title: Android: trouble with bindService() -> service is null
body: <p>I'm having a problem with binding service to an activity. I get playing_service==null. I can't find what I'm doing wrong. Why is playing_service null??</p>
  
  <p><strong>MyActivity class:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>private playService playing_service=null;
  
  private ServiceConnection service_conn=new ServiceConnection(){
      public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) {
          LocalBinder binder=(LocalBinder)service;
          playing_service=binder.getService();
      }
      public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) {
          // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
      }
  };
  
  public void playTrack(View view){       
          Intent i=new Intent(this,playService.class);
          i.setAction("com.c0dehunter.soundrelaxer.PLAY");
          bindService(i,service_conn,Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
  
          if(playing_service==null) //here I get true,
               //if I try to access playing_service I get NullPointerException
  
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>playService class:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>private final IBinder binder=new LocalBinder();
  
  public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId){       
       return 1; //dummy
  }
  
  @Override
  public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
      // TODO Auto-generated method stub
      return binder;
  }
  
  public class LocalBinder extends Binder{
      public playService getService(){
          return playService.this;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>