howdy, Kathy!

Good morning Mark

how can I help you today?

beats me

that's more of an end user question

you might watch the video of the Galaxy Nexus announcement

it's also possible that the emulator will show what you need

I do not want to write an app that will be provided for free in the next release. I did watch the Gallery Nexus announcement. I also wanted to know what they meant about their "hipster" filters and if they will let developers plug into it and provide their own.

there is no current support for creating your own filters

though they are looking into it

Nook and Amazon (Kindle Fire) have new android devices coming out. Do you know if they make good android testing devices?

I would not consider them good testing devices in general

they do not have the Android Market

and therefore may or may not meet the Compatibility Definition Document requirements

or pass the Compatibility Test Suite

hence, it will be difficult for you to tell if strange behavior is due to your app or due to the device

as secondary test devices, or for specifically trying to distribute apps to those devices, they're fine

but, for primary hardware testing, use a device that legitimately has the Android Market on it

I was trying to justify purchasing one to myself by saying that I could use it for testing android apps, but the more I read about them the less sure I became about being able to use them. I already have a HTC Eris and Evo 4G for testing android apps that I purchased off craigslist.

in your case, they'd be able to show you what your apps look like on a larger screen

but neither runs Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich, so you will not see how your apps behave on there (with the action bar, Theme.Holo widget set, etc.)

so it comes back on who you are trying to distribute your app to

and what they will be using

both the Nook and the Fire have their own private "app markets", so it is possible to create an app that is principally distributed to those devices

OTOH, the Fire doesn't have a camera, and I forget if the Nook does ornot

er, or not

Both devices have their own pros and cons.

In regards to my first question, is the emulator available for ice cream sandwich?

sure

if you are on the latest tools release, the SDK Manager will let you download Android 4.0

if you still have an "SDK and AVD Manager" instead, that will let you download the latest tools, from which you can download Android 4.0

Thank you so much for your help, I don't have any more questions right now.

OK