2010/10/12

Windows Phone 7

I'm not fully convinced about the Windows Phone 7 ideas, but they have some cool videos really taking on me - one called "Really?" and another called "Season of the Witch".

The cool thing about the concept is that Windows Phone is not another mobile OS immersing you in its experience. As Steve Ballmer stated: "You get in, out, and back to life." - so the videos are making fun of everyone always everywhere looking at their mobile phones. And they've got a point there. Maybe we have no need for another "beautiful phone" phones using even more of your time. Not another phone that you just "keep using" because it looks so beautiful and works so well. Maybe it's time for phones using less of your time, that don't go in the way of communicating with others, but still let you do the things you want to do.

Or, maybe it's time for users that can handle priorities. Maybe it's not the phone that needs change. Maybe it's the people and their behaviour, which is not changed by a different type of mobile phone. Even then, the videos are still funny.

To finish: one quote from the developer videos (announcing the most recent tools available): "Go get 'em. Be inspired, be awesome, stay nerdy" :-).

Android 2.2 - update

Ok, so even Android 2.2 isn't a silver bullet ;-).

After using it for a while, I had to turn of JIT-compiling, because it made my phone .. well .. run slower. The only reason for that I can think of is a lack of internal memory. Binary code simply is larger - and thus uses more memory than bytecode does, and my two year old G1 - being the first Android handset - hasn't that much RAM  (around 74 MB, compare that to the myTouch and iPhone 4 having 512 MB).

Still, it's an amazing system. A state-of-the-art Smartphone OS running quite smooth on quite old hardware. Thumbs up for Cyanogen (and a $10-donation).

2010/08/15

Android 2.2 - Android grown mature :)

At first, I could hardly believe it - on my two year old (!) G1, I installed a new Android OS and it actually ran faster than any before! After digging in, I could hardly believe another thing - that Google managed to go on for three years with "scripted" apps that knew no compiling... But finally, Android seems to have grown mature.

Highlight for the moment (running it for only two hours now)
- JIT: speeeeeedy :)
- Gallery - integrates with Picasa, and the "stack peek" we know from the iPad is implemented in a really nice way. Ever been looking at a Photo, and after a while realised that is what floating in 3D while following the direction of your hand? It's a WOW. Two thumbs up for Android - (ok, and for Cyanogen, who makes this available for my old G1)