For most new android app developers (like me), it is a bit puzzling how to debug the android widgets or how to put a breakpoint in an android widget code. For normal applications, it is quite simple as when you press “debug” on the eclipse toolbar, it launches the emulator (or connects to existing emulator/device), syncs your application and launches its main activity and puts the control in your hands if you have put a breakpoint. For widgets, it seems a bit tricky because there is no activity to be launched, so eclipse just syncs your widget’s apk and installs it and that’s it. So, is it possible or not to debug widget code? and if yes, then is it very difficult? Fortunately, it is possible and very easy to do but just slightly less intuitive and I couldn’t find any information about it at Android developers website and learnt it by just fumbling around for a few minutes so thought of posting here for the benefit of other newbies like me.

Just a small post to let you know that I just published a small app in the android market, which scratches an itch of mine and I thought probably it will be help others too. It basically provides a quick, one-click access to the accounts and sync settings of Android. The use case for me was that I need to enable/disable syncing for my work email while I’m at work every day as I am already in front of my office PC so don’t need to waste battery and be annoyed by mail notifications on phone but still need to keep google calendar syncing. To do this I had to spend too many clicks and long-presses to get to the accounts settings, so made this app. Let me know if you like it.

This is a very small android app to open the accounts and sync settings in one click. We all need to disable the sync settings of a particular account sometimes  but keep all other items still syncing. For example, for most of the day I’m at work, in front of my office PC so I don’t need to keep my work email syncing which causes unnecessary drain on my battery but I do need to keep other things, like my google calendar, syncing still. Now, the power control widget that comes with android is a bit too coarse for this use as it presents a situation of all or none. So, if you use the power control widget, it either disables syncing entirely for all your apps or enables it for all of them. So, you have to manually go into accounts and sync settings and turn off syncing for the account you want but it takes too many clicks (You first long hold on menu, then press settings, then scroll to account settings, then click on it to open it). So, instead of that, you can just use this app here. Install and add a shortcut to the home screen. Whenever you need, just click on it and it will open the accounts and sync settings screen for you immediately without any fuss.

Update: Removed the post as the person in consideration has contacted me with the explanation of what went down. I’m not sure if it is completely true or this is just as a response to this post but anyways, as I had contended in the original post that it was a stupid little thing that didn’t really warrant any attention or a post but I still did it just because I’m weird, so in the light of the developments, I think it’s best to remove the rants and focus on actual discussion. I’ll be discussing the points put out by Dan over his blog or might make a post about them here..

This is an effort from my side to consolidate everything about Android Froyo with respect to Nexus One. It is mainly concentrated towards listing the features/fixes that we have seen in Froyo that weren’t announced in Google I/O, things that work with nexus one, things that don’t and possible fixes/workarounds known, what the announced features actually feel like in real use etc.** Will keep updating this post as I get more info, get more fixes, etc. Please do let me know if I’ve missed something or there is some new development that should be updated here.**