A Quick security update of the Android SDK have just been released fixing mainly a security issue involving handling of image files. Android SDK version m5-rc15 is available for download. There is no API change or new features introduced in this release, but it is recommended to upgrade.

The update doesn’t change any of the Android APIs or introduce any new ones. Eclipse users don’t need to update the ADT plug-in either. Once you’ve unzipped the file on your machine, you will want to update things like your PATH variable and, if you’re using Eclipse, the SDK location setting for ADT (hint: Preferences > Android).

Notice that if you did not yet upgrade from m3 to m5, you might take a look at the upgrade instructions and then the API changes overview. For even more details on the changes, there is an API differences report.

No big changes should be expected after the m5 release and the major API change in the SDK, in the next months at least. There will be more bug fixes and API improvments until we get hands on the first Android Handset.

Good news for Android developers, the challenge’s deadlines have just been extended. The first ADC submission deadline is April 14, 2008. There will be another major SDK update according to the blog post Quang Nguyen, Android Developer Advocate, mentionned also perviously by Dan Morill. There is no further information at this time about the upcoming SDK, but you will have more time now to get familiar with the next SDK edition.

Based on the great feedback you’ve given us, we’ve made significant updates to the SDK that we’ll be releasing in several weeks. In order to give you extra time to take advantage of these forthcoming UI and API enhancements, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline. In addition, a fair number of developers have also asked for more time to build and polish their applications.

Below the updated timeline :

• April 14, 2008: Deadline to submit applications for judging
• May 5, 2008: Announcement of the 50 first round winners, who will be eligible for the final round
• June 30, 2008: Deadline for the 50 winners of the first round to submit for the final round
• July 21, 2008: Announcement of the grand prize winner and runner-up

If you are behind a proxy and looking to connect the emulator to Internet, Luisa Magarian have posted the way to set proxy for the emulator. It uses the command line and the adb utility. First change directory to the emulator tools folder, you will find also the adb utility there. Run the emulator, then from command line :

1. ./adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db “\”INSERT INTO system VALUES(99,’http_proxy’,’ [host_or_IP]:[port]‘);\”"
2. Change [host_or_ip] and [port] to your correct proxy values
3. Try to connect from Android and it should be working fine.

Luisa posted also the way to access some Android’s system setting using SQLite, this will help to get more information on how Android work, for example to retrieve all settings :

1. ./adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db “\”SELECT * FROM system\”"
2. This will return :
   1|music_volume|3
   2|voice_volume|3
   3|ringer_volume|3

Android emulator came with four predefined skins, I just noticed the skins in image folder but didn’t find a way to switch from default skin, while it was very easy. Every skin is based on transparent png images and using a layout file to describe images and positions.

To run the emulator with a different skin, use from command line :

emulator -skin HVGA-L

While HVGA-L is the skin ID, the available skins are :

QVGA-L 320×240, landscape (default)

QVGA-P 240×320, portrait

HVGA-L 480×320, landscape

HVGA-Q 320×480, portrait

From eclipse you can also run the emulator with a different skin, just goto run dialog -> select project -> in the right panel, select Emulator tab as shown in screenshot below :

Thanks to NuuNeoI and Dmitriy

I just finished downloading and installing everything necessary to get Android working and started experimenting the new platform, sample applications, which I find amazing. As you can see below it’s the hello world application running on Android platform :

I just didn’t like the emulator so much, but I guess there will be more amazing devices in the future. So as development platform it’s very fine, I just have to be more familiar with the navigation pad.

So back to Android platform, the home screen show the browser in the middle screen, which based on Webkit, then three major applications included with the system Contacts manager, Recent calls and Maps in addition to sample demos. Below the full list as shown in Android. I still don’t know much on installing applications, and how to make more personalisations, but with such great documentation I guess this would be for the next days.

There is a special page on Youtube showing Android talks, and I stopped at the first video where Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz showing some of the main features. Steve showed something that I didn’t know how to try on the emulator, which is the text notifications. It’s a small chat application where you can receive notifications from your friends. I noticed xmpp settings in the system so I guess it is for gmail chat, or other jabber servers.

Well, that’s all for today. We’ll make certainly more experiments in the next days to get to know Android better.