If you are new to Android and looking for a way to test some of the currently available Android applications, here is how to proceed :

1. First get the Android SDK and unzip it somewhere on your hard drive
2. Add SDK_ROOT to your system variables pointing to /tools folder under the sdk
3. Run the emulator
4. Copy the apk file to /tools folder
5. Change directory to /tools and run from commandline $adb install your_application.apk
6. Now check applications list in the emulator and you should see the new application installed and ready.

Some pointed me to the error message when running adb on windows : * deamon still not running * error: no device.

In this case try to shutdown adb server and start it manually using :
$adb kill-server
$adb start-server

You can test if deamon is working by running $adb shell

The uninstall procedure is

$adb shell rm your_application.apk

Hope this help, enjoy !

Google is offering $10 millions to create amazing new applications for its new Android mobile platform, and today is the first day to submit your application for the challenge. So if you decided to develop an excellent application for Android, here is where you have to go next : ADC submission page. Pick one of the three available forms based on whether you’re working alone, in a team, or for an organized company. Then attach your .apk application file, add documentation file in PDF or text format, and everything should be in english even if you are planning to develop for other languages.

Be sure to read carefully the terms and conditions for the challenge, which explain also how the challenge is going to happen. There are some important details in the terms and conditions concerning the qualifications, four important points that you have to focus on while creating your application :

1. Originality of Concept – Does the application introduce a great new idea; for example, a new angle on social applications?
2. Effective Use of the Android Platform – Does the application take advantage of Android’s unique and compelling features, such as built-in location-based services, accelerometer, and always-on networking?
3. Polish and Appeal – Is the application easy to use and aesthetically appealing?
4. Indispensability – Is the application compelling and essential, such as a game the user just can’t put down or a utility she can’t live without?

So let’s the game begin and good luck for everyone.

After the second Android SDK update, here is another collection of Android applications. Some of the missing features in Android are really limiting developers from being more creative. For example, until today there is no API for Bluetooth, Camera, and GPS. The reason why many developers have to deal with the existent part of Android only until all features will be available.

Dodge Ball for Android

Ryo Ichinose have written Dodge Ball for Android, a fun game where you have to move a spaceship and avoiding falling balls from the sky. Code source and video demo are available.

CameraSource, Live Camera Previews in Android

While there is no camera emulation currently available for Android, here is the first unofficial solution provided by Tom Gibara to work with local and remote camera sources. The code is public domain and consists of four classes CameraSource, GenuineCamera, RemoteCamera and WebcamBroadcaster. This is more experiment than real application but CameraSource is very useful to get camera emulation working on Android platform.

Android Feed Reader

To follow Android news and your favorite blogs, here is the second RSS/Atom feed reader for the Android platform. Currently the project came with the very basic features of an RSS reader, and a basic UI … There is a lot of To-dos, but it’s already a good start. AFR uses the ROME + JDOM libraries for parsing feeds, and the java.beans module from Apache Harmony, which is required by ROME.