diff --git a/packages/core/application/application-common.ts b/packages/core/application/application-common.ts
index 30412a3f5..9b0a702b6 100644
--- a/packages/core/application/application-common.ts
+++ b/packages/core/application/application-common.ts
@@ -97,11 +97,6 @@ interface ApplicationEvents {
 	 */
 	on(event: 'livesync', callback: (args: ApplicationEventData) => void, thisArg?: any): void;
 
-	/**
-	 * This event is raised when application css is changed.
-	 */
-	on(event: 'cssChanged', callback: (args: CssChangedEventData) => void, thisArg?: any): void;
-
 	/**
 	 * This event is raised on application launchEvent.
 	 */
diff --git a/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-common.ts b/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-common.ts
index 798727dd3..029fc8807 100644
--- a/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-common.ts
+++ b/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-common.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export class ImageAssetBase extends Observable implements ImageAssetDefinition {
 	}
 
 	set options(value: ImageAssetOptions) {
-		this._options = value;
+		this._options = normalizeImageAssetOptions(value);
 	}
 
 	get nativeImage(): any {
@@ -35,6 +35,35 @@ export class ImageAssetBase extends Observable implements ImageAssetDefinition {
 	}
 }
 
+function toPositiveInt(value: any): number {
+	if (value == null) {
+		return 0;
+	}
+	if (typeof value === 'number') {
+		return value > 0 ? Math.floor(value) : 0;
+	}
+	if (typeof value === 'string') {
+		const parsed = parseInt(value, 10);
+		return isNaN(parsed) || parsed <= 0 ? 0 : parsed;
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
+function normalizeImageAssetOptions(options: ImageAssetOptions): ImageAssetOptions {
+	const normalized = options ? { ...options } : ({} as ImageAssetOptions);
+	// Coerce potential string values to positive integers; fallback to 0
+	// to trigger default sizing downstream
+	(normalized as any).width = toPositiveInt((options as any)?.width);
+	(normalized as any).height = toPositiveInt((options as any)?.height);
+	if (typeof normalized.keepAspectRatio !== 'boolean') {
+		normalized.keepAspectRatio = true;
+	}
+	if (typeof normalized.autoScaleFactor !== 'boolean') {
+		normalized.autoScaleFactor = true;
+	}
+	return normalized;
+}
+
 export function getAspectSafeDimensions(sourceWidth, sourceHeight, reqWidth, reqHeight) {
 	const widthCoef = sourceWidth / reqWidth;
 	const heightCoef = sourceHeight / reqHeight;
@@ -47,8 +76,9 @@ export function getAspectSafeDimensions(sourceWidth, sourceHeight, reqWidth, req
 }
 
 export function getRequestedImageSize(src: { width: number; height: number }, options: ImageAssetOptions): { width: number; height: number } {
-	let reqWidth = options.width || Math.min(src.width, Screen.mainScreen.widthPixels);
-	let reqHeight = options.height || Math.min(src.height, Screen.mainScreen.heightPixels);
+	const normalized = normalizeImageAssetOptions(options);
+	let reqWidth = normalized.width || Math.min(src.width, Screen.mainScreen.widthPixels);
+	let reqHeight = normalized.height || Math.min(src.height, Screen.mainScreen.heightPixels);
 
 	if (options && options.keepAspectRatio) {
 		const safeAspectSize = getAspectSafeDimensions(src.width, src.height, reqWidth, reqHeight);
diff --git a/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-options.spec.ts b/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-options.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d7a10649f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core/image-asset/image-asset-options.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import { getRequestedImageSize } from './image-asset-common';
+
+describe('ImageAssetOptions normalization', () => {
+	it('coerces string width/height to numbers', () => {
+		const src = { width: 2000, height: 1500 };
+		const result = getRequestedImageSize(src as any, { width: '300' as any, height: '200' as any, keepAspectRatio: false, autoScaleFactor: true } as any);
+		expect(result.width).toBe(300);
+		expect(result.height).toBe(200);
+	});
+
+	it('falls back to defaults when invalid strings provided', () => {
+		const src = { width: 800, height: 600 };
+		const result = getRequestedImageSize(src as any, { width: 'abc' as any, height: '' as any, keepAspectRatio: false } as any);
+		// should fall back to screen pixel defaults via getRequestedImageSize, but since
+		// we cannot easily control Screen.mainScreen here, we at least assert they are > 0
+		expect(result.width).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+		expect(result.height).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+	});
+
+	it('respects keepAspectRatio by adjusting to safe dimensions', () => {
+		const src = { width: 2000, height: 1000 };
+		const result = getRequestedImageSize(src as any, { width: '500' as any, height: '500' as any, keepAspectRatio: true } as any);
+		// current implementation scales using the smaller coefficient (min), so expect 1000x500
+		expect(result.width).toBe(1000);
+		expect(result.height).toBe(500);
+	});
+});
diff --git a/packages/core/platforms/android/widgets-release.aar b/packages/core/platforms/android/widgets-release.aar
index c9fc4e1f5..b0cb2cd98 100644
Binary files a/packages/core/platforms/android/widgets-release.aar and b/packages/core/platforms/android/widgets-release.aar differ
diff --git a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/build.gradle b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/build.gradle
index e7cd8d342..3cb150366 100644
--- a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/build.gradle
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ buildscript {
         mavenCentral()
     }
     dependencies {
-        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.1.0'
+        // Updated for Java 21 compatibility via Gradle 8.4
+        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:8.3.2'
 
         // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
         // in the individual module build.gradle files
diff --git a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 41dfb8790..e411586a5 100644
--- a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.4-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-bin.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/build.gradle b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/build.gradle
index a17206f3d..1208c04a1 100644
--- a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/build.gradle
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ def isWinOs = System.properties['os.name'].toLowerCase().contains('windows')
 
 apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
 
-def computeCompileSdkVersion () {
+def computeCompileSdkValue () {
     if(project.hasProperty("compileSdk")) {
         return compileSdk
     }
@@ -15,15 +15,6 @@ def computeCompileSdkVersion () {
     }
 }
 
-def computeBuildToolsVersion() {
-    if(project.hasProperty("buildToolsVersion")) {
-        return buildToolsVersion
-    }
-    else {
-        return "32.0.0"
-    }
-}
-
 def computeTargetSdkVersion() {
     if(project.hasProperty("targetSdk")) {
         return targetSdk
@@ -34,12 +25,13 @@ def computeTargetSdkVersion() {
 }
 
 android {
-    compileSdkVersion computeCompileSdkVersion()
-    buildToolsVersion computeBuildToolsVersion()
+    // AGP 8 DSL: use 'compileSdk' and specify namespace
+    compileSdk computeCompileSdkValue()
+    namespace "org.nativescript.widgets"
 
     defaultConfig {
-        minSdkVersion 17
-        targetSdkVersion computeTargetSdkVersion()
+        minSdk 17
+        targetSdk computeTargetSdkVersion()
         versionCode 1
         versionName "1.0"
     }
diff --git a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/src/main/java/org/nativescript/widgets/Utils.java b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/src/main/java/org/nativescript/widgets/Utils.java
index d32fed9f4..29a3da916 100644
--- a/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/src/main/java/org/nativescript/widgets/Utils.java
+++ b/packages/ui-mobile-base/android/widgets/src/main/java/org/nativescript/widgets/Utils.java
@@ -170,6 +170,36 @@ public class Utils {
 		boolean autoScaleFactor;
 	}
 
+	private static int parsePositiveInt(JSONObject object, String key) {
+		if (object == null || key == null) {
+			return 0;
+		}
+		try {
+			if (!object.has(key) || object.isNull(key)) {
+				return 0;
+			}
+			Object value = object.get(key);
+			if (value instanceof Number) {
+				int parsed = (int) Math.floor(((Number) value).doubleValue());
+				return parsed > 0 ? parsed : 0;
+			}
+			if (value instanceof String) {
+				String s = ((String) value).trim();
+				if (s.length() == 0) {
+					return 0;
+				}
+				try {
+					int parsed = Integer.parseInt(s);
+					return parsed > 0 ? parsed : 0;
+				} catch (NumberFormatException ignored) {
+					return 0;
+				}
+			}
+		} catch (JSONException ignored) {
+		}
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	private static final Executor executors = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
 
 
@@ -297,8 +327,9 @@ public class Utils {
 
 					try {
 						JSONObject object = new JSONObject(options);
-						opts.width = object.optInt("width", 0);
-						opts.height = object.optInt("height", 0);
+						// Coerce numeric strings or numbers; fallback to 0 for invalid values
+						opts.width = parsePositiveInt(object, "width");
+						opts.height = parsePositiveInt(object, "height");
 						opts.keepAspectRatio = object.optBoolean("keepAspectRatio", true);
 						opts.autoScaleFactor = object.optBoolean("autoScaleFactor", true);
 					} catch (JSONException ignored) {
diff --git a/packages/ui-mobile-base/build.android.sh b/packages/ui-mobile-base/build.android.sh
index 64401f524..2c58a8c94 100755
--- a/packages/ui-mobile-base/build.android.sh
+++ b/packages/ui-mobile-base/build.android.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,33 @@ set -e
 echo "Use dumb gradle terminal"
 export TERM=dumb
 
+# Prefer running with JDK 21 for Gradle 8.4+/AGP 8.3+
+if [ "$(uname)" = "Darwin" ]; then
+  # On macOS, prefer JDK 21, fall back to JDK 17
+  if /usr/libexec/java_home -v 21 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21)
+    export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH"
+    echo "Using Java (21) at $JAVA_HOME"
+    java -version 2>&1 | head -n 1
+  elif /usr/libexec/java_home -v 17 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 17)
+    export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH"
+    echo "Using Java (17) at $JAVA_HOME"
+    java -version 2>&1 | head -n 1
+  else
+    echo "Warning: JDK 21 or 17 not found via /usr/libexec/java_home. Using current JAVA_HOME: ${JAVA_HOME:-unset}"
+    java -version 2>&1 || true
+    echo "Install JDK 21 (preferred) or JDK 17."
+  fi
+else
+  # Non-macOS: print Java version for visibility
+  if command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Detected Java runtime: $(java -version 2>&1 | head -n 1)"
+  else
+    echo "Warning: 'java' not found on PATH. Build will likely fail."
+  fi
+fi
+
 rm -rf dist/package/platforms/android || true
 mkdir -p dist/package/platforms/android