I just had one of those shower ideas: How about a (optionally) solar powered, e-ink based digital desk clock which runs either Android Wear to show messages you received, daily and breaking news and all?

I still own a b&n nook which runs android 2.something – pretty useless nowadays since the kindle app is not working on it anymore and most of the apps are not compatible anymore. But maybe enough of a base to work with to create a desk clock app connected to my phone.

Since those projects don’t seem to get far past the idea stage, I won’t mind buying a device described above.

The problem is that by trying to protect their few proprietary applications, Google is essentially shutting down the possibility of any custom ROMs from being legal. But they will still be made and they will still be distributed. Google is basically moving the modding community from doing their work in the light to doing their work in the dark. Forget about getting ROMs on XDA-DEVS… Android builds are about to become torrents and warez.

via Eff Google, Screw Android: The Backlash Begins | Android Phone Fans.

The Google apps on Android (Market, Maps, GMail, …) stay closed source. It looks like Google is selling them to handset creators – and doesn’t like them to be available without explicit permission. Understandable but still sad, since the hype around Android is, in my humble opinion, solely based on the nerds who like the platform and advertise by mouth-to-mouth propaganda.

If I want to have a locked-down platform, I could switch to the iPhone. If I want to „go underground“ with mods, I can switch to the iPhone. So basically, Android offers no advantage to the iPhone if Google decides to treat Android the same way Apple treats the iPhone platform. The average Android headself feels more slow than Apples alternative, so there are actually reasons to switch!

I contacted Andy Rubin about this, and he’s working to get the mistake fixed.  After trying to contact T-Mobile several times, and reaching nothing but brick walls, it’s nice to know that Google’s Director of Mobile Platforms will respond to my emails in 8 minutes flat.

via T-Mobile Sends Google’s Bill To Regular Customer, $15,939.83 | Android Phone Fans.

Apple verbannt noch weitere Anwendungen, die auf Google Voice setzen, aus dem App Store. Dazu gehört etwa GV Mobile. Der Programmierer Sean Kovacs schreibt dazu in seinem Blog, dass ein Apple-Manager ihm im Gespräch eine entsprechende Bestätigungs-E-Mail verweigert habe. Das Programm würde laut Apple lediglich bereits im iPhone vorhandene Funktionen wie Wählhilfe und SMS-Nachrichten zur Verfügung stellen, einen genauen Grund nannte Apple nach seinen Angaben nicht.

via heise online – 29.07.09 – Google Voice darf nicht in den App Store.