Bangalore Android Developers Meetup # 11 : Liveblog

And the meetup comes to an end.

App Demo

India TV Guide

India TV Guide is your one-stop app for listings of all the Indian TV Channels. Find the programmes and schedule info you want to watch. List your favourite channels. Set Alerts and yes, you can sync it with your google calender too. Long press on a programme to share it with your friends.

Download it from https://market.android.com/details?id=com.techjini.tvguide.android.activity

Delivery Status by Mango Technologies

Download it from https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mango.packagetracker

Zomato by Pramod Rao

Zomato android app lets you search menus across 18,000 restaurants in India. Spanning 10 cities - Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad & Chandigarh - Zomato also lets you check ratings, reviews and pictures of all restaurants in your city. Zomato on your Android is location aware - it recommends you the best restaurants around your current location. Get the app here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.application.zomato

smsBlocker by CEO of Optinno

$795 M worth of time is wasted in India alone. 

smsBlocker mobile app by Pune based startup-Optinno, addresses this problem heads on. It is powered with unique intelligence to identify if an SMS is a spam and block it automatically if detected so. This app works so well that in less than a year it has been downloaded by over 140000 users from over 110 countries & also won 5 coveted awards for being unique, innovative & highly useful.

Download it from https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smsBlocker

Introduction to C2DM by Amrit

12:10 PM

Why C2DM?

• Current Architecture of Apps
• Flacky Network Connections
• Background polling hits battery, Mem, CPU, Complicated Code
• App need not run
• Efficient
• Lower cost and better tracking

Minimum Req

1. Android 2.2+
2. Android Marketplace
3. Google Account
4. HTTPS application server that should be
   Able to communicate with the client
   Able to fire of HTTP rew to C2DM server

Alternative Infrastructures

• Limited Connectivity
• Security Requirements
• Guaranteed Delivery
• SLA on delivery
• Notification quota

11:55 AM

• No guaranteed delivery
• Notify about new data, not the data itself
• Not suitable for Critical Use Cases
• App need not run all the time
• Google User Account required
• No GUI component
• Limit to the no of msgs
• Still in beta

11:42 AM

• C2DM : Cloud to Device Messaging, which allows Devs to send events (sometimes data, not recommended ) to their Apps running on Android Devices
• Supported from Android 2.2+
• Simple and lightweight mechanism
• Handles queueing of messages and delivery to the target App running on the target device
• Not designed to sent a lot of data to the client

Behind the scenes

It uses OpenFire, CakePHP, PostGre, PostGIS

Client side is asmack etc

more details are at http://www.appucino.com/

Thanks to Mahesh for the presentation.

Integrating Appucino

5 steps will do it

1. Import jar
2. add declarations to manifest
3. decide when the panel appears and how the scoring to be integrated
4. 2 lines in onCreates + onStarts
5. when to show the gamebar

Appucino

This takes care of the social layer by adding only a few lines of code, allows to maintain leaderboards, find new people nearby who use the same apps, and also cross pollination of the apps.

Games2Win Learnings

1. Audience on web convert to iOS
2. Adoption is not good on Android : discoverability is an issue?
3. eCPMs are not good on mobile
4. Use the interface paradigm the device offers
5. Single Click, never ending games do have repeat plays
6. Update strategies
7. Ad network

Games2Win Checklist

1. Virality : can it spread?
2. Involvement : does it engage?
3. Community : does it involve my social sphere?
4. Task Orientation
5. Originality : anyone else out there?
6. Revenue Stream : has it been thought out?
7. Yo Yo : Cross Pollination 

Appucino
Whats imp for Games?

1. The idea (Game mechanic)
2. Production (Story board, game design, art, programming)
3. Distribution(Publishing, Virality, partnerships)
4. Revenues(Analytics, Targets, eCPMs, ARPU)

10:48 AM
The intro session is over. We will soon move onto the 1st session, Appucino, from Games2Win, presented by Mahesh.

10:36 AM
Intro session on, hence radio silence!

10:32 AM
Few more people are in. Amrit has already started talking about DevFest.

10:22 AM
People are still trickling in.

10:10 AM
At the venue. Chairs are still being pulled in.https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smsBlocker