Twitchy Paint

Created an Android app at the SPARC Hackathon this weekend. I got the category "Accelerometer"  so I made an app that draws by sensing the tilt of your phone or tablet and clears the screen by shaking it. It does some other minor stuff besides that. All the code minus a few minor bug fixes I made after the hackathon is on GitHub and the app can be downloaded from Google Play.

Fun with NFC Tags and Tasker for Android

I was wanting to do something with a bunch of NFC tags I had laying around and finally found a real life use case that I have everyday. When I get in my car I hook my phone up to the speakers and play music from the Google's Play Music App. After loading the app I have to find the playlist I want and it really just becomes too many button presses for me. So I came up with the idea to use the NFC tags to launch the app and auto play a given playlist. I have a couple NFC tags set up now for different playlists and when I tap a tag it loads up and starts playing. To do this I used a combination of NFC Task Launcher, Tasker, and a plugin for Tasker called Tasker AutoShortcut. Click the jump to see a guide on how to set this up.

1st Android App

While not technically the 1st Android App I've made it is the 1st one I have put on the Android market. Just a simple animal soundboard. You can get it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.chuckwoodraska Also found this useful for signing them:

Compile and sign with Eclipse ADT

If you are using Eclipse with the ADT plugin, you can use the Export Wizard to export a signed .apk (and even create a new keystore, if necessary). The Export Wizard performs all the interaction with the Keytool and Jarsigner for you, which allows you to sign the package using a GUI instead of performing the manual procedures to compile, sign, and align, as discussed above. Once the wizard has compiled and signed your package, it will also perfom package alignment with zipalign. Because the Export Wizard uses both Keytool and Jarsigner, you should ensure that they are accessible on your computer, as described above in the Basic Setup for Signing.

To create a signed and aligned .apk in Eclipse:

1. Select the project in the Package Explorer and select File > Export.
2. Open the Android folder, select Export Android Application, and click Next.
   The Export Android Application wizard now starts, which will guide you through the process of signing your application, including steps for selecting the private key with which to sign the .apk (or creating a new keystore and private key).
3. Complete the Export Wizard and your application will be compiled, signed, aligned, and ready for distribution.