Hey all! If you’re in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area, I just wanted to let you know that we’re planning up an Android meet-up on Oct 16th. Where exactly isn’t ironed out, but we already have a killer crew coming including some favorites @thedroidguy, @RussellHolly, and @CynikalOptimist from www.thedroidguy.com, as well as the good doctor himself, @dr_cloverdale, who will be there to give CPR and the Heimlich to whoever needs it, whether you fake it or not.
So come out and join us for the festivities in the Nations Capitol for some Android fun! We’ll be sure to tweet when the final details are all ironed out, including giveaways and such that we have planned. So stay tuned, and get your Android gear out.
So get the word out, and let’s get to socializing.
Well the past couple weeks has been a huge high point for Android gamers. EA said they’d bring some games to the Android Market, Angry Birds beta was dropped and is at this very moment, making a great number of normally productive people bird flinging zombies, and finally Openfeint started their tour de force into the Android world.
I must say, Fruit Ninja is insanely addictive. So is Mini-Squadron. Both are top notch games and if you have even an inkling of gamer inside you, you should check them out.
Slicing through fruit has never been this fun.
Let me just say this… review phones are awesome. I have this Epic 4G review phone, and man is it nice. Not only because it’s a nice phone, but also because I can sit here and tether it without beating up the battery on my Droid X.
It really is a nice phone though. I posted a review of it over on theandroidblog.com and overall it’s just a great device. I’m still a little partial to the Droid line over at Verizon, but for a non-Droid phone, I like it. I got to play around with Qik doing video calls and the 4G on the phone (even though I had to drive further into the city to actually get a 4G signal).
So three cheers for review phones!
After a very long time without using Linux, I felt that itch again. I still have Ubuntu 10.4 as a dual boot on the computer, and it always seemed like everything Android related just works so much better on it. So that was that. Redo my whole Linux setup on the laptop.
It was actually more involved than I remember, but it all came to me pretty quickly. The main reason for using Linux was of course developing for Android, so getting the SDK and eclipse all set up was my first priority. The bad part? I was doing this all from a tethered Android phone.
Everyone knows that 3G isn’t the fastest connection around, but it’s by no means slow. At least not compared to dial-up I guess… Anyways, yeah, downloading all the sdk components was definitely excrutiating experience, but I survived.
It made me wonder though, how long until there’s a Java program that runs on an Android phone? Is it possible? It wuld be great to create apps and all rght there from your device. The screen would be small, and the text input would probably be iffy, but would it work?
So after that tangent, I’m happy to be back on Linux. Maybe I can actually focus and learn some Java, and maybe make some Android apps!
If you haven’t, definitely go check out theandroidblog.com for some great news and articles regarding android. We are also a proud sponsor of radioandroid, so go check them out as well and listen to Scotty Browns awesome podcasts.
Its been a busy few weeks for myself, between classes, trying to teach myself java, and writing for theandroidblog, I have been going in overdrive. Just got in my sprint Epic 4G for a review, so keep an eye out for that one.
Also, as always I have to throw in my support for these great android developers. Make sure you show them some support and click those ads. And as always, please don’t pirate apps. It hurts the community more than you probably think.
So I came across an excellent opportunity with http://www.theandroidblog.com, so I’ll be writing for them! The site itself is well done, and we’ll be getting review phones from a number of carriers and manufacturers, so make sure you check it out and stay up to date with the latest Android news and articles.
Next app up for review is the freshly redone Beautiful Widgets. Beautiful Widgets is one of the highest rated weather widgets on the market, delivering a sense-ish widget to display weather, time, and date. The way the developer integrated this all in both a 4×2 and 4×1 widget is pretty seamless and really spruces up the look of your homescreen. This app has become one of my staples, always one of the first apps I download when I get a new phone.
Just recently the developer, levelupstudios, completely redesigned the app to streamline the options menus, making them much more user friendly, and using accuweather for its weather forecast over googles weather system. It seems that the weather updates more accurately, which I’m guessing is due to the weather service swith.
Beautiful Widgets has a variety of options that make it one of the killler android apps to purchase. The clock, date, and weather are all clickable, to send you to applications which you can set in the options. By default they’re set at alarm for the clock, google calendar for the date and the stock BW forecast for the weather. These are all configurable however, so if you want to set up these areas to being you to apps you’d prefer, it let’s you have that freedom.Â
Beautiful Widgets also comes with toggle widgets for common options such as wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode and ringer options. These are simple yet elegant widgets that offer an attractive way to have these options readily available on your homescreen.
All in all, Beautiful Widgets is definitely a must have app for Android. Look for it on the android market for a small fee, but it’s worth it, and hell, what better app to get to support that paid app pledge?
So first app up for review, ADWLauncher. As far as home replacements go, ADWLauncher is hard to beat. No other home replacement comes close to beating it as far as customization options. With the option to choose the dimensions of the home grid, you can take maximizing your home screen space as far as you want, up to an 8×8 grid. You could condense all the apps and widgets you use down to one homescreen if you wanted to. With the ability to customize your android home screen experience to cater to your needs, ADWLauncher can satisfy both minimalists and information sluts in ways no other home replacement can.
Now i’ve been using ADW since the .3 days or so, so i’ve had plenty of time to figure out what I like as far as screen setups. Adw was impressive on my OG droid, and now with my Droid X it seems even more impressive (more screen space to abuse I guess). Since most android hardware manufacturers are leaning towards proprietary launcher setups, ADW can bring a little taste of pure android to any phone. I know in my experience, ADW blows away moto-not-blur in both looks and mechanics. Screen transitions are exponentially smoother, and are even configurable to the point of adjusting how much screen bounce you want between screens. It’s impressive to say the least, even if i could see the sheer number of tweaks you could do being a bit much for a more novice user.
One of the most compelling reasons to use ADWLauncher for me was the integrated dock bar at the bottom of the home screen. With space for tons of our most often used apps, it can save space and provide a cleaner ui. Add that with the ability to resize widgets, and you can pretty much make your home a true home away from… homescreen. ADWLauncher also has an option to save your homescreen configuration so that you don’t have to spend 20 minutes setting it back up if for some reason ok have to wipe our settings.
Another intriguing aspect of ADW that is fairly new is the theme options that arrived with version 1.0. You can download themes from the market to change the way ADWLauncher looks on the fly, with some already excellent themes being made not only by the creator of ADW but by other talented developers as well, thanks to the theme template on ADW’s github page.
Anyways, ADWLauncher is by far my personal favorite home replacement, and the commitment to open source development scores it some points too. Go check it out!
Working on getting this blog up to snuff. Look forward to some real posts soon.
Android Anonymous 