• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Cupcake Sunday

devolio

Android Enthusiast
With Cupcake coming within the next few months, I thought I'd start taking a look at the latest builds regularly and record some video to share with you guys of its progress.

Every Sunday, I'll download, compile, and flash the latest build of Cupcake to test out for your enjoyment.

Sunday, March 15th, 2009
Home, Live Folders, Browser, Bluetooth, Camera, Global Time, Note pad, Settings, Soft keyboard, and more.

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Shortcuts, Drawer, Icons, Orientation animations, Browser zoom, Haptic feedback, UI improvements, and more.
 
Gerrit has a big code drop from cupcake to master. Are these changes coming from a private repository? Or are these all source changes from the branch that you pulled to make your last Sunday's video going into master? Just curious if there might be a lot more to see this Sunday or not.
 
Looks like in the last 8 days they've been adding support to the Launcher Home screen for installed applications to be able to add to the available widgets.

Not only the home screen, but a mechanism called AppWidgets for any application to provide or consume little widgets from other applications.

It's just odd that these features aren't in any roadmap anywhere. And while Apple is out making headline news announcing that in a couple of months from now their phones will support copy and paste, nobody is doing the same for Android from a PR perspective. Unless you are knee deep in the code repository, you wouldn't even know it's being improved.

Which is why I think what devolio is doing with a weekly development build demo is potentially huge.
 
Looks like in the last 8 days they've been adding support to the Launcher Home screen for installed applications to be able to add to the available widgets.

Not only the home screen, but a mechanism called AppWidgets for any application to provide or consume little widgets from other applications.

It's just odd that these features aren't in any roadmap anywhere. And while Apple is out making headline news announcing that in a couple of months from now their phones will support copy and paste, nobody is doing the same for Android from a PR perspective. Unless you are knee deep in the code repository, you wouldn't even know it's being improved.

Which is why I think what devolio is doing with a weekly development build demo is potentially huge.

Well said. Seriously.
 
It's SUUUUUNNDAAAY!!! Wheres the new build video? I wanna see :-)
 
Kind of contemplating what to do, here's the skinny:

- The current repo is 'broken', still compilable, but opencore has to be disabled
- There are big changes afoot according to what I pulled down and tested today
- I'm somewhat hesitant to put up a video of something that's both...
-- Modified (opencore disabled) and pretty broken, and...
-- In flux (changing rapidly)

Advice?
 
Post with a qualifier, yours is to report the "now" and with your next video that is exactly what you will do. I look forward to hearing/seeing the next installment.

Consider the warnings throughout, start, mid-way and at the end again. Joke how you sound like a broken "record" for all you hipsters.
 
Obviously if no new features are visible a video tour through this build might not help much. I would say the best update would be a summary of the things that look like they are changing.

I didn't spot much of interest to the end user besides the fact that

A) The entire framework is getting something called AppWidgets (previously called Gadgets) that will most significantly:
B) Allow the home screen launcher app to be extended by 3rd party apps

When you did the repo update did you see other significant changes?

Obviously they'll get the new updates compatible with the new OpenCore 2.0 and the build will be less hacked up shortly. But even then I'm not sure what changes will be visible.
 
I went ahead and recorded one anyways. As noted in the video, I accidentally left out the Browser changes.

Here's the video

And here's the list of changes (that I know of)
- Shortcuts
- Drawer Background
- Icons
- Orientation switch animations
- Browser zoom icons
- Browser zoom (back to default zoom)
- New spare parts (??)
- More random UI improvements
- Haptic feedback (vibrate on specific clicks)
 
Thanks for the videos devolio, they are really interesting to watch.
I can now keep up with the latest of what is happening with the android development!

Keep em coming...
 
I can't watch videos at work, so I'm going to have to wait until I get home.

I am really interested in seeing how "Haptic feedback (vibrate on specific clicks)" comes across in the video
 
Nice job Dev...a few comments.

a) stick with your theme, Cupcake Sunday. If you want to record a tuesday one, just release it Sunday. It's catchy that way.

b) dark room, much better

c) camera needs a bit of adjusting, is autofocus on? Is auto-white balance on? It seems so. There are points where both "flare up" and make your actions a bit tough.

d) It looks like the long press on the home screen brought up a lot of new options.

e) nice job again.
 
He could always mid-week videos as "Special Edition" XD

I haven't actually watched the video yet. (at work)

So I'll give my feedback on it when I get back home and watch it. (in about 2 hours)
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Autofocus was on, lesson learned. It takes some work getting it to focus well on the screen, I'll definitely play around with it more before next week.

And I'll stick to Sundays, gonna start doing nightly snapshots so this doesn't happen again :)
 
So there is a battery info page now? Looks like alot of new additions on the cupcake update.
 
It's pretty much the same thing you can get in the About Phone menu right now. Because it's listed in Spare Parts, nobody really knows for sure if it's going to stick around and make it into the actual released builds.
 
It's pretty much the same thing you can get in the About Phone menu right now. Because it's listed in Spare Parts, nobody really knows for sure if it's going to stick around and make it into the actual released builds.
Overall, it looks like its pretty damn snappy. Moves about quickly. Good job dev!
 
Lots of stuff is changing, and Bluetooth is *almost* confirmed entirely working. It's getting there.
 
Regarding the production value...i figure you are mounted on a tripod. Here's a little trick. Try and mount the camera overhead, pointing straight down on the phone. Might be easier for you to get clean footage.
 
Yeah, it's mounted on a tripod, but I also record them on a couch, so the camera gets kind of shaky at times. I'll mess around with it a lot more before this next video, I've just had two really busy weeks and had to record in (almost) a hurry. Thanks for the tips, I'll keep improving it :)
 
Try a room like a basement where you have pipes or struts above and can place a table under the camera. Might end up with a better studio for yourself.
 
Back
Top Bottom