Make Your First Android App: Part 1/3

“But when does the Android version come out?”

–The first blog comment after any iOS app gets announced.
Clearly there’s a demand for Android app development, and it’s turning the platform with the lovable green mascot into more and more of a strong first choice rather than just a secondary option to iOS.
With over one billion devices activated, Android is an exciting space to make apps to help you communicate, organize, educate, entertain or anything else you’re passionate about.
If that’s not enough, here are a few more reasons to learn Android:

• You’ll be plugged into the open source platform with (at the time of press) the largest market share of smart devices worldwide.
• Android’s policies on device provisioning and app submission are more open than Apple’s, meaning that once you complete your first app—as you’ll do in this tutorial—you and your friends can enjoy it on your devices right away!
• If you have experience developing for iOS, you can become well-versed in the ways that the two platforms coincide and differ (we’ll discuss a few in this tutorial) and what you like about each. Then you’ll have more tools at your disposal for your next mobile project.
• It’s not just the iPhone anymore. There are so many smartphones, tablets, glasses, and watches out there, coming from so many manufacturers, and they’re all trying to jump into the game. You don’t have to be any sort of market analyst to know that there are a few important platforms and Android is one of them.

So if you’ve been intent on, thinking about, or simply playing with the idea of learning Android… Make Your First Android App is the tutorial series for you!

There aren’t any prerequisites to start. You’ll learn how to set up all the tools you need to become an Android developer-in-training. Then you’ll put together your own full-fledged Android app from scratch! This app will, when completed, help you get details about a book you’re interested in using online search sources.
By the end of Part Three of this series, your app will include useful features like:

• Saving app data locally on the phone.
• Loading and interacting with a dynamic list of data.
• Accessing an online data source.
• Sharing links through social networks.

Android, and several popular frameworks for it, make all of these features really simple to implement. Why not start learning this easy and powerful platform for yourself, today?

Getting Started

How does Android development go down? First, the zoomed-out basics:

• You’ll write your programming—what you want your app to do—in Java files and design your layouts—how you want your app to look—in XML files.
• Once your app is ready, you’ll use a build tool to compile all the project files and package them together into a .apk file that you can run on Android devices and/or submit to Google Play.
• All of the files you used to put your app together are managed by an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The IDE is the program you will open to edit your code files and to manage your projects.
• The standard IDE for Android used to be Eclipse, but this is now being replaced by Google’s own Android Studio.

If you zoom in (metaphorically), you’ll find more in-depth processes going on behind the scenes during all of the above steps. For example, advanced users will want to investigate the role of the Dalvik Virtual Machine and it’s new replacement, ART.
But for now, let’s move on. Here’s what you’re going to accomplish in this part of the tutorial:

1. Download and install Android Studio.
2. Set up testing on devices and emulators.
3. Create a simple “Hello World!” Android app that prints to your device’s screen.
4. Make small edits to the app so it can congratulate you by name.

In the second part of this tutorial, you’ll make an app that records a message you type, adds it to a list, saves it in memory and shares it with friends. Along the way, you’ll learn how to add and configure various UI elements such as ImageViews, Buttons, ListViews, and EditText controls.
Finally, the third part will cover how to make an app to search an online database of books, display and share the cover images of the search results, and navigate between the different screens of your new app!

Installing Android Studio

It’s really tempting to jump in, start writing code right away and figure out the various Android features as quickly as possible. And you will get there soon! But one of the most important parts of getting started with a new platform is setting up your environment.
Especially for beginners, it’s important to take your time here and follow each step methodically. Even if you follow the steps perfectly, you may have to troubleshoot some small issue, depending on your system configuration or product versions.
It’s important to not let any roadblocks prevent you from your ultimate goal of learning Android. Even seasoned professionals have been known to have some trouble with the new Android Studio.

Note: Just as much as you’re training in programming syntax and frameworks, it’s important to train yourself to have a successful programming mindset — one that won’t accept file X not found as a final answer. 90% of this mindset is simply training yourself to keep trying till you find a solution.

With all of this in mind, let’s quickly check that you have the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed. You might already, even if you don’t know for sure.
To check, you’ll use the Terminal. If you’re unfamiliar with the Terminal, you may want to read a good introductory tutorial about working with the Terminal.
In a nutshell, your Terminal is like looking under your car’s hood; it’s how you really get to know the machine face-to-face, without any complex graphical interface in the middle. You can find the Terminal app quite easily on a Mac using Spotlight. Search for terminal and click the top hit to run Terminal.

Once you have the Terminal open, type in java -version. You should see some output that mentions a version number, like below.

If you don’t have the JDK installed, your Terminal will tell you command not found. If that’s the case, you should download the JDK from Oracle.
When ready, head over to the Android Studio page and find the button to download the correct version for your platform.

Google is constantly updating this page, so the version you see may be newer than the screenshot above. Click the Download button and you’ll be asked to agree to the Terms and Conditions:

After reading these carefully (as you always do) and accepting, your download begins. It will likely take a few minutes. Once done, you can install Android Studio similar to any other program. The original download page contains the familiar Mac and Windows installation instructions in case you need a refresher.
Now that you’ve installed Studio, let’s fire it up! Launch Android Studio. It may ask you if you want to import any settings:

Since you’re starting from scratch, if given the choice just select I do not have a previous version… and move on. You’re presented with the nice loading screen, complete with all the various phone and tablet screen sizes in the background. More on screen size diversity later. ;]

Once that loads, you are greeted with a Welcome screen.

Even though you just downloaded Studio, you might not actually have the latest version. Right away, you need to click check for updates and if necessary, follow any instructions to get the latest version.
Sometimes, Studio automatically lets you know that there’s an update via a screen similar to this:

In that case, always choose Update and Restart.
Great! As all programmers in the movies say when they are successfully greeted with a new interface: We’re in!

Optional/Advanced: Moving from Eclipse

You can skip to the next section if you are new to Android development.
Android Studio is a new IDE that Google is constantly updating. If you are already involved in Android development, you are probably using Eclipse. For the transition, the Android team has put together a helpful guide on how to move from Eclipse to Studio.
The process can still be a little bumpy, even for advanced users, so the best advice I can offer on that front is to make sure that your version of Gradle is up-to-date, as well as your versions of the Android Platform Tools and Studio itself.
It’s also important to check the PATH of your Android software development kit (SDK) when switching to Studio. Otherwise, Studio may not be able to find the right Android SDK or Build Tools!

Creating OMG Android

It’s time. Let’s make your first project.
You’ll start simple. Many first programs are called “Hello World.” Let’s follow that tradition and then make a few small edits so that the app uses your name to greet you. By the end, you’ll be able to load your new app onto a device and show it to your friends!
Android Studio has a nice little step-by-step tool to help you make your project. Click New Project from the Welcome to Android Studio screen:

Note: If you currently have an Android Studio project open and the Welcome screen isn’t showing, select File\New Project from the menu to create a new project.

Studio will present you with a screen like the following:

Fill it out according to the screenshot above. Feel free to replace “example” in your Package name with something else to remove the warning at the bottom of the screen.
You can set the Project location to any location on your hard drive – you do not need to follow the screenshot for that one :]
For the SDK drop downs, pay attention to the Description section at the bottom of the dialog. It explains what each setting is for.
Set the Minimum required SDK as shown in the screenshot. This sets the minimum version of Android needed to run your app. Selecting this value for your own projects is a matter of balancing the SDK capabilities you want and the devices you want to support.
For your first app, I recommend using API version 14, which is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Every app will have different requirements and you may want to choose something else, depending on the situation.
For more information on API versions and their use, check the Android Dashboards, which are constantly updated.

You’ll note that a fair number of devices are still on API level 10, Gingerbread. In case you’re considering supporting Gingerbread in your project, do note that that number is shrinking and would require you to make some accommodations in your app design that often aren’t worth it.
Getting back to the dialog, Target SDK and Compile With aren’t crucial here. They should each just be the highest value possible at the time. As new SDK versions come out, this number will rise.

Note: In some strange cases, users aren’t given choices in any of the SDK drop-downs and can’t proceed. If that happens, from the welcome menu go to Configure > Project Defaults > Project Structure. This gives a menu full of SDK-related drop-downs. You have to check that none of these options are marked red, indicating none or empty values.

Click Next and you’ll see more options.

This screen creates the default app icon for you. The default values are fine for now — you’ll change it later. So click Next.
Another step in the creation process appears:

This screen offers a few different options that define how your app UI is set up. You can simply accept the default, which creates an (almost) blank screen with an action bar. The action bar is one of the reasons why you set the minimum SDK to Ice Cream Sandwich: it’s the way that modern Android apps help users easily navigate and select app options and it’s only available from API level 14 onwards. Click Next.
You are now presented with the final step in the process:

Before you click Finish, take a moment here, because you’re starting to get hints of what your program is going to look like and of terms you should know going forward.

• Activity Name. This is the first mention you’ve seen of the word Activity, but it certainly won’t be the last. In Android, an Activity is usually thought of as a “screen” in your app. It could be fullscreen or it could be a partial-screen pop-up. It is very flexible. If you want your user interacting with something in your app, that’s at some level happening via an Activity.
  Note: When Android Studio creates your MainActivity, what it’s doing is making a subclass of Activity. Those familiar with object-oriented programming will know what this is, but for newcomers, this basically means that your MainActivity is going to be a customized version of Activity that acts just like the default one, handling things like its lifecycle and the user interface display.
• Layout Name. You’re going to define your MainActivity in Java, but the layout of everything it will show to the user is defined in a special sort of Android XML. You will learn how to read and edit those files soon.
• Fragment Layout Name. A fragment is a little like a sub-activity, and can be a useful part of your app design. I won’t go into fragments much in this tutorial—in fact, one of the things you’ll do is remove the one that the New Project wizard makes for you—but I encourage you to further investigate how to effectively use fragments after you finish this tutorial.
• Navigation Type. For now, just choose None. You won’t need any navigation for a little while, and when you do, it’ll be smarter to build it yourself, from scratch.

Click Finish. Android Studio takes this as its cue to go do a bunch of behind-the-scenes operations and create your project. As it shoots out some descriptions of what it’s doing from time to time, you may notice it say something like the following:

You see your project name, which is familiar. But then there is this Gradle word, and then a mention of Maven in the URL. The benefit of having a modern IDE like Android Studio is that it handles a lot for you. But as you’re just beginning to learn Studio, it’s good to know, in general, what it’s doing for you.

• Gradle is a new build tool that is easy to use, but it also contains a lot of advanced options if you investigate it further. Basically, it takes your Java code and XML layouts, and uses the latest Android build tools to create the app package file, known as an APK file. You can customize your configurations to have development or production versions of the app that behave differently, or add dependencies for third-party libraries.
• Maven is another project build tool, and it can also refer to the Maven Central repository of java libraries. It is absurdly easy to use Gradle and Maven Central in concert with Android Studio to incorporate all sorts of functionality from the Android development community. Those with an iOS background will know how cool this sort of thing can be from using the CocoaPods tool. You’ll learn more about Maven in Part Three of the tutorial.

After a while, Android Studio will finish building your project. The project is pretty empty, of course, but it still has everything it needs already set up so that it can be launched on an Android device or emulator. You will be dropped off in this spot:

You’re looking at a layout file in XML format. Before you get into any programming, let’s talk about how you’re going to get this app running. It’s time to say “Hello world!”

Running on an Emulator or Device

All right: You’ve got Android Studio and you’ve created an app. Let’s see this app live on an emulator or device!
Press Edit Configurations. You’ll find it marked in the image below. Note that some windows have it moved to the right a little and the option may take a minute to appear as Studio finishes all processes.

A new dialog will appear showing you some options for Run/Debug Configurations.

Well, you want to run your app, so you must be in the right place. Look where it says Target Device. Here’s where you tell Studio where you want to run the app.

Note: In some versions of Android Studio, you may have to select Defaults\Android Application from the left menu pane in order to see the configuration options.

At this point, it would be best if you have an Android device handy — more about readying your device in just a bit. But for those without one, you also have the choice to run on an emulator.
Now, let me say a word about the emulator. Android Studio comes free with the ability to set up a software-based Android device on your computer and run apps on it, browse websites, debug and everything. This capability is known as the Android emulator.
You can set up multiple emulators if you want and you can set the screen size and platform version for each new emulator to whatever you like. This is great, as you can avoid having to buy multiple devices for testing.
The downside to the emulator is a big one. Unfortunately, the emulator is painfully slow. For those coming from iOS development, you will really start to appreciate the iOS Simulator after using the Android emulator.

Note: The truth is that the emulator is prohibitively slow and should generally be avoided unless you have no other option. Over the course of an Android development career, you could literally waste hours of cumulative time waiting for the emulator to launch and load your app.

All of that being said… let’s set up an emulator anyway.
In Target Device, click the Emulator option, followed by the button to the right of the drop-down.

Note: You need to select the button to the right only if you want to create a new emulator. If your Android development set up already contains some emulators you’ve created, then you can simply select one of those from the drop down instead.

This opens the Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager. This is the place where you can create, edit, and delete the various emulators you might want to work with. Since your list is probably empty (if you are just starting Android development), you need to create your first one. Click New.

Now you see a bunch of options to create your emulator:

There are options to base your virtual device off a real one (I chose Nexus 4), set its Target API Level (I chose 4.2.2 Jelly Bean) and so on. You have some flexibility here, but if you’re not sure what to choose, you can copy my settings from the image above. Once you’re ready, click OK.

Note: If your Device selection doesn’t automatically pick a CPU, make sure to select an ARM processor for your emulator.

You’ll see a brief summary pop-up of the options you just chose. Dismiss that, and then your newly-created emulator is on the list and ready to run your app!

Now, close the AVD Manager to go back to the Run/Debug Configurations dialog. You now have the option to choose your new AVD as the default configuration:

Set the new AVD as the default configuration, click Apply and then OK. You’re back at Android Studio’s main view. Now that you’ve configure everything, there’s but one step left…
Click the Run button. It looks like a “play” icon.

You may have to wait a while as the emulator loads, and you may even need to try it more than once for the emulator to get it right, but once it’s ready, you should see something like this:

Congratulations! You made your first Android app!
Android apps used to be something you only interacted with on the consumer side, but now… you’re a creator. There’s power and possibility in that. It’s worth taking a moment to think about where you might want to go with this newfound ability.
When you’re ready, you need to revisit something I quickly glossed over earlier — testing on devices.

Navigating the Android Candy Store

One of Android’s advantages, the diversity of devices that can run the platform, is also a major complication for developers. You have to consider just about everything, such as the items on the following non-exhaustive list, to be variable:

• Screen sizes, both physically and in terms of pixels.
• Screen density, or the number of pixels per mm.
• The ratio of the screen width to the screen height.
• The number of simultaneous touches the touchscreen can register.
• The quantity and positioning (front vs. back) of cameras.
• Bluetooth capabilities.
• Platform and software versions.

If you want to make an app that will run on a hundred different devices, how can you tell if it’s going to work? Well, there are six main strategies I can recommend:

1. Nail down your target.
2. Filter your manifest.
3. Check Android’s best practices.
4. Emulate.
5. Pick at least one representative device.
6. Fake other screens on your device.

Let’s go through them one by one.

1. Nail down your target.

Does your app have some specific, indispensable hardware or software requirement? What about nice-to-haves? Take stock of device needs early, so that if your app is camera-based, or communicates with a specific product through Bluetooth, you’re ready to target your app to devices with those capabilities.
Check the often-updated Android Dashboards to see the prevalence of platform versions as well as screen sizes and densities. You can see, for example, that your choice in this tutorial to only support Ice Cream Sandwich and higher will (at press time) lose you about a quarter of Android users. It’s a reasonable sacrifice in your case.

2. Filter your manifest.

Once you’ve determined you app’s requirements, you need to let Android know about them. That way, the Google Play Store can keep non-compatible devices from purchasing your app.
This will save you a lot of frustration and poor reviews from users who might have downloaded your app, only to find a strange error awaiting them. It won’t, however, absolve you from communicating in any marketing materials the list of devices your users should expect to be able to run your app on.
The device features you need should be listed in a file. This file, available in every project, is called the Android manifest. This is an XML file that contains all the high-level info about your app. Remember when you chose API 14: Ice Cream Sandwich as the minimum SDK when you created the OMG Android project? That choice is now reflected in your Android manifest.
Find AndroidManifest.xml on the left side of the Android Studio window and double-click it to take a look. Can you spot where the code sets the SDK version?

The code sets the minimum and target SDKs via the uses-sdk tag. The target SDK value just lets Android know that you’ve tested your app up to that version and everything’s shiny, not to fret. The target SDK should always be the newest possible SDK.
Just as the uses-sdk tag tells Android to filter out devices that don’t meet the minimum SDK, you can use the uses-feature tag to allow only qualified devices. For a different app — not for this demo — one would add this line to filter out devices without a camera:

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />

3. Check Android’s best practices.

There’s a great list of best practices to address compatibility issues that’s available on the Android site. Some of the most useful tips include:

• Use density-independent measurements in your layouts, so your specifications will scale along with the screen.
• When putting together layouts, use relative widths and heights instead of absolute values.
• Putting in several versions of the same image file, tailored to different screen densities, can also be a good idea.

The tutorial will discuss these in more detail in Part Two, when you lay out views in XML.

4. Emulate.

When you set up your emulator earlier, you saw how many options you have to work with different screen sizes. You also saw how slow the emulator can be. It is a flawed tool, but it can be useful when you have an issue under a specific hardware configuration but do not have the necessary hardware to replicate the issue.

5. Pick at least one representative device.

The most expensive option, unless you already own an Android device, is to go out and buy one. I recommend trying to find a used, unlocked device from the Google Nexus series. If your budget is tight, I’d go two generations back, which at the moment would mean a Galaxy Nexus. Of course, if you’ve got the money, you can go for the new snazzy Nexus 5!
With all the time you will save avoiding the emulator, if you continue on with Android (which I hope you will!), it will definitely be a worthwhile investment.
If you have a device, you don’t need any silly provisioning profiles. You just need to turn on USB debugging for your device. Sometimes the checkbox option is available just by going to Settings > Developer Options on your device. Check these instructions for more details.
Other times, you have to do some weird shenanigans. I can’t make this up! A direct quote from Android: “On Android 4.2 and newer, Developer options is hidden by default. To make it available, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options.”
No matter if you had to do a little dance or whistle a perfect C to reveal the option, once USB debugging is on, you can go back to the Run/Debug Configurations screen and set your Target Device to USB Device. This will serve you well for the rest of the tutorial.

6. Fake other screens on your device.

If you are lucky enough to have a device and have enabled USB Debugging on it, then you have another testing advantage: you can use it to “fake” other screen sizes. Here’s how.
Open your Terminal as you did earlier, when you checked for the JDK. Then locate a tool called the Android Debug Bridge (adb). With early versions of Android Studio, it will be in the /Applications/Android\ Studio.app/sdk/platform-tools directory, or wherever you installed your copy of Android Studio, if elsewhere. Later versions of Android Studio do not come with the Android SDK bundled in and so, you might have your Android SDK installed in a totally different location.
You can use the following command at the Terminal prompt to see if adb is available in your system PATH:

adb version

The result should be something like this:

Note: If the adb version command results in an error message, your Android SDK folder is probably not in your PATH. Then you’d need to find the exact location of the Android SDK and change to the correct folder (as in the first steps in the screenshot above) before you can use any adb commands.

The adb version command is just an example to show you how to call adb from the command line. It can run all sorts of commands and you can get a list of available commands by typing adb help.
If not already set up, you can optionally add the Android SDK platform tools folder to your $PATH so that you can run adb from anywhere on your system. I’d suggest that you do this only if you are familiar with UNIX and feel comfortable doing this.
With your device plugged in and with its screen turned off, type the following:

adb shell wm size 640x480

And then type:

adb shell wm density 160

This represents a screen size of 640×480 pixels with 160 pixels per inch pixel density.

Note: In Android versions earlier than 4.3 Jelly Bean, these commands are slightly different, as documented here.

When you turn the device screen back on, you should see that the resolution has changed to match the new values you entered!
Feel free to turn the screen off, try another set of dimensions and turn it back on again.
To return your device to its normal settings, type:

adb shell wm size reset

And then type:

adb shell wm density reset

So you could get a full-size tablet (like a Nexus 10, perhaps) and then easily simulate all sorts of smaller devices, without having to use the emulator!
I hope that information helps you navigate the Gingerbreads, KitKats, Jelly Beans, and all the other varieties of Android candy. Now, back to the app at hand…

So… WHY did that work?

You’ve got your first app behind you. To start making changes and adding cool features, it’s necessary to get a working knowledge of what’s going on behind the scenes.
Take a look at the Project section of Android Studio, with the files and folders on the left side of the screen. You may need to press the little tab on the edge (see below) if the project explorer isn’t visible at the moment.

Browse around for a few minutes without any explicit instructions from me, expanding and collapsing folders and double-clicking on files to see their contents in the main window. If you notice any trends, great. If it all still looks cryptic, not to worry!

Android Project Structure: The Team

Every great team is composed of people who play different roles. Do you want to do the job right? You need the right team. Android Projects have a few key elements and each has a role to play:

1. Java: The Professional
2. Resources: The Artist
3. AndroidManifest.xml: The Boss
4. Intent: The Job itself

Java: The Professional

It’s the job of your Java code to get things done. Your code is all going to be in the src\main\java directory under your main project folder. I’ll give you all the code you need to complete this tutorial, but if you want to learn or refresh your Java knowledge, here is a nice online interactive tutorial.
It will be worth your time to learn more and more Java as you explore Android development. Your team is relying on the professional.

Resources: The Artist

It’s not enough to just get the job done. It needs to be done in style. Your app is never going to stand out unless it has great icons and images, well-designed layouts, engaging copy text, and maybe even some smooth animations.
Initially, the src\main\res (Resources) folder contains:

• Drawable folders that hold images — just the default launch icon for now.
• The layout folder with XML that represents the screen designs.
• The menu folder with XML of the items that will appear on the Action Bar. More on that later.
• The values folder with XML containing dimensions, strings, and styles.

AndroidManifest.xml: The Boss

Someone’s got to call the shots. That “someone” would be the Android manifest. This XML file informs your system of the app’s hardware and software requirements and contains your app’s name, icon, and version.
The manifest also filters the Intents coming in. You need a job done by your app? Talk to the boss first. Now, more about the jobs themselves…

Intent: The Job itself

Want to show the user a screen? Want to navigate to a website? Whatever the job is, in Android it is going to take the form of an Intent. If you come from an iOS background, pay close attention because this is a very “Android” concept.
The Android system knows that you will potentially have a lot of apps on your device, and wants to make it easy for them to talk to each other. So, it allows you to send and receive what are essentially requests for jobs to be done.
A job could get picked up by your app’s own boss (the manifest) or another app. When creating an Intent, it’s up to you to either write it very generally to have the option of picking from several apps to perform the job (implicit), or very specifically to follow a certain path (explicit). You’ll see an example of each type if Intent later in this tutorial.
For an immediate example, your app already has an Activity called MainActivity. Your manifest has it labeled with an intent filter that causes the MainActivity to launch when the user selects the app icon from their home screen. You could potentially move that filter to another Activity and then that activity would launch instead of MainActivity. Basically, the app does whatever the boss says.
If you don’t fully grasp everything about Intents right away, don’t worry. Just keep the concept in mind as you see Intents throughout the code, and eventually you will start to get an idea of their potential.

Putting a Personal Stamp on Your App

You’ve made your first app, but what’s the first thing you always want to put on any of your work? No, not a bird… your name!
Navigate to res/values/strings.xml and double-click the file. When you open the file, you’ll see three string resources in XML.
These resources are accessed in different places, but it is very convenient to have all of the text used in your app in one file. If you need to translate it, or if your marketing coworker tells you to remove all the nerdy references from your app, it will be easy to make all the changes here.
Change the hello_world string. That string is the one that the app displays on the screen. So, change it to something more personal that incorporates your own name – something like:

<string name="hello_world">Matt is learning Android!</string>

So remember: When you launch the app, you’re essentially doing the same thing as sending a launch Intent to the manifest. As the boss, the manifest takes a look at the Intent and decides it has the perfect fit for the job: MainActivity. The Java does the heavy lifting of opening the screen, but for what to display it goes and asks the artist, eventually leading to strings.xml.
Click Run. When the app launches again, you’ll see your personalized message!

Congratulations! If you have a device, you can go around showing off your new app to your friends or take a screenshot from the emulator and send it to them.
You’ve entered the world of Android. You’ve set up your development environment (no easy task!), created your first app, run it on an emulator or device, and changed the app so that it specifically addresses you. Great job!

Updating With the SDK Manager

This tutorial will work with whatever SDK version you downloaded with Android Studio, but it is also a good idea to always keep your SDK versions and Android Platform Tools up-to-date.
Click the button in Studio to access the SDK Manager, which allows you to easily update your Android SDK components.

You can also download older SDKs and other tools, if you need them for future projects, via the SDK Manager.

Where to Go From Here?

There’s a lot still to come, but here are some extra tips to think about before jumping into the next part of the tutorial:

• Follow Android. The development community around any language or framework can be its strongest asset. It’s never too soon or too late to start checking out Google I/O videos, following the Android Developers blog or watching DevBytes videos.
• Get the full source for this section of the tutorial on GitHub or as a .zip.
• Post any comments/suggestions/questions below.
• Stick around for the second and third sections of the tutorial! Thank you!

sources : http://www.raywenderlich.com/56107/make-first-android-app-part-1

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Several thousand people are estimated to have marched through central Auckland to protest the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, which, along with previous airstrikes, have resulted in over 300 deaths in under two weeks’ time.
Marchers with umbrellas, placards and Palestinian flags in hand took to the heart of New Zealand’s most populous city to show solidarity with the people of Gaza on Saturday. Estimates range between several hundred and several thousand attendees, though footage posted by OccupyNZ indicates the latter figure is likely more accurate.

Chants of “Free, free Palestine!” and “One, two three, four, we don’t want your bloody war!” rang out through the streets as a large black and white banner with the phrase ‘Free Palestine’ headed up the procession down Queens Street.

Many held placards with phrases like ‘All children desire peace’ and ‘Free Gaza.’


Some, however, were far more acerbic in their criticism, defacing the Israeli flag with a swastika or juxtaposing the Star of David with the Nazi symbol to protest Israeli policy in the region.

Photo posted by Rashed Al Shaya on Facebook.com

There were also calls to shut down the Israeli embassy in the city.

Photo posted by Rashed Al Shaya on Facebook.com

A counter-demonstration was also held, though no violent altercations were reported when the two sides crossed paths near the Britomart transport hub.



Protesters later marched to the US consulate on Customs Street to show their opposition to the country's economic and military ties to Israel, holding a moment of silence outside the compound for those who have died since the ground invasion of Gaza kicked off on Friday.

People also laid olive tree branches outside the building, one for each life lost since the latest outbreak of violence hit the region.

"I'm just so sad about all the innocent women and children being killed in Palestine," Diane Sisley, who made a peace offering outside the US consulate, told the Herald on Sunday. "I think it's such an unequal, disgusting war."

The protest concluded with the song, 'We are all Palestinians.'


Earlier this week, foreign affairs minister Murray McCully said, “New Zealand fully supports the United Nations Security Council's call for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza."
Associate foreign affairs spokesman Phil Goff, meanwhile, said Israelis, Palestinians and the international community should all take the initiative by making the necessary compromises to achieve lasting peace.
“The Israeli retaliation is always disproportionate," he said in regards the most recent military escalation. "Having been there many times I can understand why the Palestinian people are bitter."
He added, however, that the Jewish state had a right to protect itself from Gaza-based rocket attacks.
"Israel is a fact of life. It has a right to stable borders and peace but so do the Palestinian people."
While the action in Auckland went off peacefully, others have spiraled out of control.


On Friday, Israel decided to reduce its diplomatic delegation in Turkey to the “minimum required” after violent pro-Palestinian protests hit Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
On Thursday, France moved to block pro-Palestinian protests throughout the country after a previous march turned ended in bloodshed. After 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Paris on Sunday, some protesters turned violent, lobbing rocks at police, who responded with tear gas.
Three synagogues were also assaulted by rioters, with up to 200 people trapped inside one of them. Three Jews sustained injuries in the attacks and were sent to hospital.
However, a group of 150 men allegedly linked to the Jewish Defence League were also seeing clashing with pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Some of them could be seen brandishing iron bars and cans of pepper spray.

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Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash: world demands answers from Russia

Firefighters and journalists discuss Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down in eastern Ukraine

The US has pointedly criticised Russian arming of rebels in Ukraine as the world demanded answers over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by a suspected Russian-made missile, resulting in the death of all 298 people on board the civilian airliner.
The White House stopped short of directly blaming Russia for the plane’s destruction but linked its remarks on the disaster to the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine, urging Vladimir Putin’s government to stop inflaming the situation in the country and take "concrete steps" towards de-escalation.
The huge loss of life threatens to have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences, coming just after the US imposed further sanctions on Russia for continuing to provide weapons to the rebels.
The former US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made some of the most potent remarks in a television interview, saying there were strong indications Russian-backed militia were to blame and action was needed to "put [Vladimir] Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by".
Clinton called for the EU to increase sanctions on Russia, while the Australian prime minister Tony Abbott demanded that Russia explain the disaster as it “now seems certain it’s been brought down by a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile”.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said it was too soon to make a decision on tougher sanctions. "The events with the plane, as far as I remember, were not even 24 hours ago and at the moment we need to sort out an independent investigation."
There were 173 Dutch nationals on board the plane, along with 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine passengers believed to be from the UK, four each from Germany and Belgium, three from the Philippines, one Canadian and one from New Zealand. The nationalities of 20 passengers have not yet been verified. A group of international HIV/Aids experts flying to Melbourne were among those killed.
The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said: "We are working through passenger data, cross-checking it and referencing it to establish exactly the numbers and identities of those British nationals."
The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said the news marked “a tragic day in what has already been a tragic year for Malaysia”, referring to the earlier disappearance without a trace of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. He said those responsible for tragedy the must be held responsible.
Flags were lowered to half-mast in the Netherlands and Australia.

The Dutch flag at half-mast at Schiphol airport Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Kiev and Moscow have blamed each other for the disaster.
Putin ordered Russian military and civilian agencies to co-operate with any investigation but, according to a Kremlin statement, said the "state over whose territory this occurred bears responsibility for this awful tragedy."
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, said on Friday there was no chance the missile was of Ukrainian military origin. He said the Ukrainian army did not have such missiles in the area, and said none had been seized by separatist fighters in recent weeks.
The jet was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday when it was blown apart and fell in a shower of fiery wreckage over the village of Grabovo, part of the area controlled by pro-Russia separatists.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Friday that separatists had agreed to provide assistance to those investigating the crash of the plane and would ensure safe access for international experts visiting the site.

Defence and security experts said the Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile system, known to be in the hands of pro-Russia fighters in Ukraine, was most likely used.
The US vice-president, Joe Biden, said the plane appeared to have been "blown out of the sky", while the Ukrainian security services released an audio recording said to be rebel commanders discussing the fact that their forces were responsible with Russian officers.
The UN security council it is to meet on Friday as calls mount for an international response. “There is clearly a need for a full, transparent and international investigation,” said the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, sending his condolences to the victims’ families.

A Malaysian mother reacts after seeing her daughter's name on the list of passengers on board Malaysia Airlines MH17. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's transport minister Liow Tiong Lai stressed that MH17 was following "the right route on the right path" amid a barrage of questions from local and foreign reporters as to why Malaysia Airlines would have chosen to fly over a war zone. Qantas, the Australian carrier, said it had been steering clear of the area by 400 nautical miles for several months.
"It is many years that we have taken the same route and many other countries take the same route," he said. He stressed that some 15 of 16 Asia-Pacific Airlines fly "this route over Ukraine" and added: "European airlines also use the same route, and traverse the same airspace. In the hours before the incident, a number of other passenger aircraft from different carriers used the same route."
He also said that there had been "no last-minute instructions" given to the pilots to change the route.
The European air traffic control body, Eurocontrol, said Ukrainian authorities had banned aircraft from flying at 32,000ft or below and the doomed aircraft had been cruising above that, at 33,000ft – however this apparently still left it within range of the sophisticated surface-to-air weaponry that pro-Russia forces have been using recently to target Ukrainian military aircraft. All civilian flights have now been barred from eastern Ukraine.
The field next to the tiny hamlet was a scene of charred earth and twisted metal as shocked local people milled around the scene. Body parts belonging to the 298 on board were strewn around. The body of what appeared to be a young woman had been flung about 500m from the centre of the crash.
US government officials confirmed to media outlets that a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane. US intelligence was reportedly still working to determine the exact location from which the missile was fired, and whether it was on the Russian or the Ukrainian side of the border.
Rebels in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have shot down several Ukrainian planes and helicopters in recent weeks. But they insisted they had no part in the downing of MH17, claiming instead that Ukrainian fire was responsible.
Ukraine's SBU security services released a recording, which could not immediately be verified, of what it said were rebel commanders saying they had shot down a plane and then discovering with horror it had been a civilian jet.

Ukraine security services recording said to reveal pro-Russia separatists admitting they shot down plane.

On the ground in Grabovo a strong smell of aviation fuel and burnt rubber hung in the air as dozens of pro-Russian separatist fighters milled around the area in which workers from the emergency services were sifting through the wreckage. A dozen fire engines were on the scene.
One local resident, Alexander, had been working in a field a few hundred metres from the crash site and thought the aircraft was going to fall on top of him. Another farmer said he was on his tractor when he heard a loud bang. "Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two – there was thick black smoke," he said.
In a conflict that has not been short of dreadful twists, this was by far the most shocking and most gruesome to date. The 298 people on board MH17 had no connection to the fighting – their international flight was simply travelling through airspace above the battle zone.

Malaysia Airlines announces the nationalities of those on board flight MH17.

Throughout the Ukraine conflict the versions of violent incidents provided by Kiev and the Donetsk rebels have diverged wildly, with each side blaming the other for loss of life and the shelling of residential areas.
Now, with such a huge and unexpected loss of life, the stakes are immeasurably higher, and both sides again rushed to claim the other was at fault.
Those blaming pro-Russia rebels for the attack pointed to a post on a social media site attributed to a top rebel commander which claimed to have downed a Ukrainian transport plane around the same time as the first reports of MH17's disappearance surfaced. The post was later deleted.
The US and EU have heavily criticised Russia for providing the separatists in eastern Ukraine with logistical and military support, leading to a new set of White House sanctions against Russian companies, introduced on Wednesday, as rhetoric coming out of both Washington and Moscow has led to talk of a new cold war. Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Guardian that any allegations of Russian involvement in the MH17 crash were "stupidity".
He said the Kremlin would not make a further statement because "no one knows" who is responsible.
Asked about the possibility of further US sanctions, Peskov said he could not rule it out: "The United States has recently been conducting a very nonconstructive policy and their actions are very unpredictable," he said.
Putin, who on Thursday returned to Russia from a summit of the Brics nations in Brazil, informed Barack Obama about the incident.
"The Russian leader informed the US president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory, which had arrived immediately before the phone call," said a statement released by the Kremlin.
According to the statement, the pair spent most of the conversation discussing the deterioration of US-Russian relations, and Putin expressed his "serious disappointment" over the latest round of US sanctions against Russian companies.
Later Putin chaired a meeting on the Russian economy which began with a minute's silence and laid the blame for the crash at Ukraine's door: "There is no doubt that the nation over whose airspace this happened bears responsibility for the terrible tragedy," he said.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, tweeted: "I'm shocked and saddened by the Malaysian air disaster. Officials from across Whitehall are meeting to establish the facts."
The crash came four months after another Malaysia Airlines flight, MH370, vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, two-thirds of them Chinese citizens. It has yet to be found despite a huge search.

Ukrainian president says shooting down of plane is a warning for the world on Russian aggression.

Igor Sutyagin, a Russian military specialist at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, agreed that the plane would almost certainly have been shot with a Buk, a vehicle-mounted missile system first developed in the Soviet era. The Malaysian aircraft,was beyond the range of Manpads – shoulder-launched missiles. Kalashnikov-carrying Russian sympathisers in Ukraine would not have had the expertise to fire them and would have needed either specialists who had "volunteered" their services from Russia or locally recruited specialists, he said, noting that the rebels had been firing at Ukrainian aircraft over the last week.
The Associated Press said one of its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the town of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.
Russia's state-owned Channel One avoided speculation of who might have been behind the plane crash in its first bulletins on the subject, while the Kremlin-friendly Life News, whose reporters were first on the scene, said it was likely to have been brought down by Ukrainian fire, claiming that the rebels did not have any missile systems with the capacity to down a plane at that altitude.
However a report on the website of Russian state television from late June described how the rebels in Donetsk had taken control of a Ukrainian missile defence facility that was equipped with Buk systems. The report said that the rebels planned to "defend the sky over Donetsk" using the missiles.
On Thursday afternoon a social media site attributed to Igor Strelkov, a Russian citizen who has emerged as the commander of rebel forces in Donetsk, announced that the rebels had shot down an An-26 Ukrainian transport plane, and also that there was "information about a second plane". The post was later removed.
Audio was circulated on social media, apparently released by Ukrainian security services, purporting to be an intercepted conversation of pro-Russia rebels confirming they had shot down a civilian jet.
The conversation is apparently between a group leader and his superior and suggests that they initially thought they had brought down a military aircraft but later realised their error.
The group leader, "Demon", tells his boss: "A plane has just been shot down. [It was] 'Miner's' group. It crashed outside Enakievo. Our men went to search for and photograph it. It's smouldering."
After his men apparently inspect the crash site, Demon reports back. "Cossacks from the Chernunkhino checkpoint shot down the plane. The plane disintegrated in mid-air … they found the first body. It's a civilian."
He carries on: "I mean. It's definitely a civilian aircraft."
His superior, nicknamed "Greek", asks him: "Were there many people?"
Demon replies: "A fuckton. The debris rained right into the yards."
Greek asks: "What's the aircraft?" and is told: "I haven't figured it out yet. I haven't reached the main section. I only looked at where the bodies began to fall. There are remains of chair mounts, the chairs, the bodies."
Greek asks: "Any weapons there?" and Demon says: "None at all. Civilian things, medical stuff, towels, toilet paper." "Any documents?" asks Greek, and Demon, perhaps realising what has just happened, replies: "Yes, an Indonesian student from Thomson university [in the US]."
Additional reporting by Tania Branigan in Beijing, Ewen MacAskill in London, Paul Lewis in Washington and Warren Murray of Guardian Australia

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Israel pushes in Gaza, expanding ground operation

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops pushed into Gaza Friday in a ground offensive that officials said could last up to two weeks, as the prime minister ordered the military to prepare for a "significantly" wider campaign.

The assault raised risks of a bloodier conflict amid rising Palestinian civilian casualties and the first Israeli military death — and brought questions of how far Israel will go to cripple Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Officially, the goal remains to destroy a network of tunnels militants use to infiltrate Israel and attack civilians. In its first day on the ground in Gaza, the military said it took up positions beyond the border, encountered little resistance from Hamas fighters and made steady progress in destroying the tunnels. Military officials said the quick work means that within a day or two, Israeli leaders may already have to decide whether to expand the operation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to prepare for a "significant expansion" of the ground offensive.

"It is not possible to deal with tunnels only from the air. It needs to be done also from the ground," he told a special Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv. "We chose to begin this operation after the other options were exhausted and with the understanding that without the operation, the price we will pay can be very high."

Frustrated by Hamas' refusal to accept an Egyptian-brokered truce agreement and the failure of a 10-day campaign of more than 2,000 airstrikes to halt relentless rocket fire on Israeli cities, Israel launched a ground offensive it had previously been reticent to undertake to further weaken Hamas militarily.

With calls from Israeli hard-liners to completely crush Hamas, it remains unclear how far Israel will go in an operation that has already seen 274 Palestinians killed in Gaza, a fifth of them children.

"It won't end that quickly," said Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israel's minister of public security. "Anything can happen. If we need to keep going, we will keep going. We won't stop. We need quiet for the citizens of the south and the citizens of Israel."

The Israeli military said it had killed nearly 20 militants in exchanges of fire.

Gaza health officials said more than 30 Palestinians have been killed since the ground operation began, including three young siblings from the Abu Musallam family who were killed when a tank shell hit their home.

At the morgue, 11-year-old Ahmed's face was blackened by soot, and he and his 14-year-old sister, Walaa, and 16-year-old brother, Mohammed, were wrapped in white burial shrouds. Their father, Ismail, said the three were sleeping when the shell struck and he had to dig them out from under the rubble.

Israel says it is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and blames them on Hamas, accusing it of firing from within residential neighborhoods and using its civilians as "human shields." On Thursday, the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said a routine check in one of its vacant Gaza schools found about 20 hidden rockets and called on militants to respect the "sanctity and integrity" of U.N. property.

Critics say it is the intense fire itself in such a densely populated area that leads to the deaths of innocent civilians. The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said at least 59 — or one in five — of the Palestinians killed children were under the age of 18. UNRWA said 40,000 Palestinians were seeking refuge in 34 of its shelters throughout the Gaza Strip.

Most countries have expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself, while urging it to minimize civilian deaths in its ground assault. President Barack Obama spoke with Netanyahu Friday and expressed his concern "about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life."

The operation also brought Israel its first military casualty. The circumstances behind the death of Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, were not made clear: Hamas's military wing said it ambushed Israeli units in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, but Israeli media said Barak was likely killed by friendly fire. The army said a number of soldiers were also wounded. Earlier in the week, an Israeli civilian died from Palestinian mortar fire and several others have been wounded.

"The ground offensive does not scare us and we pledge to drown the occupation army in Gaza mud," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

Israeli public opinion strongly supports the offensive after days of unrelenting rocket fire from Gaza and years of southern Israeli residents living under the threat. Gaza militants have fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel over the past 11 days, and rocket fire continued across Israel Friday.

The order to launch the ground operation was triggered not by the rocket fire, but by a Hamas attempt to infiltrate Israel on Thursday, when 13 armed militants sneaked through a tunnel from Gaza and were killed by an airstrike as they emerged inside Israel.

The military, which has already mobilized more than 50,000 reservists, said paratroopers had uncovered eight tunnel access points across the Gaza Strip and engaged in several gun battles with Hamas militants who ambushed them.

Israeli forces are expected to spend a day or two staking ground within two miles (three kilometers) of the border in the north, east and south of the Gaza Strip. Then, they are expected to begin destroying tunnels, an operation that could take up to two weeks. Tanks, infantry and engineering forces were operating inside Gaza, where the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets.

Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012, but in each case the militant group recovered. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, some long range and powerful, and it has built a system of underground bunkers.

But Hamas is weaker than it was during the previous two offensives, with little international or even regional support from its main allies, Turkey and Qatar. Protests against the offensive took place Friday in Turkey, Jordan and the West Bank.

Egypt, which has been pushing for a cease-fire, is at odds with Hamas' conditions, which include a lifting of the siege of Gaza and completely open borders into the Sinai — where Egypt is already fighting Islamic extremists.

___

Heller reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ian Deitch and Tia Goldenberg and Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem and Karin Laub in Gaza City contributed to this report.

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Maklumat Terkini Mengenai Pencerobohan Tanah Israel Di Semenanjung Gaza

18 Julai 2014 - Israel telah melancarkan operasi darat di Semenanjung Gaza petang ini untuk menghentikan serangan roket, menurut tentera.

Keadaan ini menjadi lebih buruk di Gaza, manakala ruangan kereta kebal memasuki kawasan di dalam peningkatan utama serangan, Gaza terus menghadapi serangan berat. Selepas 'gencatan senjata kemanusiaan' agak tenang yang berakhir pada pukul 3 petang hari ini, Israel telah membunuh sepuluh Palestin dan telah memperbaharui serangan udara di seluruh Gaza.

Sekitar 10:00 malam ini Perdana Menteri Israel Netanyahu Sarakham mengumumkan permulaan serangan darat di Gaza yang bertujuan untuk memusnahkan infrastruktur roket melancarkan penentangan Palestin.

Media Israel melaporkan bahawa Netanyahu diberikan kebenaran untuk tentera Israel memulakan operasi tanah malam ini. Mereka juga telah mengisytiharkan sempadan utara dan timur Gaza dengan Israel ditutup zon ketenteraan di mana walaupun wartawan dilarang.

Laman web Ynet Israel melaporkan bahawa infantri, perisai, kejuruteraan, meriam dan perisikan tentera bekerja dalam kerjasama dengan laut dan udara, dengan bantuan dari Bet Shin dan pasukan keselamatan lain, dan diterajui oleh Perintah Selatan.

Mereka terus mengatakan bahawa Angkatan pendudukan Israel merancang untuk mengambil alih kawasan di Gaza dan bekerja untuk mencari dan memusnahkan pangkalan rintangan Palestin di kawasan-kawasan ini. Tentera itu juga telah disediakan peringkat tambahan beroperasi, termasuk mendapatkan semua jalan ke pantai Gaza.

Pada masa ini terdapat laporan pertempuran di Beit Lahya, utara Gaza, dan di timur Khan Younis, selatan Gaza, antara penentangan Palestin dan tentera Israel. Yang terakhir ini menyerang melalui udara dan tanah, dengan kapal terbang tentera dan kereta kebal. Terdapat juga melaporkan serangan berterusan timur Rafah, di sebelah lapangan terbang yang musnah, dan beberapa kecederaan serius akibat serangan berat. Sesetengah sumber melaporkan mungkin ada sudah menjadi beberapa mangsa.

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MH17: Serangan Israel ke atas Gaza - Seluruh Dunia perhatikan Russia

Kejadian ini dirancang menurut sumber mengatakan dia terjumpa kenyataan ini di ruangan comment sebuah blog sebelum kejadian MH17 ditembak jatuh iaitu Selasa bersamaan 15.7.2014 dan dia simpan kenyataan ini.  Apabila tiba harinya Pesawat Mas ditembak pada 17.07.2014. Baru dia teringat kenyataan ini. "Nampaknya betul dia hendak mengalihkan seluruh perhatian Dunia ke russia.. Besar sungguh permainan ini".

#MH17 Seperti dah dirancang....
Takpe. Allah Maha Mengetahui.

"Ten dollars says a false flag will happen in ukraine within the next week. The kikes needs the media and the goyim to focus on big bad Russia so they can holocaust the Palestinians. Either chemical weapons or something big like shooting down a passenger plane. They went us to divert our attention. Just watch.

Ruangan Comment di sebuah Blog

Cuba kamu selidik No-32499711. dimanakah kawasan itu

Tetapi kenapa MALAYSIA?..

Hanya Allah Maha Mengetahui

Similiar : https://www.facebook.com/muhamad.fariduddin.hashim/posts/828624470482902

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Ziana Zain Kini Bertudung

Sejak kebelakangan ini, penampilan penyanyi terkenal Ziana Zain telah menjadi tajuk perbincangan ramai selepas penyanyi ini dikatakan telah berhijab. Namun, Ziana sendiri tidak mengesahkan perkara ini sehinggalah pada 15 Julai lalu apabila dia mengakui tampil dengan imej bertudung. 

 

Memetik laporan portal hiburan Murai, Ziana menjelaskan penghijrahannya di bulan Ramadan ini adalah kurniaan yang amat besar dan berkat doa yang telah dimakbulkan Allah SWT.

 

“Ini adalah hadiah yang Allah SWT berikan kepada saya, sebuah ganjaran yang dijanjikan setelah tidak putus-putus doa daripada peminat, kawan-kawan dan yang paling termakbul adalah doa kedua ibu bapa saya.

 

“Allah SWT telah berikan apa yang mereka semua pohon, sementara itu juga dibukakan pintu hati saya menerima syariat agama ini. Setelah beberapa tahun saya memasang niat, akhirnya hari yang dinanti sudah tiba. Perasaan yang datang itu bukan rasa yang biasa tetapi kuasa yang luar biasa," ujar Ziana yang mengharapkan hijrahnya ini kekal ke akhir hayat.

 

Dalam pada itu, Ziana menjelaskan karier seninya akan berjalan seperti biasa namun akan lebih menjaga penampilannya dengan sebaik mungkin. Ziana juga terharu dengan sokongan daripada keluarga terutama anak-anak dan mengharapkan sokongan yang tidak berbelah bagi daripada peminatnya.

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Augmented Reality Future: How to Train Your Dragons on Vacation

                                                                                                                                                                                                         Dragons Adventure World Explorer is just a taste of what is to come. It does have some conflict for boys and dragon husbandry for girls, but I would have preferred much more mayhem. It is an amazing step into the future of augmented reality and gaming, but I think we'll find what comes out of the imaginations of those who create games that follow it will be far more amazing.

   

Mcrosoft just announced the release of the Dragons Adventure World Explorer, or DAWE for short. It is actually very cool and well-timed, because for any of us who have tried to go on a long trip in a car, this should keep the little tykes engaged and quiet.

It also should get developers excited about creating more games that could turn the family vacation experience into a bloodbath of adventure for boys and a 4H-like experience for girls, but with dragons! I'll explain and then close with my product of the week: a service I just can't seem to live without.

Augmented Reality Promise

HP's augmented reality demonstration way back in 2007 captured the imagination and showcased where this technology eventually could go. Blending what was real with what was imaginary, the technology demonstration presented the promise of a game that got kids to play outside and had a reward that I think a lot of geeky kids would have bought the game to enjoy.

Since then, there has been more focus on creating things that will pop out of ads for movies, toys and food than in creating games that blend the real world outside with the imaginations of game developers. Microsoft's Dragons Adventure World Explorer is designed not only to be a game, but also a showcase to get developers' imaginations going and finally create the world that HP imagined the better part of a decade ago.

Dragons Adventure

Microsoft showed up at my house last week to give me a preview of the game, codeveloped with DreamWorks, and it is an impressive initial effort. What the game does is allow you to choose the dragon -- it is based on the successful How to Train Your Dragon DreamWorks movie series -- and then fly over and around your car, depicted on the map as a slow moving cart, to complete quests.

The structures around you are consistent with the game, and they pick up elements from a number of Internet mapping and location-based services to make it feel more real.

For instance, if you are passing a Starbucks, the game will reflect that but display the store as an ancient building consistent with the game timeline. As you move forward, the game around you changes in accordance with the real world, keeping the two connected. As you fly away from the car, more remote things that are captured by the geolocation services come into view. I could see one problem, in that kids noticing that there was a McDonald's or Baskin-Robbins nearby suddenly could become rather strident in their wish for a physical visit over a virtual one as their stomachs overrule their desire for game points and rewards. Connecting to the outside and showcasing what the player is missing it actually should pull kids out of the game to see the real thing, providing a never-ending stream of variety that should keep the focus on the game and not on irritating the driver on a long ride -- at least, that is the hope.

Wrapping Up: Moving Into the Augmented Reality Future

The Dragons Adventure is an amazing step into the future of augmented reality and gaming. It is just a step, though, and I think we'll find what comes out of the imaginations of those who create games that follow it will be far more amazing.

Still, it is a decent initial effort that reminds me of that old HP vision with the only downside being you don't get kissed by a princess at the end. Now if they could add that... my wife wouldn't let me play it anymore.

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Redesign for barebones Raspberry Pi computer

The B+ can also power more peripherals without the need for a dedicated power source and has more connectors to help link it to other devices. The new model is released as the Pi faces increasing competition from other tiny computers. Power train The B+ is based on the same Broadcom chip as earlier versions and has the same 512 megabytes of memory but a variety of other changes have been made to the device. The analogue and composite video connector has been ditched in favour of a single four-pole connector and the SD card slot has been replaced with a micro-SD card unit. This has a latch on it to ensure the smaller card does not fall out. Better power management on the B+ will mean it can keep four USB peripherals going without requiring mains power or an external hub. "People expect to see four USB ports these days," said Mike Powell, a spokesman for electronics components firm Element 14 which sells the Pi. "With the Model B as soon as you had connected a keyboard and mouse that was it." More USB ports and better power management allowed owners to run a 2.5in (6.4cm) hard drive off the device without the need for a powered hub, said Mr Powell. The General Purpose I/O (GPIO) section of the device has also been expanded to 40 pins - 14 more than on the original machine. This, said Mr Powell would give people many more options to add work with extras such as sensors and relays. "When the Pi was first launched they really underestimated what people were going to do with it," he said.  

About three million Raspberry Pi computers have been sold around the world

In a review of the B+ in Linux Voice Ben Everard said one of the most significant improvements was the gadget's power management. An improved voltage regulator meant the device was much more stable when handling USB-connected peripherals. "To be able to handle lots more input and output means this is a significantly more useful computer," wrote Mr Everard, "and will be especially important for new users who may not have a great power supply or a powered USB hub." The B+ will be available via online electronics stores such as Element 14. About three million Raspberry Pi computers have been sold around the world. The Pi now faces much more competition from devices such as the Beaglebone Black, the Hummingboard, the APC 8750, the Android MK802 mini PC, Banana Pi and the Matrix TBS2910.

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Harga Baru Lesen Kereta Dan Motor 14 Julai 2014

Harga Baru Lesen Kereta Dan Motor 14 Julai 2014. Seperti yang diketahui umum, harga lesen memandu untuk kereta iaitu kelas (D) dan lesen motor iaitu kelas (B2) akan dinaikkan bermula 14 Julai 2014. Kenaikkan harga lesen ini berikutan pelaksanaan Kurikulum Pendidikan Pemandu (KPP) yang dinaik taraf oleh JPJ mulai 14 Julai 2014. Pembaharuan dalam pengambilan kelas memandu ini merangkumi 3 elemen yang dinaiktaraf iaitu kelas KPP, buku teks KPP sukatan pembelajaran baharu, dan juga format ujian berkomputer. Berikut disenaraikan harga baru untuk lesen memandu kereta dan motor.

Harga Baru Lesen Kereta Dan Motor 14 Julai 2014

Mulai 14 Julai 2014 harga lesen memandu Kelas D dan Kelas B2 akan dinaikkan seperti berikut.

* Kereta Kelas D – RM 1300 akan naik ke RM 2000 * Motorsikal Kelas B2 – RM 600 (termasuk yuran lesen) akan naik ke RM 1050

Senarai Harga Baru Lesen Kelas D (Kereta Manual)

 

Senarai Harga Baru Lesen Kelas B2 (Motorsikal)

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Gadis Peugeot CDM25 terlajak biadab

Assalamualaikum dan Salam 1Dunia, memang naik darah aku bila tengok seorang gadis yang menaiki kereta Peugeot dengan plate no CDM25 mengamuk macam kena histeria hanya kereta baru tercalar sedikit. Mungkin dia tak menyangka lagak samsengnya telah dirakam oleh seseorang dan menjadi trending di sosial media. Ramai lagi pemandu lain yang terlibat kemalangan yang lebih hebat dari ini tetapi tidak bertindak mengetuk-getuk kereta yang melanggar.

Aku sendiri ada pengalaman beberapa kali dilanggar dan melanggar kereta orang lain tapi tak lah nak mengamuk macam ini. Tak percaya baca kisah aku langgar kereta seseorang di entri “Malang tidak berbau“. Kita ada tuhan bila berlaku sesuatu mesti ada sebabnya. Paling teruk peristiwa ini berlaku di bulan Ramadhan ketika umat Islam dikehendaki bersabar dengan ujian tapi gadis ini meroyan macam tak puasa.

Daripada siasatan yang di keluarkan oleh sebuah blog Asamboi.my kereta Peugeot CDM25di daftarkan atas nama syarikat Rangkaian Kerja Kahwin Sdn Bhd yang beralamat di Puchong.

Sumber dari : http://denaihati.com.my/gadis-peugeot-cdm25-terlajak-biadab

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SembangPetai: How Did I Survive ?

SembangPetai: How Did I Survive ?: Aku jarang sekali dapat job/projek 1 bulan paling banyak pun 4 saja Tidak seperti 'mereka'.. Sudah lama berpangka...

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Tingkat atas rumah Ku Nan terbakar

Tingkat atas rumah Ku Nan terbakar

Kebakaran teruk memusnahkan aras empat rumah Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor di Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur, semalam. - Utusan/RASHID MAHFOF

KUALA LUMPUR 8 Mei - Tingkat atas rumah empat tingkat milik Setiausaha Agung UMNO, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor di Jalan Duta 5, Taman Duta di sini musnah dalam kebakaran yang berlaku awal pagi ini.
Kebakaran di rumah itu yang didiami oleh Tengku Adnan sejak 25 tahun dipercayai bermula dari bilik anak lelakinya, Tengku Mohd. Faiz, 15, pada pukul 5.30 pagi berikutan kerosakan sistem pendingin hawa.
Menurut beliau, berlaku percikan api dari pendingin hawa itu ketika anaknya sedang tidur menyebabkan dia bingkas bangun dan mengejutkan semua ahli keluarganya yang sedang tidur.
"Ketika kejadian, terdapat 16 orang di dalam rumah ini termasuk ahli keluarga dan lima pembantu rumah. Saya segera mengejutkan mereka semua supaya keluar dari rumah sebelum menghubungi bomba.
"Tingkat empat rumah yang menempatkan tiga bilik tidur, ruang tamu, dapur dan ruang makan musnah 100 peratus," katanya ketika ditemui di tempat kejadian, di sini hari ini.
Tengku Adnan yang juga Ahli Parlimen Putrajaya sepatutnya menghadiri majlis perasmian hafalan al-Quran kanak-anak di Putrajaya hari ini memberitahu, beliau tidak menyangka kejadian sedemikian menimpa keluarganya berikutan pendingin hawa tersebut baru sahaja dipasang di bilik anaknya itu petang semalam.
"Saya dan keluarga reda dengan kejadian ini dan akan berpindah ke kediaman di Impiana Tunku, Kenny Hills sementara kerja baik pulih dijalankan," katanya.
Beliau dan ahli keluarganya berjaya menyelamatkan sebahagian barang-barang peribadi termasuk peti besi yang terletak di aras empat tersebut.
Dalam pada itu, Ketua Balai Bomba dan Penyelamat Daerah Sentul, Halim Mustafar berkata, seramai 46 anggota bersama enam jentera dari Balai Hang Tuah, Sentul, Sri Hartamas dan Jinjang serta Jabatan Forensik dikerahkan ke lokasi kejadian selepas menerima maklumat kira-kira pukul 6 pagi.
"Api merebak dengan cepat berikutan dinding bangunan diperbuat daripada kayu yang mudah terbakar.
"Pihak forensik masih menyiasat punca sebenar kejadian dan anggaran kerugian," katanya.

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