Webgeeks Dojo Aug 2nd – Mobile challenge
Hello, our next Coding Dojo will be on Aug 2nd, 7:00 pm at Impromptu Studios. This time we’ll have a mobile web dev challenge so prepare by having a web-kit based mobile device or simulator. I’d suggest either the iOS 4.x simulator from the Apple Developer’s kit or an Android 2.1 simulator from the Android Developer’s Kit. An actual working mobile will be fine too. I’ll arrive at 6:30 in order to help people get set up. (more details below) We only need one mobile per team so if you don’t have the time to get set up come anyway, we’ll be fine.
Please RSVP in the comment area below.
A Coding Dojo is a fun, collaborative group event. We split up into teams of several developers who then work together to solve the problem of the evening. We then share our successes and failures at the end. Everyone stretches their abilities and learns something new and it’s appropriate for all skill levels. You should come and have fun and learn (or teach) some new tricks.
About the challenge, you know I can’t tell you too much in advance, but because I want our time to be productive I’d like to give everyone a chance to set up their computer before the challenge begins. I’ll arrive at Impromptu at 6:30 to help if someone needs additional assistance.
The smallest emulator is the Android SDK. You install it by dowloading a small gui tool and then instruct it which APIs to use (which then have to be downloaded separately). It requires no registration and runs in Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
Install the developer’s kit then launch the android application from the included tools folder. Click the “Available Packages” option then install the SDKs you want. We’ll use Android 2.1 as our official test platform for Android so you should probably install the three “API 7” packages. Once downloaded click “Virutal Devices” from the left column and click “New” to create a new simulator. Name = Android_2_1, Target = Google APIs (Google Inc) API level 7, Size = 50MB, Skin: Built in = Default (HVGA) then “Create AVD.” Once it’s done click the newly created device from the list and choose “Start.” After it boots you can use it to browse the web.
An iOS simulator is included in the Apple iOS SDK. It is a 2.4GB download and requires a free Apple developer account and only works on an Intel based Mac. As a benefit, it starts almost instantly once installed. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll find it located in your hard drive (not Applications) in the “Developer” folder, then “Platforms” -> iPhone Simulator.platform -> Developer -> Applications. (to be honest, I have the 3.x SDK installed still so it may be slightly different with 4.x)
I’ve chosen a fun challenge that we can all do and will hopefully aid us as we consider optimizing our existing projects for the mobile web. We can benefit from designers, back end coders, front end devs and people who just like to concept and plan.
