Author: Nicole Cozma

With all the pics and spec sheets out there, I figured it was time to share my video of the i1. It’s nothing too fancy, but I did get a chance to listen to the speech the rep gave about the device, and caught it all on video.

My initial impression of the device was that it felt pretty good in the hand, but it is extremely similar to the Moto Cliq XT. However, the added functionality of Push to Talk (PTT) seemed to make a real splash with those visiting the booth and looking at the other i1s on display. I must say, Motorola does a great job with making about six of their new devices available to demo on the show floor. They even have the devices right next to a seating area so those of us walking all day long can take a quick break while checking out something new.

Click here to view the embedded video.

During my time in Las Vegas for CTIA, the opportunity I was most looking forward to (besides seeing new Android devices) was a meeting with Mike McSherry, the CEO of Swype. This on-screen keyboard is the best thing to happen to the Nexus One I’m using.  I am in LOVE with this app, and so is their CEO.

A lot of Swype’s success can be attributed to two of the very talented people they have on hand helping with development. First, there is Cliff Kushler, the co-founder of T9 (yeah, that predictive text on TONS of phones all over the world), and Randy Marsden, the man behind the on-screen keyboard used in Windows. With a dynamic duo like these two, their team has two guiding lights. Additionally, it is clear that McSherry holds his entire team in very high regards–he spent a lot of time praising them for their hard work during our interview (and who doesn’t love a team that works great together to create amazing things?).

One of the most asked questions about Swype is: how come I can’t buy it from the Android market? The answer to this is pretty involved, though Mike McSherry did spend the time to explain it to me. In short, Swype has made promises to other companies that they shared their technology with and cannot go on to sell it outright before they fulfill those promises. I guess the silver lining to this is that Swype will be nearly perfected by the time it does arrive in the Android market. Oh, did you catch that? Yeah, they do plan on adding it to the market eventually–I know a few people who will be waiting impatiently for that.

As far as enhancing the quality of Swype, the company is already actively doing this. For starters, there is a reason that beta a lot of people joined expires: improvements! Many of our readers asked: does Swype plan to support voice input? From the chat with McSherry, I’d say the answer is yes. Oddly enough, I didn’t realize Swype was not just a keyboard that would make its home on mobile phones. In fact, Swype has plans to put their software on every device that they can to help enhance the user experience. Want an example? Yeah, so did I. To demonstrate, McSherry pulled out his HP laptop, remote, and USB receiver. He then demonstrated how Swype can work on a TV. After his demo, he let me try using it, too. It took a bit of getting used to, since I’m accustomed to using my fingertip, but it’s definitely something I could nearly master in a few minutes. Remember when companies started announcing things like Twitter integration on their cable boxes? If you’re like me, you were wondering if anything worse existed on TVs than slowly scrolling to letters with the directional pad. Well, Swype seeks to remedy this silly problem.

Overall, it seems Mike McSherry is really interested in making communication easier for everyone, no matter the device. He commented, “We’re looking for something specific with Swype: ubiquity.” Looks like they’re on the right track with many new Android devices coming with Swype as the default keyboard. No complaints from me. Keep it up team Swype!

You may recognize Chris Soyars from the OpenEclair project, but he has some other lovely tricks up his sleeves. This time it’s the NexusMod Live Wallpaper app he recently added to the Android Market. So what’s so special about this app? Well, if you’re like me, you love the Nexus-named live wallpaper that comes standard on the Nexus One. But even I have to admit that I was getting a little bored with the default Googlesque color scheme. When I noticed Chris was working on adding some new colors to the live wallpaper, I asked for a special color combination, which actually made its way into the app! If you’re curious, it’s the one called “Soap Bubbles.”

So far there are a handful of color schemes to pick from, but there is also an option to make the background a little darker. Let me say, your icons will look like brilliant stars against the darker background, and the color schemes look amazing. This app is far from done, though, as Soyars plans to add many color schemes and other cool features. In short, go download this! Here’s the market link to help you out: http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:org.ctso.lwp.nexusmod – just remember that you can’t open the app, but you can access the wallpapers by long-pressing the desktop and selecting “Live Wallpapers,” and then “NexusMod.”

Thanks, Chris!

HootSuite is finally flying its way over to Android to drop off its mobile version for all to enjoy. This Twitter client comes in two flavors: Lite and Regular, and will offer some features not common to mobile clients.

For starters, the lite client will allow you to use up to three accounts at once. Also, you can arrange different streams for different accounts and set them up in tabs. To navigate through the tabs, simply swipe back and forth across the screen. Sounds pretty convenient, right? Well, it gets better. On this version you can even schedule tweets for the future (that’s right, I brought up THE future). In order to do this, you’ll need a HootSuite account, but those are free, so it’s no biggie.

This app will also feature an in-app browser, list support, and the ability to view a conversation when you can’t tell what someone is responding to (I use this all the time guys, it’s so handy!). Additionally, HootSuite for Android will allow you to open links from Twitter emails in the HootSuite browser. This is for when you get a new follower, instead of their username in the email linking you to the phone’s browser, it will link you to the Twitter client.

So what’s the drawback to the lite version? Simple: ads. But that’s where the regular version serves as a remedy. The regular version of the app will display no ads, allow more than three accounts signed on at once, as well as some interesting stats. These stats will include clicks per day, total clicks, and the like. A little owl told us this app should be available in the Android Market starting tomorrow.

The main repository is gone, but for good? The precarious situation of hosting paid Android apps finally caught up with pirating superstar Jesusxxx when he received an email from his host that said he was being shut down. I say superstar because you have to hand it to this guy for his (possibly misguided) determination to provide apps that normally cost money for a total of zero dollars. I also think it is safe to assume that he is looked upon as a sort of Robin Hood for those who aren’t willing or are not able to pay for apps in the Android Market.

For starters, let’s be really clear on one thing: stealing apps is bad, mmkay? A lot of developers and companies depend on this money to help support their projects. The staff at AndroidGuys tries to keep everyone informed on how to help give back to the community because it is just that important. However, the presence of this “black” market (I also enjoy his play on words) just demonstrates that there are at least two areas of the Android Market that still need some work.

The first major issue is that when a user buys an app they have 24 hours to make a decision as to whether or not they want to keep it.  Now I don’t know about you guys, but even as a huge Android enthusiast, I simply cannot spend five straight hours deciding on my next Twitter client that I will depend on every single day. Perhaps this is where a longer testing time frame could be useful? Now if the user returns an app, they will definitely get their money back, but won’t be able to return it again in the future. So how about the next time you decide to give the app another shot it’s in the middle of a buggy version? Answer: you can still uninstall it, but you’re not going to get another refund. I do understand the logic of not wanting to have people buy and return their apps every day, but there should be some leniency support by the actual Market for situations like this. Sure some of the developers will work with you and give you a second refund if there’s a huge flaw, but not all, and that’s what’s important to remember here.

Second, and definitely just as important as the first, is the fact that many users from different counties/continents have great difficulty using the Android Market, if they even can. When I spoke to Jesusxxx, he mentioned that those people provide the highest number of requests for paid apps. Unfortunately, several countries have carriers that support Android devices, but not the transactions for Google Checkout or carrier billing–this results in a selection of zero paid apps. Awesome, right? No way! These people can’t even choose to purchase many of these outstanding applications because of geographic restrictions that are mostly out of their control. Even I have to admit that moving somewhere different to use an Android device might be going too far… actually, let me think about that, I do love Android . . .

To me, Jesusxxx’s repository seemed like a chance for people to test and re-test applications that they have already over-extended their refund policy on. It is unfortunate that this also means they can keep the apps for free and never pay any dues to the developer creating the magic on the other end. So my proposed solution to this: let’s find a better refund policy. Yes, I do realize that some people actually do just want to steal apps, but I’m trying to give the majority of my supportive audience the benefit of the doubt. Myself included, many Android users just don’t want to get stuck with broken software and others just want to be able to download the apps to begin with! When an app is paid for, there is absolutely no guarantee that it will be continually updated. Now how would a new policy for this would go about being implemented? Well, I wish I had all the answers here, but the real reason I decided to write about this sensitive subject is because I can see both sides.

How do you feel? Should people be trapped after one refund? Can you suggest a better refund policy? Please note: we’re not looking for piracy bashing, as we’ve already explored that topic and it’s unfairness to devs. Help AndroidGuys (and myself) discover the “happy medium” for the Android Market.

Thanks for your time, Jesusxxx.

Edit: Whatever you’re reading between the lines that implies I am pro-piracy, want everyone to get everything for free, and think piracy in any case is justified, is wrong. When I mentioned what his repository seemed like to me, I didn’t mean for myself. What I was trying to get at is: the people using it view it as a place to test apps–or a place to steal them, as I also noted. Nowhere in my post am I trying to say these reasons justify theft. I am regurgitating the reasons that were given to me when I asked why this repo exists. And lastly, I did not give him the Robin Hood nickname, it is another piece of relayed information.

I never get tired of talking about the awesome stuff that Eugene has his hands in. G1 and myTouch 3G owners can now make their devices go over the previous top speed of 528 MHz. In the pic you can see that Eugene now has the processor passing up 600 MHz like yesterday’s news. According to him, the processor can run stable at 628 MHz. Leave it to Eugene to do what “they” said couldn’t be done before. Now he’s shooting for 800 MHz, but unsure about the stability. Possibly more later …

Thanks Eugene!

Update: New pic added, 780 MHz seems to be the max this CPU can handle on battery power. Good work Eugene.

Our friend Eugene is still one of the busiest guys we know. This time around it’s an LG ROM on the Motorola CLIQ that has his attention. I know, I know, get to the real news. How about some FM Radio to go with your phone calls, media player, and web browsing? Sounds good to us!

While trying to fix the radio issue with Moto Blur on the LG ROM he has running on the CLIQ, Eugene stumbled across a lib file that was missing in the normal Blur ROM. He also noticed FMRadio was present in the bin file. After some deep contemplation (not really), Eugene loaded the bin and lib FMRadio files and an apk he found floating around–one intended for this purpose–and voila, FM Radio started working! So by bringing in the files from the LG ROM that the CLIQ hardware needed, he was able to bring life to a dormant feature.

At the present time, it will not work on the standard build. In order to get it up and running a lot of work still needs to be done (read: lots of technical stuff). There’s only one catch besides the wait for adjustments: it will only work if you have your headphones plugged in for the time being, but we can deal.

Thanks Eugene!