Episode 43: Keyboard Input

In this episode, Tor and I talk with Shumin Zhai of Google Research. Shumin has worked for years in the area of language processing, specifically around user input on keyboards. Some of his work ended up in the Gesture Typing feature of the Google keyboard, which is all about translating user input into specific word suggestions. We talked about this work, language processing, research, and about the field of interpreting user interface input in general.

Favorite word:
Corpus: A dead body of text.

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Relevant Links

Google keyboard

Shumin: research.google.com/pubs/author9128.html, www.shuminzhai.com
Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Episode 42: Tool Time

The fancy ADB recording studio, with our featured guest.

In this episode, Tor and I talk with... each other. This episode is all about Android Studio. In particular, we talk about the latest features and massive performance improvements in the Android Studio preview that was detailed at the Android Dev Summit and which has
been in development and under improvement since then.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Relevant Links

Android Studio tips & tricks video
All of the Android Dev Summit Talks
Android Studio
Android Studio Recent Changes
Instant Run
Proguard

Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Episode 41: RecyclerView

In this episode, we recycle our guest list to bring back a former guest, Yigit Boyar, this time to talk about the RecyclerView widget.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Relevant Links

RecyclerView Animation talk from the Android Dev Summit
Android Application Architecture talk from the Android Dev Summit
Source code for the Android Architecture talk sample app
The new lint check for RecyclerView suggested by Yigit, shipped in 2.0 Preview 5

Yigit Boyar: https://plus.google.com/111851968937104436377, @yigitboyar
Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Episode 40: Material World

This time, Tor and Chet talk with Nicholas Jitkoff from the Material group about... Material Design. And design in general. And engineering. And splash screens. And other stuff.

Favorite words: Materiality. Skiamorphic.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Relevant Links

Material Design
Zombo

Nicholas: google.com/+NicholasJitkoffJ, @alcor
Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

Episode 39: MIDI

Chet, Phil, and Tor. And a lot of totally professional sound baffles

This time, Tor and Chet get all musical with Phil Burk from the Android Audio team. Phil worked on the new MIDI feature in the Android 6.0 Marshmallow release, and joins the podcast to talk about MIDI (history as well as Android implementation), electronic music, and other audio-related topics.

Bryan said it was his favorite episode so far. But then Bryan's an audio engineer, so he might be slightly biased.

Android MIDI: It's music to our ears.

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Relevant Links

Android MIDI
MidiSynth Example
More Examples
HMSL
Larry Polansky

Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

Episode 38: Fingerprint

In this, er, impressive episode, Tor and Chet talk with Jim Miller from the Android System UI team. We mostly chat about the new fingerprint feature in Android 6 Marshmallow (aka, "Nexus Imprint"). But we also talk about other things like Keyguard, Setup Wizard, widgets, notifications, and greasy chicken parts.

"UIs, like fingerprints, are all unique."

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Relevant Links

Fingerprint Authentication
FingerprintManager
Fingerprint Dialog Example
Fingerprint and Payments APIs (Video)

Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

Episode 37: Webview

Richard, Chet, Ben, and not Tor in the spacious London studio

In this Tor-less episode, Chet talks with Ben Murdoch and Richard Coles from the Android WebView team. We talk about WebView's ability to update outside of platform releases, the transition from the original WebView to the new Chromium WebView widget, about some of the new features and APIs in recent releases, and about cute kitten bitmaps.

Tor didn't have much to say, about kittens or anything else.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Relevant Links

Beta Channel for Android WebView
Google+ Beta Channel Community
Bug Tracker
Chrome Dev Tools
WebView API


Ben Murdoch: google.com/+BenMurdoch, @ksasq
Richard Coles: google.com/+RichardColesGoogle
Tor: google.com/+TorNorbye, @tornorbye
Chet: google.com/+ChetHaase, @chethaase

Also, thanks to continued support by Bryan Gordon, our audio engineer who puts this stuff together every time.