android

Doing Something

Earlier this year, after realising I spent a lot of my time at home watching average TV shows and surfing the net, I started to make an effort to become more of creator than a consumer. I’ve always had ideas of things I’d think were cool or useful, but never actually got around to doing anything about them. Most of them involved tech, most were well within my skill level to accomplish, nothing happened.

So here’s a look at some personal projects that I’ve been thinking about doing but never really got around to…

• Building an Android application for interfacing with your Powershop account
  
  This is what I’ve been doing recently. Learning about Android application development and filling a hole for an application that I, and others, would find useful. The code is 75% done, but there’s lots of tweaks to be done before I’ll be happy with it. Considering releasing this as open source, but not 100% sure yet
• Doing an awesome case mod
  
  Will hopefully have the case here this weekend – It’s going to be awesome… watch this space
• Blog some more
• Build some useful web applications – i.e. an application that allows a household to split bills between flatmates, an application that analyses you’re phone bill and suggests a better plan or carrier to save you money
  
  Both of these have working prototypes, written in Rails. It quickly got complicated and I started running into Rails’ limitations. Would love to get this going and learn some new languages!
• Practice web design
  
  Although I consider myself a competent developer, I find that design and UX is my weak point. I’d love to develop this weakness and grow my skills
• Redesign my blog
  
  Something original and simpler. I find that my blog is far too complicated for what it actually is, so much so I can sometimes find it distracting when I actually do want to write. Also I want to look at re-implementing it with a new platform such as Jekyll or Hyde
• Grow my on-the-side business
  
  As I’ve had a lot of experience with web development and Linux server management, I’d love to help people who need someone to take care of it for them, or possibly even consult.

Also, since this is me, I had to set myself some rules. The most important one is: Don’t start a new project until the one your working on is done. Without that, I’d probably start them all and finish none…

The Nexus One

photo credit: owaief89

Firstly, some background. I’ve been an iPhone 3G user for almost 2 years, getting one almost immediately after they were released here in New Zealand. A great phone, no doubt. The app store was wide-ranging, easy to use with quality work for good prices.

As happy as I was with the iPhone, experiencing the “walled garden” when you wanted to escape wasn’t much fun. I wanted to store files, use non-App store applications, tether with more data-friendly networks – but I couldn’t.

A geek at heart, I kept a close eye on what was going on in the world of Android. For the longest time I remembered the worst of my days using Linux, and the reluctance of having that experience on my phone. That, coupled with the fact that the early Android handsets were woefully underpowered (much like the iPhone was) relegated me to the sideline for some time.

Hearing about all the fun my acquaintances were having with their Magic’s – rooting, flashing, tethering and all the other dirty-sounding verbs, I decided I wanted in to the Android world.

A friend of mine signed a contract with their carrier and got a subsidised HTC magic, which he sold to me. The phone was good, perhaps a little limited hardware-wise, but I loved the heavy Google integration and the apps were pretty good. About this time, my iPhone’s screen died – it must have been a sign! No turning back.

So I got myself a Nexus One. I won’t go over the specs, but will go over the subjective things I’ve come across with the phone.

Screen

The screen looks fantastic. The resolution is very high, photos and video’s look stunning. The touch side of things is also very good – sensitive and responsive. The only thing I noticed is that the colour can sometimes seem off – the more brighter colours apear blown out. Also, the phone is difficult to use in direct sunlight. Both these issues are side effects of the AMOLED screen chosen for the Nexus One.

Hardware

The phone is quick. No delays, no waiting, no keyboard lag. All things that were present with the iPhone and the Magic. Web pages render very quick and the radio used in the phone supports the very best connections available in Vodafone NZ’s network.

Operating System

The phone comes with Android 2.1. Android has travelled a long way since 1.x and is a very functional and usable system. Tight integration with Google, Exchange and Facebook brings your life to the phone. It now has multi-touch support in the browser & maps which should help kill the bugbear a lot of switchers worry about.

App store

The Android market has also grown a lot. There are many apps to choose from and most iPhone apps have an equivalent on the Android Market. Albiet a lot of Android apps aren’t as polished as their iPhone counterparts. Android has a lot of problems to solve for it’s developers – having to develop over dozens of different devices is going to start causing problems, and the time they spend on that is the time that Apple’s using to polish and add features to it’s SDK.

So overall, very impressed with the phone and I feel that I’ll be using it for some time – or at least until the new shiny comes along