 <p>Credit: To Mark. Thanks!</p> <p>Problem: Display a Progress Indicator when your application is busy doing some work</p> <p>Approach:</p> <pre><code>public class Approach extends ListActivity { ProgressDialog myProgressDialog = null; ListView myList = null; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); myList = getListView(); myProgressDialog = ProgressDialog.show(getParent(), "Please wait...", "Doing extreme calculations...", true); //Do some calculations myProgressDialog.dismiss(); } } </code></pre> <p>There are a few challenges (like updating some UI elements). You might want to spawn a different thread to do your calculations if needed. </p> <p>Also, if you are interested in this, you might be interested in Matt's approach too: <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1138809/android-showing-indeterminate-progress-bar-in-tabhost-activity">android-showing-indeterminate-progress-bar-in-tabhost-activity</a></p>