It had been quite a long wait for the official Wikipedia app to land on the Android Market. Barely two weeks after launch, it has racked up over 500,000 downloads with a 4.5 star average rating. And now, the team behind the app has posted a blog describing the development process.

The most interesting bit to note is the use of PhoneGap, the web-technologies based cross-platform development tool. Such tools have seen a rise in popularity because of the ability to target multiple platforms with the same code.

"Rather than diving into proprietary frameworks and SDKs, our application has been built on the same foundation as the open mobile web. And not only does this allow us to prepare for the future, it also accelerates our ability to develop across numerous platforms.

Within a short amount of time we’ve already developed a testing version of our iOS app with PhoneGap and we’ve established our first complete community port to the BlackBerry PlayBook. This demonstrates the power of using open tools and communities to improve the Internet as a whole and it is a critical component to our long term goals."

Many have argued that apps built using web technologies are no match for those built natively. Yet, despite having dabbled with PhoneGap quite a bit myself, I only learnt of its use by the Wiki team upon reading the blog post. Adobe bought PhoneGap’s parent company, Nitobi, last fall prior to announcing the end of mobile Flash.

Do you think Wikipedia’s use of PhoneGap foreshadows a shift towards open web-based technologies in favor of natively built apps?

Android Phone Fans

Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation have announced a partnership that will see the latter bringing mobile application development curriculum to students of high schools within their network. Five schools will be getting the program but the NAF aims to bring it to their entire network of schools in due time.

Lenovo’s contribution will come from providing the devices for development and testing. Namely, some of their ThinkPad tablets will be headed straight for several classrooms. Pretty exciting stuff, though I’m the nerd who always wanted to learn mobile application development while I was in high school. Kind of makes me want to rewind time, actually. Anyway, the press release is below.

Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation Launch Mobile App Development Program for High School Students

Schools Pilot Premier Curriculum Using Latest Technology Devices to Strengthen 21st Century STEM Skills

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – JANUARY 24, 2012: Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation (NAF) today launched an innovative program to teach mobile app development to high school students across the United States. Five schools from NAF’s network of career academies are piloting the program as part of Lenovo’s initiative to encourage greater student interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and to strengthen 21st century skills. This innovative curriculum will also strengthen NAF’s mission to prepare students for college and career success. N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue and members of Lenovo and NAF’s executive leadership team made the announcement today at Apex High School’s Academy of Information Technology in Apex, N.C., one of the participating schools.

“High – tech skills are critical for North Carolina’s pipeline of future workers,” said Gov. Perdue. “Unique partnerships like this one not only give high school students real-world, real-time learning opportunities, but they align with the broader goals of business, education and government to create North Carolina’s next generation of professional leaders.”

To aid the students and teachers implement the curriculum, Lenovo provided a package of technology products to each school, including Android-based ThinkPad Tablets and large format ThinkCentre HD All-in-One desktops, among other items.

“To succeed in tomorrow’s workforce, students need a solid foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with fluency in the technologies that will power the global economy,” said Michael Schmedlen, worldwide director of education, Lenovo. “This exciting program engages students via the technology and apps they use every day. By partnering with the National Academy Foundation, we’re delivering a rigorous and relevant curriculum that will help create our next generation of developers and entrepreneurs.”

The other schools that will offer the app development course are part of the National Academy Foundation’s Academies of Information Technology: Grover Cleveland High School in New York City, Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles, Pathways to Technology Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., and A.J. Moore Academy of Information and Technology in Waco, Texas. The program aims to ultimately make the curriculum available to NAF’s 100 Academies of Information Technology.

“Our schools are strong because we have great partnerships with business and industry,” said Anthony J. Tata, superintendent of the Wake County Public School System. “This unique program gives our students practical experience with innovative technology at a time when they’re making decisions about their future careers. We’re creating the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

The course is designed to be implemented as either a 12-week after-school or “out-of-school time” activity to supplement the NAF-developed IT courses students take during the school day or as part of the existing NAF daytime curriculum. Student teams will develop a working wireframe, business plan and implementation schedule for an Android-based mobile application.

“The partnership between NAF and Lenovo is a real example of how business and education can play a pivotal role in changing high school education to ensure college and career success. We are pleased to be working with such innovative thinkers to inspire and equip tomorrow’s leaders,” said JD Hoye, president of the National Academy Foundation.

New Research Shows Kids Want to Learn App Development but Lack Tech Confidence

New research from Lenovo also supports creation of the mobile app development curriculum. The research shows that while students have a strong interest in mobile apps – which many of them use on a daily basis – and see app development as a valuable skill, they don’t have confidence that they will have the technology background needed for tomorrow’s workforce. The Omnibus survey of American teenagers, conducted in December of 2011, found that:

80 percent of American teens would be interested in learning how to create their own mobile app.
Almost a quarter (22 percent) think that mobile app development will be the most important technology skill to have when entering the workforce in a few years.
63 percent are only somewhat confident, at best, that the technology know-how they have now is enough to secure a good job upon entering the workforce.

[Engadget]

Android Phone Fans

One of the most visually stunning games in mobile has to be, without a doubt Infinity Blade for iOS devices. The title has already earned the pair of developers over $ 20 million in revenue and they’re looking to do it again with Infinity Blade 2. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been wondering exactly what’s been taking the developers so long in porting the title (or it’s upcoming sequel) over to Android. We have the power, we have the hardware — so what’s the hold up?

Well, in an interview with the guys over at Mashable, Chair Entertainment talked a little bit about their decision NOT to bring Infinity Blade or its sequel to Android devices anytime soon. According to a number of online reports, Android is a “wild west” of piracy and the developers surveyed in the study feel Google has been relatively lax in their fight against app piracy which is in turn, sending them packing. This same sentiment is echoed by Chair Entertainment who said,

“We’re confident that will be worked out and it will become a viable place for game developers, but that hasn’t happened yet. So it’s not the tech, it’s the business platform.”

There’s no denying it. Piracy is something I’ve noticed plaguing Android since the G1 days with entire sites dedicated to warez titles. While Google does have some anti-piracy tools developers can take advantage of in their apps, apparently they’re nowhere near as secure as Apple’s method. Let’s hope this is something Google will continue to address because it kills me to think I will never be able to play Infinity Blade on my Galaxy Nexus (whenever I get my hands on one).

What do you guys think? Is Android piracy as bad some of these developers make it out to be? I seem to recall some friends of mine with jailbroken iPhone’s that give them access to a little app store called Cydia, where you can find many paid apps for free. Just remember kids — the next time you’re off cruising around the interwebs late at night and download an illegal copy of Shadowgun, not only does a fairy die… but a developer packs up his apps and takes them on over to the Appstore. How’s that for guilt?

[Via Mashable]

Android Phone Fans

While we were spending some time at the Samsung Mobile booth, Rob and I ran into “the Unity guy” who gave us a quick demo on the power of Unity 3D engine. Joe Robbins showed us how easy it is to build a cross platform game using the Unity engine and painlessly output that game into a working Android, iOS, Xbox or PS3 game.

The game demo (Angry Bots) was being edited in real-time on a computer where those modifications were then immediately playable on the game demo running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. All it took was one-click to then output the game onto other platforms. It was pretty cool to see everything in action and even though I know next to nothing on game development, the Unity platform made it all seem so easy. It’s no wonder some of Android and iOS’s upcoming blockbusters like Shadowgun and Bladeslinger are all being built with the Unity engine.

Android Phone Fans

Greetings Android Phone Fans! You’ve made it through the day and managed to end up here, in the Android Overload. This is your one stop, place to shop for all those Android stories that didn’t get to make it onto our front page. Rather then throw them into the abyss of the internet, we pool them here for you to give the once over. Enjoy and have a great night.

• TELUS is now listing their 4G Samsung Galaxy S II X (otherwise known as the Samsung Hercules as “Coming soon.”
• Jude OK’s all but one Oracle copyright claim against Google. [Electronista]
• Google working on Flipboard competitor called Propeller. It’s like a social news reader. [AllThingsD]
• Despite LG’s denial of job cuts, LG is now restructuring their mobile department. [Reuters]
• Barnes & Noble targets app development on the Nook Color once again, this time with Appcelerator. [IntoMobile]
• Boeing choose Android to power 787 Dreamliner’s entertainment system. [ABT]

Android Phone Fans

Barnes & Noble isn’t ready to give up on the Nook Color just yet. Apparently, the company looks to spur more Nook Color application development for the pseudo tablet/e-reader by hosting a Nook Developer Workshop at this years App Developers Conference in Santa Clara, CA. The conference takes place in October and the Nook Color Developer team will be on hand for the workshop taking developers through the entire development process of creating apps for Android powered B&NNC. Things like app submission and approval process and utilizing Nook Color API’s. They’re enticing developers with the possibility of making big bucks seeing how the top-selling apps for the NC grossed more than $ 100,000 within the first 30 days of being launched. Color me impressed.

Thanks, Mark!

[Via AppDevConf]

Android Phone Fans

Good evening everyone. It’s time for another episode of the Android Overload. This is the place you can turn for all the news we didn’t feature on our front page but felt deserved a look before being cast off into the internet abyss. Such an eventful day today but if you’re still looking for more Android news then you came to the right place. Have fun!

• China says Google has not sought regulatory approval for proposed Motorola acquisition. [Reuters]
• White Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and orange Xperia Play spotted. [Pocketnow]
• US may invest $ 53 billion in 4G networks over the next 5 years. [BGR]
• 200 episode tutorial series on learning Android development. [AndroidPolice]
• New Android Malware now infecting Gingerbread users. [eWeek]
• Samsung is sending out SMS messages regarding the Galaxy S II. [Imgur]
• Another new Gingerbread build leaks for the HTC Thunderbolt (2.10.605.1). [Droid-Life]
• Verizon stores begin receiving Motrola DROID Bionic t-shirts. [AC]

Android Phone Fans

The Motorola XPRT has only aged a couple of months since its launch on Sprint, but it looks like its followup may already be under development. A new Motorola handset in the same QWERTY candybar style as the XPRT has been spied, looking more BlackBerry-esque than ever with a curvier design. Little else is known about the handset, which is said to run Android 2.3 and potentially sport a WiMAX radio. The lone image comes with no estimated release or price point, though we may speculate that this new handset could be targeted at a different price range than the XPRT if it were to launch sooner rather than later.

[via BGR]

Android Phone Fans

Pioneer has been looking to bust their way into the Android game and this may be the first of many ways – an in-dash computing system based on the operating system. We’ve received an invitation from them asking us to join them for “an exclusive, game-changing car electronics announcement” in San Francisco on May 25th. Above that are the words “The Dash Just Got Smarter”. In-dash systems are nothing new (they have been around for years) but you know we get excited when we hear Android will be at the helm of anything.

It’ll be interesting to see what exactly they’ll end up doing. Pioneer has long been rumored to release an Android tablet. The first thing that comes to mind is an Android-based in-dash unit that can be detached whenever you’re not in the car. How awesome would that be? We can’t play the guessing game too heavily, though, so we’ll just have to head back over to San Francisco later this month to find out.

Android Phone Fans

Along with the introduction of Photoshop Touch, Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 is complimented with several new tools for those developing applications for mobile platforms. Flash Builder 4.5, Flex 4.5, and Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP all include enhancements and tooling to support mobile frameworks including Android, BlackBerry, and iOS. Using Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, developers have access to a common codebase to cut back on development time for Flash and Air applications for mobile and include options to directly deploy finalized APKs to the Android Market and Amazon Appstore.

The idea is developers can code an app once and, with minimal changes, get it out on as many platforms as possible thanks to Adobe’s development tools. Can’t see how any party loses on that one. Of course, how useful this really is might be a question better answered by those actually developing the apps.

[via Adobe 1, 2]

Android Phone Fans