Adrenaline Apps

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab primarily because I’ve always been curious about the Android OS. Being an Apple junkie, I’ve only known one world. Albeit a nice one and one that hasn’t caused me to complain……yet. And if I’m every going to develop apps on Android as well, I’d better bloody well start learning it!

• Love the form factor of the Galaxy. Being 7″ vs the 10.1″, the Galaxy is much easier to hold and doesn’t need a stand. The iPad looked big and clunky after a while. The Galaxy is great for reading RSS feeds, news (and books), surfing and shopping. But for videos, the iPad’s larger screen and resolution wins.
• The Android Marketplace is atrocious – a desolate wasteland lacking not only apps, but organization and search/sort capability. They’ve got a lot of work to do especially since the market share of Android smart devices is growing faster that Apple’s iOS. This is one area where Android users will get upset.
• I LOVE Swype on Android! You’ll know what I mean when you see this video: http://bit.ly/hyBHt7 I can’t wait for the iPhone to get it. Although I hear that Apple won’t allow it for some bizarre reason…. I may start complaining now…
• If you rely on apps, your choice is easy – iPad. That goes double if you have an iPhone too. It just makes sense.
• From an OS usability perspective, Android is not as intuitive as iOS. You may say that I’m just used to my iPhone and iPad, but no, Android is harder to work with, trust me. Even after you get used to it, you always wish certain gestures and buttons were there or not there. And of the 4 standard buttons that are on the case of every Android device, the only useful one is the Search button. But on an iPhone or iPad, you can always have the Google app on your persistent taskbar when you turn on your device. Same number of steps to start a search.
• But here’s my main reason for not using Android-based devices personally. From a hardware standpoint, there are too many choices – Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG… and within each manufacturer, they are at least 2-3 models. And don’t get me started on the version of the OS – FroYo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3.2) and Honeycomb (3.0) which are ALL available at today. This is analogous to trying to buy a laptop and I for one am really tired of having to research “which is the best model?” “does it have the latest OS?” “does it have the best processor?” “which manufacturer has the best quality?” With Apple you shop for one thing. Period.

It’s clear which platform I’ll stick with. And at $500 for both the Galaxy Tab and iPad2, the Galaxy checklist against the iPad isn’t good enough.

I’m calling it now. Android-based tablets will fail against Apple’s iPad. Even people that own Android phones will start thinking… “why don’t I get an iPhone?”

I love it when new ideas can be funded by the general public and through social networking become wildly successful. No longer do you need to work for someone else to make your own start up a reality.

Recently, I’ve been supporting ideas from a site called Kickstarter.com. I’ve already helped fund one idea and now it’s an awesome product called Tik Tok – a cool wristband for an iPod Nano: http://kck.st/g5PMCe

Now, there’s a new idea that I love on Kickstarter called WALdok: http://kck.st/eRSMgC

Can’t wait until this one becomes a reality. Time to think about my own idea…

Having been a Blackberry hard-keyboard junkie, transitioning to the iPhone has been frustrating. Luckily, attachments like Boxwave’s Keyboard Buddy (http://bit.ly/hUXG4b) are starting to hit the market. It’s not perfect but meets 80-90% of my expectations. Here are my key notes after using it for 3 months…

Thumbs Down:

• Must hold down shift key for upper case, doesn’t recognize upper case  while holding key down so for letters on the left side of the keyboard, you have to take your right hand off the iPhone
• Doesn’t recognize double-space is period
• No back-lit keyboard for typing in the dark
• Apps with no landscape mode makes keyboard hard to use

Thumbs Up:

• Good quality with decent feel when typing – not as great as the Blackberries but still very nice
• More accurate typing
• Great for power texting when you don’t really care about upper case, spelling and exact punctuations
• Adds a little weight and width, but I actually like it but don’t expect to be able to slip into your iPhone into your pocket anymore

So, is it worth it? Yes…. until a better one comes out or if the iPhone 5 has a slide-out keyboard!