Today the winners of the Android Developer Challenge 2 were announced and they are worth a look.

I don’t own an Android device and I am looking to the platform with much interest, as it is getting more and more attention every day.  Just look at the Motorola Droid or HTC Hero.

So, today I was looking to the list of the Android Developer Challenge 2, just to “smell” the opportunity for me as a potential new user in this whole new world. Here is the list published on Google Code:

Overall Winners

SweetDreams
SweetDreams is a revolutionary tool that will finally allow you to go to sleep without worrying about changing your phone settings in order to avoid unwelcome late night calls. You can even use those inactivity periods to save battery power as well, and of course forget about enabling WiFi, Bluetooth or ringtones volume …

What the Doodle!?
‘WTD!?’ is a real-time online multiplayer game where one player tries to draw out a given phrase and others try to guess it. Features FFA and Team games, Global Highscores, Personal Face Doodles, integrated Voice Recognition and more! Real-time drawing!? Built for performance, you’ll really see the magic at first doodle!

WaveSecure
WaveSecure is a complete mobile security solution that protects your device, data and privacy. 1. Track your phone’s location and who is using it 2. Lock down your phone remotely, making it worthless to the thief 3. Backup all your data 4. Wipe out your data remotely 5. Restore your data May the phone be with you!

Education/Reference Winners

Plink Art
Plink Art is an app for identifying, discovering and sharing art. Take a photo of a painting, and the Plink Art servers will try to identify it. You can also browse our database of artwork by keyword or timeline and share your discoveries with friends.

Word Puzzle
The Word Puzzle is designed to provide a fun way to learn basic English words for preschool children. Kids can study spelling and pronunciation with flash card and check achievement with word puzzle. Interesting visual and sound interaction with awarding system helps kids to keep learning. Let kids play with your Android.

Celeste
An educational augmented reality app that displays the Sun, Moon, planets and their paths through the sky onto your camera view. You can navigate through the sky selecting celestial bodies to display interesting information about our solar system. See the exact spot on your horizon where the sun will rise and set.

Entertainment Winners

A World of Photo
Loosely inspired by the traditional “Spin the bottle”, A World of Photo is a casual, geographic worldwide multiplayer online game with a social touch. Players spin their phones and will receive a photo from whomever in the world they pointed to. For best play experience, let the app run in the background.

SongDNA
Need any information on a song? Practicing for a big karaoke gig? Music quiz coming up tomorrow? The SongDNA widget allows you to quickly look up your favorite song’s detailed information. It includes the lyrics, artist’s bio, homepage, highest chart rank and video. Handy when you’re training for your next karaoke gig!!

Solo
Solo is a great, easy to play and feature rich pocket guitar for your phone. A must for all guitar enthusiasts! Features include -Huge chord library with 380+ chords & diagrams -Load/save chord layouts -Play along with music on your phone -Overlay music & lyrics from the internet -Various strum modes, including shake strum

Games: Arcade/Action Winners

Speed Forge 3D
Speed Forge: Heavy duty hover vehicles, normally used for mining are now seen in illegal races organized in abondoned factories and dark Marsian alleys. The rock crushing explosives once used in these machines now serve a different purpose…

Graviturn
Tilt your phone to move the red circles out of the screen while keeping the green circles. Infinite levels from very easy to nearly impossible. Compare your performance with other players after each level (online highscore and statistics).

Moto X Mayhem
Jump, lean, and race through seven levels of amazing motorbike action in the best side scrolling bike game! Lean forward and back on your motorbike as you climb hills and fly through the air using accelerometer technology. Witness realistic physics as your shocks recoil when you land jumps! Or just flick your rider around!!

Games: Casual/Puzzle Winners

What the Doodle!?
‘WTD!?’ is a real-time online multiplayer game where one player tries to draw out a given phrase and others try to guess it. Features FFA and Team games, Global Highscores, Personal Face Doodles, integrated Voice Recognition and more! Real-time drawing!? Built for performance, you’ll really see the magic at first doodle!

Totemo
Unloose the spirit. Break the spell. Uncover the mystery hidden between the realms in a unique puzzle game. Storm your brain and relax your mind solving over 60 mind-soothing logic tasks. Play the survival mode for extra challenge and write your name into the on-line leaderboards. http://hexage.net

Mazeness
The goal of the game is rather simple – you need to bring all the balls ( up to 4 per level!) to their goals at the same time, with help of barriers, teleports and holders. It seems simple at first, but it’s not that easy. The difficulty is growing steadily from level to level.

Lifestyle Winners

SweetDreams
SweetDreams is a revolutionary tool that will finally allow you to go to sleep without worrying about changing your phone settings in order to avoid unwelcome late night calls. You can even use those inactivity periods to save battery power as well, and of course forget about enabling WiFi, Bluetooth or ringtones volume …

SpecTrek
Improve your fitness with this revolutionary augmented reality ghost hunting game. Walk or run around using GPS and your phone’s camera to find and catch virtual ghosts. You will experience a new adventure each SpecTrekking session. The game offers statistics, awards, titles, records, and most of all a whole lot of fun!

FoxyRing
FoxyRing makes your phone smarter by analyzing the ambient noise and adjust the ringer volume. Also: – Sleeping hours to silent your phone during the night. – Geolocated ringer profiles, change ringtone or make your phone vibrate only at work! – Widget to silent your phone for a timed period. – Great interface

Media Winners

Buzz Deck
BuzzDeck is the quick and easy way to get all the web content you care about most. Flick through your daily hit of favourite news topics. And get Twitter & Facebook updates alongside. BuzzDeck learns what you like and recommends cool new stuff. Simple, elegant & fast. NB: No landscape mode yet. http://mippin.com/buzzdeck

SPB TV
SPB TV is a highly usable IP-TV solution, optimized to run on mobile devices. SPB TV provides users with lots of channels in multiple languages with easy-to-use features and settings. No subscription fee! Requires a reliable 3G or WiFi network connection for proper streaming. Full-featured 60-days trial.

FxCamera
FxCamera enables you to take a picture with various effects. – ToyCam (Toy Camera Emulator) – Polandroid – Fisheye – Warhol (Andy Warhol-izer) – Normal *this app requires SD card*

Productivity/Tools Winners

WaveSecure
WaveSecure is a complete mobile security solution that protects your device, data and privacy. 1. Track your phone’s location and who is using it 2. Lock down your phone remotely, making it worthless to the thief 3. Backup all your data 4. Wipe out your data remotely 5. Restore your data May the phone be with you!

Hoccer
Hoccer is your application for ad-hoc data exchange. Use gestures to “throw” your data through the air and let the recipients “catch” it. There is no need for prior exchange of contact details.

Tasker
Tasker let’s you link any Task (action set) to the Contexts (application, time, day, location, event, widget press) where it should run. Send an SMS at 3:15 Monday, make per-app settings or locks, map camera button to a menu, launch music app on headphone insert, timelapse photos, encrypt on-the-fly, the list is endless!

Social Networking Winners

Ce:real – Everyday trends
Ce:real, What’s happening in this world? Are you curious about real world? How about North Pole or an edge of Africa? Also, it can be your neighborhood. It is offering to you hot photo stories with Twitter trends keyword which has speed of lights. Enjoy millions of happenings in real world and you participate in it as well.

SocialMuse
Check out what users on the other side of the world are listening to! Find people with similar musical taste, or just explore the world through music. Browse other users’ music libraries, listen to previews of their songs, and buy them if you like them. Check out their profiles on MySpace, Facebook and Last.fm.

SpotMessage
SpotMessage is a communication tool using GPS. Send a message designating a spot with Google Maps then the message will be notified when the recipient arrives at the spot. SpotMsg finds various uses; as an alarm reminding you of a task at a certain spot or for sending your friend a surprise message on his or her arrival.

Travel Winners

Trip Journal
Trip Journal is the ultimate trip tracking and sharing solution currently available on Android powered Smartphones. Impress your friends by sending them real time updates from the places you are visiting. GPS route tracking, record waypoints, photos & notes, trip statistics, KMZ & Picasa exports, incorporated Google Maps.

iNap: Arrival Alert
Ever wanted to get some sleep during a train ride, or a quick powernap on the bus to work? You either hoped to wake just in time not to miss your station, or set an alarm to wake you far too early… Using your phone’s GPS it will determine where you are, and wake you when you are close to your destination!

Car Locator
Save your location whenever you park, and Car Locator will navigate you back to your car should you ever have trouble finding it. – Points in direction of your car using GPS and compass – Radar view, map view, and split view – Parking timer alarm GPS and compass must be enabled. This free version expires after 25 runs.

Misc Winners

Rhythm Guitar
Plays like a real 6-string, 5-fret guitar. Strum and pick chords, make new chords, string them together to create songs, transpose songs to fit your vocal range. Great for songwriting, chord reference, learning radio hits, or even plugging into speakers and pedals.

Andrometer
Andrometer allows you to measure the approximate distance from you to an object that you can see. Uses GPS, accelerometer and geomagnetic sensor. Tips: – Keep as steady as possible – The further you walk, the more accurate the measurement – Must be outdoors with clear view of sky – Works best under 1 km

Calton Hill GPSCaddy
GPSCaddy allows golfers to quickly and easily map any golf course either out on the course using GPS or in the comfort of home using satellite imagery. Then, when they are playing the course, it uses GPS to tell them exactly how far they are from the significant features of the hole they are playing (green, bunkers, etc).

While I see many interesting apps(e.g. all “Education/Reference titles”, “Pink Art”, “FoxyRing”, etc.), many applications seem to be the Android port of software running on other platforms. Not a lot of originality there.  Finally, the overall winner is nothing more than a phone profiles scheduler application.

Let me say that:

• I have never tried an Android device;
• I have nothing against the overall winner, to whom I express all my sincere congratulations;
• I never find the perfect piece of software I need (that’s where the business comes from).

thus I may be talking with limited knowledge. Moreover, Android has been available as a mobile OS only since the end of last year with T-Mobile G1.

Nonetheless, I was expecting more from it, and the list of groundbreaking apps ready to be available on the platform are not making me jump.  What do you think?  Does this list excite you and inspire you to buy an Android device?  Or is this just a rehash of everything we have seen before?

iLium Software has just announced the release of eWallet 7.  eWallet 7, a secure password safe for Windows, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone is a pretty major upgrade, with the bulk of the new functionality appearing in the Windows desktop package.  The Windows desktop offering includes support for Windows 7, a redesigned user interface, and AutoPass support for Firefox, to name a few of the new features.  The Windows Mobile and Blackberry offerings include some exciting new functionality as well, with perhaps the most interesting being the ability to transfer desktop based graphics and files to the handheld.  iLium Software is also providing a preview of the upcoming Mac OS X version of eWallet 7.

Another exciting piece of news about iLium’s release of eWallet 7 is their revised licensing scheme.  Instead of purchasing a license for eWallet 7 to run on one particular platform, you are now able to use the same license with any operating system that the program supports.  For example, if you buy eWallet to run on your Windows Mobile device but later opt to move to a Blackberry, there is no need to repurchase the program or transfer your license, as you will already be covered.  This is definitely an interesting move on iLium Software’s part, one that I believe will resonate well with customers!

Check out the full details regarding eWallet 7 here.

Stay tuned for a review of the Windows Mobile and Windows desktop versions of eWallet 7.

Holidays always give a great chance to fill your bag of accessories, applications and devices at a discounted price. Now it’s time for some free games for iPhone and iPod Touch, thank to the Appvent Calendar 2009

The promotion is sponsored by Blacksmith Games and will allow iPhone and iPod Touch owners to get a free game every day, until December 22. The last two Advent days, i.e. December 23 and 24, are now kept secret, as surprises are planned.

So, don’t wait any further and start now visiting the Appvent Calendar 2009 site. Today you will find 33rd Division:

CRANEBALLS STUDIOS introducing a new line-drawing tactical game set in the WW2. The goal is to escort your men without enemy patrols noticing them. In this action-paced game you must make quick and strategic decision based on your actual situation. 33rd DIVISION brings unique blend of line-drawing and reverse tower defense games with Commandos look

You can see a trailer of the game here, but don’t forget to visit the Appvent Calendar 2009 site daily until December 24.

I have warned you

Via: Geek.com

One of my biggest pet peeves with the Palm Pre and WebOS interface relates to the contacts.  While Palm did an incredible job creating a unified contactslist, which can sync with multiple online sources and merge them into a single list, there is one significant omission.  Specifically, there is no way to mark your favorite contacts.  As such, I need to scroll or search through every Facebook,Gmail, and other contacts, just to make a phone call.  This is a real problem for me.  While I communicate with dozens of people via Facebook and email, I typically do not call more than a half a dozen close friends and family members.  Scrolling through all of those contacts just to reach the same contact over and over again can be quite a chore.  So, I was thrilled when solutions for this problem started cropping up in the App Catalog.  Today, we will be looking at one such solution, Quick Dialer.

One of the great things about Quick Dialer is that it is incredibly simple to setup and use.  When you start the program for the first time, you will be faced with a mostly blank screen, just waiting for you to add your most dialed (or texted) numbers.  Before we get into adding your contacts, let’s just take a look at that interface.  By default, it is just a plain black screen.  You can customize this in the settings, however, to use any photo or image on your device in place of this background.  I did find it odd that while you could add a picture, you could not change the color of the default background.  I am not crazy about having pictures behind text like this. I would have preferred just being able to change the color of the background.

To add a new contact to your list, just tap the new button on the bottom.  From here you can either enter a new contact name and phone number, or select a contact from your unified contacts list. 

Note that if you have multiple phone numbers associated with a particular contact, you will need to designate which one Quick Dialer is to use.  Each entry must be associated with a single phone number.  Although this seems to be a growing trend in dialer programs, I found it to be a bit annoying.  If I want to be able to call my wife at home or on her cell phone, I need to make two separate entries in Quick Dialer.  I prefer a system which would allow me to make a single entry for each contact, and then give me access to all of their contact information at once.  While the Quick Dialer system of one number per contact makes for faster, one-touch dialing, it also makes a relatively cluttered screen after you have added more than a few numbers. 

Once you have added your contacts, they will appear in the list on the main screen.  This is the only view available.  Personally, I prefer a tiled view, with larger images of each contact, so it would be nice to see such an alternate view in a future version.  And while we are on the subject of contact photos, they did not work at all for me in Quick Dialer.  Take a look at my contacts list in the images at the top, and you can see that only the contacts which have no picture assigned have anything in that photo box.  Those with pictures simply display a blank box.  This seems to be a bug in the app which will hopefully be fixed soon.

One of the nice things about this interface, however, is that it is completely customizable.  In addition to changing the background picture, you can reorder the list by dragging entries around on the screen, and even decide which information is displayed in each entry. 

Once you have your contacts loaded, using the app is a snap.  Just tap the appropriate entry to dial.  This will bring up the dialer screen and, if you choose automatically dial the number.  Personally, I am prone enough to accidental bumps, that I prefer to turn off the automatic dialer, and press connect manually just to be sure I meant to make the call.  Additionally, on mobile numbers, you will find a button which allows you to send an SMS message as well.  Of course, if you prefer, you can always handle things manually by using the buttons on the bottom of the screen.  These will give you direct access to your contacts, dialer screen, and SMS screen.

I am really thrilled to see apps like Quick Dialer, which fill in one of the glaring holes in Palm’s WebOS.  This is exactly the kind of thing third party apps should do, and Quick Dialer performed admirably.  I will say that my personal preference would have been for a different layout and interface, but that is just my personal preference.  Otherwise, with the exception of what seemed to be a few minor bugs, this app performed exactly as advertised.

Quick Dialer is available in the WebOS App Catalog for $1.99.

Developer: Yellowfin Solutions

What I Liked:

• Easy to add contacts
• Easy to dial
• Customizable interface

What Needs Improvement:

• No alternate layout
• Contact photos do not appear correctly
• Only one phone number per entry, means you must make multiple entries for each contact

This is part 5 of a multipart series on setting up Windows 7 on YOUR computer.   You can see parts here at Just Another Mobile Monday and at iTechGear.org.

OK… NOW its time to install the operating system.

We’ve figured out which version of the Windows 7 to install, backed up all of our data to either an external drive or to The Cloud, and have all of the drivers that we need. We’re ready to drop the DVD in the drive and let ‘er rip, right?

Yep.

Install Windows 7 now..!

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