Still miss my keyboard!

Have had my Nexus One for 2 months now. Still miss my keyboard. Think that makes it a much poorer substitute for a Blackberry than the G1.

Come on Google, your competition is not the iPhone, but a mobile that lets me do what I need to when I am not at my laptop.....

Android Security Problem?

Just noticed something - the oil on my fingers leaves marks on my Android screen.

Guess how I log into my Android phone - by drawing a pattern on the screen.

Want to know my login pattern? Just hold my screen up to the light appropriately and you will be able to figure it out.... :-(

Just how secure does Google think this pattern thing is?

First poor experience with T-mobile customer support

I have generally been very happy with T-mobile's support.

Just had the following experience when I was at the airport leaving the US:

I had got my T-mobile plan with my G1. When I was at a T-mobile hotspot, the network recognized that this was a T-mobile phone and allowed me to access the wifi network without asking me to login.

Bought an unlocked Nexus One, and put my sim chip in it. Now my Nexus One can see the T-mobile network, but it doesn't automatically get my wireless access. I get redirected to the T-mobile Hotspot home page and asked to log in.

Spent over 2 hours with the T-mobile support guys, but they couldn't help at all.

First time I have been disappointed with T-mobile's customer service. The supervisor didn't even agree to give me an account I could use before my plane left.....

Guess the good news is that it kept me busy for the 3 hours I was waiting at the airport..... :-)

AirCel GPRS in Mumbai

Just got an AirCel GPRS card from a dealer. Cost Rs. 14/- (~$0.33). Allows me unlimited data for 3 days!
Don't know how great the speed will be, but I like unlimited data.

Here are my settings (in case somebody needs them in the future:

APN: aircelgprs
Proxy: 172.17.83.69
Port: 8080

Enjoy!

Got a Nexus One!

Just got a new Nexus One (thanks, Radhika)

After playing with it for a day or so, rooted the device and got Cyanogen's updates.
Wanted to get tethering working, so I downloaded this app. However, I also needed to the XP drivers, which I got for here.

Now, I am happy :-)

PS. While looking up links for this post, I found that Cyanogen just released a full ROM. Now I need to go get that.... :-(

PPS. Looks like the spammers are working their magic on a lot of my Android queries - guess there is some kind of a ring that is getting random blog entries and then linking to each other.....

Universal Remote with Android Part II

Ok. Looks like somebody built a remote with the iPhone: http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/04/iphone-becomes-a-universal-remote-this-february/

Would love to see this with my G1.

Ideally, if I were the manufacturer, I would allow users to design their own buttons for a device and enter in the codes from their older remotes. Will help the maker update their devices supported very quickly....

Google Phone

Have been reading about the Google phone all over the web.

Still trying to figure out how it makes much sense for Google to make its own phone to compete with Motorola, Samsung, Sony, etc.

Why didn't Google just provide the specs (something like a reference implementation) and then let the phone manufacturers duke it out. Some would add a keyboard, others would add infrared, other would do smart things that I can't even think about....

I am not sure I understand their strategy at all.

Some of the Google Apps on Android are getting extremely sexy!

Just installed a few new apps on my Android phone. Some of these are killers:

Google Maps version 3.3
Google Goggles

Think Google can most probably buy its way into getting cooler apps than iPhone. Already most of the basic apps are available on Android. Google can develop/pay people to develop/hold competitions to get some of the best apps onto Android. And given the recent buzz, not sure they will need to pay anyone....

Another thing I believe is true (can't be certain), is that there are a lot more apps available for free on Android (things that nobody will develop for free on Apple because you need to pay to develop on the iPhone)

I really need to create my list of top apps - content for another post.

An Android home phone?

Have been thinking about this for some time..... Really want an Android home phone - that way, I can get access to all my Gmail contacts. It will also allow me to use my Reliance/Airtel calling cards to call numbers in India (using the Calling Card application)

Is it time for Panasonic and Uniden to adopt Android?

Of course, the manufacturer will need to figure out how my wife and I can share that phone... :-)

Chrome OS as your safe browsing environment?

This ChromeOS thing has been bugging me.

Wonder if the following would be a good use for it:
When you are browsing the net and worried about viruses and worms, might you want to create a ChromeOS virtual machine and browse in that? Any viruses however well written, are unlikely to get onto your host OS (to do so, they will have to break the Chrome browser, the Chrome OS, the Virtual Machine software and *then* your host OS.

Won't save you if you are trying to download applications for your host OS. Or from phishing attacks, but should protect you from other threats on the web.

Could that be the killer app for ChromeOS?

How does ChromeOS make any sense?

Still trying to make sense of ChromeOS. If all it does is give my blindingly fast access to my browser, what's wrong with Android on the netbook?

Android doesn't necessarily load very fast on a G1, but I assume part of that is because the processor on the G1 is awfully slow.....

Also, why do the ChromeOS folks think apps on the netbook is such a bad idea? I would be pretty bummed if I didn't have apps on my G1.

I really don't get it at all.

Universal Remote for Android - not possible

In my previous post, I talked about how wonderful it would be if I could get a universal remote for Android. Looked into this a little. Looks like others have already thought about this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/android-discuss@googlegroups.com/msg13927.html
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738
etc.

Apparently Android doesn't provide power out on its USB.

Big bummer :-(
Would be nice if this could happen in future Android phones.

By the way, there is another solution that I found (only for iPhones, though). Ok answer, but lamer IMHO.
Another thing you need to plug into an electrical outlet....

Universal Remote with my Android

I was just looking at the Logitech remote controls.

Wouldn't it be nice if somebody wrote an app to make my Android phone into a universal remote?
Could be a lot better than the Logitech stuff. All you would need is an IR interface that would fit into the USB and some code.....

Anybody at Google listening?
What about Logitech?
Anybody in the Android marketplace?

This is one of the few apps I would be willing to pay for :-)

Google Getting too Strong?

Recently I have started getting very, very concerned with how much information Google now has about me. I have been a huge Google fan for some time now. Here are their services I use:
- Search
- Maps
- Mail
- Shopping
- Android
- Chrome
- News
- Translate (for work)
- Blogger
And others that I can't think of right now.

The problem is, that Google at this stage has a lot of history about me. They know what I look for, where I have been, where I spend my time, what I say in my mail, what I might buy, which sites I visit most often, etc. It is all very convenient, but a little scary about what can happen if (when) they decide to start misusing this information.....

Do I need to move to IE and Bing (and rely on MS's incompetence) to protect my anonymity?

Making money on the mobile applications

I have been thinking about this for some time. Love my Android. Like developing apps. The big question is: How do you make money developing apps on mobiles.

Hard question. IMHO, I don't believe too many folks will make a lot by developing an app that is mainly phone based. Sure a few game makers will, but not too many. Getting eyeballs and the engineering work make that too expensive.

The kinds of apps one needs to figure out are ones where you have some interesting back-end services and the mobile app provides a new means of accessing that. Google/Facebook/Twitter are the great examples, where they have a service that is useful in itself. The mobile apps allows users to access those services at all times and drives more revenue to their services.

Another point. Trying to charge for mobile apps feels like a pretty hard model to scale (of course, that might be my opinion because I am a cheapskate). I don't know how profitable adding ads are either (unless they are very targeted based on your app/user). The model you need to come up with is to either get a reputation for being a good app developer and then doing some consulting based on that. Or creating targeted leads based on your user's needs and getting money from those leads.