So starting today, I am accepting applications to have your app reviewed on this blog.  But not just any old review — your app will get an interface tear-down. I’ll point out all the major “wtf” moments of your app (along with the more subtle “huh?” stumbles) that stop your app idea from shining through.

But here’s the bonus: I’ll give you actual concrete suggestions on how to make the user experience on your app better.

Awesome-sauce or what?

The rewards are great… Now why would I do this for free?

A frequent complaint that I hear about Android is that apps just aren’t as polished as iOS; this is true although the landscape is slowly changing as more of the bigger brands start targeting Android.

However I also think that there’s an important space for the independent developer in the Android market — that one guy or gal who just has a great idea and builds it for fun.  They are not design experts so there’s definitely kinks but, because of the openness of the Market, they releases it to the public and hope that someone else can use it.

User interface design doesn’t have the same convenient ”View Source” option that code does so I hope that all Android developers will get to benefit from the public tear-down.

So read the fine print below and, if you fit the bill, send an email to pearl(at)androidsandsheep.com describing why I should pick your app to review.

I’m putting together a presentation proposal or two for it but would be interested in hearing what YOU would be interested in hearing about most!

So take 2 seconds and answer the poll below! Thanks!

There was a vision in KIN that not many tech pundits saw (as I noted in a previous blog post) but — having personally checked out KIN’s Facebook page on a semi-regular basis — there was genuine excitement for the phone from its niche audience. The KIN phone was an oddity in light of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 but only because Microsoft made it so, especially if we are to believe Engadget’s Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story followup article posted today.

(Engadget’s article seems inline with a New York Times op-ed article by former Microsoft VP Dick Brass regarding Microsoft’s Creative Destruction published in February.)

The cancellation of the KIN so quickly after market release seems to spell trouble for Windows Phone 7 for three main reasons:

Consumer trust
If MS can’t believe in it’s own products, how are consumers suppose to?

Immediate awkward team dynamics
Just because MS is moving the KIN team onto WP7 doesn’t mean they are going to get anything done better or faster. Imagine if your current work team had a sudden influx of members… eep! It takes time to build a group dynamic that can really work together. If anything, an increase of people makes things slower in the beginning.

Historical company dynamics
One of the selling points of the WP7 was Xbox integration however Microsoft seems to show time and time again that different departments aren’t able to work with each other. Can we really expect the mobile team to integrate nicely with the Xbox, Zune, Office, and Internet Explorer teams to create a unified Microsoft experience?

So Microsoft, it’s too bad.  For a while there, you were looking like you were figuring out your groove again.  But then you killed my beloved Courier. The KIN is just another nail in the coffin.

Good luck with Windows Phone 7 — you are really going to need it.

“Is it like the iPhone?” I get asked. I like to answer with, “Sort of, except that it’s way better.”  ;)

So because I am asked this question over and over again, I thought that I would post some thoughts about what appeals to me about Android versus iPhone.

Please note: since there are many phones out there with legacy Android operating versions, I’ve marked which release version (1.5, 1.6, 2.1, or 2.2) has the most optimal experience. Check the specs of the phone you plan on purchasing since 2.1 is pretty standard in the U.S. right now but lots of Canadian phones are shipping with 1.5. Version 1.6 is probably the absolute lowest I would allow for a new phone and 2.2 is the version featured on the Google Nexus One phone. Most Android phones will see at least one software upgrade during its lifetime.

1) Apps by Google™

By far the biggest winning point for Android is all the Google-developed apps, and there are many:

• Gmail: I’ve been a Gmail convert since ’06 and cannot live without threaded subjects. The Gmail app on Android offers much more of a gmail.com experience than an iPhone ever could. (1.5 is good but 2.1+ is better due to an “undo” button and better labels support.)
• Google Contacts: Forget about keeping your contacts on a SIM cards — those days are over. If you invest in some time updating your google.com/contacts address book with emails, addresses, and phone numbers you will never again lose someone’s phone number and it’s available almost instantly on your phone. (Contacts entered on phone are also synced back online.)
• Google Calendar: Events are synced 2-way between the phone and web version. (1.6+ has a click-able map link when your event has an address attached to the event; 1.5 is almost the same but no map link so that one setback is pretty annoying.)
• Google Maps: Indispensable for getting around. What would I do without it??? Android also includes Google Navigation with turn-by-turn voice instructions for free! And if you ever favourite/star locations on maps.google.com, the stars also show up on the mobile version. (1.5 has Maps but 1.6+ has all the Maps goodies.)
• Google Voice: This one is questionable for how useful it is in Canada but I’ll include it because I use it for my voicemail. I forward unanswered calls to my U.S.-based Google Voice phone number in order to benefit from voice-to-text transcriptions. Transcriptions and sounds files can be forwarded to my gmail inbox, or I listen to the recordings in the mobile Google Voice app. Important note: If you missed the kerfuffle last year, Apple has blocked the Google Voice app from iPhone app store citing that it “duplicated functionality” — pffft, whatever.
• Listen: Do you subscribe to podcasts? This nice app streams podcasts to your phone and syncs to your Google Reader account.

Keep in mind that all these things are synced 2-way or kept in the “cloud” so if you ever need to replace your phone (or if you have multiple Android phones) getting up and running is simply a matter of entering in your Google Account email address. Data will start automatically showing up on your phone. You never ever have to hook it up to a computer to sync unlike an iPhone that relies on you to have a desktop with iTunes installed.

(Google also has a few more apps like Voice Input, Google Talk, Google Sky Map, Google Earth, and Google Goggles which are very cool but I don’t use them on a daily basis. Full list of mobile apps is here. Goggles will get pretty amazing soon though with an ability to take a picture of a menu in a different language and have it translated on the fly to your language!)

2) Homescreens

On an iPhone, you more or less just get a grid of all your apps with a dock for a few of your favourite apps.  How boring is that??

On Android, you get multiple (3 or more) homescreens that act similar to your desktop on your computer. You will most likely use this space to add shortcuts to your most commonly used apps. You can even organize apps into folders. Or create these nifty things called “live folders” where the contents are based on things that could change like the phone numbers from your Facebook friends or the files you have received over Bluetooth.

Android’s “live wallpapers” (2.1+ only) add even more oompf to your regular wallpapers (all versions). I use the built-in live wallpaper called “Grass” that is (surprise, surprise) waving grass. However the sky actually changes colour and texture (from dawn, to noon, to sunset, to stars) to reflect the actual time of day. It has a very nice ambient effect.

But my all-time favourite feature of the homescreens are “widgets”. You can pimp it out in many different ways. My current one is set up to let me see at a glance when my next appointment is, what my todo items are, and where my Foursquare friends are checked in. I also have widgets to see the current music track being played with play/pause/skip controls, and another widget with switches to quickly toggle on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and adjust screen brightness.

And if you don’t want the stock homescreen, there’s a world of homescreen replacement apps waiting for you such as: LauncherPro which looks exactly like the regular homescreen but adds a favourites dock and can work in landscape mode; Slide Screen which gives you a simplified, one-screen highlight of your calendar, mail, weather, twitter, and other news; or Sweeter Home which has tons of downloadable themes. (For more homescreen replacement apps, check out Android Tapp’s roundup.)

Android is all about making your phone yours — not Apple’s.

3) Background services

The word “multi-tasking” is thrown around a lot when talking about mobile operating systems. Droid does and iPhone doesn’t, right? Most of the time, people seem to be referring to the idea of multiple, concurrently running applications. This is a bit confusing because the mobile experience is not like a desktop computer where you can see all your programs running alongside each other in separate windows.

As a mobile phone user on a tiny screen, you might not notice between a well-designed mobile app that saves its current state before quitting and reloads it where you left off versus an app that is simply paused while displaying a different app. So on this level, Android and iPhone are mostly the same.

However, let’s say you want your phone to check for your location at a regular interval and log your GPS so you can record a jog but you also want to do other things on that jog like listen to streaming internet radio and send off an email. Or how about automatically back up your phone photos and videos to Picassa or Flickr without any additional action on your part? How about automatically forward SMS messages to another phone number? Or something as simple as being notified if someone has posted a Twitter tweet that mentions your name without opening Twitter?

There is no doubt that Android currently rules in this area.  I especially love PicPush for automatic photo backups and NewsRob for auto-syncing of Google Reader items.

iPhone 4 OS will add a form of multi-tasking but it’s up to the app developer to enable these features so we shall see what developers whip up.

4) Androids apps, Android Market, and web access

This is obviously the biggest area of debate for the Android versus iPhone battle royale. I will try to sum it up in just a few points because it’s been discussed ad nauseam but focus on the user’s perspective:

• The Android Market might not have gazillions of apps like iPhone but the apps that I use today are pretty quality and almost always FREE or built-in; Apple’s app store will slowly but surely suck $ out of your wallet every month.
• If you have a phone with Android 2.1 (or even better, 2.2) and a 1 Ghz snapdragon processor like the newer Android phones, the web browser is fast, fast, fast so you don’t have to rely on apps because “there’s a website for that”.
• Android 2.2 (coming soon for public release, we hope) has Flash Player 10.1 for download in the Market. It doesn’t matter if you hate Flash or not — if some important piece of information is embedded within Flash content, good luck seeing it on your iPhone. If you want to, make it so you have to click to enable Flash content. (Within the web browser: Menu » More » Settings » Enable plug-ins. Select “On demand”.)
• All apps are allowed. Some of them suck but so do Apple ones. However, if it’s a paid app, you get 24-hours to decide if you like it or return it for a refund. No such refund policy for iTunes store.
• You can download Android install files(.apk) from anywhere outside of the Market and install it. Sometimes that means getting into cool betas like I am for the Swype keyboard replacement. Or, if you’re in a country that Android Market doesn’t support yet, you can use alternative markets like SlideME, GetJar, Motorola’s SHOPS4APPS, or one offered by your mobile carrier. Love it or hate it, iTunes is your one and only option for iPhone.
• The Android Market will eventually be fully viewable in a web browser and it’ll be much better than the current one. How is that a win for Android over iTunes? Well if you have Android 2.2 on your phone, if you see an app that you like while at your desktop, you will be able to send it to your phone using a Cloud-to-Device plugin to start downloading and installing — no USB cable required! Having a web-based listing of apps will also lead to innovative uses such as AppBrain which offers a crowd-sourced ranking of apps.

5) Notification shade

All of your alerts go the status bar at the top. You can dismiss them when you’re done with them or keep them around to remind you.  Much better than having something pop up in the middle of your screen and demand your full attention, à la iPhone.

6) Hardware choice

Since Android is a free operating system, manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Dell have been flocking to Android like there’s no tomorrow. And well, to be honest, the iPhone operating system was a wake up call for the lumbering mobile handset industry to go out and re-invent themselves or be left in the dust — software is one way to quickly close that gap.

Thankfully, manufacturers have created a steady flow of Android phones over the past year. Keyboard or touch-only? Little screen, big screen, or huge screen?

Much like point #2 about homescreen customization, a good selection of hardware means that you can try and get a phone that fit your needs — not fit yourself to a single phone.  Of course, with all these handsets, it does mean you will probably spend more time than before researching phones so, if you don’t like gadgets like I do, you should find a friend that does.

Having said all of the above, the only major thing that makes me jealous about the iPhone is the touch-screen sensitivity — hardware-wise, Android manufactures just haven’t gotten it to be as smooth as Apple has.

In closing

I often like to say that the iPhone is a like a smartphone with training wheels. Easy to get on and start pedaling but it doesn’t have all the nuances of  a cruiser / BMX / mountain bike /single-speed / tandem or whatever bike your heart desires. And you know what, some people like the comfort of knowing that they can’t fall, that’s fine BUT, and this is a big BUT, be careful of the marketing engines…

Anyone who sells products does this but Apple is especially dexterous in painting their devices with bold words such as “magical”  or “game-changing”.  These words are meaningless in advertising except to create psychological attachment to a product — please just remember that. They are also unabashedly unapologetic about their products.

Whenever possible, try out a phone for 1 or 2 weeks. Integrate it into your life. Don’t rely on just hype.

And with that, I leave you with a Facebook conversation (edited) I came across today:

The KIN ONE is a pebble-shaped phone with a full qwerty slide-out keyboard and touch screen; the KIN TWO is more like typical slideouts on the market today and also has a touch screen.

What makes KIN phones special is that Microsoft spent a lot of time thoughtfully designing the user interface from the ground up for the social media addict. The layout is strikingly similar to Microsoft’s yet-to-be-released Windows Phone 7 Series and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR layer for Android phones.

Based on my skimming of blogs and Twitter posts, reactions to KIN have been fairly polar — either you love it or you hate it. And maybe this is an unfair sweeping assumption but it seems that most of the haters are spec-heavy, gadget-lusting men. Yes, Engadget and Gizmodo commenters, I’m talking about you.

Personally, I think KIN has the potential to dramatically turn around the perception of Microsoft as a lumbering beast in the mobile world. And all while gaining the key audience group most needed at the moment to keep business running in the future: teenager girls.

And why do I say this?

Research, listen, respond

When I tuned into the live webcast of the media announcement I had low expectations but I was struck time and time again by the stories the speakers had to tell about their target audience. Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft, states right off the bat that they spent thousands of hours interviewing and listening to the exact people that they want as their customers.

This process is referred to as “user-centered design” and it’s a process that I’m a big fan of. When done with an honest willingness to listen to the user, combined with good decision-making, the end product actually solves a problem.

The camera is a prime example of this. There was an overwhelming response that there was a problem with getting good pictures in low-lit social events with their current phones. Microsoft then made it a high priority to get good images by adding a flash and 5-8 megapixel resolution sensors.

Friends over technology

One of the most common negative responses to KIN is that it doesn’t have a smart phone operating system like iPhone or Android phones do. Although KIN supports Facebook and Twitter streams, there are no 3rd party apps. If you’re already an iPhone or Android owner, it’s unlikely that you will drop your current phone for a KIN.

However, there’s lots of people out there that don’t have smartphones yet. Or, in terms of the target market, are now just becoming that cellphone-carrying age. Heck, even at the age of 29, someone in my circle of friends recently just bought a text messaging phone and others ooh’ed-and-ahh’ed over it.

Further observations: I’ve been tutoring university fashion students for the past couple of years in Flash programming and I’ve noticed at least two mobile-features about these 20-something ladies: they love, love their BlackBerry and they love, love to text/IM. (They even send up to 20 messages in the middle of our 3-hour tutoring sessions!).

And they are not rocking slim, fashionable BlackBerry Pearls; they’re all carrying the bigger BlackBerrys with the large keyboard in order to pump out their messages as quick as possible. They don’t care about 3rd party apps! They care about staying in touch with their friends — instantly.

And it’s not just these fashion students… I’ve overheard other females in coffeeshops obsess over the BlackBerry simply because of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

Marketing

Derek Snyder, Senior Product Manager of the KIN team, introduced himself in the webcast as “part of the social revolution” but the image of a 30-something male does not conjure up KIN for me. Whether it’s intended or not, codename “Project Pink” says exactly who the demographic is: females between 13 – 21. And Microsoft has nailed it with their marketing materials.

The models and clothing in their advertising seems straight out of an Urban Outfitters or Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue. The kin.com website if very youthful with the mandatory links to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

But you know what I think is brilliant? A webisode series called The Journey. For one thing, it’s like a reality tv show. And as much as I like to deny the genre as a whole, one of my favourite tv shows is a reality show (shhh!) and they are strangely addictive. Think Gossip Girls but low-budget — you want to stop but can’t because you need to find out if so-and-so is going to get back together with whats-his-face (argh, the suspense!). Plus, don’t you think the heroine of The Journey also looks remarkably like Ellen Page?

Cloud coverage

KIN Studio will be the last point I’ll cover. KIN Studio essentially automatically backs up the entire phone: photos, video, messages, and call history to an online repository. All the info is displayed playfully over a timeline and photos/videos can be shared in the same drag and drop interface as the phone.

(Auto-syncing photos is a killer feature… Google and Picassa, are you listening?)

This goes back to the user-centered design I mentioned above. Derek Snyder told a story about a young women who had a shoebox of old phones because she couldn’t get the photos and messages she had in each of them off of them. KIN Studio is like a virtual shoebox (and, in my opinion, a very female-orientated feature since I think girls have a tendency to journal write more than boys).

So is KIN a clear winner?

I think KIN has loads of potential. I’m too much of a lifehacking gadget-lover to give up Android at the moment but, if anything, Microsoft has won my respect for coming up with the KIN user experience. (Yes, it’s like MOTOBLUR but they took it to the next level with KIN Studio.)

And at least KIN phones are shipping next month. Palm made the mistake of announcing Palm OS and then letting the excitement die down for almost a year before release, allowing others to copy their key features. KIN is also going to offer Microsoft a lot of “in the field R&D” for Windows Mobile 7 Series since the two operating systems have some similarities — that’s good news if you’re waiting until the end of the year for a “real” smartphone from Microsoft.

The biggest tipping-point will be, of course, price. Verizon declined to announce any price plans but I would think that they will need to meet a $0-100 purchase price (with contract) to get the young audience they want. As for data plans, currently Verizon has a $9.99 plan with 25mb data allowance. In order to support KIN Studio’s constant uploads, Verizon would be wise to roll out a price plan between $9.99 and their $29.99 unlimited data plan. (Although KIN does have WiFi.)

Related to pricing, a lot of people love BlackBerry Messenger because of it’s unlimited messaging included in a data plan, and generally BB data plans are cheaper than regular smart phone data plans. I don’t know the details about how KIN handles messaging but it sort of seems like it has its own rich-media IM infrastructure. Unlimited texting would be a wise add-on to have though.

It would also be nice if KIN had the hardware to support location-based check-in services like Foursquare or Gowalla but, speaking of the teenage demographic again, these services might not be as popular with them (being that they see each other every day at school) versus adults (who are spread out over the city). There is an IE-based web browser on the KIN though so web-based check-ins is still an option.

For those that asked, this is the email I received from Rogers after I told them that I had Windows 7 and had troubles with the HTC Sync update.

Remember that it is for HTC Dream (with keyboard) handset only.

Also important, this update contains a “perfected SPL” (google this term for more info) which will make rooting your phone impossible at the moment.

For more info about Rogers and their bad implementation of Android handsets, visit iwantmyonepointsix.com. I’ll have more to say about this fiasco later….

Upgrade Instructions for Rogers HTC Dream

Requirements:

- Rogers Dream
- Battery Level of 50% or more. Do not start upgrade if battery level less than 50%
- MicroSD card formatted in FAT32, please note cards formatted in FAT will not work.

Installing the Update via MicroSD Card:

1) Download the HTC_Dream_Update.zip and extract the file within, DREAIMG.nbh to the root of the microSD card.

2) Backup your personal data: All personal data (contacts, applications, photos, bookmarks, etc) stored on the device will be lost after the update process. There are 3rd party applications on Android Market that can back up your applications and personal data.

3) Power off the device.

4) Remove the microSD card from your device (if you have one already installed), press in on the microSD card to eject it and then remove it from the slot.

5)Insert the microSD card with the DREAIMG.nbh on it in the microSD slot, slide it into the slot until you feel a “click”.

6) Press and hold both Power and Camera buttons at the same time until the blue/white screen appears.

The update will automatically begin installing, follow the on-screen instructions, press the trackball when prompted to press “Action”

Once the update is complete, “Press Action to Complete” will be displayed. Press the trackball to reboot the device and complete the upgrade process remove the microSD card

www.imheremovie.com

via Today’s BIG THING

And are you obsessed with the new HTC Hero yet?? I know I am.

The Rosie UI (officially called the HTC Sense™) is a UI layer built on top of the current Android 1.5 OS but has so many user workflow improvements to it that it almost feels like it should be Android 2.0, or a whole new OS!

Press Release: http://www.htc.com/us/press.aspx?id=103534&lang=1033