Mobile Dad

Over the weekend, I finally got around and place my two G1 phones up on ebay.  It was sad to let them go, but I had to.  Interestingly, these auctions are my first on ebay.  I usually do everything on Craigslist but decided to try out ebay after all these years.

Those who know me, understand how anal I am with electronics.  I am a diehard believer that your electronic device should look box-new no matter how old it is.  So needless to say, these phones are mint condition.  The screens do not have a scratch on them.

Those who are interested, take a look at the postings on ebay:

1. G1 Phone #1
2. G1 Phone #2

Over Spring Break while I was away, my student developer Stephen has been quietly updating his team’s game engine with alternative control mechanisms.  What is really exciting is his work utilizing the G1 as a Wii-like controller. All this was inspired by what the folks at Media Lab were doing with their Sixth Sense project.  I pressured him to throw up some videos of this in action as I love the fact he is exploring new methods of control and access integrating the stationary yet powerful desktop with a mobile interface that may introduce a new social dynamic.  I cannot wait to see the fruits of his labor!

Ars has a great article about what firmware version should you compile your iPhone app on. The moral of the story obviously is not to build on the latest version of the firmware due to saturation rates. The artical is a great read and recomended to all developers but the first thing that hit me was how broken Apple’s distribution model was. continue reading…

After months of speculation and delay we have somewhat encouraging news that T-Mobile may finally launch the cupcake additions to the Android branch next month, or so reported by Pocket-lint.com.  That sucks considering I just gave up my G1 for the iPhone but that had nothing to do with the tech, just the crappy service from T-Mobile.  What should G1 users expect?

• Touchscreen keyboard
• Stereo bluetooth
• Video recording
• Save MMS images
• Fixes, speed, stability, stuff like that

I cannot wait to see the update in action!

Image from Engadget.com

It seems a war is about to be waged and the weapons of choice are finger gestures!  Engadget has a great in-depth article on iPhone vs the Pre that deals with patents.  I find it interesting the kind of publicity this is generating.  Think about the players and the communities and see if you prioritize the coolness factor of each major player in mobile tech:

• BlackBerry Storm
• T-Mobile G1
• ATT iPhone
• Sprint Palm Pre
• Countless WinMo devices
• Countless Symbian devices

Based on hype, here is my take: continue reading…