CHAPTER 2: Configuring Your Android App Development System 51- Enter Neptune_Pine_SmartWatch into the Name field in the Create AVD
dialog as shown at the top of Figure 2-19. - In the Device field, drop down the selector UI element and select the
Neptune Pine Smart Watch (320 x 240: MDPI) device definition, which you
just created. - In the Target field, leave the default Android 4.4.2 - API Level 19, since that is
what the Eclipse IDE is running at currently and since you have the (backward)
compatibility library installed. The Neptune Pine currently runs an Android 4.1
OS, which on an API level, at least for the APIs we will be using to develop
apps for this product, there have been no major changes from 4.1.2 to 4.2.2
to 4.3.1 to just recently 4.4.4. We’ll be discussing API levels in Chapter 4
covering the Java programming language.
Note The 4.x API revisions have implemented faster touchscreen refresh and graphics screen refresh
rate increases for game developers. Also added were OpenGL ES 3.0 upgrades, speed, and efficiency
improvements to the existing API methods, and an addition of cloud-related services, such as off-device
printing and data storage on Google’s various cloud services. In other words, all of the recent versions
of Android, from 4.1 through 4.4 (released during 2013), have implemented what I’d term “user-facing”
improvements, rather than developer-facing API updates. As you will see in Chapter 4, this means that none
of those Java programming language elements of Android OS that developers use have changed much at all.
Android 5.0, announced in the summer of 2014, will use Java 7 and a 64-bit Linux kernel when it becomes
available in hardware devices in 2015 and 2016.
- Let’s get back to configuring an AVD definition for the Neptune Pine
SmartWatch just to show you the complete work process from AHD creation
through AVD definition and creation. Uncheck both of the Hardware keyboard
present and the Display a skin with hardware controls check boxes. - For the Front Camera and Back Camera, you can select any of these three
options that suit your workstation set up. If you have a webcam installed,
you can use that to simulate the Neptune camera hardware on the Pine
SmartWatch, you can simulate the cameras with the emulator itself, or you
can simply select None for now, as I have done here.
Note Remember, you can use the Edit button at any time to change the settings you have set for the
AVD emulator, so if you get a webcam or add camera features to your app, you can always change these
drop-down selections at any time in the future, which is quite convenient.