Kindle Fire first tests with Corona

Solar2D Daily Builds and Public Releases
#21

Hello tsuriyathep,

Regarding #1, we haven’t seen this PNG alpha issue on a Kindle Fire and we’ve tested with several several apps. Can you please send us a small sample project so that we can reproduce it? A screenshot would help too. You can send us a file via the “Report a Bug” link at the top of this web page.

Regarding #2, yes, touches are very laggy, but that’s the hardware.

Regarding #3, we’ve noticed the audio lag too. I don’t think we can do anything about it on our end. If you try Angry Birds, notice that it has the same audio lag. If you use Corona’s media API, then we’ve found that there is less latency, but that API has less features compared to Corona’s audio API.

Regarding #4, we’ve just fixed the “system.orientation” property to correctly output the current orientation on an Android device as of this week’s daily builds. Try it out.

Regarding #5, we have verified that InMobi ads do work on Kindle Fire. I recommend that you contact InMobi’s tech-support group to get this working because it may be an issue with your Android app ID not being fully active yet or an inventory issue. You can contact them via “ansca@inmobi.com”.

Regarding #6, the Kindle Fire uses the 512x512 image that you submit to Amazon with your app on the “cover flow” application screen. If the Kindle Fire is unable to find your app’s 512x512 image in the Amazon marketplace, then it will use the Icon-mdpi.png instead and will look pixelated.

Regarding #7, the display.viewableContentWidth/Height does not compensate for the statusbar on iOS either… but it’s funny that you mention this. I was just talking to someone about this yesterday about setting up these properties to adjust for the statusbar on the top and bottom of the Kindle Fire. Of course, these 2 properties are not enough. We would also need the viewable top/left corner of the display as well. Unfortunately, there is an internal debate on whether or not these properties should compensate for statusbar/navigation bar heights, virtual keyboards, what it should do for transparent statusbars on iOS, etc. So, we’re not going to have a solution for this by this coming release. In the meantime, we fixed the display.statusBarHeight property to correctly output the height of the statusbar in pixels as of today’s daily build. You can also compensate for the bottom bar manually.
[import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 70870[/import]

#22

I just tried displaying an alpha blended image on top of another image, where there was an alpha gradient along the edges. The alpha came through correctly. The only thing I can think of that would cause this low image quality issue is if Corona cannot get enough memory to load your image, then it will automatically lower the image quality from 32-bit to 16-bit… and if that doesn’t work then it will down-sample/scale the image, which reduces its memory footprint by a power of 2. Corona needs to do this for low-end Android devices that have limited memory, but it can also do this if the device is running low on memory too. If this is the case, then Corona will log messages stating so which are viewable in “adb logcat”.

Again, I recommend that you send us a sample project that can reproduce this issue. We can’t fix it if we can’t reproduce it. Thanks! [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 71142[/import]

#23

Does the default Corona Icon appear until submitting, or should a grainy version of my custom icon be showing on the home screen of the Fire?

I have all three icons (“Icon-mdpi.png” etc) included in the project, but the only time the icons show up on the device is on the file manager when I am installing the app. After the app installs, it displays the default corona icon.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Clay

EDIT: The icons are now appearing, I had to fully uninstall the app from the device before reinstalling. [import]uid: 62528 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 73137[/import]

#24

I’m also having bad sound lags on the Kindle Fire. Has any one solved this issue? [import]uid: 1884 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 75600[/import]

#25

I am having the same issue with audio lag. I will have to try Corona media api to see
how much that helps.

If anyone has anymore sugestions please let us me know

Thanks [import]uid: 73307 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 75745[/import]

#26

Everyone,

All Android devices have audio latency issues. It is not a Corona issue. It is an issue with the Android OS and everyone has this problem. I too have noticed that it is especially bad on the Kindle Fire. Try running a free game such as Angry Birds on the Kindle Fire and notice how bad the audio latency is. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 77073[/import]

#27

@Joshua - You are correct. All the games on the fire and nook have audio latency issues.

Can you give us an eta on in-app purchase for android store and amazon store. [import]uid: 1884 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 77075[/import]

#28

vopmms,

We plan on adding Google in-app purchase support by the end of this month. The one issue with this being that Kindle Fire does not support this feature, nor does it support Google Maps. Bummer, eh? We’ll have to add support for a 3rd party in-app purchasing solution for the Kindle Fire sometime afterwards. The team here has not decided what that 3rd party purchasing solution will be yet, but we understand the importance of this feature so we’ll come up with something. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 77095[/import]

#29

awesome that’s the best answer we’ve gotten so far.

Third party inapp purchase for the Kindle Fire would be great.

[import]uid: 1884 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 77096[/import]

#30

I’m not sure if Amazon will allow a 3rd party IAP solution, Amazon have their own solution but it’s in Beta, I know that the Atari App uses it.

Stated in their FAQ…

My app uses Google’s in-app purchasing technology. How can I make it work on Kindle Fire?
Because Google’s in-app purchasing technology requires access to Google Mobile Services, it will not work on Kindle Fire. We are working on a solution that will let you sell digital content in your apps using Amazon’s merchandising and payments technology. Our solution is currently in Beta and available by invitation only. If you would like to join the waiting list for the Beta, please complete and submit this form, and we will follow up with more information as soon as possible.

https://developer.amazon.com/help/faq.html#KindleFire

[import]uid: 8697 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 77237[/import]

#31

Hello All,

I just thought I might mention something regarding getting your apps installed on to the Nook and Kindle. I use Dropbox and have the Dropbox App installed on all my Android Devices. You can then just download the .apk file from your Dropbox and it installs directly to your device within seconds. It will even overwrite the install and run the updated Build.

Just a little thought…no cables needed at all.

Good look everyone.
[import]uid: 16527 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 79119[/import]

#32

thanks Rob for that info… i guess i can do the same with androids then? install dropbox, and dl the .apk from there?

thanks! [import]uid: 90610 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 79121[/import]

#33

Thanks for the info.

I just tried it, and it does work. But it’s way too slow for me.
First it takes time to sync the 8MB APK to Dropbox, and then Dropbox for Android doesn’t sync the files to the device. It only displays a list of files available. When you tap on a file, then it starts downloading the file (which takes some more time).

The whole process of syncing the APK from Desktop->Dropbox->Device takes about 2 minutes.
OK…it doesn’t sound like much, but getting the APK to the device using the USB cable takes less than 30 seconds. So I guess it’s still the cable for me. [import]uid: 70847 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 79139[/import]

#34

@ingemar

Yes you are correct is does take a few mins to complete the entire process for the upload etc. But for me I am syncing four devices…once my files get uploaded and can have it installing on all four at one time.

Plus, I just take a quick coffee break during the upload :slight_smile: [import]uid: 16527 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 79208[/import]

#35

Aha!
Now I can see your point. Having many devices installing at the same time can definitely save some time… [import]uid: 70847 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 79212[/import]

#36

I’m in UK and wasn’t able to install a file manager, but managed to get around it by going into the quickoffice app that comes with it, then internal storage and there you go, the apps installed and opened! (after putting them on the device)
So now I can build for fire and test on device. [import]uid: 47300 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 81077[/import]

#37

I can confirm that semi-transparent pixels are getting composited with black on the Fire. Imade a simple demo of a solid whit .png sitting on a white background.

Setting its opacity to 0.5 will make it grey on the device. It works correctly in the simulator.

Glad to hear that it might only be isolated to the Fire. About to test the Nook now…

EDIT: I can confirm that it happens on the Nook Tablet as well. When I go to build for either of those, I can only choose Android 2.2. Perhaps that is the issue as apparently the issue doesn’t happen with 2.3? More testing! :wink: [import]uid: 8444 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 82655[/import]

#38

Hi firemaplegames, thanks for the confirmation about the alpha pixels on Fire. I thought I was the only one who noticed it. [import]uid: 99244 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 82750[/import]

#39

The alpha issue is a big issue for me in my current app. I have a lot of transparency and it only looks odd on my fire. Glad I am not alone. I am also seeing the old RotationLeft bug again, my app flips just fine on iOS hardware but on my fire it wont flip over.

Are there bug cases for these at ansca that we can raise up the priority list? [import]uid: 110373 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 90033[/import]

#40

A bug report has already been written up for the alpha issue and it is flagged top priority. We expect to address it within the next 2 weeks.

The rotation issue was fixed in the release version. See the following thread for more details…
https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/10/20/android-device-rotation-doesnt-work-starting-build-2011641 [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 17896 reply_id: 90282[/import]