Just wanted to let you all know that we've added a new article to the Develop area of the MOTODEV Android site. When I was learning Android development, not so long ago, I found a sample application I liked - WhereAreMyFriends by Reto Meier - and thought you might like it too. You may have heard of Reto, but in case you haven't, he's an Android developer advocate at Google in the UK and the author of Professional Android Application Development.

It's a good sample application to look at early on, because it uses GPS, the Android Contacts application, and Google Maps. So I got it installed on Android SDK 1.5, using Eclipse with the Google ADT, and shared with you how I did it.

Reto has a tutorial walkthrough explaining the code. The code has changed a bit since the tutorial was written. Briefly, the sample uses a LocationManager to find your current location, pulls data about your friends' fixed locations from the Contacts app using android.provider.Contacts, and then displays your location relative to your friends on a map. (Of course, it would be cool if the application tracked your friends' locations in real time, but hey, this is a getting started example.)

Of course, you'll want to work through the Android tutorials Google provides, such as Hello World, Hello Views, and Notepad. But WhereAreMyFriends is a good example that combines some of the features you may want to use in commercial applications.

We hope you like it.