Android Developer Lab, California

I attended Android Developer lab yesterday. Wanted to share the experience with all of you.

First the background

I try to attend a local coding group where a gang of around 20 or so developers meet on a weekly basis huddling with their laptops to review code, applications and discuss overall Android state of art. It is from this group that I got the wind of Android Developer Labs: http://sites.google.com/site/androiddevlabs/faq

I applied few weeks back. However, very few from my group were getting the acceptance invitation. Mine did not come until yesterday morning. I guess, they ran out of all the good candidates by then J

Anyway, I was finally in!

The Place

The event was happening in a VERY large conference room at Google complex. I want to say there were upwards of 300 attendees. Everyone is supposed to show up with their Laptops + Android SDK + Eclipse + Sample code. I being myself, arrived 5 minutes late. The conference room was WALL to WALL full with attendees and I could find a sitting place only at the last row. Well, I would not take that for this kind of event. Walked right past all 30 rows and took up a position at the very FRONT row right in front of the speaker. I was in a good neighborhood! The guy sitting next to me has Remote Desktop Application for Android market which he is selling for $20. Nice!

Key Things covered

The session started around 2 p.m. The person presenting was from the Google Developer relationship team and his job is to evangelize to developers like us. They are holding similar sessions across the country. He first focused on letting us know what were the features in the latest SDK (Android 2.0). I will send you the presentation later on or you can get it on your own from the Web. But here are my key takeaways:

• As of end of 2009, Android was in 48 countries with 59 carriers and 20 devices
• They are truly trying to make it an OPEN source, OPEN platform which can target MANY devices as opposed to ONE (I guess you all know which the CHOSEN ONE is!)
• They want to differentiate by making Apps super–simple to publish. You can submit and upload your app in 5 minutes or less and that’s it. No Hurdles, No Reviews!
• If that is scary, they say it has always been the Google Way. Let the Community review process shake out the undesirable elements and not Google central committee.
• Finally, they want devices and applications which will cater to four key aspects: EYES, EARS, TOUCH and LOCATION.

The Surprise

After giving us an overview of the SDK, the presenter wanted us to open our laptops and do a lab solution. He suggested that we use some test devices that they will provide. Then he looked at us and said: “Tell you what! We will give you all a Droid Phone each!” The room burst into thundering applause. Within 5 minutes, I had my own Droid phone. It took me minutes to set the battery, hook up to my laptop via USB and the phone turned on. I had to press 1 to activate my phone. Here came another surprise. The phone was activated with 1 month free Voice and Data from Verizon and a $120 discount from a yearly service if I sign a contract within 30 days. Santa Claus has truly come to town!

Getting my own apps loaded

I have been developing Android applications, but had to remain satisfied with the emulator running on my laptop. I was ready to deploy the apps on the actual device and see it going. It took some hurdle to get the USB driver configured and my laptop to recognize the phone. Within next 30 minutes I got my starter Apps running on the phone! Developing on Eclipse, downloading via USB, running on actual device! I was in heaven. Almost!

I forgot to mention, during this wait time, I was able to connect with Gmail, suck all my contacts and mail down, take a picture of my worthy neighbor, email him and also check out Facebook.

The Assignment

Beyond the euphoria, the serious business of application development continued. Google wanted us to work on a Bluetooth based chat application. We had to write a simple piece of code to control bluetooth, locate other bluetooth devices that are within communication range, request communication with a remote device, and listening for incoming requests

The App Show

Next developers were asked to walk up to the podium and show everyone any apps they can share. Four or five walked up to the podium and presented. Since there was no phone projection, people had to be happy with the desktop screen dumps and webpages. Most apps shown were in the consumer category. One developer from our meetup group camp showed her coin collection app. One guy showed a 3D gaming engine. One gentleman showed an Android tablet.

Thoughts and Conclusions

2010 will be an interesting year to watch for mobile application development!