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Up until about a week ago I was very happy with my trusty Blackberry Passport smart-phone. It did everything I wanted, email, texting, telephoning - including conferencing in another person to a call - and also held, and allowed me to read in comfort, my large collection of e-books and manuals in various eBook formats (Mobi, Epub and PDF being the most common I used) on a big, square, 1440 by 1440 screen. I occasionally used Google and Maps but that was about it. Life was good. 
Then, on a visit to the city dump to dump some trash and recycle a large collection of moving boxes we had finally unpacked (a mere two years after moving to our new house), it, unnoticed by me, flew out of my top pocket and into the dumpster (I assume, since I was enthusiastically flinging trash into said dumpster at the time). About four hours later, I noticed it was missing. I went back to the dump to find it using my wife's phone to call it. No answer. Inquiring of the dump-mistress I found out that dumpster had already been to the incinerator (damned their efficiency!) and my phone was most probably destroyed! 
After much crying, wailing, ripping out of hair and gnashing of teeth (all in my mind; being English I merely said "Oh, bother") I went to the local phone store where they offered to trace the phone for me and tracked it's movements right up until the incinerator melted it into electronic slag!  ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
I needed a new phone by Monday! Horror! They no longer sell Blackberry models, not even the new KEYone. Bother! I had to put up with getting one of those pesky Android thingies! 
So I got a Samsung Galaxy S8+. Big screen, 2960 by 1440, seemingly usable on-screen keyboard, supported my favourite e-book reader software and did the other things I wanted. 
Stupid thing doesn't work anything like my trusty Passport... Hmm... dammit, dammit, why does it do that when I wanted this? How the heck do you close an "app"? How the heck do you do anything with this piece of (expensive) junk?
[...a few days and gradually reducing grumbles later...]
This thing is amazing! It does everything! It does everything, faster, clearer, better, wow! 
The most amazing thing is that the voice interface (something called Bixby) recognises my voice pretty accurately even with my British accent and since I installed Google Assistant via Google Allo it does an amazing job (Bixby is OK but not that great yet)! 
..and the screen is HUGE and clear enough that I can easily run two "apps" side by side and they are both usable!
Sorry if this is starting to sound like an Ad for the S8+ but... I am not recommending it to anyone else, but just wow!
Who the heck ever wanted to stay stuck on and old fashioned Blackberry?  Well... Me, but no longer. 
Now I am going to start looking, for the first time ever, at Android development - I don't know what I am going to do yet but something... just to do it. I might even write an article about it. 
So, as a total beginner at "App" development for Android, does anyone have any advice to get started?
Note: I am (probably) not interested in making money at this, it's just for fun and will be a free app for Android devices only - no iCrap support necessary or desired! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Master of the Galaxy
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Have a look at Xamarin - it's in VS 2015 / 2017 - and it lets you use C# instead of having to learn Java. One less thing to work on, what with the new framework / environment.
Plus Eclipse is ... um ... not as good as VS. Or edlin some say.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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If you figure out how to make a tool, that is not full of ads , to remove the preinstalled stuff that you are not allowed to remove. Please let me know.
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My very first Android app back around 2006 was a "device info" app. I went through most of the APIs that were available at that moment in time and had them tell me about my phone's:
Network
Phone
Software
Wi-Fi
Hardware
Bluetooth
Traffic
Battery
Location
It was a great learning experience. I look back now and wonder why I didn't tackle something a little less ambitious for my first app, but I'm glad I did. I learned a lot.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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I dumped my Slack Berry when RIM stopped service. I was in an airport in Italy and needed to email my boarding pass/ticket as the hard copy I had got wet & I couldn't. Up until then I was happy...
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I thought you were out of the pub now?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Is that Quake I, Quake II, or Quake III Arena?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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New level, got a desk, got a PC, got a local login...
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So your new job is as a receptionist?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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What advantages does the google assitant give?
And you had to install it through a messaging app?
Owner of a S7 being curious here...
PS:
I remember my old BB phone with mixed feelings: wonderful keyboard, nice shortcuts, easy copy and paste, wonderful voice recongnition, unlimited international data plan.
Now with my S7, I can do much better pictures, all multimedia is better... But the keyboard is much worse.
Thanks.
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You apparently can't install it directly (except on the Pixel where it is embedded), yet but if you install "Google Allo" then it gives you most of the Assistant functionality via "text messages" and voice.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Can you replace bixby with google assistant or do they have to be used in parallel, I'm talking about the irritating button that seems to launch the silly bugger at odd times.
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I saw one article that said it could be done but I can't find it again - I read it on the S8+ and haven't figured out how to navigate through the morass of ads and information completely yet. When I find it, if it works, I'll let you know. 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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B4A (Basic 4 Android) is easy to learn, very similar to VB6 and is less than $100.
www.b4x.com
[^]
They also have versions for iOS and Arduino.
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No, sorry. You are completely alone!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I thought so. Never seen a Linux desktop app developer yet.
I'll keep searching.
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No. I used to, but since long I'm in search for cross platform and since .NET Core is here I'm using it both on Linux and Windows...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: NET Core is here I'm using it both on Linux and Windows
I was curious about that myself. So do you do backend / services or do you create desktop apps that run on linux too?
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I use .NET Core to back-end (APIs) and put a HTML based app on front of it...
There is no true cross-platform UI today, except HTML in browser...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: There is no true cross-platform UI today, except HTML in browser...
And probably never will be.
By the time they create it, there will be only one OS -- which will be IoT_OS.
Computers are going away.
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raddevus wrote: Computers are going away.
Hell... I hope not
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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