something in the way

Multi-User Google Maps Collaboration on Android

This application allows users in different locations to work together in Google Maps.

The collaboration features in this application include:

Video Chat
Map Synchronization on move, zoom, etc.
Whiteboarding
Cursor sharing

When running on Android, the application can use the device’s GPS to share your location.

This is just another example of “built-in” collaboration (go here and here for more). The point is really how easy it is to add these collaboration features to any application, and then to deploy these collaboration-enabled applications to multiple screens (browser, desktop, Android, and more devices soon).

Experience the application in the browser

Click here to experience the browser version of the application.

The application is written in Flex 4. The collaboration features are powered by LiveCycle Collaboration Service.

Jul 23

Video Chat for Android in 30 Lines of Code

Here is a simple Video Chat application I built with Flex 4 and deployed on AIR for Android. The Application is just 30 lines of code and allows multiple users to join a chat room and “video chat”.

Video streaming is powered by LiveCycle Collaboration Services, a set of hosted Flash Services that enable developers to easily add real-time collaboration and social capabilities to their applications.

This application is obviously a bare-bones proof of concept. However, it is fully operational, and the same code can run on different runtime environments: AIR for Android, AIR on the Desktop, and Flash Player in the Browser. Users can participate in the same collaboration session regardless of the runtime environment they use.

Watch the video:

The 30 lines of code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:cs="AfcsNameSpace" currentState="logon" fontSize="28">

        <fx:Script>
                [Bindable] private var roomURL:String = "http://connectnow.acrobat.com/YOUR_ROOM_NAME";

                protected function connect():void {
                        auth.userName = userName.text;
                        currentState = "default";
                        session.login();
                }
        </fx:Script>

        <s:states>
                <s:State name="default"/>
                <s:State name="logon"/>
        </s:states>

        <fx:Declarations>
                <cs:AdobeHSAuthenticator id="auth"/>
        </fx:Declarations>

        <s:TextInput id="userName" includeIn="logon" top="200" horizontalCenter="0"/>
        <s:Button label="Connect" click="connect()" includeIn="logon" top="250" horizontalCenter="0" height="50" width="150"/>

        <cs:ConnectSessionContainer id="session" roomURL="{roomURL}" authenticator="{auth}" autoLogin="false" width="100%" height="100%" includeIn="default">
                <cs:WebCamera top="10" left="10" bottom="10" right="10"/>
        </cs:ConnectSessionContainer>

</s:Application>

May 12

JIT performance boost coming with Android 2.2

It looks like our earlier reports that a JIT compiler was coming soon to Android have come true. Ian Douglas, a developer at Armor Games, has posted some screens for the popular benchmark app Linpack running on Android 2.2 which indicates a large performance boost. A normal stock Nexus One generates a benchmark score of 6-7 MFLOPS, while the same Nexus running Android 2.2 is able to score 38-40 MFLOPS.

Some of these higher Linpack scores have appeared on their Top 10 list for awhile, but this is one of the first times I’ve seen a screen shot. We believe Google’s team is close to releasing a stable version of the Dalvik JIT compiler because two of them (Ben Cheng and Bill Buzbee) will be outlining their work at Google I/O in a session called “A JIT Compiler for Android’s Dalvik VM“.

Even though these tests were run on a Nexus One, the new JIT compiler should offer a performance boost to all Android phones that are updated to Android 2.2. The benchmarks might be impressive, but only time will tell how they translate into real world performance. Most apps will have to be tested and tuned to take advantage of the new compiler so it could be several months before we see the full benefits of this update.

Stay tuned next week for the rest of this story.