as many of you know android 2.3 was released yesterday..
as expected developers across the globe are ripping it apart to see what’s new.
the strangest things found so far very curious indeed. Leading to the question Who is Dianne and does she like dancing?
Its been over a year now, since I got my hands on a HTC Hero for the first time, the (then) latest top of the range Android smart-phone available on the market. A lot has changed both with the phone and with myself regarding Android, so I thought I should jot down a few thoughts on the phone, software, and how I’ve found it all.
This is the story of a small green robot and a Manchester based PHP developer.
There are so many apps available on the Android Market and I haven’t tried a fraction of them, but here are the ones Im currently using on my HTC Hero, If you know of an app that does the job better, please let me know.
Applications
Adobe Reader
Amazon Kindle
beebPlayer
chrometophone
ConnectBot
Facebook for Android
Fancy Widget (Pro)
Formula 1
Google Goggles
Google Maps
Google SkyMaps
Google Translate
Launcher Pro (plus)
OpenSignal
Opera Mobile
Orange Wednesdays
Pingdom
ROM Manager (Premium) *
ShootMe*
Spotify
Terminal Emulator*
Titanium Backup*
Twitter for Android
trackME
WiFi Analyzer
WiFi Tether*
Your Orange
YouTube
ZipSigner
Games
Angry Birds
Angry Birds Seasons
Angry Birds Rio
Gensoid
Kids Paint †
Robo Defense
SNesDroid
Solitaire
ShootU!
Solitaire
Speedx 3D
Tank Hero
Tetris
X Construction
* Requires Root
† For Charlie/Riley
Phone: HTC Hero (Graphite) ~ OrangeUK
ROM: CyanogenMod7 [nightlies] | Kernel: Las Venturas – 2.6.35 ~ 352-691MHz | Radio: 63.18.55.06SU_6.35.17.03
A few people now have been tweeting and facebook messaging me asking how I installed Android 2.2 on my Orange branded HTC Hero, so thought I’d pop this quick guide together for you all.
Please note: This Guide is for people with an Orange Branded Hero (the Graphite version, with the Orange sticker on the back) but should work for everyone else too (but don’t flash the orange rom!)
All Credit and thanks go to the wonderful developers at XDA and VillainRom.
Disclaimer
While this process worked perfectly fine for me, and I have done if 4 times now, I take no responsibility if you turn your phone into a paperweight while trying to do this. If your not comfortable with the risks, please ask a friend or wait for HTC and Orange to release *snigger* an official *lol* update instead.
For a while now, I’ve been wanting to learn how to build and develop mobile applications on Android, I made a start using Appcelerators Titanium, but not long after during a press conference, a certain fruit seller announce his phone was banning apps developed using 3rd party tools. While this didn’t affect me directly, as I have no interest in the iPhone or developing for it, this news meant that the future of Titanium has been thrown into doubt and I don’t want to learn and start developing with a product that may not be around in a years time.
With this in mind, this last week or so I have been dipping my toes into the wonderful world of native Android development.I have gone for the setup advised in the SDK documentation, Eclipse with the ADT plugin. Quickly passing over the Hello World app, as a developer its a task I must complete before doing anything else, I started on my first application. I decided that for my first attempt I would stick to something I know and rebuild a web based tool I help develop for a well known Manchester server hosting company.
Its been a long time since I last did anything in Java so was a little rusty, but after a few lunchtimes and couple of late nights I have managed to cobble together something that resembles and could just about pass for an Android Application.
So what is it you ask, this wonderful app you have been building up (wont shut up about if you follow me on twitter)? Well I can now tell you, its a speedtest. Not for how fast your mobile connects to the internet, I’ll leave that to the guys at speedtest.net, but to test the speed your website can deliver files to your visitors, now I cant provide you with a link to download and install it as its not really finished and as its not an officially sanctioned app, but I can show a couple of screen-shots from the current alpha version.
This is probably as far as this application goes, unless the boss asks me to continue with it, as although its quite basic and there isn’t all that much to it, it has served its purpose and helped me to figure out how an application should work, its activity life-cycle and how to correctly put one together.
The next step is to think of that award winning, must have, how did we live without it idea that will make me millionaire… any suggestions?
