Web, ecommerce & Android app development for Watford

Why choose New Media Aid?
We develop complex web apps, Android apps and ecommerce websites and have provided low cost, bespoke app development services since the year 2000 - only 20 miles from Watford, Hertfordshire. The development cost of a bespoke Android app, web app or ecommerce website for organisations in Hertfordshire will usually be between £2,000 and £5,000.

We develop bespoke, responsive, mobile-friendly web apps and e-commerce websites as well as cutting-edge Android apps for organisations ranging from multi-national blue chip organisations to SMEs in Watford, Hertfordshire.

We keep abreast of all the latest trends and technologies in web app development, ecommerce website design and bespoke Android app development to make sure we offer the most advanced, secure and robust application solutions for our clients in Watford, Hertfordshire.

Useless fact
As well as being the distance in miles from Watford to our app development office in Hitchin, 20 is also the constant value for the TRIM_MEMORY_UI_HIDDEN level - Constant Value: 20 (0x00000014) - of the onTrimMemory method called when the Android operating system has determined that it is a good time for a process to trim unneeded memory from its process. We implement the onTrimMemory method to incrementally release memory when there is not enough memory to keep as many background processes running as desired. (Android.content.ComponentCallbacks2).


Useful Android app developers term of the day: Palette

The Android Palette library is a library provided by Google that allows developers to extract colors from images. With this library, developers can analyze an image and extract prominent colors to use in their app's UI. The Palette library provides a simple API that allows developers to access the extracted colors, including the dominant color, vibrant color, and muted color.

Using the Palette library, developers can create visually appealing UIs that are more closely tied to the content of their app. For example, an app that displays images could use the Palette library to extract the dominant colors from each image and use those colors as the background color for the image view.

To use the Palette library, developers can include the library as a dependency in their project, create a Palette instance using the static Palette.from() method, and then call one of the available color extraction methods on the Palette instance, such as generate(), generateAsync(), or generateAsync(Bitmap, PaletteAsyncListener).

Overall, the Android Palette library is a powerful tool for developers who want to create visually appealing apps that are closely tied to the content of their app.


The Android Palette library is a part of the Android Support Library that allows developers to extract prominent colors from an image. This library provides a simple API to extract colors from images dynamically in the application. Developers can use the extracted colors to style the user interface of their app or to create a custom theme.

The Palette library analyzes the image and extracts colors from it using various algorithms. The extracted colors can be divided into two categories: vibrant and muted. The vibrant colors are usually more saturated and are suitable for primary branding elements. The muted colors are softer and can be used as secondary colors or for background elements.

To use the Palette library, developers need to add the following dependency in their app's build.gradle file:

implementation 'androidx.palette:palette:1.0.0'

Once the library is added, developers can create a Palette object by passing an image to it:

Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.image); Palette palette = Palette.from(bitmap).generate();

The Palette object provides various methods to extract colors from the image. For example, to get the dominant color of the image, developers can use the following code:

less
int dominantColor = palette.getDominantColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.default_color));

The getDominantColor() method returns the dominant color of the image or the default color if no dominant color is found.

Developers can also extract vibrant and muted colors using the following methods:

less
int vibrantColor = palette.getVibrantColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.default_color)); int mutedColor = palette.getMutedColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.default_color));

Overall, the Android Palette library provides an easy and efficient way for developers to extract colors from images and use them in their applications.



Crimes reported in Watford
Our custom app development prices are criminally low, but not as criminal as these events recently reported in Watford.

Why are we showing recent crimes in Watford Hertfordshire?
We are showing a few example crimes for Watford reported in Oct 2024 to demonstrate how we can integrate data from external web service APIs. As expert software engineers we specialise in developing complex bespoke web apps which integrate with other cloud-based systems and data-sets!

bicycle theft
  • Watford Junction (station) (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Parking Area (Under investigation)
  • Ley Farm Close (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Supermarket (Under investigation)
burglary
  • Purbrock Avenue (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Molteno Road (Under investigation)
  • Leavesden Road (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Orphanage Road (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
criminal damage arson
  • Brocklesbury Close (Under investigation)
  • Supermarket (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Wells Yard (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Under investigation)
  • Osborne Road (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
drugs
  • Almond Close (Under investigation)
  • Theatre/concert Hall (Under investigation)
  • Supermarket (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Local resolution)
  • Theatre/concert Hall (Under investigation)
other theft
  • Wellington Road (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Under investigation)
  • Gaumont Approach (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Under investigation)
  • Nightclub (Under investigation)
possession of weapons
  • Nightclub (Unable to prosecute suspect)
  • Watford Junction (station) (Under investigation)
public order
  • Nightclub (Under investigation)
  • Ebury Road (Under investigation)
  • Verulam Passage (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Unable to prosecute suspect)
  • Watford Junction (station) (Under investigation)
robbery
  • Peace Drive (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Supermarket (Awaiting court outcome)
  • Verulam Passage (Under investigation)
  • Theatre/concert Hall (Under investigation)
shoplifting
  • Shopping Area (Under investigation)
  • Supermarket (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Shopping Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Supermarket (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Under investigation)
theft from the person
  • Parking Area (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Under investigation)
  • Loates Lane (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • A412 (Under investigation)
  • Shopping Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
vehicle crime
  • Maple Close (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Rosslyn Road (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Oakdene Road (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • Lord Street (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
violent crime
  • Link Road (Under investigation)
  • Parking Area (Under investigation)
  • Bus/coach Station (Under investigation)
  • Station Road (Under investigation)
  • Further/higher Educational Building (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
other crime
  • Norbury Avenue (Under investigation)
  • Stanmore Road (Under investigation)
  • The Harebreaks (Investigation complete; no suspect identified)
  • St Albans Road (Under investigation)
  • The Harebreaks (Under investigation)
We are only 20 miles from Watford