5 Steps to Scale Your Android Development

As Android developers, you must have thought a lot about how to scale your Android development processes to ensure that our code is clean and bug-free. While there are no perfect solutions as to how to scale your Android practice, there are general standards that can help you greatly.

1. Keep Things Modular

Keep Objects and classes on tasks they were designed for. For instance, don’t try and perform network tasks in a Datastore class, and the like. The more you separate your logic, the easier it will be to update individual classes later. A good rule of thumb is to keep your method sizes less than 50 lines and your classes less than a few hundred lines.

2. Implement a Consistent Code Formatter

On Android Studio; you can set up your preferred format style under Preferences/Code Style/Java. You can export it and share it across your team once you have a custom template. Any team member can then apply it to a project, and your code will be automatically rearranged. This will save you hours of time and improve readability.
3. Test your code throughout your Android development project

Unit tests are a key part of implementing a test-driven development strategy (TDD). This is absolute necessary to ensure that your code performs the way you expect it to. There’s a minefield of useful information regarding unit testing on Google’s Android Developer site.

4. Add Automated Code Checking.

There are several tools out there to help you code and make sure that you are following the industry’s best practices. The most common ones are PMD, FindBugs, and Checkstyle. You could learn from GitHub repo of as to how to implement FindBugs, Checkstyle, and PMD checks in your app.

5. Go With an MVP Approach.

Using an MVP method in development means separating the Model, View, and Presenter in your code (not to be confused with ‘Minimum viable product’). This is similar to the MVC pattern that’s talked about in iOS.
The fundamental idea is that the View layer should never contact the Model layer directly — because that’s what the Presenter is for. In dissecting the presentation layer from the logic, the way you layout the data on screen becomes modularized and separated from how you pull the data from a server or a database. This style lends itself to easier testing, higher readability, and more seamless collaboration overall.

Dos and Don’ts in Making Android Apps

Everyone loves a good Android app. So you want to make it. But what is that you must keep in mind when you develop it? And what should you avoid or rather keep away from? These are some of the questions that we seek to an in this article. So, here are the Android app developer tips:

•DO keep the user in mind when you design your app. Most developers make the mistake of developing their apps solely based on what they think would work and not how others will actually use it. And it's not hard to find out what the end user would feel. You can conduct surveys for instance, do beta testing or have your app checked by an app review blog. 

• DO incorporate integration and scalability in your app. Extensibility must necessarily be taken into consideration in the app's design, particularly if you’re making the first version. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked since many mobile apps nowadays are developed under a short time period to take advantage of a current trends or preferences. But shorn of scalability, this could lead too much re-configuring if a new functionality were released.

• DO take care when you make colour choices. Android phones are today capable of displaying a wide variety of colours, but this doesn’t mean that you choose any colour. Remember that Android phones are designed to be used just about anywhere, so your app's design should incorporate colours that work in environments with different lighting and displays.

• DON'T stick to a single screen size. It’s not advisable. Android platform is used in different types of mobile devices, so designing your app around a specific screen size will not properly scale in other screen sizes. Therefore make sure you have given some thought on your app’s look on different Android devices.

• DON'T design with a specific form factor. An Android developer who designs an app that is touch screen-specific , for example, will have a tough time integrating it to Android phones which use navigation controls rather than a touch screen. You need to visualize how your app would work across different Android devices and ensure you leave enough room for other form factors.

• DON'T do too much. You should give up trying to make your app do everything. Instead, concentrate on specific uses and match those with an intuitive user interface. You will find many success stories in the Android developer community who built apps with a specific focus. And they succeeded because they were good at doing just that one thing. 

The Amazing Journey of Android

The Android egg hatched on October 22nd, 2008. Initially, many features that we couldn’t live without today were missing- an on-screen keyboard, multi-touch capability, and paid apps for instance- but the foundation was in place. This article looks at the evolution of Android app development and its improvements over the years from Cupcake to Kitkat.

Android 1.5 Cupcake

Android 1.5 Cupcake featured video recording and upload to Youtube, APIs for creating home screen widgets, support for an on-screen soft keyboard and Android virtual devices (AVDs).

Android 1.6 Donut

Android 1.6 Donut bought new user features: Quick search box, new interface for camera and galleries, battery usage indicator and Google Play updates. Text-to-speech engine was introduced along with expanded support for screen densities and resolutions.

Android 2.0/2.1 Eclairs

The new features in Eclairs were multiple accounts that could be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages. Other upgrades included Android virtual keyboard, refreshed UI with actionable browse and calendar updates.

Android 2.2 Froyo

The main feature of Android 2.2 Froyo was the just-in-time compiler which boosted the speed of the applications over three times. Other features include automatic app updates for both application developers and users, FM Radio and OpenGL improvements.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Support for Gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer sensors were the major additions in this update for gaming applications. New UI and keyboard interface was introduced. Other features included near-field communications, front-faced camera support, app manager, copy & paste, better audio for apps, and extra large screen support.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

New UI designed from the ground-up for tablets. System bar for global status and notifications was introduced. Customizable home screens with recent apps, for easy visual multi-tasking interface was introduced. Improved text selection, with copy and paste with new updates for standard phone apps.

Android 4.0 Icecream Sandwich

Icecream Sandwich was the step into the next gen for Android. It had a much refined and evolved UI, Home screen folders and favourites tray, resizable widgets, New lock screen actions, quick responses for incoming calls, Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs.

Android 4.1 Jellybean

Gesture mode for blind, transfer over Android beam, and text traversal in accessibility were some of the feature updates in Jellybean. More improvements were in store for browser, calendar, camera and gallery. Faster, smoother, more responsive with refined UI was another feature.

Android 4.4 Kitkat


4.4 was in a league of its own with its Cloud system, lightweight RAM, Pallet colour, remarkable CPU management, good multi cores and screen orientation. It also came in for much praise for reducing battery consumption.

5 Quick Tips to Make an Android App Faster Smoother and More Responsive

We live in a generation where advertisers for applications need to work harder than ever to engage target consumers. Based on which, here are some tips on how to make your Android app faster, smoother and more responsive.

Make Your Android App Faster, Smoother and More Responsive

A smoothly operable interface is a major success factor for apps. While deftly concealing the limits of the technology, making the program responsive to the user is one of the major disciplines. Let’s see what all the factors that affects the speed and performance of an Android app.

·         With the amount of devices and quantity of versions releasing, Android fragmentation really has to be done- not the Android file system.

·         Loading your home screens with live wallpaper and widgets can really slow down your Android, especially an older device. Whereas, in case of having a newer Android mobile device, it is not the widgets but animated wallpaper that lags and mar the battery life despite being quite appealing.

·         Basically, Android does a stellar job in the process management which means there is no use of many task killer applications. You should definitely uninstall any uncooperative applications.

·         The responsiveness of an app plays a vital role. Given that there are tons of photo-shooting apps with a few effects and upload functions out there, why people choose popular apps like Instagram?

·         Android mobile device users who are still using an older version like Gingerbread can install a new browser to see an increase in performance.

Owing to which, the basic trick lies in optimizing the collaboration between development and design and that requires hiring a professional expert in app development. Do you need an Android app build for your business? Openwave Computing LLC offers many types of services in Android Application development that includes Business Applications, Navigation, Social Networking, Lifestyle and Entertainment apps, Multimedia, Education / Learning apps, GPS based applications, Utility Applications, Web Search.

Best Apps for the Year 2012!

When we take a look at what happened in the months of 2012 and what will take place in 2013, technology is having a great rapport with people and their demands. Software was flooding into the list and released more than any individual can analyze or even evaluate. Mobile Application Development is growing rapidly like the roller skates rushing on the board. So here, we have picked few applications including mobile apps to operating systems and it’s your call to argue which one seems to be more important to you this year. There have been many important application which demands for attention but this group deserves bits of worthiness.

1. Mozilla Popcorn Maker

When we speak about Mozilla, we know that it is the best known and popular web browser. But it enhances it beauty by releasing Popcorn Maker. This application is a tool for altering, enhancing and adding more interactivity to web videos. Videos speak the language for humans and it is an open source which makes work easy. Video distribution seems to be lowered but altering the existing video seems to be a demanding task. The Scope of Work for IPad App is improving simultaneously with every developed application and so this application seems to enrich the visual vocabulary of the users as they are not yet in the category of professionals.

2. Google Now

After the intro of Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), Google Now is representing the live example of the scientists working on projects for decades. This application provides relevant information to the user based on his/her activities and location. You can predict things which seem to sound silly to your ears. Android App Developer in NYC is the efficient in developing applications which can change your world. 

3. Apple iTunes 11

This seems to be an aesthetic improvement over previous versions; Apple's app for managing and selling content on Apple devices remains a source of contention. Some users are happy with iPhone App Development and some are fine with and some totally hate it. But there is no doubt that it’s a holdover from the desktop era. With this, you can manage your content across Mac OS and iOS device but the gatekeeper restricts the number of times the user burning the music playlist on CD and controls Apps installation.

Various applications on any platform is developed and will continue the same with every Mobile App Development Companies but if you are looking for a premier one, then you can check on Openwave. We are into development since Smartphone came into existence and we assure you that development will happen as per your requirements as our Mobile App Developer are most skilled and well trained in the subject.