Jesse Peterson

So, July 11, 2008, came and went. What happened on July 11? The iPhone 3G came out.

But I don’t have an iPhone. The other big thing is that the Apple iPhone App Store opened. But I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t run the emulator or create my own apps for the emulator.

So, I celebrated by creating my first Android app.

This is the “Hello, World” version of an Android app running in the emulator. It was very easy to make. What made it easier for me is that Android apps are written in Java. (I am a Java developer by day.) The “Getting Started” tutorial even shows you how to use Eclipse.

I have only created the sample app so far, but it looks pretty easy for a Java developer to write an “Activity“. But, of coarse, the apps currently can only run in the emulator. But the emulator can be integrated very easily into Eclipse.

Though, it is not like having real hardware like the Apple iPhone.

Many years ago, I created an API for interacting with the home automation technology called X10. The API interfaced with power line modules via a serial interface. I haven’t done anything with the X10 home automation API that I created a couple years ago. I have gotten a bit sidetracked by fatherhood.

You can find the source code here. If you do try to compile this, you may get an error about a missing class. This isn’t important; you can whack away the reference and compile again. (Not very helpful, I know, but if I get more time, I may update this with some more information.)