Any experts on XML parsing in Android here?

People have asked me to add a function to Phone Schedule that would allow users to back up and import their schedules to and from a file. I'm currently working on it and have a question about XML parsing, particularly about the behavior of XmlPullParser on API11+ and pre-API11 versions of Android. I've published it on StackOverflow and set a bounty of 50 reputation points on it. They can be yours if you can help me figure this one out. All help is greatly appreciated.

Performance measurement and improvement in Android.

I just stumbled upon a great article "Android performance case study" by Romain Guy about how you can measure and improve your Android app's performance. A very interesting reading, I already knew about some of the tools, but some were new to me. I strongly recommend it to all Android developers.

I used method profiling in the past to explore some problem areas and managed to significantly reduce CPU usage by PhoneSchedule.  What tools do you use to measure your app's performance? What performance improvement tips and tricks have you discovered?

Stackoverflow.com

I've been spending a lot of time on stackoverflow.com lately, asking and answering questions. In case if you've never heard of it, it's a great Q&A resource for developers, you can find answers to pretty much any question you might have about software engineering and related topics. And today I broke 1000 reputation point (yay!). I guess it's time to put a piece of flair somewhere here to show off :)

  A user has left this comment to Phone Schedule a couple of days ago:

  It's good to know that Phone Schedule can not only switch WiFi, brightness and ringer modes for you, but also improve your health! :)

Phone Schedule 1.3.1 released.

Last sunday i have released Phone Schedule 1.3.1. What's new:
- Mobile Data ON/OFF on all Android versions(in 1.3 only Andnroid 2.3+ supported data switching)
- Reminder action(released in 1.3)
- Multiple bug fixes and UI improvements

First month download statistics.

April has come, which means it's time to review first month download statistics of Phone Schedule. I've uploaded it to Google Play late night March 10th. And during the week after that I've submitted it to some alternative app markets, most of which have approved Phone Schedule by now. Most, but not all, which I'm going to elaborate on a little bit later. OK, so the stats! Data is as of yesterday, April 2, 2012. The number represents total number of downloads. If a marketplace shows active downloads as well, i put this number in brackets.

Google Play	3002 total (1650 active)
Slideme.org	436
apps.opera.com / handster.com	133
dev.appia.com / handango.com	114
getjar.com	103
mobango.com	75
esdn.ws	42
handheld.softpedia.com	18
androidpit.com	17(11)
appoke.com	2
aproov.com	1
soc.io	0
samsungapps.com	0
mobihand.com	Can't find number of downloads
softonic.com	Pending review
developer.verizon.com	pending review

So as you can see, these last two are still pending review, even though i uploaded them more than three weeks ago. Phone Schedule's status hasn't seen any updates in Verizon's app store for exactly three weeks, i'm not sure if it is actually supposed to take so much time. But anyways, this is certainly no reason to get upset :) Especially since several tech blogs have written about Phone Schedule, which was a total surprise for me. A pleasant one, of course. These articles have brought the vast majority of downloads on Google Play, for which i would like to thank you guys!

Make it bright and hear some music ;)

I have just uploaded Phone Schedule 1.2.1 to Google Play and will shortly upload it to alternative android markets. The update should shortly become available to devices out there. What is new in this version:

• new BLUETOOTH permission, which is required to switch Bluetooth on several Samsung phone models, including Samsung Galaxy S 2. This caused a lot of crashes in recent days, sorry about that.
• several crash situations fixed and overall improved crash handling
• NEW! Screen Brightness! (Auto, Full, Custom)
• NEW! Launch an app! - A tool with a great potential, i have very high hopes for it. Say you want to wake up no to the annoying sound of your built-in alarm, but to your favorite internet radio station. So what you do is select a desired internet radio app from the list(you need to first have it installed on your phone) and that's it! App will automatically launch at a given time.

Please note:
You must realize, however, that launching an app does not guarantee that that app will do what you expect it to do. Once launched, it may not do anything at all. If you want your music app to start playing music, make sure it automatically starts playing music when started. Some apps have this option in their settings, some don't have it at all.
One thing i can say is, i've tried this with Pandora and it works great! Now I wake up to music =)

UPDATE: I've just updated Phone Schedule to 1.2.2, because sorting of the app list would sometimes cause the device to freeze. Moved all the resource-consuming computation in the background thread.