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Hey everybody,
I was thinking about Cydia for the iPhone and thought..why doesn't android have that? So I was wondering if android does have something like that already or one that is in the making. If not then I was going to try and develop something similar. Only it will be one that is very, very basic. Here is how I planned it out.
1. Create an app that has a list of directories
-ROMS
-Scripts
-Apps (Ones such as swapper.apk etc. not ones from market)
* In the ROM's directory there will be a list for different phones
2. To transfer files an ftp server would be used ( I actually don't have one but was hoping someone would be able to offer an alternative or a server)
3. The app would then use the android browser to download the file and place it in the correct location ( updates would go in root of /sdcard or apps would be installed with the package manager)
Like I said I was thinking of something very basic..if this would be redundant then I'll just forget about it.
What does everyone else think?
wasnt there that SAM application? I wiped and never reinstalled it. i'm sure i can find the apk around here. also not the same but there is also a handango app.
Edit: ok did some quick searching... found the site: http://slideme.org/sam2 and http://slideme.org/sam... i hope that helps
That would have to be all custom... side note cydia uses debian binaries such as apt-get and dpkg which afaik is possible since you can install debian on your phone, and on the other hand android market uses a closed source xml.
Cydia is more than just a frontend for http/wget. It is a port of Debian APT. Iirc saurik did make some passing notes about possibly bringing APT to Android. However, from the lack of any implementation thus far, I can only surmise that he has either lost interest, doesn't feel Android needs an APT-based repository, or some mix of both.
You have to understand the main reason why Cydia is a very popular platform for iPhone. iPhone natively does not allow any outside app installation. Thus, Cydia provided a very good central repository for apps outside of Apple's app store system. Android, OTOH, was built from the ground up permitting the user to install apps from any source. Thus, there was never a burgeoning need to have a Cydia clone made because anyone could install apps from their own http server, from adb, from a sdcard, from a third party market.
Ah I should've done a little more research on cydia then. From what my friend told me he says that Cydia is just another appstore for the iPhone and that's it ( the android market is pretty open as opposed to the iPhone). That's the last time I listen to someone who bought an iPhone over an android phone.
thelamacmdr said:
Ah I should've done a little more research on cydia then. From what my friend told me he says that Cydia is just another appstore for the iPhone and that's it ( the android market is pretty open as opposed to the iPhone). That's the last time I listen to someone who bought an iPhone over an android phone.
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To be honest, your friend sounds like doesn't know alot about the debian package system. You should take a look. It's very interesting, and it shows how primitive M$ and crApple products have become (pardon my invectives). Linux really is on the cutting edge on these fronts, and the linux backbone is what makes android so powerful.
sha.goyjo said:
To be honest, your friend sounds like doesn't know alot about the debian package system. You should take a look. It's very interesting, and it shows how primitive M$ and crApple products have become (pardon my invectives). Linux really is on the cutting edge on these fronts, and the linux backbone is what makes android so powerful.
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Yup Debian has become the most used partition on my laptop but I keep Windows around just in case, also after researching about Cydia it sounds a lot like the Synaptics Package Manager ( correct me if I'm mistaken) and the Software Sources under Linux.
jashsu said:
You have to understand the main reason why Cydia is a very popular platform for iPhone. iPhone natively does not allow any outside app installation. Thus, Cydia provided a very good central repository for apps outside of Apple's app store system. Android, OTOH, was built from the ground up permitting the user to install apps from any source. Thus, there was never a burgeoning need to have a Cydia clone made because anyone could install apps from their own http server, from adb, from a sdcard, from a third party market.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the whole understanding, never thought it as that way
A central app for downloading and publishing ROMs, recovery images, and the like (not apps) would be quite cool, though, and tethering applications are still disallowed from the Android Market (at least in the United States).
thelamacmdr said:
Synaptics Package Manager ( correct me if I'm mistaken) and the Software Sources under Linux.
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Synaptics is more or less just a frontend for apt.
coolbho3000 said:
A central app for downloading and publishing ROMs, recovery images, and the like (not apps) would be quite cool, though, and tethering applications are still disallowed from the Android Market (at least in the United States).
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No argument here. More options for users is always better (i'm talking to you, Apple Inc), especially when its a platform as elegant as Cydia.
There really is no need for anything like that on the g1 because the market is so free/open. As opposed to the app store which you have to go through a regulatory commission in order to get an app published.
the other part of the idea is good though, having rom selections that could just download update.zips to you phone. Also it would be cool to have scripts and other things you could download to that you cannot get in the market.
I would probably do it jsut for that but it will not be anywhere near as smooth as cydia nor will it run in the same manner
Sorry guys, I told a bunch of lies...because I had forgotten something very basic.
Cydia does NOT utilize *.deb packages like the debian apt system (the one synaptic uses). Cydia is a PORT repository (it holds ported programs, and other programs) designed for the BSD variant system that apple uses. As such, the systems are not compatible. IE cydia would not work on android and vice versa. Part of the problem with an apt based system on android is that it would have to deal with all the dependency issues inherent in typical linux software. To be honest, you'd have to design a completely new set of repositories, and that would be a LOT of work.
Although the current market system isn't quite as sweet as a full fledged debian package system, android isn't exactly a full fledged distro or anything. I think this is one that won't really work WELL until phones get beefier (IE to make it work well you'd need a BIG sd card and a snapdragon chip). You could get it working without those things, but the benefits just wouldn't be that great, because running programs that were small or didn't have a lot of dependencies negates the point of using a package manager.
I'm sorry for misspeaking, and I hope this clears things up.
well that's ok cause that's not what i was trying to do, this is only if I understood you correctly. I do not want port Cydia nor do I want to mimic exactly what it does. Cydia-like was the closest description I could come up with. Anyways, this idea is kind of redundant now that i saw this ( which I think has been up for a while)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=543082
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/23/google-maps-navigation-officially-comes-to-android-1-6/
When trying to download onto my phone from the Market, I get an error message 'Package file was not signed correctly.'
I'm running Cyanogen 4.2.5 on my Rogers Magic 32A.
Doesn't work for me in denmark
I think this is only US.
It's been released for the Market on all devices, but I think it has something to do with our devices using test-keys and not release-keys...
Thoughts?
Same problem in Belgium with 32A using CyanogenMod 4.2.5 with Kernel 2.6.29bfs.
Very sad
working fantastic on my MT3G running Dwang 1.13. Didn't get an 'update available' notification, but installing it from the market worked flawlessly. I gotta say, navigation with google layers is freakin' awesome
cursordroid said:
When trying to download onto my phone from the Market, I get an error message 'Package file was not signed correctly.'
I'm running Cyanogen 4.2.5 on my Rogers Magic 32A.
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I have the same phone and ROM version and it updated just fine from the Market. However, I did push the software to my phone, following the instructions here. Not sure if that's why it works without issue.
So i guess its confirmed that this is still US only. BAH
"Some features of Android 2.0 are not available on Android 1.6, for example, the ability to use the "navigate to" voice command as shown in our demo video. However, you can still create a shortcut that will allow you to launch Navigation and start getting directions to a specific place from your current location with just a single touch from your home screen."
Source: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-thanksgiving-travels-google-maps.html
ugh...
If it is US only, why did they not restrict it to the US on the market ? Or maybe that's technically not possible with the current market configuration ?
Neejay said:
"Some features of Android 2.0 are not available on Android 1.6, for example, the ability to use the "navigate to" voice command as shown in our demo video. However, you can still create a shortcut that will allow you to launch Navigation and start getting directions to a specific place from your current location with just a single touch from your home screen."
Source: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-thanksgiving-travels-google-maps.html
ugh...
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Or you can search the Market for 'Nav Launcher' and it will enable these features through an external application. Works fine for me.
Same issue on a Mytouch 3G (32B,) in the US and also running Cyanogen 4.2.5.
This is a fresh install of cyanogen as well (literally nothing more than the 1.6 base image and then the cyanogen update.)
I'm also getting the "package not signed" error. Not sure what the problem is. Running CyanogenMod Android 1.6, but I honestly don't remember what version of Cyanogen it is.
This official update no different than the 1.6 hacked Maps w/Navigation that was pulled from the Droid dump.
Even if you can get it installed, you still need to use either Directions shortcuts or the Nav Launcher to get it working outside the US.
I keep getting errors cannont remove / no such file or directory
on cyan 4.2.5 seams like nothing different from 2.0 droid nav
I sure do wish that people stop giving apps 1 start because it doesn't work on cyanogenmod..... these are precisely the people that bring down heat on developers with their crying. God forbid they have to do a search on the net... and, dare I say, read 3 lines of text.
People need to realize we are not flashing official software here, and so we have no right to b*tch if something that's made for official software doesn't work on our hacked ones. There is not one dev here that I can remember who doesn't clearly say that if you break your phone it's your responsibility, not his, or the manufacturers. That's why we have this community here, if you're having problems most members here will help you out however they can because that's what this place is about tweaking our equipment as much as possible and fixing it when we mess up. I would say most people here enjoy helping others out with tech related stuff, I know I do in whatever way possible, but I have no sympathy for those that can't be a$$ed to read a few lines and just want to flash their phones with total disregard of what could happen.
How do you think google feels everytime they see a one star rating on one of their apps, or any other app, that works perfectly fine on official images when the person comments "DIS SUXXORS, IT B NOT WORKING ON C.M 4.2.5"? It's a miracle they didn't crack down on cyanogen much sooner than they did. PLEASE, PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE if you have issues with something you downloaded from XDA or any other site on the net that deals with this kind of stuff, don't go complaining to your mobile carrier, or whoever developed your mobile's official software; come here and ask for help... besides 99% of the time I'm fairly sure that we'll do a much better job of helping than anybody you can contact from your mobile carrier, or official developers. Also, if you brick you're phone be responsible for you're mistake; don't try to be sly and send it in because it's not working to your dev because again this only attracts unnecessary attention to this site. I'm fairly sure that cease & desist that xda received from MS a few years back was due to precisely this.
I've customized windows mobile, palm, symbian, android phones, plus ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, wii, and so far I've never brick anything, or at least not to the point I can't bring it back, so does this mean I'm super lucky? or super smart? Not really, it's quite simple really my secret is this: READ, Read like your equipment depended on it because quite frankly IT DOES.
Sorry for the rant guys, it's not directed at any one of you, but maybe just maybe one of these "people" will find it and correct themselves. I'd actually wish the mods would post something on the main page, but then again who am I kidding the problem originally arises from them not reading in the first place.
I agree.
Also not working on my phone (32a Magic). Currently looking for a work around.
I have searched for:
Google
Google Maps
Google Maps Navigation
Navigation
Etc, Etc, Etc...
and can NOT find this version in the market???
I updated to the latest "Google Maps" from the market, but it does not have the NAV Features.
AHA!
Redownloaded and now get the "Package Not Signed" error as well.
CyanogenMod-4.2.5
I'm just curious about something.
I recently moved from the iPhone to a Nexus One.
While I noticed there are a lot of ROM cookers etc (thanks for your great work guys) the development community seems kind of thin?
For example, on the iPhone there are full sets of all GNU tools. Anything you can use in Linux/Darwin they have for iPhone. There is a full apt packaging system will full console tools. The full OpenSSH suite has been made supporting all the wireless administration that I've come to love on my phone. Basically, it makes it feel like a full computer in my hand.
Now, I love this Nexus One, but I wasn't sure what the reasoning behind no one out there doing development on this kind of stuff. You'd think a phone running Linux with all code available would attract hordes of eager coders.
Instead we get weird crap like "dropbear" that has to be recompiled yourself to even work right, and even then...haha.
Not much as far as package management in the console, and our tools come from Busybox! Just seems very odd to me, but there must be reasons that I am not seeing.
This post is really not meant as an insult because I love this OS so far etc, but it just really suprised me that full sets of standard tools are not available.
Anyone know why?
Because you have to replicate the entire standard GNU/Linux userspace, which is a bear. Most of the work is done on the Android userspace instead, and you can find the fruits of those labors on AOSP Gerrit (http://r.android.com/) and the CyanogenMOD repository (http://github.com/cyanogen/android_vendor_cyanogen).
The best bet for getting a standard GNU/Linux userspace is to just boot Debian.
For future reference, this is probably not considered the correct forum for this discussion (probably Android General or the generic Android Development, not too sure.)
EDIT: Just to address some more specific points, Android has a package manager (those .apk files you see everywhere) and Busybox makes the most of the limited internal memory and provides enough tools to manage the Android userspace.
Sorry I thought the development forum would be the right place.
The iPhone 2g/3g have only 128mb of memory, and since gnu tools aren't resident in memory there is no problem having a full compliment of them on the phone.
The problem with debian is it is not really a nice UI for a phone. It would just be nice to have my phone, plus having the GNU tools underneath.
It isn't like its a dealbreaker, it just struck me as odd that all the proper tools have been built for the iPhone, and using it really feels like a full computer you're SSHing into, where as an open source Linux based OS on android basically is lacking all of it, minus the limited functionality provided by Busybox and Dropbear (like..dropbear really?).
These things have more memory and comparable processing speed to computers running windows 98 and early XP, so there is no reason not to have everything available to you when you need it.
I'm kind of a sideline commenter here as I'm not a coder, but it just struck me as odd.
Thanks for your reply!
anethema said:
Sorry I thought the development forum would be the right place.
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NP, it's side discussion though. "Here's a complete set of native GNU tools" would be a dev forum topic.
anethema said:
The iPhone 2g/3g have only 128mb of memory, and since gnu tools aren't resident in memory there is no problem having a full compliment of them on the phone.
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Nonono, not RAM. Flash memory. iPhone has tons of it. G1 (where most of the developers got started, mind you) has very little. Further, the partitioning left limited room for additional binaries. There's some ways around that (symlinks, mostly), but they aren't elegant, and are subject to wiping at inopportune times if you aren't careful.
anethema said:
The problem with debian is it is not really a nice UI for a phone. It would just be nice to have my phone, plus having the GNU tools underneath.
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I'm curious about your use case. "It would be nice" is, well, nice, but is there a need you have that the existing tools aren't fulfilling?
anethema said:
It isn't like its a dealbreaker, it just struck me as odd that all the proper tools have been built for the iPhone, and using it really feels like a full computer you're SSHing into, where as an open source Linux based OS on android basically is lacking all of it, minus the limited functionality provided by Busybox and Dropbear (like..dropbear really?).
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure what's with the Dropbear hate. There are not many use-cases for SSH servers on a phone, so few people have worked on it. I'd think the Android-phone-powered robot guys are the most likely to need it. But again, Dropbear is going to perform a whole heck of a lot better on a G1 than OpenSSH, and the G1 is the origin of all this stuff.
Remember, Android is explicitly not GNU/Linux. You might call it "Android/Linux." The fact that the Android userspace is open-source means that the alternate (and exciting new) userspace is attracting development, instead of people trying to port GNU just so they can use their closed-source iPhone. This is, in fact, a Good Thing, because it can result in improvements for all Android users (via contributions to AOSP), not just that subset of geeks (read: us) who mod their phones.
Understanding this difference is key to understanding the development pattern. People aren't working on the GNU userspace for Android phones because the Android userspace supplants it. The tools we have do what is needed, nothing more. In fact, `am' and `pm' are more useful in the Android context than anything that's left out of Busybox.
anethema said:
These things have more memory and comparable processing speed to computers running windows 98 and early XP, so there is no reason not to have everything available to you when you need it.
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Back to my use case comment above. What is it that you need?
anethema said:
Thanks for your reply!
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No problem, it's a good discussion.
I guess it is basically that you don't know what you need until you need it. I treat my phones like this basically like little computers. Certainly on a laptop/desktop no one would bother questioning why you need general tools you use to get jobs done.
For the iPhone there was a need for unique certification to apples push servers so phones that were basically 'tricked' into activating could still get push messages via these servers.
I wrote a tool called Push Doctor with phone based scripts and with a donor style one server side. Basically I was generating these certificates and people could download them. The whole thing on both side is just a bunch of shell scripts. One running on the phone, one on my and cert donors computers. Now this may or may not have worked in busybox as I haven't tested it, but I just mean you never know what you are going to use stuff for, and having a nice standard set of tools across all Linux platforms can be nice to have for this reason.
As far as the space issue, I think that whole thing seems crazy as well. You're right there is a ton of space on the iPhone, but the G1 came out after it, and the Nexus One long after it, so its too bad 'space' is still an issue these days requiring ugly hacks to circumvent.
Regardless the tools could be distributed as part of several core apk's which people could install if they wish.
Like I said above, these are hardly embedded devices anymore. It's not like there's 4kb of ram and 5 mips CPU.
As far as dropbear, it isn't that I hate it, I just think even the G1 has comparable speed to the first iPhone (not in the Graphics/UI but certainly as far as the CPU is concerned) and running something as insignificant as OpenSSH should not be an issue. I've never personally heard of dropbear, and have no idea what their security track record is, but I do know OpenSSH's. It is a VERY widely used package with a lot of eyes on it making sure it is doing what it is supposed to be doing.
Apparently the default dropbear will authenticate any password if you enable passwords and you have to build your own from source run about 50 commands, all to get it going.
Where is the APK for a working dropbear, or apt-get install dropbear? Can you even have APK's for system level packages? Everything I seem to find tends to be a custom download from someones site whcih you have to 'push' to your phone, try to follow some 50 step guide to hopefully get going, etc.
I am loving a lot of facets of this OS, I'm just curious where the community is to work on this stuff, get it going, and make it easy. Android isn't really -that- young.
anethema said:
For the iPhone there was a need for unique certification to apples push servers so phones that were basically 'tricked' into activating could still get push messages via these servers.
I wrote a tool called Push Doctor with phone based scripts and with a donor style one server side. Basically I was generating these certificates and people could download them. The whole thing on both side is just a bunch of shell scripts. One running on the phone, one on my and cert donors computers. Now this may or may not have worked in busybox as I haven't tested it, but I just mean you never know what you are going to use stuff for, and having a nice standard set of tools across all Linux platforms can be nice to have for this reason.
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Click to collapse
Market Enabler is in that class of application, and, like other "rooted" apps relies on shell calls to Busybox on the backend--ugly, but keep in mind this is an attempt to explicitly defeat the Android security model. BB is sufficiently standard and POSIX conformant that it hasn't posed any difficulties for these kinds of applications.
anethema said:
Where is the APK for a working dropbear, or apt-get install dropbear? Can you even have APK's for system level packages? Everything I seem to find tends to be a custom download from someones site whcih you have to 'push' to your phone, try to follow some 50 step guide to hopefully get going, etc.
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So-called "native"--that is, ARM binary--applications aren't supported by the Android platform in the conventional way. In mid-2009, Google released the Android NDK which permits ARM binary libraries to be intermingled with Android applications via JNI. Since Android is explicitly intended to be compile-once, run-anywhere (which is why apps run on a VM), this is only recommended for computation-heavy code. However, the Mozilla project is using the NDK to directly port legacy code (Firefox/Fennec) with a thin Java interface to the Android system, so such a thing is possible.
This doesn't really make sense for the GNU toolkit, though. The SSH case; you could certainly set up an SSH server to run as a system service using NDK+JNI to connect any SSH library you like. The fact that this has not happened leads me to believe that there is little demand.
In general, the needs of existing developers appear to be met by the tools available.
Based on everything you've mentioned--you may want to take a look at the Android Scripting Environment.
lately i found an app for android that is so cool i tried to find similar ones for wp8/7 but i couldn't so i tried to redev it for apk to xap but you see i'm a total dumb at developpment so anyone that know how to do it redev it for me please i'm on the verge of exanging my precious wp8 phone with an old android machine
here is the app's .apk link :ww.mediafire.com/download/wbk8mpx8u5l5a5l/Nade_Nade_Mezamashi_Kanonv2202.apkplease help me[/COLOR]
It is unfortunately impossible to port an android app to windows phone, they are two completely different platforms. In order to get it on wp8 you have to rewrite that thing from scratch.:banghead::banghead::banghead:
Sent from my HTC Evo 3D GSM
If it was written in C++ against the standard libraries, you might be able to re-use the program logic. Even then, though, the UI would need to be re-written.
If it's in Dalvik Java, though, it will need to be fully re-written. Thankfully, C# isn't *too* different, but it'll still be a lot of work.
Also, some Android apps need permissions that aren't available on WP8. I haven't checked what the linked app does, but not all platforms support the same types of third-party apps.
I'm going through all the features of the current version of Android Studio (version 1.0.2) and am frustrated by the documentation. There is existing documentation at JetBrains, but much of it appears to be out of date. I've wasted a fair amount of time trying to follow some sections of documentation only to finally decide that they are simply incorrect; then, of course, I have to work through the system by trial-and-error.
My question is: Is there any comprehensive documentation for the current incarnation of Android Studio? The best I've found so far is the book, "Android Studio Development Essentials" by Neil Smyth. Even that, however, spends far more pages on Android development in general than on the Android Studio too.
As an example, take a look at https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/help/accessing-module-settings.html. The first step is to bring up the Project Structure dialog. That comes up fine, but appears to have been completely redone and the very next step, "click Modules", doesn't appear to be pertinent any longer. Furthermore, the "Modules page" that that should bring you to doesn't seem to exist any more (at least I couldn't find it anywhere). This (i.e., module) information seems to be retained in the app.iml file (the module is called "app"), but I don't see where it can be modified in the GUI.
I have a few questions about Android Studio (given the above), but will post them separately.
Thanks for any pointers .
Barry
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UPDATE:
From IntelliJ Support:
Online documentation is for IDEA, not for Android Studio. Android Studio is a narrow tool for Android development, so it doesn't have all IDEA features.
Android Studio is based on IDEA core code, but it is developed by Google.
Closing this item out. (Although, not to put too fine a point on it, I still don't know where good/accurate/current documentation is for Android Studio (Google?).)