The latest email from Google Android to developers informs us of a few changes to the market. Most notably, the refund window drops down from 24 hours to 15 minutes.
Last year, there was talk of increasing it from 24 hours to 48 hours. If memory serves me right, about six months ago, Google asked devs to sign a new agreement stating the refund window will be 48 hours, though the refund window on the market itself actually remained at 24 hours.
Now, it seems Google has made a U-turn. I’m a bit worried that 15 minutes really isn’t enough for a user to check an app and therefore users might be less likely to buy your app in the first place? Is this because Google struggles with the number of users ripping apps and passing them on for free? What are your thoughts on this? Surely, one of the Google Android selling point was always the “try before you buy approach” but are 15 minutes enough to try?
A new update to Sudoku Way (Tetris meet Sudoku game for Google Android) has just been released. The update is a minor one and mostly concerns the display of the highest scores. Still, a good reason to check out the game if you’re not familiar with it, the Lite version is free 
Google Android provides the tools to easily localise your apps, in the form of string resources defined in xml files. Let’s look at how to use them.
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I think I may not be the only developer wondering when and how often Google updates apps stats on the Android developer console. Well, my research over the last few months – and by research, I mean checking it every day several times most days – indicates that it is on a regular schedule… except when it’s not.
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So, a little over six months after Android FroYo, Android Gingerbread is officially here!
Here’s a few screenshots (they are taken from the Android emulator running Gingerbread with the default screen size & resolution).
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If the code below for handling your Android clicks looks familiar
findViewById(R.id.myButton).setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
/**do stuff**/
}
});
it’s time to introduce you to android:onClick attribute.
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Yesterday, I attended the first day of Apps World in London and it was very interesting. I did spend a lot of time in the Developers’ Corner and was inspired in particular by two talks.
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I’ve just updated Sudoku Way (a Tetris meet Sudoku game for Google Android). This is a fairly minor update focusing on improved graphics when the numbers are removed from the grid. I’ve also fixed a bug in the highest scores display (they are now ordered from highest score to lowest, as you would expect them to be, and not randomly ordered like they were in v1.2). Both the free and paid versions received these updates.
As promised earlier this week , I have published a major update to Big Fingers Keyboard, the soft keyboard for those with big fingers for Google Android.
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Sometimes, you know that you need to update your app but there is something you just can’t figure out how to do… Well, this was the case for Big Fingers Keyboard, my soft keyboard app for Google Android, but I am pleased to say that I have finally found a way to get predictive text to work fast with a big dictionary (I managed to get predictive text to work a couple of months ago but it was too slow for me to release it as an update).
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