Skobbler SatNav for Android: First Impressions

One of the reasons I bought a smartphone was to use it as a SatNav – thus removing the need to carry around two devices. I’d heard that Android phone came with turn-by-turn navigation – for free! However, I didn’t really do my homework and bought a HTC Hero. Not that there was anything wrong with the phone itself, but it was running Android 1.5 which didn’t have the functionality I wanted. With a trip to France looming I bought CoPilot 8.0 for Android with the Europe maps and apart from a few, minor niggles I’ve been quite happy with it. However, just because I have one SatNav application doesn’t mean I can’t have another – I’m a gadget junkie after all.

When my Hero was updated to Android 2.1 I was pleased to find that I now had the turn-by-turn navigation which I probably use a little bit more that CoPilot when I’m in the UK. Why? Well it just seems to be a bit snappier and easier to use – that said, when I was on holiday in Portugal this year I was glad to have my CoPilot as it stores the maps locally so I did not incur any data charges (£3/MB – no thank you Orange!).

So I should be fine with two SatNav applications … shouldn’t I? Well until I heard about Skobbler I was, and there’s always room for one more isn’t there, or is three a crowd?

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Migrating my Broadband – Android to the Rescue in the meantime.

Ok, so it’s no secret that I’m not impressed with the Broadband service from TalkTalk; the connection speed is pretty good but it is unstable – dropping sometimes dozens of times a day. This is just too frustrating for words and the TalkTalk Technical Support is frankly a joke! Anyway, one day I was trying to download the Ubuntu Lucid Server ISO and was having numerous connection drop outs when a Sky salesman knocked on my door. Now normally I would not entertain these intrusions into my evenings but today was different. To cut a long story short, I signed up for the TV, Phone and Broadband services.

Knowing that I would lose the broadband when the phone switched over I was prepared for a couple of days downtime but how was I going to cope? Well as it happened I have a HTC Hero phone and it was very recently upgraded to the official Android 2.1 release – and when I plug it in to my laptop I get a number of options including Charge Only, Mount as Disk Drive or Internet Sharing!
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Installing Eclipse and the Android SDK on Ubuntu 10.04

As previously posted I have recently bought myself a nice new Android phone – a HTC Hero to be precise. One of the main reasons for buying it was so that I could look into developing applications for this new platform, thus expanding my skill set.

I had been playing around with installing the Eclipse IDE (arguably the best Java IDE around) and the Android SDK on my previous Ubuntu installation and basically made a hash of it a few times. Having refined my process I’ve decided to write it down so that I don’t forget Read the rest of this entry »

Posting From Android

Just a quick post from my Android phone to test out the free WordPress application from the Android Market.
Ok, it may be a bit geeky but sometimes I just don’t have time to fire up my laptop. Well this app is feature rich and a snap to configure, it can even handle multiple boots.
So I have 5 mins while I’m waiting for my girlfriends daughter to come out of Guides and can now feel like it’s not dead time.
If you want to blog on the move then its well worth a look.

[Edit: From PC]

Ok now that I have uploaded the post I can see’ that there are a few minor issues. First of all it was not clear that when I ticked’Publish’ and then pressed ‘Save’ that this would only save the post locally, i.e. it would not actually be published. To achieve this I needed to long press the post in [what I now see is called] ‘Local Drafts’ and then select the ‘Upload to Blog’ option. Ok a simple thing but the absence of any Help made it an easy mistake to make.

Secondly the post came through as ‘Uncategorised’ which is not ideal and I do not recall seeing an option to set the Category – but will check shortly.

Besides that, I’m more than happy with the application. Now I can utilise the otherwise dead time, if I can come up with something to write about that is.

Running CoPilot 8 SatNav for Android

When I bought my Android phone (a HTC Hero) I wanted to be able to use it as a SatNav as well – to save me having to carry two devices around with me. The Hero has built-in GPS and as it runs Googles Android operating system it has the Google Maps application installed as standard. So that’s it then – well no, not really. Read the rest of this entry »

I, Android

So I was in the market for a new mobile phone and being the geek that I am, it had to be a Smart Phone of some description – but which one?

The iPhone is the obvious choice for many but while it cannot be denied that it is a fantastic piece of kit but I really don’t like the fact that I’d be tied to iTunes, and therefore Windows/Mac! Add to that the fact that I’m probably goiung to want to write applications for the devise and that I don’t know Objective C the learning curve to develop even simple applications is going to be quite steep. Then there is the licence restrictions on the use the the SDK and conditions for deployment of applications to the App Store – from what I can make out you have to use a Mac, which I don’t have. All in all, the iPhone is not an option for me.

I turned my attention to the Android phones in general and the HTC Hero in particular. I liked the look of the phone itself and had heard a lot of good things about the device (along with a handful of problems it has to be said!). Android is an Open Source operating system which is based on the Linux kernel and this appeals to me as a Linux [Ubuntu] user. The SDK is essentially Java based with a little python thrown in (both of which I know), it can be used on Mac, Windows and Linux so I can develop and install applications directly to the phone.

The final factor in my decision to buy the HTC Hero was, trivially enough, that nobody else at work had or wanted one. There are a few Apple fan boys in the office along with a Blackberry or two – but no Androids, so I felt it was time to change that Read the rest of this entry »