There is also a video overview of some of the new 1.5 features put out by the Android team.

Soft Keyboard

As a former Blackberry user I couldn’t go without the keyboard and didn’t want to switch to an on-screen soft keyboard. I suppose it was because of my assumptions about slowness with the on-screen keyboard based on feedback from friends with the iPhone. After using the new on-screen keyboard in Android 1.5, it is time to rethink my position on soft keyboards. I don’t think I have even flipped out the integrated keyboard for over 2 weeks and here is why. 

• The integration of the on-screen keyboard within all of the apps has been flawless.
• The on-screen keyboard works in both vertical and horizontal positions with keys large enough for typing.
• There is a predictive element in the typing that makes typing longer words easier. As you type, a suggestion on the full word shows on the screen which you can select rather than finish typing hte word yourself.
• One hand typing is now possible. This is probably the biggest advantage and something I missed about my Blackberry. The G1 fits nicely in my hand and I can easily type with my thumb with the new on-screen keyboard. 

Video Recording

Let me start by saying the video recording on the G1 will not replace my digital camera or my flip HD camera but it is nice to have. I used it yesterday to record a couple quick videos of the family in the park. Videos are recorded in 3gp format. You can play back the video using the built in video player. I also have the Meridian video player on my G1 but it was not able to play the video. 

The best part is being able to shoot and share instantly. Sharing options include sending via e-mail or uploading to Youtube. The Youtube upload allows you to set the name, description and keywords for the video as well as specifiy if it will be public. One thing I would add is being able to send the Youtube link via e-mail after it has been uploaded. It can be done through copy/paste and going into the Youtube app but the process is not seamless.

Other Features

There was a pretty significant, atleast for me, improvement made to the Gmail interface. Now you can select multiple mail items for deletion, archiving and labelling. Instant time-saver!! Copy/paste is another time saver and makes it much easier to move informaiton around between apps. There are a couple more things about the new Android OS release that I am looking forward to playing with such as stereo bluetooth, picasa upload and widgets. I have seen a number of new widgets on the market and the early results are encouraging. If you are looking for widgets, you can simply go to the site www.cyrket.com and search ‘widgets’.

AMBER Alert

One of the most sobering real world events that I find when driving are AMBER Alerts. If you are unfamilar with AMBER Alerts, they occur when a child is abducted. The alerts are broadcast over the radio, TV and on electronic billboards (at least in California). You can also subscribe to AMBER Alerts via SMS alerts.

AMBER Alert for Android

Last week I spent a few minutes looking around the Android marketplace via the cyrket.com site and noticed a very interesting app called AMBER Alert. After looking into the app before downloading it to my  G1, I saw it really was similar to the AMBER Alert that you hear about when a child gets abducted. The app shows you all the children that fall within the AMBER Alert criteria, sorted by state and consisting of the child’s details and a picture. Judging by the download rate, 5,000-10,000 in a month, it seems like something that people are interested in it.

The app got me thinking about how we can start to use all of this mobile technology to our advantage to help reduce child abductions. The app is a very good first step because you instantly get critical information, physical descriptions, pictures and locations into the hands of mobile users. An interesting second step would be to somehow mash up the abduction location or sighting of the abductor or child with Google maps which would also be viewable from your mobile device.

For example, if I received an AMBER Alert about an abduction and the vehicle was a blue Honda Civic, I would be on the lookout for such a vehicle. But to increase the accuracy of the data and drive interest in locating the abductor, if there was a Google Maps link to the last known location of the vehicle and I so happen to be in that area, I would be even more aware of this car. To take it one step further, what if updates on sightings of the abductor’s car also gets updated on Google Maps? Then a new alert is sent only to other mobile devices within a certain distance of the reported sighting, keeping everyone updated and driving more interest in finding the abductor/abductee. This would have to be tied in with local law enforcement so they are the ones that benefit most from having this real-time information. 

Knowing that such a vast communications network utlizing every smart phone in the area is in place for child abductions, will that have any impact on future abductions?

There is also a slightly more controversial tilt on the use of mobile technology for tracking children in general. There are products out on the market now, including plain old cell phones, that parents can use to track their children’s whereabouts. I saw one such product on the Web that is a little gadget that hooks onto your child’s backpack. Every parent should look into the positive and negative aspects of such technology and the impact on your relationship with your children.

The Problem Statement

I have no doubt people are interested in stopping child abductions, the question is how do you safely empower them and maximize their capabilities. Using this as the problem statement, designing and building a sytem with the mobile technology out there today should be a snap.

Does this increasing flow of information due to mobile technology drive more interest? Can this interest be harnessed for something beneficial? What are the ethical or social consequences of introducing these products to market?

Revenue Driving Tether Decisions

There are a lot possibilities for tethering through the G1 that essentially takes future revenue away from carriers.

• I can image a world where every consumer electronics device supports both WiFi and 3G (or whatever speed comes out next). These can be location aware devices, gaming devices or in-car devices. For each of these devices, carriers may make somewhere between $1 – $15/month. 
• Think of all the netbooks that will ship over the next couple years. Now think of all the 3G cards that will ship with them and the $30/mo. 3G service for each card. Now you can understand the carrier’s reluctancy to support WiFi tethering through the G1.

If you have root access to your phone, you don’t have to worry, the free tether apps I am sure will pop up in various places so you will still have the joy of tethering to your hearts content.

iPod Tethering News

Tethering with the G1 over WiFi now gives your Apple iPod touch Internet access from anywhere. That has always been the case with WiFi tethering so it’s not really new news. But with the recent availability of Skype for the Apple iPod touch, it makes even more sense. Now you can call other Skype users for free over the T-Mobile G1’s 3G network. Long distance calling is also very inexpensive over Skype. 

Just a reminder that you can have all this greatness only after you root your Android phone.

Finally, I previously stated that I was going to take a break from tethering news and updates. That break didn’t last long thanks to the above announcements.

Over the course of 3 months, I’ve been impressed with the evolution of tether apps and the quality of their user experience. The downside of having so many tether apps on the Marketplace is trying to figure out which one works best. Everyone has their own needs and uses for tethering. Fortunately there is enough variety of apps to meet most customer requirements. 

Let’s start with a comparison chart showing what tether apps are available on the Marketplace. Some of the information in the below chart is from the wonderful site Cyrket.com which allows you to browse through the Marketplace using your computer rather than solely going through your Android phone. Other parts of the table have come from the vendor’s site or my own experience with the app. 

Looking at the table, I broke the features down by what might be most appealing to certain consumers. For example, just going down the list of rows you can pretty much filter the apps based on the key differences: price, need for root access and connection type. Extra things like WiFi security and, current rating in the Marketplace and changing the SSID may also be relevant in your decision making process. The last row has a QR code that you can scan using the Android barcode scanner to go directly to the Android Marketplace and install the app.

You’ll notice in the above table that I also included the USB tether app PDANet. The one downside of WiFi tether apps is the requirement of having root access to your phone. As easy as it may be to gain root access, it is a reality that not everyone wants to root their phone. For those individuals, the PDANet might be the best option. It was recently announced and is in beta for Windows only.

Because of the nature of a USB tether app, only one client can connect to your phone at any time. In addition, that client must have the tether app software installed on it. These are a couple of the biggest limitations of USB tether apps. But as I said, those without root access to their Android phones will just have to be happy with tethering through USB. 

Of the above WiFi tether apps, I have successfully installed and used aNetShare and Wifi Tether for Root Users. The others require purchasing them which I really have no interest in doing since there are two very nice free ones. I should note the Marketplace does offer a 24 refund on apps so trying the paid tether apps are almost risk free. Based on the feedback in the Marketplace for tether Wifi and Toggle Tether, both work and are worth the price of purchase. Also, I am assuming that all of these apps will work on any Android phone and not just the  T-Mobile G1 from HTC.

I have listed all of the apps I was able to find that matched the ‘tether’ term in the Marketplace and the table is accurate based on the resources I mentioned earlier. If there are any mistakes in the above table or if there are other tether apps that should be included, then feel free to keep me updated and I can updated the table.

After  so many tether-related posts, I am planning to take a break from writing about tethering unless something really interesting comes on the market, like WPA for WiFi tethering.

Searching for the G1 on the Walmart site was not the easiest task but if you search T-Mobile and then list the phones under the plans, you should see it. I ran through the shopping cart for the G1 through Walmart.com and selected the cheapest phone plan ($39.99) plus the mandatory data plan.  You can see my cart below along with the free memory and shipping. 

The only limtation on this price point is that the $98 is valid only for new lines. Upgrades for existing lines is still $199.

For those unfamilar with tethering, it basically means connecting your laptop to your phone to get access to the Internet. Pretty straightforward. It comes in very useful if you are travelling and need to get your laptop online. Alternatively  you could pay the $5-$20/day that is usually charged by hotels. If you are only connecting to check e-mail, then these prices are very unreasonable. With the increase in mobile speeds, now capable of supporting 3G, you won’t even notice a difference in Internet performance for light use. You may even be able to stream BSG or 30 Rock from Hulu.com without any hiccups.

In order to successfully setup tethering, you will need three items.

1. Laptop (PC or Mac)
2. Mobile phone that supports tethering (T-Mobile G1, BlackBerry, etc…)
3. Tethering app that runs either on the phone (as in the G1’s case) or laptop (for Blackberry users)

Proxy vs IP Routing

There are two primary types of configurations for the tethering app that allows you to connect to the Internet through your phone: proxy or IP routing. Both of these methods are effective and have different capabilities. Here is a very brief description of the two. I tried not to be too technical.

Proxies are application aware i.e. can understand the difference between an HTTP stream vs. FTP stream. Often proxies are also more secure than vanilla routing apps. While this level of intelligence if great for looking at the content of the traffic and doing other interesting things, it can be slow and limited by the protocols supported.

IP routing simply take packets from one place and shoves it down another direction. It doesn’t care about the application as long it has an IP address wrapped around it. Most routing apps utilize Network Address Translation (NAT) to provide an additional layer of security.

If you would like more technical information on the differences between the two, you can visit Wikipedia and search proxy or routing.

Some of the drawbacks of proxy apps in the tethering scenario are limitations in the type of traffic you can send through your phone. For example, simple Web browsing would probably not be a problem. More complex scenarios like trying to VPN through your phone may not work with apps using the proxy method. Since one of the main things I use tethering for is to VPN back to a business partner’s network, I prefer the routing method. Being more universally applicable will make the routing method more dominate I believe.

USB or WiFi Connectivity

Tethering has come a long way in ease of installation and usability from when I first set it up on my BlackBerry 8700 years ago. Back then I had to go through some gyrations with the BlackBerry Desktop software and connected to my phone via a USB cable. BlackBerry tethering has become a lot easier to setup, but you still need software on your computer.

Now, with my T-Mobile G1, I simply download one of the free tetherings apps from the Android Marketplace and connect to my phone via WiFi. Within seconds I am surfing the Web. No software needed on my computer. This makes it much easier especially when my USB cable is nowhere to be found. Considering the G1 is now less that $100 from Amazon.com and Costco, the cost for the phone pays itself after a couple months of not having to buy WiFi access from hotels. Do you really need a Boingo account anymore when you can tether?

WiFi is the easiest method but not necessarily the most secure. The problem is that once you enable WiFi tethering on your G1, it instantly becomes an Internet hotspot. In some cases this may be more of a feature than liability. For example, if you are in a hotel room and a couple friends need Internet access, they can just connect to your phone. The downside is that it allows anyone to hijack your 3G connection and bandwidth. None of the apps I have seen on the market support any type of wireless encryption but based on the results of my rudimentary survey, I don’t think that is a problem. Some of the apps, GWiFi and ANetShare, notify you when someone connects via WiFi on the phone and let’s you block based on IP address. This probably is OK for now, but a more robust tethering app with built-in wireless security is still lacking. This is a great opportunity for a security software company to bring a safe tethering experience to the Android market.

With all of the benefits of tethering that I have written about, you should know that most service providers are not too keen on customers using their phone for tethered Internet access. Providers like T-Mobile, AT&T and others sell 3G cards and would prefer customers purchase those. While I can understand these providers want more money from selling additional services, they need to look elsewhere.

If you are eager to play with one of the tether options for the G1, just be warned that the majority of tether apps require that you have Root access on the phone. Gaining Root access is actually stratightforward and takes about 15-20 min.

If you anyone knows of a tether app that does not require root access or offers better security options, I would be interested in hearing about it.

The problem with being an early adopter was that all of these cool new apps came out for the G1 and there was no one to appreciate them with me. All of my friends were either iPhone fanboys/fangirls or weren’t very interested in the whole smartphone idea.  In the their eyes, the G1 was too thick compared to the iPhone, it didn’t have the same finished look, the iPhone screen was larger, the iTunes store was more complete, etc… With all of these factors working against the G1, how did analysts expect Android devices to outsell the iPhone over time? 

Recently I have even seen a ton more commercials on TV promoting the G1,  trying to increase the interest and awareness, but I don’t think that’ll work considering the aesthetic differences between the iPhone and G1. The fastest way to convert the potential iPhone buyers over to the G1 was by doing something drastic, news worthy and game changing. 

Breaking Down Barriers

Lo and behold, Amazon.com nowoffers the T-Mobile G1 for $97.99 with a 2 year contract.

Price is a huge factor, especially in the current economy, but it cannot be the only thing to attract new customers. In fact, the G1 and Android OS has come a long way in almost six months. The most progress has come most recently with the introduction of paid apps in the Android Marketplace, the integration of innovative capabilities like Augmented Reality, Barcode Scanning and Text-to-Speech among other things. 

I wrote earlier about how much of an impact the G1 can have on education through its integration of Augmented Reality or the potential benefits to those with imparied hearing. So while the G1 may not be the most beautiful phone on the market, at a price less than $100, it can be a game changer.

I think it is time to get one for my wife.

Photo Credit: janelouisephotography

Amazon.com chose the later when faced with objections from the Authors’ Guild about text-to-speech capabilities in the Kindle 2. Seth Godin writes about other recent missteps by similarly short-sighted groups.

Ultimately the Kindle 2’s fate will be determined by the market. Hopefully a challenger to the Kindle 2 will appear with full text-to-speech capabilities so that those with impaired vision will be able to enjoy literary works like the rest of us.

Unlocking Business Opportunities

What Amazon may not have fully thought through are the businss opportunities in a market enhanced with text-to-speech. For example, they could offer a selection of voice over actors for any book on the Amazon store. This could range from Paris Hilton reading The Little Engine that Could all the way to Patrick Stewart reading Moby Dick. How about having a selection of actors reading Moby Dick and let the customer choose which one to hear? What if Amazon offered it up in a marketplace like iTunes at a price of 99 cents where voice actors can upload their versions of stories that can be imported into the ebook on the Kindle 2?

And what real leverage does the Authors Guild have over Amazon? Can’t Amazon simply choose to not distribute books that disagree with their text-to-speech implementation on the Kindle 2? But the Authors Guild does not have to be locked out of this potential revenue stream and, in fact, the more voice-enabled books there are, the more books they will sell. Maybe I am just naive to think everyone would benefit or maybe the Authors’ Guild are short-sighted?

Amazon may have such a plan in place and they are simply working through logistics. I hope that is the case. There are other platforms, besides the Kindle, that can also take advantage of integrating text-to-speech into ebooks. Android already has a few text-to-speech and ebook apps on the marketplace. The next step would be to combine the two and allow users to upload their audio readings of the books. Eventually more well known voice actors i.e. LeVar Burton may join in and offer their interpretations at a slightly higher premium price.

There will continue to be ’short-sighted ones’ that prefer the status quo in the face of change. In those cases, just look at how these organizations fared:

1. The RIAA and MPAA are losing the battle to justify lost revenues in light of the trend towards file sharing networks

2. Microsoft’s anti-trust activities failed to maintain browser marketshare against alternatives offering innovation

3. The Republican party completed an epic fail in losing the presidency and any influence in the house and senate in election cycle 2008

I have faith that Amazon.com with see the Kindle 2 for its tremendous possibilities and unleash it in the not too distant  future.

Photo Credit: dekuwa , rajeshvj

It’s not the end of the world if the app doesn’t provide any type of wireless encryption or MAC filtering. For example, in lieu of those esential security features, you can protect the WiFi network by monitoring who connects by looking at the status screen of the GWiFi app. If you see another computer connect, you can immediately disconnect them. Not the best security mechanism as you can see. 

To find out if other G1 users feel wireless security is important, I put together a quick question and sent it out via Twitter.  I explicilty named WPA and MAC filtering as two security options since those were the most well known. My guess is that most people will be happy with just being able to tether and securing that connection is of lesser importance. I’ll report back with the results in a future blog entry.

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC

This past weekend I found a new app called SMSpeaker, made by the same people that brought you Speaking Pad. It costs $.99 from the Android Marketplace which made it a difficult decision to test, but for the good of all G1 users I decided to give it a go.

Once installed, the app does exactly what it says. When a new SMS message comes in, it is read aloud. Pretty straight forward. You can also have it repeat the message if you missed by simply tapping the screen. This will come in handy with the newest California law banning texting and driving. Here is a video of the SMSpeaker app in use.

While testing, I found the app very handy if your phone is sitting across the room because you can now hear the SMS message and who sent it. This also brings up a word of caution because the SMS message may not necessarily be something you want other people to hear. Take for example, you may be planning a surprise party for your girlfriend or making arrangements for a boys night out which you really do not want read out loud.  On the otherhand, it could be an interesting intercom-like system to send audio messages to your wife or kids. As with any app that comes out, you can adapt it how you see fit.

There are other Android apps that could benefit from TTS integration. Take for example Twidroid or any Twitter app for Android. Short 140 character tweets are ideal for TTS, but there would need to be some filter on which tweets are spoken so you hear the ones that are from those twits you would want to literally hear from.  If the implementation is right, this is an app I could imagine paying for.

Taking the Next Step

As with Augmented Reality, we are only scratching the surface of the benefits TTS will bring especially for those with imparied or degraded vision. My father, for example, wears glasses for reading and has a lot of trouble reading his Blackberry because his glasses are not always around. I saw this first hand a few months back as he was struggling to read the small screen and text. Imagine being able to simply click on a message and have it read out to you.

So while all of these touch screen phones have brought a great user interface , where does that leave those that are unable to see the screen? The developers of SMSpeaker are already pushing ahead with more apps that will bring benefits to an audience larger than the everyday mobile phone user. 

Photo Credit: Tim Caynes