Aisle Express app available in the Android Market

The Aisle Express app I've been working on for the past couple months has finally hit the Android Market.

Android and SQLite Tip

Most Android examples dealing with SQLite have the database being created in the beginning. But what if you want to include a SQLite database file, already filled with data, with your .apk?

This article shows how to prepare a SQLite file that can be included with your .apk and then used for a content provider. This should come in handy for an Android project I'm working on now.

Working on a new Android App...

I'm working on a new Android app for a startup in here in KC. They are a great group of people who have some great ideas. I look forward to sharing more, in the form of an app in the Android Market, as soon as I can.

Things that sound cool about the new iPhone 4

Okay, I am definitely not an Apple lover. I guess you could say I am an Android fanboy. At work I do a fair amount of trash talking to my Apple mobile development counterparts. So in good spirits, I'll make a list of things about the new iPhone 4 that sound pretty cool (not having played with the device yet).

1. The phone (hardware) itself looks great. That's one thing Apple does amazingly well. The rounded edges and stainless steel "band" give a look of a phone I'd like to hold.
2. The battery life sounds pretty excellent. This is another thing Apple does well on their mobile devices (including iMacs). Now battery life on my Android devices has always been completely satisfactory (more than a full day of normal/heavy usage). However, with the complaints about the newly launched EVO battery, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
3. The screen sounds pretty amazing. It's probably way cool from an engineering perspective than a practical point of view, but they obviously have raised the bar. Too bad it's still smaller than the best of the Android devices.

Things that didn't make the list:

• Multi-tasking: sorry, this is old news. Android does it well and has done it for a while.
• iBooks: sounds like cool features (keeping context synced across devices), but I just don't care.
• AT&T still the only carrier: give me a break.
• Still no "side loading" of apps. Terrible.
• I don't really care about the lack of Flash, but Android's got it.

One thing that I don't know about yet is how snappy the iPhones will be with multi-tasking.

Now even with this amazing new phone from Apple, here's a problem they have in their "war" against Android. If you want a better carrier, a cheaper phone, a keyboard phone, a red phone, a smaller phone, a bigger phone, a faster phone, a smarter phone, a customizable phone, or any other trait that defines a "better" phone... you gotta go Android.

Django 1.2

Django 1.2 has been released!

http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2010/may/17/12/

One of the great new features that I am most excited about is support for multiple databases within a project.

Django Smuggler Import/Export

Just started using Django Smuggler (http://github.com/semente/django-smuggler) for importing/exporting data from the Django admin (in JSON or XML). It's very easy to get going. And it's very useful.

Easy install:

sudo easy_install django-smuggler

It's an excellent, do-one-thing-well utility. Check it out.

Android Development in Kansas City

I just setup a new site advertising my mad Android development skills: kcappdev.com.

If you are looking for Android application development and/or testing in Kansas City, go to kcappdev.com.