This Android Life

Motorola Milestone (DROID) review

2010-01-18T12:01:00.000Z

I have a confession - my name's Martin and I'm an adulterer. I've cheated on my HTC Hero. I spent the last few days playing around with a Motorola Milestone (kindly supplied by Motorola's PR people), and I'm impressed. This is a really slick phone.
Upon taking receipt of the review unit, I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the Milestone's looks when I opened the box. I'm not a big fan of the Milestone's look; it's all angles and hard edges. Picking it up, it's got a good, heavy feel to it and it's roughly the same width as an iPhone or a Euro HTC Hero (not counting the Hero's chin of course). The slide mechanism for the slideout QWERTY keyboard feels slightly more stiff and resistant than I'd expected, but it moves smoothly and does give a satisfying click when it's locked in place. The slideout keyboard itself is flat and, I found, a little fiddly to use: I could never seem to get my hands in a comfortable position to type. I much prefered using the touchscreen for typing as I found I could knock out text much quicker without the keyboard.
Safe to say, I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by first appearance. But, when I powered up the phone and started actually using it, that's when I was able to really appreciate what the Milestone is all about. The Milestone is very responsive, in fact I didn't notice any lag whatsoever flicking between homescreens and all of the apps I used opened quickly and smoothly. I thought I'd miss HTC Sense and what it brings to Android, but, honestly, after about 10 minutes of playing with Android 2.0 on the Milestone, I forgot all about it, although if I used the phone for a longer period, I'd definitely be pining for more homescreen real estate than the standard 3 screens.
Web browsing was quick and fluid, and the mutli-touch zoom in /out makes getting the most out of the 3.7inch screen whilst browsing simple. Media playback was good, slightly better than the Hero in both sound and video quality, but the media software that comes with the phone isn't the best if I'm honest. It's fiddly to navigate and not particularly intuitive. But, this is an Android phone, so there are plenty of alternative media apps to choose from.
I found that telephone calls were fine with audio clarity particularly good. Text messaging and emailing were straightforward too. The phone's battery life seemed pretty solid, certainly better than the Hero for longevity. I've heard that the Milestone/DROID's battery life is actually superior to the Nexus One also. The camera on the phone is ok. And here, again, it's superior to the Hero, especially with the addition of the LED flash. Video recording however, is excellent for a phone like this. I was blown away by the quality of some of the videos I shot.

Overall, I'd say the Milestone is an excellent smartphone. The hardware, whilst a little clunky to look at in my opinion, certainly makes Android fly during use. There's not a lot to fault here, and certainly nothng that should give pause for thought. If you're considering a Milestone, I can heartily recommend going for one. With Android 2.1 just around the corner, and developer support for the phone starting to increase, this phone is only going to get better.

Specifications

General
Experience
Premium messaging and multimedia

Form Factor
Side slide keyboard

Operating System
Android v2.0

Android API Level
5

Device Emulator Image
Android 2.0 SDK

Input Types
Capacitive touch screen
Directional pad
Home/Menu/Back/Search touch-sensitive buttons
Physical keyboard
Virtual keyboard

Consumer Web Site
Product page

Display
Physical Resolution
480 x 854 (WVGA)

Number of Colors
Up to 16M

Pixel Density
240 dpi

Connectivity
WAN: Voice Bands
GSM 850/900/1800/1900
W-CDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900/2100

WAN: Data Bearers
GPRS/EDGE Class 12
HSDPA 10.1
HSUPA 5.7

Wireless LAN
802.11b/g
802.11i (WPA2)
WEP
WPA

Bluetooth Version
2.1 + EDR

Bluetooth Class
2

Bluetooth Profiles
A2DP 1.2
AVRCP 1.2
GAP
HFP 1.5
HSP
OPP 1.1
PBAP 1.0
SDAP
SDP
SPP

USB
Micro USB connector
USB 2.0 High Speed

Headset Jack
3.5 mm
Mic
Stereo out

Media
Camera Resolution
5 megapixels

Image Capture Resolution (max)
2592 x 1936

Camera Features
Autofocus
Color effects
Flash (dual LED)
Geotagging
Image stabilization
Picture quality
Scenes
White balance

Camera Digital Zoom (max)
4x

Image Capture Formats
JPEG w/EXIF 2.2

Image Viewing Formats
Android core media formats

Video Recording Formats
Android core media formats
H.264

Video Recording Resolution
720 x 480 (D1)

Video Recording Frame Rate
24 fps

Video Playback Formats
Android core media formats

Video Playback Resolution
720 x 480 (D1)

Video Playback Frame Rate
30 fps

Audio Recording Formats
AAC
Android core media formats

Audio Playback Formats
Android core media formats
WMA

Streaming Formats
AAC
AAC+
AMR-NB
H.263
H.264
MPEG-4

Digital Rights Management
OMA DRM 1.0 forward lock for images and music

Speakers
Receiver speaker
Stereo speakers
Processor and memory
Processor
TI OMAP3430

Processor Clock Speed
Up to 600 MHz

RAM
256 MB

Flash ROM
512 MB

User Storage Available (max)
256 MB

Memory Card Type
FAT32
microSDHC, Class 6

Memory Card Size Supported (max)
32 GB

Slowhand appears in MyTouch 3G Fender phone ads

2010-01-15T18:09:00.000Z

Now that the limited edition, guitar styled MyTouch 3G Fender is out (Stateside anyway), the T-Mobile ad campaign for the phone has kicked off, with the Slowhand himself, Eric Clapton as the face of the campaign.
If you're a fan, then you'll be glad to hear that, as well as guitar sound app, there will be some Clapton musical content pre-loaded on the phone, as well as content from other musical luminaries such as Wyclef Jean, Avril Lavigne and Brad Paisley (who???). If you're not a fan...well, I'm sure they'll be straightforward enough to uninstall...
The MyTouch 3G Fender, is pretty much the same as the original version of the phone, which was released some months ago now, with the addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack and the cool guitar-themed wood-effect look. Software side, the phone will have a doubleTwist installer and a new, HTC developed media player. The phone will also ship with a 16GB microSD card.
T-Mobile have said that Fender-themed accessories will also be available, such as a Fender carry case, Fender-branded shells and a Rock Dock docking station with built in speakers.
See the vid below for Slowhand's ad-

The myTouch 3G Fender should be available in the US from January 20th.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a Nexus One user

2010-01-15T17:29:00.000Z

Some news that's sure to raise a few eyebrows among the Apple fanboy fraternity - In an interview with NBC Bay Area, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has admitted that he bought a Nexus One on the day of it's release. Ok, perhaps admitted is a strong word, more like he dropped a huge hint that he'd purchased an N1. When asked about his favourite gadget, the day after the Nexus One's release, he said:

"Well, it's the latest one. It's a non-Apple product, but it's a gadget that just came out yesterday."

When you consider that Wozniak admitted previously to hacking his own iPhone, perhaps the freedom of an Android device is more up his street?
Read the full article here.

Nexus One first week sales estimated at just 20,000 units

2010-01-13T10:46:00.001Z

According to market analysts, Flurry, Android new boy, the Nexus One's first week sales were a disappointingly low 20,000 units. The Nexus One is receiving a lot of attention in the media at the moment, but if this estimate is even remotely close to the mark, then the media hype hasn't converted to sales. Google have yet to confirm or dispute this estimate, and I doubt they'll bother.
The DROID, by comparison, sold 250,000 unts in it's first week, but it was backed by Verizon's $100 million DROID Does ad campaign. The poor sales may also be partly to do with Google's decision to sell the phone from their own site, and those sales started directly after the holidays, a notoriously slow period for the mobile industry.

Android 2.1 SDK released

2010-01-12T09:11:00.001Z

Now that the Nexus One is out there and growing in popularity, Google have released the 2.1 SDK so that eager devs can tap in to the influx of new Android users that Google's phone will no doubt generate. The SDK is available here, or, if you already have an earlier version of the Android SDK running, you can simply update using the Android SDK and AVD Manager (see instructions below, from the official Android dev site):-

You can launch the SDK and AVD Manager in one of these ways:
Execute the android tool command with no options. If you haven't used the tool before, change to the /tools directory and run the command:
$ android
If you have downloaded the SDK Tools (Revision 3 or higher) and are running Windows, you can double-click "SDK Setup.exe" in the SDK directory.
If you are developing in Eclipse with ADT, you can select Window >Android SDK and AVD Manager.
When a new platform version, add-on, set of development tools or documentation becomes available, you can quickly install them into your existing Android SDK:
Select Available Components in the left panel. This will reveal all components currently available for download.
Select the components you'd like to install and click Install Selected.
Verify and accept the components you want and click Install Accepted. The components will now be installed into your existing Android SDK directories.
New platforms are automatically saved into the /platforms/ directory of your SDK; new add-ons are saved in the /add-ons/ directory; and new documentation is saved in the existing /docs/ directory (old docs are replaced).
Tip: Use the "Display updates only" checkbox to show only the components you do not have.

The best part about this is, we've been told that the updates to 2.1 for those Android devices that will support it should appear shortly after the SDK is released. I very much doubt we'll see those updates anytime soon in the case of the phones with a custom UI, such as the HTC Hero, but you never know. Watch this space.

Another custom HTC Hero ROM from MoDaCo

2010-01-11T15:13:00.000Z

Just a quick heads up to let you know that Paul at MoDaCo has released yet another custom ROM for the HTC Hero. You can find out more here. As usual, read through the later posts in the thread so that you're aware of any potential issues and fixes prior to updating. And, obviously, make sure you backup first.
Here's the changelog:-

Changelog

3.1

Based on shipping 2.73.405.66
Includes Teknologist's kernel 1.91
Built with my new MCR build process which reduces size and boost speed of the ROM
Updated Busybox, ROM is now compatible with Droid Explorer
All 4 available HTC widgets now included in ROM
Updated Wireless Tether app
Added Titanium Backup

Android phishing app removed from Android Marketplace

2010-01-11T13:20:00.000Z

First Tech Credit Union are reporting that a number of dodgy Android apps have been found on, and subsequently removed from, the Android Marketplace. The apps, which used a shell of a few mobile banking apps to harvest bank details, were uploaded by a user called Droid09, who has since been banned.
We've discussed the potential for abuse of the Android Market a few times on this site in the past, so the news is no huge surprise, but, as has also been discussed here before, perhaps there should be more stringent checks on apps uploaded to the market. At the end of the day though, the best defense is vigilance; make sure you know what you're downloading and installing before you start. Check the web for a couple of independent reviews of apps before you download and take a moment or two to look through the user comments too, just in case there are any warning signs there.

Google support for the Nexus One is more than a little flawed

2010-01-11T10:15:00.001Z

Anyone who has been perusing the Google support forums lately will know that, despite the media's lovefest for the Nexus One, there are a growing number of users who are not so pleased with the phone. Or at least, with Google's after-sale support for it. Google are selling the phone directly to customers, but they haven't got a dedicated customer services/support department for the phone in their infrastructure, an oversight that is causing consternation for many users, particularly in light of the fact the phone carriers, such as Vodafone, are telling customers to contact Google for support. Google support are promising to respond to emailed support queries within 48 hours, which seems to be about the norm if you ask me, but I guess the lack of a call centre for quicker access to support will understandably chafe some people.
Google may not have had quite so many calls to deal with were it not for the fact that there are a growing number of Nexus One users who are seeing problems with 3G connectivity. The photo below was taken by a user showing his G1 and his Nexus One side by side, note the difference in the 3G signal strength - the G1 has strong 3G signal, the Nexus One obviously isn't picking up a 3G signal at all and is instead on the EDGE network.

These issues are likely just teething problems, with the 3G issue probably fixable by a software/firmware tweak, but the mounting negativity from Nexus One users will only harm the phone in the long run unless it is nipped in the bud early. Google's Andy Rubin has himself admitted that Google "have to get better at customer service", so it seems they are at least aware of the issue, if not already dealing with it.

Google Open Source Program Manager Chris DiBona grilled on CrankyGeeks

2010-01-08T11:43:00.004Z

This week's CrankyGeeks episode features, among other guests, Google Open source boss, Chris DiBona. The guests discuss some new phone that's just been released which you may not have heard about, called the Nexus One, but more importantly, the journos present also took the opportunity to press DiBona about two of the more talked about issues surrounding Android at the moment: how must Motorola feel following the release of the Android 2.1-powered Nexus One? And, what are Google's thoughts on Android OS version fragmentation and it's affects on attracting developers to code for Android devices? Google apparently gave Motorola an early heads up on the Nexus One coming out and DiBona re-iterated that Android 2.1 is very similar to Android 2.0 in all but a handful of ways, but that doesn't give any indication as to whether or not Motorola took this news well. In fact, rumours abound that neither Verizon nor Motorola are particularly happy about the whole Nexus One scenario, but then, this is Google's ball, so I guess they can choose the game rules.
It seems Google are also quite bullish on the whole fragmentation issue. When pressed as to whether Google agreed that fragmentation could be a large turn-off for would-be developers, the accusation was shrugged off, with DiBona claiming that this isn't the main concern for developers. He conceded that it can be difficult, but that they will learn to adapt and that the more important thing to a developer was the number of potential customers out there running the OS they plan to develop in:-

"...the only thing that really matters is how many of these we ship - how many Android phones. There is a linear relationship between the number of phones you ship and the number of developers..."

It's an interesting show that is well worth watching. See the full video here.

Viliv's Android-powered media player to be previewed at CES

2010-01-08T09:46:00.005Z

Viliv will be showcasing their latest portable media player at CES this week, the Viliv P3. As you can see from the official spec sheet above, this PMP can dual-boot between Windows CE and Android. Word from those on the CES floor is that this is a very nice looking device, it's well designed in a way not dissimilar to the iPod Touch, with a single button under the gorgeous looking AMOLED. Unlike the Touch though, this phone will have both internal storage (in 8GB, 16GB or 32GB flavours) and a slot for external Micro-SD expansion cards.
In case the specs in the image above are too hard to for some folks to read, here they are in text-

3.7-inch AMOLED 800 x 480 Capacitive touchscreen
1280 x 720p support, HD / 720p MKV playback
Coretex ARM 800Mhz
Windows CE 6.0 & Android dual booting
WiFi / G-sensor / Vibration motor
8GB, 16GB, 32GB SSD
MicroSD slot
Optional T-DMB / DAB
Size: 116[W] x 62.5[H] x 9.8[T]mm

So far, there have been no indications as to a release date or pricing for the Viliv P3.

New games portal for Android arrives on the market

2010-01-07T15:39:00.000Z

There's a new app on the market which may appeal to those who like games. It's a games portal called GamesPlaza which features a centralised area for Android game info, screenshots, trailers and a selection of mobile gaming related tweets. The makers of the app stipulate that all of the games on the site must be free to play, free to download, or free to try - at the end of the day though, when most paid games also have a free lite or trial version anyway, this stipulation isn't worth the virtual paper it's virtually written on.
I have to confess, when I heard about this app, my first reaction was one of scepticism at it's value, but my curiosity was piqued so I downloaded it to see if it was any good. The app takes you to a well laid out mobile web page that's optimised for your phone type, presumably allowing the site to serve you games that suit your phone. There's nothing particularly startling here: all of the apps listed are available for download direct from the market without going through the GamesPlaza middleman, and the trailers are drawn from YouTube, but there's no denying it's an easier forum to browse through for games than the official Android Market, and the addition of direct links to trailers for some of the games is a nice touch.
Overall, this may appeal to some people out there, it's definitely a simple enough site to navigate and the images and trailers makes it easy to get a feel for what a game's about before downloading it, but I can't shake off that feeling that I'm browsing one big advert (which I guess is essentially what this is at the end of the day).

FunkyAndroid Ltd decide not to pursure Archos through courts

2010-01-07T10:54:00.003Z

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to interview AndAppStore developer and FunkyAndroid director, Al Sutton. At the time, as mentioned in the article, FunkyAndroid Ltd were involved in a dispute with Archos over allegations of redistribution of confidential information. Just a couple of days ago, FunkyAndroid released a statement to the effect that they have decided not to pursue the matter any further in courts. The statement details their reasoning behind the decision, namely, that FunkyAndroid Ltd are of the opinion that Archos SA may have ceased trading before any proceedings were concluded. I have no idea how accurate FunkyAndroid Ltd's predictions are for Archos SA's financial state, but if you'd like to read the full press release, it can be found here.

Motorola confirm that the CLIQ/DEXT and the new BACKFLIP will get Android 2.1

2010-01-07T09:42:00.004Z

Good news for DEXT owners - Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has announced, at CES, that the Motorola CLIQ (or DEXT in the UK) and the new BACKFLIP will both receive an update to Android 2.1. Both handsets are currently running Android 1.5 at the moment. There's been no confirmation on a timescale for the update's release as yet.
In related news, the MOTOBLUR powered BACKFLIP (what is it with Motorola and naming all their phones IN BLOCK CAPITALS? Is the shift-lock key stuck or something? Geez, stop shouting. Please...) was formally introduced to the world by Motorola at CES. It looks like the phone will be available within the next couple of months. If you'd like to see more of the Backflip in action, check out Engadget's hands on here.
Sanjay Jha had this to say on the BACKFLIP (I'm picturing him shouting every time he mentions MOTOBLUR or the phone's name)-

“Since introducing our first MOTOBLUR-based device, we’ve remained focused on differentiating the Android experience and bringing it to new carrier partners around the globe, BACKFLIP maximizes the multi-tasking and multi-functional potential of MOTOBLUR with its unique design elements, making it as smart as it is social.”

Review - Newton, another physics based puzzler

2010-01-06T16:50:00.005Z

Time for another game review. Up today is yet another physics-based puzzler (I know, I know, it seems like every second game in the Android market is a physics game, but it's a popular genre). Today it's Newton by Badlogic Games. Gameplay in Newton revolves around shooting white projectiles from a yellow cannon at a pink circle (any metaphorical sexual connotations you may draw from that scenario are purely coincidental I'm sure...), using a number of objects which alter the shell's trajectory in different ways to navigate around obstacles of varying sizes. Some objects have their own gravitational pull, others use anti-gravity to push the shell away and there are other objects which the shell will deflect off of at an angle relative to the angle it strikes them.
The lite version (as of time of writing, only the lite version is available, but the full version will be available soon) contains 21 levels, of which the first handful are basically a tutorial, introducing you to the various tactics and game objects. The cannon is static, but can be rotated to change the angle the projectile is fired at. In each level, the objects I mentioned earlier can come in one of two forms- those that can be moved around the level; and static ones that are locked in place. You must use your judgement to manipulate the objects and angle of trajectory such that your shell hits the pink circle. The less attempts you make before hitting, the higher your score. You can submit your high scores to an online leaderboard from within the game if you nail a particularly tricky shot in one go and feel like bragging about it.
I found gameplay to be simple enough to grasp quickly, yet challenging enough to be fun. The controls utilise the touch screen well, although I did find occasionally that fine tuning the angle of the cannon using the virtual keys that pop up was nowhere near as responsive as dragging my finger from the cannon in the direction I wanted to aim, which I suspect is very possibly the opposite of what the developer had planned, but that's just my experience and your own mileage may vary. The more difficult levels can be quite devious, but the game is quite forgiving in that, as far as I can tell, you have an infinite number of firing attempts (at least, I never seemed to run out of shots), so you can tweak away at your angle and object placings to your heart's content.
Graphically, the game isn't much to write home about. It's reminiscent of Space Physics in it's look, but of a lower quality. In an attempt to improve the visuals, the developer updated the game with a more 3D feel to it, but some of the original players prefered the 2D version and complained, so to keep everyone happy, the developer decided to allow players to choose the look they prefer between the two graphical modes, 2D and 3D. I didn't notice a huge difference between the two if I'm honest (see below), and, happily, it doesn't really impact on the gameplay either way.

Above- Netwon in 2D mode , Below, the same level in 3D mode

Overall, this is a solid little puzzler. It has just the right level of difficulty versus accessibility for a mobile game and I can see it getting picked up every so often to fill in 5 minutes here and there. It's let down a bit by it's graphics, but it isn't exactly painful to look at and there are titles with far far worse graphics on the market than Newton, believe me. The full version of the game will come with at least 80 more levels than the lite version and it will also contain a level editor (see here for further info and a screenshot).

The lite version is available now for free on the Android Market. The full version should be live soon. The developer has yet to decide on how much it will cost, but has confirmed that it will be below €1.50.

Some selected user comments-
Enjoying it. Looking forward to the full version. (5 out of 5 stars)
Game is good but eventually gets tedious. (3 out of 5 stars)
This game is fun and challenging. (4 out of 5 stars)

Android based set-top boxes to be demo'ed at CES this week

2010-01-06T10:59:00.003Z

Seeing as the Android blogosphere is already full to bursting with news and opinions on Google's unveiling of the Nexus One, I thought I'd veer away from any articles on it for at least a couple of days. With that in mind, I noticed an interesting press release which appeared yesterday regarding a couple of set-top boxes which will be running Android. At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, Western Mediabridge and Sigma Designs will be demonstrating the "world's first commercially available Android set-top box". The box, which will be MIPS-based will feature video-on-demand support, ThinkFree Office viewer software, a web browser, remote control/keyboard interface and 1080p HD video quality.
Ernest Bang (no tittering at the back please), president and CEO of Western Mediabridge Inc said this in a recent press release-

"With Sigma Designs' and MIPS Technologies' industry-leading performance and Android's open and flexible platform, our Android-based STB is one of the most innovative STB solutions in the market. We anticipate there will be a lot of Android-based products and applications in the near future which will be connected to each other. Our belief is that the Android set-top box will be positioned as a main device among in-home Android-based multimedia devices. We will continue to add more applications, making a more feature-rich Android set-top box."

Good to see that the industry experts are seeing a lot of potential in the Android plaform.

MIPS themselves will also demonstrate an early prototype of an Android-based IP television set-top box which has been developed by KDDI R&D Labs. The set-top box will support multicasting, video-on-demand , a remote control user interface, and support for digital rights management (DRM) requirements.

Nexus One finally makes it's official entrance

2010-01-05T22:55:00.003Z

At last, after all the rumours, speculation and press excitement, the Google phone, the Nexus One, has finally been officially unveiled at a Google press event today. To coincide with the announcement, the not-so-secret Nexus One support pages have been re-instated at Google.com, including an a neat little interactive guide to some of the phone's features, a 3D Tour (which has a feel which is reminiscent of HTC's recent "You" ad campaign), and they've also set up a Nexus One You Tube channel.
Is it going to be an iPhone killer? I confess I have my doubts. Despite plenty of promise, the DROID didn't really come close to toppling the iPhone in the cold light of day and the Nexus One, whilst undeniably superior to the DROID in almost all departments (save for it's lack of a hardware keyboard if that's your bag), isn't actually that much of an innovative leap forward from it's older Motorola cousin, neither in terms of hardware or software. Does it really matter if it isn't an iPhone killer? Not to my mind. It's still looking like one hell of a phone, and, at the end of the day, that's the important thing.
Click on the images below for the full specs, freshly torn from the official Nexus One pages:-

Latest AdMob figures released

2010-01-05T09:15:00.004Z

Mobile ad network, AdMob, have announced that ad impressions served to Android devices have doubled since their last report. Ad requests between October and December increased to 1 billion impressions, a 97% increase on the October results. So, I guess this means either that there are double the number of Android users out there, or alternatively, the number of new users isn't that high, but those users are all being served much more adverts....
Here's some further info from the AdMob metrics update blog post detailing the latest findings(the post can be found here):-

Rapid growth: Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 97% from October to December. AdMob received over 1 billion ad requests from Android devices in Dec 09.
Increased manufacturer diversity: In October, 98% of requests came from HTC devices. In December, 56% of requests were from HTC devices, 39% from Motorola devices, and 5% from Samsung.
Increased device diversity: In December, 7 devices generated more than 3% of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Moment. This is up from only 3 devices in October (HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero). Droid Invasion: The Motorola Droid is already the leading Android handset in the AdMob network and generated 30% of requests in December.
US leads Android adoption: 90% of Android traffic was in the US in December, up from 84% in October. Top countries by requests are the US, UK, Germany, France, and Canada, respectively.

Happy Holidays from This Android Life!!!

2009-12-23T09:26:00.000Z

We here at This Android Life are going to be on a short break over the festive period, so this will be the last post for a few days. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers, contributors and interviewees a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Have a Happy Christmas!

Review - Raging Thunder

2009-12-21T10:44:00.002Z

Another review today, this time it's 3D racing game, Raging Thunder by Polarbit AB. Raging Thunder is a car racing sim with a number of different options, including multiplayer. This is an Android version of a game which has been available for the iPhone for quite a while now. Here's the description from the apps market-

Raging Thunder is a gut-churning, tyre burning racer giving you control over the most extreme muscle cars in the world! Race against time, CPU controlled opponents or up to other speed addicts.

CURRENT VERSION DOES NOT SUPPORT: Motorola Droid, HTC Tattoo

You control your car using the motion sensor on your phone, tilting left or right to steer in that direction, dragging your finger up the touchscreen to accelerate and down to decelerate. During play, you can pick up bonuses and extra cash that are littered around the tracks. You can also use two special functions - 'boosts' that give a temporary nitro speed jump or 'tackles' where you can ram a nearby car.
Gameplay is fast and frenetic, but the motion sensor controls feel slick and responsive, so you're not handicapped by sluggish controls. The AI-controlled cars though, seem to all drive a near flawless race, which ramps up the difficulty considerably. Still, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it means you're under pressure to drive at your very best to win through some levels, and I found myself thriving on the challenge.
One of the best features of the game though, is it's multi-player capacity. You can play against other players, across different mobile platforms, so you're not restricted to playing against Android users. A very nice touch to an already impressive game.

Overall, I have to say I'm very impressed. This is arguably the best game on the market at the moment, and easily the best 3D game. Excitingly, there is word that the developers, Polarbit AB, are soon to release further 3D games which, judging from the videos I've seen, are potentially every bit as good as Raging Thunder. For now though, Raging Thunder is the benchmark for 3D gaming on Android; it's polished, intense and challenging, and it looks great.
Raging Thunder is available on the Android Market for €3.00. There's also a free, Lite version if you'd rather take it for a test drive before stumping up your hard-earned. Please take note that, at present, the game is not compatible with the Motorola DROID/Milestone, or the HTC Tattoo. The developers have confirmed that they are working on a version for the DROID/Milestone.

Some selected user comments-
Freekin awesome graphics and gaemplay. Thought it was a bit much at first, after 5 min it earned spot on homescreen. - (5 out of 5 starts)
Love it! Need more games like this on Android. - (5 out of 5 stars)
We need more games like this on Android. Simply the best in everyway. - (5 out of 5 stars)
The best 3D game no android, doesn't glitch like other games even with music on :) - (5 out of 5 stars)

Google add Android device dashboard to Android Developers site

2009-12-18T10:15:00.000Z

A recent post on the official Android Developers blog highlighted a new feature of the site, the device dashboard. The device dashboard displays the relative distribution of Android software versions found on devices. Nothing here is particularly earth-shattering, but it's a useful tool for developers to see which OS versions are worth supporting whilst building an app.
The new section of the site can be found here.

Review - Armored Strike

2009-12-17T11:11:00.005Z

Time for another review. Up this time is Armored Strike, by Requiem Software Labs Inc. Armored Strike is a turn based artillery game in the same format as Scorched Earth and Worms. The object being to fire various weaponry at, and ultimately destroy, the opposition. As in earlier games of this ilk, you've to use your judgement (and, I found, more than a little trial and error) to get the firing gradient and velocity just right to hit your targets. Here's the description from the Android Market-

Get behind the turret and lock your sites on your enemies, this is going to be an epic battle! Battle human and computer across 3 different terrains with multiple wind conditions. Master all eighteen weapons and if you have no other choice you may be forced to deploy the nuclear option.

1.17 - More weapons! Improved Napalm

The game looks pretty good graphically, one of the best looking Android titles I've seen in fact, and the game engine itself seems to work well - I certainly had no force closes or bugginess during testing. Gameplay is entertaining, but initially frustrating; it takes a few plays through before you get your head round the angles and velocities you should try using, which is fair enough, but the AI controlled teams seemed to have little problems on that front. I also occasionally found scrolling across the 2-D screen was a little sluggish and fiddly on my Hero.
In game, the number of weapon choices is impressive. I found Napalm a particularly satisfying weapon to use. You can play against other human players rather than AI-controlled ones, but only by handing the phone to each player when it's their turn - there's no network play as yet, which is a shame as I'm sure this would be hugely popular.
Overall though, I've been quite impressed with Armored Strike. It's a polished and well put together game and once you're used to the firing mechanics, you'll soon find yourself cackling madly as your napalm strike lands right on top of some poor sap. Burn! Burn! BURN!

A selection of user comments-

It's pretty fun and the controls are good. It takes a while to get the hang of landing shots accurately though. - (3 out of 5 stars)

Good game it has me hooked for now but I can see it being a bit boring after a while.With some work on game play it could be a great game inthe future - (4 out of 5 stars)

Decent game. Game play a little slow. Not a $4 game. - (3 out of 5 stars)

This is by far the best artillery game on android, I would strongly recommend buying it - (5 out of 5 stars)

Plans for OPPO Android phone leaked

2009-12-16T10:00:00.001Z

ClonedInChina have gotten wind of plans by media player manufacturer OPPO to release an Android-based phone. The company have released a few phones over the past year or so, but this will be their first smartphone. There's very little out there about this phone, other than that it has a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is Wi-FI enabled. The phone will apparently use the side-lights (see image below) to notify it's owner about things such as the weather and other data (presumably new emails, tweets and the like). This could be a pretty good looking phone if the leaked photos are anything to go by.
The phone is to be released at some point next year, so expect more information over the next few months.

id Software demand the removal of ports of their games from the Android Market

2009-12-15T11:19:00.001Z

ZeniMedia, id Software's parent company, have issued a DMCA notice to Google, requesting that all Android ports of Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake be removed from the Android Market due to copyright infringement. The games themselves are open source, but there are commercial parts of the game, such as some levels and graphics that are not part of the open source agreement.
This in itself is not a particularly surprising scenario, but given that John Cormack, one of id's co-founders, has mentioned in interviews that he sees mobile gaming as having a lot of potential for the company's future, perhaps the request is part of a broader plan by id to bring such titles to the Android Market themselves? Time will tell.
For now, the games are not available on the official Android Market, but are still accessible from some of the alternate markets or directly from the developers in some cases.

Google Phone unmasked - meet the HTC Nexus One

2009-12-14T09:38:00.001Z

Following weeks and weeks of rumours, speculation and denials surrounding the "Google Phone" - a phone designed top to bottom by Google themselves, the truth has finally come out. There will indeed be an Android phone released which, as rumoured, will be sold unlocked and will not available at any mobile carriers but instead will need to be bought outright from hardware retailers. Contrary to the rumours however, the phone itself has been designed and created by HTC, rather than Google, but the Big G have designed every facet of the user interface the phone employs. The leaked codename for the phone is "Nexus One". For the moment, only select Google employees are testing the phone. Here's a quote from the official Google Mobile blog-

At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from "eating your own dogfood"). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.

Posted by Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management

Watch this space for more on the Nexus One as more information is leaked.

Acer to launch 6 Android devices in 2010

2009-12-11T09:30:00.000Z

Acer have announced that they will be releasing 5 or 6 new Android smartphones in the first half of next year, with the possibility of more to come in the second half. The plan is for there to be an Android mobile phone for each of the different pricing levels - low-end, mid, top-end and also devices aimed at business users. Acer officials are so far being tight-lipped on further details on the specs and release dates of the new smartphones.
Acer's Aymar de Lencquesaing, in a recent interview with Reuters, had this to say on the company's plans for Android phones-

“Next year it will be much more balanced, there is definitely momentum behind Android. The pace is faster than most would have anticipated one year ago.”

The news comes soon after the company hinted that their first Android phone, the Acer Liquid, will soon start to go on sale at selected retailers in Europe, with an official announcement on this expected within the next month.

Motorola DEXT/CLIQ review

2009-12-10T13:37:00.005Z

Motorola very kindly supplied a Motorola DEXT unit for review. I’ve been using the phone for a few days now and overall I have to say I’m impressed. The DEXT is a solid performer, all of the functions I’ve played around with have been nicely responsive (probably a little more responsive than the initial, pre-patch release of the HTC Hero was), although flipping between homescreens occasionally lags slightly. The slideout keyboard is tactile and straightforward to use, even though the keys are all squeezed pretty closely together, causing me to have the odd fumbled keypress. I actually found the software keyboard preferable. In fact, I found I generated fewer typos typing with the DEXT’s software keyboard than I seem to with my HTC Hero’s software keyboard.

To look at, well, it’s not the prettiest of phones. I’ve heard some reviewers describe it as ‘frumpy’, which sadly sums it’s looks up pretty accurately - the design build looks slightly cheap and feels quite heavy in the hand. The three keys on under the screen also look a bit tacky to me. The 3.1 inch capacitive touchscreen on the phone however, is much easier on the eye. I found that images and video viewed on the phone were crisp and clear. The YouTube streams I viewed, for example, were sharper than I'd expected.

The DEXT is the first phone to use Motorola’s Motoblur social networking-based user interface. Motorola have heavily pushed Motoblur as one of the phone’s big selling points, trying to entice avid social-networkers with the promise of keeping you as up to date as possible with all of your various social networks and it works pretty well in practice. When you initially set up the phone, you can specify a number of accounts such as Facebook, Last.fm and MySpace and the DEXT merges all the contacts together. Motoblur syncs posts, photos, feeds, emails and contacts from all of the social networking accounts you set up and you can see them all at a glance with MotoBlurs widgets. The impressive “Happenings” app, which comes with the phone was one I found particularly useful. It lets you view a feed of all of the recent posts made by the people in your contacts list across the various social networks you connect to.

As a phone, the DEXT is a decent enough performer, calls were clear, but with slightly tinny audio if I'm being picky. I came across no particular call problems during use. Obviously, texting is straightforward given the choice of the software or hardware keyboards.

The phone has a 5-megapixel camera, without a flash, which performs about as well as you'd expect - not particularly well. Photos taken in just the right lighting conditions came out ok, but for the most part the camera performed poorly. Video recording on the device is perfectly acceptable, although, naturally, video quality is also dependent on the current lighting conditions.

Battery life is about par for the course for Android devices. I found during a day of medium use, I'd need to charge the phone up, but that's obviously going to vary depending on what apps you have running and just what you do during a day. The quoted battery life is 6 hours talktime, 13.5 hours standby.

Conclusion

Overall, whilst the DEXT isn't up there with the best of the Android handsets such as the Hero or the formidable DROID, it's still a very solid performer. There's not much to fault in the phone, other than it's slightly disappointing looks and uninspiring camera. The Motoblur take on contacts and social networking is innovative and plays on one of Android's great strengths - being constantly connected. So, whilst it's not a world-beater, the DEXT is undeniably a good addition to the Android stable.

Full Specs-

QWERTY slider keyboard
Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
5-megapixel camera
TFT touch screen
MP3 and AAC player

dimensions
length: 114 mmweight: 163gdepth: 15.6 mmwidth: 58 mm battery life
standby: 13.5talk time: 6 hours

SAR value
Specific absorption rate (SAR) is a measure of the rate at which radio frequency (RF) energy is absorbed by the body. It is defined as the power absorbed per mass of tissue and has units of Watts per kilogram. The European Union's safety limit for exposure to RF energy produced by mobile devices is 2 W/kg when applied to specific areas like the head. All mobile phones on sale in the UK comply with this limit.

SAR: 0.61 W/kg

features

Android™ operating system
QWERTY slider keyboard
Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
5-megapixel camera
TFT touch screen
MP3 and AAC player
noise cancellation technology
3.5 mm audio jack
external memory microSD
3.1 inch touch screen
HSCSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g
GPRS Class 12
email
GPS
A-GPS support
3G
EDGE
micro USB
auto focus
internal memory 2GB
geotagging
digital compass
document viewer
polyphonic ring tones
speakerphone
video playback
video streaming
vibrating alert
GSM
picture editing
games
tri band
Bluetooth®
touch screen
camera
music player

WaveSecure confirm free lifetime account for users who sign up before Jan 31st 2010

2009-12-09T12:08:00.000Z

Roy from the WaveSecure team got in touch at the weekend to say that as a thank you to Android users for making WaveSecure one of the overall winners during ADC2, they are giving away free lifetime accounts for Android users. Here's what he had to say-

We are happy that WaveSecure was one of the overall winners and the top productivity app in the recently concluded Android Developer Challenge 2 (ADC2)!

As a giveback to Android users support that made our ADC win possible, we are offering an unlimited free lifetime account for Android users. Just download WaveSecure from Android Market before 31st Jan 2010 and you will be able to enjoy a free WaveSecure account for as long as you use that Android device.

It’s our way of saying thank you. Do spread the word so other Android users can benefit from it too!

Lastly, it will be awesome if you can join us on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/wavesecure .

Thanks,
cheewee
Team WaveSecure

Motorola Droid rooted

2009-12-09T11:58:00.002Z

The AllDroid forums are reporting that the Motorola Droid has at last been rooted. Forum user embeem posted the method yesterday and Zinux Verituse posted up some download links for the update.zip file needed to perform the operation.
Here's the method embeem posted-

HOWTO

Download the zip file (see mirrors in posts below)
Rename to "update.zip" and copy to the sdcard

Power off the DROID and power back on while holding the X key
When you see a "/!\" symbol, press both vol+ and camera
Use the onscreen menu to install update.zip

Once installed you will be able to run "su" from your adb shell.

URL: http://www.4shared.com/file/168496608/8 ... -root.html (thanks, blunden)
URL2: http://www.mediafire.com/?ydaqjmditjh (thanks, blunden)
URL3: http://www.multiupload.com/XYPZLK4K22

Great work folks! I know there have been a lot of people waiting patiently (or not) for root access since getting their hands on a DROID. I'd recommend reading through the whole thread for advice and potential issues before going ahead and rooting. You can find it here.

Google Goggles - Search using images rather than words

2009-12-07T22:24:00.000Z

Google Goggles, the new visual search tool that allows you to search the web using images snapped on your phone's camera is now available on the market for any Android users running Android 1.6 and above.
If you're running 1.6 or higher, this looks like a fantastic new search tool.

Here's the description from the official Google Goggles overview pages-

Google Goggles lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web. It's ideal for things that aren't easy to describe in words. There's no need to type or speak your query - all you have to do is open the app, snap a picture, and wait for your search results.
Google Goggles works better with certain types of queries. Try taking pictures of books & DVDs, landmarks, logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, or text. Currently, it's not so good when taking pictures of animals, plants, cars, furniture, or apparel.
For the best results when taking pictures, hold your phone in "left landscape" mode, as shown below, and press the on-screen shutter button with your right thumb.
Note: Google Goggles is currently available for Android devices running Android 1.6 and above.

ADC2 Winners announced

2009-12-01T12:24:00.004Z

Google have announced the final winners of the second Android Developers Challenge. The winners will receive the following awards-

Awards
Prizes will be distributed as follows; all prizes are in USD:
For each of the 10 categories:

1st prize: $100,000
2nd prize: $50,000
3rd prize: $25,000

Overall (across all categories)

1st prize: $150,000 (meaning the overall winner will receive $250,000)
2nd prize: $50,000 (meaning the 2nd prize winner will receive up to $150,000)
3rd prize: $25,000 (meaning the 3rd prize winner will receive up to $125,000)

The details of the winners are as follows (taken from the official Google Android blog)

Overall Winners

	SweetDreams SweetDreams is a revolutionary tool that will finally allow you to go to sleep without worrying about changing your phone settings in order to avoid unwelcome late night calls. You can even use those inactivity periods to save battery power as well, and of course forget about enabling WiFi, Bluetooth or ringtones volume ...
	What the Doodle!? 'WTD!?' is a real-time online multiplayer game where one player tries to draw out a given phrase and others try to guess it. Features FFA and Team games, Global Highscores, Personal Face Doodles, integrated Voice Recognition and more! Real-time drawing!? Built for performance, you'll really see the magic at first doodle!
	WaveSecure WaveSecure is a complete mobile security solution that protects your device, data and privacy. 1. Track your phone's location and who is using it 2. Lock down your phone remotely, making it worthless to the thief 3. Backup all your data 4. Wipe out your data remotely 5. Restore your data May the phone be with you!

Education/Reference Winners

	Plink Art Plink Art is an app for identifying, discovering and sharing art. Take a photo of a painting, and the Plink Art servers will try to identify it. You can also browse our database of artwork by keyword or timeline and share your discoveries with friends.
	Word Puzzle The Word Puzzle is designed to provide a fun way to learn basic English words for preschool children. Kids can study spelling and pronunciation with flash card and check achievement with word puzzle. Interesting visual and sound interaction with awarding system helps kids to keep learning. Let kids play with your Android.
	Celeste An educational augmented reality app that displays the Sun, Moon, planets and their paths through the sky onto your camera view. You can navigate through the sky selecting celestial bodies to display interesting information about our solar system. See the exact spot on your horizon where the sun will rise and set.

Entertainment Winners

	A World of Photo Loosely inspired by the traditional "Spin the bottle", A World of Photo is a casual, geographic worldwide multiplayer online game with a social touch. Players spin their phones and will receive a photo from whomever in the world they pointed to. For best play experience, let the app run in the background.
	SongDNA Need any information on a song? Practicing for a big karaoke gig? Music quiz coming up tomorrow? The SongDNA widget allows you to quickly look up your favorite song's detailed information. It includes the lyrics, artist's bio, homepage, highest chart rank and video. Handy when you're training for your next karaoke gig!!
	Solo Solo is a great, easy to play and feature rich pocket guitar for your phone. A must for all guitar enthusiasts! Features include -Huge chord library with 380+ chords & diagrams -Load/save chord layouts -Play along with music on your phone -Overlay music & lyrics from the internet -Various strum modes, including shake strum

Games: Arcade/Action Winners

	Speed Forge 3D Speed Forge: Heavy duty hover vehicles, normally used for mining are now seen in illegal races organized in abondoned factories and dark Marsian alleys. The rock crushing explosives once used in these machines now serve a different purpose...
	Graviturn Tilt your phone to move the red circles out of the screen while keeping the green circles. Infinite levels from very easy to nearly impossible. Compare your performance with other players after each level (online highscore and statistics).
	Moto X Mayhem Jump, lean, and race through seven levels of amazing motorbike action in the best side scrolling bike game! Lean forward and back on your motorbike as you climb hills and fly through the air using accelerometer technology. Witness realistic physics as your shocks recoil when you land jumps! Or just flick your rider around!!

Games: Casual/Puzzle Winners

	What the Doodle!? 'WTD!?' is a real-time online multiplayer game where one player tries to draw out a given phrase and others try to guess it. Features FFA and Team games, Global Highscores, Personal Face Doodles, integrated Voice Recognition and more! Real-time drawing!? Built for performance, you'll really see the magic at first doodle!
	Totemo Unloose the spirit. Break the spell. Uncover the mystery hidden between the realms in a unique puzzle game. Storm your brain and relax your mind solving over 60 mind-soothing logic tasks. Play the survival mode for extra challenge and write your name into the on-line leaderboards. http://hexage.net
	Mazeness The goal of the game is rather simple - you need to bring all the balls ( up to 4 per level!) to their goals at the same time, with help of barriers, teleports and holders. It seems simple at first, but it's not that easy. The difficulty is growing steadily from level to level.

Lifestyle Winners

	SweetDreams SweetDreams is a revolutionary tool that will finally allow you to go to sleep without worrying about changing your phone settings in order to avoid unwelcome late night calls. You can even use those inactivity periods to save battery power as well, and of course forget about enabling WiFi, Bluetooth or ringtones volume ...
	SpecTrek Improve your fitness with this revolutionary augmented reality ghost hunting game. Walk or run around using GPS and your phone's camera to find and catch virtual ghosts. You will experience a new adventure each SpecTrekking session. The game offers statistics, awards, titles, records, and most of all a whole lot of fun!
	FoxyRing FoxyRing makes your phone smarter by analyzing the ambient noise and adjust the ringer volume. Also: - Sleeping hours to silent your phone during the night. - Geolocated ringer profiles, change ringtone or make your phone vibrate only at work! - Widget to silent your phone for a timed period. - Great interface

Media Winners

	Buzz Deck BuzzDeck is the quick and easy way to get all the web content you care about most. Flick through your daily hit of favourite news topics. And get Twitter & Facebook updates alongside. BuzzDeck learns what you like and recommends cool new stuff. Simple, elegant & fast. NB: No landscape mode yet. http://mippin.com/buzzdeck
	SPB TV SPB TV is a highly usable IP-TV solution, optimized to run on mobile devices. SPB TV provides users with lots of channels in multiple languages with easy-to-use features and settings. No subscription fee! Requires a reliable 3G or WiFi network connection for proper streaming. Full-featured 60-days trial.
	FxCamera FxCamera enables you to take a picture with various effects. - ToyCam (Toy Camera Emulator) - Polandroid - Fisheye - Warhol (Andy Warhol-izer) - Normal this app requires SD card

Productivity/Tools Winners

	WaveSecure WaveSecure is a complete mobile security solution that protects your device, data and privacy. 1. Track your phone’s location and who is using it 2. Lock down your phone remotely, making it worthless to the thief 3. Backup all your data 4. Wipe out your data remotely 5. Restore your data May the phone be with you!
	Hoccer Hoccer is your application for ad-hoc data exchange. Use gestures to "throw" your data through the air and let the recipients "catch" it. There is no need for prior exchange of contact details.
	Tasker Tasker let's you link any Task (action set) to the Contexts (application, time, day, location, event, widget press) where it should run. Send an SMS at 3:15 Monday, make per-app settings or locks, map camera button to a menu, launch music app on headphone insert, timelapse photos, encrypt on-the-fly, the list is endless!

Social Networking Winners

	Ce:real - Everyday trends Ce:real, What's happening in this world? Are you curious about real world? How about North Pole or an edge of Africa? Also, it can be your neighborhood. It is offering to you hot photo stories with Twitter trends keyword which has speed of lights. Enjoy millions of happenings in real world and you participate in it as well.
	SocialMuse Check out what users on the other side of the world are listening to! Find people with similar musical taste, or just explore the world through music. Browse other users' music libraries, listen to previews of their songs, and buy them if you like them. Check out their profiles on MySpace, Facebook and Last.fm.
	SpotMessage SpotMessage is a communication tool using GPS. Send a message designating a spot with Google Maps then the message will be notified when the recipient arrives at the spot. SpotMsg finds various uses; as an alarm reminding you of a task at a certain spot or for sending your friend a surprise message on his or her arrival.

Travel Winners

	Trip Journal Trip Journal is the ultimate trip tracking and sharing solution currently available on Android powered Smartphones. Impress your friends by sending them real time updates from the places you are visiting. GPS route tracking, record waypoints, photos & notes, trip statistics, KMZ & Picasa exports, incorporated Google Maps.
	iNap: Arrival Alert Ever wanted to get some sleep during a train ride, or a quick powernap on the bus to work? You either hoped to wake just in time not to miss your station, or set an alarm to wake you far too early... Using your phone's GPS it will determine where you are, and wake you when you are close to your destination!
	Car Locator Save your location whenever you park, and Car Locator will navigate you back to your car should you ever have trouble finding it. - Points in direction of your car using GPS and compass - Radar view, map view, and split view - Parking timer alarm GPS and compass must be enabled. This free version expires after 25 runs.

Misc Winners

	Rhythm Guitar Plays like a real 6-string, 5-fret guitar. Strum and pick chords, make new chords, string them together to create songs, transpose songs to fit your vocal range. Great for songwriting, chord reference, learning radio hits, or even plugging into speakers and pedals.
	Andrometer Andrometer allows you to measure the approximate distance from you to an object that you can see. Uses GPS, accelerometer and geomagnetic sensor. Tips: - Keep as steady as possible - The further you walk, the more accurate the measurement - Must be outdoors with clear view of sky - Works best under 1 km
	Calton Hill GPSCaddy GPSCaddy allows golfers to quickly and easily map any golf course either out on the course using GPS or in the comfort of home using satellite imagery. Then, when they are playing the course, it uses GPS to tell them exactly how far they are from the significant features of the hole they are playing (green, bunkers, etc).

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

Screenshots allegedly from an HTC Hero running Android 2.1?

2009-11-30T10:43:00.000Z

There have been some screenshots unearthed which are allegedly from an HTC Hero running Android 2.1. There's nothing particularly earth-shattering in the screenshots, but this could be a masterstroke for HTC - don't just give the people what they want, give them more than they expected. We've no idea when or if this update will see the light of day, but if the screenshots are true, then it can't be too far away from release.
See the full article at Engadget.

Interview - Angus Lees, developer of the ScummVM Android port

2009-11-30T09:18:00.002Z

Following on from the recently released update to ScummVM, I had the opportunity to put a few questions to the developer behind the port, Angus Lees. ScummVM is an emulator which allows you to run the old point and click Scumm adventure games, such as Day of the Tentacle, Beneath a Steel Sky and the like. Here's the interview in full-

First off, would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself and your development background?

I have been messing around with Linux and other Unices since ~1995 and became reasonably good at hacking up useful bits of free software to build for the university's Sun and DEC workstations. I went on to be a Debian developer and have worked in various sysadmin/developer roles for various employers - currently Google (but nothing to do with Android). I have a small amount of embedded Linux experience, but not on phones in particular.

I set programming projects for myself so I can learn about different things - when Google gave us all G1s as our Christmas bonus last year, I immediately wanted to see how Android worked.

How long did it take to create the port of ScummVM and what was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome during it's development?

When I started looking, there was no NDK and no documentation other than the Java SDK. I also had no experience with JNI and my Java knowledge was limited to a university subject I took once more than 10 years ago ;)

So I had to work everything out by reading the Android source release. I had to work out how to cross compile Android binaries, what particular parts of JNI were supported by dalvik, how to package native code in an apk so that it would actually work, etc. None of this was particularly difficult, but I learnt a lot about compilers, linkers and remote gdb debugging in the process, which is always good ;)

I uploaded the first version to the Android market mid February, so it consumed about 4 weeks of my spare time - I did most of the hacking while sitting in presentations at linux.conf.au 2009. It turned out Ender (the recently retired lead of the ScummVM project) was at the conference, so I was able to show him the first working prototype and he gave me some very useful advice about various porting details.

I should say that this was a dream project to choose for my first Android project. The ScummVM developers deserve a lot of praise for making their codebase *amazingly* easy to port to new platforms.

How did you find developing for Android, was it straightforward or did it take a bit of experimentation to get comfortable with?

The native development toolchain was very raw at the time - and it still has some rough edges. On the other hand, you have all the examples and "documentation" you could want with the Android source release. The emulator and prebuilt gdbserver, etc tools were also extremely helpful.

The recently released update to ScummVM introduced some major changes, including individual game engines being made available as separate, downloadable plug-ins, rather than being integrated in to the ScummVM app itself. How did you come to the decision to release the engines separately, was it to cap the size of the install, or purely to make supporting each individual engine easier?

The split was inevitable eventually. The all-in-one monolithic package was easy for people to use, but it was at the limit of what was an acceptable package size. As a result, I couldn't enable all the engines I wanted (like tinsel) and had to carefully consider any additional features. Now with the split, I can trivially enable additional engines and most users (who only play a small number of games at once) will also have a smaller installed size.

The downside of course is that it is more complicated for users to work out what they need to install - I am still seeing what I can do to make that better. If anyone knows how to do one of those spiffy youtube "how to get XX game working on Android" videos, that would be great ;)

The latest update to ScummVM has been affected by the fragmentation of the Android OS in a similar way to a number of other existing apps in that it sadly does not provide support for the Motorola DROID. Is the problem an Android 2.0 compatibility issue or is it tied to the DROID’s hardware in some way?

It is entirely software and nothing to do with the hardware at all. My ScummVM port breaks a lot of the rules and makes direct C++ calls into the Android audio and graphics systems for speed - and because the intiial port was done before the rules were laid down. I also link directly to some of the Android libraries (like tremor and skia) to avoid having my own copy. All of this means the app is not as portable as it should be across Android versions.

The same problems occurred with the Android 1.1 -> 1.5 upgrade, for those of you who were around for that. I can build an Android 2.0-only version and make the app disappear for 1.5 users, or put some work into making compatibility layers. I haven't decided which way I'm going to go yet.

What’s your favourite ScummVM game and why?

Tough call. I think Day of the Tentacle will always be my sentimental favourite since I remember how much fun I had playing that when it was new; I can still quote the entire intro. During my daily train commute, I have been having a lot of fun playing Flight of the Amazon Queen and others that I haven't played before - I've got the vacuum, now if only I could find the real secret passageway in the Floda library...

Which Android device do you use currently, and is there an Android device out there now, or in the pipeline that you’d love to own?

I have a G1 and recently a G2. I'm looking on enviously at these Motorola Droids that everyone is talking about - the hardware is a whole generation along from the first HTC handsets. If someone is going to give me an Android device for free, I'll take the sportscar with an in-dash Android touchscreen, thanks.

What’s your current favourite Android app?

I use NewsRob and Listen every day to keep up with what is going on in the world. I never had a data plan or owned a smartphone before my G1, so I am still wowed by having Google Maps in my pocket. Yeah I know, I'm lame ;)

Do you plan on working on any more Android development projects in the future?

Yes, absolutely - I just need to stop putting all my time into ScummVM first. Since I tend to do all my personal coding work while offline on the train, I am bad at building communities. Hopefully getting the Android port merged into the main ScummVM tree will make it easier for other people to help out.

If so, can you give us a little teaser as to what that might be?

I have some toy, unfinished apps that will probably never make it off my laptop, like a MythTV remote and a Lego Mindstorm controller.

I have a mostly working DosBox port, but I haven't tried to optimise it yet so I don't know how slow it is going to be in practice. This involved doing an Android SDL port and assembling a more complete C++ toolchain, so hopefully this will make future games easier to port.

What I'd really like to try next is something that used the 3D hardware and had a multiplayer/networking side to it - I'm still investigating various free software games to find a good candidate.

Optus preventing access to paid Android apps

2009-11-27T08:25:00.001Z

I was shocked to read the news over the past couple of days that Australian mobile carrier Optus have blocks in place which apply to Android devices on their network that prevent users from seeing any apps in the official market that require a payment to install. The opinion of some observers seems to be that Optus are trying to muscle in on some of Google's revenue from paid apps. This is only going to hurt developers more at a time when we could really do with encouraging, rather than demoralising, them.
Meanwhile, any Australian Android users out there who would like to see the paid for apps, I'd seriously consider the suggestion from the article at APC Mag - root your phone and use an app called Market Enabler to allow you to see the Android Market for another region. Another method that apparently works is inserting a non-Optus SIM in to your phone. Given that you're not getting full functionality of your phone from Optus, I'd consider voting with my feet too.
You can read the full APC article, including a few comments from Optus and Google representatives, here.

Korean manufacturer, Inbrics, announces new Android-driven MID

2009-11-26T10:36:00.001Z

Little known Korean electronics firm Inbrics have announced that they will be releasing an Android powered MID. There's not a lot of info to go on as yet, but what we do know is that the unit will have an AMOLED touch screen, an 800MHz CPU, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS and WiFi built-in. Further information will no doubt be leaked over time and the company themselves have said that they'll have a full spec sheet come next year's CES. The company are best known for their VOIP expertise, so I'd expect to see some form of VOIP calling app baked in to the device.
See the video below for a little teaser.

Ustream viewer for Android released

2009-11-25T16:15:00.001Z

The UStream Broadcast app for streaming live video from an Android device was released a month or two back, but today sees the release of a beta version of the Ustream Viewer app. From the app description-

Ustream.com is the leading live interactive media platform on the web. The free Ustream Viewer for Android enables you to watch live and recorded Ustream shows from your Android device while on the go.

Ustream has integrated text chat functionality, so you can converse with other viewers of the stream you are watching or listening to. I've had a play around with it and it looks like a pretty good video browser. The quality of some of the videos I streamed was pretty good over wi-fi. The quality of some of the content itself however isn't great, and some of the feeds aren't exactly massive audience draws (for example, there are a couple of channels showing nothing but a live broadcast of some alpacas...) but there's a lot of potential here, and existing users of Ustream are sure to love it.

Find out more at Ustream's site.

ADC2 Public judging now closed, winners to be announced on 30th November

2009-11-25T09:18:00.000Z

The final round of public voting for the 2nd Android Developer's Challenge (ADC2) has now closed according to a post on the official Android Developer blog. The overall winners will be announced on November 30th.
The blog post can be found here.
The Top 200 applications that went through to this final round were:-

Android Application	Category
4 Player Reactor (ADC)	Games: Arcade/Action
A World Of Photo	Entertainment
A-GLOBAL-MIND	Social Networking
A.D.A.M	Entertainment
Agile Messenger IM	Social Networking
AirPainter	Lifestyle
Album Art Grabber for ADC2	Lifestyle
Alex Digital Secretary	Productivity/Tools
aLock	Misc
Always Prompt	Travel
AMon (adc2 version)	Lifestyle
Andrometer 1.0	Misc
AndShowtime	Misc
Animal Compass	Misc
AnyStop: The Transit Companion	Travel
AnyWidget	Misc
aPortaDrum	Media
AppManager (ADC2-edition)	Productivity/Tools
Apps Organizer Adc	Productivity/Tools
Appshare	Social Networking
aShadow Finder	Lifestyle
Atmosphere: Trainer	Games: Arcade/Action
Atomic Blaster	Games: Arcade/Action
BabelSnap! (Trial)	Travel
Bambuser ADC2	Social Networking
Bazooka Rabbit Demo For ADC	Games: Arcade/Action
Blink	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Blockx 3D Pro (ADC2)	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Books-EX	Social Networking
Botanica	Education/Reference
Buzz Deck beta	Media
Calton Hill GPSCaddy	Misc
Car Locator	Travel
Cartoon Gang	Social Networking
Ce:real - Everyday trends	Social Networking
Celeste	Education/Reference
ChordBot	Media
Citizenside	Media
ClapCard	Social Networking
Comeks Microphone Hero	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Complete Memorization	Education/Reference
CubeWorks	Productivity/Tools
Daisy Garden	Entertainment
Decades	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Decaf: EC2 on your Android	Misc
Detexify: LaTeX Recognizer	Education/Reference
Dialify	Misc
Digital Recipe Sidekick	Lifestyle
DJ'it	Lifestyle
Drive - AR Navigation System	Travel
Drocap	Productivity/Tools
DroidSpray	Entertainment
EarthTime	Education/Reference
Eclosion	Productivity/Tools
Entertain Me	Entertainment
Event Flow	Productivity/Tools
Executive Assistant	Misc
Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab	Education/Reference
Flick It!	Games: Casual/Puzzle
FlingTap Done	Productivity/Tools
Flu Tracker	Education/Reference
FlyScreen	Misc
Food Canary in a Restaurant	Travel
FoxyRing ADC2	Lifestyle
FRG	Games: Arcade/Action
Friend or Foe	Social Networking
FriendBook	Lifestyle
Fun Buzz Widget	Entertainment
FUN2Learn	Education/Reference
Fusion WebServer - Phone2Web	Productivity/Tools
FxCamera (for ADC2)	Media
g-tar	Entertainment
GangWars	Games: Arcade/Action
GeoNotes	Social Networking
Gigbox	Lifestyle
Golfuls	Entertainment
GPS Toolbox ADC2	Travel
Graviturn 1.0	Games: Arcade/Action
Grooveshark Mobile	Media
Handcent Messaging	Productivity/Tools
Handy Poll ADC	Productivity/Tools
Head To Head Racing	Games: Arcade/Action
Hoccer ADC2	Productivity/Tools
HotelsByMe: Hotel Reservations	Travel
How-To Videos from Howcast.com	Media
iLomo	Entertainment
iNap: Arrival Alert (ADC2)	Travel
InTrouble	Lifestyle
JAM session	Entertainment
Jelix	Games: Casual/Puzzle
JumpyBall 3D	Games: Arcade/Action
KAN-BAN WORLD	Misc
Kanji with Picture	Education/Reference
KUMPA	Games: Casual/Puzzle
LawLocale	Travel
Learn!	Education/Reference
Light Racer 3D Trial	Games: Arcade/Action
Locale Ping.fm Plug-In	Social Networking
Lucid ADC2	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Manchego!	Education/Reference
Maverick	Travel
Mazeness	Games: Casual/Puzzle
medAssist.me	Misc
Mediafly Mobile ADC Edition	Media
MeetByChance.me	Social Networking
MicroJam	Media
midNite movie	Entertainment
Missing Children ADC	Misc
mobilematics	Education/Reference
mobiProfessor	Education/Reference
Mobisle Notes	Productivity/Tools
Mom's shopping list	Lifestyle
Moto X Mayhem	Games: Arcade/Action
Mover	Lifestyle
MoVue	Travel
Mowsic Midi-Over-Wireless	Media
mPuzzle	Games: Casual/Puzzle
MultiLex English Explanatory	Education/Reference
musikCube	Media
MyPosition	Travel
N. American Conquest (ADC)	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Nebudroid	Entertainment
NetDroid	Lifestyle
NewsRoom	Productivity/Tools
Nintaii	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Office Exercise	Misc
Open Gesture	Misc
Personal Finance	Misc
Phonebook Sharing	Social Networking
PhoneHotel	Travel
Photo BURST ADC2	Media
PhotoShoot - The Duel (ADC)	Games: Arcade/Action
PhotSpot(ADC2ver)	Travel
PickYouUp	Travel
Plink Art	Education/Reference
Pobs	Games: Casual/Puzzle
PocketDJ	Media
Pocoro	Games: Casual/Puzzle
PrivateMedia	Media
ProjectINF ADC	Games: Arcade/Action
Radiant	Games: Arcade/Action
Rhythm Guitar	Misc
Rhythmatics™ Alpha	Lifestyle
Robotic Guitarist (ADC2)	Education/Reference
Runes MMORPG - Alpha release	Games: Arcade/Action
Screebl	Productivity/Tools
Scribble	Social Networking
Scribtor	Misc
Seek ’n Spell	Games: Casual/Puzzle
SFR Postcard	Entertainment
Sign Translation	Travel
SingSong	Entertainment
Sketch Online	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Smart Alarm Clock	Lifestyle
SocialMuse	Social Networking
Solo - ADC2	Entertainment
SongDNA	Entertainment
Sonorox (ADC2)	Entertainment
Space STG - Galactic Wars	Games: Arcade/Action
SPB TV for ADC	Media
Spectral Audio Analyzer ADC2	Media
SpecTrek	Lifestyle
Speed Forge 3D	Games: Arcade/Action
Spheremare	Games: Arcade/Action
Sports Trek	Travel
SpotMessage for ADC2	Social Networking
Stroids - ADC2	Games: Arcade/Action
Subzero Challenge	Games: Arcade/Action
Sudoku Camera	Games: Casual/Puzzle
SweetDreams	Lifestyle
Swift Twitter App (ADC2)	Social Networking
TapDialer	Misc
Taps Of Fire	Entertainment
Tasker	Productivity/Tools
taskTopia	Productivity/Tools
Tesla - PC Remote Control	Media
TextEZFast	Social Networking
Thinking-Space	Productivity/Tools
Time-Lapse Trial	Media
Todoroo	Lifestyle
TopoDroid	Travel
Totemo	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Tracklet	Productivity/Tools
Trip Journal	Travel
Trippo	Education/Reference
TuneMagic	Media
TweetAssist	Social Networking
Uloops	Media
UrbanGolf light	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Voicetrans (ADC)	Education/Reference
WaveSecure	Productivity/Tools
Web Clip Widget	Lifestyle
WebWidget	Misc
What the Doodle!? (ADC2)	Games: Casual/Puzzle
Who's Calling	Entertainment
Word Puzzle	Education/Reference
Xeeku Photo Journal	Lifestyle
Xeeku Twitter	Social Networking
Yuilop	Entertainment
Zenith	Education/Reference

Custom Eclair ROM for HTC Hero one step closer?

2009-11-24T15:44:00.004Z

Ok, this is a short one, but it's big enough news to warrant mentioning. Paul O'Brien, the man behind the MoDaCo custom ROMs has just posted the following tweet-

"Just booted Eclair on my Hero! And no, it's nowhere NEAR ready for a release... ;-)"

I know I'm pretty excited by that piece of news, that's for sure. The effort that must go in to creating the MoDaCo roms is nothing short of herculean. Paul, you're a legend in my eyes.
Obviously, I'd imagine this isn't going to be a version which includes HTC's Sense interface as that will need to be done by HTC, but I'm sure a lot of folks will be willing to ditch Sense until HTC release their version of the update if it means they can get their paws on Android 2.0.

EDIT - Actually, this is an official HTC build according to another tweet from Paul -

"Official, but early early early build..."

Still no sign of the Motorola Milestone/DROID at any of the UK carriers...

2009-11-24T12:46:00.002Z

Like many folks in the UK, I've been keeping an eye on any news of the Motorola Milestone (the European version of the DROID) being released on these shores. So far, there is no news, other than a pre-order option being briefly available at eXpansys before being pulled (apparently temporarily) and another company, Super eTrader also taking pre-orders at a £439.99 price with the phone expected to be in stock in December.
I got in touch with O2 UK, as it's O2 who are carrying the Milestone in Germany, and they told me that they currently have no plans to carry the Milestone in the UK. There are rumours on the internet hinting at T-Mobile being the possible carrier in the UK, but their PR department has so far not responded to my questions at all. When I contacted Motorola's press department, they simply stated that there is no news as yet.
Surely someone in the UK will carry this phone. It is, for the moment at least, the flagship Android device. I just wonder if the rumours regarding T-Mobile as the possible carrier are true. They've certainly embraced Android devices so far. Time will tell. For now, the elusive UK edition of the Motorola Milestone is nowhere to be seen.

EDIT- Clove.co.uk are also taking pre-orders for the Milestone, with the stock expected on 7th December. They're selling it slightly cheaper than Super eTrader at £401.35 inc VAT.

Gameloft in Android u-turn

2009-11-24T09:25:00.002Z

Following on from Gameloft's comments about significantly cutting their investment in the Android platform, because "On Android nobody is making significant revenue.", it appears they've had a change of heart. A recent press release from Gonzague de Vallois, vice-president of Publishing at Gameloft states that -

"The arrival of this new generation of phones will allow the development of High Definition games that make the most of the technological capacity and the speed of execution offered by the new Android phones. Consumers will benefit from a top quality gaming experience,"

The press release continues-

Gameloft also continues to support the current generation of Android phones and announces the imminent arrival of titles such as Assassin's Creed. These titles will be accessible on the Android Marketplace and Gameloft internet sites and will further strengthen our catalogue of Android games already available.

Make your minds up chaps! In fairness, it may still be that Gameloft plan on cutting back on their Android development, but the timing of this latest, more positive announcement, so soon after the negative one last week, smacks of a PR thing.
At the end of the day though, this can only be good news for Android, we don't want the software houses seeing it as unprofitable. The more interest there is in the big boys developing desirable software for the platform, the quicker app sales will grow. The more sales grow, the more developers will opt to begin developing for Android.
Read the press release here.

What can be done to improve the Android market?

2009-11-23T13:39:00.001Z

If you've been following Android-related news over the past few days, you'll surely have spotted the recent comments from French software company Gameloft, that they intend to scale back their development for Android (I won't rehash the news here or go over why I think it's a bad move for Gameloft, but if you want to read more on it, check out the article at Android Guys). Whilst the general response to the news from many Android users is one of indifference - Gameloft's Android offerings aren't exactly up there with the classics, their stance is one that Google need to take notice of. The market undeniably has some major flaws:-

App discoverability

Firstly, for a developer, discoverability of your software is a concern: with the number of apps in the Android marketplace steadily growing, it's easy for an app to get lost amidst the Megan Fox wallpapers and Seinfeld soundboards. There is an argument that the onus on promotion should lie with the developer, and that's a valid point, but from a users point of view, it's much harder to just stumble across an interesting app by nosing around in the market than it was even two months ago (although, mercifully, we no longer seem to be continually bombarded with paid for apps offering images of Japanese girls by the likes of Sapphire Apps as we were a little while back - kudos to Google for nipping that one in the bud). Google have made changes, including allowing screenshots in the Marketplace to help assist with app promotion, but cleaning up the market would probably requre far stricter restrictions on the quality of apps that are uploaded, weeding out the apps that don't come up to scratch. That's a stance I don't expect, nor want, Google to take - the Android platform is all about openness, it's diversity is one of it's biggest strengths.

Payment issues

Secondly, payment options - I've heard from a number of developers who are more than a little disgruntled with the stats they're seeing on Google Checkout. One developer told me they see as many as 10% of their potential sales disappear at the checkout stage because their customers don't have, or don't want to use, a credit card. It can't be that difficult to offer alternative payment methods, such as Paypal, can it?

Piracy

The third issue, is probably one of the biggest concerns for all developers of paid apps- piracy. Software piracy in Android is a big problem according to the developers I've spoken to. The policy of allowing a user to return a paid for app within a 24 hour trial period gives would-be pirates ample time to get their hands on an app, crack it, and then return it for a full refund. Again, there is an argument that the developers themselves need to work out their own anti-piracy methods, but there have been complaints from some devs that the usage terms of the Android Market make some copy protection methods difficult to implement. Developers ArtfulBits are hoping to convince developers to implement a pirate blacklist check in their apps. The idea being that there is a centralised database of phones that have been know to use pirated software, apps are coded to check the blacklist on startup and close automatically should the phone they are being run on be on the list. This seems more than a little draconian to me, open to exploitation and a real headache for those who are affected by false positives, or who own a second hand phone which was on the list at some point. The fact that developers are even considering such measures highlights how big the problem is.

So what can be done? Perhaps we need one of the independent marketplaces to step up to the plate and make an alternative market that gives developers the platform they want to promote their apps and gives users an easily navigated market to browse? Maybe we do just need our devs to man up and shoulder the responsibility for themselves? I'd love to hear your suggestions and thoughts on the current state of the Android Market, good and bad.

ScummVM update released - fixes HTC Hero trackball issue

2009-11-20T10:48:00.005Z

I know there are a lot of folks out there who use the ScummVM port for Android on their phones, and I also know that there are lots of those ScummVM users who have an HTC Hero and who found it was fiddly to play some of their titles due to selecting by clicking the trackball not functioning as it does on earlier phones. Well, Angus Lees, the developer who created the port, has just released a big update that fixes a few issues, and includes a workaround for the HTC Hero trackball click issue. Here's the changelog-

Just uploaded a new version to the Market. The big change is that the game engines are now split out into separate packages. So now you need both ScummVM and at least one of the ScummVM engine packages.
Visible changes:

* Package split
* Virtual keyboard support. Hold down menu to make it pop up. Won't pop up on anything that has a physical keyboard (G1).
* Allow cursor moving via D-PAD, for trackball-less handsets.
* Sync up to latest upstream scummvm 1.0.0pre codebase.
o New engines. In particular: Discworld! ("tinsel" engine).
* Trackball press workaround for HTC Hero.
* Engine data files (eg: kyra.dat) should be found correctly inside the ScummVM package. Remove any stale kyra.dat's you may have in your game directories.
* Give a useful error message if SD card is unavailable (eg: still mounted on PC).
* Logos updated to the new capitalised versions, to match upstream.
* Added maxsdkversion=4 to declare that we don't work on Android 2.0 (Droid) yet

Enjoy.

Still no joy for DROID users yet, but hey, you guys get to play around with Android 2.0, so forgive me for not shedding too many tears.
With this update, there are now engine plugins available which should allow for the majority of the most popular Scumm games to be played. I'd been periodically checking in at the ScummVM forums, but found there hadn't been any updates or posts from the dev for a while, so I'd assumed this project had been abandoned. It looks as though, in actual fact, the dev has just been busy working on the updates. These updates solve a lot of issues that have caused people grief for a while now - the hero trackball issue being one, but the lack of a virtual keyboard was also a common complaint from users.
Angus Lees, you've just made me a happy man. Now I can finally click that infuriatingly small object in the first area of Beneath a Steel Sky which had previously prevented me getting any further with the game! Good work fella.

Offical name for the XPERIA X10 interface revealed

2009-11-19T11:49:00.001Z

The official name for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10's user interface, sorry, 'user experience', has now officially been revealed. For a while now, the interface has been dubbed "Rachel" by tech sites around the intertubes, but it's official name is actually the much more macho sounding Nexus. The word around the web is that Nexus will be used by Sony Ericsson across other non-Android Sony Ericsson phones, such as their Symbian devices too (oh joy, yet more fragmentation of the Android OS...).
Read more here at Slashgear.

This follows hot on the heels of some other XPERIA X10 related news - The folks at the Android and Me site spotted an entry on the Wall Street Journal that had the X10 down as costing 6,000 Swedish kroner, which is a hefty 879 US dollars or 519 British pounds. Read the full Android and Me article here.

WaveScure release update which fixes battery drain issues

2009-11-18T10:52:00.000Z

The good folks at WaveSecure have been in touch to let me know that they have uploaded an update to WaveSecure which, among other things, fixes the battery drain issues which caused a lot of people to drop the software due to a drastically reduced battery life whilst running the otherwise great piece of software. The new update also includes support for the Sprint Hero, Moto Cliq and HTC Tattoo.
For those who aren't familiar with WaveSecure, it's a security that helps you protect your device and the data it contains. You can use it to-

Track down your phone's location and who is using it
Lock down your phone remotely, make it worthless to the thief
Backup all your data, automatically and securely
Wipe out your data remotely, protect your privacy

I reviewed the app a few weeks back and the battery issue was the only real drawback I found, but it was a big one. I'm going to install and run the updated version for a bit and I'll report back my findings in due course.
There's a complete summary of the updates and fixes here.

Free Christmas-themed update for Puzzle Blox

2009-11-16T14:11:00.005Z

Popular Android game Puzzle Blox is getting a Christmas makeover. The game's developer, André Rabold, recently announced on his blog that a free update with a Christmas theme will be available over the next few days. André is one of my favourite Android devs, he seems to put a lot of effort in to continually updating Puzzle Blox, Puzzle Blox Arcade and Wifi Buddy, so it doesn't surprise me that he's giving the folks who have purchased his game a free Christmas gift. There are a number of Android devs out there who, like André either already have, or soon will, develop a strong following who look out for any apps they create, purely because those customers know that the levels of after-sales support and updates are high. It shows that it pays to keep the customer happy; whilst devs won't make money out of the free updates they provide, they could find they earn more sales for their next app through building up a good reputation. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the update.
Read more about it here.

Sony Ericsson announce release date for Xperia X10

2009-11-16T11:17:00.003Z

Those folks who, like me, are eagerly looking forward to seeing the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 in action can now pencil in February 10th as the date we can expect it to be released. Sony Ericsson have made an official announcement to that end on their official UK site. It's not clear yet if this is a global launch date or a UK specific date. From the announcement-

Sony Ericsson XPERIA^TM X10 - The most human and intuitive user experience yet.

The all new XPERIA^TM X10 showcase a revolution in mobile entertainment and highlights the world class abilities of Sony Ericsson technology.

Powered by the new Android operating system with 1 Gigabyte of internal memory and a superfast 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the touch screen X10 provides quick access to social media services and contacts via a rich graphical user interface.

With a remarkable 8 megapixel camera, fitted with Smile detection, Touch focus and Send to web, the XPERIA^TM X10 breaks boundaries by being the first android phone to feature an 8 mega pixel camera.

The X10 also features a variety of social media applications such as Mediascape and Timescape^TM, allowing you to manage all of your communications in one place, browse conversations, check out your tweets on Twitter^TM or photos, emails and texts.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia^TM X10, raising the bar in mobile technology.
The XPERIA^TM X10 will be available in Sensuous Black from Q1.
For more information about the X10 and other Sony Ericsson products visit the Official Sony Ericsson blog here.

I can't wait to see this phone start to make an appearance in the wild. I'm dying to find out if the leaked interface designs come close to the finished product. If they do, this could be the flagship Android phone and very possibly the best phone available.

One thing that struck me from the announcement though - it'll apparently be available in "Sensuous Black"....Um...Sensuous Black? What's wrong with just plain Black? It's either black or it's not, why give it a ludicrous description? We're not shopping for paint here.

Vega touchscreen tablet, running Android 2.0 on the way

2009-11-13T16:22:00.002Z

ICD (Innovative Converged Devices) have announced that they will be releasing a low cost Android 2.0-powered tablet in the first half of 2010. The tablet, known as Vega, will feature a 15.6" 1366 x 768 touchscreen, 512MB RAM and 512MB NAND Flash, a forward facing camera for video calls or general camera use, Micro SD slot and will be capable of 2G/3G cellular connectivity. All of this powered by an Nvidia Tigra CPU.
It's a sleek and modern looking device with impressive specs. It'll be interesting to see how it performs upon it's release.
Read more here.

App for auto-switching between static and dynamic IP addressing

2009-11-12T12:05:00.000Z

Way back when I started this blog, I wrote an article detailing how to go about setting a static IP for your phone's wifi and bemoaned the lack of an app that would automatically switch between static and dynamically assigned addressing. Well, now there's one available. It's called Wifi Static and has been developed by farproc. I've tested it out and am happy to announce that it works! Now I don't have to keep manually turning off and on the static addressing. Not only that, but you can specify different static IP addressing for different wireless APs, so any poor soul who was having to juggle a couple of different static IP address schemes can now breathe a sigh of relief.

I know there are a lot of folks out there who have been hoping and waiting for an app like this. Go get it!

Review - physics game, Papa Stacker

2009-11-11T10:01:00.004Z

Camel Games, the development team behind Space Physics, have just released another physics puzzle game to the market - Papa Stacker. In Papa Stacker, you have to arrange a pre-set number of different sized and shaped blocks on top of each other in such a way that, when all of the blocks have been dropped, they can stay upright for ten seconds.
Here's the description from teh Android Market-

Cute shapes for you to play with. Stack them all up in a stable way, and last for 10 seconds! A full featured level editor enables you to edit your own creative levels.
When yuo touch the screen, a stack will follow your finger. Move the stack to the position desired. Then release your finger to let it go.

It's not a new idea, but it has been adapted well to a touchscreen format. Early levels ease you in gently to the gameplay and are solvable very quickly, but later levels are distinctly tougher and can take a bit of careful planning and/or trial and error experimentation to get through.
The best part about Papa Stacker for me though, is that it comes with a level editor, so that budding sadists can generate their own fiendish (or impossible, if you're that sort of person) level designs.
Overall I'd say this is a fun little game, nothing ground-breaking, but it's accessible enough to be playable by anyone whilst also providing enough of a challenge in later levels to keep those who like to test themselves happy. The level editor means that it's got high replayability too. The only real criticism I can level at it is that the Lite version only has 6 of the very easy levels in. These levels don't necessarily show off just how carefully you have to plan block positioning in later levels. Perhaps a better approach for really showcasing the game would have been to post one level from each level of difficulty (Easy, Medium, Tricky and Hard), but this is a minor issue that really does not apply to the gameplay.
Papa Stacker is available on the Android Market now for $1.99, there is also a free, 6-level Lite version available if you'd like to give it a whirl before shelling out.

Some user comments-

"Brilliant!" - (5 out of 5 stars)
"Cute game, kids like it" - (4 out of 5 stars)
"Weird controls" - (2 out of 5 stars)

UPDATE 15/11/09- Camel Games have been in touch to say that an update is now live which adds functionality for allowing users to upload/download player created levels and also a facility for rating custom levels.

Samsung launch Bada, an open mobile OS and competition for Android

2009-11-10T13:19:00.001Z

Samsung have just announced that they will be launching their own open mobile platform, called Bada. They will be holding a developer conference in December to formally launch the OS and to release the SDK to developers. Given that Android is going from strength to strength, and is free, why waste time developing your own OS, particularly one that is solely for Samsung devices? Samsung claim Bada will "deliver simple, intuitive, and innovative user experiences through innovative visual design". It will have it's own "next generation" user interface which Samsung seem to be quite proud of, but it's hard to tell as there have been no photos leaked as yet.
Samsung hope that "bada-powered devices will be a significant force in the (mobile) market in 2010". Time will tell I guess, but, whilst this is a bold, ambitious move, I just can't see any benefit to not sticking with Android. It's free and there are already devs out there using it. Even releasing a custom Samsung user interface in the same way as Sony Ericsson plan on doing with their Rachel User Experience. Unless, of course, Samsung know something about Android and it's future that we don't...?
You can find out more here, at the official Bada site.

HTC revenue dropped in Q3

2009-11-10T11:14:00.001Z

InfoWorld are reporting that Android OS pioneers HTC saw a drop in revenue of 10% for the third quarter of 2009, with it's net profit dropping from $6.99 billion to $5.70 billion. Expert analysts have put the drop in earnings down to increased competition in the smartphone market from the likes of the iPhone 3GS.
HTC themselves have stated that sales are growing in the US, but are weaker in Europe and they have stated they plan to strengthen their marketing efforts in Europe in an attempt to overturn this. With the HTC Dragon coming at some point in the next few months, and the Windows Mobile based HTC HD2 getting very favourable reviews it's likely that any marketing push will strongly feature those two devices.
See the full article here.

Spotlight on AndAppStore

2009-11-06T09:54:00.003Z

Following on from recent complaints from both users and developers alike about the shortcomings in the Android Marketplace, I thought I'd take a look at some of the alternative Android app stores that are available. There are more than I'd initially assumed there would be, but the one that interested me most was AndAppStore. AndAppStore provide apps for all Android devices, whether they are Google Approved or not, and, unlike the majority of app stores, they provide 100% of any royalties directly to the developer, taking no cut at all. Here is the description from the site's About page-

AndAppStore is aimed at serving users of all Android devices (both Google approved and unapproved), and we try to help the Android community in as many ways as possible, including;
Helping Users get access to Android Applications irrespective of whether their Android device is Google approved or not via either the on-device client or web interface.

Helping Developers by providing a site where they can list their applications, taking no

fees for paid applications, and giving them access to users on both Google approved and unapproved devices.
Helping OEMs & Porting Groups to give their users access to applications via our royalty-free on-device client which they can include on their devices and in their Android distributions.

The store was started in October 2008 and, whilst the contents of the app catalog is a mere fraction of the total number of apps in the Android Market proper (at present there are 272 apps listed in AndAppStore), I found their website significantly easier to navigate than the offical market, and apps can be purchased and downloaded directly from the site if so desired.

Customised versions of the AndAppStore client for use by OEM's and other interested parties have been developed, with Android-x86 and Vobis among those using AndAppStore in their distributions. Recently, there have been some controversial allegations surrounding a custom app store client which Funky Android, the company that operate AndAppStore, claim to have developed for Archos. Funky Android allege that a breach of a non-disclosure agreement between the two parties has taken place as, according to Funky Android, the client currently in use on the Archos 5 Android internet tablet, AppsLib, originally used the same system architecture and data formats as the version of AndAppStore which was supplied to Archos (in newer versions of AppsLib the data formats have moved away from the alleged similarities to the AndAppStore version). For obvious legal reasons, I'm reticent to go in to too much detail about this issue, but if you would like to read more, FunkyAndroid have issued a couple of press releases on the allegations here and here.

Another advantage that AndAppStore has over the official Android Market is the acceptance of payments via PayPal, so those users who have a debit card which is not accepted by Google Checkout, such as a Maestro card for example, can purchase apps. Considering that I've recently heard complaints from some developers that as much as 10% of potential purchases of their apps are failing at the checkout stage, this can only be a good thing for developers.

As part of my research in to the store, I had the opportunity to put a few questions to AndAppStore developer and Funky Android director, Al Sutton:-

What was the inspiration for AndAppStore?

When AndAppStore was set up very little was known about Google Market and how developers would get access to it, so the main source of inspiration was to give developers a service where they could distribute their apps in the way they wanted to.

As time progressed we were approached by OEMs and porting groups working on versions of Android which weren't going to have the "Google experience" label and so were looking for a way to give their users access to Android applications. We were more than happy to let them include our client in their devices and in return we received some fantastic feedback from them and their users which gave us even more ideas.

We're now getting inspirational suggestions from both sides, which is exactly what we wanted. Developers tell us how they want to distribute their apps and users tell us how they want to get them, so we can look for commonalities between the two and that gives us some areas to think about.

AndAppStore passes 100% of royalties to developers, with it's revenue coming mainly from advertising and from providing customised versions of the app for OEM's and hardware manufacturers. Without giving away any figures, has the business grown as much as you'd envisaged on startup, not as quickly, or even quicker would you say?

Initially things were slower than we expected, but as more devices started to be released without Googles Market we've seen user numbers increase. We've been pro-active about approaching OEMs and porting groups as well as publicising the fact that our on-device client is royalty free, and both of these approaches helped to boost our business to the point where our regular monthly income covers the running costs, and any customisation work can be used to fund expansion and investment in new ideas. We did suffer a fairly major financial setback when Archos failed to pay us for the work we did for them, but we're now back on track.

We held off supporting pay-for only applications until after we'd reached this point because we didn't want to rely on having to take a cut of developers sales or to have to announce one rate and then later increase it because we hadn't got our business plan correct. We'd initially planned to allow pay-for only apps a few months before we did, but it was important to us we got it right and made it sustainable.

Are there any restrictions or criteria to be met for apps that can be distributed through AndAppStore? Do you screen the apps in any way?

We don't screen the apps or have any requirements because we want accommodate all developers, but we do listen to user feedback. We do have the ability to suspend applications and developers being listed, but we've so far not needed to do that and all of the developers who've listed apps have been very professional in the way they've handled feedback from users.

Recently, your company released a couple of press statements detailing an alleged breach of a non-disclosure agreement by Archos. Has this dented your confidence in engaging in customisations for third parties, in particular the larger companies such as Archos?

The problem with Archos hasn't put us off at all. They're only one OEM in a field of many, and whilst we would have preferred them to act in a more respectful and professional manner we're under no illusion that all OEMs are the same. The directors of Funky Android (the company behind AndAppStore) have several decades experience of corporate environments and so we know that every now and again situations like the Archos one can arise.

We've been in contact with companies bigger and smaller than Archos and every other company or group we've dealt with has either acted in the way that any business would expect to be treated or gone beyond what we'd hoped, so we're still happy to offer customisations to any OEM or group who is willing to pay for the work to be done.

Which genre of apps (eg games, networking utilities) have proven most popular on AndAppStore?

Games & Entertainment holds around 1/3 of the apps listed at AndAppStore, with Puzzle & Word games being the biggest sub-category within it, so that's the one that's popular with developers.

In terms of user popularity, well, it tends to vary. Our weekly top 10 at the moment has a range of things from a comic book viewer to a file manager, and from a twitter client to a terminal emulator, so it's a very mixed bag.

Analytics firm Flurry recently released figures that suggested a massive 94% increase in new Android development project startups over the past couple of months, have you noticed a similar increase in apps being uploaded to AndAppStore?

We have, and it's been amazing to see. We now see developers listing more releases in three weeks than we saw in the first three months of operation, and the rate of new listings continues to increase.

One potential hazard for Android according to some experts, is the possible negative impact of fragmentation of OS versions, user interfaces and hardware. Do you see this as being a valid threat to the OS's success?

I can see that it could cause some problems, but I think that's something will work itself out. With multiple vendors already supporting Android on their devices it's going to be difficult to convince developers to support a feature only available on a limited number of devices. Developers may include code to enhance their applications to make use of a feature if it's available, but I doubt many would make a vendor-specific API a requirement to run their application because that would instantly reduce the number of potential users of their application by a significant amount.

The other thing to remember is that fragmentation tends to bring competition and innovation and that's always good for users and developers because whoever starts something new tends to try and make it easy to use and efficient because thats' how you attract people to it, so yes there may be some negatives, but there will also be positives from it.

Do you use an Android device yourself, and if so, which one(s)?

I do, I have a trusty G1 which I carry around with me. I also get to play with the devices companies send to us to work on customisations and compatibility issues, which is always interesting, and one device I currently have, a HighScreen Zeus, almost tempted me away from my G1 due to its' compact size. Unfortunately it's only going to be available in Russia.

In the future the company is going to be getting in an HTC Tattoo for QVGA testing, and then it'll be a choice between the Motorola Droid/Milestone, Acer Liquid, and Sony Xperia X10 for WVGA testing, so I'm looking forward to trying each of those out.

I'm impressed with AndAppStore and their apparent ethos of empowering developers. As uptake of Android based devices grows, I can only see the site going from strength to strength.

AndAppStore's site can be found here. There is also an installable AndAppStore client available at the site.

Review - Space STG

2009-11-05T12:33:00.003Z

Today we're going to take a look at a sci-fi real-time strategy game by Polish dev Gregorz Mackiewicz called Space STG. Here's it's description from the Android Marketplace-

"Space STG - Galactic Wars is real-time space strategy game. Build buildings, economies, ships, defence and technology. Send your fleets of ships to conquer enemy planets. Use nuclear missiles, probes, planetary defences, cloaking technology and more"

This game is based on old school sci-fi strategies such as Stars! and Master of Orion. You are charged with masterminding intergalactic domination. The playerdeals with resource and tech-tree management, offensive and defensive building and, of course, invading nearby planets. It's an ambitious project for what would appear to be a one-man development team.
How does it play? Well, to start off, this one is not for those who are short on patience. The dev is not a native English speaker (although he does an impressive job) and so the tutorial and menus can be a little confusing, which in some games, wouldn't be an issue, but in this case, this is not a game you can just pick up and expect to know your way around without a fair bit of experimentation. Because of similar complaints from others about the quality of the in-game tutorial, the dev has released a YouTube video version too(see below), which is markedly better. If you watch the video tutorial, you can get a feel for the style and flow of the game.

As a veteran Stars! player myself, I was intrigued by the concept of a mobile space strategy game. This isn't too bad as a first effort. The menu system is a little busy, and it's not always clear which sections of a screen are clickable and which are not. The learning curve is very very steep, and getting to know your way around takes time. This is a brave move for a mobile developer, the mobile market is usually dominated by casual games that users can dip in to for short spells at a time. There will be a lot of people who are unwilling to invest the time in learning the ropes of Space STG who will simply uninstall the game after a brief look around.
Gameplay revolves around conquering and colonising planets, then micro-managing each planet's resource harvesting and industries such that you can create more ships to go a-conquering other planets. The micro-management side of things is complex and interesting, with a number of different building and spaceship options. Combat and colonisation is less inspiring, consisting of nothing more than you sending your fleet to a planet and then being told via an in game messaging system whether you were victorious or not, which does little to discourage the sensation that the difference between the ships is little more than a higher attack number for the bigger ships being added to the overall attack value. If it felt like certain ships fared better against certain other units (for example, a bomber getting a bonus against planetary defenses), combat would be distinctly more tactical. It's very possible that this is already the case, but I certainly wasn't aware of it during play.
I found gameplay interesting, but not riveting. I think there are a lot of good ideas implemented in the game, but, despite the complexity of the micro-management of units, planets and resources, this never felt like anything more than an overly complicated version of other games such as the earlier Android game, Archipelago, or the iPhone game Galcon, both hugely simplified RTS's, but they benefit from that simplicity by being instantly playable on a mobile device. The combat in Space STG is essentially the same as those simpler games- send enough units from planet/island A to planet/island B such that you outnumber them. Because of this, the complexity of the management side of Space STG just feels like pointless fluff. This game is still being tweaked though and is fairly obviously a labour of love for it's developer. It definitely has potential and it may be that future iterations of the game are a much more polished and enjoyable affair.

Some user comments-

"Fun game, but needs more instruction" (4/5 stars)

"A fun RTS for a phone! who would have thunk?" (5/5 stars)

"Don't understand the point" (1/5 stars)

"As someone mentioned the tutorial is horrible. Took me time to figure out what was going on." (4/5 stars)

Droid Eris unboxing at BoyGeniusReport

2009-11-05T10:30:00.000Z

Images and info on the DROID Eris, Verizon's version of the HTC Desire, are thin on the ground, but the BoyGeniusReport have managed to get their hands on some unboxing photos. The device is apparently thinner and lighter than the Sprint Hero, and a lot nicer to hold. The BoyGeniusReport's contact also claims that the DROID Eris is the second best Android phone next to the Motorola DROID itself. High praise indeed.
It does look pretty slick.
You can check out the full unboxing article here.

New Android app site, DroidWeek, launches

2009-11-05T09:20:00.002Z

The people that brought us the Android and Me website have just launched a new site, DroidWeek, which will feature a weekly spotlight on Android applications and games. The new site has been optimised for use via a mobile device such as your Android, which is a nice touch. The site was privately announced to Android and Me forum members last week but was officially unveiled yesterday. Clark Wimberley, one of the site's designers, explained the concept-

"Droid Week will feature a new app (or game or widget) every week (Monday). Right now there are just three up to get things started but once we are in full swing I'm going to have monthly forum threads (here on the AAM forums) where we can nominate and vote on apps to feature (the winning suggestion will get the user featured on Droid Week- name, link, userpic). Droid Week is going to power our 'Download of the Week' you may have noticed lazily resting in the left sidebar (of the main AAM site). Each month, the app with the top 'yes' votes will be named our download of the month."

Android and Me is probably my favourite Android site, so I'm quite excited to see how this new idea pans out. The fact that this new site has been designed around ease of use from a mobile device, and the idea of featuring apps nominated by users should hopefully see this site become a much simpler repository for finding tried and trusted apps than the rather cluttered official market or the AndroLib/Cyrket sites.
The Android and Me site can be found here and the new DroidWeek site can be found here.

New MoDaCo custom ROM for HTC Hero released

2009-11-04T11:15:00.000Z

Paul at MoDaCo has released a new version of the HTC Hero custom ROM. Here are the details of the last two versions (it's up to 2.9 now)-

Changelog

2.9

Moved base to 2.73.405.61
Added Teknologist's 1.8 kernel with 80MB compcache, tun.ko etc. etc.
Added loxley's updated bootdeb script
Added super-APN file from Cyanogen's ROM
Added Hebrew fonts add on pack

2.8

MoDaCo Custom Kernel 1.2 featuring additional filesystem support (EXT4, NFS, CramFS, SquashFS 4.0), CompCache 0.5.4 modules and DroidWall support
Updated WiFi Tether (1.60 pre3)
Script to optionally remove dropbear SSH (run /system/bin/dropbearremove.sh via ADB)
Moved VoiceSearch to data partition (aids updgrading via market)
Removed Swapper and MoreLocale, now advised downloads in main post

The new version is available here. I suggest you read through all of the instructions and check the thread for feedback from others who have installed the ROM before installing.
There's also a new version of the custom radio file available too.

Droid review roundup

2009-11-04T10:36:00.004Z

Now that more and more reviews of the eagerly anticipated Motorola Droid are starting to appear, it's time to take a look at the findings of some of the reviewers to see if it lives up the hype.

Gizmodo
Check out the full review here.

The folks at Gizmodo seem to have been wowed by the Droid, saying "It's this simple: If you don't buy an iPhone, buy a Droid.". They say it's the "second best smartphone you can buy". That's not exactly what the Android-is-greater-than-iPhone brigade will want to hear, but it's most definitely glowing praise. They do also go on to say "If Droid is merely the first in a new wave, we have a lot to be excited about".

Gizmodo rated the Droid's 854x480 display and Android 2.0 very highly, but it lost marks for poor camera performance (with the reviewer even going so far as to claim that the Sprint Hero has a better camera) and an uninspiring keyboard.

The Good, according to Gizmodo -
"Display, display, display"
"Um, just look at it"
"A smartphone you actually want on Verizon!"

The Bad, according to Gizmodo -

"Keyboard is merely adequate, at best"

"Camera is utter garbage"

PC World

The full review can be found here.

PC World were also impressed with the Droid, but, like Gizmodo, were less impressed with the keyboard which they said was "shallow and flat, which can make typing uncomfortable.". They didn't rate the camera as badly as Gizmodo did, finding that outdoor shots looked great, but did concede that indoor shots "suffered from a significant amount of graininess".

Like Gizmodo, they still see the iPhone as the best of the smartphones, with the Droid not too far behind.

The Good, according to PC World-

The crisp, vibrant 854x480 display

The Droid's browser is quick to load pages

Hi-def playback of YouTube clips was excellent

Outdoor shots on the camera looked great

The Bad, according to PC World-

The keyboards is shallow and fiddly to use

No physical Talk or End keys
Grainy indoor shots on the camera

Phone Arena
Full review can be found here.

Like the other reviewers, Phone Arena were impressed by the Droid's display, stating it was "by far the best screen available on any Android handset". Unlike the others, Phone Arena were impressed with the Droid's camera, saying "Much to our delight, the 5-megapixel camera managed to meet our expectations and proves to be decent in preserving memories while on the go". Overall, they found little to fault with the phone except some choppy and laggy navigation between home pages.

The Good, according to Phone Arena -

"Quality built construction and design"
"Responsive and Brilliant Screen"
"Good call quality and signal reception"
"Decent photo and video capture"
"First with Android 2.0 and Google Maps Navigation"

The Bad, according to Phone Arena -
"A lot of open apps will run down the battery in a day"
"Accidental presses of the four touch sensitive buttons"
"QWERTY keyboard is nice to have, but keys feel cramped"

The reviews are well worth checking out in full if you have any interest in the Droid. The Phone Arena review in particular is very detailed, including a video of the phone in action. I'd also recommend reading the very in depth review done over at Phandroid.

So, the reviews are unanimous in their praise, finding fault only with the camera and the slightly fiddly keyboard. It sounds as though the Motorola Droid is now the undisputed king of the Android phones for now. It's not the iPhone killer that we'd hoped it would be, but it's most definitely a strong competitor, probably it's strongest. The next few months promise to bring possibly even stronger competition, with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 in particular, having a lot to live up to. Perhaps HTC can reclaim the Android throne with the HTC Dragon when it appears. Time will tell, but this next year will be interesting for anyone with an interest in Android.

Motally run Android app development competition

2009-11-03T12:24:00.001Z

Mobile analytics firm Motally have just launched a competition for Android developers. The top prize is a place at the next Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which runs from the 15th to the 18th of February 2010. 15 Runners up prizes of $1,000 and a randomly drawn 3rd place prize of $500 complete the prize offerings. The competition is open to all Android developers provided they sign up and use the Motally API in the app they wish to enter in to the competition.
Further details on the competition and it's rules can be found here.
The main website for the Mobile World Congress is here. Passes for the event range in price from €599 for a standard visitor pass to €4,999 for the full Platinum Pass.

Sony Ericsson X10 hands on at Engadget

2009-11-03T09:14:00.001Z

The good folks at Engadget were present at Sony Ericsson's unveiling event for their Android smartphone, the XPERIA X10 (at long last, we now know what it's called- the X10, rather than the X3). The phone's looks impressed Engadget, but the performance of the early build version that they got their hands on was less impressive-

"Calling the present interface "laggy" would be paying it an unearned compliment. We got the gist of what SE was trying to do here, but there's absolutely no way to evaluate whether the company has succeeded when usability was this low. With its Donut not even half baked, SE faces quite a challenge in trying to deliver its promised release in the first quarter of 2010"

It is important to note that this was far from the completed product, and I'm sure all the interface issues will be ironed out come release. I do wonder though, how close the interface will be to the super-slick concept videos that have 'leaked' (eg, the media player vid below). I know a lot of people are very excited by the interface. If SE can deliver on their conceptual designs, they're on to a winner.

Engadget's hands on review can be found here.

Android Developer Interview - Camel Games, the development team behind Space Physics

2009-11-02T08:43:00.001Z

Hot on the heels of the interview with Che Jami, the brain behind What The Doodle!? comes an interview with the team that created fiendish puzzler Space Physics (reviewed here).

What's your team's development background?

We are a small team with 2 programmers, 1 art designer and 1 game designer. We all graduated from the same college. In college we’ve already made some games as a team. Now we make iPhone and Android games part-time. It’s pretty fun for us to make games together, really satisfying.

Which Android devices do you use yourselves?

We have two Android devices: a G1 and a Magic. Hopefully Space Physics could buy us Motorola Droids for everyone :)

What inspired you to create Space Physics?

We love to play physics games, such as the famous Crayon Physics. However we could hardly find any physics games in Android before. So we took the responsibility to bring Android users the first amazing physics puzzle game. Space Physics borrows some ideas from Crayon Physics and Geometry Wars. And we add our own ideas to make it more unique and fit to touch screens, like the two direction car and special touch gestures.

How simple was it to build the physics engine you use for Space Physics with the Android SDK?

Space Physics uses NDK to wrap box2d as the physics engine. Thanks to Erin Catto.

How has the Android application publishing experience been for you? Are you inspired to write more apps for the platform?

It’s our first time to publish a game for Android. That was exciting and fun. We spent all our spare time for two months making this game. To be honest, what we’ve got so far is way less than we expected, especially comparing with another app store, if you know what we mean, LOL. But we think Android has potential. And we want to make more games for Android to gain more experience.

One thing that strikes me as a potential feature for future updates to Space Physics is a level editor to let users create their own puzzles. Is this something that's on the horizon?

We do plan to make a level editor, but somehow it’s not easy. If we can solve the problem of making backgrounds consistent with the level design, the level editor would not be far away. Anyway, we’re trying. Maybe it shows up some day, a surprise.

Which is your favourite Android app (other than your own of course)?

Labyrinth. Easy, fun, and makes you freak out.

How much potential do you feel the Google Android platform has?

We think it should surpass iPhone in future, for it’s more open and aggressive. But how fast depends on the attitude of Google. Lots of places need improving, especially the Market. Google need to learn a lot from Apple.

Yes, I've heard from a lot of developers hoping for improvements to the Market. With Android being such an open platform and the marketplace itself being fairly unrestricted, piracy is becoming a big concern and a number of developers have mentioned getting disheartened. Have you been affected in any way?

Yeah, we strongly think it’s a serious problem. Google could and should do better. Otherwise, even the platform becomes better and better, lots of good developers and companies still would not work for it.

What's on your personal wish-list regarding Android apps or features? Is there something you feel the platform is sorely missing?

Improve NDK, more features and more friendly on the developing environment. Developing high performance games depends on it. But now it’s lack of libraries and hard to use.

Provide more payment options. Take Space Physics for example, almost 10% orders failed because of credit card verification. Google Checkout hurts developers.

What drew you to developing in Android, and do you feel it is a powerful enough platform for developers?

The developing environment is most friendly among all mobile platforms. Programming in java is like playing games.

For general apps, it’s powerful enough. But for the type of CPU consumers like 3d games, Java has some inherent weaknesses. NDK is a way to work around. But you’ll lose the benefit of fast developing.

What's next for you - updates to Space Physics or an entirely new project?

Both. Updates including new features and improvements for Space Physics will be constantly (ongoing). And so will the releasing of new games.

Any advice for aspiring Android devs?

Be patient. It is the most important for now.

Space Physics is available for $2.99 from the Android Market. There is a free, 10 level, Lite version available too.

A year on from Steve Ballmer's prediction for Android...

2009-10-30T15:01:00.001Z

Just under a year ago, on November 6th, 2008, 'Mystic' Steve Ballmer gave the world a prediction on how he saw things going for Google Android's future.

At the time, Ballmer was speaking at a Telstra annual investment day and when asked about Android, he claimed that designing the phone OS wasn't going to be easy for Google. "They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense,"

With an uncanny lack of prescience, Ballmer questioned Google's ability to make money with Android. "I don't really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does. If I went to my shareholder meeting, my analyst meeting, and said, 'hey, we've just launched a new product that has no revenue model!'...I'm not sure that my investors would take that very well. But that's kind of what Google's telling their investors about Android,"

At the time, Ballmer claimed that, whilst the idea of Google giving away the operating system so that it can put it's search facilities on devices for free was sound, he felt that communications operators wouldn't be fooled and they'd still ask to be paid for carrying the search functions.

I wonder how he feels about Android now?

(the quotes came from this CNet article from Nov 2008)

Android 2.0 ported to G1

2009-10-30T11:26:00.000Z

Android 2.0 was only released a few days ago but Akira Harada has already gone and ported it to his T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream). It's still a very early port and isn't running perfectly yet, but it does show that it can be done.
Here's Akira's vid of Eclair running on his G1.

CNet review Archos 5 Internet tablet

2009-10-29T17:01:00.005Z

CNet recently posted a review of the Archos 5 Android Internet tablet. They gave it a rating of Good - 3 stars (out of 5). The reviewer was less than impressed with the slightly laggy touch screen responsiveness and the fingerprint magnet that is the glossy finish, but the Archos 5 earned plus marks for it's high-res display, good media playback and third party app support.
Here's a summary of the findings-

The good: The Archos 5 Internet tablet/portable media player offers a large, high-resolution touch-screen display, Wi-Fi, music playback, photos, Flash video and game compatibility, Bluetooth, e-mail, a Web browser, a built-in speaker, an integrated kickstand, GPS, and support for a limited selection of Android applications.

The bad: GPS signal reception is poor enough to make the feature useless; many popular Android apps are unsupported; Flash video support is hit or miss; no multitouch support for keyboard or gestures; text copy and paste is a chore; and the glossy design shows fingerprints.

The 3 out of 5 star rating seems to reflect the opinion of a number of the current Archos 5 users if the various Archos forums out there are anything to go by. It seems there are plenty of issues that have yet to be resolved. Among the more common complaints are the fact that there's no access to the Google Android Market (you have to use the Archos store), frequent crashes and poor battery life on some units. The Archos techies are constantly updating the firmware for the device though, so these may all get ironed out with time. That's no excuse though, why can't a product be released to market in a fully working state, rather than as a glorified beta?
The video review can be found here.

PC World make Android faux pas

2009-10-29T15:16:00.008Z

I just stumbled across an article on the PC World magazine detailing what they see as the main obstacle that could halt the Motorola Droid in it's race to be the iPhone killer that people are hoping it will be. I read on, hoping for an insightful article on the flaws inherent in the Android Market, only to find that...well, I'll let the article do the talking. Here's the first point I found interesting-

"There is still significant room for improvement though. What if I want an app that will convert between various currencies? Should I look under new apps, paid apps, or free apps? The answer is 'none of the above' and 'all of the above' and underscores some glaring issues with the Android Market."

Well, I've just opened the Android Market and done a search for "currency converter" and I've been given 19 different options, in a wide variety of prices, but I found them. That's what the search function is for after all - finding what you're looking for quickly, rather than randomly browsing the market in the hope that eventually you'll find what you're looking for.
Next up, this gem-

"...But, users should be able to view all of the apps together (in addition to the three views available now), and Android Market needs a search function (Google does search for a living so that shouldn't be a problem)."

Ummm....then what's this button, second from the bottom? You know, the one with the magnifying glass and the word "Search" next to it? I'd imagine the comments section of this article will start to fill up fairly quickly with allegations of iPhone-fanboyism or of it's writer being on the Apple payroll.
Then this-

"Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Android Market needs to categorize the apps and enable users to browse by type of app such as games, productivity, etc."

Has the writer even seen the Android Market app??? The apps are categorized exactly as described! I suspect the writer may have based his observations on the Android Market website, rather than the Android Market app on an Android smartphone, but the Android Market site is not a repository for browsing and/or installing apps, it's just a showcase of some of the more popular apps. As the site itself says, at the top-

"Check out our site for some of the more popular applications and games available in Android Market. For a comprehensive, up-to-date list of the thousands of titles that are available, you will need to view Android Market on a handset."

To be fair, the main thrust of the article is correct, the Android Market is definitely flawed, for both users and developers alike. As a user, I found I was unable to purchase apps until I got myself a credit card as Google Checkout, the only method of paying for apps bought directly from the Android Market, doesn't support UK debit cards. As a developer, losing precious sales at the checkout stage must be hugely frustrating and the market itself is wide open to exploitation by pirates - as things stand, a would-be pirate can pay for an app and download it, crack it if necessary, and prepare it for distribution. After all that, if they then use the return function within 24 hours, they'll get their money back.

If you would like to add your opinion on the article, you can see it here.

European HTC users are NOT getting Android 1.6.....they're going straight to 2.0 instead

2009-10-28T14:44:00.002Z

This is just a very brief update to spread some news which is starting to trickle through- Following on from the earlier post regarding Google's release of the Android 2.0 SDK, the folks at AndroidGuys have posted an email from HTC support which states that the European HTC Hero users will not be getting 1.6. Instead, HTC are concentrating on moving directly to Android 2.0, which is something that a number of people speculated might be the case a few weeks ago.
It'll be interesting to see what sort of timescale HTC are working to, but I suspect that they'll already be in full swing with development of HTC Sense in 2.0 as the mysterious HTC Dragon should be running it on release.
Read the full HTC email here.

Flurry analytics announce 94% increase in Android development project starts

2009-10-28T13:18:00.000Z

Fierce Wireless have news of a huge increase in new Android app development project starts. According to Flurry, Inc., the mobile analytics company, new project starts in Android were up 94% for September and October. That's a massive increase and it can only be good news for those with Android devices.
Flurry president, Simon Khalaf, told Fierce Wireless -

"Flurry market data shows that Android continues to gain interest from application developers, and that iPhone is no longer the only game in town,"

Interview with What the Doodle!? developer, Che Jami

2009-10-28T12:31:00.004Z

After falling in love with multi-player pictionary game, What the Doodle!?, I decided to try and get an interview with it's developer for This Android Life. The game's dreator, Che Jami, very kindly took time out from improving WTD!? to answer some of my questions. Here is the interview in full-

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your development background.

I'm 23 and graduated about a year ago from Imperial College London with a Masters in Artificial Intelligence. I've done the odd web application here and there with a primary focus on Java. Before working on 'WTD!?' I had no experience working with embedded systems and virtually no experience with online multiplayer games. I am also unemployed and just playing around with ideas while I don't have too many responsibilities.

What inspired you to create What the Doodle!?

I have always had an interest in real-time online multiplayer games. With recent developments in touch screen smart phones I spotted a niche in the market. 'WTD!?' started off as a proof of concept yet provided such exciting results that I soon turned it into a full fledged game. And yes, before anyone asks, I do love to play Pictionary :-)

How straightforward was the development cycle for the app? Were there any major headaches along the way?

It took me about 6 months to produce the beta version of 'WTD!?'. I had to learn pretty much everything from scratch, self-educating myself with tutorials, blogs, and reverse engineering existing demo code. The pressure really hit when ADC2 was announced mid-way my development, that's when the sleepless caffeine infused nights began. Due to time constraints, the system wasn't fully tested so a lot of it seemed theoretical until I released it to the market in early September. Now I know that everything pretty much works the way it should do which is a big relief.

What drew you to developing in Android? Is it a powerful enough platform for developers do you think and are there some features missing that you feel could improve it?

After graduation, one of my friends was going to work for Google, he told me about Android and about how it was going to be the next big thing. So out of curiosity I started looking into it and fiddling around. Obviously one thing lead to another and here I am with 'WTD!?'.

I think there is a lot of potential with Android. There is an enormous amount of hidden functionality that can only be uncovered through analysing the technical documentation or if you're lucky, the odd forum post here and there. I think that most of the flaws that Android has are only skin deep.

For now, I'm concentrating solely on Android. The application is currently tailored towards it with the use of Android specific widgets and optimisations. You can even put the game on hold, return to the home screen (using the Home button), quickly read an sms (or whatever you want to do) and return to the game through a notification in your status bar, all in the spirit of the multi-tasking Android. I also got quite excited when I got my sliding chat bar working! Overall, I do not feel restricted by Android, but rather, enabled by it.

What the Doodle!? has a lot of potential for further adaptions. Do you have any plans to add more game modes or additional features in forthcoming updates?

Definitely! I'm currently working on a Friends List that should be out next weekend. It'll allow players to add each other as friends, private message each other, and see which friends are online or offline. I hope to add many new modes in the near future, such as a team mode with split screen and also new modes with an additional gameplay element called 'deceiving' - I won't explain what that is now as I want to leave it as a surprise for the players. I also wish to polish up the existing freestyle mode, where people can collaboratively doodle and save their artwork. Different statistics and an achievements system are also on the list. I am continuously taking feedback from the community and incorporating different feature requests when and where appropriate. You can e-mail me at che.android@gmail.com and I'll be posting updates on my twitter page http://twitter.com/cdroid.

You mention in the app description that the game will be free for the duration of ADC2, have you decided on a price for the game after the contest has finished?

After ADC2, I'll be releasing a lite and paid version of 'WTD!?'. The lite version will be locked to early game play modes such as easy mode. The paid, unrestricted version, will initially cost one pound as I want to allow my beta players to get in cheaply. Any future prices will depend on market weather at that time.

Which Android device(s) are you using at the moment? Are there any other Android devices, either already released or on their way, that are on your wishlist?

I'm currently using an HTC Magic. I would like to get my hands on the Android-based Archos 5 - imagine playing on 'WTD!?' on a 5" screen! The Droid phone also looks interesting, but that's still a bit of mystery.

What's next for you - updates to What the Doodle!?, or something entirely new?

I'll be continuing to update 'WTD!?' until I'm satisfied with it, which may take a while considering the number of extensions I already have in mind for it. However I eventually want to move onto some more action-packed online real-time multiplayer games!

Do you have any advice for other aspiring Android developers?

For new developers I suggest the following steps:

Read up the tutorials and finish the the different exercises that are set up on the android developer website.
Get a rough idea of what sort of applications you want to build then dismantle the appropriate API demo.
Join an android developer community such as the android developer groups or anddev.com and try to absorb as much as possible.
Treat articles and forum posts by Mark Murphy from androidguys.com as gold - he must have a big head.
For optimisations, view the featured videos on the android developer website, especially the Google I/O ones although they are slowly getting outdated with each new version of Android.

And once you're set:

Scout the market. Find out what's missing and what people are looking for.
We don't need more cloners.
We don't need more tech demos.
Android needs more polished, functional and exciting applications. Once you release your application, market feedback will help guide you in the right direction.
Act fast, the market is growing everyday and that idea you just thought of is probably being thought of by someone else right now (if not a team of super-armed coders).

And finally, what's your own highscore in What the Doodle!?

I'm currently ranked 7th globally with 6305 points. Please don't judge me, I might play a bit too much, but there's something really addictive about the game when combined with a comfy bed!

I'd like to thank Che again for indulging my questions. If you haven't already tried What the Doodle!?, I heartily recommend giving it a go.

Eclair arrives! Android 2.0 SDK available for download

2009-10-28T08:55:00.000Z

In time for Motorola's big Droid event today, Google have released the Android 2.0 (dubbed Eclair) SDK. Developers can now get their grubby mitts on the SDK to create the killer apps of the future (or more photo albums of Japanese girls, if that's their thing).
Some of the 2.0 highlights are-

Contacts and accounts

Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact's information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

Email

Exchange support.
Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

Built-in flash support
Digital zoom
Scene mode
White balance
Color effect
Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
The framework's multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren't missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
Support for double-tap zoom.
Support for HTML5:
- Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
- Application cache support, for offline applications.
- Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
- tag support in fullscreen mode.

Calendar

Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
Invite new guests to events.

New Platform Technologies

Media Framework

Revamped graphics architecture for improved performance that enables better hardware acceleration.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth 2.1
New BT profiles: Object Push Profile (OPP) and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)

The release notes can be found here.

Android Game Review: Space Physics

2009-10-27T14:14:00.001Z

After hearing some good things about Camel Games' Space Physics, I thought I'd download it and see what I thought for myself. Space Physics is a physics based puzzler where the aim is to get a little green ball to touch all of the stars on any given level. To acheive this, you draw patterns on the screen and your patterns take a physical shape with which you can manipulate the ball, for example, you can create a path to bridge a gap between two blocksto or create a catapult to slingshot your ball to it's goal.

The Android Market description for Space Physics:-
Space Physics is a puzzle game with amazing physics. In this magical world, your hand drawings come to life.

Drawing on the screen creates an object in the shape of the pattern you have made, with a couple of exceptions- drawing a free floating circle creates a wheel and drawing a circle anchored to one of the level's solid objects creates a cog. You can join two wheels together to set them rolling from left to right like a little car, or you can add lines to a cog to make the cog turn. Clever use of the cogs can create a slingshot for firing your ball, or other loose objects, around the level.

Gameplay is straightforward and very open to any ideas you'd like to experiment with; there is no one right way to complete any given level, rather, you're encouraged to use whatever method you care to dream up, as long as it gets your ball from A to B.

The physics engine the game uses is well implemented, I certainly didn't notice any jarringly obvious physical impossibilities occuring during my running of the game. Some of my drawings on the touch screen were occasionally mis-represented, particularly when trying to create a wheel or a cog, but not often enough to become a frustration. The game's early levels ease you in to the various techniques you'll need and later levels can get fiendishly difficult, but that just makes those Eureka! moments all the sweeter. I can't find much to fault in this game, but physics puzzlers aren't everyone's cup of tea. If you like games such as Goo, Fantastic Contraption and the like, then Space Physics will be right up your street.
The game is $2.99 and there is a trial Lite version which is free. Both the paid for and Lite version come with only one level, but the full 80 level pack is available free on the market to those who own the full version. This would suggest that future level packs will probably become available as time goes on. Hopefully we'll see a level editor at some point in the future too.

A selection of user comments from the Android Market-
"Great app. Passes time very quickly and is updated constantly"- (5 stars)
"Great game but needs a better example system and some example solutions for complex puzzles" (4 stars)
"Wonderful game. Hours of entertainment and a chance to stretch your brain" (5 stars)
"Worked fine 1st time and was good fun but now won't open. Uninstalling and refunding" (2 stars)

New domain

2009-10-27T09:20:00.000Z

I've moved this blog to our own domain now, so you'll need to re-direct any bookmarks to the new URL -
http://www.thisandroidlife.com

I'll be running a custom domain for a few weeks, during which time, the old thisandroidlife.blogspot.com links will still work, I'll then be moving to a new host.

Security experts predict smartphone malware expected to increase - could Android be the prefered target?

2009-10-26T12:06:00.002Z

I've touched on this issue before, but, according to CNN, security analysts are predicting that smartphone targeting malware is set to become more popular given the current trends in users taking up smartphones. For the moment, the majority of malware instances for phones are targeted at specific individuals or vulnerable phones in the immediate locale, due mainly to the fact that it's not as straightforward to target the varying operating system versions that are out there as it is to target Windows OS computers. But the analysts are predicting that smartphones are already a tempting target for hackers; consider how valuable your email address is to spammers, and then think about how much more valuable all of the contacts (email addresses, mobile and home numbers etc) on your phone would be worth. With Google Android being predicted by Gartner to take over the iPhone's mantle of the second most popular phone OS by 2012, surely it must be a tempting starting base for the malware coders to look at? More concerning though, is the number of rooted Android phones that are out there - I'd be interested to see the percentage of rooted to non-rooted phones. It's arguably a simpler task to take control of a rooted phone through a suitably crafted marketplace app, and, whilst I'm sure Cyanogen and Paul from MoDaCo, the current mainstays of Android custom ROMs, are trustworthy, perhaps future ROM developers will not be quite so wholesome. All too often the end user doesn't know (or even give a thought to, in some cases) what exactly is going into their phone when installing a cracked ROM. There is some element of risk in all cracked software (unless you've cracked it yourself I guess) and a naive or non tech-savvy user who will blindly follow anonymous advice from the first forum he or she finds is like a dream come true to malware developers.
There are security apps out there in the market at the moment which could help combat the spread, but, given that there aren't really any threats at the moment, you have to wonder just how trustworthy or effective these security apps are - there's nothing to test them against. There are also some apps out there of slightly dubious legality at the moment. Take, for example, i Music - it's a hugely popular app for Android that allows you to download just about any tune you can think of, free of charge. Clearly, this isn't a legal download that it's users are taking part in. Now, I won't go into my feelings on the criminality or otherwise of downloading music for free (I'd be here all day), but it does make me wonder about just how safe the app is - bear in mind it's trawling a lot of wares or free download sites to get the tracks you're looking for. The app itself may be, and probably is, perfectly trustworthy (I have no evidence to suggest otherwise and only use it here as an example -it is, as I mentioned, a massively popular app, were there to be anything malicious going on, I'm sure it would have been discovered by now), but some of it's mp3 sources may not be. Also, if you check the reviews for i Music, it seems some users are finding that the app opens itself up of it's own accord after a short spell of time, even if force closed. Could it be doing something nefarious in the background? Probably not, but what it is doing hasn't been adequately explained, so the suspicious user should be asking the question before taking the plunge.
One of the advantages of having Android being open source though, is that any malware threats will probably very likely be spotted quickly by the community, so others can be warned, but that doesn't help the people who are affected before the threat is discovered. At the end of the day, the best way to mitigate these issues is to use vigilance - see your smartphone as being a potential target in the same way as you do your home computer.

What The Doodle!? review

2009-10-23T12:50:00.001+01:00

Ok, I'm officially addicted now. I've started playing ADC2 entrant, What the Doodle!? and I can't seem to stop. What the Doodle!? is a multiplayer Pictionary-type game. You are either a guesser or a doodler for a given word. If you're a guesser, you get points for guessing what the doodler has drawn, and the doodler gets points should someone guess his or her word. A very simple idea obviously, but undeniably fun.
When you start the game up, you enter a chosen username and are presented with the main menu. From the main menu, you can find an online game to join, or start your own private game. Whichever you choose, you go to a waiting room (with chat, if you want) until the pre-requisite number of players have joined the game. When they've joined, each person takes turns doodling whilst the others guess. At the end of the game, the scores are tallied up and the winner is declared. There are varying degress of difficulty for the words you have to doodle and you can pass if you need to.
Here's the description from the market blurb-

'WTD!?' is a real-time online multiplayer draw-guess game that features a variety of game modes, Private Games, High Scores, Personal face doodles, integrated Voice Recognition + more!

Fun as this game is, it's not without it's issues. According to the developer it's best playing WTD!? over wi-fi as there can be force close and lag issues over 3G, which isn't ideal. The Voice Recognition is undeniably a great feature, but I couldn't see an option to allow you to avoid games where one or more of the other players were using it - it's not a major issue, but those who are using voice recognition will have a distinct speed advantage over those who have to type on the keyboard. It's early days yet though, and I can see this game getting more polished as future updates come in and I'd be surprised if other game modes aren't introduced at some stage too. There's a lot of potential to work with here.
For the duration of ADC2, this app is free, I've not yet heard what it's price will be after the close of the contest. It's definitely worth checking out though.

Motorola 'Zeppelin' images leaked

2009-10-23T11:30:00.002+01:00

Chinese site, digi.qq.com have posted some images of an upcoming Android Motorola phone which is currently under the moniker 'Zeppelin'. Aside from the fact that it's an Android device, this phone is unusual for another reason. Go take a look at the last of the pictures at the bottom of this article- see anything unusual? It's got a slot for a GSM SIM and a slot for a CDMA SIM - this phone is going to be the first Android powered phone in the world to support dual-connectivity to GSM and CDMA. Further details of the phone are still a bit scarce for now, but here are the specs we do know - the phone will have a 320 x 480 screen resolution on a 3.1 inch HVGA touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera (with flash), it will support wi-fi, GPS and bluetooth and has a built-in FM receiver.
The original post, in Chinese, is here.

Resolve reboot and force close issues on HTC Hero after ROM update

2009-10-22T09:00:00.005+01:00

Most HTC Hero owners should have their phones updated to the latest ROM by now (stock or otherwise), but a recurring complaint I've heard from a number of people is that, after the update, they see a lot of force close issues and even the odd reboot for no obvious reason. The good news is, there is a fix. Apparently this issue can be caused by data which has been cached by some or one of the applications on the phone prior to the update. There are two methods for resolving this - and neither is a particularly appealing prospect- **Please ensure you have anything essential backed up, whether it's on your SD Card or on the phone, before doing any of the following. I am not responsible for any data loss as a result of poor backup discipline**

The first option is to delete the cached data from all of the apps (or if you're feeling particularly patient, you can go through them one at a time to see which one is causing the issue). To delete the data-

Push the menu button
Tap Settings
Tap Applications
Tap Manage applications
This should open a list of all of the apps installed on your machine. If you tap on one of the apps, you will be brought in to the application info page. From here, you can clear any stored data and/or cached data for the app. Bear in mind, doing this removes all data related to the app, including account settings (eg, your GMail account will need to be re-entered)
When you have gone through all of the apps, reboot the phone and see if the force close issues have gone

If you find that you are unable to re-enter your Gmail account details (there is a bug in the Hero where, if you skip the initial Gmail account config on first starting up the phone, you can't successfully re-enter it), to resolve this bug, try the following-

Push the menu button
Tap Settings
Tap Data Synchronization
Tap Google and you should be prompted to re-enter your data (if this doesn't work, move on to the second option below)

The second option, If the above doesn't resolve your force close issues (it seems to be a bit hit or miss), is unfortunately to do a factory reset. Again, don't do a hard reset without first backing up all of your data.

To reset the phone-

Press the menu button
Tap Settings
Tap Security
Tap Factory data reset.
On the Factory data reset screen, tap Reset phone and then tap Erase everything.

To reset the phone using phone buttons-

With the phone turned off, press and hold the HOME and BACK buttons, and then briefly press the END CALL/POWER button. The reset process will start after a few seconds.
Wait for the phone to finish the reset process and then press MENU.

Tip- If your phone hangs or freezes, remove the battery then wait for a few seconds, and then re-install it. After re-installing the battery, turn on the phone.

WaveSecure acknowledge battery drain issue

2009-10-21T16:17:00.002+01:00

Following on from my update to the WaveSecure review regarding an expediated drain on my HTC Hero's battery life, I thought I'd point out that they made a post on the MoDaCo forums to the effect that they are now aware of the problem and will resolve the issue in a future update. Here's what they had to say-

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging words. We are trying our best to improve WaveSecure constantly!

Some concerns were brought up in these forums about these:
1. WaveSecure using excessive battery - As krispijn_s mentioned we do use wake locks. But till know based on our testing (and the code) these wake locks were being released as expected. It looks like in some cases this does not happen which is causing this bug. For most users, however, WaveSecure should not be consuming this much battery. We are now aware of this problem and are in process of fixing it. Be on the lookout for the next WaveSecure update which will be more battery friendly

2. Phone locking and SMS being sent to buddies even when the SIM is not changed - This critical bug has been fixed in the recent update to WaveSecure (v3.0.0.31). Please update once Paul has included the new version in the ROM.

As you know, WaveSecure for Android is in Beta currently, we'd really appreciate any feedback you people have. Our official feedback channel is http://feedback.wavesecure.com for new feature suggestions/bug reports.

- WaveSecure Team

That's good news. The app is still in beta at the moment, but it has already shown enough promise to suggest that the finalised version could end up being a must-have security feature, particularly if they can work out how to backup all of your settings.
The original post can be found here.

New MoDaCo custom ROM for the HTC Hero smartphone released

2009-10-21T10:05:00.003+01:00

Paul at MoDaCo has released yet another custom ROM for the HTC Hero smartphone, does the man never sleep?

This time, in light of criticism of the inclusion of bundled apps with the software (such as the reported battery problems with WaveSecure), Paul has released add ons for those who wish to add these apps themselves, rather than bundling them with the main ROMs. Here is a list of the changes in 2.7-

2.7

Updated WaveSecure, moved to add on pack
New Boot sounds restore add on pack
Dropbear SSH running by default, check 'About' screen for password (port 2222)
Add Notes app from Dragon to core
Add Swapper to core
Add WiFi Status to core
Added Voice Search to core with libspeech library

Never one to rest on his laurels, Paul has also posted a list of what we can expect to see in the next version of the ROM-

Planned for 2.8

Correct tun.ko
Backup solution in ROM
Add Hebrew fonts + keyboard add on pack
Mail widget delete button fix (maybe)
New APN file!
Web server running on device for remote access

You can get the lowdown here.

Android 1.6 port installed on Samsung UMPC

2009-10-20T14:04:00.003+01:00

Clever chap that he is, Kevin C. Tofel has managed to install a port of Android 1.6 on to his 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo packing Samsung UMPC. He did it for no other reason than the fun of it as far as I can see, and it's far from a flawless installation, but the bottom line is, it works.

Kevin had this to say on his findings-

"My first impressions — Android is blazing on a 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo, just like you’d expect. It seems like the battery lasts longer on a charge as well, but I haven’t had time to really test that theory."

And his conclusion is-

"Even with the problems, this has me leaning towards a non-phone Android device."

Find out more and see a video of it in action at jkontherun.com.

Review - Wavesecure UPDATED

2009-10-20T13:29:00.007+01:00

Updated- See the bottom of this article for an addendum regarding battery life.

Following on from it's inclusion in the latest version of the MoDaCo custom ROM, I thought I'd take a look at Android phone security app WaveSecure and it's features. For those that don't know, WaveSecure can be used to remotely lock and/or wipe your Android phone in the event of it getting lost or stolen, protecting any sensitive data from prying eyes. Here is a list of it's features from the WaveSecure site -

I've tested out the app and am suitably impressed. You can use it to backup your contacts, calendar, videos, photos, call logs and sms messages to the secured WaveSecure storage site. I've tested both backup and restore features on my HTC Hero and haven't noticed any glaring issues - upon factory resetting and then restoring my contacts, the only thing I needed to do was re-associate my contacts with their relevant Facebook accounts.

If you have any photos, videos or other personal data that you don't want getting in to the wrong hands, you can use the WaveSecure website to competely wipe the handset should the worst happen and your Android phone gets lost or stolen.

One of the neat options you have is to specify up to 9 telephone numbers of 'buddies' that will be contacted should anything shady be going on with your phone. If a would-be thief tries to change the SIM card, the phone locks and cannot be unlocked without entering the PIN you specify and your buddies are notified via SMS. My wife can attest to how effective it is as she received a few texts from WaveSecure as I tested factory resetting my HTC Hero late at night to see what it did. My favourite feature though is that you can remotely trigger an alarm noise on the phone, as an added deterrant.

The tracking option on the website allows you to check in with where, roughly, your phone is. Obviously, this will only work as well as whatever your currently turned on location services are (ie GPS, wireless networks or no locationing).

From the sounds of it, the guys at WaveSecure are working on allowing you to backup your settings to their secured site too, so factory resets will become less of a headache should they be successful.

I can't think of anything bad to say about this app, except that there are some grumblings from some people on the MoDaCo forums about a drop in battery life since moving to the custom ROM which contains WaveSecure. I can't say whether or not this is the case yet, but I did find that my battery died on me at the weekend quicker than I'd expected. At the time I'd put it down to it not being fully charged before I took it away, which very possibly was the cause, but it's worth bearing in mind.

All in all, though it's a great piece of software, which would appear to be getting constantly updated (there's a changelog here) and, right now, it's free as a beta. More importantly, according to Paul at MoDaCo, WaveSecure have told him that-

"We intend to keep this free for everyone who registers now! That means even if we make this into a paid service on Android in the future this will remain free for our early users."

So, it's a bit of a no-brainer if you ask me. Go get it and let me know your findings. I'd be particularly interested to find out if anyone has noticed any decrease in battery life since running WaveSecure.

You can find out more about the software here.

Below: A screenshot from WaveSecure on the phone:-

EDIT - After writing this article, I began to monitor my battery level, and I found that I went from a two thirds charged phone to no charge overnight, which I wasn't getting prior to running WaveSecure. I did a bit of digging this morning and found that there are a lot of people who have noticed a similar impact on their battery life since running WaveSecure. For example, this post at the MoDaCo forums shows how much charge WaveSecure has consumed. Now, I still think this is a great app, but you'll need to weigh up whether you can live with the trade off of a potentially reduced battery life to run it as it stands at the moment. The WaveSecure dev team seem to be constantly updating the software, so this issue may be resolved with a later update.

Review - Real Soccer 2009 HD

2009-10-20T10:03:00.003+01:00

Being a football fan (yes, football, none of this soccer nonsense), and having sampled the iPhone version, I couldn't resist shelling out for Real Soccer 2009 HD, by mobile gaming company, Gameloft, for my Android phone. Real Soccer 2009 HD is a 3D football simulator which makes use of the trackball and touchpad for controls. It's FIFPRO licensed, so for the most part, it uses actual player names, rather than made up ones. Club names are sadly not licensed, so you'll be playing Manchester Red instead of Manchester United, for example.
So, how does it stack up against the iPhone version? Sadly, not particularly well. I was disappointed to find that it's nowhere near as good looking, with blocky 3D visuals and laggy animation. Not a particularly auspicious start. Surely the gameplay makes up for it though? Again, here you'll be disappointed. Controlling the game with the trackball is hugely frustrating - I've yet to actually succeed in getting my player to run diagonally, I only seemed to be able to run in the four cardinal compass directions, which doesn't exactly lend itself to flowing football. The touchscreen controls were implemented in a much better fashion though, you have two virtual buttons on the touch screen, A and B, which you use by tapping, pressing or pressing and dragging, for the various different passes, shots and tackles and you can also perform skill moves using patterns on the touch screen. This clever use of the touchscreen is actually quite impressive, but just highlights how badly implemented the trackball movement is. If movement were controlled via a virtual D-pad on the touchscreen instead (as it is in the iPhone version), this may have been a far less irritating game to play.
In summary, unless you're a masochist or have ludicrously low blood pressure that you need to raise in a hurry, don't waste the cash. Avoid this game like the plague. And, what exactly does the HD bit stand for, because it sure as hell can't be High Definition, can it? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

Android version of Agile Messenger released

2009-10-19T20:44:00.001+01:00

Mobile IM application Agile Messenger has been available for iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices for a little while now and this week sees it become available to Android phone users too. Agile Messenger is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client which claims to work with ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, GoogleTalk and Jabber. A version of the app (presumably a beta version) has been on the Android Market for a few weeks now, but AgileMobile.com will be officially announcing the release of the Android phone version of Agile Messenger on Wednesday. From the upcoming press release-

Features include Agilemobile.com's multi-media messaging technology that enables users to send instant picture and voice messages from mobile to mobile and mobile to PC. Agile Messenger for Android runs in the background on the Android operating system, providing an always-connected experience for end users while away from their desktop computer. Agile Messenger is already available for Apple's iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60, 80, 90 and Symbian UIQ, and will soon be released for Palm's new WebOS and for Blackberry. Agile Messenger for Android was awarded first place in the HTC developers competition in Vietnam.

Timon Haringa, co-founder and technical director of AgileMobile.com Ltd commented on the announcement, "We are extremely excited about the Open Handset Alliance's open source Android operating system and we are fully committed to developing new software products for this platform.", adding, "Agile Messenger enables people on the go to stay in contact with co-workers, family and friends, anywhere, anytime and any place. Thanks to the new advancements in mobile technology and the flexibility of the open source Android OS, our customer's user experience is becoming more intuitive and rewarding than ever."
Having checked back on reviews of the existing, non-Android versions of the product, the general consenus is that AgileMessenger is a very capable IM client, but perhaps a little pricey for what it is. AgileMobile told me that the final pricing for the Android version has yet to be decided, but early adopters will get a discount when updating from the free trial account to the full paid license when the time comes.
I installed the trial of the software and have to say it seemed to do the job pretty well for the brief period of my testing. Being able to chat with friends over multiple IM clients at the same time certainly seems like an appealing idea, and I like the fact that images, audio and video can all be uploaded from the client, but the user reviews on the Android Marketplace for Agile Messenger seem to be mixed, with many people reporting a lot of force closes from the app (I should point out, I didn't have any such issues during my testing). I'm sure these issues will be ironed out with time (if they haven't been already), but this really needs to be a pretty polished app if AgileMobile expect people to pay for it when eBuddy IM and Meebo are both doing much the same job for free.
If anyone out there uses the app, or has used it in the past, let me know your findings. I'll post up a full review once I've used the app long enough to do it justice. More information can be found at the AgileMobile.com website.

Hands on with the Motorola Droid at The Boy Genius Report

2009-10-19T10:40:00.001+01:00

The Boy Genius Report recently posted a hands on first look at the new Motorola Droid (or the Tao or Sholes depending on what it's finally called -we're still waiting for the name 'Droid' to be officially confirmed). The first impressions would suggest that this is going to be the flagship Android phone when it's released: it's fast, has a slide out keyboard, has a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, a massive 854 x 480 screen and it'll be running Android 2.0 from release - what's not to love?
Other rumoured features include a 16GB microSD card, 256MB RAM and a GPS receiver.
The Droid will apparently be released on November 6th. Verizon have a reputation for adding all sorts of branding and bloatware on to their phones, hopefully they won't do the same with this device.
Keep checking the Boy Genius Report site for a full review in due time.

The article comes hot on the heels of the recent Verizon Android campaign that launched in the US over the last few days. The ad campaign sees Verizon pretty obviously squaring up to the iPhone. Given the initial impressions of the Droid (or Tao/Sholes, whatever), perhaps Android finally does have a true potential iPhone killer?

Interview - Puzzle Blox developer, André Rabold

2009-10-19T08:39:00.001+01:00

I recently had the chance to put a few questions to André Rabold, the developer of novel puzzler, Puzzle Blox and wi-fi tool, WiFi Buddy. Here's what he had to say-

Which Android devices do you use yourself?
I got myself a T-Mobile G1 beginning of this year. That time it was the only Android device available so it was an easy choice :)

What inspired you to create Puzzle Blox?
First I just wanted to try something new and challenging. The Android platform promised to be both so I just downloaded the SDK and started to play around with the Lunar Lander sample. I wanted to do a small game just as a learning exercise. As I loved to play Tetris on my old Nintendo Gameboy it was obvious that the first game would feature small colorful bricks falling down the screen. That time I didn’t even know how the game should work in the end.

How long did it take to create Puzzle Blox and what was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome during it's development?
The first prototype was ready after a few weekends of work back in February already. My wife needed to test dozens of versions to find out what works and what doesn’t. Android is such an easy yet powerful platform and I was impressed how rapidly you can implement your ideas. But as this was my first project ever for embedded systems I ran into all typical issues with out of memory errors, performance issues, etc. and had to rewrite parts of the game over and over again. So it took me a lot of spare time and sleepless nights to get things done right. But as you know the first version was finally released to the Google Android market in June 2009.

Which is your favourite Android app (other than your own of course)?
That’s easy: Google Skymap. Do I need to tell more?

How much potential do you personally feel the Google Android platform has?
A lot of manufacturers are announcing Android phones, tablets and other devices lately. I think what we see today is just the tip of the ice berg and Android will surely become one of the major players in the smart phone segment the next years.

What's on your personal wish-list regarding Android apps or features? Is there something you feel the platform is sorely missing?
Even Android 1.6 “Donut” is still in its infancy. It’s far from being a polished ecosystem like the iPhone already is today. Just think of the lack of a good built-in media player application or how long we needed to wait for a half-decent market place application. But hey, that’s what makes Android so interesting to me actually.

What drew you to developing in Android, and do you feel it is a powerful enough platform for developers?
I have played around with XNA , the Microsoft framework for Xbox 360 development before. But once Android showed up I was so impressed by its openness and flexibility that I simply had to put my hands on it.

What's next for you - updates to Puzzle Blox or something entirely new?
Indeed there will be an update to Puzzle Blox later this month. It features two brand new game modes, new graphics, colorful themes and a lot more exciting stuff. I just felt that there’s so much more I wanted to see in this game that I needed to do this update. After the release I will get back to the next major version of WiFi Buddy, my simple wireless network tool, and maybe start another little game project I have in mind.

Any advice for aspiring Android devs?
If you’re a hobby developer then try to do a simple app first. Ask friends to help with graphics, sound effects, etc. Gathering a small team is the best chance that you will actually finish your project. If you’re solo, new to programming, Java and the Android platform then don’t try to do a MMORPG :)

A new version of Puzzle Blox, Puzzle Blox Arcade has just entered the final beta stage. You can find out more about André's work at his blog.

Webfind- Interesting article on Android game development

2009-10-16T12:31:00.000+01:00

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has looked at the Android Market and been disappointed at the dearth of high quality games in there (don't get me wrong, there are a few there, but they're a tiny percentage of the total games in the market) . Well, I recently stumbled across an intriguing article on the Gamasutra site by Android OS developer, Derek James. In the article, Derek discusses the pros and cons of developing in Android and details why he feels there hasn't been a rush of development companies eager to develop games for the Android phone platform as yet.
On the plus side, according to Derek, are-

the use of Java to program for Android, compared to Apple's use of the less programmer friendly (in his opinion), Objective C
the comparitively low cost of getting things published in the Android Marketplace (a flat $25 fee compared to Apple's $99 per year distribution fee)
the less restrictive review process used by Google for Android apps- games go live straight away, where iPhone apps go through a rigourous review process which can take weeks to navigate through

On the flip side, Derek argues the following negatives-

low number of Android handheld owners compared to iPhone users - a paltry 3 million compared to iPhone's estimated 45 million users
the low number of those Android users willing to shell out money to buy apps (just 19% of Android users bought apps compared to 50% of iPhone users according to AdMob's July report)
Piracy -it's much easier to distribute pirated software for Android than the much more restrictive iPhone.
The different hardware specs of the various Android handsets - eg some may have much larger screen resolutions, others may not have a trackball or physical keyboard.

Derek seems to have a positive outlook for Android's future, but his article raises some excellent points. The lack of hardware standardisation (and possibly even user interface standardisation) could lead to headaches for developers who may have to consider accomodating wildly differing phone specs when creating their apps; unless the market proves to be more lucrative than it currently is, there will be little to entice developers to spend time with such considerations. Then there's the Android Market itself; don't get me wrong, I like that it's open, but when every second app is a soundboard or a selection of pics of Japanese Girls, it's difficult to get your app noticed in the crowd.
But what, if anything, can be done? In my opinion, to get the market going, the incentives need to be greater for would-be developers to make the switch to Android. The Android Developers Challenge is all well and good, but even it can't be enough to convince a development team to take the risk of putting the man hours into creating a high quality, biggish budget game; given the apparent lack of purchasing being done by Android users, if they didn't win the cash prize for their given category, there would be no guarantees that they may ever break even on their project. Perhaps the marketplace will see a large rise in sales as more Android handsets start to appear, but the low percentage of app-buying Android users so far would seem to suggest that this won't be the case. It would be interesting to know just how often pirated apps are being used, it may be that by tightening anti-piracy measures, the apps market may see a rise in sales.
I'd be interested to hear from any of the game developers out there, mostly to find out if sales have been lower than expected and what they're trying to do to counter this. I know that some developers have been lowering the price of their apps (Pocoro for example is now down to €0.99 in an effort to build sales).

To read Derek James' Gamasutra article in full, click here.

HTC Hero scoops two gongs at T3 Gadget Awards

2009-10-16T10:07:00.001+01:00

Still basking in the glory of scooping it's Gadget of the Year award from Stuff Magazine, the HTC Hero has won another couple of accolades, this time from T3. The HTC Hero Android smartphone (a wildcard entry in the category) won Gadget of the Year, beating off competition from the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and the super-sexy Philips Cinema 21:9 television. From the magazine-

In a year of classic gadgets, this summed up all that was good in tech in 2009: digital social networks, which the Hero regularly updates you on; the transformation of the phone into an omni-competent browser/media player/comms device; the tactile triumph of the touchscreen; the emergence of cloud storage. That’s why it’s our Gadget of the Year.

It also scooped the Phone of the Year award, with T3 saying -

The Hero is a full featured, wonderfully usable, beautifully presented handset with a similarly lovely open source OS.

As well as success for the HTC Hero, the T3 awards also proved fruitful for Google as a whole with the company taking the Tech Brand of the Year award and the Android phone OS winning the Launch of the Year gong.
It's good to see that Android is starting to get the recognition it deserves, with Gartner recently predicting that Android phones will overtake the iPhone to become the second most widely used phone OS by 2012, it looks as though Android is really starting to gain momentum in the battle to win the hearts and minds of the tech-savvy.
Read more here.

Acer Liquid pics

2009-10-16T06:00:00.001+01:00

Pics of the red version of the Acer Liquid phone have started to appear. Pocket-Lint got their hands on one of the snazzy red models and took it for a test drive. The Liquid boasts the first Android device with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, a massive 800 x 480 screen resolution and will be released with version 1.6 of Android. It looks pretty good, and I'd imagine, with a 1GHz Snapdragon, performance won't be too shabby either, but time will tell.
The images are all from Pocket-Lint. Check out the full article here.

Another new MoDaCo custom HTC Hero ROM is released

2009-10-14T10:15:00.001+01:00

Just a few days after MoDaCo 2.5.1 was released, Paul at MoDaCo has released yet another version of the HTC Hero /G2 MCR ROM. Version 2.6 only has one change; the inclusion of security app Wavesecure.
From Paul's announcement-

"MCR now includes Wavesecure in ROM, allowing you to lock / locate / wipe your device remotely in the event of loss and be notified if the SIM is changed. The application cannot be uninstalled by a thief and we are actively working with Wavesecure to ensure that in a forthcoming release, your settings will survive a hard reset!"

Having had a look at Wavesecure, it looks like it could be great piece of software, and the possible future inclusion of a backup for your settings, even after a hard reset, makes this a very tempting custom ROM.
Wavescure YouTube ad-

The announcement can be found here.

Unusual, surreal or downright wacky Android Apps

2009-10-13T14:19:00.000+01:00

Ok, having yesterday covered what are, to my mind, the must-have Android apps for your phone, I thought I'd take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum - some of the unusual or downright wacky applications that are to be found in the Android market (if you're prepared to look hard enough).

Massager by NatyGames - Uses the vibration function of your phone to turn it in to a ~~vibrator~~ "massager".
From the description:-

"With this application you can transform your phone in a vibration's massager for massage yourself or to whoever you want

Enjoy it!
Functions:
-Intensity control
-10 patterns of vibration"

Now, I love my phone, sure, but that's taking it a little too literally...and as for "massaging" someone else- who in their right mind, whilst they're getting all hot and sweaty, would think to whip out their phone for use on their playmate? Besides, surely that must invalidate the warranty...

Pineapple by Dalsuke Tsuihiji - Bizarre app that I can only assume was nothing more than a test of what the phone can do. The premise? Er...I'm not entirely certain, but when you start the app, you are shown a menu with 4 options- "Eat Banana", "Vibrate", "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!" and "End". Tapping "Eat Banana" creates a pop-up as shown in the image to the right-
Wow, clearly my phone likes bananas a lot.
The other buttons are just as useless, "Vibrate" starts the phone vibrating (I know, I was surprised too) and "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!" brings up a scribbled picture of a little yellow chap smiling inanely. The best feature of all though is the "End" function which, mercifully, closes the app.

Steamy Window by Swiss Codemonkeys - This one is unusual, but actually quite fun. It covers the whole of your screen in 'steam'. You can drag your finger over the screen to clean it off and make little pictures in the steam. If you clear larger amounts of steam at a time, little droplets of water appear and run off in the direction of the ground (based on the accelerometer). To fill the screen with steam again, you blow in to the phone's mic and the steam starts to gradually appear. It's a pointless app that will get uninstalled quickly after the novelty has worn off, but it's quite a fun idea.

I'll keep an eye on the Android market and post up any other unusual or wacky applications I find. If you spot anything yourself, let me know and I'll bring it to everyone's attention.

Opinion - Must-have Android apps

2009-10-12T10:46:00.000+01:00

One common question I see getting asked by new Android smartphone owners is - what are the must have apps for Android? I thought I'd list those that I either can't live without or just plain love. So, without further ado, here are what I consider to be my must have apps (your mileage may vary).

Locale

One of the winners of the first Android Developers Challenge, Locale is a great piece of software that changes phone settings dependent on certain conditions being met, such as your current location or the time of day. It is hugely customisable and if you find yourself constantly changing settings such as turning on or off airplane mode or silent mode, then Locale could be a godsend as it can make these changes automatically for you. There are also a lot of custom made add-ons for Locale available on the market.

Shazam

If you've ever heard a song somewhere and wondered what it was called or who was singing it, then this app might interest you. You start the app up, record a snippet of the song for Shazam to look up and it'll go off and check it's databases and return the song name and artist. I've thrown some obscure songs at Shazam and so far it's not failed to get it right on the money.

mAnalytics

I constantly check Google Analytics to see how my various websites are doing traffic-wise, and I recently discovered an app called mAnalytics which checks your Analytics stats for you. You can set up the software to check the stats for multiple sites and, from the interface, you can view, among other things the amount of pageviews and unique visitors you've had, as well as site referals and search terms used. It's much quicker than using your phone's browser to check Google Analytics.

Google SkyMap

I have two children, the eldest of whom is fascinated by the stars. Now, I know my way around the major constellations and celestial bodies, but I couldn't hope to tell him about all of the stars he asks about. At least, I couldn't before, but now I use Google SkyMap. Using it is as simple as starting the app and then holding your phone up in the direction of the star you want to find the name for. It uses your location, accelerometer and hardware compass on your phone to calculate which section of the sky you are pointing the phone at and displays the according star map. You can also use it to search for a particular star on the phone so you can use the star map to locate it in the night sky. It's not exactly an app that's going to increase your productivity, but it certainly makes nighttime walks more interesting.

NetSentry

Android smartphones are a data hungry bunch. With the focus with some of the newer handsets being on merging your various social networking accounts, email and tweets, it's crucial for many users to keep an eye on their data usage, particularly if you have a low data usage cap, such as those provided by Orange or Vodafone. I use NetSentry to keep tabs on how much data I've used. NetSentry separates your Wi-Fi data use from your 2G/3G and also allows you to set levels of usage at which you want to receive a wanring notification, so you know to reign in your YouTube watching until next month.

Astro

A file management app is a must have as there isn't really a useful alternative built-in. Astro is the only one I've tried to be honest, but I've had no need to try out others as it does exactly what I need it to. I can browse my files and folders, move them around within the directory structure, rename them or open them. A well desinged app that does the simple things well. I've heard that Linda File Manager is simpler to use, but I've never had any problems with Astro.

Beebplayer

This one's for the folks in the UK. Beebplayer is a great little app that ties in with BBC's iPlayer to allow you watch iPlayer videos on your phone. Not only can you play video that is live on the iPlayer listings, you can also play live TV and radio, including BBC1 to BBC4, CBBC and BBC News Channel. Quality in the live TV feeds isn't the best, even on a Wi-Fi connection, but it's definitely watchable. I've found that the quality of the iPlayer feeds is much better though. I use this app a lot.

Advanced Task Killer

A task management app is a must. There are a few on the market, the most popular of which is Taskiller which is definitely a great app. I use Advanced Task Killer myself, although there's not much between it and Taskiller in my opinion.

I'd be interested to hear which apps others are finding they can't live without. If there's an app I've missed that you think people should know about, let me know.

New Android security vulnerabilities found

2009-10-12T09:16:00.002+01:00

Following on from the article on the potential in Android for malware exploitation a couple of weeks ago, two security vulnerabilities have been found in Android 1.5. The first of the bugs is caused by malformed SMS messages disconnecting the receiving Android phone from the mobile network. When attacked in this way, the phone restarts, temporarily disconnecting from the cellular network. The second of the bugs is found in the Dalvik API; there is a function within the API which, when called, restarts the system process. The function could be called by malicious software or accidentally called by an otherwise genuine app. Both bugs have been patched by Google in Donut.
Neither bug looks like the sort of thing that is likely to excite potential exploiters, but it does highlight the point that Android is like any other OS, these are not the first vulnerabilites which have been found in Android and they will surely not be the last. Eventually, someone will exploit one of them. Care must be taken when installing any apps from the market. Treat the apps from the market in the same way as you'd treat downloading unknown apps for your PC - do a bit of research before installing.

Read more about the new vulnerabilities here.

YouTube Find - Archos 5 Android internet tablet unboxing

2009-10-09T11:14:00.001+01:00

UMPC Portal have posted a video featuring the unboxing of one of the new Archos 5 internet tablets, as well as a quick tour of it's features. The unit in the video is the super-slim 32GB version. It does look like a sexy piece of kit. Incidentally, I got in touch with Amazon, PC World, Comet and Currys to find out if they had any word of when the new Archos 5 would be available for sale in the UK (so far it's only available directly from Archos). Only PC World and Amazon have gotten back to me so far - Amazon UK customer services were not even aware of the product and couldn't tell me if, never mind when, they'd be stocking it. PC World confirmed that they did expect to be selling it but were going to have to get back to me with an availability date.

New MoDaCo custom ROM available

2009-10-08T12:31:00.001+01:00

Just a very brief post to say that Paul from MoDaCo has announced that a new version of his custom ROM is available.
The changelog for this version (2.4) reads-

2.4

Faster than 2.2!
Recommended for use with radio 63.18.55.06FU_6.35.07.08
New WWE core image
Another busybox update - 1.15.2 release
Added dropbear binaries in ROM (will add as a service in a later release)
Replaced CustomLocale with MoreLocales
Added IM application in ROM
Maps is now no longer removed
Other tweaks I forgot!

The ROM is available here.

Samsung and T-Mobile unveil Behold II

2009-10-08T09:47:00.001+01:00

Samsung and T-Mobile recently unveiled what will be T-Mob's fourth Android handset - the Behold II.
Full specs haven't yet been released, but what is known is that the phone will have a 3.2 inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera (with flash), the usual connectivity options (wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS) and will support up to 16GB of storage. It will also be sporting Samsung's TouchWiz interface and the funky spinning cube menu navigation method that Samsung have used on some of their other recent phones.
Pricing and full release date for the Behold II are still not known, but Samsung have confirmed that the phone will see a release before the holiday season.

Experience	Premium messaging and multimedia
Form Factor	Side slide keyboard
Operating System	Android v2.0
Android API Level	5
Device Emulator Image	Android 2.0 SDK
Input Types	Capacitive touch screen Directional pad Home/Menu/Back/Search touch-sensitive buttons Physical keyboard Virtual keyboard
Consumer Web Site	Product page

Physical Resolution	480 x 854 (WVGA)
Number of Colors	Up to 16M
Pixel Density	240 dpi

WAN: Voice Bands	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 W-CDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900/2100
WAN: Data Bearers	GPRS/EDGE Class 12 HSDPA 10.1 HSUPA 5.7
Wireless LAN	802.11b/g 802.11i (WPA2) WEP WPA
Bluetooth Version	2.1 + EDR
Bluetooth Class	2
Bluetooth Profiles	A2DP 1.2 AVRCP 1.2 GAP HFP 1.5 HSP OPP 1.1 PBAP 1.0 SDAP SDP SPP
USB	Micro USB connector USB 2.0 High Speed
Headset Jack	3.5 mm Mic Stereo out

Camera Resolution	5 megapixels
Image Capture Resolution (max)	2592 x 1936
Camera Features	Autofocus Color effects Flash (dual LED) Geotagging Image stabilization Picture quality Scenes White balance
Camera Digital Zoom (max)	4x
Image Capture Formats	JPEG w/EXIF 2.2
Image Viewing Formats	Android core media formats
Video Recording Formats	Android core media formats H.264
Video Recording Resolution	720 x 480 (D1)
Video Recording Frame Rate	24 fps
Video Playback Formats	Android core media formats
Video Playback Resolution	720 x 480 (D1)
Video Playback Frame Rate	30 fps
Audio Recording Formats	AAC Android core media formats
Audio Playback Formats	Android core media formats WMA
Streaming Formats	AAC AAC+ AMR-NB H.263 H.264 MPEG-4
Digital Rights Management	OMA DRM 1.0 forward lock for images and music
Speakers	Receiver speaker Stereo speakers

Processor	TI OMAP3430
Processor Clock Speed	Up to 600 MHz
RAM	256 MB
Flash ROM	512 MB
User Storage Available (max)	256 MB
Memory Card Type	FAT32 microSDHC, Class 6
Memory Card Size Supported (max)	32 GB