howdy, Brian!

Hi, Mark

howdy, Tom!

quick question... is there a loading image like Default.png for Android?

what do you mean by "loading image"?

Default.png = iPhone loading image that is displayed while the app is setting up

hey Mark

Brian: nothing built in that works system wide, no

ok, I can fake it easily enough

(btw, howdy CalvinS!)

thansk

Hi all!

ok, Tom -- got a question?

yeah

your finished brian?

yes

btw, splash screen is probably a better description

Ok, right I have an Android Dev question but Its a slightly not do devish one...

so, Im working on an application that involves the collection of data such data which uniquely IDs the device and data that is relevant to the app such as your SMS messages... (dont want to go into to much detail but lets just say you can read and send SMS from the web) :) ...

So

Im I right in thinking I need to declare what data I collect via a EULA to get out of the grasps of Googles own default developer agreement rules? OR something like that?

well, you need to have a EULA

exact details of what goes in that EULA are between you and qualified legal counsel

in the phrase "qualified legal counsel", one word might apply to me, and it surely isn't "legal"

hmmm... all this legal stuff is so annoying... puts me of from just trying to make my free app! :/

yeah, well

I can't really help much with that

Yeah no problem I understand. At least you can confirm I need some form of EULA

if you're distributing through the Android Market, yes

So its the dev distro agreement that defines I need a eula?

yes

Ok thanks, I will look into it.

OK, next up is CalvinS: got a question?

yes

My question is about adding search to my app. In your book you demonstrate how this works but include a simple loop to find the strings in the array. In the Google sample Searchable Dictionary it seems like they use a content provider and a database.

how you handle the search request is up to you

so I should choose the best method to search what ever data I have?

sure

my book examples tend to be on the simplistic side, to demonstrate a core technique

so if I don't want to use a database, I can use whatever is in the core Java libraries?

sure

or things you get from third-party JARs (e.g., searching within your object database)

or whatever

I just need to search a few thousand strings

could be database, could be some smallish free-text search engine, could be a custom data structure

could be random number generator :-)

whatever works for you

haha

ok thanks

anybody have another question?

yes, I do

fire away!

on p. 102 of the tutorials book, there is an onCreate method for a database with only a call to an execSQL statement

the last sentence on the page says "We are seeing if there already is a restaurant table, and if not, executing a SQL statement to create it."

that would be a typo

OK, thanks

I used to actually look to see if the table is there

got rid of it as being pointless in this situation

but, obviously I missed fixing the reference

the good news is, I am publishing an update to that book today

so I can quick slide in a fix

Oh, great.

your timing is exquisite

haha

I don't know SQLite all that well so I thought I was missing something

ok, that's all for me....Next!

oh, good, it looks like I actually already fixed it

(in the about-to-be-published edition)

that whole tutorial got a serious overhaul

anybody have another question?

Thats all from me. Thanks for the help Mark. Bye all.

Who's going to get a Droid X?

only if there are developer problems with it

it is probably a nice phone, but it is Verizon

phones from non-GSM carriers are annoying for the CommonsWare Labs, as I can't just swap SIMs around

ic Verizon is good for voice in New York, so that's what I use

here's a question

I have a few thousand MP3 files in my app and want to access them by name instead of by resource ID

*in your app*?

seriously?

your APK must be huge

will it have bad performance to use getAssets by name instead of getting by resource ID?

yeah the final APK is not created yet, but I hope it's around 40MB

I wouldn't expect a serious problem, but, then again, I have only used assets/ for WebKit pages and fonts

if the APK will be around 40MB, you absolutely positively do NOT want to use Android Market copy protection

APKs require twice their size in free space for install; copy-protected apps require four times their size in free space

So, unless they user has 160MB of free space (more than many devices even ship with), they would have no shot of installing the app

are you really sure you can't download those MP3 files separately?

What is Android Market Copy Protection?

it's a pain in the [bleep]

from the casual developer's perspective, it's a checkbox on the form when you submit your app to the Market

haha

if you turn it on, Android attempts, in vain, to prevent others from grabbing your APK off the device

in practice, rooted phones can get past this without issue, so as an anti-piracy measure, it's pointless

Ugh. That explains something for me.

it also causes your app to now show up on new phones' edition of the Android Marekt, usually for a week or two

er, that's "to not show up"

AFAICT, it adds no value and causes material harm

I have a client for whom I developed a suite of apps that ship with onboard databases in the assets folder

some of the db's are about 10MB, and after I copy them to the databases folder it takes up another 10MB

and he insists on copy protection

that means that, during the install process, his DBs require 40MB

after my APK is downloaded from the Android Market, where is my APK?

after install, they require 10MB

after you copy them, they require 20MB

CalvinS: somewhere in /data that non-rooted phones cannot readily access, IIRC

I forget the details

so a user can root the phone and grab my APK and access all it's data?

sure

without copy protection that is

with copy protection too

leastways, the copy protection mechanism takes no time to undo, from what I'm told

hmm, then I'll need an added cost of a web server to host these files

unless you're anticipating hundreds of thousands of downloads, you might just go with Amazon S3 or something

I'm using that for the books nowadays

how much is S3?

15 cents per GB stored

15 cents per GB transferred

monthly?

yes

it's like the Staples commercial...."Wow that's inexpensive!"

your pain will be on the transfers

40MB means 25 downloads to the GB

(ok, 26 I guess)

so, it's about a penny per download

nice thing is that there is no minimum

Does downloading to the device help anything as far as pirating? Won't the data be somewhere in the file system after the download?

no, it won't help in terms of pirating

it will help in terms of taking up too much storage space in on-board flash

to the SD card then?

for something of that size, ideally it would go on the SD card

even if you needed it to go in the on-board flash, to help cut down casual piracy, you'd save on the double-the-space install issue

Can you summarize each step I should perform at a minimum to protect this data?

can you do the same with a database, or does it have to be in the databases folder for SQLiteOpenHelper?

You can try SQLiteOpenHelper with a full path -- haven't tried that

any last questions?

I think Calvin had one, but it might have gone unnoticed?

whoops

Yes, in a nutshell what are the minimum things you do when you deploy an app and want to secure its data?

To quote the Wicked Witch of the West: "Surrender, Dorothy"

there is nothing you can do, on any platform, to secure data against the person who has physical access to the platform

short of serious crypto

and even the serious crypto won't help, because the keys have to be in your app, and the app can be examined

so, the real question is: who are you trying to defend against?

if you are trying to defend against a casual user, either encrypt the files and put them on the SD card, or put them on the on-board flash

ic....clicking my heels now and saying there's no place like home

Thanks!

thanks, Mark, super helpful as always!

next week's chats are at an unusual time -- 4pm Eastern

otherwise known as 9pm Lisbon

nice!

chats should resume their regular schedule the following week, at least for a few weeks

have fun!

it should be interesting to see what life is like in a country that is *really* into World Cup

also, watch for Android Programming Tutorials Version 2.8 arriving very soon

have a pleasant day!