Exploring Android Nougat 7.1 App Shortcuts

Google has brought Android Nougat to its second iteration with the 7.1 version (API 25), but this one is not a minor release, as a matter of fact it bundles some interesting features [https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html] under the hood. One of these extra features is…

How you can go wrong with the new Data Binding API

The last couple of days were full of excitement in the Android world as Google I/O [https://events.google.com/io2015/videos] took place. In no surprise, some of the rumours [http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/05/google-tracker-io-2015-edition-android-m-chromecast-2-and-lots-more/] came true and Android M was announced (with a possibility…

Creating a watch face with Android Wear API | Part 1

When it was first launched, Android Wear stirred a lot of interest among the development community, especially among the developers who saw the opportunity of developing customised watchfaces for their smartwatches. Unfortunately, the first API realease didn't include official means of creating a watchface and those who wanted…

Smart background tasks with JobScheduler

The new release of Android 5.0 provides developers over 5000 new APIs to play with. One of my favourite component that was relseased with the new SDK is JobScheduler [https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/job/JobScheduler.html]. Briefly: > JobScheduler API that lets you optimize battery life…

A curious case of SyncAdapter syncing

tl;dr Any modification (add, remove, change password) to any Account from the AccountManager will trigger a sync for all of the system's SyncAdapters, including the one you've just created in your app! Context In my attempt to better understand how a SyncAdapter works, I'…

Force your SyncAdapter to sync

NOTE: This is not a tutorial of what is or how to create your own SyncAdapter. If you're looking for this, the Android developer doc [http://developer.android.com/training/sync-adapters/index.html] is your friend! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been recently playing with SyncAdapter and I found…

Welcome

Hi there! I'm Andrei Catinean, a passionate Android Software Craftsman. I've finally decided to set up a blog in order to share my personal experiences on Android development and software in general. If you want to know more about me go to the About [https://catinean.…