I think there is a fairly easily implemented solution to the problem of device and OS diversification. I've been using this myself for months and it works very well.
For "Radar Now!" I've established a "beta" test community of users who have volunteered to try out new versions of the app and even new apps that haven't been released to the market. It's been an invaluable tool to diagnose and correct problems before they become a string of one star "FC, sucks! uninstall" comments in the market. The way I established this community was to add a line at the bottom of the help text that comes up the first time a user runs the app: "Beta Testers Needed!" Approximately one out of 1000 active users has joined the beta community, around 80 at this moment. They have every possible combination of device and OS there is, including cyanogen. Users who have a problem will report it back via e-mail and if the problem can't be solved by their description, they use SendLog to send me the log of their session. I post the beta on the Radarnow.net website, which has logging switched on to help debugging. Official Android Beta User Community What would be a really great addition to the Android developer community would be the establishment of an official beta user community. This could take the form of a Google Group, one for each app, with the app itself in the files section. I'm sure there would be thousands of users who would volunteer to test cutting edge apps and help find problems before they become a catastrophe in the market. A little help from Google will be required to accomplish this, Google would have to: 1. Endorse the idea 2. Add some sort of language to the market asking people to volunteer 3. Add a check box to the developer console to opt in for a particular app 4. Add some code to the market so when an app becomes part of this program, the group is created There may be some other considerations for Google but I think the minor work involved would greatly ease the minds and hearts of developers around the world without the pocketbook to go out and buy 20+ devices and sign up for the services they require. -John Coryat "Radar Now!" "What Zip Code?" -also posted in the Android Developers
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