London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

EDIT:
Benchmarked Android phones link (permanently updated)


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The first Android phone in the UK was the T-Mobile G1. An excellent first effort, but lacking in a few important areas.

It had a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, but NO built-in word processor. In fact, the G1 cannot be used without logging into a Google account, so the omission of straightforward connection to Google Docs, seemed unforgivable. Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and Google Email are all installed, so why Google Docs wasn't, was a real downer. A Qwerty keyboard, and no word processor. Shit planning.

It lacked internal memory for apps. Whereas the iPhone has 8GB-16GB, the G1 had only 256MB, (yes, not even 1GB) available for apps! A 16GB MicroSD card can be installed, but no apps will have access to this memory. A very serious hurdle for developers.

The apps store only had a reasonable amount of apps, in comparison to the Apple iStore, but many free apps for the G1, are paid-for only, on the iPhone.

So, the intermediate solution to early-adopter android phones, is to access Online Word Processors.

Online Word Processors:
Buzzword - from Adobe Acrobat
Google Docs - some negative issues, and doesn't always synch properly
Shutterborg - word processor AND a web page editor (on the fly)!!
ThinkFreeOnline - very good online office suite
ZohoWriter - well regarded word processor

There are now downloadable options, so one does not need to go online everytime one wishes to edit, create a doc.

Downloadable stand-alone Office Suites:
Documents To Go - pay for advanced edition to unlock full functionality
ThinkFreeMobile - full office suite

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I'd say that the ANDROID OS is the fastest developing of all phones OSes.

Phones on the UK market at the moment (Oct-Nov 2009) are:
T-Mobile G1
T-Mobile G2
T-Mobile Pulse
Samsung i7500
Motorola DEXT
HTC Magic
HTC Hero
HTC Tattoo

Still, the games are far behind what the iPhone has access to. This will still take a while to catch up to.

But the BEST thing about Android phones, is the huge amount of free apps, either in the Android Market,
or search via Cyrket, Android Feeder, and other similar repositories.

So, how do I phone home?

Ashe, you need a drink, man. So do I :-)

There's an app for that.

And there's an app for that too.

hero's good, i've got one ;-) there's lots of info on the web about what you can do with it, e.g. at xda-developers forum - http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index...ename=HTC_Hero - which also has lots of info about other phones, too. the one thing that hasn't been mentioned by GA2G is that the android software is a lot more open than the iPhone software (which runs proprietary, closed-source mac software), although there are still some licensing issues and one of the major hackers was served with a cease and desist notice a while back by google.

The C&D issued to Cyanogen was simply because his was distributing Google's proprietary apps within his custom ROMS. The workaround? Backup Google's apps, flash the phone with custom ROM, restore Google apps.

The custom I recently installed onto my Samsung i7500 has this backup/restore of Gapps done for you automatically. By changing process priorities and some other little hacks this ROM is faster than the stock firmware (the latest of which is II5).

Android is awesome.

Andriod is for weirdos.

Samsung firmware I7500XXII8 is available in some countries.
http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1385

He he, I knew you'd bite.

Get more memory whilst using the Galaxo ROM..
http://androidforums.com/samsung-i75...re-memory.html

My set of instructions for upgrading to Galaxo ROM:
http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1387

Analog Compass




Dungeon Wonder Lite




Farm Frenzy




Ebuddy




Google Sky Map

Baseball Superstars 2009




Hyperspace LITE




Metal Detector

Bubble Level




m:Racing




Shazam




ColorDict Dictionary




ColorFlashLight



DOOM

Android apps I use:

Astro - file manager
beebPlayer (iPlayer for Andriod)
Countdown alarm
Dogg Catcher (podcatcher)
My Tracks (location tracker for google maps)
Password Safe
Weather

Android links:

101 best apps

Business Week is predicting that Android will catch and overtake the iPhone, regarding apps

45+ Cool apps (+ reviews)

Android apps to run on Ubuntu

Skins, Virtual Keyboards, Widgets

Building Android apps (Links):

http://www.talkandroid.com/google-an...ication-guide/

The forum has an 'edit' button you know. There's no need for 10 posts, you can just edit the first to put in the new thing you want to say.

Mouthwatering phones to come:

Acer Liquid A1

Motorola Droid

Sony Ericsson X10

Ooops. Sorry. I'll combine others from now on.

EDIT: However, the vagaries of T-Mobile broadband via simcard, often means dropped connection.

I've got a switch I've never turned on... what it does is that if someone responds to a thread and they were the last poster, it appends to the last post rather than create a new post.

I've not turned it on because it's unexpected, and the server shouldn't be too surprising like that. But it does prevent flooding.

Not a problem for one or two posts, but when it's a whole stream of them it certainly makes me wonder about that switch ;)

i've got the fixed gears app - very useful! http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...ears-qxAq.aspx

Been messing about with a bit of Android application development .. as my work may be making some apps. You can specify the UI elemets with an XML file. Quite nice ... and you can develop in a kind of virtual mobile phone which is pretty cool.

I'm due an upgrade in the next few weeks. Hero or Magic?

VB, there were quite a few posts from hippy, and some input from Clefty, and me of course, about android phones.....bc (Before the Crash).

I was getting to the phone models, but was presently highlighting freeware on Android phones, as I really do feel that android is the future. I gain nothing from it, but was hoping you wouldn't mind indulging a few non-Redwood geeks.

My plan was to give a flavour of the (free) apps available, and let others join in, if they so wished. I don't intend to list all apps, just some different ones, in different genres.

wools, on which network?

But either way, I believe the Hero is more recent than the Magic, and better specced.

I'm on Vodapwned. Only the Magic is available as an upgrade through Vodafone but, apparently, I can get a Hero through Carphonewarehouse. I'm tempted to end the Vodafone contract though. They is a bit pants.

I went into T-Mobile and had a demo of the Hero yesterday, looked very nice to me... I iz very excited to get one soon... [/dork mode]

Hero is the newer. I have the Magic which does tend to bog down a bit when certain apps.

Favourite apps are the Tracks (as mentioed above), Locale (changes phone setting based on location, time, eg. silent at work) but best is the total integration with google, auto sync with calenders contacts email etc...

Hero and Magic both have the same Qualcomm 528MHz processor.

I've got a Hero and I like it, but I need to update to the latest official ROM which apparently improves performance. Annoyingly, you need a PC to run the HTC update software :O

I can't do unofficial ROMs, before you start Hippy.

Locale is a weird app. I can't get it to work how I want it to - it should be great but I can't work out if it is just me not using it correctly.

Yep - if you use google apps a lot as I do Android is truly awesome and will only get better. I still feel there is quite a long way to go for things to be as polished as the iPhone.

Galaxo ftw! :)

Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) may have a winner with the Rachael, which is set to be announced within two days. We’ve seen the teaser clip and now it’s time to see how this baby actually works. Yap, we have the UI video and I can tell you one thing – it rocks! The first Sony Ericsson Android-powered device will come with a WVGA (480×854 pixels) touchscreen and an optimized user interface that really takes advantage of the whole screen estate… Enough said, here’s the video. Enjoy!

What are you trying to get it to do? It seems to work for me. I only do simple stuff with it though, like turn the sound off between 11pm and 7am or set it to connect to work wifi when I'm at work and home wifi when I'm at home while leaving it off at other times to save battery power.

Wow! :o

Yeah, looks like Mal will be getting the Galaxy when I get one of the X10s :)

I think I will stick with my Nokia 5210

Yeah, they're awesome. I don't know why I bought this Android phone. I'm going back to the shop and swapping it for an old school Nokia. Phew.. there's a weight off my shoulders.

In English? or even in Polish if its easier.

It means, there's a configuration option for the forum so that if you post a few times in a row, ie. you're the last poster to a thread, the forum will automatically append you posts into ONE rather than leave them as multiple replies.

jeeez Hippy you gone all Anal of a sudden?

Kurwa po Polski Dupku.

I'm busy running scripts on my phone. There is no humour in command line. I bid you good day.

Drink Wodka the Humour Returns I am going to Sopot soon fancy coming?

Google Maps for Android 2.0

I use ebuddy on my Nokia 5800, it's alright, does the job

Dude, Carphone Whorehouse are a fucking joke in my experience - was stuck with those jokers for 2 years before I moved to Vodafone.

I got a Hero on Vodafone through Carphone Warehouse - no problem.