This Week in Apps: App Store advertising expands, Google Play plans for safety, Epic v. Apple trial begins
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Android Studio 4.2 Is Now Available For Download With Latest IntelliJ IDEA
May 7, 2021
Google on Tuesday announced the stable release of Android Studio 4.2 for developers after being in beta testing for months.
This release includes an upgraded IntelliJ platform, APG Upgrade Assistant, and features aimed at improving productivity as an Android app developer.
For those unaware, Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Google’s Android operating system, built on JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development.
“We know sometimes upgrading your app project to the latest version can be complicated. To address this, we have a new app project upgrade assistant in Android Studio 4.2 that makes it easier to migrate your project and to take advantage of the latest Android Gradle Plugin APIs.
Android Community
May 6, 2021
After being in development for some time, Google has now announced the stable release of Android Studio 4.2. The latest version of the chief tool used by developers to create Android apps, focuses majorly on the upgrade of IntelliJ platform and additional features that will “improve productivity of Android developers,” Google notes.
The major new Android Studio update, as mentioned, brings forth a few improvements and features. These including the mentioned IntelliJ platform update, and improvements in new project wizard, Database Inspector, SafeArgs support, System Trace and much more.
The new update makes migration easier and benefits from the latest Android Gradle Plugin APIs. Google recommends that if you use the abovementioned features “you should download the new Android Studio update.”
Consistently create well-designed and thoroughly tested code using best practices for mobile application development.
Create applications, using industry standards, incorporating data from back-end databases and web services.
Develop or validate unit-testing, addressing all devices to ensure cross device (phone and tablet) compatibility of applications.
Partaking in Rapid development projects and prototyping
Perform UI designs and coding, creating reusable objects and templates.
Translate designs and wireframes into high quality code using MVC patterns
Have a solid understanding of resource management for proper app performance
Support the entire application lifecycle (concept, design, test, release and support)
Maintain updated knowledge of new and emerging industry trends and technology. (Material design etc)