Smarterware

Earthquakes and Android Development

While last night's southern California earthquake shook up the Padres game, I was standing in a doorway downloading an Android app.

Twitter was down, the news didn't have anything yet, but I remembered Reto Meier, a Googler who did an Android talk at I/O had demo'ed an earthquake detection app. It's called Earthquake!, and it's got some very useful features, especially when you're worried about the earth cracking open and swallowing your home whole.

More screenshots inside--click to enlarge.

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Lessons from Apple on Advertising and Aesthetics

Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 yesterday in his WWDC keynote, and it's a gorgeous device with software upgrades that include multitasking, a video chat app called FaceTime, and more. I'm still a happy Android user, but I have to hand it to Apple. They continue to school the industry on aesthetics and marketing. Case in point: the FaceTime demo video.

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Android 2.2 Screenshots: My Favorite Features in Froyo

Android 2.2 (code-named "Froyo," the next alphabetical installment of dessert-named releases after Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) is now rolling out to Nexus One handsets. If you're tired of tapping and re-tapping the System Update menu item and getting nothing, you can update your N1 to 2.2 manually. Lifehacker runs down how. This method worked perfectly on my T-Mobile Nexus One, but I hear reports it does not work for the AT&T Nexus One. The manual update method does NOT work for the Droid, EVO, or any other Android handset that I know of. (Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments.)

Android 2.2 has three marquee features: built-in tethering/portable hotspot capabilities, Flash support, and noticeably sped-up JavaScript performance in the web browser. (Update: Oh yeah, there's Microsoft Exchange support, too.) There are several more subtle interface improvements as well. Perhaps my favorite is the most simple: a revamped homescreen dock, which you can see at the bottom of the screenshot here. (Click to enlarge.) It gives you one-tap access to the three things you want to get to on your phone quickly: the dialer, your apps, and your web browser. Compare this screenshot to Android 2.1's homescreen.

Come on in to see more screenshots of my favorite Froyo features.

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Introducing Todo.txt Touch: An Experimental Android App

Yesterday's post generated some interest in an Android application that manages a todo.txt file, and I've got an itch to try my hand at a mobile app. So, I've just created a skeleton Java-based Android app called Todo.txt Touch. The source code is located on GitHub, and it literally does nothing right now, except list some faux tasks from an XML file.

Goal is to get the app to read a todo.txt from Dropbox (and eventually, other configurable cloud sources), sort and list tasks by context or project (like @phone, or @grocerystore) in tabs, mark items as done and move them to the done.txt file, and sync todo.txt and done.txt back to Dropbox in the background. Right now this is just an experimental, educational undertaking; I'm not yet committed to seeing this through to completion. There are already a gazillion decent task managers for Android, and I've got a full-time job, so I'm not sure Todo.txt Touch will be a long-term thing. But, it would be awesome to do a little collaborative work and learn a bit about Android development with a very basic app that does a very simple thing right now. Interested in joining in? Fork the project and talk to us on the Todo.txt CLI mailing list.

What Android Apps I’ve Got Installed–And You?

New and aspiring Android users often ask me what apps I have installed on my Nexus One. The list changes pretty often--especially when Leo and Jeff recommend something good on TWiG--but for the most part I keep my Applications menu pared down to just the stuff I actually use.

Thanks to AppBrain, I'm now syncing my list of installed apps to the web for easy sharing and updating. Here's the complete list of what apps are installed on my phone right now. To the left you'll find a neat widget that shows their icons on a handset. Click on any icon to get more info about the app and what it does.

By publishing this list I'm coming out of the closet as cheap: not one of my apps cost anything! In my defense, I did indeed pay for the desktop version of PdaNet.

What other apps should I install or upgrade to the pay-for version? Post your suggestions--and your AppBrain list--in the comments. (Man I would love to see Leo's list!)

Switch Android Home Screens via Thumbnails

Yet another new-to-me Android 2.1 feature: tap and hold the dots on the bottom right and/or left of your home screen to see thumbnail previews of ALL the phone's screens. Tap on a thumbnail to switch to that screen, no swipe necessary.

As you can see in the screenshot, the thumbnail previews don't include wallpaper--the background is just white, for better visibility--but they do show the icon and widget layout so you can identify which screen's which. This type of screen-switching will be familiar to virtual desktop lovers, or folks who use Spaces on OS X.

Android continues to live up to its reputation as "OS by Easter Egg," Jeff Jarvis' description . If you don't want to have to hunt down every egg yourself, here's Android 2.1's best features in screenshots.

How to Tether Your Android Phone

There are three ways to tether your Android handset and get sweet internet love even where there's no Wi-Fi in sight: the risky-but-free method that requires serious technical skills, the still-geeky-but-not-as-bad free route, and the $30 easy way. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of each.

Method 1: Tether Android with Apps that Need Root (Free, heavy configuration)

The Android Wi-Fi Tether application turns your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot--essentially a MiFi--in one tap. The catch? You have to gain root access to your phone, a multi-step process that uses an unofficial Android add-on which can brick your phone if applied incorrectly. Rooting Android is doable for geeks and hackers with experience soft-modding hardware, but it's not something most users could (or should!) do.

If you're up for getting root access in Android, the Android and Me blog runs down how to do it. It's a multi-step process that involves unlocking your phone's bootloader, flashing a recovery image, and flashing an add-on to the default Nexus One firmware. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely doable if you've ever upgraded your router's firmware or hacked your Xbox. Here's a video of the process from Android and Me:

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Organize Android’s Home Screen Icons in Folders

Android users have a limited number of home screens on their phone (3 to 5, depending on what version you use), but folders group your home screen shortcuts into quick pop-up menus.

For example, I've got a few specific things I use on my phone when I go to the gym: a workout music playlist, a stopwatch app, my gym locker combination, a bookmark to an exercise program I'm following, and an app that tracks how far I've run. I only use these shortcuts when I'm at the gym, so I've put them all in a folder called "Gym," as shown here. When I get to the gym, I plug in my headphones, tap that folder, and everything I need to work out is there.

Here's how to create folders on your home screen to organize your Android icons.

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Android 2.1′s Best Features in Screenshots

Great software needs hardware that can keep up, and my new Nexus One is a sleek, awesome handset. But the most important ingredient in this generation of touchscreen smartphones is the software: the screen is just a canvas that software paints on, and Android 2.1 is a work of art.

Coming from the chunky G1, the thin and flat Nexus One hearkens back to my iPhone days. (It doesn't require a holster, and slid into my jeans pocket it doesn't make my thigh look too fat--it gets lots of vanity points for that.) The screen is huge and crisp; the dual noise-canceling microphones are sweet; the true headphone jack is much-appreciated, and the glowing trackball is a nice touch.

Now that that's out of the way--the best part of the Nexus One is Android 2.1. If all goes well, many existing Android users will get that update even if they don't get a new handset. After spending just a few hours with my new phone, here are a few of my favorite Android 2.1 features, in screenshots.

Click to enlarge each image to actual size (including the image of my current home screen, shown here).

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