Android Archives

Posted by Metova

July 2, 2013

Android Coding & Development In the Press

7 min read

Mobile App Developer Metova Celebrates its Seventh Anniversary With 31 Percent YOY Revenue Growth

The firm has doubled its development talent, adding 15 developers in nine months

Posted by Metova

April 24, 2013

Android Coding & Development Culture

2 min read

Mobile App Developer Metova sponsors Vanderbilt Senior Design Day project

We were thrilled to sponsor a project for this year’s Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Senior Design Day. Metova’s VP of Technology Dave Lane advised four students who spent the last two semesters working on their project: the Augmented Reality Smartphone Framework for Android.

Posted by Jennifer Pike

April 3, 2013

Android Coding & Development Featured Apps Tech News

3 min read

Is your app on Fire? Amazon Fire TV Announced

Yesterday Amazon announced a new device, Amazon Fire TV. Similar to the Apple TV and Roku, it allows users to stream TV shows, movies, music, and download apps. Amazon Fire TV stands out in that it is built for gaming, even supporting its own gaming controller. A quad-core processor, 2GB memory, support for surround sound, and Amazon payment integration are just a few of the device’s perks.

Posted by Metova

August 28, 2012

Android Apple/iOS Coding & Development In the Press Tech News

30 min read

Coming soon: iOS 6, Jelly Bean and Windows 8

This summer, Apple, Google and Microsoft announced updates to their mobile operating systems: iOS 6, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1), Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. All of the operating systems are at different stages of maturity, which is reflected in their unique mixes of competitive and innovative features.

Posted by Metova

May 22, 2012

Android Coding & Development

7 min read

Google Android Will Win The Marathon

There is no question that Apple leads the industry in many ways: beautiful design; easy to use operating system; an eye toward integrated product offerings, to name a few. But in terms of market share, Google Android is the undisputed leader. More importantly, Google is securely set up to continue this dominance for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Metova

May 15, 2012

Android Coding & Development In the Press Tech Jobs

6 min read

Android 4.0 development standards help designers embrace the platform

With the unveiling of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) at the beginning of the year, Android also revealed its first suggested app design guidelines, departing from its long heralded stance that apps for Android don't have to abide by any rules as long as they aren't malicious. While these guidelines are by no means mandatory, they do imply that Android's flexible policies are getting a little more structure, which has us asking a series of questions: Is this good for the industry? Is it necessary for Android to continue to compete with Apple? Or should Android revert course and return to its "anything goes" cowboy roots?

I whole-heartedly welcome the 4.0 guidelines. The new UI offers more structure without being confining, and it helps fix usability issues that left Android feeling less design-forward than Apple. For example, in previous versions of Android, if users were in a gallery and wanted to delete a photo or multiple photos, they had to first click the delete icon before selecting what they wanted to delete, which is counterintuitive. The new guidelines utilize a contextual action bar wherein users can select a photo or multiple photos via a long press and then select delete, copy, save or any other action they would need to perform. The action bar also has a new "overflow" area where less frequently used functions are stored. It used to be that these actions were hidden in the native menu, which was arguably one of the most confusing things about Android for users and designers alike.