Custom Class Loading in Dalvik

[This post is by Fred Chung, who’s an Android Developer Advocate — Tim Bray]The Dalvik VM provides facilities for developers to perform custom class loading. Instead of loading Dalvik executable (“dex”) files from the default location, an application can load them from alternative locations such as internal storage or over the network. This technique is not for every application;...

New Tools For Managing Screen Sizes

[This post is by Dianne Hackborn and a supporting cast of thousands; Dianne’s fingerprints can be found all over the Android Application Framework — Tim Bray]Android 3.2 includes new tools for supporting devices with a wide range of screen sizes. One important result is better support for a new size of screen; what is typically called a “7-inch” tablet. This release also offers several...

Multiple APK Support in Android Market

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]At Google I/O we announced our plans to add several new capabilities to help developers manage their products more effectively in Android Market. We’re pleased to let you know that the latest of those, multiple APK support, is now available. Multiple APK support is a new publishing option in Android Market for those developers who want extra control over distribution.Until now,...

Debugging Android JNI with CheckJNI

[This post is by Elliott Hughes, a Software Engineer on the Dalvik team — Tim Bray]Although most Android apps run entirely on top of Dalvik, some use the Android NDK to include native code using JNI. Native code is harder to get right than Dalvik code, and when you have a bug, it’s often a lot harder to find and fix it. Using JNI is inherently tricky (there’s precious little help from the type system, for example), and JNI functions...

Android 3.2 Platform and Updated SDK tools

Today we are announcing the Android 3.2 platform, an incremental release that adds several new capabilities for users and developers. The new platform includes API changes and the API level is 13.Here are some of the highlights of Android 3.2:Optimizations for a wider range of tablets. A variety of refinements across the system ensure a great user experience on a wider range of tablet devices.Compatibility zoom for fixed-sized apps. A new compatibility...

A New Android Market for Phones

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]Earlier this year, we launched several important features aimed at making it easier to find great applications on Android Market on the Web. Today, we're very excited to launch a completely redesigned Android Market client that brings these and other features to phones.The new Market client is designed to better showcase top apps...

New Mode for Apps on Large Screens

[This post is by Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com. — Tim Bray]Android tablets are becoming more popular, and we're pleased to note that the vast majority of apps resize to the larger screens just fine. To keep the few apps that don't resize well from frustrating users with awkward-looking apps on their tablets, Android 3.2 introduces a screen compatibility mode...