Issue #173

October 4th, 2015

Articles & Tutorials

 
link image   Optimizing Android bytecode with Redex (code.facebook.com)

Facebook shares some of their efforts to optimize Java bytecode for Android through a project called Redex, which is a pipeline for optimizing Android .dex files.

 
Android development like a pro (speakerdeck.com)

These slides will show how to make your app scalable, your code clean, your performance optimized and your UI neat in a pragmatic way the pros and cons of using certain Android APIs, strategies and libraries.

 
Async Android (jdam.cd)

James McDonald explores Android’s threading abstractions and explains why RxJava can provide a more satisfying API for expressing asynchronous operations.

 
link image   Optimizing Content for the Assistant (developer.android.com)

Android 6.0 Marshmallow introduces a new way for users to engage with apps through the assistant (aka Now On Tap)

 
How to improve your notification’s ranking (plus.google.com)

When it comes to notifications, you want to strike the perfect balance between standing out and not being spammy. It’s easy enough to stand out if you improve the look of your notification, use informative text, and offer actions to your users.

 
Collection operations in Kotlin (antonioleiva.com)

Lambdas are the basis to implement lots of functional features, such as collection operations. Kotlin provides an awesome set of operations that wouldn’t be possible (or really verbose) when using a language which doesn’t support lambdas.

 
Remedying Android’s method limit - Part 1 (developers.soundcloud.com)

Matthias Käppler describes in more detail what they have done to combat Android’s method limit, what things worked well and what didn’t work so well, and what you can do to improve application health with regards to size.

 
Sign multiple flavors with different keystores (blog.tunebrains.com)

If you have many flavors for your builds, here's a good way to set up separate signing keys for each flavor.

 
Data Binding – Part 4 (blog.stylingandroid.com)

In part 4 of this series, Mark Allison turns his attention to changing other aspects of the Views within layouts via Data Binding.

 
How Google Cloud Messaging handles Doze in Android 6.0 (android-developers.blogspot.com)

If your app uses Google Cloud Messaging (GCM), you will need to take into account these behaviors for users whose devices are in Doze.

 
Annotations to support your contracts (medium.com)

Learn what the support annotations are, and why you should use them

 

Sponsored

 
link image   New Android Geofencing SDK - 2x as fast/accurate (www.pathsense.com)

Get the free PathSense Android Geofencing SDK that eliminates false positives and makes Geofencing in your app work 2x as fast and accurate. A complete drop-in solution for the Google Play Services GeofencingApi. Join their beta now.

 
link image   Hassle-free Continuous Integration for Native Apps (greenhouseci.com)

Tired of configuring Jenkins? Greenhouse is a cloud-based continuous integration service for Android (and iOS) apps. Build, test and distribute your apps for every commit without any complicated configuration or setup - you'll be up and running with just a few clicks. Free for up to 2 apps!

 
link image   Mobile Analytics You Don't Need to Analyze (answers.io)

Answers lets you understand exactly how users are behaving within your app and what's actually important within your data -- all in real time. Trusted by Spotify, Buzzfeed and other top apps on Google Play, Answers processes over 5 billion events per day. Get started with Answers today -- it's free!

 

Design

 
link image   Material Design: An In-Depth Look (medium.com)

What is material design, exactly, and does it breathe life outside of Android? How will it grow and evolve from here?

 

Jobs

 
Android Engineer - Build an SDK (Anywhere)

Want to work with cutting-edge technology and a motivated, talented team? You speak Java but are not afraid of touching C++ as well? You love reactive programming? You enjoy API design and building something that is used by millions of people? Come work with us!

 

Libraries & Code

 
ExplosionField (github.com)

Explosive dust effect for views

 
Effective Android (github.com)

This sample project shows how to apply MVP and Clean architecture on an Android app.

 
Paper (github.com)

Paper is a fast NoSQL data storage for Android that lets you save/restore Java objects by using efficient Kryo serialization and handling data structure changes automatically.

 

News

 
Announcing Android Vulnerability Test Suite (www.nowsecure.com)

NowSecure is releasing to the public an open source Android Vulnerability Test Suite (Android VTS)

 
Support for 100MB APKs on Google Play (android-developers.blogspot.com)

To support the growing number of developers who are building richer apps and games on Google Play, Google is increasing the APK file size limit to 100MB from 50MB

 

Tools

 
Android Studio 1.4 (android-developers.blogspot.com)

Google has released the 1.4 update to the Android Studio stable release channel. Most of the work and enhancements for Android Studio 1.4 are under the hood, but there are a handful of new features.

 

Videos & Podcasts

 
link image   Using NotificationCompat for Beautiful Notifications (www.youtube.com)

NotificationCompat gives you a single API for building notifications for your Android app, including support for Android Wear and Android Auto extensions

 
Android Marshmallow 6.0: Asking For Permission (www.youtube.com)

Nick Butcher explains Android’s runtime permission model and the right way to ask users for permissions.

 
Android Dialogs: Jake Wharton (www.youtube.com)

Before Droidcon NYC 2015, Huyen tries to pick Jake Wharton's brain on Reactive Extensions, RxAndroid, and optimization.

 
Android Dialogs: Yash Prabhu (www.youtube.com)

Chiu-Ki chats with Yash about in-app purchase before her talk at Droidcon NYC.

 
Android Studio support for VectorDrawable (www.youtube.com)

In Android Studio 1.4, developers can create VectorDrawable assets either from the Material library or converted from SVG files. Moreover, for backward compatibility, all the VectorDrawable assets will be converted into PNG files at build time automatically.

 
Android Marshmallow 6.0: App Links (www.youtube.com)

App Links is a new feature of Android Marshmallow that brings a faster way of opening website links for domains that you own. Learn from Wojtek Kaliciński how to verify ownership of your site and get rid of the disambiguation dialog for users who install your app.

 
Video Q & A with Dan Bornstein, the creator of Dalvik (newcircle.com)

Dan Bornstein, the man behind Android's Dalvik VM, kindly stopped by the SF Android User Group to hangout and field questions from the audience.

 

Books

 
RxJava for Android App Development (www.oreilly.com)

In this FREE O’Reilly e-book, mobile software engineer Matt Dupree introduces you to RxJava basics and then uses a real-world scenario to demonstrate how this library makes quick work of tasks that can often become messy and inflexible.