As I explained in last week’s column, I’m using the HTC Droid Eris utilizing HTC’s Sense UI with the Android operating system (currently Android version 1.5).  This week, I’ll focus on customization options with Android vs. other operating systems that I’ve used, as well as the apps and widgets that I use most with my HTC Droid Eris.

Android is the most user friendly mainstream operating system available right now in terms of its ability to customize the homescreen, especially because it allows widgets.  The Blackberry OS is probably the least customizable on the market, and in my opinion lacks the ability to capture the imagination of ordinary non-business oriented consumers.  Blackberry does not support widgets, and in fact limits the number of app shortcuts available on the default homescreen. Blackberry’s only advantages over other operating systems are the speed with which apps open and its mastery of email, which is no small feat.  Similarly, the Windows Mobile phones I’ve used offered no widget support (except for Samsung’s Touchwiz UI, which was excruciating to use on the Omnia), and default homescreen customization options were very limited.  I am very much looking forward to Microsoft’s next generation Windows Phone 7 Series in the second half of this year, however.  I really think Microsoft will be back with a vengeance to challenge Android and Apple. Palm’s webOS is very good looking, but also lacks customization options. If Palm can make some improvements in this regard and with respect to webOS’ overall speed, they could really gain respect as a viable competitor to Apple and Android.  

For the unfamiliar, here’s a brief explanation of the difference between apps and widgets. Android supports the ability to place application shortcuts on the homescreen panels so that you don’t have to search through all of your apps each time to find the one you want.  This is very similar in concept to shortcuts on a PC desktop.  When you tap an shortcut icon, the application it’s linked to opens for use.  Widgets, on the other hand, are active application interfaces that live on your homescreen panel.  They can be designed to pull data from an app, or they may be “freestanding,” without the need for any other software installed on the phone.  I love widgets because they make data available at a glance without the need to dig into full apps.  Not all apps in the Marketplace come with widgets, but many do.  

A few examples of great apps and widgets that I’ve found in the Marketplace: First, the Radiotime app is the single most exciting app that I have to tell you about. I will definitely be writing more about Radiotime in a subsequent column, but here’s a preview.  Radiotime gives me access to literally thousands of streaming radio stations throughout the country (ClearChannel Stations are available only through the iheartradio app, however) and I can easily find most any genre of music, or classification of talk radio programming, including  syndicated radio programs, at any time of the day.  I actually use the auxiliary jack in my car to listen to radio programming using my Droid Eris and Radiotime on the way to and from work.  This works so well, I plan to cancel my XM Radio subscription and use this exclusively going forward. I’m a talk radio junkie and commute at least an hour per day to and from work and am able to listen to most all of the same programming that I’ve been used to with XM Radio.  (Note: My car’s factory radio did not include an auxiliary jack or iPod adapter, but I found a great aftermarket module that gave me both, which I’d be happy to share about as well in a future column if there is interest.)

One of the most useful widgets I use is Android Agenda Widget, which places a list of my calendar entries for the current day and upcoming several days, as many as will fit within the customizable widget size option that I have chosen. It updates itself at a user-defined interval by pulling data from the calendar app.  

There are a couple of messaging apps that I use all the time.  First, the Hancent SMS app. HTC’s messaging app (which comes pre-installed on Droid Eris) is great, but not quite as good as the Handcent SMS app.  Handcent is infinitely customizable, from the ability to change the look of the app through different themes and conversation styles to the ability to enable popup notifications of new SMS and MMS messages.  The main reason I use Handcent is the popup feature.  With popups enabled, upon arrival of a new SMS text message a popup will appear that allows me to read and quickly reply to the message without having to open the app itsef (the app may be used to view older messages and threaded conversations).  I’ve disabled notifications in HTC’s messaging app and have removed its shortcut from the homescreen panel in favor of Handcent and the experience is now seamless.  Its as if Handcent came with the Eris instead of HTC’s app.

The other great messaging app is Google Talk, which is an instant messaging app that allows you to send messages to other Google Talk users without using your wireless carrier’s SMS data.  I communicate with my wife via Google Talk to avoid using up our pre-paid SMS allowance each month.  Verizon has a crappy way of charging users for sending and recieving SMS and MMS messages to other Verizon users - even to other phones on the same family share plan.  I know, you can pay $10 extra per line for unlimited SMS and MMS messages between Verizon phones, but I don’t want to have to pay that extra money if I can avoid it.  My wife and I use the $5 SMS and MMS add-on which allows 250 messages before you a $0.20 charge for every subsequent message sent or received.  My wife and I used to send and receive lots of texts, but now with Google Talk we can communicate without message length being an issue and without worrying about going over our monthly messaging allowance.

About two weeks ago, I discovered the Touiteur Twitter app and it has quickly become one of my favorite new apps.  I don’t have room to go into it now, but suffice it to say Touiteur is the best Twitter experience I’ve had on the Droid Eris to date. Maybe next time I’ll get into Touiteur and some more killer Android apps.  Let me know in the comments what your favorite apps are, and also some suggestions on what you’d like to see in future columns. 

These days we take it for granted that we should be able to have our phones on us at all times regardless of where we are or what’s going on around us. (Just ask the pastor at my brother’s wedding whose phone went off five minutes into his sermon!)

Why this is has become a hot debate amongst scientists.  Evidence is mounting that our phones and the information we access through them are genuinely addictive. Psychologist Susan Wienshenk claims that we get caught up in an addictive dopamine loop when we use our phones to access information, and that this causes us to lose control over our use of them. I’ve got to say this really rings true for me.

The thought of missing out on breaking news or otherwise being denied mobile access to information is literally driving us to distraction. Our phones may be smart, but our use of them is dumb and becoming dumber.

The National Safety Council reckons that 25% of all automobile accidents (1.6 million each year) are caused by drivers distracted by their mobile phone use, and that using a mobile increases the risk of a crash fourfold. I think this is obvious and it is inevitable that more and more states will follow the federal governments lead by banning mobile use for their employees and begin adopting legislation to limit or entirely eliminate the use of mobile phones in vehicles.

In the past year we have seen a veritable “pledge-fest” spring up on the Web as insurance companies, state governments, NGO’s, manufacturers, carriers and Oprah Winfrey all pile onto the bandwagon that will inevitably make the use of phones while driving as socially unacceptable as drunk driving. Personally I find the pledge sites themselves pretty lame and the pledges aren’t worth the virtual paper they’re written on, but their very existence points to the fact that the law is out of step with the underlying desires of the people (addicted though we are).

As it stands today 31 states have no partial or full ban at all on texting while driving and those states that do often levy relatively small penalties even in the case of accidents resulting in a death. Iowa is proposing a maximum fine of $1000. Not much for a life.

I grew up in the UK in the ‘70s and ‘80s and our (French made) car literally had more ashtrays than it did seatbelts. No one buckled up and car rides regularly ended with drivers and passengers flying through their windscreens. This doesn’t happen anymore. Adoption of safety belts in cars happened only because legislation was imposed upon car makers and the reluctant driving public. Such has been the impact of this change that now car manufacturers fall all over themselves to market vehicles as safe, and you are as likely to watch a car ad showing a vehicle flying off the road as you are to see the car cruising down it.

The mobile industry needs to take a page out of what is now the auto industry’s playbook. Pledges and legislation are responses to a vacuum that the mobile industry could and should be filling with technology.

The software already exists to prevent mobile phones from being used to send texts or surf the web when a handset is travelling at speed. Manufacturers, carriers and organizations with large field based employee groups should be installing this technology as standard – and for free — on all smartphones.

These solutions obviously aren’t foolproof but look at it this way: New cars these days have seatbelt alarms programmed to annoy us into buckling up. No one objects to this “contextual reminder” - in fact you’d think less of the manufacturer if it wasn’t there. Surely the same principle can apply to phones.

The industry has nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking the lead and helping us (for we are addicts after all) to use our smartphones to do smart things in a smart way. I can’t for the life of me work out why RIM, Apple, Nokia, etc. and all the carriers aren’t feasting off this opportunity already instead of starting yet another “pledge drive” … but then maybe it isn’t just us addicts who aren’t paying attention.

The chart above is from CCS Insights and it shows the global share of mobile platforms over the last two years. Symbian as a mobile software platform still rules the market but one more thing that you will notice is that it is loosing market share and other software platforms, especially RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone OS are gaining market share. Android software platform, though very insignificant as compared to Symbian, is rapidly gaining momentum, thanks to the downpour of Android devices we have seen in the last few months. If you update this chart after two years from now, I am sure that Android and other software platforms will take more area on the chart. [Via]

The Courier is less than inch thick and just over a pound, with a clamshell design featuring two screens sized similar to 5 x 7 photos. (I’m actually surprised by this. Previous pics made it seem a lot bigger.) Word has it, there will be a built-in camera and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor running a version of the same OS that powers the gorgeous Zune HD and Windows Mobile 7 series — Windows CE 6. 

The two touch-sensitive displays take pen-based input, which is a match made for handwriting recognition. Looks like writing and designing will be the intended primary use, but Microsoft’s also reportedly emphasizing eReader-like functionality for the Courier. Well, that makes sense, considering its form factor is similar to a book.

So far, there’s no info on whether the Courier will be offered as Wifi only or piggyback on some sort of cellular data network, but if so, it would definitely pit the device against the Apple iPad. Given both tablets’ focus on ebooks, though, there’s one question that keeps coming up for me: The Nook and Kindle both offer e-ink display technology that makes reading less of a strain on the eyes. What will reading be like on either the Courier or iPad? Gluing eyes to a glossy, glassy display for hours on end is enough to cross even the hardiest eyeballs.

I guess we’ll find out when the iPad launches (3/12 for pre-orders, 4/3 for delivery), or when the Courier finally drops (expected between Q3 and Q4 2010).

The price for the Courier isn’t known yet, but for those of you thinking about it, how much would you be willing to pay for it?

Via: Engadget

ADDENDUM: In addition to the new images, Engadget posted two full-length HD videos of the interface in action. If you’ve been following Courier news, then some of this might seems familiar, but there’s also some new stuff here, so click here to go there.

Abstract from US Patent Site - “A battery for an electronic device is contained within a first frame that is coupled to a second frame by one or more piezoelectric elements. The second frame is coupled to a device chassis by one or more additional piezoelectric elements. In response to translation and/or rotation of the electronic device, portions of forces induced by the battery mass are transferred to the piezoelectric elements. Electrical energy output by these piezoelectric elements is received in a power controller and can be applied to the battery. Additional device components can also be contained within the first frame so as to increase the total mass that induces forces applied to the piezoelectric elements.”

Here’s what’s going on right now on PhoneDog Media’s network sites: Today’s iPhone, BBerryDog and DroidDog.

Rival to the iPad announced; will the ePad take off?

App Review: Bookworm

Have you seen “Mr. Wrong?” (I have, and he’s on my iPhone)

BlackBerry Curve 8530 in red on Sprint?

Photos of BlackBerry slider released

SHAPE Services releases IM+ Lite for BlackBerry

HootSuite hits the Android Market

Cyanogen 4.2.15 180 degree orientation

DroidDog OS X dashboard widget