Come on, do some Android programming already

As we grow ever closer towards taking ownership of our new home, I am finally starting to play with Android again. I've got a whole bunch of ideas (in my favourite notebook, Tomboy) and have grabbed a copy of Reto Meier's "Professional Android 2 Application Development" book -- I couldn't really pick any other book, considering @acampbell3000 and I met Reto at a Google-hosted Android meetup in London one windy evening, and his refreshingly humorous writing-style makes casual reading of a technical book an enjoyable experience. Of course, I love technical books, but this should appeal to pretty much anyone.

So I update the SDK and Eclipse plugin, and start attempting to write something. But it's so hard to find the time to go from "play" to something that actually works -- like, I'm in a meeting right now, so as soon as I finish this little post I'm firing up my Eclipse workspace. Woo!

Android Circus

In which our charming protagonist attempts to configure his perfect "cloudbrain": a hand-held, Internet-enabled touch-screen device for mind-enhancement and capability augmentation. Based upon the (GNU/Linux-based) Android-powered Samsung GT-i7500, a.k.a. the "Galaxy", Glennji's cloudbrain allows him to intelligently process, store and access more data than he has ever been able to before.

I ordered my 'droid from Germany, and when it (finally!) arrived my initial elation slowly turned to a mild disappointment. I couldn't receive calls unless connected to 3G; the battery lasted perhaps 5 hours even with little use; the software was slow and laggy; and the keyboard required an extremely deft touch to avoid typing errors.

Luckily for me, all of these problems are software-based (and the software is just open enough that solutions will emerge from the community). So far, these are the things I've done to improve my cloudbrain friend.

Firmware Upgrade

The firmware that came with my Samsung (I7500VIAIG4? Something like that) was quite old (in Internet time, anyway) and so the first thing I researched was upgrading it. Luckily for me, the same friend who recommended buying the handset from Germany had already upgraded his firmware. I've upgraded to I7500XXII5 with ODIN and see the following benefits:

• a noticeably more responsive UI
• significantly better battery life
• the camera shutter button now launches the camera app (surprise, surprise!)
• a new "switcher" app for toggling autosync, GPS, wifi and bluetooth

http://androidforums.com/samsung-i7500/8364-new-firmware-samsung-new-pc-...

Power Manager ($0.99USD, ~60p)

Even before I upgraded the firmware I tried the free version of Power Manager, an app which applies "profiles" based on the state of battery and charge of the handset.

It's one of those utilities that you would be annoyed if it didn't ship with a "traditional" (non-upgradable) handset; with Android, I don't have any problem buying this for 60p.

Power Manager in the Android Market

Better Keyboard

This is what makes Android so much better than a more-closed platform *cough*iPhone*cough* -- if you don't like the default system keyboard (and I don't) you can replace it. e.g. with a Norwegian one, or a Japanese one, or whatever.

Better Keyboard suits me: the letter-proximity algorithm detects and corrects most of the mistyping so I can just thumb-away at speed without caring too much for accuracy.

(To set it as default, long-press on a text-entry field and select "Input Method".)

App Manager

This is worth it just so you can backup applications (non-protected ones, at least) to the microSD card. Just a useful app to have around.

Task Manager

It's great that Android can run processes in the background, but it is still nice to be able to shutdown apps when you want to, and some apps don't exit when you hit the "back" button, nor provide an "exit" menu option. So Task Manager gives you a way to view all running processes, CPU load, memory -- and most importantly, the ability to close processes with a long-touch.

Locale

Locale allows you to setup location-specific triggers and setting -- notification sounds, wallpapers, settings, etc. At the moment I only have one use for Locale: turning off the notification sound (a delightfully geeky Holodeck beep) once I get to the office -- which as it turns out is critical functionality if I don't want my work-colleagues to lynch me! (I don't.)

Better, 'though, is the fact that Locale has a plugin architecture, so other applications can get location-awareness quite easily. Bring it on!

Remember The Milk

I'm re-reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done" at the moment (thanks Kirk!), and RTM fits perfectly into the idea of "closing loops" and GTD. As a trusted, pervasive system, RTM lets me drop in location-specific tasks from the handset or a browser, get reminded when they are due and/or when I'm near the location, and to just unload my brain of all the background tasks that are running around in there. Good stuff.

Instant Messaging

Like most cloudheads, I've got accounts on several different Instant Messaging platforms: Jabber, Yahoo, MSN and even Facebook-IM. It's essential I have a single unified client for each of these -- I don't care how I connect to you, just that I can.

On my Linux desktops I have Pidgin. On Android, I've found eBuddy. Not completely convinced about it just yet (had to create a separate "eBuddy account", why?) but it does seem to work okay so for now, it stays.

App Organizer

This little app is brilliant, I kid you not -- it allows you to tag applications under particular categories, then create shortcuts on the home screen that launch a little window containing all the apps in that category. So I can have the music player, Spotify, last.fm and Shazam tagged with "Music" and a single Music icon which displays them all.

Seriously: who needs more than three home screens?

Notification Sounds

Case

There aren't too many cases available for the Samsung i7500 just yet, and those that are available are all on eBay (manufactured in China, perhaps?). So I've ordered one for £2.50 (including postage) with low expectations, and will let you know once it arrives this week.

Screen Protector

At the moment I've left the thick plastic on the screen, because the last thing I want is a visible scratch on my shiny new toy. Unfortunately, the plastic picks up greasy smears very easily: not ideal for a touch-screen. I'll have to find a smudge-resistant screen protector once the case shows up.

Spare Battery

What's left to do?

• Podcast: Google Listen? DoggCatcher?
• Flickr "sharing"
• Money, cashbook, budget

Give me Android, dammit!

I need a new phone.

Okay, I don't need a new phone like others in the world need clean water or toilets or the chance to grow up without being shot and/or blown-up. I know this: it's really a want, and one I could definitely do without -- there's probably a spare ancient Nokia brick in a drawer somewhere that would let me receive and make calls -- but in order to participate in the digital culture of our age I need a portal, and my crappy LG Viewty KU990 just isn't cutting the mustard any more.

I used to love LG. Loved their televisions, loved their Korean ingenuity, their attention to detail and friendly persona. The Viewty changed all that, and highlighted why we (as a suprasociety) need (see caveat above) an open-source mobile phone OS like Android. In short, the firmware that came with my Viewty was extremely poor (crappy photos despite a decent lens, thanks to over-zealous compression when JPEGing; missing an apostrophe on the on-screen keyboard when in landscape mode) -- and LG refused to provide firmware updates to fix the myriad of niggles! Despite frequent calls from a growing Viewty community that could've done wonders for LG's street cred, as well as providing free support and advice to would-be Viewty owners. Instead, LG released a new handset with a slightly improved (but incompatible with the Viewty) version of the firmware.

So screw you LG. I'll never buy your shit again.

Instead, I'm hanging out for an Android phone. It kind of seems like people don't quite "get" the Android's "paradigm-change" potential -- it's not about what your phone can do now, but about what it may one day be capable of, as the entire platform is upgradable. Further, the power of open-source is massive.

Seriously, think about it. When was the last time you could get entirely new functionality without buying a new handset? The networks have had it too easy for too long, in my opinion -- they could mete out slow improvements by choosing which handsets to offer, making us buy new equipment (and sign on to lengthy contracts) just to get, say, MP3 playback. Fuck that for a joke, the networks should compete on tariffs and data-plans, leave the innovation to handset manufacturers and give the freedom of choice back to us, the consumers.

So, an Android handset then? I've got my eye on the Samsung "Galaxy" i7500, mostly due to it's 1500mAh battery and OLED screen (can you say, "battery life"?). The only problem is the waiting! After rumours suggested it would be available in July, I held off buying one of HTC's many wonders -- now it's August and it's still not available in the UK.

According to the forums it will launch with O2 next week, but who knows? Depending on the price -- I want to buy the handset outright, and get a decent data plan I think -- I may end up buying it from Germany for about £350 ... even if I have to travel over there and walk into a shop!

Hopefully I'll find out on Monday.