Parentheticals & Excursions

I’ve just posted a very early preview version of Metaglow - an android application for creating backgrounds. It features the animating emblem that I described in my last post.

Anyone who wants to take a look can download it using Betan which is available via the Android Market (just search for Betan). The password is simply metaglow.

This is a very early release, here are some things to watch out for:

• The application has so far only been tested on my Nexus One.
• It currently requires Android 2.1 (final application will target 1.5).
• It won’t work on non-hdpi devices (because I haven’t done the work of producing multiple bitmap resources yet).
• It’s locked to portrait (because I haven’t done that work yet either).
• The “Set Wallpaper” feature doesn’t give any visual feedback that it’s doing stuff.
• You can’t favourite or share designs yet.
• Any designs you accumulate in your history will be lost under later upgrades.
• The range of ‘basis functions’ (ie ways it can generate backgrounds) is a bit limited at the moment.
• I recently added Google Analytics to the app (I’m interested in tracking UI interactions) which seems to have significantly reduced the smoothness of the application (insert sad face), and has even generated a couple of ANRs (hopefully the analytics team have already started using StrictMode and we’ll see some improvements).

There we go, if there’s anyone left who does want a look:

1. Download Betan
2. Choose me as the publisher
3. Supply the password metaglow
4. Install the application
5. Wait for something to go wrong

There are more detailed instructions on using Betan if you need them.