Code Shogun

AdFree Android is now available on the Android market. It allows anyone with root/super user access on their phone to download a replacement hosts file for their device which redirects ad URLs to itself. This has the effect of saving bandwidth and speeding up browsing.

I agree ads are annoying, especially on a tiny phone screen. But Google’s Android Market does not allow developers from many countries to publish paid apps. The only way for those developers to get some income from the Market is to publish apps with ad banners. AdFree is a brutal solution to alter hosts file and leaving a gaping blank block within the app (since the ad banners cannot complete the retrieval).

It’s all about choices. You can install AdFree to block ads, we can include AdFreeDetector to find it, and do something about it.

AdFreeDetector detects whether the Android phone has AdFree package installed, as well as finding out if your ad network IP has been altered (and thus no ads will be shown to the user).

It’s a simple JAR lib that you can include in your Android apps.

It’s open sourced under Apache License V2 here:

http://code.google.com/p/adfree-detector/

Please feel free to submit a patch and make it better

Sample usage:

Make sure your AndroidManifest?.xml has these lines:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>

To check if the Android device has AdFree package installed:

boolean flag = Detector.isAdFreeInstalled(context);

To check if hosts file has been altered, the default checking is on “googleads.g.doubleclick.net”

boolean isAltered = Detector.isHostAltered(context, null);

To check specific hostname, such as AdMob?: analytics.admob.com

isAltered = Detector.isHostAltered(context, "analytics.admob.com");

Have fun  

Android Shogun Android AdFree, AdFreeDetector, Market

We all know how hard it is to live in the city while having a car, traffics and all that. But the most frustrating task is to park your car. Enter PrimoSpot: find free on street parking and compare parking garage prices. Search thousands of metro city parking signs for regulations and time left at a parking spot.

You can use the website to plan your trip: finding possible street parking spots, nearby garage hours and fees. And if you ride a bike, find a bike rack there too! You can also download the iPhone app on your iPhone so you can check up parking information wherever you go.

Tonight, I’m here to announce the launch of PrimoSpot Android app, available on the Android Market now! Go check it out! “PrimoSpot Parking” is the app name! Search “Parking” or “PrimoSpot”, you will find it on top of the list! This is THE ONLY app on the market now to help you find parking space!

We have NYC and Boston currently supported, but will expand to other metro cities very soon. There’s also a universal online widget available soon that you can embed in any web pages.

Meanwhile, here are some screen shots of the app in action:

Some Features:
- Uses GPS to find parking information around your current location
- Search entered address to find parking information
- Compare garage prices
- Remember where you parked your car with some reminding notes

Go grab a copy if you live in NYC and Boston and let us know what you think ^_^

Happy Driving!

Android Shogun Android, Mobile, iPhone Android, Boston, iPhone, Market, NYC, parking, primospot

JavaEye is a software developers’ community site based in China.

Established on September 2003, JavaEye started with topics only
concerning about Java and Hibernate. Since then it has expanded to topics related to all software development disciplines. JavaEye was selected as the best 10 technology websites in 2005. We also obtained a lot of useful information from this site frequently; Therefore, we decided to bring this site to android platform.

The app took us 3 developers and 20 days on our spare time to finish.

The current alpha version has chat, site message inbox, and bookmarks features.

We utilized JavaEye.com’s API to accomplish the above.

This application is available on the Android Market. You can search it from your android phone by keyword “JavaEye”.

For those who did not have an android phone, you can download this application from the following link:
http://www.ChinaAndroidDev.com/apks/JavaEyeClient_1.0.1.apk

We are working on the next release. We are aiming to add GPS location/Map, Voice mail , background checking and notification

Android Shogun Android, Mobile Android, JavaEye, Market

As I slowly figuring out the ins and outs of Android, I’ll getting more updates out on my apps on the Market. Tonight I updated the NPR Podcasts app w/ built-in Music Player:

It’s actually pretty easy, you pass the Uri of the MP3 file to your intent, and fire it off. The system will broadcast that intent and a suitable Music Player will be chosen, or the user will be prompted to choose one if there are multiple available players registered to play the “audio/*” mine type.

Here’s the little codes:

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(file), "audio/*");
context.startActivity(intent);


The app is updated on the Market now. Download and enjoy!

Android Shogun Android, Mobile Market, Music Player, NPR