December 17th, 2009
I just read that Google plans to sell its own Android phone in two versions:
- Branded T-Mobile version with contract.
- Unbranded version.
This brought up some memories on how BlackBerry devices are distributed. For those of you who don’t know: BlackBerry devices from Canada’s biggest and S&P 500′s fastest growing company Research In Motion are only available through Wireless Network Carriers; mostly branded. It is impossible to get such devices without branding (unless you are a BlackBerry Alliance partner and get an internal device for testing).
For Google it is a good move to have their device at network carrier’s shelfs because that is where customers get their phones mostly. I guess the mainstream user (not you and me) doesn’t really care much about what phone it is and who made. The phone user’s decision is usually based on
- Good deal with the carrier.
- Phone’s capabilities.
- Phone’s look.
- Phone’s reputation.
Obviously user’s of Apple’s iPhone have their preferences sorted differently. Well, the above sorting is mine, and I have to say: even though the iPhone looks cool and is supposed to be “hip”; and the Android phones are kind of geeky (from a technological point of view); I am still using a BlackBerry as my main device. In fact, as I am on the road right now, I am using two!
People now might say: “Why the f*** is that? You are running an Android blog man!” Well, I have to say: Android is not there where I would like to see it at – yet. I really like the Android approach of Android OS and I truly believe it will have a bright future for all of us, but there is still some way to go. The gap to Google’s competitors gets closer and closer but it is still there. Fortunately, our business is such a fast growing one that our world order could be upside down next year.
I am really excited about the mobile future; this includes but is not limited to Android. What devices are you using?
More about this on Two Google Phones Coming in January? (Reuters via internetnews.com)
Tags: android, BlackBerry, google, phone, t-mobile, usa
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
December 16th, 2009
The Android Market just took the leap and jumped above the count of 20,000 applications. While the iPhone’s iTunes App Store is still ahead with about 100,000 applications, I have to say respect guys!
Hammering out 20,000 applications in such a short time without the devices and market power (like Apple has for example) is not that easy. I know there are still a lot of ideas in your heads (as in mine) which just want to be brought to paper life. So get started! Open your Eclipse, hack some lines into it, press compile, test, sign and upload it to the Android Market. No matter if free or paid, every new app brings more variety, more diversity and more attraction to the Android Market, every Android phone and therefore it makes the whole platform more attractive to users all around the world.
Get more about this on internetnews.com
Tags: 20000, android, apple, applications, apps, google, iphone, market
Posted in Distribution | No Comments »
December 4th, 2009
- Android 2.0.1, revision 1
- Android 1.6, revision 2
- SDK Tools, revision 4
These were updated today! Check out the official article at: Android SDK Updates
Tags: 1.6, 2.0, android, sdk, tools, update
Posted in SDK Updates | 2 Comments »
December 3rd, 2009
Well, in two words: you can’t! 
Everyone knows that, but there is some sort of a workaround to fuzz. Get a Google Checkout Merchant account. Yes, Google Checkout only allows a couple of countries and if you don’t come from one of these you cannot get such an account.
Especially a lot of our developer buddies are not located in “the west” and come from “exotic” countries like the Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Belarus, Qatar, Brasil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina, and so on. You get the idea. I have read forum entries and blog articles of so many such great developers who have awesome apps but can’t get them sold on Android Market.
Here comes the trick: Fortunately, one of the supported countries is the United Kingdom. It is very easy to setup a Limited company in the U.K. as they have a very liberal law on this and every entity (individual or company) can incorporate a Limited company; no matter which nationality. There are lots of agents that provide an easy company setup (mostly even just online) which in the end they do online at the U.K. Companies House as well. A U.K. Limited company also allows to have the principal bank account in your local country. In that way you can withdraw the cash on your Google Checkout account to your local bank account (may be even through an intermediate bank).
All of this of course, costs quite some fees and needs time to be set up. However, it is better selling apps and get 80% out of it than not selling any and get 0%.
FYI: A U.K. Limited company setup might set you back US$1,000 in setup fees; a bank account setup may be US$250; yearly company maintenance costs might come up to US$500 per annum.
So find your agent now and get it going! It worked for me. In the meanwhile, learn more about How to earn money with your application through the Android Market.
P.S.: Let us know how you got it! Leave a comment.
Tags: account, android, checkout, google, kingdom, market, no, united, usa
Posted in Distribution | 2 Comments »
November 16th, 2009
The fact wrap-up of the brand new LG GW620 phone running Android:
- Keyboard: Qwerty
- Display: 3 inch Touchscreen (320 × 480 Pixel, 18 Bit)
- EDGE, UMTS, HSPA (7,2 / 2.0 MBit/s) and WLAN (802.11b/g)
- Quadband-GSM
- 5-Megapixel-Camera (Videos in 320 × 240 Pixel)
- Internal Memory: 166 MByte
- MicroSD-Slot (up to 32 GByte)
- Weight: 142 g
- Dimensions: 109 mm × 55 mm × 16 mm (2 mm thicker than Motorola Milestone)
Posted in General | No Comments »
November 2nd, 2009
… how gay is that?
Remember my previous article about the Motorola Droid? Well, back then I already thought that name was questionable as it comes around a bit cheesy – especially when the device is running Android on there. It is kind of like calling a BlackBerry weather app “BBWeather”. But “Milestone”? Come on Motorola … you are a US company and US companies usually put shit loads of money into branding and marketing of products. If feels like they are cutting costs and try to save money on that front. Then a clever manager dude came along and named the phone “Milestone” because it will be the next big milestone for Motorola to get back on the profit making track.
That might be understandable, but then that question comes up: Why do you use that name just for Germany? Because lots of Germans don’t speak that well? Indeed … we they even call a cell phone “Handy”. Back to our topic. “Milestone” is not such of a common name in Germany that people would recognize it better than “Droid”. Some naming decisions are really funny.
Perhaps some readers from Motorola can shed some light in here 
Website: Motorola Milestone
P.S.: Sorry for the expression at the top. No offense my gay friends – I like you too. It is just not my thing 
Tags: android, droid, germany, handy, milestone, mobile, motorola, phone
Posted in General | 6 Comments »
October 29th, 2009
Motorola is releasing this beaty very soon! Somehow it reminds me very much of the Google G1. A bit sharper edges and stuff but that seems to be “in” right now. Therefore, most specs are the same with one highlight: the screen resolution will be 854 x 480 pixels. That sounds pretty nice to me! Moreover, Motorola put a capacitive 3.7 inch display in there which means the display definitely supports multi-touch. Micro-SD, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, 5 MP auto-focus camera with double-flash.
The US CDMA model will be available for $200 with a 2-year contract on Verizon. Check out the Droid does website.
By the way, I found that note on Golem.
Tags: 2.0, android, droid, g1, google, motorola, verizon
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
August 27th, 2009
Motorola is one of the largest mobile phone makes in the world. With the RAZR phone Motorola had a huge success some years back, but these times are over. The mobile phone giant is struggling and needs to compete with other phone vendors like Apple, RIM, and Nokia. The Motorola platform was never really good. They used Symbian sometimes as well their own Motorola OS and Windows Mobile. Still today the variety of phones and software platforms of Motorola is quite fragmented.
With the announcement some while that Motorola will develop Android powered devices, a step in the right direction was done. The OS is free, open and provides basically all features a modern smartphone needs. It seems they are really going forward with this as I just read on golem that Motorola is due to release a new Android phone at September 10th.
Moreover, the MOTODEV – Motorola Development Center – lists the MOTODEV Studio for Android for download. The studio is based on Eclipse and seems to be some kind of an Eclipse plugin – so it will be easy to use for most developers as everyone has Eclipse anyway, right?
Everyone who is interested, check out the MOTODEV Studio for Android here: http://developer.motorola.com/
Tags: android, BlackBerry, MOTODEV, MOTODEV Studio, motorola, nokia, RIM
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
July 15th, 2009
Hi folks,
as you might have already mentioned, I have not published an article for quite a while. I also haven’t published a proper developement article for even a longer while. Honestly, I really want to change this, but I got one problem: I am lacking in time. I don’t see much more space in future but I will definitely try to squeeze in more time for this blog. I really like the Android platform and basically the whole idea it. It is worth and fun to write about it!
Anyway, what I actually wanted to ask you guys: Is anyone interested in sharing simple code samples with the community?
(Example: DialANumber)
What I can see from the day-to-day increasing access to this site is, there are definitely lots of people interested in this blog and its content. This means I did something right with my previous articles
So if there is someone out there who would like to share his / her experience with the Android platform please drop a comment below this article. I am sure we can make the world better, and bring useful information to the Android community.
Tags: android, community, development, glider, google
Posted in General | 10 Comments »
