someone who's doing some things
Google’s mobile operating system and the stuff I do or try to do with it. A lot of the time it’ll be either music or automation related.
It’s quite an amazing thing that App Inventor has been going for 10 years now. I think I can remember when it actually launched, and it’s come a long way since then.
I’ve dabbled with it on and off over the years and it can be fun. Fun and useful. Although I haven’t actually finished anything with it as yet. That’s pretty normal for me though.
Ever since the last Apple event I’ve been thinking more and more about going to Android. I’m not thinking that I’d replace my iPad, more just the more non-musical apps on my phone. But for the life of me I can’t work out what device I need or what would be useful.
To be fair I’ve got a reasonable amount of time before I need to make a decision about this, so it isn’t a big problem, but I don’t really know where to start in order to work out what would be a good device.
I haven’t used Android App Inventor in age, so when I got an email from MIT telling me about what they’re doing with it, it came as quite a nice surprise, especially as they’ve got new stuff planned for it, such as …
All of which will be quite interesting to have a play with. The other cool thing in their email was Thunkable. Which is a version of App Inventor which is run by a commercial outfit. I think I might have a try of that soon.
Now is probably a good time to get back to trying out App Inventor anyway. I did play with it a long time ago, with a view to seeing if it could be used for audio apps, but really it couldn’t. I wonder if any of the new features coming to it will help with that?
I’ve been getting back into Processing 3. As I said when it first arrived, it’s been a while since I made things with Processing, but this version looks so much better than what’s gone before. Installing libraries and tools is now just so easy. It’s amazing. It feels like I really need to get back to making some stuff with Processing again.
What I really wanted to do was to be able to use my Pebble Time with two devices simultaneously. However, it appears that this is just not possible at all. The reason? Simple really, but the smart watch uses bluetooth LE in slave mode and not in host mode. Host mode would allow you to connect to up to 7 other devices. However, it doesn’t look like you can do that easily with an iPhone, and, the Pebble doesn’t have that enabled as yet, and it appears that there is little or no demand for it. Trust me to be looking for something that no one else wants.
So, why did I want it? Well, I thought it would be useful to be able to get it to have notifications from both my iPhone and my Nexus tablet at the same time. Android has a few things that iOS doesn’t, and whilst the same is true in the other direction, from my perspective that’s quite minimal.
However, it isn’t the end of the world at all. I can live without it, but perhaps I may have to think of a different way of doing things in order to achieve what I wanted.
I’ll give that some thought.
I only got a Chromecast to try out a particular streaming service to get a specific show, and, that didn’t actually work out, which was a shame. However, the upside was that I’ve found the Chromecast itself really useful. Using it with my Nexus Android tablet has been really handy. I found that I got a load of really good offers which have almost paid for the device, and, talking to a colleague who’s already got a Chromecast, apparently the offers get refreshed, so I’m looking forward to getting more.
So it’s had a double upside, it’s been useful itself, and it’s showed another use for my Nexus which I’ve always sort of struggled to find a proper use for.
Which is an interesting Android app for running your own web server on an Android device. So, why do it? Good question. Like a lot of technologies I tinker with, I end up asking myself just that. What’s the point of this? What useful function does it offer me? I may well end up with the same question with PAW server. I’m not sure what I can do with it that can’t be satisfied elsewhere. At least, not yet anyway. It may have one or two uses.
If I find them I’ll let you know about it.
Always up for trying a new Android type thing:
“Windows/OS X/Linux: Google’s Android Studio is out of beta, replacing Eclipse as the standard for Android application development. Aspiring Android app…”
Always up for trying a new Android type thing:
“WikipediaOne of the best things about Android is that you can change your phone’s theme, add new widgets, and customize your settings whichever way you please.…”
Via 15 Apps That Will Make Your Android Phone A Whole Lot Better .
Always up for trying a new Android type thing:
“Google’s new Lollipop release has been heralded by many as a sign of the increasingly sophisticated design of Android, but despite that advancement there still…”
Via APUS Wants To Make Your Android Phone An iPhone With Its Launcher App .
I am Ashley Elsdon 