Android App Development

Although a lot of people particularly Kindle Fire owners awaited for the long overdue Kindle update from Amazon, it actually did more than update the tablet and improve its interface. The Kindle Fire 6.2.1 Update ruined the one click rooting method which developers introduced at the XDA Developer’s Forum. Although Kindle Fire users can still keep their root by blocking the online update which Amazon started to push last week, those who have unwittingly updated their tablets may have to invest some effort to re – root their tablets.

Last October, Google introduced the Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich for Android based smart phones and tablets. The new Android platform from Google has two purposes and these are to improve the tablet user experience and to have unified software for tablet and smart phone devices. Before Android 4.0, majority of Google tablets ran on Honeycomb version (Android 3.0) but Google’s attempts seemed to be hurried and imperfect in their aim to compete with Apple’s iPad.

Android app developers face big changes in writing apps for Android. Google android blog provides valuable resources for Android app developers. Android Design is where all Android app developers gather together and according to Christian Robertson, the Android Design is more like "the place to learn about principles, building blocks, and patterns for creating world-class Android user interfaces.

The Kindle Fire from Amazon is definitely a legitimate platform that will certainly drive app downloads to the ceiling based on an enhanced version of the new Android OS. There was an overwhelming response from Kindle Fire users supported by the number of app downloads just this holiday. And while the Kindle Fire only has a smaller market share yet compared to iPhone/iPad and other Android devices, it enjoyed an impressive seventeen percent of new Kindle Fire users just a day after Christmas and an overall 12.5% of all Kindle Fire devices that were registered on the 25^th of December.

According to Distimo, Android has surpassed the active app milestone of 400,000 in the Android Market. And with over 100,000 active app publishers that contribute to its staggering active apps total, it is not surprising for Android to achieve such feat. However, at least two-thirds of all the 400,000 apps titles are offered for free which could be related to the typically lower spending of Android users on paid applications compared to its iOS counterpart.

It certainly did not take long before Amazon made Kindle Fire one of its best selling products even before Christmas season heats up but did Amazon managed to head to the number two position in the tablet industry? After a couple of weeks in the market, Amazon’s Kindle Fire gained the edge of many of its competitors in the tablet biz based on the report from IHS iSuppli. The market research firm is very confident about Kindle Fire’s position in the market that it already projected that Amazon’s Kindle Fire is already “the second most popular tablet computer in the world” tailing behind iPad.

Swype, an alternative input keyboard provider has just released its latest Android version that now includes a Dragon Dictation service. The new Dragon Dictation feature will convert the things you say into text which is a cool addition for all Android lovers. Swype keyboard has been one of the compelling features of some of the Android devices because this is one keyboard wherein you can easily type by sliding your finger across it and has been very popular among all Google Android based smart phone aficionados.

Last December 22, the Amazon software update for Kindle Fire went live after Amazon released due to a number of complaints from not so satisfied customers. The Kindle Fire software update was supposed to resolve the problems that customers reported after using their tablets like unresponsive screen, poor security, absence of an external volume control, and other performance based complaints.