Lucas Almeida Rocha: Get a new wallpaper every day with Pattrn

28 de Maio de 2012, 0:00, por Software Livre Brasil - 0sem comentários ainda

Things are going pretty well for Pattrn. In just 22 days, it has got almost 600 downloads, got featured in two Android app design blogs,  and got mostly 5-star ratings on Google Play. Not bad! Since its initial release, Pattrn got the ability to save patterns to your Android gallery, a few UI improvements, and some nice performance and stability fixes.

Based on your feedback, I have now pushed an update with a new little feature: automatic wallpaper updates. You can now tell Pattrn to automatically set your Android’s wallpaper every day or every week with your favourite or most popular patterns. Feeling adventurous? You can also set Pattrn to use a completely random pattern as your wallpaper.

Once you update Pattrn on your device and run it for the first time, you’ll be prompted to setup the automatic wallpaper updates. Don’t worry, you can change those options at any time in the Settings screen—accessible via the app menu.

Be inspired by a new COLOURlovers pattern every day! Download Pattrn now on Google Play!

Lucas Almeida Rocha: Native Firefox for Android Beta

21 de Maio de 2012, 0:00, por Software Livre Brasil - 0sem comentários ainda

At this point, you have probably heard the news. Yes, we’ve release the first public Beta of Firefox for Android with all the goodness that we’ve been working on in the last 7 months: the brand new native UI that is lighter, faster, and sleeker. Here are some big picture highlights about this Beta.

Design direction. The new native UI design is part of a wider effort in Mozilla to streamline the visual identity of Firefox across multiple platforms—desktop and mobile. Firefox should feel like one consistent product everywhere. Have a look at Madhava’s slide deck for more information on what the Firefox design team has been up to lately.

Keep in mind that this first native UI release is just the first of many iterations. For instance, there’s a lot of interesting changes coming up as part of our work on the native tablet UI that will eventually trickle down to the phone UI as well.

Panning and zooming. If you’re using the Beta already (or have been using the Nightly or Aurora builds) you’ll notice how smoother panning and zooming are. This is because the Beta features a major revamp on the graphics and rendering infrastructure using tiled rendering and an off-main-thread layer compositor. I recommend reading Benoit Girard‘s and Chris Lord‘s blog posts for further details. It’s worth mentioning that the Mobile Platform and Graphics teams did an amazing work to implement all this in a rather short period!

Places and Sync. The Places database has been re-implemented in Firefox for Android as a private Content Provider for two reasons. First of all, it gives instant access to history and bookmarks even before Gecko is up i.e. much faster startup experience. Secondly, it allows the new native Firefox Sync—which is now nicely integrated with the system’s sync UI—to access your browsing history and bookmarks even when Firefox is not running.

We’ve already started working on new features for the following releases including the native UI for Firefox on Android tablets and a reader mode. As you can see, the upcoming Firefox for Android is a whole new beast. We are working hard to make it the best mobile browser out there. You can help us now testing the Beta as part of our Mobile Test Drivers Program!

With the native UI, we’re creating a new baseline for innovation on Firefox Mobile. And it will only get better from now on. What are you waiting for? Download the Firefox for Android Beta now!

Serge Rehem: Macarrão com Marshmallow

11 de Maio de 2012, 0:00, por Software Livre Brasil - 0sem comentários aindaEu sei, estou sumido deste blog. Foi proposital. Muitas mudanças acontecendo, em várias dimensões. Estou passando por mais um período sabático, desta vez mais profundo do que o anterior.

Desde o final do ano passado estou com novos desafios profissionais, relacionados a aplicativos móveis para Android e iOS. Temos aprendido muito e agora, mais do que nunca, temos dado valor à prototipação e ao feedback contínuo do cliente. Continuamos usando Agile com bastante sucesso.

Hoje me deparei com esse vídeo sensacional do TED Talk, sobre construção de equipes: "Tom Wujec apresenta uma surpreendente pesquisa sobre o "problema do marshmallow" -- uma dinâmica de grupo simples que envolve espaguete seco, um metro de fita adesiva e um marshmallow. Quem conseguir construir a torre mais alta usando estes ingredientes? E por que um grupo inesperado sempre se sai melhor que a média?"

Divirta-se!



Mais informações em MarshmallowChallenge.com.

Lucas Almeida Rocha: Introducing Pattrn

7 de Maio de 2012, 0:00, por Software Livre Brasil - 0sem comentários ainda

I’m a COLOURlovers fan. They provide a nice set of simple creative tools that empower a vibrant community to produce awesome design pieces such as patterns, palettes, shapes, colors, etc. It’s a simple yet powerful idea. Inspiring stuff.

I’ve been doing Android-based development for a few months now but I wanted to play a bit more with the platform to get a better grasp on the end-to-end developer experience—from development to distribution. There’s no other way to do that than building an app. This is why I created Pattrn as a weekend project.

Pattrn gives you access to all the patterns created by the COLOURlovers community. You can browse through the latest and most popular patterns and search by keyword or color. You can also keep a list of your favorite patterns and use them as your Android wallpaper. Pattrn is meant to be simple, cute, and snappy.

I’ve just released Pattrn’s first public beta on Google Play. Install it and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy it!