Good Android physical comparison of Android phones and an iPhone

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/06/htc-hero-eris-mega-faceoff-on-video/

Motorla CLIQ with MOTOBLUR

I just read a good article talking about how lack of keys limits the iPod touch's gaming potential:

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/68092.html
"Without Buttons, iPod Touch Can't Touch DS or PSP"

but what it made me realize is that the Motorola CLIQ, Motorola's recently announced Android handset, is a lot like an iPhone designed for gaming. (But better because it's running Android :P )



The iPod Touch is still secondary to the iPhone in terms of Apple's planning. It's strength lies in being to able to run iPhone apps, use the iPhone's browser, etc. without a monthly contract and in a slimmer form factor.

I can't see Apple forking the iPhone codebase, and splitting up the App store in such a way as required to add physical keyboard support, just for a new iPod touch.

Ironically, Motorola just announced a device that is much like an IPhone with gaming style keys.

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/MOTOBLUR/Meet-MOTOBLUR

The Motorola CLIQ is Motorola's first foray into Android. They made certain design decisions that distinguished it from the G1, the most similar phone on the market now. Most notably it runs a standard D-Pad on the left side, instead of a trackball on the right. That would seem to me to be following the style of the PSP and the DS. It looks like it could be a great gaming device to me.

I've played 1st person shooters on my iPod touch, and the G1. The physical keys on the G1 made all the difference in the world. Schef's Blend of Doom on the G1 is the best handheld 1st person shooter I've played, beating Metroid on the DS. (Having to use the stylus on the DS hurts).

The Motorola CLIQ should run that same application even better, (the G1 is pretty old now in terms of hardware performance).

It felt to me like Google IO is picking up steam as the conference for java develolpers

I've always been a java developer, but I haven't consumed too many of Sun's other products. Java one never seemed to interesting to me.

In reading John Gruber talk about the recent Java One:
http://daringfireball.net/2009/06/wwdc09_wrapup

I remember how much I enjoyed Google IO. Mind you they practically bought out the attendees, a free HTC Magic for every developer was awesome, for any students that attended they effectively paid them triple their money back on the cost of admission. Everyone else broke even :)

Still Google Wave was a strong announcement, and would have had plenty of cheers without haven't already been bought out.

Mind you I'm an Android partisan. But I'm seeing the platform do everything is supposed to do. I'd love for it to be faster, but at the same time I'm amazed at how rapidly the platform matured, and continues to evolve.

In Defense of the Blackberry Browser, my email to John Gruber of Daring Fireball

responding to:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/04/16/blackberry-browser
"

Huh? ★

Mark Spoonauer interviews RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis:

Q: How do you think RIM stacks up to the competition when it comes to your Web browser?

A: I look at it this way. I say that our browser technology was developed with very different requirements. By writing our browser in Java, that provides our CIOs and wireless managers the assurances they need, to allow the browser to access internal information at the same time it accesses external information. So the overriding design criteria for our browser has been to not compromise on that experience in the enterprise phase.

Just me or is that a convoluted way of admitting their web browser blows chunks?
"

I think this one is just you. It's true that their browser predates webkit, and it doesn't perform as well webkit, and part of that is because Webkit is running native code, instead of being done in java.

What he is doing is speaking of the strengths of the RIM browser, the features it does right. Adding tight, secure, integration with java to the browser is a significant accomplishment. Giving the browser access to java code already on the handset, and the user's data, is a significant accomplishment.

RIM opens up verrrrrrry powerful API's to trusted partners, with the right signing, etc.

The blackberry browser has it's strengths, it's the best I've found for reading text. Since the last firmware update I've found running the browser on my curve with a mouse pointer run by the trackball is a pleasure. I love my IPod touch, but it badly needs a trackball as an alternate UI method. The curve browser works one handed too.

Blackberry can proudly talk about the strengths of it's browser. I hope they don't ignore performance, and they really should consider switching to webkit.

Well now that I've typed this much I guess I'll have to blog it too. Darn you for not encouraging people to post comments in a specific place.

-Matt Kanninen
A fan of daring fireball, since the Iphone

PSP Touch

I decided to turn my comment here:

http://technologizer.com/2009/01/13/wild-prediction-new-game-consoles-in-2010-2011/#comment-7614

into a blog post. The discussion topic was

"Wild Prediction: New Game Consoles in 2010, 2011"


My money is the next big game system from Sony will be a new PSP with a touch screen, and a smaller form factor.

The PS3 hardware is fine. Launching a new portable game console will re invogorate the Sony gaming brand, which should peripherally help the PS3.


The IPod touch is eating this market by itself right now. Small, affordable wifi device that is good for gaming. The lack of buttons though makes it it really imperfect as a gaming device. A PSP touch could better deliver.

It'd be tempting to add more feature, but they would do well to try to keep the price, and form factor, down.

There are already a LOT of people using the web browser on the PSP already. The control on it is good enough to effectively navigate an on screen keyboard, and its rich display goes a long way.


I'd love to see them ditch their current propietary format for the device. Let user's download content OTA. Sell games over a DRM'd SD cards, but let the device use the same hardware to read regular SD cards.

Get flash working on it and you could have one of the best mobile browsers out there.

If we were going further into my wishlist I'd say throw a standard Sun J2ME JVM on it so you can download your standard cell phone apps, IM, mail etc.

But all this can be in later versions, first they just have to put a touch screen on your standard PSP and ship it again :)

Android Version 1.0 release 2, and how to buy a $400 unlocked Android Dev Phone 1™

This also reminded me that google got feedburner.

I didn't see much of interest in code changes yet from the release notes. I haven't had a chance yet to download it and see if everything still compiles.

What's more interesting is that if you log in to your Android Market developer account, (which requires having paid the $25 registration fee), you can pay $400 to get a

Android Dev Phone 1™

Run and debug your Android™ applications directly on a device. Modify and rebuild the Android operating system, and flash it onto a phone. The Android Dev Phone 1 is carrier independent, and available for purchase by any developer registered with Android Market™.

Price: $399.00 USD


This is awesome, a lot of people have been waiting for this. You can't load a new OS onto the G1, you can't easily get Linux root access, etc. But the Android Dev Phone 1 (tm) delivers on the promise of openess we saw in Android.

How long will there be an active conflict in Sumer (current Iraq)

"The documentation of military history begins with the confrontation between Sumer (current Iraq) and Elam (current Iran) c.2700 near the modern Basra"

Let's not focus on "victory in Iraq.". We can't win there by scoring the right number of touchdowns. Let us re-open the discussion of what is right for the Iraqi people, and let us listen to the Iraqis when they describe what they want done for them, in their country.