Google Android catch-all

*Legion* wrote:
Malor wrote:

Slow start, partly. Also, I don't think the Android dev tools are as nice as XCode, so it'll take longer for people to write and port stuff.

Maybe it's because I was already an Eclipse user, but I think the Android tools are wonderful.

Also, what is awesome is how little there is between you and running code on an actual phone. I mean, compared to this, it's a peach.

I agree. I think, for me, that part of it is definitely that I'm already comfortable with Eclipse, I already run Linux as my main operating system and have for over a decade. I bought my Mac Mini so I could make iTunes easy to manage for my wife and develop for the iPhone down the road. But in my heart I'm always a Linux guy and a Java guy. So from that aspect the SDK is a joy.

I bought an Android phone last month, though, and hooked it up to my computer to debug on. The day I looked at my phone and could debug software on the phone was the day I got giddy.

That said, I'll eventually return to learning iPhone development. In part for my edification and in part because Apple App Store apps actually make money. But so far I am enjoying developing for Android.

My Zagg invisible[size=20]SHIELD[/size] (emphasis theirs) came today, and I just got it applied to my HTC Incredible. Here's what the front looks like:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ZPgcsl.jpg)

Click here for full resolution

Looks good for me, only way I can tell there's something there is that the optical trackpoint hole is slightly off center. Also, you can't see it in this pic, but the shield does have an effect on the colors on the screen, which is rather minor, it looks like it does when it is slightly wet. This, apparently, disappears after some drying time.

The back, on the other hand...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/tZ1XIl.jpg)

Click here for full resolution

...leaves much to be desired. It's ugly, and to be honest, I actually liked the way HTC made the back, and I may just pull it off and forget about it. I will give it a chance to set properly and see how it adapts, but if I still don't like it, I'm pulling it off.

So, for now, my recommendation, if you have to have a Zagg invisible[size=20]SHIELD[/size], just get the screen protector and skip the back pieces.

Let us know what you think of the orange peel texture that's slightly visible, Mike... it doesn't bother me because I hardly ever notice it but apparently some people really don't like it.

One thing that I can corroborate is that it is very resistant to fingerprints, but I'm avoiding handling it to let it adhere. I'll let you know after I use it tomorrow just how that holds up and if the texture gets to me.

Quake 3 on the Nexus One.

Combine that with the Wiimote working on the Nexus One and you got awesome right there.

I picked up the Verizon-branded Incredible car mount last night.

It's well built, although the ball joint is a bit weird in that it's more notchy rather than an actual ball joint. Pretty much every joint has a knob to loosen and tighten so it should stay in good shape over time. The suction cup is quite thick and I haven't had to reapply it yet.

It is only a mount, though, it doesn't do anything with providing power to the phone so it will not put the phone into car mode. Once that dock comes out I'll probably pick it up and sell this one.

EDIT: BlackBerry to Android: My Journey Switching may be of interest to some.

The odd coloring on the screen from the shield is gone now, but I'm not sure how I like it yet. There is considerably more friction with the screen now. Sometimes that's good, others bad. I've noticed that it seems to register a click much more often when I'm trying to scroll than it did before. It's making some browsing annoying. I think it has to do with the extra friction, as I may not be moving as smoothly or quickly when trying to scroll anymore. I may just have to get used to the extra friction.

The fact that fingerprints take much longer to show up is very nice. I dont have to wipe it off all the time for a clear picture. So far, the shield hasn't become such an obstruction to using the device that I'm ready to rip it off.

On a side note, does anyone know of an Android keyboard as nice as HTC's that moves the period key? I'm always hitting with my right thumb when I meant to hit the spacebar.

On a side note, does anyone know of an Android keyboard as nice as HTC's that moves the period key? I'm always hitting with my right thumb when I meant to hit the spacebar.

Heh, I get this a lot. It.can.make.for.some.very.odd.looking.messages.until I notice I've been doing it.

As far as keyboards go, have you tried Swype, Mike? I've posted the N1/Incredible version here, and other versions can be found with some Googling.

That link is to the APK, just open it on your phone, can't remember if you can just open the download and it will install or you need to use a file browser, but once it's installed, you can enable it and change settings under Settings>Language & keyboard. You can change input methods on the fly by long pressing on any text input field and selecting "Input method".

I've used Swipe on my ipod touch... I generally "type" slower on it. I don't really like it. I do pretty well with the regular keyboard, it's just that damned period getting in my way.

Some pictures of the Incredible car mount:

IMAGE(http://www.thestarsarehigh.com/pics/phone/IMAG0157.jpg)

IMAGE(http://www.thestarsarehigh.com/pics/phone/IMAG0158.jpg)

EVO on Sprint is $199 after $100 rebate

Annoying are the $10 "premium data" plan requirement and the fact that they decided to charge $30 for tethering.

Telus Milestones just got the 2.1 update. Enjoying the Live wallpapers and 5 frames muchly!

The extra money for the hotspot is so silly. I was in a Sprint store once where literally one of the Sprint reps told a friend of mine just to root his Android phone and he could do the same thing.

One month until I can replace my Storm with an Incredible. Hopefully it's rooted by then.

Stylez wrote:

Telus Milestones just got the 2.1 update. Enjoying the Live wallpapers and 5 frames muchly!

Interesting. The 2.1 for the Droid added Live Wallpaper but stuck with 3 screens.

If you get the phone at Best Buy, they'll just charge you the 199 and take care of the rebate themselves. I may have my issues with Best Buy, but their understanding and compliance with my seething, rabid hatred of MIRs works in their favor -- I'll pay more for something at Best Buy to avoid MIRs.

the 10.00 early adopter-charge for the Evo brings Sprint's monthly bill to 80 dollars a month pre taxes for the unlimited plan. Not bad, even in a 3g city.

Showing my ignorance here -- but what, exactly, is the difference between rooting and tethering a phone and hotspot functionality? Is there one?

(assumption -- hotspot functionality allows your phone to work like a router, whereas tethering just shares the connection with 1 device, like a netbook??)

Anyone looking forward to the LG Ally. I've always been a big LG fan, and I am looking to ditch my Blackberry for an Android phone. So far the choices are Droid or Incredible through Verizon. I like the idea of the physical keyboard, but I would be willing to try the on screen if I could get some real hands on before purchase.

Seth wrote:

Showing my ignorance here -- but what, exactly, is the difference between rooting and tethering a phone and hotspot functionality? Is there one?

One method is "official", the other uses "banned" software and technically voids your warranty.

Exclusive: Google To Add Tethering, Wifi Hotspot To Android 2.2 Froyo

Google added a plastic desert sculpture of a frozen yogurt outside of their Android building today (here’s Eclair, the last version), indicating the imminent arrival of the next version of the Android operating system, Android 2.2, AKA Froyo.

In addition to full Flash support and a whopper of a speed improvement, we’ve just confirmed something that’s even more stunning. Froyo will have built in USB tethering so you can share your data connection with your laptop, something Apple and AT&T still haven’t managed to allow in the U.S. And even better: you can turn your Android phone into a portable wifi hotspot as well.

You can see the tethering and wifi hotspot features in the screenshots above. One thing that isn’t clear from the information we’ve received is whether carriers can turn this feature off, or even charge for it, unless they break away from the standard Android build.

This is, of course, terrific news for Android users. I still believe Android phones, paired with Google Voice, are the closest thing to mobile nirvana to date. With tethering and wifi hotspot features, Apple and others have some serious catching up to do.

Expect Froyo to officially launch no later that the Google I/O event next week. And we’ll have Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP responsible for product management and marketing for mobile products, on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt the week after next.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/exc...

LilCodger wrote:
Seth wrote:

Showing my ignorance here -- but what, exactly, is the difference between rooting and tethering a phone and hotspot functionality? Is there one?

One method is "official", the other uses "banned" software and technically voids your warranty.

Yeah, if you can't "unroot" it, you may have trouble with warranty issues if you have a problem.

I'm not real clear on how the Best Buy purchase will work with my corporate discount. I'm assuming I can still get it, but I'd have to check. I know I can't get it on the top "Simply Unlimited" $99 plan for some reason, but these $69 and $89 "Everything Data - with Any Mobile, Anytime" I think qualify for my 20% off.

While this is great news....something tells me Sprint will be leaning hard on htc not to upgrade their SenseUI to 2.2 anytime soon, given that they're charging for hotspot availability. . .

then again, Sprint's bleeding money. Who knows what they'll do. Might be smarter to give in to Google's tech rampage and start charging people for the bandwidth instead.

Google and Verizon might be coming up with something to rival the iPad:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/11/google-and-verizon-building-ipad-competitor/?cnn=yes&hpt=Sbin

Would be nice to give Stevie a little competition.

MannishBoy wrote:

I'm not real clear on how the Best Buy purchase will work with my corporate discount. I'm assuming I can still get it, but I'd have to check. I know I can't get it on the top "Simply Unlimited" $99 plan for some reason, but these $69 and $89 "Everything Data - with Any Mobile, Anytime" I think qualify for my 20% off.

Is there a list of corporations that have a discount program with Sprint? Mine used to have one with Sprint Nextel, but both Nextel and my old company have since been acquired

MannishBoy wrote:

I'm not real clear on how the Best Buy purchase will work with my corporate discount. I'm assuming I can still get it, but I'd have to check. I know I can't get it on the top "Simply Unlimited" $99 plan for some reason, but these $69 and $89 "Everything Data - with Any Mobile, Anytime" I think qualify for my 20% off.

Is there a list of corporations that have a discount program with Sprint? Mine used to have one with Sprint Nextel, but both Nextel and my old company have since been acquired by other companies.

this post is dumb. the one below it is MUCH better.

Seth wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I'm not real clear on how the Best Buy purchase will work with my corporate discount. I'm assuming I can still get it, but I'd have to check. I know I can't get it on the top "Simply Unlimited" $99 plan for some reason, but these $69 and $89 "Everything Data - with Any Mobile, Anytime" I think qualify for my 20% off.

Is there a list of corporations that have a discount program with Sprint? Mine used to have one with Sprint Nextel, but both Nextel and my old company have since been acquired

Don't know x3

trueheart78 wrote:

Google Awesomeness

Have they said what phones will get 2.2?

Seth wrote:

this post is dumb. the one below it is MUCH better.

I prefer the one above it.

trueheart78 wrote:

Exclusive: Google To Add Tethering, Wifi Hotspot To Android 2.2 Froyo

Google added a plastic desert sculpture of a frozen yogurt outside of their Android building today (here’s Eclair, the last version), indicating the imminent arrival of the next version of the Android operating system, Android 2.2, AKA Froyo.

In addition to full Flash support and a whopper of a speed improvement, we’ve just confirmed something that’s even more stunning. Froyo will have built in USB tethering so you can share your data connection with your laptop, something Apple and AT&T still haven’t managed to allow in the U.S. And even better: you can turn your Android phone into a portable wifi hotspot as well.

You can see the tethering and wifi hotspot features in the screenshots above. One thing that isn’t clear from the information we’ve received is whether carriers can turn this feature off, or even charge for it, unless they break away from the standard Android build.

This is, of course, terrific news for Android users. I still believe Android phones, paired with Google Voice, are the closest thing to mobile nirvana to date. With tethering and wifi hotspot features, Apple and others have some serious catching up to do.

Expect Froyo to officially launch no later that the Google I/O event next week. And we’ll have Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP responsible for product management and marketing for mobile products, on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt the week after next.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/exc...

This may be the nail in the coffin of me running custom ROM's. The only other thing I really like is SetCPU, but lately that's been destroying my battery.

trueheart78 wrote:

That's all well and good, but I honestly don't have time to learn Java now, or anytime soon. Too many other languages that I'm already working on learning.

You (many folks) may not realize it, but C# and Java are ****VERY**** similar. Some might even say twins. If you know one, the other will be pretty comfortable/familiar.
Add in that the .Net framework and the Java API are also very similar.
And let's go one more step...
Whether you prefer Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ, KomodoEdit(?), you're going to get IntelliSense. They won't call it that, but it is.

I had (am still having) a butt ton more trouble adjusting to using Eclipse(ugh) or Netbeans(less ugh) coming from Visual Studio than I had adjusting to the (few) differences between C# and Java, and with IntelliSense, you don't really need to know the API/Framework to be productive 99% of the time.

Just throwing that out there. Coming from C#, saying "I don't want to learn a new language" doesn't make sense. They're the same thing, for practical purposes(i.e. yours). Saying "I just can't bear trying to learn a new IDE" on the other hand, does hold a lot of water. Enough for a water park, actually.

EVO! EVO! EVO!
Can't wait. Did you guys see someone's beta testing a VNC client for Android? You mean I can control my PC from my Phone like Remote Desktop? From anywhere in the world?
Yes please!