How can I find out the latest version of Chrome that I can run on KitKat Android (4.4x) please? Is it possible to grab the most recent versions APK from a newer OS install and copy to my KitKat device?
I need to determine the best way to run to run fullscreen without user intervention and there are varying supports for "fullscreen apis".
You can grab the latest version of Chrome from Google Play, but it's backwards-compatible with KitKat and it won't change a single thing you're currently seeing on KitKat.
Here is the future bleeding-edge version of Chrome, but this too won't solve your immediate testing problem.
Since you don't seem to have a Lollipop device with the right specs for what you're testing, you'll need to create a Lollipop Intel-based emulator for it and run it on your computer (an ARM-based emulator won't be sufficient, because it will be too slow).
If you need to simulate a slower cell phone internet connection with higher latency, you'll need to make that explicit when you configure your emulator, because one thing that developers forget is that their development machine usually has a very fast internet connection despite the fact that the emulator itself runs slower.
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I recently created my first game using Android Studio. I was wondering if running it on my phone (through Android Studio) will be any slower than running it as though it has been downloaded from the Play Store? I noticed that emulating my app on older Android phones is actually much faster than running it on my newer phone (the Samsung A5). My app also runs faster on older phones compared to newer phones when emulating it on a variety of devices. What might be the cause of this?
No, using ADB to debug and test your apps on a physical device doesn't necessarily slow it down. There is not much difference between installing the app via ADB and play store because in both cases the .apk file is installed onto the device. But you may experience some lag or delay with ADB because the entire log has to be captured by Android Studio and requires some amount of processing power from the device. It is like testing the app in developer mode. When you install an app from play store, it is the final build with the files cleaned and no need for log capturing and hence it can be faster.
Your app must be using some latest components which might only be available in the newer android versions whereas on the older ones they might be supported via the support libraries and hence the implementation is made simple on them due to lower processing power and RAM. Not all features and implementations are supported on the older Android versions.
Obviously, there will be minor differences between the emulator and hardware, but I'm running across major issues and wondering if others have found any solutions.
I have an .apk of my application, which loads and starts fine on the 2 pieces of hardware I have on hand (both OS 4.1.2). It then freezes up on a screen switch inside the application. This has happened before and it was due to that exact version of the OS having a particular bug (which should be worked around). Anyways, those details are not terribly important, that's simply how I got to thinking I'd test other versions via the emulator. However, here's what I hit:
Newer versions (5+) of the OS have an "Intel" option and my .apk crashes immediately on start on those versions.
Newer versions (5+) the Google version and 4.x generic (including the very same 4.1.2 I have on 2 hardware devices) starts my .apk fine, except that all the graphics are missing!
No difference between architectures on any given OS/class (32/64 bit, mips, arm)
What's the difference between Intel and Google versions of Android that would cause such a huge difference? Also, why does my app have graphics on hardware, but graphics vanish on the very same OS on the emulator? Are there options I need to change somewhere?
First update your SDK.
Then install emulator system image you need.
In SDK Manager you can find that Intel/ARM Android images start from 4.0.3 . Google Intel/ARM start from 4.4.2 instead .
Make sure you have hardware virtualization enabled in PC BIOS because Intel images need that and they are much faster for that.
Try to reinstall Intel HAXM . You can find setup in <Android SDK Path>/extras/intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager
Intel/ARM images use different CPU architecture. Instead Google/Android images have only a different software configuration. Google images include Google services like Play,Maps,ecc. Android images haven't them
It appears to be due to timeouts. Differing versions and "equipment levels" of Android devices take varying times to respond. The difference is especially large in the emulator. By bumping up all the system timeouts in the code I'm able to avoid all of the avoid weird issues.
What is the best method to support older Android devices running stock browser without owning multiple physical devices?
Im interested in Android 2.x ... 3.x. Is it maybe possible to install older versions to newer devices?
It don't think it is possible to install older versions of the browser, but it is possible to run any version of android that you would like using the AVD Manager (Android Virtual Device). Using a virtual device on your computer allows you to control the screen size, software version, and many other factors without having to own a physical device. It can be a little slow if you try to run one on an older computer, but it is definitely worth looking into. It can be downloaded with the Android SDK.
Good luck!
I am thinking about getting an used HTC Droid Incredible to develop Android apps, but I think it has Android 2.2 on it. Is the OS upgradable to the current Android version? If I am using the old Android OS 2.2 for testing of my apps, will the apps work on more current versions of android devices, such as Honeycomb?
Once you root the device you can put just about any os needed. Rooting this device is also extremely simple.
They definitely still allow it and its definitely an awesome handset. I currently have one rooted with Cyangenmod 7.0.3 so I have Android 2.3.3. It is extremely easy as Bill said. Also, I use mine to tether to my laptop and wii to stream netflix etc so at least Verizon hasn't killed free tethering yet. As long as you try to avoid using things that are listed as deprecated, you should be fine running on more up-to-date Androids. Also let me know if you need any help or whatever with getting the htc inc set up for developing, I love mine.
My boss recently gave me an HTC Wildfire phone for doing an Android version of one of our mobile apps, which is all fine and good, except that the app requires API level 8 (ie Android 2.2), and the phone itself only has Android 2.1 installed. After much googling, I discovered that this phone does support Android 2.2, and carriers will be rolling out updates over the air for this model phone "in the near future".
Since I'm not entirely certain what our lazy carrier's definition of "near future" is, it would be nice if I could download images for particular releases and install them on my phone. Coming from the world of the iPhone, it seems that this should be something rather necessary in order to successfully develop an Android app.
Yet, it doesn't seem that Google offers any Android OS updates themselves. Have I no choice but to wait for the carrier to release an update?
Edit: Thanks for the suggestions regarding the emulator, but I'm asking about testing on hardware only. I already have a working 2.2 emulator image, but I need to test on hardware now, since the emulator does a very poor job of things like video playback and audio processing.
There's a few ways you can test your application on Android 2.2:
1) You can use the Emulator provided by Google in the SDK. It is possible to create a virtual machine of any version of Android with various hardware options. However, the emulator does have some limitations such as not supporting certain hardware options (such as bluetooth) and it's also dreadfully slow to boot.
2) If you have to use an actual phone with 2.2, you can root your phone and flash a custom ROM. I'm not particularly familiar with how to root the Wildfire, or what custom ROMs are available for that specific phone, but Cyanogen Mod has pretty good ROM support for HTC phones, as well as an active forum with tutorials.
No, it's not possible to download images before OTA. You could check CyanogemMod from time to time - they're working on Wildfire support. Also you could use an emulator.
If you are wanting to bounce around with newer versions, I recommend the Nexus One as a dev phone if you can get your hands on one. Or, if you can deal with the constraints, start with a built-in AVD emulator with API 8 until your phone gets the OTA update.
The Motorola Droid is also getting/has 2.2 on it. At least in the States, in seems that most of the phones on Verizon already have it (non-scientific, just from talking to people I know). So if that phone is available, it may be a decent choice.