My hard drive came in, and is now hooked up and formatted on Komodo, giving me over a terabyte of storage to work with.
I’ve been playing with Chrome, and in fact I’m using it right now. My overall reaction is very positive, and I’m looking forward to a Linux version. Chrome makes sense both in the way the code is done and the way the user interface is designed.
I’m also currently in the middle of a project for school, which is to create a commandline shell for Minix. Currently, my shell can output environment variables… woot.
A new version of the Android SDK, released earlier this week, also includes a newer version of the Android operating system in the emulator. This new version included several of the features that Google has been flaunting lately.
Streetview is there (though I can’t play with the compass in the emulator). I can emulate an SMS message, and I got two instances of the emulator to communicate with one another.
I’m really looking forward to Android’s release in a couple of months. I need a new phone, and I’m considering the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. Android I think would be my ideal choice, but it’s not yet available, and as cool as the iPhone is, the lack of a physical keyboard annoys me. Add the fact that administering it from Linux would be a pain, and I’m not thinking too highly of it. If I had to buy a phone today, I think I’d go with a Blackberry Curve. It’s $150 from Sprint, and for $70/mo, I can get 450 minutes with unlimited data and text messaging, much better than the iPhone plan.
A video has cropped up that seems to be of the HTC Dream, the first handset that will run Google’s Android operating system. It does have the slide out keyboard that I liked from the Touch Pro, but doesn’t seem quite as nice overall. That said, I’ll gladly take it if it does indeed run Android. I’m hoping that Sprint will offer it, but at the moment, I’ve only heard of it being offered on T Mobile.
I’ve been following Android for a while now, but the less I heard about it (and the more it got delayed) the more I looked into alternatives. I almost broke down and bought the iPhone 3G, but decided to at least wait until I got back to Kentucky to make a decision on it. Then, yesterday, I saw a forum post stating that an Android beta build had been installed on an HTC TyTn II, and again my interest in the project was back.
HTC is supposedly going to be making one of the first Android phones, so I poked around on their website, and quickly discovered what I want in an Android phone. The HTC Touch Pro looks amazing, and features a physical keyboard, which is a big plus for me. One of my main turn-offs on the iPhone was the touchscreen keyboard, which didn’t seem optimal for typing out emails or text messages.
Sadly, the HTC Touch Pro only runs Windows Mobile 6.1, but I’m hoping someone figures out a way to load Android onto the thing. It’s much thicker than the iPhone (to accomidate for the real keyboard) and only has 512MB of internal ROM (but has a Micro SD slot), but if I could get Android running on it, the hackibility would make up for it’s shortcomings. It also features a front-facing camera, which can allow for video chat, and all the extra goodies that I’d expect in a smartphone (GPA, Wifi, etc.) and a few that I didn’t (FM Radio and TV Out).
The phone isn’t yet available, so I can’t play with one yet, but I’ll try once it comes out here in the states. Apparently, it will be through Sprint, so I wouldn’t have to change carriers. I’d really like to know if it will be upgradable to Android once it is released, because I don’t want to buy a phone now that I won’t be able to run Android on later.
So, I recently added Google ads to my site, but even though I specifically checked the option to only enable Google’s text ads, I still get the much more annoying image ads from time to time. What gives?
