What App Do You Twitter With?

I've had Twidroid installed on my T-Mobile G1 for a while now. But it seems with each successive update the program becomes more and more cumbersome, with a greater number of program hangs and force closes.

I've even gone so far as to disable the downloading and notification of new tweets, leaving Twidroid to only look for @replies and direct messages.

Even those reduced settings have not been enough lately, as Twidroid still dings my battery for 15-20% of my total usage and is nearly unresponsive when I try to use it.

Twidroid and I have parted ways now. The last thing I had to say about Twidroid was "I no longer want it or use it."

Now the question I have is, what do I replace Twidroid with?

Androinica.com has put together a very handy and clever feature comparison chart here. I'm hearing great things about Seesmic as well.

What Twitter client do you use for your Android phone, and why?

Photo by Matthew Oliphant

How Important is a Hardware Keyboard?

I am dependent on the hardware keyboard of my G1 to do any typing on my phone. I try the soft keyboard built into Android 1.6 now and then just to see if there's a change of heart. I feel like the suggestion feature breaks up my flow but I can't use the soft keyboard without it since I make too many typos with my big fingers.

Because the Nexus One has no hardware keyboard I am reluctant to buy one. I hear rumors that the next big Android phone from Google will have a hardware keyboard, so I will probably wait.

What about you? How important to you is a hardware keyboard when purchasing a mobile phone?

Photo by sugree

No More Updates: T-Mobile Misleading Blackberry Curve 8320 Owners?

So today I was looking at my T-Mobile account and was looking at each of my family accounts to see if anyone was eligible for a phone upgrade. When I looked at my sister's phone, the Blackberry Curve 8320, I noticed something very interesting.

The screen on the Blackberry Curve 8320 very clearly showed an operating system 4.6 or newer. The funny thing is that the newest software T-Mobile offers for the Blackberry Curve 8320 is 4.5.0.81. I find it quite odd that T-Mobile would have a picture of the Blackberry Curve 8320 running an operating system that it currently doesn't offer.

This can only mean 1 of 2 things. One that maybe T-Mobile is planning on providing an update to Blackberry Curve 8320 devices in the near future, and just jumped the gun with the updated picture. Or, they did one heck of a Photoshop job, but for what reason? This leaves me baffled and confused, as from all the posts I have read in the last few months is that the internal memory in the 8320 is not enough to support any software higher than 4.5.0.81. Or could this be similar to the T-Mobile G1 which was supposedly not going to receive an update to the 1.6 "Donut" operating system update, but at the last moment did indeed receive the update. All we can do as a community is keep our fingers crossed that they will be releasing 4.6 + to the Blackberry 8320 community.

New 2.1 Eclair ROM by Manup456 with Camera!

I have decided to move on and try some different ROMs preferably newer than 2.01. On my myTouch 3G I have chosen to flash and run Manup456's Eclair 2.1 ROM with working camera and Livewallpapers!

So far this ROM is pretty slick. I have ran and tested every application built into this ROM without lag or any force closes! This is really an excellent ROM. Even the live wallpapers run smoothly and doesn't eat up alot of battery.

The only flaws with this ROM the auto-correction issue that plagues many other Eclair ROMs. Also, this ROM doesn't include a video camera, but if you don't rely on your phone's video capturing, it's no big deal.

This ROM doesnt include the actual live wallpapers you might have seen running on the Nexus One, but does include 2 different variations of a moving cube. Also, available in the Market are a few additional live wallpapers. The only catch is you must be running 2.1 in order to see the live wallpapers in the market. Some of the other live wallpapers available in the market are Cyclo, which is a bunch of small to large colored dots appearing and disappearing.

Also available in the market is Starfield (my personal favorite) that shows you a moving in an outer space view with stars flying by! This ROM has came leaps and bounds since the 2.1 SDK was released less than a week ago. I had originally installed a quickly put together 2.1 ROM the day of the SDK release and that was sluggish and full of force closes. This effort put forth by Manup456 and other XDA Community members is truly amazing.

This ROM does not include the Flan gallery due to 3G/Open Gl drivers not being available yet. This ROM also does include the famous Car Home app that you might have seen in those "Droid" commercials. I will record a video of this rom in action a little later tonight and add it into this post.

Android 2.01 ROM With a Working Camera!

Recently a well respected developer in the Xda Community named NCommander has been hard at work back porting a camera driver to work with 2.0, 2.01 and 2.1. He has suceeded and has released this driver to other developers to add into their ROMs.

One of the developers to do so was , also from the Xda Community. He has made a ROM Called [32B G1 / MT3G] Eclair v2.4 w/ Camera. (Download & Thread Link) I have flashed this ROM onto my myTouch 3G and I am really liking it. Everything runs smooth and yes, the camera works fine.

There were two issues with this ROM. The first, and biggest issue I found is a bug in the auto correction feature. This bug, while somewhat unnoticeable if not using text applications can be quite annoying from time to time. The bug is that when you are typing a word such as "The" auto-correction shows you that it should be instead "Theresa" and goes on to use this word instead of "The" when you press the space bar. I would assume that this is a minor bug and could easily be fixed. But until it is fixed I have disabled auto-complete and will have to look more closely when I am typing a message to insure accuracy.

The 2nd issue is that there is no video camera. This isn't that big of a deal to me, as I don't typically use the video camera. I do understand that the driver for this is being looked into and would be great if it was added.

I appreciate all of the hard work that developers such as barakinflorida, Eugene373, TwistedUmbrella, DJJesterpezz, Shafty023, Cyanogen, and Manup456 put into the Android development community and hope they continue to do so.

Editor's note: Clicking on the developers' screen names will take you to their respective Twitter profiles, where we encourage you to follow them.

Android 2.1 SDK Released

Xavier Ducrohet made the announcement on the Android Developers Blog that the SDK component for Android 2.1 is being released today.

The component can be downloaded through the SDK Manager.

Developers will also find a new USB driver that supports the Nexus One in the SDK Manager.

Stay tuned to the Android News Network for release news of new ROMs for the G1, myTouch, and other Android phones sure to be coming over the next few days.

For more information, see the Android 2.1, Release 1 notes.

Standby Time on myTouch 3G

After owning a T-Mobile G1 from October 2008 to October 2009, I know how bad battery life can be. I upgraded to a Merlot myTouch 3G in October 2009 and have not been disappointed. Not only does the phone weigh less, and feel better in the hand, but it simply blows away the battery life of the T-Mobile G1.

I started a test last week. I put my SIM card in my black myTouch 3G and left my Merlot myTouch 3G on standyby. I only check in on the phone once a day to see how the progress is. As of a few minutes ago I have 45% battery remaining after 7 days 19 hours 2 minutes 51 seconds of standby!

This is good to know, as if I were to be trapped in an area with no charger where I had to ration my battery life, it is a good feeling that I would have at least a week if I only touch the phone in emergency situations.