Tom's Two Cents

Back in October 2008 I started using Google’s first Android phone, the T-mobile G1. By the end of January 2009 there were 800 Android apps compared to over 15,000 iPhone apps. Of course, the iPhone had been around for well over a year at that point. But I think 2009 will be the year that Google Android really comes into its own as more than a dozen new models of Android phones are introduced. There are definite pros and cons to going with an open platform like Android, and I hope I can offer a realistic view of the good and the not-so-good that I have experienced with my Android G1 phone so far.

New Favorite Apps

I am still very happy overall with my G1. Especially now that I have root access to my phone I can do even more, like tether my laptop to my phone’s Internet connection via wifi. At the 1-month mark I made a list of my top 20 Android apps. That list has changed quite a bit, so here is my new list of top 20 Android apps. Interestingly, only 5 of these apps were on my first list 9 months ago. They are marked in bold. All the apps below are free unless marked otherwise.

1. Where – Displays movies, weather, etc. based on your location. It also has voice recognition and Yellowbook search, which presents you with address and phone numbers of businesses based on your location which you can then call or look up on a GoogleMap with a click or two.
2. BeyondPod ($2.99) – A Podcast app that allows you to manage podcasts and even update them over wifi. (So iPod Touch, why can’t you do this?)
3. Sky Map – Allows you to see stars, planets, and constellations just by holding your G1 in the direction you want to look (including the ones beneath the horizon). The digital compass, accelerometer, and GPS to move your phone around and see different areas of the sky. A very cool example of what augmented reality (AR) apps can do.
4. Wikitude – This is another great augmented reality app, but this one lets you “see” cities and landmarks close to you by holding the phone in front of you and turning in any direction. Selecting the names on the screen pulls up the web page for that city or point of interest in wikipedia.
5. Places Directory – Google’s version of Where. I can’t decide which one I like best so I use them both. Places uses you location to look up restaurants, shops, parks, and other points of interest. You get addresses and phone numbers you can use to locate or call whatever it is you are trying to find.

   Read more…

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• B&N Nook: I run Android!! Please root me!!

Android, Gadgets, Google, Instructional_Technology, Reviews, Tech Tools Android, G1, Google

I first got interested in barcodes and mobile phones when I discovered I could scan UPC at the store and look up prices and reviews from my G1 Google phone. ShopSavvy and Compare Everywhere are still two of the most popular Android apps on the Android Market. But a recent post to the UNESCO OER list led me to think about applying 2D barcodes to mobile learning.

At a very basic level, I can imagine a lecture where the last powerpoint slide is a 2D barcode which includes the presenter’s contact info or a link to the presentation on slideshare. and a URL. 2D barcodes are quite common in Japan, in magazines and on billboards. For those with a camera-enabled cell phone, there’s no need to write down the URL or contact info.

I am part of a graduate class that is designing a location-based game for a local museum. We are putting a lot of time designing a game that will work on PCs and a limited number of GPS-enbled, PocketPC and Garmin devices using an application called WhereIGo. But what if the same game could be designed using 2D barcodes, so that anyone with a web-enabled camera phone could play? More and more cell phones now come with built-in 2D barcode readers, not just smart phones. Does anyone know of a game engine that uses 2D barcode readers? Just curious.

So how do you make these fancy barcodes, you ask? One of the easiest ways is on a site called Kaywa. Anyone can create a 2D barcode that represents a web link, a vCard, a phone number, or some hidden text (like a clue or something). Another option is called Snappr.net. But unfortunately, Snappr.net insists on linking back to itself, even for basic contact info. So don’t use it if you want an independent 2D barcode that doesn’t require web access. Still, Snappr.net has some neat functionality like the barcodes survey below. Instead of banning cell phones from our public schools, why don’t we start using them to engage students and other learners?

Here is a 2D barcode that will load a survey. You can take it from almost any mobile phone with a camera and web access. (If you don’t already have barcode scanner for your phone, visit http://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/GetTheReader.)

If you want to read more here’s an interesting post on mobile learning with 2D barcodes: http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/2008/07/qr-codesintegration-into-learning.html. It looks like a company called BrightCookie is already working on making this technology work in Moodle. I would like to see it implemented as a mobile game.

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Android, Gadgets, Games, Mobile Learning, Software, Tech Tools, Web 2.0

My name is Tom and I am an Android app addict. I currently have over 150 apps installed on my G1 phone. So here are my top 20. I haven’t included any games in my list, since that is more a matter of personal preference. I also find that the more games I install on my G1, the less I end up using my own phone. My kids use it the rest of the time. So here are my top 20 apps in no particular order. Sorry I don’t have links. You’ll can search for them in the Android Market.

• Picasa (a great tool for uploading and viewing Picasa photos)
• JET CET PDF (the only PDF viewer currently available)
• iSkoot (Skype client. Check the fine print though — it does uses you cell phone’s minutes)
• GPS Tracker (post your current position to hidden or public URL — even has a Facebook plugin)
• fBook (Facebook app)
• Android File Manager (good app to have)
• Twidroid (currently the best twitter client for the G1)
• Orienteer (displays compass and GPS coordinates — a must for geocaching)
• Power Manager (shows battery life — must have)
• Yellowbook V2 (search for a business and it presents you with Google maps and phone numbers)
• Video Player (best video player, IMHO)
• ShopSavvy (barcode scanner app that allows you to compare prices and read reviews)
• Compare Everywhere (other barcode scanner app)
• DoggCatcher (Podcast app — still very beta, but very cool in that it allows you to update podcasts over wifi. So iPod Touch, why can’t you do this?)
• TunesRemote (controls your iTunes via your wifi network)
• textonphone (access 1000’s of free books — search and download books to your phone’s local library)
• Shazam (analyzes and (somehow) recognizes songs being played on radio, TV, anywhere you can get a 10 second sample)
• Ringdroid (make your own ringtone by clipping out a snippet from any MP3)
• Voxofon Call Router (VOIP client)
• Toggle Settings (a great app for dimming the screen and turning off the ringer, etc). Keeping the screen brightness down is a great way to save your battery.

If you have other favorite Android apps, I would like to hear about them.

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Android, Software, Tech Tools G1 Android Apps

Thanks to all who participate in this seminar! I hope it was helpful.

Some great ideas and links were shared today as we discussed the components that make up Web2.0. Here are the presentation slides. Also, here is a link to my class website (wiki) for preservice elementary school teachers: http://lab-inst.usu.edu/groups/inst4010/. Another great place to learn more about Web2.0 in learning is David Wiley’s Blogs, Wikis, and New Media for Learning OpenCourseWare course.

And here are links to some of the most interesting sites that were shared:

http://chinswing.com/ (A versatile audio sharing site — love it!)

http://livemocha.com (A social language learning site — where was this when I was a French teacher?!)

http://zamzar.com/ (Online file conversion tool — very cool)

http://www.edu20.org/ (An interesting Learning Management System, or LMS)

http://www.toondoo.com/ (Reminds me of ComicLife on the mac)

http://edublogs.org (A blogging platform just for educators. Sue Watter’s blog is particularly good)

http://teachertube.com (Similar to YouTube, but focused on education)

http://merlot.org (A peer reviewed learning content repository)

An example of embedding/reusing content:

We also talked a bit about OpenCourseWare. Here are a few examples, and links to learn more:

http://ocw.mit.edu (MIT’s OCW)

http://ocw.nd.edu (Notre Dame’s OCW)

http://ocw.usu.edu (Utah State’s OCW)

Start an OCW Interested in starting an OpenCourseWare at your institution? Start Here!

eduCommons A Free OpenCourseWare Management System

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Conferences, Instructional_Technology, OpenCourseWare, Tech Tools, Travel, Web 2.0, eLearning AECT2008, Conferences

I was concerned about how I would move all my addresses and phone numbers from my Blackberry Pearl to my new Google Android phone, but it went really smoothly thanks to a very nice vCard to CSV Converter I found online. I was able to export my addresses from both Outlook and Apple’s Address Book app to vCard format. From there, I used the converter to make CSV files that would be Gmail compatible (so as not to lose any data). Then from the Contacts section of Gmail, I used the Import link to import all these CSV files. Gmail did a great job of merging all my duplicate contacts, since it had already stored email addresses for many of them. The creepy thing about this is that now Google has all my contact info. The cool thing is that now I can access it from any computer or phone (so I won’t have to do this again if I stick with Android phones). So please Google, remember not to be evil.

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Android, Gadgets, Google, Hardware, How To's, Tech Tools Android, contacts, import

www.montastic.com lets you keep an eye on up to 100 sites. It checks every 10 minutes or so and alerts you if the status of your sites changes via email. You can even monitor it via RSS or by using Yahoo widgets. But email works just fine for me. The best part about it is that it’s brain dead easy to use.

Edit: I am not as impressed with montastic now that I have used it for a while. I have received several false alarm emails when the site isn’t down. And it seems to take it a long time to figure out that the site is back up. I usually get an email the day after I fix the site telling me that everything is OK. Not so helpful, but still not bad for a free monitoring service.

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Tech Tools website monitoring