This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development-related article every day during the month of August 2021.
This new version packs a lot of interesting new goodies, but for me, the biggest development is built-in support for Jetpack Compose — the new declarative/reactive/state-driven way to build user interfaces — and the accessibility scanner for the Layout Editor.
To find out more, check out this video from Android Developers:
This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development-related article every day during the month of August 2021.
Mobile apps are often front ends for APIs, so one of the first things you should learn about Android programming after getting a reasonable grasp on the basics is how to access an API. If you’re at this stage, this is your lucky day: Tutorials.EU has just posted a new tutorial titled Everything You Need To Know About Retrofit in Android | Get Data from an API that shows you how to build an app that accesses the Rick and Morty API:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyqK1hbZ6Z4
There are a number of Android libraries that you can use to access APIs, including OkHttp, Volley, and the one used in this tutorial: Retrofit.
Both OkHttp and Retrofit are creations of the digital payments and financial services company Square, whose work you’ve probably encountered when buying something. Both are HTTP clients, but when it comes to accessing APIs, you want to use Retrofit, because that’s exactly what it’s for.
This video is the first in a series. This first video will cover the basics of API access with Retrofit. There’ll be a second video where you’ll clean up the app’s architecture using the MVVM pattern, and then a third video where you’ll change the implementation so that it uses coroutines to perform tasks in the background.
This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development a day during the month of August 2021.
Today, I’m giving you a quick entry for Android August:The Awesome Android Complete Reference repo on GitHub. This is a curated list of great Android development reference material, including tutorials, projects showcasing various architectures, third-party libraries, UI references, notes on performance and optimization, best practices, and more.
This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development a day during the month of August 2021.
While you can buy Android video courses on Udemy and other places, don’t forget that there’s a good selection of great video tutorials for free. These are my current favorites.
If you’re new to Android development, chances are that you’ll actually be learning not one, but two different things simultaneously: the Android framework and the Kotlin programming language.
If you want a solid grasp of Kotlin, I can’t thnk of a better YouTube video than Donn Felker’s Kotlin for Beginners. The video is almost 10 hours long, but it’s quite thorough. Even experienced developers who are new to Kotlin will find it helpful:
My current favorite Android tutorial video on YouTube is Philipp Lackner’s Build a Simple Android App, which walks you through the process of building a “to-do list” app in just over an hour:
Straight from the Google mothership, Android Basics in Kotlin is a YouTube video-based course that tries to walk the middle road between teaching Android development and teaching Kotlin. It does this by having you build a set of apps.
If you’re into certifications, this course is designed to prepare you for the Associate Android Developer certification exam. Units 1 through 5 of the course are available, and there’s a Unit 6 coming soon!
This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development-related article every day during the month of August 2021.
While you can learn Android programming alone and on your own, it’s often helpful to learn in a group setting, where you can ask questions, share ideas, and tackle problems together. That’s where Android Study Jams come in.
Android Study Jams are community events where people get together to learn how to build Android apps. Android Study Jam participants work through a curriculum created by Google that allows everyone to work at their own pace. These Jams are led by facilitators who organize events in their area and invite others to join and learn.
GDG SunCoast is the Tampa Bay area Google Developer Group, a group for developers and aspiring developers who are interested in Google’s developer technology. It covers everything developer-y that Google offers, such as Android, Java & Kotlin, Firebase, Progressive Web Apps with Polymer, Angular web apps, Google Cloud Platform), machine learning with TensorFlow and more.
GDG Suncoast has a regular online Android Study Jams session, and there’s one every Wednesday evening in August! They’re online, and they’re free — all you need is a computer that can run Android Studio (a Windows machine made in the last 5 to 6 years, or a Mac made in the last 10 years can do it). Check out their Meetup page, set aside an hour on Wednesday evenings, and learn some Android programming!
Tampa Bay mobile developer jobs on LinkedIn as of this morning. Tap to view at full size.
While checking LinkedIn this morning, I noticed that there were a lot of iOS and Android developer jobs in the Tampa Bay area, and many of them didn’t have any applicants (or at least any applicants who applied via LinkedIn).
I quickly cobbled the image above from screenshots of LinkedIn’s Jobs sections that I took this morning. If you know UIKit from SwiftUI or can tell your RecyclerViews from your ListViews and either live in Tampa Bay or want to move to our sunny shores, there’s a lot of opportunity right here, right now.
Screenshot as of July 1, 2021. Tap to view the source.
…and trust me on this one: If you can combine mobile development skills with people skills, you can make a little more.
Learn Android development with GDG SunCoast
We’ve got a GDG (Google Developer Group) right here in Tampa Bay — GDG SunCoast — and they host an Android Study Jam every Wednesday evening. It’s an online event that’s free of charge to attend, and they walk you through Google’s official Android/Kotlin tutorials. It’s a great place to get to know other locals with an interest in Android development, ask questions, and even win prizes!
I’m going to try and catch as many of these as I can. I hope to see you there!
Returning soon: The Programmers of Portables meetup!
A few years back, I started the Tampa iOS Meetup with Angela Don, and over time, it mutated into Programmers of Portables.
The pandemic, my job search, and a lot of work at Auth0 have kept me from holding a meetup in some time, but I’m already working on plans to bring it back. Watch this space, and get ready to learn iOS, Android, and IoT development tricks!
Speaking of Auth0…
Keep an eye on the Auth0 developer blog, where I’m one of the editors. I’m working on a lot of articles about mobile and Python development, and you’ll start seeing them there soon!
…and when I launched it once it had been installed, something was wrong. The SwiftUI Canvas preview screen didn’t work, and there were no Simulators available.
And then I remembered that this happened to me with the beta edition of the previous Xcode version. The Canvas makes use of the Simulators, and both work properly when you reboot the Mac after installing Xcode, which appears to reload some necessary files.
Simply put, the way to fix it is to use the classic IT solution: Turn the computer off and on again.
I did just that, and Xcode 13 beta now has a properly-functioning Canvas and a full set of Simulators running iOS 15 beta.
