Re: [android-developers] ICS Active Stylus/Pen Support

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Andrew Hughes <ashughes@gmail.com> wrote:
> It would also be helpful if active pen support could be listed as a
> "uses-feature" in the Manifest to use Market filters to keep applications
> that require active pen support from being installed on devices that don't
> support it. (I believe HTC has a uses-feature descriptor called
> "android.hardware.touchscreen.pen" that they recommend to be used with their
> OpenSenseSDK, but it is not listed as an official uses-feature, despite its
> android namespace).

IMHO, this makes sense. However, this sort of thing may not be added
to the platform for some time, after a few major device manufacturers
start offering active pens and there's a clear industry direction
towards having active pens. For example, front-facing cameras were not
supported by Android until a few device manufacturers started rolling
out FFC devices (with their own approaches for developer access to
such cameras) and it was pretty clear most devices would eventually
support FFC.

Device manufacturers could independently endorse a convention, akin to
android.hardware.touchscreen.pen, which might well speed platform
adoption. I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for such
cooperation.

--
Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)
http://commonsware.com | http://github.com/commonsguy
http://commonsware.com/blog | http://twitter.com/commonsguy

Android 3.1 Programming Books: http://commonsware.com/books

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