RFID Asia :: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Community in Asia


        

First Look: App Inventor for Android Gingerbread 2.3

 

Friday, December 31, 2010
Adi Tedjasaputra. by Adi Tedjasaputra
Installing the SDK for the first time, I was wondering which OS I should choose. As my Mac is anciently nostalgic (non x86), my choice came down to two, Windows XP or Linux. My Windows XP runs on my 6-year old Toshiba and my Linux (Xandros) runs on my Asus Eee PC 702. With the simplicity and reliability of my Eee PC, it only took me five minutes to decide that I was going to install the SDK on my Eee PC. The only challenge was that Google has only tested the SDK on Ubuntu Linux, Lucid Lynx. But then again, a little challenge wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Google App Inventor for Android Blocks Editor.
Holiday is always a good thing: More spare time, relaxing, spending time with family and getting recharged.

After my best Christmas ever, what else could be better than Gingerbread as an icing on the cake?
Knowing the recent release of Android Gingerbread 2.3 with support for near field communication (NFC), I couldn't help but getting my hands dirty with the Android SDK.

Installing the SDK for the first time, I was wondering which OS I should choose. As my Mac is anciently nostalgic (non x86), my choice came down to two, Windows XP or Linux. My Windows XP runs on my 6-year old Toshiba and my Linux (Xandros) runs on my Asus Eee PC 702. With the simplicity and reliability of my Eee PC, it only took me five minutes to decide that I was going to install the SDK on my Eee PC. The only challenge was that Google has only tested the SDK on Ubuntu Linux, Lucid Lynx. But then again, a little challenge wouldn't hurt, would it?

The first spec for the SDK, GNU C Library (glibc) needs to be version 2.11 or later. What version do I have? None installed, unfortunately ;-)

So I updated, upgraded and installed the stable glibc for my Xandros. What version would that be? Version 2.7.

Great! ... What should I do now? I don't want to risk getting version 2.11 that will mess up with my Eee PC. Let's just say that F9 has been my best friend due to my previous "scientific experiments" on my Eeee PC. That's being said, I left the stable glibc alone.


My initial goal was to see how the latest Android SDK performs, so I did not bother installing Eclipse IDE, but only the SDK starter package, Android 2.3 platform and Platform-tools, Samples and Documentation.

I then explored the App Inventor for Android to get a simple app up and running fast. However, after reading the system requirements, I got a second shock: Ubuntu 8+/Debian 5+, Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or higher, Java 1.6.

What do I have?
Xandros, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4 and Java 1.5. What are the odds of having App Inventor for Android running?

Java test page: Passed.


Everything went perfectly well until I started the Emulator. It took a fine 15 minutes to get the Emulator started for the first time and another 10 minutes to get the App Inventor connected to the Emulator.

At the end, the App ran well as designed at the cost of execution time. Not too bad for an incompatible system.

Stay tune for my next experiment with the NFC feature of Android Gingerbread 2.3.

The writer is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.

Labels: , , , , , ,


Read more »

 


 

Previous RFID Asia Journal




QR Code

   QR Code of RFID Asia.