Samsung Reaching Out to Developers to Fix Apps in Preparation For Android Tablet
| by Kevin Krause on July 30th, 2010 |
Samsung’s Android tablet is slated for release in the third quarter of this year, and they are pulling out all the stops to make sure they deliver the best experience possible. One area where a tablet must excel is the apps available for it, and Samsung is taking a proactive approach to making sure current Android Market apps function properly on the larger for factor. Robert Bonestell and the Plex6 team were recently contacted by Samsung regarding their Magic 8 Ball application. It appears the app wasn’t displaying properly on the 7-inch 600×1040 WSVGA display.
“Dear Plex6 Team,
We would like to preface this email with Samsung’s enthusiasm to give Mobile
device users enhanced “Application” experiences. Samsung Electronics is
committed to making Mobile and Tablet PC spaces comfortable and enjoyable
ones and your support for this would be highly appreciated by Samsung
Electronics.It has come to our attention that your application [Magic 8-Ball] submitted
in the Android Market returns following error(s) when operated on our soon
to be released Samsung Android Tablet PC.Please find the error(s) occurred on Samsung Android Tablet PC below.
Application does not properly display on Samsung Android Tablet 7”inch
screen (600X1024/WSVGA) and draws a black background around the application
due to Compatibility-Mode display.…
Please modify and adjust your application so that it would support the best
possible display on the Samsung Android Tablet device screen
(600X1024/WSVGA).This will ensure your application to provide a consistent environment across
all devices and that you can deploy to any new devices that offer different
screens in the future.**
Samsung Electronics is focused on strengthening its Android device line-up,
therefore, our mutual efforts on each application will be beneficial for
both parties.”
There is almost no way that the Samsung team could properly test all current applications in the Android Market, but it appears they are targeting apps with high download numbers and/or top ratings. It is good to see Samsung — a company not so long ago lambasted for their poor handling of their Android phones — making positive steps towards a great experience on their Android products.
[Thanks to Robert for sending this in!]
1. Tony wrote on July 30, 2010
A phone icon? Really? And I don’t want customized Android. I want plain vanilla Android.
2. TheKoz wrote on July 30, 2010
Is it just me, or does that letter seem pretty terse and demanding? It sounds more like they are telling the developer he did something wrong instead of inviting him the opportunity to be part of their testing.
3. Jeff wrote on July 30, 2010
Latest SDK allows to create virtual devices with 1024×600 screen resolution, so developers can easily test their apps.
4. CaptBebops wrote on July 30, 2010
It’s good to get “some” feedback from anybody especially a manufacturer. Of the only feedback you get is dumb comments on Market from someone who doesn’t even understand the basics of using an Android device let alone the app. My apps scale fairly well to any device but they really don’t do anything extra special regarding graphics. I do plan to implement some features that will take advantage of larger displays and resolution that would be difficult to see on a phone size screen.
5. sha wrote on July 30, 2010
As a developer, I would be VERY angry if Google allowed them to put the Android market on this device….
6. Mich wrote on July 30, 2010
Yeah, very angry if your apps *cough*(as if you’re a developer with you lack of logic) have a bigger pool of customers. I love how you state something but don’t back you’re so called argument/opinion.
7. MonkeyBacon wrote on July 30, 2010
@sha, WTF are you talking about? Why would developers not want the Android Market on Android tablets?
8. sha wrote on July 30, 2010
I want an official go/official howto from Google about higher resolutions before working on it, like they did for QVGA in Android 1.6
9. Clark Kent wrote on July 30, 2010
This may have to do more so with 2.1 vs 2.2 (Froyo) vs 3.0 (Gingerbread)? As how applications will run?
10. jo wrote on July 30, 2010
We don’t want custom OEM’s unless it’s for support like codec etc… plain vanilla please, coz I know at the end I’ll be using adw launcher.
11. Dave wrote on July 30, 2010
Tablet resolution is the only good fragmentation argument I have every heard. Why is it that PC apps can work on so many different resolutions byt Android apps can only work on one?
12. Dave wrote on July 30, 2010
Anything 7″ or over should just be 720p. That way it will be standarized.
13. Rob Schoenfeld wrote on July 30, 2010
I think gingerbread will bring the android world with the tablet form factor. If this thing supports all the codecs that the Galaxy S supports out of the box it will rock.
14. Dr Magic wrote on July 30, 2010
i’d like an app that runs with my electric skateboards, they are 2.4g bluetooth. Maybe Android 3.5 (toothfairy) will have IR add on
Samsung how about 4 window 4 way video conferencing? and a small swivel front VGA+ and all on a 3g network
15. Presto117 wrote on July 30, 2010
For some reason, I’ve started to grow accustomed to Touchwiz 3.0 and I actually prefer it now over vanilla Android. Sure, it’ll take me a couple months to get updates, but I really like what Samsung does (and HTC, too, for Sense) to certain things to make the experience better and more logical. I’m not talking about the launcher (ADW can fix that ;), but things like putting my music controls and wifi, Bluetooth, etc. In the notifications bar and other things and in some cases, I think it just looks better (again, not the launcher), because, honestly, some aspects of Android were never the prettiest things in the world. But to be more on topic…. I like that Samsung’s doing this. I think this is the only way an Android tablet could be successful, is if there are apps that are modified for he screen like on the iPad. The letter could’ve been a little nicer, but still.
16. MensahWatts wrote on July 31, 2010
Looks cooooooolish-hope the price isnt to high-but yeah looks nice-hopfully it wont be all buggy like the other ones-but I dont think Samsung would make a laggy slate-or ebook reader-or whatever you call it-lol
17. Maj wrote on July 31, 2010
Thats a great move from Samsung, it shows them that they care and doing their best to bring the best experience
18. Mensahwatts wrote on July 31, 2010
@Maj yeah hopefully this means its going to a good option to the
Ipad
19. Eurodude wrote on July 31, 2010
It seems to me as if they studied the market and lloked what made Apple’s iPad to become such a success. One needs an experience with each device for people to buy it. It might be offensive to some people and maybe a hassle for us developers but in the end one does sell more when the experience is right. Now the only thing Samsung needs to do is an easy way to enable the developer mode and I’ll adopt my software for the tablet
20. ari-free wrote on August 1, 2010
Samsung isn’t perfect but it is good that they are on android’s side.
If they have their own app store (media hub?) they might be able to bypass the Market’s problems with paid apps in other countries, crapware, etc. Obviously they had to have something going on with EA in order to bring Sims to Vibrant.
21. SirWally wrote on August 2, 2010
@Tony and all others complaining about custom UIs: *sigh* I suspect the majority of users would probably prefer TouchWiz over the stock Android UI. Users who know enough (I presume you included) should be able to figure out how to use the stock UI. I am getting tired of people complaining about the custom UIs. I love Android, and I like the stock UI, but both HTC Sense and TouchWiz 3 are better IMHO. It’s all personal preference — be thankful you have a choice.
@TheKoz: It looks like an automatically generated form mail, and it probably went through a translation program. I have received emails from Samsung before and they read in much the same way. They (and all other companies communicating in a language other than their native tongue) should hire native speakers because there are many things that could get misinterpreted or mistranslated that may not go over well.
22. SirTone wrote on August 7, 2010
How about Samsung spend some time telling us devs why code that just works on other phones doesn’t work on theirs? e.g., How do you open the microphone? I have code that works on all Android phones BUT Samsung’s. Different != better when the common things people should be able to rely upon break.