I have been lately very interested about NFC (Near Field Communication) apps and services on Android. Android 2.3 a.k.a Gingerbread introduced NFC APIs, and I have been playing a bit with them. Unfortunately, I do not yet have any Android phone supplied with a NFC chip. Fortunately, the Gingerbread's NFC API provides means to start developing NFC apps without any actual NFC enabled device. (I did pre-ordered Samsung Galaxy S II which includes NFC - at least in some variations. I also wish to get my hands on Nexus S).
To learn more about NFC apps on Android and their development, I created a new user group called NFC Android on the I Am Android social network. So, if you are interested about the topic, please feel free to join the group.
Paper.li is an interesting new service that basically organizes links shared on Twitter and Facebook into an easy to read daily newspaper paper format. The service is currently in alpha mode, but you are allowed to create your own daily newspaper.
So, I wanted to a give a try for paper.li and created The Android Daily that uses my Twitter list for Android as a source for content. Seems to work pretty well - check it out.
I just joined a new social network for Android users called I am Android. I am interested to see how the network expands and evolves in future. You can check it out by yourself by clicking below:
My blog is 99% about Android, but as I have confessed in some of my past blog posts, I am also a Apple fanboy as well as an iOS app developer. (However, the problem is that I prefer to play with my kid during evenings, so I rarely find out enough time to really progress my own iPhone app projects - nor Android app projects, of course).
I would like to introduce to you my friend Jari Karvonen who has worked really hard for several months to complete and to release his very first iOS app to App Store. His first application was finally approved yesterday to App Store - kudos and congrats to Jari!
Jari has developed a cool retro styled tilt game called Rullaan. I am big fan of puzzle games and I really like this game. I have followed how Jari has been progressing with his game project, and I also had the possibility to do some beta testing before the game was submitted to App Store.
The game features minimalistic and retro styled 3D graphics which I think are simply awesome. I also like the sound effects which are minimalistic, but fit greatly to retro styled atmosphere of the game. Tilt based controls are very well implemented, and I have to say that Jari has managed to avoid to create frustrating gaming experience which are quite typical in similar tilt games where the task of the gamer is to guide a rolling ball to solve puzzles or to reach given goals. By the way, for those who do not speak Finnish, the name of the game, Rullaan, can be approximately translated to "I'm rolling".
Jari describes his game as follows:
"Explore the world of Rullaan!
Orbiting the distant planet of Rullaan there remains mysterious structures left behind an ancient civilization. You need steady hands to steer the spherical recon droid through all the levels."
Give a try for Rullaan, I hope the game will be very successful, so that Jari will be rewarded for his hard working, he would stay motivated to further develop the game, and he would buy me a couple of beers (in case I manage to contribute the success of Rullaan with this blog post ...).
Angry Birds has been holding the #1 position long enough ...
I guess Jari is really interested to receive any feedback and proposals for his game. You can contact him using the email address that can be found on his Rullaan web site.
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) was finally released today. Some of the feature highlights of the new platform version include:
Enhancements for game development: New concurrent garbage collector, optimized event handling, more extensive set of native APIs exposed for NDK developers, support for several new sensor types, including gyroscope.
Rich multimedia: New video formats VP8 and WebM. Audio effects such as reverb, equalization, and bass boost.
New forms of communication: Support for front-facing camera, SIP/VOIP, and Near Field Communications (NFC).
Also SDK tools have been updated to provide more efficient and powerful tools, such as new UI Builder (preview).
Watch the following official video as a quick introduction to highlights of the 2.3 platform release:
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