46 CHAPTER 2: Configuring Your Android App Development System
Once you click the OK button, the Create AVD dialog will vanish, and you will see your new AVD in
the Android Virtual Device Manager dialog, as shown in Figure 2 -1 5. As you can see, the Android
Virtual Device Manager dialog shows you quite a lot of information about each AVD that you might
create, including the AVD name (in this case, AVD_for_Nexus_One-By_Google), as well as the Target
Android OS version that device is operating under (in this case, the latest Android 4.4.2 API Level 19).
Figure 2-15. The newly created AVD_for_Nexus_One_by_Google AVD emulator with its primary specifications
There is also a column on the right that shows which CPU architecture (such as the Intel Atom,
ARM, Cortex, AMD, nVidia, and similar) this AVD definition is emulating. This is because each CPU
has a different way of processing instructions and data, as well as having different operating features
and performance specifications. Discussion of this is too advanced for an Absolute Beginners title,
but a device specification option (column) such as this allows developers to specify which CPU
hardware that they are developing their application for, and allows them to emulate this using an
AVD definition.
Even though in this book we will be using AVD emulators for more mainstream smartphone and
tablet products such as the Nexus products from Google, in order to show you how to use the New
Device button under the Device Definitions tab, we will need to also take a look at how to define one
of these AHD definitions from scratch. We will do this so that we cover absolutely everything that
this Android Virtual Device Manager is capable of, and to take a look at how to create an AVD for
something really cool such as the Neptune Pine SmartWatch product.
Creating an AVD from Scratch: Pine SmartWatch
The first thing you will need to do in order to create an AHD definition for a Neptune Pine
SmartWatch product would be to find out precisely what its technical specifications are. Fortunately,
Neptune’s Pine web site is very complete, and if you Google “Neptune Pine specifications,” as you
can see that I did in in the first tab in each screen shot in Figure 2-16, you can learn all about the
Neptune Pine. The URL for the Pine Tech-Specs page is as follows: