Android Application Development
According to Gartner, Android will surge ahead of the iPhone as well as the Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smartphones. It’s possible that the iPhone can go the Mac way, where the Windows O.S reached out to the mass, thanks to the partnership with various hardware vendors and the subsequent price advantage. Similarly, Symbian and Android could dominate the smart phone space very soon. Also Google being ahead of the curve in the cloud space, Android would stand to benefit. Hence we started build the Droid army here at Payoda.
We have fun working with Android’s open platform the easy-to-use development tools. As a result we have launched an impressive number of Android applications over the past one year standing by our commitment to quality and timelines. The applications we have developed includes GPS, multimedia, travel, business, utility, fun, communication, web and social networking applications.
Recent Works
Best practices for high performance Android applications
- Avoid Creating ObjectsObject allocation in a UI loop enforces a routine garbage collection, hence resulting in performance pitfalls. It is good to avoid short-term temporary objects whenever possible.
- Avoid Enums Where You Only Need IntsEnums are known to consume more memory and hence degrade performance though it provides professional API touch. Hence it can be used consciously for public API’s but still requires a compromise on performance
- Avoid Internal Getters/SettersCalls to virtual method are much more expensive than instance field lookups. Hence it is recommended to adopt common object-oriented programming practices and restrict the getters and setters to the public interfaces only. But direct field access which is 7 times faster hence, Internal getters/setters is always recommended within a class. .
- Prefer Static Over VirtualUse static methods wherever applicable to make invocations 20% faster. Moreover, it makes it clear from the method signature itself that the calling method cannot alter the state of the object.
Designing for multiple screensEvery vendor is looking forward to create and provide innovation applications for Android by providing an exceptional touch to the device with enhanced custom resolutions and classy look and feel. To ensure independence over different screens, the following must be ensured
- Wrap_content, dip unit to px in layout files(XML) , fill_parent
- Avoid absolute layout
- Avoid using hard coded pixel values in code
- Usage of resources that are density and/or resolution specific
Having fun with OpenGL ES for AndroidSince Android supports OpenGL EL, we can get more performance out of Android applications and also port existing OpenGL programs to Android. Since many hardware vendors are building for Android, we would have faster components coming our way soon.
