Results of the year for Android developers
The year 2014 is coming to an end, and before heading out to the long New Year holidays, our Android-techid Alexey Zhuravlev summed up the outgoing year from the point of view of Android development.
Android L
The most expected version of the operating system can now be installed on a mobile device.
Major changes:
It is worth noting that to date, while only owners of Nexus devices have the opportunity to receive an update. For most users, there are no official firmware yet.
Material design
Now all those involved in the development of mobile applications have a detailed specification for creating design available. Since you have to maintain previous operating systems, there is a backwards compatibility library.
So, the development assumes a minimum of problems when implementing a new type of design on various devices.
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Android Studio 1.0.0
Just a few days ago, the main IDE for writing Android applications received version 1.0.0. It happened after 2 years of long development. More details about the changes in the versions . However, it is worth noting that it brought several inconveniences, namely: the transition to the Gradle-plugin 1.0.0 and Gradle 2.2.x. Unfortunately, I had to make certain changes to build.gradle. Otherwise, the project ceased to be collected due to a number of deprecated entities that were deleted.
In general, the IDE for development turned out to be stable, with a large number of useful utilities.
Google Play services from 4.1 to 6.5
For the whole year, the services have changed a lot. More information about the changes can be found here .
However, splitting the service into a set of libraries can be considered the most important change. When developing large projects, very often there is a problem of the yield of the number of methods beyond 65536, where half of these methods are Google Play services. Although there are solutions to this problem with the help of MultiDex , you can now access it less often.
Realm
Separately, I want to highlight the library output for the NoSQL Realm solution. We have not yet been able to use combat projects, but there are already a large number of tests and experience. We plan to introduce it into live projects in the near future.
Nexus 6
This year is no exception for the continuation of the Nexus series products. The device has a six-inch display and a new version of the operating system Android L. It is worth noting that the price has increased greatly compared with previous models.
More details can be viewed here .
Android Wear
Now there is an opportunity to develop applications for Android Wear. More details about the development processes for smart watches can be found here .
Android Auto
Now you can develop applications for cars using the Android Auto SDK .
Android TV / Google Cast
This year, Google introduced the Android TV platform along with the Android TV SDK for developers. And with the Chromecast technology, it became possible to stream an image from a mobile device directly to the TV.
What to expect in 2015
First of all, we should expect the growth of users on Android L. The number of custom and stock firmware with the new OS version will grow every day. As a result, most applications will have to lead to the Material Design style, adding more animation. And also, do not forget about the support of version 4.x. As for version 2.x, the development for it can be stopped. Already today new projects come with the requirements of Android 4+, and for older ones the minimum version is gradually increasing.
Google is still engaged in the stabilization of the new version. As a result, version 5.0.1 has already been released. It should be expected that this year there will be no global changes. The company will continue to enter the market for watches, televisions and cars and stabilize Android L. And given the current situation with the prices on the iPhone, the number of Android devices in Russia will grow, thereby encouraging customers to look primarily at the Android market.
Android L
The most expected version of the operating system can now be installed on a mobile device.
Major changes:
- ART instead of Dalvik: Google completely abandoned the Dalvik approach with the JIT compiler in favor of compiling applications during installation, thereby increasing application performance. In more detail about ART here .
However, as practice shows, some applications using Native libraries have stopped working correctly. - Material Design: a completely updated approach to the formation of design.
- Battery Saver: Now with a weak battery, the device can be transferred to the saving mode. Achieved by lowering the processor frequency.
- Notification : a new approach to the notification system. More details .
- Keyboard : a new keyboard in the style of material design.
- Some more changes .
It is worth noting that to date, while only owners of Nexus devices have the opportunity to receive an update. For most users, there are no official firmware yet.
Material design
Now all those involved in the development of mobile applications have a detailed specification for creating design available. Since you have to maintain previous operating systems, there is a backwards compatibility library.
So, the development assumes a minimum of problems when implementing a new type of design on various devices.
')
Android Studio 1.0.0
Just a few days ago, the main IDE for writing Android applications received version 1.0.0. It happened after 2 years of long development. More details about the changes in the versions . However, it is worth noting that it brought several inconveniences, namely: the transition to the Gradle-plugin 1.0.0 and Gradle 2.2.x. Unfortunately, I had to make certain changes to build.gradle. Otherwise, the project ceased to be collected due to a number of deprecated entities that were deleted.
In general, the IDE for development turned out to be stable, with a large number of useful utilities.
Google Play services from 4.1 to 6.5
For the whole year, the services have changed a lot. More information about the changes can be found here .
However, splitting the service into a set of libraries can be considered the most important change. When developing large projects, very often there is a problem of the yield of the number of methods beyond 65536, where half of these methods are Google Play services. Although there are solutions to this problem with the help of MultiDex , you can now access it less often.
Realm
Separately, I want to highlight the library output for the NoSQL Realm solution. We have not yet been able to use combat projects, but there are already a large number of tests and experience. We plan to introduce it into live projects in the near future.
Nexus 6
This year is no exception for the continuation of the Nexus series products. The device has a six-inch display and a new version of the operating system Android L. It is worth noting that the price has increased greatly compared with previous models.
More details can be viewed here .
Android Wear
Now there is an opportunity to develop applications for Android Wear. More details about the development processes for smart watches can be found here .
Android Auto
Now you can develop applications for cars using the Android Auto SDK .
Android TV / Google Cast
This year, Google introduced the Android TV platform along with the Android TV SDK for developers. And with the Chromecast technology, it became possible to stream an image from a mobile device directly to the TV.
What to expect in 2015
First of all, we should expect the growth of users on Android L. The number of custom and stock firmware with the new OS version will grow every day. As a result, most applications will have to lead to the Material Design style, adding more animation. And also, do not forget about the support of version 4.x. As for version 2.x, the development for it can be stopped. Already today new projects come with the requirements of Android 4+, and for older ones the minimum version is gradually increasing.
Google is still engaged in the stabilization of the new version. As a result, version 5.0.1 has already been released. It should be expected that this year there will be no global changes. The company will continue to enter the market for watches, televisions and cars and stabilize Android L. And given the current situation with the prices on the iPhone, the number of Android devices in Russia will grow, thereby encouraging customers to look primarily at the Android market.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246599/
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