December 12, 2009

I need help choosing a new mobile phone

I need a new phone now my Microsoft-provided mobile phone has been handed back in, and it's been 6 years since I've had to make a decision for myself which phone to get.

Now this is both exciting and daunting, as I get to play with some new kit, but if I get it wrong I'm stuck with a duff phone for up to 18 months. So I thought I'd try to get my thoughts in order by writing them down, and then putting it out there for comment :-)

Q1: Which operating system:

Must work well as a smart-phone. Obviously phone calls, SMS, email/contacts/calendar sync (preferably with Google Apps), Maps, Twitter, Facebook, apps...
A good development platform. I'm very interested in developing mobile phone apps, so want a phone that is good for developing for
Price. I'm paying for it myself so am looking for value for money

OS Option 1: iPhone

The ubiquitous iPhone obviously scores highly as a device, the major player at the moment and lots of application support.

However as a dev platform it's not great (for me). In the typical Apple way you can only build iPhone apps on a Mac which I don't have, so that would be a major purchase. Also development is generally in Objective-C - ignoring MonoTouch for now - which is a little strange and definitely a bigger learning curve.

On price, it's a premium product but definitely has a premium price, with either expensive plans or a big wedge needed up front.

OS Option 2: Android

Android phones are definitely on the up, and the functionality is (I think) not far behind the iPhones. Fewer apps (but still plenty), but obviously score highly on Google Apps integration.

As a dev platform is where Android really shines. From my initial messing about, the platform seems very well designed for development. In particular allowing background services - unlike the iPhone - offers much more opportunities for cool and potentially profitable applications. Also the app market is less saturated right now, so potentially offers more opportunities that the more mature iPhone market.

On price, there are two positive factors. Firstly the phones are much cheaper than the iPhone, For similar plans there is generally no big, upfront payment. Secondly, development can be done on any PC with Eclipse and the Android SDK - all free.

OS Option 3: Windows Mobile

Microsoft (remembering not to use "we" now) have really dropped the ball on Windows Mobile. I've had a WM phone for many years now, and they work reasonably well as a phone and for syncing email via Exchange i.e business stuff. However as a consumer phone they are behind more modern platforms, and with WM7 STILL far away, I can't see that changing any time soon.

Development platform is good from a code point of view and obviously is a good fit for me, but I can't see a profitable app market coming any time soon.

Price is fine, but it's sad to say that Windows Mobile isn't really in the game.

OS Option 4: Nokia

My first phones were all Nokia which for a long time were clearly better than other options, but my gut reaction is that they've missed the boat on smart phones. Now that may be completely unfair, but there doesn't seem to be any buzz about Nokia any more. Not for me I think.

OS Option 5: Blackberry

Seem great for corporate email, not so much for consumer use or app development. Again, doesn't seem to match what I'm looking for.

OS Winner: Android

A tough choice between the iPhone and Android, but I think the development platform arguments for Android is a clincher for me. The price helps too :-)

Q2: Which Android phone to buy?

This is where it gets even harder. Android is a fast developing platform, with new phones and new versions of the OS coming out rapidly.

The only Android 2.0 phone available in the UK is the Motorola Milestone (known as Droid in US), but is only available for £450 direct from Expansys right now. Presumably it will be available from one of the main networks at some point soon?

The main option right now seems to be the HTC Hero. Available widely and has decent reviews if possibly a touch underpowered and not great battery life. However it's only got Android 1.5 right now - with rumours of an upgrade to 2.0 "coming soon".

There are also rumours of many more Android 2.0+ phones on the way very soon, and in particular a potential HTC-built "Google Phone" supposedly given out to Google staff yesterday.

So the big question is: Should I buy a HTC Hero now, or should I wait a couple of months(?) for an Android 2.0 phone?

I'm not desperate for a new phone, as I'm surprisingly happy with my super-cheap Samsung PAYG phone (£9.99) which is just a phone but the battery-life is amazing - mainly because it doesn't do anything :-)

However I do want to start working on some ideas for Android apps, and working just in the emulator doesn't quite hack it.

What would you do?

Comments here, tweets to me @yeltzland or emails to johnp@bravelocation.com most welcome!

Cheers

John

November 17, 2009

Getting started

Things have been progressing nicely here at Brave Location as I’m ramping up to leaving Microsoft and setting out on my own. After a *lot* of deliberation on trying to find a company name I was happy with and had an available domain name, I wanted to set up all the things I’d need whilst getting going.

Specifically I wanted email, calendaring, web site hosting, collaboration tools, project tracking – all for as little cost as possible but with the potential to expand as (hopefully) the company expands.

Most of these requirements have been met by Google Apps – specifically the communication parts. The Standard Edition is free for up to 50 users – which should be good for a while J - and offers personalised Gmail accounts, calendars, Google docs and the SharePoint-like (well sort of!) Google Sites.

For the company website, I’ve knocked together a quick site using Google App Engine and used the feature allowed in Google Apps to allow http://bravelocation.appspot.com/ to be mapped to the much more friendly http://www.bravelocation.com/

It’s a bit disappointing that there isn’t really an equivalent offering from Microsoft. All the parts are available but are rather fragmented across Windows Live, Office Live and Windows Azure. Maybe this will get sorted soon, but for the small business who just wants to get up and running, the Google offering is just about perfect.

For project tracking, I’ve started with the so far excellent (and free) Pivotal Tracker. I may also investigate using some sort of Scrum-based template in Google Docs Spreadsheets, although initial investigations didn’t find anything great so far. I’m not sure Google Docs spreadsheets really have the features available to drive a really powerful application-like spreadsheet, but it’s fun to investigate more.

I’m going to experiment with working as much as possible using only online tools, and have also now switched full time to using the much quicker Chrome rather than IE8. I’m still not really convinced by the rather basic interface of Chrome, but the speed increase especially in the beta of version 4 is very noticeable.

So is there anything Google that I’ve not switched to? Well actually I’m sticking with Bing for now. I’ve obviously been using Bing for quite a while having worked in the Bing Commerce team for quite a while, but I really do think the relevance is different but generally at least as good whilst the UX is definitely superior.