Android Developers! Here’s a phone-load of free ideas

Oct 16, 2008 | blog

android logoYeah, I’m a little excited while I sit and wait for my T-Mobile G1 to be delivered. During this waiting period that nearly every geek worth their weight in Apple will experience, I’ve been reading  reviews, opinions, development docs, looking up existing applications and so on.

During this time I’ve been thinking about the things that Google did & didn’t put in the phone. I’ve been pondering the criticism and the early praise for the device, and I’ve started thinking about what I want out of the G1, and through this I’ve come up with a list of possible application ideas for some “Rock Star” android developers. So here they are.

Media/Communications

  • Video Camcorder App (since Google left this out!)
  • Adobe Flash Player
  • Flickr Uploader
  • QIK & Seesmic Video Client
  • A Slingbox client
  • A Kick-But Media Player
  • Rhapsody client, iTunes Client, and so on
  • Skype, GrandCentral, ooVoo Clients

image Social Media

  • Twitter Client
  • Facebook (and other social networks) Client that supports pic/vid/audio uploads
  • Find a way to use the accelerometer as an input device – specifically for scrolling. (Ok, yes like the information pads from STNG that the crew would simply tilt back & forth to scroll the information on the device – geeky I know.)

Drivers/Input

  • Bluetooth AD2P Stereo Headphone Support
  • Bluetooth HID support for keyboards (Specifically my older ThinkOutside Bluetooth Keyboard please!)
  • Bluetooth HID support for Mice
  • Multi-Touch input drivers (I believe Google didn’t do this because of IP concerns – I’m probably wrong)

Productivity

  • Google Reader App (How’d they miss this?)
  • Google Docs App (Gears… Hello!)
  • Note taking app (I’d like one that integrates/syncs with Microsoft OneNote, but others like Evernote)
  • Full Screen Keyboard
  • Blogging client similar to Windows Live Writer
  • Weather App (Forecasts, Maps, etc…)
  • Support for email signing/encryption certificates
  • Travel App (This one could be cooler than they have been to date: detect location via GPS, set correct time/date, download current weather, look up local restaurants automatically and present by breakfast/lunch/dinner times, download current exchange rates, more…?)

Heck, I’m just listing off things I want – but look at the device and think of the G1 as a PC rather than a phone. Remember, with 3G, GPS, accelerometer, touch interface, camera, access to your Gmail Contacts & Calendar, Maps, etc… what could you build using a combination of these hardware and soft resources? What if…? Since Android is an open platform, you can replace even the core components of the software suite: dialer, browser, email, input drivers, camera software… it’s endless.

Ok, now that I’ve demonstrated that I’m an Android fan-boy, I’m going to go back to work. Have fun!

Android, Gmail, and Thunderbird

Oct 15, 2008 | blog

thunderbird-logo_small With the knowledge that I’ll be moving to the T-Mobile G1 in the near future, I started thinking about my contact list. Yeah, the one I have in Outlook that I sync to my current Windows Mobile phone. But wait, there’s no sync client for Android phones.

However, in the case of the T-Mobile G1, it will sync it’s contact list with my Gmail Contacts over the 3G connection. Ok, I can live with that – it actually works out better in the end. More on that later. With that realization, I started thinking about how best to edit and update all those contacts I have in Gmail.

T-Mobile G1 For a long time I had looked for some kind of utility to sync from Outlook to Gmail Contacts. I was hopeful when early last year Google themselves released a Outlook to Gmail Calendar sync tool. Alas there was no contact sync utility, just some API extensions to make it possible.

Since I’ve been playing evaluating Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook on and off for a year or so, it occurred to me that there may be a way to sync Gmail items to Thunderbird via Add-Ons. Sure enough, they exist. With a Gmail Contact Add-On and a Gmail Calendar Add-On, I’m able to edit and update these times fast and easy via a great offline client.

The great part of all this is that because the G1 automatically syncs Gmail, Contacts and Calendar – all my PIM data will now effortlessly be in sync from PC to Web to Mobile. No matter where I go to send an email, make a call, or view my schedule, it will always be in sync.

Do you know of any interesting Google or Gmail related Add-Ons for Thunderbird that would make it even better? Let us know what you find that works!

Now to just wait for the G1 to be delivered…

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