Sorry for the lack of posts. Normal service will resume next week.
Archive for August, 2008
On holiday this week
Friday, August 29th, 2008Input methods for Google Android
Thursday, August 21st, 2008I believe one of the key factors that will determine the success or failure of the first android phones is how simple it is to enter text. Some of the early videos coming out on YouTube show devices with qwerty keyboards. However, I was also interested to see one of the winners of the first round of the ADC was ‘Writing Pad’ from Shapewriter . Shapewriter is already available for the iPhone and seems to be getting some good feedback.
If you really want to know how it works there is even a paper from one of the co-creators of shapewriter on the technology behind it called SHARK2 (or “SHorthand Aided Rapid Keyboarding Squared” !) here .
SDK update for Android
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Silicon Alley Insider and others have commented on the release of the update beta release of the Android SDK.
Google developers have been upset previously by Google’s ‘preferential’ treatment of certain developers (primarily those involved in the Android Developer Challenge – and even more likely to phone manufacturers). I don’t see this as that unusual as they may have felt that releasing it to a smaller subset of developers first would help them iron out any ‘showstopper’ bugs before they released it to the wider community.
FCC Approves HTC Dream
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Lots of reports out there about the FCC approving the HTC Dream for use on T-Mobile in the US. Probably the best report is from engadget. Suggestion is that this was the last barrier to its release in September. The sooner the better I reckon.
I wonder what the market will be like for getting unlocked HTC Dream’s over to Europe. I would imagine that unlocking software will be even simpler to write for Android than it is for OS X Mobile due to it being a more “hackable” platform.
