The future of nDroid

[bgowland]

I'm retiring the nDroid v1.x project. Other than any major bug fixes which may be needed I won't be adding any more features or any improvements to the UI.

nDroid v1.x had basically got out of hand and difficult to keep track of when it came to fixing bugs and adding new features, and as it was originally meant to target Android v2.x devices it is falling behind the times with respect to current Android design.

At the moment the tablet edition (nDroid TE) is only available to devices with large and x-large screens (Android has generic screen sizes such as small, normal, large, x-large) but the new features available mean I can reduce the code significantly making it more manageable. I'm hoping to get a version out soon that will cover the 'normal' screen size which I hope will cover most (if not all) of the current nDroid users.

Well that doesn't really tell anybody very much but my statistics show there are close to 300 users of nDroid v1.x so I thought I'd share my plans on the future of it.

Cheers,
Brian

[fuzzweed]

Does this imply that 2.x continues? And does tablet edition mean that it will or won't work on phones?

[bgowland]

Does this imply that 2.x continues? And does tablet edition mean that it will or won't work on phones?

The original aim of TE was to make use of the larger screen space on tablets and it's still built for Android v2.2 onwards, but unless you have a device which is categorised as "large" or "x-large", Google Play will filter it out and you won't be able to see it.

nDroid TE (or Tablet Edition) will end up being a bit of a misnomer but it was an opportunity to move away from the bloat that nDroid v1.x had become. I'd originally meant to run the two projects side-by-side but realised I could effectively put the two together with the latest Android development techniques.

I've currently got a development version of nDroid TE v2.0.4 running on my HTC Desire phone (Android v2.2, 3.7 inch screen). It looks mostly like nDroid v1.x but with some extra bits. I was hoping to get it uploaded to Google Play today but (as ever) I've found a few bugs at the last minute.

So for the next version...

Android v2.2 support onwards - Yes
Phones - Yes (assuming the generic "normal" size screen ~3.5 inches upwards)

Cheers,
Brian