Ask Mike

Since the inception of Android, mobile development has seen a tremendous surge. Among the plethora of tip calculators and noise makers there are many great apps available that ease our daily lives. Despite the soon-to-be-fixed limitations of Android, developers have managed to roll out actually useful applications. However, there a few missing. This isn’t aimed squarely at Android but every platform. It seems that application developed is furious to a point and turns to wheels spinning in the mud. There is a point, on every platform, that applications just don’t pass.

TV/Movies on Demand – Amazon Unbox has the infrastructure to make it happen. Hulu has a proven delivery method as well. The G1 can access RTSP streams. So why don’t we have a solution to something consumers have been asking for since the first video file played on a mobile device? For some reason it seems developers are waiting for Flash to show up like the quarterback to a football game. What if that never happened? Perhaps developers can start developing solutions that don’t depend on flash. With all the interested parties on the scene it might be beneficial to all if some of them started joining forces.

Notes Synchronized – 3banana is new to the scene with an easy to use note app that syncs with the cloud for browser access. Evernote has been doing this for awhile but lacks an Android app. Both the Standard and Professional Windows Mobile versions of Evernote work great but why haven’t they been ported to Android yet? I bring this up simply because Evernote is highly useful and 3Banana already has an Android app. Join forces?

Office Docs – How long have we been typing letters, working on spreadsheets and boring our coworkers with slideshows? Google has Docs but as of this writing there is no viable solution for document creation on Android. There are developers working on solutions but at the very least we should have had this from the get go. Am I being too harsh? Possibly. If the Android Market didn’t exist, Android would just be another phone interface with very limited functionality. Office docs should also be synchronized with an option to use different online services including Google Docs, Thinkfree, Zoho, Microsoft and a folder or two on your computer (or friends’) with support for all the platforms. There are several open source formats so quit with the proprietary formats already.

Video Recording – Seriously, how do you get a phone to market these days without video recording through the sweet 3MP camera? Is there some sort of conspiracy with the camcorder companies? Do they think the market consists solely of people that WANT to carry several devices around at all times to accomplish what one is capable of? We want convergence and convenience!

Stereo Bluetooth – Yes, we know “it’s coming.” It should have been here already. You give us an Amazon MP3 app to free us from the bonds of sync cables but tether us with tangled wired headphones.

Security and Accessibility – This is in general for every phone, not just Android based devices. I don’t want to carry keys or credit cards around anymore. I want my phone to start my car, unlock doors and to make purchases. Implement a PGP type system over bluetooth with a pin, please. A tall order indeed but this is 2009, we don’t have our freaking jet-packs, vacuum tube travel or flying cars but can we at least have this?

Conclusion – There are times in war when you must seek allies and join forces in order to mount a successful attack. Everyone wants their piece of the pie and that is the main reason most developers don’t join forces, they all see this massive slab of cheesecake and want it all for themselves. The way I see it, there will be NO pie for anyone if the solutions aren’t realized. However there will be pie for anyone who isn’t afraid to reach out to other developers and say “let’s do this.”