I am the ghost of groovymother.com. Woooooo!

Android Is As Open As The Clenched Fist I'd Like To Punch The Carriers With

Good post by MG Siegler, which covers why I don’t have an Android phone. With Apple, I have one benevolent dictator saying what I can and can’t do with my phone. With Android, I have Google, a manufacturer and a carrier all clammering to control the experience.

"Cons: Highly dependent on Google account."

Interesting perspective from Ben Ward on Android.

“I’ve just endured a week of reading Google’s ‘opener than thou’ harping, with ever increasing levels of irritation, and all along Android is locked in to their services? What bullshit.”

As a geek who cares a bit about openness, I live with my iPhone, but wish Android was a real competitor for my affection. It’s clearly getting to a stage where HTC can produce a quality smartphone — fast enough and featured enough to keep most people happy.

But, strangely for Google, I feel that my geeky desires are being ignored. Unless you buy the single “Google phone”, you’re not buying a particularly geek-friendly device. Due to Google’s Apache licensing, the phone makers and cell companies have enough control to ensure an experience where I have *less* control than with my iPhone.

Integrating translation into Google Goggles

This is a cool prototype — Take a photo of some forrin text, and Google’s servers can OCR and translate it to English. Potentially wicked handy tool for travelling.

Android Starter Kit

According to CNet, three of the top four must-have Android apps are: A file manager, a process killer, and an app uninstaller. Because, as everyone knows, the kids LOVE to kill them processes.

Android in Harvard Square

If you’re interested in developing for Google’s new cellphone platform, there’s a developer day in Cambridge in a couple of weeks. Wonder if the iPhone SDK will be out by then too? Would be interesting to compare-and-contrast.

Stefano's Linotype ~ Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME

Sadly, this is the most interesting and innovative thing I’ve read about “Android” so far — that they’re getting around Sun’s “J2ME” trademark/patent/licensing beartrap by implementing their own VM.