touch solution for many 2.1, 2.2, and 3.0 devices currently in the wild.  As with any rooting solution or other exploit, be sure to back up your data before proceeding, just in case.  To run this exploit simply:

• Turn on USB debugging on your device (menu > settings > application > development > USB debugging)
• Download the Gingerbreak.apk file to your phone. I just downloaded it onto my laptop and transfered it over to the SD card
• Install and run the .apk
• Select root
• Enjoy

For more details about the exploit, including how to manually perform it, what devices it works on, and much much more, check out the following XDA-Developers thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1044765

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!