I'm trying to test an application on an actual Android device (the main reason is to test the Bluetooth functionality, which the emulator cannot help with :( ). To help with my endeavor, I'm thinking about buying an Unlocked HTC G1 from eBay. My question is will I be able to use the unlocked phone without any SIM card at all? Ideally, I'd like to be able to use wi-fi and other native apps, but my main focus would be to test my application, without having a SIM card.
If there are any better phones, or alternative strategies that I should employ, I'd be grateful to hear about them.
Thanks in advance!
I develop Android games and have Google's ADP 1 (G1) and Nexus One, both SIM unlocked and regularly used without SIM, not problems at all. Also the former is rooted, while the N1 is not.
I have a G2 without a SIM card that I use for testing, works perfectly, the difference is you wont see some apps in the market. You can either buy an unlocked phone or get a lock one and unlock it for under 10$ on ebay.
you won't have any problems no android phone that I know of requires service to use. I test with my G1 all the time with no sim in it.
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So I want to create an Android app(s), but I dont own, or plan to get, an Android phone (due to Verizon's forced plans). Is there a way to buy an unlocked Droid or other android phone and use it as a test platform? If I just buy and unlocked phone with no plan or anything can I just plug it in and test the app?
I am buying in the US, and plan on buying one that comes unlocked
yes. Just about any device you buy you can use for testing. Some of the carriers will sell you devices at full retail cost with out having you activate or sign up for any plan. You'll only have access to internet through wifi though. Which means your testing may not reflect the users experience is some cases.
I'm not sure if my answer constitutes ads. But anyway, I feel my answer solves the problem.
Unlocked Droid on Newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875209212
Verizon-only contract-free Droid on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Verizon-Motorola-A855-Android-contract/dp/tech-data/B0046NR5PK/ref=de_a_smtd
Google Experience Devices are unlocked or unlockable where the vendor allows root access. Nexus One and Motorola Xoom are an example of such devices. Depending upon the unit, it could refer to subsidy unlocked which is another thing.
Instead of shelling out ~$600+ for an unlocked Android development phone device can you use a used phone that is not connected to any wireless carrier?
I see Android phones for sale on Craigslist all the time that people want to get rid of whenever they get an upgrade. They are usually a year old at least but as long as it is in working order that's okay with me.
Are there any downsides to this? Can you use these phones as legit development devices? Are they crippled or anything if they are disconnected from a carrier? They can't make calls or send/receive text messages obviously. But as long as you can use them with a WiFi connection it seems like you'd be able to test quite a bit.
Precisely what you said. You can't make calls/receive texts, but for development it's good enough. Don't know actually if Market will work, but you will find out soon enough.
The only thing that comes to mind is that locations are often provided by carrier networks. You will then need to be connected with WiFi or use GPS to find your locations.
The emulator works pretty well and then you wont need an actual phone. Unless of course you want access to the sensors. Even then you could use the monkey tool to simulate sensor input.
You can use any android phone for your development. So far all the phones I have ever seen has a development menu under preferences. As long you enable debugging and installing unknown apps it should be fine. For full system access you would need rooted phones, it does not matter if the phones is locked to a carrier or not.
Although you can develop on the emulator, you might fail because of the mobile network speed, device io and touch sensitivity. It is best to at least test on a device before publishing. Meanwhile most modern phones run faster than the emulator so if you are ok on emulator you should more than ok on the real device.
I work with several no-contract/no-sim phones with no problem. My first dev phone was a used T-Mobile myTouch 3g (that I bought on Craigslist). The great thing about T-mobile is that you can pop in a pre-paid SIM and get 3g data when you need it for $1.49 per day.
I do not have a real android device. I completely depend on emulator. So, for the sim contacts, changing sim cards and other purposes regarding sim, i want a simulator for SIM. I didn't find any thing regarding this in our default emulator. Can anyone please help me with any idea on this and any links to third party SIM simulators for android emulator. Thank you in advance..
May this help you:
Buddy in Document it is said that Emulators are supported with simulated SimCard..
"A GSM modem, including a simulated SIM Card" More Information
And There are some patches available which allows sim card support in emulator using standard USB PCSC reader...
Here are some links which may guide you through..
http://simhacks.github.io/android-emulator/
http://blog.codepainters.com/2010/11/20/android-emulator-patch-for-configurable-imei-imsi-and-sim-card-serial-number/
I had a similar problem in which I needed to obtain contacts from my SIM to test with my application. Furthermore to my understanding the only solution I resulted in was buying an android mobile and performed tests using that as I could not find such a SIM emulator.
I want to test my android app on a phone. I do not have an android phone so I was going to purchase one. Question, I can get a phone on eBay etc without a contract will this work to test my app? Or must it be an unlocked or rooted phone? Can I install and test my apps on a phone that has not been unlocked and does not nave a contract?
Ordinarily you can develop applications (but not hack on android itself) on any android device intended for the average consumer.
HOWEVER there may be some difficulty in setting up a user account to be able to do anything at all on the device without putting a (compatible?) sim in it.
A little web searching is showing two potential solutions - one which appears to require root is to manually change the settings database and thus skip account setup.
Another is to use the adb command line to get around the no sim message and launch the settings activity to enable wifi and do account setup that way. It doesn't seem like this should require root.
You might want to make managing to set up a user account a pre-condition for completing the sale, or buy a phone locked to a provider who markets prepaid sims to international visitors.
My guess is if you get an early htc phone like g1 or mytouch or (or google versions adp1, ion, etc) you will be able to get it to work - if it comes to it they aren't hard to root, and they'd be the cheapest anyway as they are out of date. Later devices and other manufacturers, no idea. Of course if you want to target android 2.2 you need a later device.
You do not need a rooted/unlocked phone to test applications on.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html
edit: beaten to the punch
I am an iphone application developer, all iphones have very similar Operating systems, and the size and everything is the same, so I don't need to create applications specific for each iphone.
But with android there are different phones, different sizes, So How can I possibly know that my app works, and looks fine on all these devices
I don't already own an android but I completed my first application using the simulator. Which android phone do u suggest for testing? I am an AT&T user and Iuse an iphone. Can I simply insert my sim-card in the new android to be able to test my app on the device?
The android virtual device lets you change the virtual hardware to match all of the current shipping phones. There are ways to receive device crash reports from a shipped application to help diagnose force closes or other grievous errors.
You need an unlocked phone to use another SIM card. The Nexus One is available unlocked out of the gate, and comes with an AT&T version. The only AT&T (as sold by AT&T) Android phone (Backflip) is stupidly crippled and should be avoided. You can also buy an Android Dev Phone, which is currently "middle of the pack" in terms of hardware. You can also easily find numerous other Android capable handsets - pick depending on your target market. Some phones are now old: for instance, the G1 is on its way out.
you won't need to worry about different screen size . take a look at Supporting Multiple Screen article . I'm not sure for the late ones because I'm also working with Android Emulator .
1 - Take a look at this Google IO session for load of tips on making your app work across devices. It's not that hard at all really
2 - I'd recommend the Nexus One if you need a phone just to develop on. It's representative of what you'll be seeing in devices in the coming years. If you want a current representative phone take a look at the HTC Legend (Mid-end) or the HTC Wildfire (Low-end). There's also the Droid and things like that but you can only get them on Verizon I think. I'm not too knowledgeable about availability in the US, I'm from the UK.