A new feature available in Android 4.0 is voice typing: the difference for users is that the recognition results appear in the text box while they are still speaking. If you are an IME developer, you can easily integrate with voice typing.

To simplify the integration, if you download this library and modify your IME as described below, everything will work smoothly on any device with Android 2.2 or later. On 4.0+, users will get voice typing, and earlier versions will use standard voice recognition; the difference is illustrated below.

To see how to integrate voice typing you can take a look at this sample IME. The IME is really simple and contains only one button: a microphone. By pressing the microphone, the user triggers voice recognition.

Here are the steps that you need to follow to integrate voice recognition into your IME.

Download the library

Download this library and add it to your IME APK.

Create the voice recognition trigger

The library contains the VoiceRecognitionTrigger helper class. Create an instance of it inside the InputMethodService#onCreate method in your IME.

public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    ...
    mVoiceRecognitionTrigger = new VoiceRecognitionTrigger(this);
}

Add the microphone icon to your IME

You need to modify the UI of your IME, add a microphone icon, and register an OnClickListener to trigger voice recognition. You can find the assets inside the sample IME. The microphone icon should be displayed only if voice recognition is installed; use VoiceRecognitionTrigger#isInstalled().

public View onCreateInputView() {
  LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(
      Service.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
  mView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.ime, null);
  ...
  mButton = (ImageButton) mView.findViewById(R.id.mic_button);
  if (mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.isInstalled()) {
    mButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
      @Override
      public void onClick(View v) {
        mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.startVoiceRecognition();
      }
    });
    mButton.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
  } else {
    mButton.setVisibility(View.GONE);
  }
  return mView;
}

If your IME supports multiple languages, you can specify in which language recognition should be done as a parameter of startVoiceRecognition().

Notify the trigger when your IME starts

When your IME starts, you need to notify the trigger, so it can insert into the text view any pending recognition results.

@Override
public void onStartInputView(EditorInfo info, boolean restarting) {
  super.onStartInputView(info, restarting);
  if (mVoiceRecognitionTrigger != null) {
    mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.onStartInputView();
  }
}

Modify your AndroidManifest

In order to start a voice recognition through the Intent API, the library uses a service and an activity, and you need to add them into your manifest.

<manifest ... >
  <application ...>
    ...
    <service android:name="com.google.android.voiceime.ServiceHelper" />
    <activity
        android:name="com.google.android.voiceime.ActivityHelper"
        android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar"
        android:excludeFromRecents="true"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"
        android:finishOnTaskLaunch="true"
        android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|navigation
                               |orientation"/>
  </application>
</manifest>

Update the microphone icon dynamically (optional)

This step is optional, but you should implement it if possible as it will improve the user experience. Voice recognition requires network access, and if there is no network, your IME should notify the user that voice recognition is currently disabled. To achieve this, you need to register the VoiceRecognitionTrigger.Listener and enable/disable the microphone accordingly.

The listener is registered in InputMethodService#onCreate, and you have to unregister it in InputMethodService#onDestroy, otherwise you will leak the listener.

@Override
public void onCreate() {
  super.onCreate();
  ...
  mVoiceRecognitionTrigger = new VoiceRecognitionTrigger(this);
  mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.register(new VoiceRecognitionTrigger.Listener() {
    @Override
    public void onVoiceImeEnabledStatusChange() {
      updateVoiceImeStatus();
    }
  });
}

...
@Override
public void onDestroy() {
  ...
  if (mVoiceRecognitionTrigger != null) {
    mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.unregister(this);
  }
  super.onDestroy();
}

private void updateVoiceImeStatus() {
  if (mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.isInstalled()) {
    mButton.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    if (mVoiceRecognitionTrigger.isEnabled()) {
      mButton.setEnabled(true);
    } else {
      mButton.setEnabled(false);
    }
  } else {
    mButton.setVisibility(View.GONE);
  }
  mView.invalidate();
}

And add this permission into your manifest:

<manifest ... >
  ...
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
  ...
</manifest>

That’s all there is to it

Voice recognition makes it easy for users to do more with their Android devices, so we appreciate your support in adding it to your IMEs.

Personal electronics manufacturer Coby have announced that they will have a big showing at CES. We’re set to get five different Ice Cream Sandwich tablets in the 7-10 inch range. A 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor sit inside these devices, an unusual choice for Android tablets these days. The only Cortex A8-based processors we’ve seen inside Honeycomb-capable models are the 1.5GHz Snapdragon processors inside HTC Flyer and its variants. It’ll be interesting to see what processor choice Coby has gone with and how Ice Cream Sandwich will perform on it. The tablets will also have 1GB of RAM inside but no other information is know at this time. [via]

Swarm LLC has just released a social SDK for Android developers, with tools like leaderboards, achievements, and even cloud storage.

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A good chunk of the smartphone world – Verizon’s Android customers in particular – were in uproar regarding news that their version of the Galaxy Nexus would not be coming with Google Wallet.

We speculated (and still do believe) that their mobile payments partners in ISIS were the leading reason why they were reluctant to provide the service. After all, Sprint is still the only carrier to offer it and they only offer it on one device – the Nexus S 4G.

But they officially cited that Google Wallet was left out due to concerns about security and user experience. The last bit of that – UX – is so broad a term that one could come up with any estimation as to what they mean, but security? Well, that’s a legitimate concern.

Verizon elected not to go into grave detail regarding their security concerns at the time of their statement but we may have a vague look at what’s going on via viaForensics. What they reportedly found is just a bit alarming, if true:

• Google Wallet does securely handle full credit card information
• Certain database writes are unencrypted and can contain troubling information, such as account balances, credit limits, last four digits of a credit card and the expiration date – all pieces of information that can easily be used to social engineer one’s way into fraud.
• This information is only at risk on rooted devices. Still, not good.

There were other security concerns but they have apparently been cleaned up in software upgrades. We assume the issues listed above won’t go long without Google’s attention though there’s no word on what they’ll be doing about it and when.

We’re not sure if this is the type of stuff holding Verizon or any carriers other than Sprint from offering Google Wallet but we can understand why they wouldn’t be comfortable with it.

That’s not to say we know for sure whether or not Verizon will offer this service whenever their concerns are addressed, but we’d at least know there’s a chance. And yes, we’re hoping these findings won’t delay the Galaxy Nexus even further. Just offer Google Wallet in the market and call it a day. [via TheVerge]

This is a tutorial about adding states to custom controls in library projects. So first, how to create and reference library projects: Setting up library projects, Referencing library projects.

Now that the project is setup you can start creating custom controls and states for them. This will all be inside the library project. Firstly you need to create an attributes xml file in values/attrs.xml (the name has to be attrs.xml) and adding the state:

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Last week Google announced that 10 billion apps per month are being downloaded from the Android Market, and subsequently started their 10 Days of Apps promotion. But in that official announcement was a nice infographic about which countries are crazy about Android apps. Here they are:

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Nielsen have found that, after the Android Market, Facebook is the most used app (How else will people download it?). This is among people aged 18 to 44, so therefore covers a large array of ages.

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Hope you all had a great weekend! Now, it’s back to the hustle and grind of the work week and with that comes the Android Overload. We tend to get a whole lot of stories from over the weekend and not all of them make the cut. For those that don’t. We place them here. Think of it as a second chance for stories on the internet before they drift away into obscurity. So have a look around and if you see something you like, leave your thoughts. We’d love to hear ‘em.

• Motorola Droid RAZR receives Ice Cream Sandwich port. Increases sex appeal tenfold. [BriefMobile]
• Galaxy Tab 10.1 receives audio docking station from iLuv. [SammyHub]
• Flash Player update in the Android Market. [Market Link]
• Huawei Fusion is a prepaid AT&T Android phone for only $110. [Electronista]
• Majel is Google’s response to Siri? End of the year release? [AndroidandMe]
• Best free phones on every carrier are dominated by Android. [Gizmodo]
• AT&T is trying to figure out how to revise T-Mobile deal. [Reuters]
• Bell and Virgin (Canada) release LG Eclypse (US Mytouch). [MobileSyrup]
• Amazon readies Kindle Fire update to address bugs. [NYTimes]
• HTC sues Citi in Taiwan after share drop. [Reuters]
• Makers of the browser app for Andorid, Bolt, closes up shop for good. [Bolt]
• How would Apple design the Galaxy Tab? Like this. [BriefMobile]
• European Union regulators halt Google/Motorola merger review. [Bloomberg]

I don’t even know where to start with Carrier IQ gate. It has blown up into this huge mobile security issue, snowballing into probably the worse PR nightmare the company could have ever expected. Ever since it was first exposed in HTC devices, the software has been found in use on almost every device and OS under the sun, as commissioned by whichever carrier those devices are running on. Even the FBI could have been using the data collected for national security. It’s that big. Well, Carrier IQ wants to give you their complete, exhaustive response to all the concerns and complaints consumers have been having with the service in this 19 page PDF. So, if you were one of those folks with your pitchforks, put it down for just a few minutes, grab your spectacles instead and read up.

[Full Carrier IQ Press Release]

The Galaxy Nexus is almost upon us (we’re now hearing the — take it with a grain of salt — 20th) and if you were looking to do some serious gaming or streaming as soon as you get your hands on the device, you’ve probably considered forking over the cash for the official 2100mAh extended battery. Definitely not the behemoth batteries were normally used to (see HTC Rezound) , the Galaxy Nexus extended battery is more slim and stylish. Just how much extra thickness are we talking about here? Well, check out the pictures below to see for yourself!

What do you guys think? Does the extended battery add too much junk in the trunk? Or is the slightly added thickness and $50 price tag worth having a few extra hours of data streaming?

[Via Droid-Life]