Office Hours — Today, January 3

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Mark M.
has entered the room
Mark M.
turned on guest access
Jan 3
10:20 AM
Steff
has entered the room
Steff
great, all alone :)
hi mark
happy new year
Mark M.
howdy, Steff!
how can I help you today?
Steff
2 things:
1st: how's your experience with C2DM?
I found it hard to implement and not really reliable
Mark M.
limited to what research and work I did for the chapter in the Advanced Android book
10:25 AM
Mark M.
I didn't find it especially hard to implement, though there are plenty of reliability concerns
Steff
yeah, that's why I considered it hard to implement
Mark M.
that limits its use cases to places where you can engineer around the reliability concerns
so, people trying to use C2DM for chat are in trouble
Steff
Do you have come across any more reliable solution?
Like Urban Airship e.g.
Mark M.
to some extent, there can't be a more reliable solution
first, those solutions are really more for pushing ads and other marketing messages directly to users
the research I did last fall on those did not turn up a general-purpose C2DM replacement
Steff
haven't really looked into iOS, but is it as unreliable?
hm, okay
Mark M.
I have no idea how well Push Notifications work for iOS
the problem with any replacement is that it would require an everlasting service, to listen on the open socket
Steff
do you have a clue how e.g. Whatsapp does it?
Mark M.
and that is problematic (e.g., user might nuke it from orbit)
I don't even know what Whatsapp is
Steff
right, that's why I am trying to replace any running service
Mark M.
at the risk of sounding meta, what's Whatsapp?
Steff
i mean get rid off any service
Whatsapp is an IM tool
meant to replace text messages
cross platform
Mark M.
they would appear to use C2DM
for the Android sie
er, side
Steff
okay
Mark M.
quoting their FAQ: "It looks like you are not receiving new message notifications from Google Android push service"
(for a question of "My incoming messages are delayed. How come?")
Steff
okay, thanks. Should have looked into this in some more detail before bothering you
10:30 AM
Steff
enough with C2DM
2nd question: have you fumbled around with the new notifications of ICS?
Mark M.
"new notifications of ICS"?
Steff
I kindda like the new option to put actual buttons in there
Mark M.
they made some changes in Honeycomb
ah, yes
Steff
take, let's say, the new Music player
Mark M.
no, I have not tried it yet
Steff
it has a pause and a next song button
Mark M.
my guess is that "it just works", in terms of you still use RemoteViews
Steff
ok
Mark M.
buttons used to work on some devices, but not others
ICS now ensures they will work across the board
Steff
guess so too but didn't find documentation on the new API
Mark M.
that's why I'm assuming "it just works" :-)
Steff
are we just mixing app widgets up with notifications?
RemoteViews also work on Notifications?
Mark M.
yes
Steff
alright
Mark M.
see contentView on Notification
Steff
I am afraid I am out of questions now....
I will, thx
Mark M.
also, my most recent update to the Advanced Android book should have some samples of custom RemoteViews (in that case, showing a progress bar)
Steff
Btw., great work with commonsware/warescription
Mark M.
thanks, glad you like it
Steff
downloaded it today
Mark M.
another update to the Advanced Android book due out later this week
10:35 AM
Steff
my 2nd subscription is about to expire but I will definetely go for 3rd period
Mark M.
thanks!
Steff
since there is noone else waiting: what's your general impression on ICS?
Mark M.
not sure where the dividing line between hardware and software is, but the Galaxy Nexus originally felt rushed
lots of glitches
Steff
and here comes another question to my mind
Mark M.
the recent firmware update helped a lot
Steff
not talking about hardware. SGN is nice, but it's just a phone
are you running 4.0.2?
Mark M.
4.0.1 on the Galaxy Nexus
Steff
Found the SGN a little underwhelming
Mark M.
I wasn't expecting whelming, so hence I wasn't shocked from that standpoint
720p display is kinda nice
Steff
yeah, it is. As long as the screen is pretty bright
once it gets darker grey looks horrible on my screen
from my point of view the display of the Samsung Galaxy S (i9000) handled that way better
Mark M.
I never got a Galaxy S for my fleet
Steff
but anyways, i guess you have a lot better things to do than just chitchatting
10:40 AM
Steff
lots of better things. Please excuse all my mistaked
-d +s
and have a good day
Mark M.
you too!
Steff
thx and keep up the great work. hope you can make a living off of that
i'm out
Steff
has left the room
10:50 AM
Steff
has entered the room
Mark M.
hello, again!
Steff
hi there
sorry for coming by again
Mark M.
no worries
Steff
just ran into something
looked into the new ActionBar, yet?
Mark M.
I peeked at it
Steff
The example was made for compatibility
Mark M.
Personally, I plan to focus more on ActionBarSherlock
Steff
to have something similiar on older devices
Mark M.
the code Google posts as samples is not as ready for prime time
Steff
hm, interesting
10:55 AM
Steff
got it working except for one small thing
Mark M.
there are plenty of third-party action bar implementations, with ActionBarSherlock seeming to have the most momentum
Steff
on ICS (and 3.X assumably) I can't click the home icon
on 2.X onOptionsItemSelected() gets called, on 4.X it doesn't
Mark M.
using ActionBarCompat?
Steff
yepp
Mark M.
I am surprised there is a difference in behavior
Steff
so am I
Mark M.
I don't see where they are using android.R.id.home in the code, except in the activity
Steff
been searching but I just don't find the error
Mark M.
oh, no, there it is
Steff
should not have relied on that example
Mark M.
you might run it through hierarchyview and confirm that the home button is a SimpleMenuItem
Steff
same behavior on Galaxy Nexus as well as Emulator
Mark M.
but, this is one of the reasons why I steer people to ActionBarSherlock, over ActionBarCompat
Steff
sounds like a plan. should start using HierarchyViewer
Mark M.
not that ActionBarSherlock is perfect
11:00 AM
Mark M.
but at least there's a clear path to getting problems fixed
some of these samples haven't been touched since 2008, and the rust shows
and that's a wrap for today's chat
next one is 4pm Eastern on Thursday
Steff
okay, thanks for your help
Mark M.
have a pleasant day!
Steff
you too
Steff
has left the room
Mark M.
turned off guest access

Thursday, December 29, 2011

 

Office Hours

People in this transcript

  • Mark Murphy
  • Steff