With Cupcake coming within the next few months, I thought I'd start taking a look at the latest builds regularly and record some video to share with you guys of its progress.
Every Sunday, I'll download, compile, and flash the latest build of Cupcake to test out for your enjoyment.
Sunday, March 15th, 2009
Home, Live Folders, Browser, Bluetooth, Camera, Global Time, Note pad, Settings, Soft keyboard, and more.
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Shortcuts, Drawer, Icons, Orientation animations, Browser zoom, Haptic feedback, UI improvements, and more.
Gerrit has a big code drop from cupcake to master. Are these changes coming from a private repository? Or are these all source changes from the branch that you pulled to make your last Sunday's video going into master? Just curious if there might be a lot more to see this Sunday or not.
Looks like in the last 8 days they've been adding support to the Launcher Home screen for installed applications to be able to add to the available widgets.
Not only the home screen, but a mechanism called AppWidgets for any application to provide or consume little widgets from other applications.
It's just odd that these features aren't in any roadmap anywhere. And while Apple is out making headline news announcing that in a couple of months from now their phones will support copy and paste, nobody is doing the same for Android from a PR perspective. Unless you are knee deep in the code repository, you wouldn't even know it's being improved.
Which is why I think what devolio is doing with a weekly development build demo is potentially huge.
Looks like in the last 8 days they've been adding support to the Launcher Home screen for installed applications to be able to add to the available widgets.
Not only the home screen, but a mechanism called AppWidgets for any application to provide or consume little widgets from other applications.
It's just odd that these features aren't in any roadmap anywhere. And while Apple is out making headline news announcing that in a couple of months from now their phones will support copy and paste, nobody is doing the same for Android from a PR perspective. Unless you are knee deep in the code repository, you wouldn't even know it's being improved.
Which is why I think what devolio is doing with a weekly development build demo is potentially huge.
Kind of contemplating what to do, here's the skinny:
- The current repo is 'broken', still compilable, but opencore has to be disabled
- There are big changes afoot according to what I pulled down and tested today
- I'm somewhat hesitant to put up a video of something that's both...
-- Modified (opencore disabled) and pretty broken, and...
-- In flux (changing rapidly)
Post with a qualifier, yours is to report the "now" and with your next video that is exactly what you will do. I look forward to hearing/seeing the next installment.
Consider the warnings throughout, start, mid-way and at the end again. Joke how you sound like a broken "record" for all you hipsters.
Obviously if no new features are visible a video tour through this build might not help much. I would say the best update would be a summary of the things that look like they are changing.
I didn't spot much of interest to the end user besides the fact that
A) The entire framework is getting something called AppWidgets (previously called Gadgets) that will most significantly:
B) Allow the home screen launcher app to be extended by 3rd party apps
When you did the repo update did you see other significant changes?
Obviously they'll get the new updates compatible with the new OpenCore 2.0 and the build will be less hacked up shortly. But even then I'm not sure what changes will be visible.
And here's the list of changes (that I know of)
- Shortcuts
- Drawer Background
- Icons
- Orientation switch animations
- Browser zoom icons
- Browser zoom (back to default zoom)
- New spare parts (??)
- More random UI improvements
- Haptic feedback (vibrate on specific clicks)
Thanks for the videos devolio, they are really interesting to watch.
I can now keep up with the latest of what is happening with the android development!
a) stick with your theme, Cupcake Sunday. If you want to record a tuesday one, just release it Sunday. It's catchy that way.
b) dark room, much better
c) camera needs a bit of adjusting, is autofocus on? Is auto-white balance on? It seems so. There are points where both "flare up" and make your actions a bit tough.
d) It looks like the long press on the home screen brought up a lot of new options.
Autofocus was on, lesson learned. It takes some work getting it to focus well on the screen, I'll definitely play around with it more before next week.
And I'll stick to Sundays, gonna start doing nightly snapshots so this doesn't happen again
Last edited by devolio; March 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 PM.
It's pretty much the same thing you can get in the About Phone menu right now. Because it's listed in Spare Parts, nobody really knows for sure if it's going to stick around and make it into the actual released builds.
It's pretty much the same thing you can get in the About Phone menu right now. Because it's listed in Spare Parts, nobody really knows for sure if it's going to stick around and make it into the actual released builds.
Overall, it looks like its pretty damn snappy. Moves about quickly. Good job dev!
Regarding the production value...i figure you are mounted on a tripod. Here's a little trick. Try and mount the camera overhead, pointing straight down on the phone. Might be easier for you to get clean footage.
Yeah, it's mounted on a tripod, but I also record them on a couch, so the camera gets kind of shaky at times. I'll mess around with it a lot more before this next video, I've just had two really busy weeks and had to record in (almost) a hurry. Thanks for the tips, I'll keep improving it
Try a room like a basement where you have pipes or struts above and can place a table under the camera. Might end up with a better studio for yourself.
Lots of stuff is changing, and Bluetooth is *almost* confirmed entirely working. It's getting there.
I thought bluetooth was already working on Android.
On my RC8 release it's in the settings menu and looks like you can enable it and connect to devices - but I haven't tested it yet.
I thought bluetooth was already working on Android.
The Android is fully bluetooth compatible, but the current BT stack is limited in functionality. This is because prior to launch security flaws were found, and Google limited the functionality rather than releasing something which would have allowed people to take over our devices.
Nothing to report this week unfortunately, there's been no merges to the repo since late Friday night, and I can't get it to compile without digging way too deeply (with or without patches, open core, etc).
Thanks for trying Devolio, your dedication to giving us a nibble or two of cupcake is the type of attitude that keeps these forums the best there is. All of us are busy and have day jobs and other commitments, and your efforts are appreciated by everyone.
Thanks for trying Devolio, your dedication to giving us a nibble or two of cupcake is the type of attitude that keeps these forums the best there is. All of us are busy and have day jobs and other commitments, and your efforts are appreciated by everyone.
... and All I was going to say was "Thank You", but it just didn't seem enough... but Ageless you said what I am sure we all feel ....
Thanks "D" ...
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I guess that there is no Cupcake Sunday this week... I'm so crazy about this thread! I check it every 20 minutes either from the cell or at home!! >.> <.<
Hmm sounds good but... I really love/loved devolio's job!... But it seems he is kinda busy so I guess he probably wont mind... I really don't know... I'm so anxious of something that I might not even get... Hope I dooo!! >.< ...
As for more "bakers" I am all for it. Post the magic's video.
Cool, im down to show off some things in the Sapphire build. But its kind of similar to the other cupcake vids. Some things did change here and there, but all in all it might only be a good 2 minutes worth of video.
Cool, im down to show off some things in the Sapphire build. But its kind of similar to the other cupcake vids. Some things did change here and there, but all in all it might only be a good 2 minutes worth of video.
I thought the Cupcake build was the same as the Sapphire build. Since the Magic is waiting for Cupcake to be ready before it releases itself...
Cupcake Sunday
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It's both fun and challenging, I love doing it. More to come soon.
