Canada Trip

After attending Google I/O 2016, I went to Canada for a weeks of vacation. Celine and I went to Centennial Beach, Vancouver Aquarium, Stanley Park, VanDusen Botanical Garden, White Rock Beach and Pier, Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Sun Yat-Sen Park and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, TELUS World of Science, and International Summer Night Market.

Centennial Beach

Celine's family celebrated Victoria Day at Centennial Beach and Boundary Bay Regional Park in Delta, BC.

Vancouver Aquarium, Stanley Park

We went to Vancouver Aquarium. It was great to visit there before we watch Pixar's Finding Dory. Aside from seeing fishes, beluga, whale, and other marine animals, we got to touch live stingrays in the Discover Rays Touch Pool.

After visiting the Vancouver Aquarium, we walked around at Stanley Park.

VanDusen Botanical Garden

Celine and I also went to VanDusen Botanical Garden, a 22-hectare garden in the center of Vancouver. It contains 7,500 unique species and varieties of plants arranged in 50 distinct living collections.

White Rock Beach and Pier

Psych is a TV series that Celine and her family loved. Most of it was shot in White Rock, BC. We went to White Rock Beach and Pier to check out the place. I still haven't watched any episodes yet when we went there but I did start watching after.

White Rock Museum and Archives, the Psych office

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park

Celine and her siblings have been to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and she highly recommend that we go there. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a simple suspension bridge crossing the Capilano River in the District of North Vancouver.

We took the free shuttle service from Downtown to Capilano. We joined the guided tour of Story Centre and Kiapilano Totem Poles before crossing the suspension bridge. On the other side of the bridge, we walked in the Rainforest Exhibit, Treetops Adventure, and the Nature's Edge Boardwalk. After crossing back the bridge, we walked in the Cliffwalk.

Sun Yat-Sen Park and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

Celine and I went to Chinatown to visit the Sun Yat-Sen Park and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Sun Yat-Sen Park is a free public park. On the opposite side of the pond is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

TELUS World of Science

We went to TELUS World of Science. We watched the movie D-Day Normandy 1944 in Omnimax Theatre first. Afterwards, we looked around and tried the various science exhibits. We also tried the Top Secret spy game.

International Summer Night Market

We went to the nearby International Summer Night Market. Celine and I had takoyaki and okonomiyaki. We also tried Chimney for dessert.

ConstraintLayout

One of the Android announcements at Google I/O 2016 was Android Studio 2.2 Preview, which includes the New Layout Editor and Constraint Layout.

ConstraintLayout is a new powerful and flexible Android layout that allows developers to create complex UIs without nesting multiple layouts. It is available in the Android Support Library and compatible with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and up. Using the new layout editor, which was built specially for ConstraintLayout will make it easier for developers to build Android UI.

Constraints describe how a view will be positioned relative to other elements in the layout file (another view, layout edge, or invisible guideline). The different types of constraints you can use are side connection with the layout, side connection with a view, side alignment with a view, baseline alignment with a view).

To use ConstraintLayout in your Android project, you should update Android Support Repository to version 32 or higher from the SDK manager, add compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.0-alpha2' in our Gradle dependencies, and Sync Project with Gradle Files.

Create a new layout by right-clicking your res/layout folder. Select New > Layout resource file. Type "android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout" as the root element (auto-complete also works so you can type the Con... in the root element). The layout editor will then be displayed.

The New Layout Editor

The Design Mode and Blueprint Mode allows you to view the design mode, blueprint mode, or both. The https://medium.com/@jomartigcal/constraintlayout-b89f135bd537 is used for resizing the view by dragging the corners. Side Constraint Handle specifies the location of the view. The Baseline Constraint Handle aligns text fields' baselines. Constraints are visualized as arrows or lines between views or between a view and the edge of the layout. Autoconnect, when on, automatically calculates the constraints for the view you are adding in the layout. Infer constraints creates constraints for all views in a layout. Show No constraints hides the constraints while Clear Constraints delete them.

Check out the codelab at https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/constraint-layout to try and learn more about ConstraintLayout. You can also watch the Android Layouts: A New World talk at Google I/O.

Google I/O 2016: What's New for Android Developers

Google I/O 2016 was held in Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California on May 18-20. There were a lot of announcements and new stuff from the event. Here are some of the new things relevant for Android developers:

Android N Developer Preview

Preview 3 of the Android N Developer Preview is already beta-quality. Android N includes Multi-window, Direct Reply from notifications (via RemoteInput API from Android Wear), Bundled notifications, Java 8 support, Doze improvements, JIT Compiler, Vulkan, and more.

Developers can try the preview, the updated SDK, system images, and tools from developer.android.com/preview or via Android Beta. By enrolling devices to Android Beta, they can try pre-release Android versions and automatically receive OTA updates as soon as they are available.

Android N also provides high quality mobile virtual reality (VR) experience. You can use a Nexus 6P with N Preview 2 to setup a Daydream Development kit (as a headset phone). Daydream is Google's new platform for low-latency, immersive, and interactive mobile VR.

Android Studio 2.2 Preview

A big update to Android Studio was announced at I/O. This includes the New Layout Editor and Constraint Layout, Layout Inspector, Firebase Plugin, Expanded Android code analysis, Code Sample Browser, Espresso Test Recorder, APK Analyzer, Merged Manifest Viewer, and Enhanced accessibility. There's also Enhanced Jack compiler with Java 8 support and Expanded C++ support with CMake and NDK-Build.

Android Studio 2.2 is available for download in the Canary Channel.

Android Wear 2.0

The biggest update to Android Wear, Android Wear 2.0, was announced at I/O. Android Wear apps can now be standalone. There are also a number of UI changes: complications, keyboard and handwriting input methods, new notification templates. Android Wear 2.0 also include improved Google Fit platform, support for Android N, and Material Design guidelines.

You can try the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview at http://g.co/wearpreview.

What's new in Google Play

Android apps that are in open beta but aren't in production yet will soon appear on search results on Google Play and users will be able to opt-in from there. There will also be a new featured section called Google Play Early Access for these apps. Some of the other Google Play announcements include Pre-launch report (summary of issues found on a wide range of devices when alpha/beta testing your app on Firebase Test Lab for Android), Review benchmarks, review topics, Reply to Reviews API, User acquisition data by country and (soon) benchmarks compared to similar apps), and Pricing templates and price rounding.

To get your Android apps or games ready to meet the needs of billions of Android users globally (especially to those in emerging markets), they have released Building for Billions Guidelines and The Building for Billions Playbook.

Two new Play apps have also been announced: Google Play Developer Console App and Playbook by Google Play (in beta), where you can learn about the latest Android features, tips, best practices that will help you develop and launch your app, engage and grow your audience, and earn more revenue on Google Play.

Instant Apps

Instant Apps allow users to run Android apps without installations from search, social media, messaging or other deep links. It is compatible with all Android devices with Google Play services and running Jellybean (4.1) or higher. You can learn more about Instant Apps at http://g.co/instantapps .

Google Play Services 9.0

Google Play Services 9.0 include update to Ads, Nearby API, Player Stats API, and Video Recording API.

• Ads: new SDK initialization, Native Ads Express
• Nearby API: BLE beacon scanning without additional permissions, opt-in dialog connection for Nearby Messages
• Player Stats API: Predictive Analytics
• Video Recording API: add and share video recording

Android Apps on Chromebooks

Chromebooks will soon support the Google Play Store and Android apps. You can update your app so that it will be available on Chromebooks. You can read more about how to optimize your Android apps here.

Videos and Codelabs

Videos of Android-related sessions are already in YouTube. You can check this Playlist for these videos. There are also various codelabs for Android, Android Auto, Android TV, Android Wear, and more.

Google I/O 2016 Extended Roadshow

Google I/O is Google's annual developer conference, where they share the latest products and technologies. Google I/O 2016 was held in Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California on May 18-20. GDG Philippines will be bringing the I/O experience to different cities with Google I/O 2016 Extended Roadshow, a series of talks and workshops to help professional and student developers deep dive in the new technologies announced during Google I/O 2016.

The schedule for the I/O 2016 Extended Roadshow is: June 25 (Subic), July 2 (Manila), July 9-10 (Cavite), July 16 (Laguna), July 23 (Bulacan), July 29 (Palawan). There will be talks in the morning and hands-on workshops in the afternoon.

Event details are still being finalized. For updates, add GDG Philippines in your Google+ circles and check the events website at ioextended.gdgph.org