Wrkout 2.0 for Android has been released

Wrkout 1.8.0 for Android has been released

Changing Android Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine (and other hints)

Changing the Android Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine step-by-step in three different Android versions, as well as pointing to some alternative TTS engines, are the objectives of this post. The main reason for creating it is to provide additional troubleshooting support for Wrkout users, who may be having issues with the speech feature present in the app.

Loading app/web page from Android intent when app is disabled

In Android, it's pretty easy to load a page from Facebook or Twitter or a similar one, from our very own app. By passing an intent with the request, the related app will automatically show up with the desired content. If the app is not installed we can detect that scenario so that, for instance, the browser starts up and loads the link for the wanted page. With Google+  it's even simpler, as we just need to pass the web URL. Android then selects if it should use the Google+ app or a browser (taking into account users' preferences).

However, what if the app is installed but has been disabled (for example through App Quarantine)?

Rooting Memup SlidePad NG 808DC

After noticing there were no known methods of rooting the tablet Memup SlidePad NG 808DC (the methods for the other models did not work with this one), I took some hours off in the past 20th of July to check how hard it could be. It seems it's actually pretty easy and, finally, I'm going to post my method. Although the first root method on the web specific for this tablet, it may work for similar devices as well, but that's on your own responsibility.

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Wrkout - Android App

I am now releasing a new Android application, Wrkout.

For fitness and sports fans to do their exercises in a guided, automated and timed manner.

Android latest SDK: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException

Since the latest Android SDK revision (22) it is possible to get java.lang.ClassNotFoundException or other unexpected errors with Eclipse, for instance when making use of one Android project in another Android project.

Tabata Trainer - Android App

Today I released my first Android application, Tabata Trainer.

Developing this app has made learning Android development a very pleasant experience, while at the same time adding something new to the mobile ecosystem.

This app aims at providing a way for Tabata practitioners and general sports fans to do their exercises in an appropriate and automated timely manner. It also provides the ability for users to define/plan their own training exercises and times. More features are planned for next releases!

Tabata Trainer - Aplicação Android

Hoje lancei a minha primeira aplicação Android, Tabata Trainer.

Desenvolver esta app tornou a minha aprendizagem de desenvolvimento Android numa experiência muito agradável, ao mesmo tempo dando algo de novo ao ecossistema de aplicações móvel.

A app permite aos praticantes de Tabata e desportistas em geral fazer os seus exercícios cronometradamente, de forma apropriada e automática. Fornece ainda a possibilidade dos utilizadores definirem/planearem os seus próprios exercícios e tempos de treino. Mais funcionalidades estão previstas para esta aplicação!

ADB - CPU usage and staggering mouse cursor

After tuning my system to develop an Android app, I noticed that every time ADB (Android Debug Bridge) daemon was started, the mouse cursor (and all graphics for that matter, as well as other I/O tasks like playing music) in my GNU/Linux system would start flickering, staggering, jumping, get slow, I'm not even sure what to call it. Besides that, the CPU usage was always around 2% to 7% (if seen from KSysGuard, lower using ps).

KSysGuard shows the ADB daemon consuming an average 4% CPU time