Another day... Another successfull coupon applied

My wife, 2-year old son and I went out to eat at a nice little Italian place not to far from us located in a shopping center. Along with the Home Depot, Target and Walmart, there is also a Borders. That's right, a Target and a Walmart, with in a football field length of each other. AHHHHHH.... Any way, after we had dinner, we went to Borders. While my son was running around the store and my wife chased him, I told her I would be by the computer section. I was looking for a Java book. Java as in the programming language, not the drink, nor the Indonesian Island. I am not new to development (c#, VB.Net is my background), so I wanted to look for a book that was good enough for a beginner but not too beginnerish. I found Java in Easy Steps. It was only $14.99. I quickly pulled out the DROID and did a picture scan of it to get some reviews. The scan was successful, but no reviews found... Book goes back on shelf. I then found Java in 24 hours. Again, out comes the DROID, use the Shopper app to scan the cover (you can not scan the barcodes at Border since they place a sticker over it for their own code). The scan was successful and reviews were great. I look at the price, $34.99. Its a price I was not overly joyed about so I search the Droid Coupons app and WOO-WHOO "Save 33% off any one item at Borders". The phone went back on the hip and the book curled up in my arm. I then went to look for my wife and son. I walked up to the counter with my Borders card, Gift Card from Christmas and my phone with the coupon displayed. The cashier said, I see you have the coupon, I will apply it. 33% came right off the $34.99 sale price. A savings of $11.55. WOW. That is something to write home about.

Well this day-and-age "home" is a blog.

Playing time is over... Time to develop

So I have had the DROID of over a month and I am still amazed by it. Especially now that I have 2.1 with Live Wallpapers and Speech-to-Text (which could be better, or maybe I just need to speak more clearer, i dunno). Either way, It is now time to start creating apps for Android.

What do I want to create? I have no clue
Do I know how to develop apps? Not really, my development background is C# but since you can write Android apps in Java, I think the transition would be smooth, I just need to understand the API's and SDK. I started to look at the examples provided at http://developer.android.com. So far, I'M Hooked.

So I will keep you posted with my progress as I attempt to make some useful tools for the Android world.

2.1 is live on my phone... officially

The Easter Bunny came early last night and dropped off my Android 2.1 System Update for my DROID. This is the official release sent out by Verizon and anyone else that is involved. Now that I have it, its like a whole new world of apps opened update, since Android only shows apps available to your OS version.

There is one app out there called HelixLauncher. There are two versions of this app. (on for 2.01 and one for 2.1 only). I have tried both. What they do is changes your default home (application). I was not a fan of neither as they both "crashed" constantly. What is cool about HelixLauncher is that it allows you to have more then 3 home screens. The 2.1 version of HelixLauncher really only works for Nexus One and not the Droid, and this is a well documented fact, do I can not rant about it not working on Droid. I used at my own risk.

Anywho, since I just got the update this morning, I will take some time to poke around and be back with more.

Another Week, another 2.1 OTA rumor... or is it?

So another week as past us and nothing new in the DROID 2.1 OTA world, or so I thought. As I do everyday, I new google DROID 2.1 to see if anything new comes up. 18 out of 21 times nothing new was mentioned. Today, however... there are promising reports that 2.1 was released. Again, this release was to 1,000 people at 12:00 pm (Eastern), then 9,000 more users 11:59 tonight (Eastern) and then batches of 200,000 are reported to follow each day until all users are updated.

I say this is promising because there was not pre-release news as there has been in the past. Typically, you would heard something the day before the supposed release date. I saw nothing yesterday. Also, Verizon's DROID support page, shows a new release being issued named ESE81.

I will not believe it until I have my DROID updated to 2.1 because after all... April fools day is just around the corner

No 2.1 as of today... but got confirmation from Motorola that DROID WILL get 2.1

Well by the looks of the date of my last post and this one, 2.1 did not get released to me. I say that because there are rumors that it was released to some testers (reports even indicate that the testers where VerizonWirelss Employee's and that the update bricked almost 75% of the phones).

Some new reports say that a new batch of testing will be released today sometime and if that goes well, then the update will roll out in batches of 200,000 a day.

I "chatted" with Motorola today about update as in "what is exactly going on".  Here is the transcript of my "chat".  The name of the rep I spoke to has been removed.

MOTO: Hi, my name is MOTO: How may I help you?

me: Hi MOTO, I have the droid on VZW and I want a staight answer. IS android 2.1 ever going to be released for my phone? I hear an update is coming but I want it from one of the sources. Thanks

MOTO: Let me help you with this

MOTO: On March 18th, there was a test release for a small number of Droid customers. But we do not have a exact date of timeframe on when the full launch will be made. It is coming soon.

me: ok why does the overseas (non-us) market have the update to is users and US doesn't. Isnt it the same hardware/update

MOTO: The Milestone is the equivalent for the Droid in the U.S. But the Milestone is a GSM technology phone, not CDMA. So it will not be the exact same update.

me: ok what update is coming out today?

MOTO: Today?

me: I have read reports that VZW is trying the update again since the one on 3.18 did not go as planned. See this is why i come to you guys. What is the story exactly with a 2.1 update for US droid. Will there be a 2.1 ever (near future) for droid or should I stop giving up hope?

MOTO: Yes, there will be a 2.1 update, that is for sure.

me: is that the only word on it, no time frame? I keep hearing Q1 2010, is that still plausable?

me: also who is incontrol of the udpate google, hp,MOTOrola or verizon?

MOTO: Actually, Google, Verizon andMOTOrola. But the update will be sent through there Google server.

me: ok so is q1 still possible for all droid users?

MOTO: That is the original idea. We hope we can accomplish it.

me: can I ask what the issues are that you are running into?

MOTO: I do not have the details, but I do know that basically whatMOTOrola is trying to do is to push an update that will solve the issues that customers were having so far with the Droid, and not to bring them more troubles. So it is a really important update and it has to be done right since the very beginning. They do not want anything to fail, so that is basically why it is taking more time.

me: I understand that, I would rather a fully baked brownie, then a half baked one to just have a brownie. :-) is that update to solve the issues you are trying to correct include android 2.1 or is that another update?

MOTO: No, that is not another update. The 2.1 is the one to solve those issues.

me: ok so just to clarify. the only update on the droid that is expected to be released is Android 2.1. Hopefully soon, but no timeframe. Are the problems causing the delay OTA related or VZW Network related. What I am getting at, is can the update just be downloaded by users and then applied manually.

MOTO: No, the delay is not related to the Verizon network. And no, you can not download it and then apply it manually whenever you want. It will be pushed and you will be requested if you want to apply it now or if you want to postpone it.

me: OK Great. Thank you very much for your time. Its been very helpful.

MOTO: You are welcome

MOTO: Do you have any other question?

me: Actually, can you confirm or deny any DROID (Android 2.1) updates being sent for testing (to select users) this week?

MOTO: No, actually not. It was sent on March 18th, but I do not have a confirmation that this week the same thing will be done.

me: ok great thanks again, have a great week

So based on this, I should see something soon, but nothing definite. Just like all the reports we have been reading but at least this is from one of the sources.

2.1 coming soon... maybe... we've been down this road before

So ever since I got my DROID two weeks ago, I have been anticipating the 2.1 Android OS update.  I check everyday for any new details.  I kept seeing, "droid 2.1 updating this week".  I would get all excited, but then i see the article was posted February 18th.  I would do more searches, but to only find the same thing with articles with earlier days.  Needless to say, 2.1 has been teased to DROID owners for weeks even months.  WELL... I just read at droidforums.net that 2.1 is heading our way this Thursday.  From reading the writeup on this update, there is no mention of Flash in this update.  Hopefully, that was just a minor leave up and we will be more then happy when we get the update.  There was confirmation that Live Wallpapers will be included but whoopee, I can only imagine that will drain the battery even more.

Other updates include Pinch-and-Zoom, so SUCK IT IPHONE USERS, SUCK IT.  The one thing I am looking forward to is the speech-to-text for all input fields.  This will allow you to say anything you would normally type, so SUCK IT IPHONE USERS, SUCK IT.

IM sure I will be back tomorrow with some sort of post, but if I am not, I will definitely be back to review 2.1.

Some other apps worth checking out

So now that I have had the DROID (lets be real, you can not minimize this device by calling it a phone), for two weeks, I have become more familiar apps and settings. Lately I have discovered a few more apps that I think are worth checking out.

I always thought it was a bit outdated to have an individual "members" card to each store I frequent. Today I found an app that lets me scan and store all the card codes into one app. It's called KeyRing and it does just like I mentioned. It scans the cards barcode (or you can enter the number manually if there is no barcode), when you go to the store, you just select the stores card, and have the cashier scan the phone. The app does warn that you will get better results using an actually hand scanner as opposed to a flatbed scanner.

Another cool app is call SMS Popup. I uninstalled Handcent because it was not auto retrieving MMS messages. I would have to manually "download" the message. Things I missed with Handcent uninstalled, i would not get notified as easily of new messages. This app takes care of that. I can also set up reminders to go off to remind me of my unread messages.

Finally, the app that will make me break even with the cost of the phone, is My Coupons. You can search for online and install coupons and deals for any store. This weekend My wife and I took our son to get new shoes. While she was fitting him, I was searching My Coupons for any current deals. I found a 15% off code that I showed the cashier my phone and he gave me the discount... instantly.

These are just a few cools apps I have found my self constantly using. Im sure there will be more to come. When there are, I will do more reviews.