Posts Filed Under ‘Android’
January 5th, 2010, 6 comments
BillShrink hits it out of the park with a handy infographic which compares the cost and features of the current generation of smartphones: the Nexus One, the Palm Pre, the Motorola Droid, and the iPhone 3GS.
Looking at this you realize 1.) there's no clear winner in the bunch feature-wise and 2.) we all spend a ridiculous amount of money on mobile phones and service. My only nitpick with this chart is that the T-Mobile/Nexus One "Average Usage" plan should be listed at $79.99 a month, not $89.99 (unless they're counting taxes and fees). Update: BillShrink has updated this graphic to correct prices. Head inside and click to enlarge the big picture to check it out.
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Nexus One Flash Impressions
January 5th, 2010, 7 comments
Google announced the Nexus One phone today, which is on sale from Google here. My current contract is up, I'm sick of living with Edge, and I don't want to depend on good enough data coverage for Skype, so I bought one with the T-Mobile plan. As a former iPhone user and soon-to-be-former G1 user, I'm excited about getting a thin and light phone with replaceable battery and a true headphone jack. I'm a huge fan of the trackball in general, so I'm loving that the Nexus One's trackball doubles as a notification system; however, I do fear I'll miss the G1's awesome flip-out keyboard more than "never." I mostly use my smartphone to email/text/Twitter, so I'm looking forward to speaking email with voice input, multiple Gmail account and Undo support. More Nexus One goodness as I discover it... now, to wait for FedEx.
A Case for the Unsubsidized Nexus One
January 4th, 2010, 7 comments
I'm pretty excited about the launch of the Nexus One tomorrow (even though in Engadget's video demo Android's schmancy new Live wallpaper process crashes, see minute 4:09). Since my AT&T contract is up I'm planning on getting one along with a new two-year T-Mobile contract. Even though I hate getting locked into another contract, dropping almost $500 on an unsubsidized phone felt like a little too much. However, it looks like the phone plus a data-only T-Mobile plan might just be cheaper in the long run (provided you're ok with being dependent on a paid Skype account). Here are the numbers.
Gizmodo’s Essential Android Apps
December 11th, 2009, 1 comment
A solid list of 30 good Android apps. While I don't have all of these installed, there are a ton of my personal picks here. (Downloading the Evernote Android beta now, which is not yet in the Market.)
December 10th, 2009, 7 comments
VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin--you know, the guy who invented the spreadsheet--has delved into mobile development and released his first iPhone/iPod touch application, Note Taker. Rather than use keyboard, in Note Taker you jot notes using the tip of your finger on your touchscreen as if it were a pen on an index card. (See my bad handwriting in Note Taker in the screenshot here.) Note Taker looks and sounds more awkward than it actually is: the application employs some nifty interface mechanisms that make it easy to write long sentences across your screen. For example, it scrolls right while you jot without requiring swiping, and it shrinks your words to a legible version for reading while you write. Note Taker doesn't do text recognition, but you can transcribe jotted notes using the keyboard. (Update: You could also just email your Note Taker image to Evernote to do the recognition for you.) This app isn't for folks who are comfortable typing on the iPhone keyboard and have terrible handwriting, but it is for folks who like to sketch, mind-map, or list without fat-fingering small keys. You just write the way you normally would on a notepad.
My favorite part about this app is the fact that it comes from a giant in personal computing, who, after 30+ years in the business, is still motivated enough to pick up a book, learn a new platform, and release software. Bricklin explains:
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Matt Haughey on the Droid
December 8th, 2009, 7 comments
One of my internet heroes Matt Haughey spends four hours with a Motorola Droid as a totally new user and doesn't have very many good things to say about the experience. A few of Matt's complaints are just a matter of his not being used to the interface, which is to be expected on any new mobile platform. (I didn't know how to remove apps from the iPhone home screen until I'd had the phone for awhile, either.) However, many of his points are valid. Android's got a long way to go if it leaves a savvy user like Matt frustrated. I'll be interested to see what Matt has to say after four WEEKS of using the Droid.
December 8th, 2009, 4 comments
Right now, Android is the phone OS you want only if your whole life is already tied up in your Google account. All of Android's can't-get-this-anywhere-else applications are made by Google. Android's Gmail client, Google Voice, Google Goggles, Google Maps, and even Google Sky and Google Listen are Android applications that either have no exact parallel on other platforms like the iPhone, or do things that their counterparts on other platforms can't match. Let's break this down.
Android's Gmail client is one of the two primary reasons why I went Android. If you live in Gmail in the browser, you'll swear by the fact that the Android Gmail client supports threaded conversations, labels, muting conversations, marking as spam--all the advanced Gmail goodness you get in the native webapp. The second primary app I use Android for is Google Voice. Being able to text via Google Voice for free as if it were the phone's native SMS application and get voicemail transcription in-app is awesome.* Beyond the Gmail/Google Voice two-punch, Google Maps gets updates on Android faster than on the iPhone or anywhere else, like turn-by-turn directions and What's Nearby. Finally, the brand new Google Goggles app looks like a search application I will use as often as search-by-voice.
The question is: where are the standout, can't-get-this-anywhere-else THIRD-PARTY Android apps?
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December 7th, 2009, 1 comment
Today Google releases a new search-by-picture Android application called Google Goggles. You point your cameraphone at a product, landmark, logo, book or DVD, business card, or storefront, take a photo, and Goggles returns search results related to that photo. While I love the idea of the app, in practice Goggles is pretty slow to analyze a photo and return results, at least on my G1--and the results are hit-or-miss. I snapped photos of an Xbox 360 controller, a copy of Moby Dick, a bottle of Mucinex and a box of Sudafed (hey, I'm sick today). Goggles turned up information about Moby Dick and Sudafed instantly, but choked on the Xbox controller and the Mucinex. Download Goggles for free by searching for it in the Android Market, or check out the explainer video about Goggles here.
September 15th, 2009, 10 comments
I'm not dead. I've just moved into a new place where there is no internet connection yet, which is the equivalent of dead when you work and live online. Up until now I've resisted "rooting" my Android phone because I didn't want to go down the iPhone jailbreak road. (A major reason I have Android is so I don't have to jailbreak my device to get it to do something interesting!) But desperate times call for desperate measures. Living somewhere with no computer internet connection is a really good reason to root your Android phone. With a rooted phone, you can tether your Android device to your computer and get some internet love wherever you are. (There are quite a few other good reasons to root Android, too, not the least of which is speed boosts and early Donut access.)
If you're paying attention and reading the instructions, the rooting process isn't that difficult. I made the mistake of trying this out without my phone's USB cable (which was still packed away in some box) and in a loud sports bar during the first Chargers game of the season, with one eye on my screen and the other on my beer. Things didn't go so well. This morning I was able to finish up the process and get tethering working just fine. Here's what (and what NOT) to do when you root your Android phone.
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Import Facebook Phone Numbers into Your Google Contacts
August 23rd, 2009, 3 comments
Android users with Facebook friends who list their phone number in their profiles will love this: Brad Fitzpatrick offers a Greasemonkey script that exports those phone numbers to AddressBookr and offers to add/merge them into your Google Contacts. Even though this was posted last November, I just gave it a test run and it worked like a charm. Thanks, Nick!
One Way Android Can Become Viable
August 19th, 2009, 8 comments
Apple guy John Gruber knocks it out of the park with this thoughtful piece on what he calls "the Android opportunity": his take on what Android can to do in order to become a viable alternative to the iPhone for technologists. Two points I couldn't agree with more: Android has to run on decent hardware (preferably a handset Google designs) and better exploit its advantages over the iPhone (like over-the-air Google apps sync, which beats MobileMe any day and is one of the main reasons I use Android). Yes, yes, and yes. Like Gruber, I really hope Google makes this play, because competition is good. Also, people will stop saying to me, "so you really like Android more than the iPhone? Really?"
Why It’s Hard to Love Android
August 4th, 2009, 18 comments
Tom Insam lists all the valid reasons he thinks it's hard to love Android on the HTC G1 (the handset I have), including slow performance, a bad music-listening experience, fewer apps, and a less-than-responsive keyboard. I'd add the G1's terrible battery life and lack of a headphone jack to the list. For the record, I love Android the operating system and think it has great potential. However, I can't wait for it to show up on better handsets than the G1.
Apple Blocks Official Google Voice App, Pulls GV Mobile from App Store
July 27th, 2009, 7 comments
TechCrunch got this headline just right: Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store. The second half was originally "and It's Likely AT&T's Fault." Apple's withheld approval of the official Google Voice application and pulled the unofficial GV Mobile app on the grounds that they "duplicate iPhone functionality." If TechCrunch is right, once the AT&T exclusive deal is done, this will likely change. Until then, as more Google Voice invites go out, Android, BlackBerry, and even Palm and Windows Mobile are looking like much more useful (read: open) mobile platforms.
July 15th, 2009, 5 comments
For an solution built by an independent developer without an API, GV did a great job of putting Google Voice on Android. But today GOOG finally got around to releasing their official Google Voice app, and it includes a few more features than GV, even if it's not totally polished yet. I'm still getting my feet wet with the new app, and GV developer Evan Charlton is still deciding on his application's fate. But all indicators point to the official app becoming my main Google Voice interface on Android. (Huge thanks to Evan for all his hard and fast-to-market work on GV.)
At first glance the two things I like most about the official Google Voice application is label access and voicemail playback (which highlights words in the text transcription as it plays). It also feels snappier.
Over at Lifehacker, Kevin runs down what you get with the Google Voice apps on both Android and BlackBerry. Here's Google's official announcement video.
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