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Adndroid apps don't have any borders (video)

This is the sixth in a series of videos provided by Google on Android programming.



Index:
00:00 Introduction
00:32 Zebra crossing application
01:35 Library app
02:14 A GeoSocial app which combines user GPS, user created photos, and Compass


My Takeaway:
Android applications do not have any borders. They can use data from other applicatiosns, they can use hardware available on the device such as camera, compass, GPS, accelerometer, etc, and they can also use content from the web API's.

The first application called Zebra Crossing is an application which can pull information from bar codes and QR codes. So if you photograph a product's bar code and give it to the application, it will pull up information about the book from the web. If on the other hand you give it a QR code from the back of a business card, it can extract contact information about that person which you can use to call or send email. The Zebra Crossing app also publishes intents, to allow other applications to communicate with it.

The second application is a library application which uses the "Zebra Crossing" app to add books to your personal library.

The third application, which I found to e really cool is an application which mashes together GPS, photographs, and the Compass to create a GeoSocial application. So here's what it does. Imagine you are on a vacation and want to locate cool things around where you are. You can use this application to find out all the photographs people have taken around that locality. If you find something you like, you can actually locate that thing (which was photographed) on a map and also use the Compass to get there. Cool isn't it?

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