android

I've been testing out android os for a week or two now. I got through the basic hello-world examples and ran them on the emulator without much fuss. I didn't get to try the iPhone development environment before, but I don't think the android development environment is half bad. It's much better than anything else I've seen so far. As for the hello world program, I tried "Close the world, open the neXt" from the serial experiment lain series instead of the standard example. Just a few line changes and it was all done very smoothly. I feel like a geek saying this, but seeing that phrase actually displayed across the emulator screen for quite possibly the most Navi-like device ever made me feel quite giddy. I have secret ambition to be able to code a decent augmented reality software for the android os someday. Something people can use for fun, different from all that business-like GPS and location tracking softwares that already seem to be on the android os (in beta forms? I don't think they are actually on the marketplace). Augmented reality rpg games where you use the camera of the android-phone to watch see your world. Web-connected graffiti application, where you can draw on real things you see on camera using location awareness. It will be shared through the network connection so that you can also see what other people drew on the city hall or whatever. Hidden item game, exploration game where you explore city-in-city using the virtual world of augmented reality, transmitted to you through you android phone. 

They all sound so cool, and so in line with what had been predicted in the anime like serial experiment lain and other cyberpunk-ish media. I wonder how the kids who will grow up with such technology would think of reality. Will it become something more magical for them? Or will the magics become trivial?

Of course, as the things stand right now I'm just a newbie who just finished his first notepad-like application on the android, following step-by-step instructions. I guess I have to learn to be patient, putting together something like an augmented reality program for handsets can't be easy, especially when we think about the rather minimal hardware it will run on.

While the software side of the android os development continues to wow me (it's really a first real software development environment for me), the advance on the hardware side had been disappointing so far. As I might have mentioned in an earlier post, I'm in the market for a new smartphone (eversince my N85 died on me and I got that refund) and I was dearly hoping that it would be an android phone. So far the only android phone on the market is G1, and it lacks some features I deem critical on a handset. Like the ability to capture video. I still can't believe they decided to leave that function out. It's too nonsensical to the extent that I am beginning to believe the whole 'Apple pressuring Google/HTC to cripple the G1 hardware' story that's be making the rounds on the net lately. The G1 itself isn't such a terrible phone. I would say that it's rather average. Being average wouldn't be so bad if it didn't cost US$399 unlocked (I'm talking about the developer's version. There seem to be other ways of getting somewhat cheaper G1s though). 

I would wait for a new android phone to come up on the horizon, but so far the only model that's been sighted is a touch-screen only model. Seriously, what are they thinking? I've used Samsung Blackjack II and had a brief fling with a Blackberry. And the general usability level of input system on handsets goes like this. 

1)Keyboard (like on Blackberries)
2)T9 input system (the predictive input system for regular phones)
3)Touchscreen keyboard (like the one on the iPhone)

People can rave about touchscreens all they want. The fact of life is that in terms of pure input, nothing really beats a real keyboard system embedded into the handset (at the moment) and touchscreen remains an interesting novelty interface. I'm not saying they are unusable or anything. Far from it. I'm just stating how they perform compared to the competition. So I'm in a dilemma here. Do I wait for a keyboard android phone that may or may not happen? Should I just grab the new touchscreen android phone when it comes out? Or should I just grab a decent handset of non-android variety to tide me over until the ideal android phone comes along (how long that will take, I have no idea)? I'm leaning toward the third option, with the BlackBerry Bold and Nokia E71 prices that keeps on dropping.

However, if I were to go for the third option it would still mean that I have to choose between locked-in but roaming capable BlackBerry Bold or E71 that's unlocked yet lacks the kind of international roaming frequency I need (the 2100 UMTS etc for Korea/Japan). The price difference between them is about 50~100 dollars, and then there's the matter of software library. I know I can download whole map database into E71 and use it as a GPS even when offline, but I'm not so sure about BB. 

And when I consider the whole pricing issues of the phones and how long I would actually use them, and compare it to my study of the android platform, something just tells me to make the jump to the new touchscreen android phone and get used to it...