IOS3.1.3: No access anymore to the AppStore? The problem seems fixed

The Apple Stores has been not accessibe for some days for devices supporting iOS 3.1.3 and lower. At the beginning it has been thought that Apple had decided to not support those old versions anymore but now the access is possible again so it seems it has been a temporary failure: Engadgetarticle

A very good initiative by Google: Android training

Some days ago, Google launched its initiative to help developers to build better Android application. Designing effective navigation, battery life and audio playback to begin but many others classes will come in the coming months.

It is for sure a good way to create a strong link between the Android OS and the developers!

A Reto Maier presentation at Google I/O 2011

It worths a lot looking the video of the presentation that Reto Maier did at Google I/O 2011...

The link to his blog: here

Paypal shows the interactive shop window

Paypal has shown an original solution at the event LeWeb in Paris. Do you think it is going to have success?

The Blackberry devices different resolutions

I found the table below on a nice website (MobiMadness) and I think it worths share it with you. It lists the screen resolutions of the different Blackberry families:

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BlackBerry® 7100 Series	240 x 260 pixels	* Icon layout: 60 x 55 pixels * Zen layout: 48 x 36 pixels
BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100 Series	240 x 260 pixels	* Icon layout: 60 x 55 pixels * Zen layout: 48 x 36 pixels
BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip Series	240 x 320 pixels	46 x 46 pixels
BlackBerry® 8700 Series	320 x 240 pixels	* Icon layout: 53 x 48 pixels * Zen layout: 48 x 36 pixels
BlackBerry® 8800 Series	320 x 240 pixels	* Icon layout: 53 x 48 pixels * Zen layout: 48 x 36 pixels
BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 Series	320 x 240 pixels	* Icon layout: 53 x 48 pixels * Zen layout: 48 x 36 pixels
BlackBerry® Curve™ 8350i smartphone	320 x 240 pixels	52 x 52 pixels
BlackBerry® Curve™ 8520 smartphone	320 x 240 pixels	52 x 52 pixels
BlackBerry® Bold™ Series	480 x 320 pixels	80 x 80 pixels
BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 smartphone	480 x 360 pixels	80 x 80 pixels
BlackBerry® Storm™ Series	portrait view: 360 x 480 pixels portrait view with keyboard: 360 x 247 pixels landscape view: 480 x 360 pixels landscape view with keyboard: 480 x 156 pixels	73 x 73 pixels
BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630 smartphone	480 x 360 pixels	80 x 80 pixels

Mobile advertisement: Apple and Android at the same level in the USA

From the Italin blog Mobileblog: A research of the mobile advertising firm MillenialMedia (that has monitored the click on the optimized banner for the mobile) says that Android has reached Apple at the top of the ranking of the OS managing the largest part of the advertisement market.

Apple percentage drops from 56% to 37%, same percentage of Android. Thrid place for RIM with the Blackberry platform. Very far the rest of the operating system (around the 2%)

Blackberry: place a field at the bottom of a screen

When you need to place a field at the bottom of your application screen you can use the setStatus method in the Screen object.
That will keep your field anchored at the bottom even if the rest of the screen is scrolling.

See this question on Stackoverflow

GetJar AppIt! service to increase your application downloads

GetJar blog entry claims (via a NY Times article) the Photobucket application increased its download rate 2500% using the AppIt! service which enables application developers to associate one easy and short link to their applications whatever the platform be. The link can be used to share applications across the social networks.

It's up to GetJar platfrom recognize the platform coming for the download and serve it with the right package. Soon a button similar the existent "Share on Facebook" or "Retweet on Twitter" will be provided by GetJar: "AppIt on Getjar" to share applicatin across platforms, countries and handsets.

Looking for Mobile developers

A mobile start-up company based in Verona (north of Italy) is looking for developers (both to join the company or freelance)

More information writing to: gerdavax@tiscali.it

Navigate the Blackberry screen stack

You need sometimes to know which screens are in the screens stack of your Blackberry application maybe because you want to remove all the screen below a specific screen because they are not needed anymore.

First of all you can get the active screen using the instruction:

UiApplication.getUiApplication.getActiveScreen();

Once you have the screen object you can call on it the method:

getScreenBelow()

you will get the screen object below. Generally you can move along the stack using also the method

getScreenAbove()

used together with the previous getScreenBelow method.

Problem with HTC Desire and ADB driver? The solution is here.

If you try to connect your HTC Desire to your PC via USB having already installed the ADB driver for Android SDK, you will see that the driver is not working.

To fix the problem you need to install the USB driver coming with the HTC Sync (you can download here).

Thanks to James Giang for the tip.

Generate a tone with Android

It is pretty easy play a simple tone (a beep) using Android. Two lines of code are enough:

ToneGenerator toneGen = new ToneGenerator(AudioManager.STREAM_SYSTEM, 50);
toneGen.startTone(ToneGenerator.TONE_PROP_BEEP);

Android: when the debug certificate expires

Today morning, big surprise! Trying to build my Android application I get this error:

"Debug Certificate expired on....."
What a f..k? And now? What I'm supposed to do?

No worries....going to the default storage location for AVDs which is in 

- ~/.android/avd on OS X and Linux, 
- in C:Documents and Settings\.android on Windows XP, 
- in C:Users\.android on Windows Vista 

you can delete the file debug.keystore and the next build of the projects will generate again a new valid 
debug certificate

Android: Get events when an edit text content changes

This is a problem not very well documented by Google but it is a common task the developers have to do often.

The solution is use a TextWatcher object that will receive event when the text in the EditText changes:

// Watcher to chage char counter when sms text changes
TextWatcher textWatcher = new TextWatcher() {
    @Override
    public void onTextChanged ( CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3 ) {
    }

    @Override public void beforeTextChanged ( CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2,  int arg3 ) {
    }

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged ( Editable arg0 ) {
         updateCharCounter(); }
    };

m_smsTextField.addTextChangedListener(textWatcher);

Feyenoord - Ajax 1-1

Pantelic score in the first half for Ajax. Second half, Wijnaldum equalizes take advantage of an error of Emmanuelson, left back of Ajax.

Good chances for Feyenoord with Tomasson and Makaay.

Interesting young players in the Feyenoord line: Wijnaldum, Fer and the 17-years-old defender De Vrij.

Access android database from the shell

It is very important knowing what we save in the database of our application. To check easily the stored data you can access the database following these steps:

1. Launch the emulator


2. Launch the Windows command prompt and go under the "Tools" directory in the android sdk folder


3. Type "adb shell"


4. Type "cd data/data"


5. You find the list of all applications. Enter in your application folder (for example "mypackage.myapp")


6. Type "cd databases". You find all the databases. 


7. Launch "sqlite3 <name_of_database>

Type ".help" to have all the instructions.
With the command ".tables" you can list all the database's tables.

Now you can write your query: select * from <name_of_table>.

You can do everything to stop a penalty

The goalkeeper decide to distract tyhe penalty kicker in a funny way.

Xperia10: first Android Sony Ericsson handset

The number of Android phones keeps growing. New enter in the manufacturers using the open source OS is Sony Ericsson with its new XPERIA10.

From Sony Ericsson developer website:

Sony Ericsson today unveils the XPERIA™ X10, the first phone in a family of phones to deliver a consistent user experience where communication truly becomes entertainment.
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XPERIA™ X10 is Sony Ericsson’s first phone on Google’s Android OS platform. XPERIA™ X10 has a 4 inch 854 x 480 pixel screen with a capacitive mineral glass touch-screen, fast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor, 1GB internal storage with additional storage via microSD™ card, an 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, Wi-Fi 802.11g and HSPA at 7.2Mbps download. With the power and features of the XPERIA™ X10 and the open software platform, developers have a compelling opportunity to create, share and sell applications.

Check if a J2ME application has been sent to background correctly

Some device allow to put a J2ME application in background with this piece of code:

display.setCurrent(null);

To check if the cal was succesfull, we can use the isShown() method of the class displayable. So if m_disp is your displayable you can use:

if ( m_disp.isShown() ) {
    // method didn't work
 }
 else {
    // app is in background
 }

Fifa10 su Iphone per 7.99 euro

One of the most popular soccer (or football to say in English UK) game is available on the AppStore. It costs 7.99 euro.

To be honest several reviews are not really good especially for the graphic that needs to be improved and for the usability.....

Here you are one screenshot: