Any news on Android App?

[GurrenLagann]

Just curious if there are news about this.

[LadyStardust]

I haven't heard anything yet on one. Would be nice if we could get it too. Not everyone has an iPhone.

[Nura]

Actually more People use Android Then Apple nowdays Funny even in japane there are more Android devices as Apple, but it is easier to code for Apple devices due to there restrictions etc.

[busta]

Actually more People use Android Then Apple nowdays Funny even in japane there are more Android devices as Apple, but it is easier to code for Apple devices due to there restrictions etc.

Mobile OS Marketshare Approx:

80% Android
10% iOS
10% Windows

There's no excuse for developing things specifically for iOS. And no, it's just as easy to develop for Android devices. The only problem comes with ensuring compatibility on every Android device out there whereas Apple only has a handful of devices. Apple does the same thing with their x86 based computers.

[Makeda]

Mobile OS Marketshare Approx:

80% Android
10% iOS
10% Windows

There's no excuse for developing things specifically for iOS.

I very roughly know iOS (took a class on it). It uses Objective-C; a pretty easy language to code in. BUT its all unique code to iOS... iOS and Mac use the same underlying programming language, Objective-C, but different code libraries. Just different enough to give you a real headache in moving around. Worse is that iPhone and iPad are something like 99.9% identical, and that 0.1% is sure to always trip you up somewhere you did not expect... especially as when testing it all out in xCode, the required IDE (development tool), things will work. Then you pop them on their respective devices and something will trip up.

I've not looked into developing for Android... but it looks like its mostly in Java, and that at least is a widely used language. However the real key is in the libraries unique to the devices. Libraries can make or break overhead for development.

However... these two things, Objective-C and Java, and their different libraries... mean an app made for one will not be easily ported to the other. Its not even as "easy" as making a program for Windows and Macintosh... Apple Mac may prefer Objective-C when it makes things in-house for Mac, but you don't have to... For iOS though, good luck not making your code 100% from the ground up for iOS.

Porting means completely re-writing, as if it was a brand new project. All you get to keep is your raw text copy, images / animations / sounds, and your notes/flowcharts from the user-interface, art, & design team...

People code for iOS first because its more newsworthy, and its smaller userbase is more commercially 'activated'.

.

[Kosmos992k]

Actually more People use Android Then Apple nowdays Funny even in japane there are more Android devices as Apple, but it is easier to code for Apple devices due to there restrictions etc.

Pretty sure android uses a closed runtime environment like apple for apps, so that hardware differences aside, apps compiled for Android work on Android. Not sure how a more restricted environment with apple makes anything easier to code unless those restrictions severely dumb down the target platform you're coding for.

[Ninix]

hardware differences aside

This accounts for a lot more of the headache than you may realize. It's a lot better now than when Android phones were first taking off but I still regularly receive bug reports coming from people on really exotic/crappy hardware, usually caused by phones with pitiful amounts of RAM, buggy drivers, underpowered CPUs, inconsistent OpenGL support, or awful and inaccurate touch sensors. Plus you still have to deal with the usual OS fragmentation too, since a large chunk of devices are still running on Gingerbread from three years ago, which is a pain when you want to use API features added in newer versions of Android because then you either have to cut out a portion of your userbase or start messing with compatibility libraries and such.

Like I said, it's certainly gotten much better over the years but there's still work to be done. I still work exclusively with Android, though.

[Arcaloid]

"Good news" is that even now iPhone app has been released for a while, there is still not much use of that...

[Britta]

I have been wondering this myself, since I use a droid. Hopefully one will be released within the next month.

[Warlyx]

meh the app is "ok" , a official DB in your phone ....nothing u cant find with a google search in 2s