Well the app is out now and of course there will be bugs and issues on the myriad of android devices. One of the major design challenges around android is many of these devices have different screen resolutions and pixel densities so how do you design for them all…

iOS Simplicity

Apple makes it much easier to design for iOS simply because they control everything, the hardware, the software and the default styles. Since they control the hardware there are only 3 devices to worry about (in terms of screen sizes), iphone 3g, iphone 4 and ipad/ipad2.

You can see in Table 1-1 that there are 3 main resolutions: 960×640, 480×320, 1024×768.

Android Complexity

Android on the other hand is open source and there are many hardware vendors creating a multitude of devices many of which have different screen sizes. Google currently lists 20 different screen sizes on their site.

So do you really have to spend time designing for all of these different resolutions?! That could drive you mad… well fortunately there is some good statistics in that department that will help you make your decision.

As you can see the two major sizes are normal mdpi and normal hdpi screens.

The important ones

If we go back to the second table we can see that the cross section of normal mdpi and hdpi screens are the following:

• 320×480
• 480×800
• 480×854
• 600×1024 (tablets)

So if we know we aren’t specifically designing for tablets that leaves us with just 3 to worry about…

• 320×480
• 480×800
• 480×854

These three screen sizes account for 92.2% of all devices that hit the Google Android Marketplace for the 7-day period ending on June 1,2011.

But wait there’s more

Now that we have our three screen sizes you will notice we have another problem to contend with… both 480×800 and 480×854 fall under the same pixel densities (hdpi and mdpi) as well as screen sizes, both are listed as (normal).

If we develop an xml layout file for mdpi and hdpi will we be covered for both screen resolutions? The answer is no! those 54 pixels can be very tricky.

Solution

In the case of the Sea Turtle App I built 7 virtual machines to test on. 320×480, 480×800(ldpi\mdpi\mdpi), 480×854(ldpi\mdpi\hdpi). With STC we were getting a display issue on the Droid 2 Global. When I went to replicate the issue the layout of the home screen looked fine in 480×854 so what was going on? As it turns out the Droid 2 Global is a 480×854 mdpi screen and I needed a VM specifically set at 480×854 160dpi to replicate the problem.

Once I saw the issue it was easy enough to fix. In my res folder of the project I simply created a new layout folder called layout-854-480 copied the main.xml file for the home screen and tweaked the padding, font sizes and margins a bit and it looks great on that device now.

In the case of the 320×480 screen we had to remove some of the features of the home screen to combat the relatively small screen size but the user still has access to all the same content as on other devices.

Data

Your data is super important and flinging around a laptop isn’t very safe… plus if you still work at home it’s nice to have that data on your pc, without those messy thumb drive transfers or ftp nonsense. There are a growing number of web services providing data back up, but one in my mind clearly stands out, having tested a lot of them. Here are some articles I read.

• http://online-storage-service-review.toptenreviews.com/ – Good quick chart of amenities
• http://tomuse.com/ultimate-review-list-of-best-free-online-storage-and-backup-application-services/ – this is the one i used to test out several

I ended up using Drop Box. Drop box is made for automatically propegating data persistently! enough buzz words? Well to put it simply, it just works… you install a small app on your (windows, mac, linux) pc and select a folder to be your drop box, anything in the box (add/delete/update) gets uploaded to the online storage, any other machine using that account automatically downloads the new information. This allows me to work on my laptop, desktop and any clients computer. Now I know when I get home I’ve got the latest file to keep working on!

Lastly I’ll give a shout out to LogMeIn and their hamachi virtual network software. I use it, and it’s great, allows me to create a virtual private network so no matter where I am I still have server and network access to my other machines.

Communication

Clients need to get ahold of you any where you are… it’s simply one of the most important factors of success as a consultant. I have a cell phone and a house phone and sometimes I give out both, rather stupidly, to clients. Enter technology. I now have a google voice number that I give out that rings all my specified phones at the same time, so I can pick up no matter where I am. Skype! I got a head set so I can talk to people over the internet with my laptop. Also allows you to make calls to phones for a low fee…

Connectivity

I’m free but I need the interwebs! Bring on the starbucks, barnes and nobles, borders, and bagel shops of america! They all have free wifi. Other place in my area that i’ve found are Panera, Crispers and many bagel shops. Some other alternatives… the library, some parks have them and even camp sites, so don’t just think local, take an RV and mix a vacation with work!

Resources

Here are some more things to check out!

Wifi Hotspots

• Fed Ex Office Centers
• Wifi HotSpot List
• Become the hotspot!
• AT&T spots
• Global hotspot listings

Wifi Warriors!

• http://whitepaper.digitalnomads.com/2008/08/the-road-warriors-laptop/
• http://www.wireless-warrior.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommuting
• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20281475/

As any entrepreneur, consultant or freelancer will tell you, time management is difficult and most of us are poor at it. I am no exception to the rule. Whether it is working too long or not working enough, most of us could use some help getting our day under control.

In my case, I often find myself procrastinating and then doing all night cram sessions, or I get really motivated one day and the next I can’t seem to get anything done. Luckily I caught a tweet from a friend who pointed to a neat little app called focus booster. It uses the Pomodoro Technique which basically says, do 25 minutes of work, take a 5 minute break, every forth time take a slightly longer break.

I’ve been using this the last week or so and found that it really helps. Often I work on a task for an hour or two and then find myself taking a half hour break or more and going off on tangents. With the focus booster app it helps me work hard on a task and then take a break so I don’t get burned out.

An additional benefit with the focus booster over a regular timer is that the colors on it start changing as the time winds down and I find I often start working hard to get the task done or if i’m ready to quit the task I know I just have a few more minutes to stick it out.

Multi-tasking is a big part of my day, I always have several projects going on at once and you need to keep everyone happy, by breaking your day into small chunks I find I can give everyone the attention they need.

What to do with your 5 minute break?

• Read news
• Check email
• Quick work out
• Yoga
• Medititaion
• Grab a snack.

If you are working a normal 8 hour work day, you’ll find that you can get in at least 10 minutes an hour of break time, for 8 hours is an hour and twenty minutes, so if you spend every other break working out you can easily get a half hour a day in, which if you’ve read “You on a Diet” then you know that could make all the difference in the world. Here’s another suggestion for what to do on your break.

Some other great things to check out for time management…

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_hack
3. http://zenhabits.net/
4. http://thepowerofless.com/

So check out the focus booster and use it in combination with some of the other techniques that you already use or some of them from the list above and you’ll start increasing your producitivity in no time.

Note: I used a pomodoro to write the blog, I’m going to follow it up with some yoga!

Update: After looking over some of the 43 Folders stuff I found this alternative, same principle shorter time. http://www.43folders.com/2005/10/11/procrastination-hack-1025

I’ve been lucky enough to work with my good friend and compatriot Dr. Jonathan Kaye     on a project which will be using a plethora of technologies. Apache, PHP, MySQL and Flash Builder to name a few. I’ll probably also get back into designing so Photoshop will make it into the mix at some point but that’s for another day.

Today though I would like to talk about the process of setting up a data service in Flex and retrieving my first bit of data from the database. In order to do this I needed a test server so I dug out an old windows XP disc and made myself a virtual hard drive to setup the web server on.  After that I went back to what I used in the past for test servers and grabbed phpTriad. Triad is one of the original software packs that bundled Apache, PHP and MySQL together into one easy to use installation. Unfortunately they stopped updating it a couple of years ago so the technology was way old, but trusting that Google would deliver the latest I just went ahead and downloaded without looking…

Unfortunately the version of PHP was to old for Flash Builder to work with. Now I’m no network admin but I thought it should be easy enough to update to PHP 5.3.0  myself, no dice… So I uninstalled everything a went looking for a replacement for triad and found the friends of Apache and XAMMP Super easy to install and worked like a charm.

Next I wanted to give outside access to this virtual drive sitting on my computer to Jonathan so I downloaded Hamachi, which is a great free solution for virtual networks. With that installed and RPC opened up you could now have total control of this box remotely.

I made a quick database for the proejct and created a couple tables and put in some sample data. Progress! Now I have something to pull out of the database and see in my Flash App. At this point I turned to a few blog posts, first this one by the morphic group, and then another one by Mihai Corlan. Using both of these I was able to create the PHP classes necessaisary to access the database and then the action script classes to introspect the data from php and deliver it to a data grid in Flash Buidler.

Learning the Hard Way

One of the most valuable pieces of information I can give is that when reading these tutorials or any tutorial for that matter, if it is a step by step procedure make sure you read a few steps ahead before you do the current step. Why you ask? Zend frame work that’s why, I read ‘you’ll need the Zend framework and AMF’ and before reading more then that off I went downloading those two things, if I had simply read a little more I would have realized that when constructing a PHP data connection service in Flash Builder that it automatically installs Zend and AMF for you! So precious time was wasted downloading, unpacking, installing and reading about those two things.

I find it frustrating that a lot of times learning new technologies, whether it’s Flash Builder, C#, Silverlight or even PHP for that matter, you have to become a network admin, configuring and setting up servers and software often with confusing or poorly written documentation before actually getting to the piece you are trying to learn. Some may view that as part of the learning process but I view it as ancillary to the real task at hand.

Like Randy Drisgill said to me, and what some of you may be thinking, why not just use a premade VHD they make life so much easier, well in the case of learning Flash Builder, I really didn’t have that option, I spent a few minutes searching but couldn’t find anything immediately that would help me plus, there are still customizations you have to do to them in most cases.

The good news is that the Flash Builder UI, the components and controls that are included are all very easy to use. There is a plethora of information out there available to learn Flash Builder and I applaud Adobe for delivering alot of that documentation.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post some screen shots and links to our project soon enough.