Setting Android Theme background color

Question

I'm trying to modify the default background theme color, which should be easy but surprisingly I can't get it working. Please note that I want the change to be across the entire app, not just for a single activity. Here is my code:

styles.xml

<resources>

<color name="white_opaque">#FFFFFFFF</color>
<color name="pitch_black">#FF000000</color>

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
      <item name="android:background">@color/white_opaque</item>
      <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/white_opaque</item>
      <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/white_opaque</item>

    </style>
</resources>

and of course in the manifest

  <application
     .
     .
     .
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" > 
</application>

Android doc which I consulted on modifying themes: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/themes.html

I've tried switching between white_opaque and pitch_black for all the xml attributes but it doesn't change a thing. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Okay turned out that I made a really silly mistake. The device I am using for testing is running Android 4.0.4, API level 15.

The styles.xml file that I was editing is in the default values folder. I edited the styles.xml in values-v14 folder and it works all fine now.

Answer 2

<resources>

    <!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.NoActionBar">
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/black</item>
    </style>

</resources>