Android Developers Backstage

In this episode, Tor and I talk with Shumin Zhai of Google Research. Shumin has worked for years in the area of language processing, specifically around user input on keyboards. Some of his work ended up in the Gesture Typing feature of the Google keyboard, which is all about translating user input into specific word suggestions. We talked about this work, language processing, research, and about the field of interpreting user interface input in general. Favorite word: Corpus: A dead body of text. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Google keyboard Shumin: research.google.com/pubs/author9128.html, www.shuminzhai.com Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

The fancy ADB recording studio, with our featured guest. In this episode, Tor and I talk with... each other. This episode is all about Android Studio. In particular, we talk about the latest features and massive performance improvements in the Android Studio preview that was detailed at the Android Dev Summit and which has been in development and under improvement since then. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Android Studio tips & tricks video All of the Android Dev Summit Talks Android Studio Android Studio Recent Changes Instant Run Proguard Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

In this episode, we recycle our guest list to bring back a former guest, Yigit Boyar, this time to talk about the RecyclerView widget. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links RecyclerView Animation talk from the Android Dev Summit Android Application Architecture talk from the Android Dev Summit Source code for the Android Architecture talk sample app The new lint check for RecyclerView suggested by Yigit, shipped in 2.0 Preview 5 Yigit Boyar: https://plus.google.com/111851968937104436377, @yigitboyar Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

This time, Tor and Chet talk with Nicholas Jitkoff from the Material group about... Material Design. And design in general. And engineering. And splash screens. And other stuff. Favorite words: Materiality. Skiamorphic. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Material Design Zombo Nicholas: google.com/+NicholasJitkoffJ, @alcor Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

Chet, Phil, and Tor. And a lot of totally professional sound baffles This time, Tor and Chet get all musical with Phil Burk from the Android Audio team. Phil worked on the new MIDI feature in the Android 6.0 Marshmallow release, and joins the podcast to talk about MIDI (history as well as Android implementation), electronic music, and other audio-related topics. Bryan said it was his favorite episode so far. But then Bryan's an audio engineer, so he might be slightly biased. Android MIDI: It's music to our ears. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Android MIDI MidiSynth Example More Examples HMSL Larry Polansky Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

In this, er, impressive episode, Tor and Chet talk with Jim Miller from the Android System UI team. We mostly chat about the new fingerprint feature in Android 6 Marshmallow (aka, "Nexus Imprint"). But we also talk about other things like Keyguard, Setup Wizard, widgets, notifications, and greasy chicken parts. "UIs, like fingerprints, are all unique." Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Fingerprint Authentication FingerprintManager Fingerprint Dialog Example Fingerprint and Payments APIs (Video) Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

Richard, Chet, Ben, and not Tor in the spacious London studio In this Tor-less episode, Chet talks with Ben Murdoch and Richard Coles from the Android WebView team. We talk about WebView's ability to update outside of platform releases, the transition from the original WebView to the new Chromium WebView widget, about some of the new features and APIs in recent releases, and about cute kitten bitmaps. Tor didn't have much to say, about kittens or anything else. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Beta Channel for Android WebView Google+ Beta Channel Community Bug Tracker Chrome Dev Tools WebView API Ben Murdoch: google.com/+BenMurdoch, @ksasq Richard Coles: google.com/+RichardColesGoogle Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase Also, thanks to continued support by Bryan Gordon, our audio engineer who puts this stuff together every time.

In this episode, we talk with Rachel Garb from the Android User Experience team. Tune in to hear about interaction design and about how the Android system UI (including the new volume slider UI in Android M) is designed and user-tested. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Material Design Spec Android Design for Success (Google I/O 2012) Don't Make Me Think (Steve Krug) The Inmates are Running the Asylum (Alan Cooper) Rachel: google.com/+RachelGarb, medium.com/@rachelgarb, @rachelgarb Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

In this episode, we chat with George Mount and Yigit Boyar from the Android UI Toolkit team. Yigit and George worked on the new Data Binding feature announced at Google I/O and which is available in the preview release and in recent versions of Android Studio. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Relevant Links Data Binding Guide George Mount: https://plus.google.com/+GeorgeMount007 Yigit Boyar: https://plus.google.com/111851968937104436377, @yigitboyar Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

In this episode, we chat with Andrew Bunner and Akshay Kannan from the Nearby team. Nearby is a technology that allows devices that are, er, nearby to communicate in one of several ways (including ultrasonic frequencies, which is just kind of awesome). Favorite bits: "beeps and boops" (a technical term), "acoustical chamber" (sounds a lot cooler than it probably is), and the three most important things about Nearby: proximity, proximity, proximity. Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly. Nearby Product Overview Andrew: google.com/+AndrewBunner Akshay: google.com/+AkshayKannan Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase