Quality Camera Phone is on the Way and Running Android

As I wrote earlier, it's just a matter of time before a smartphone will double as a reasonable quality camera and camcorder. And it looks like the future has just come a step closer.

Web retailer Expansys made Sony Ericsson Xperia available for per-order. While neither pricing nor availability date is specified, the technical details are.

There are a few things among the overall high end outfit of the device that I'd like to highlight. The phone has 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, 8x digital zoom, face detection, and image stabilization. It shoots VGA video (640 x 480) at 30 fps. And it's running Android.

The days of one multifunctional device in your pocket are not too far ahead. And that device will be your smartphone.

Google Enters OS Market - for Real

The announcement at the official Google blog brings Google in direct competition with Microsoft, Apple, RedHat... you get the idea.

Google is working on an operating system targeted primarily at netbooks. The OS will be built around Chrome browser and is being designed to be fast and lightweight.

Google Chrome OS will be open-sourced later this year. The devices running the OS should be available in the second half of 2010.

While GCOS has some overlap with Android, Google believes that the choice is a good thing and suggests there will be a variety of the devices running both operating systems.

This is the biggest tech news of the year since Wave announcement at Google I/O late May and another manifestation of Google's visionary role in the web technology sector. As long as innovation continues to thrive at Google we can be sure that the user experience of the web will continue to improve.

Android Application Field Test: Places Directory

Over the course of my recent vacation I had a chance to test a number of Android applications.

Having been toying with a bunch of directory applications for a few months, I suddenly realized that my favorite in the category is Places Directory by Google.

The two usual vacation categories are food and entertainment. Armed with my five senses as well as printed materials available in my "home away from home", I started Places Directory to see how well its output mingles with the content of the tree-killing by-products.

Restaurants category rendered a solid list of places to go, some of them with a few reviews and/or ratings even. The reviews part gave Google Places a notch over the booklets.

As I was tethered to the house I stayed in as the only place with Internet access, the much hyped advantage of on-the-go search went awry right off the bat. On the bright side, I did have some level of Internet access and could use the application!

Activities section was the area where the booklets shined the glitter of victory making circles around the environment-friendly alternative. Even the fishing pier visible from a sub-orbital spacecraft was not listed in Places Directory.

Directory applications are one of the most promising and fast-growing segments of smartphone application market. At some point in time your phone will become the ultimate source of local information. Until then hold on to the glossy local guides.

T-Mobile G1 as Both Your Camera and Your Camcorder

Another unexpected experience I brought out of my recent vacation was that my G1 essentially displaced my mid-range camera and camcorder. All the snapping and filming happened on the smartphone. Both higher-end devices sit untouched on a countertop.

Why?

1. The form factor. It's so much nicer to carry one pocket-size device than one pocket-size device and two brick-size devices hanging off of your neck. If/when you have little kids you'll appreciate the benefit to the greatest extent
   
2. Nearly instant sharing. Sending pictures to Picasa and videos to YouTube is literally a few taps away. As most of the moments immortalized by average vacation pictures and videos have half-live of approximately a week, it's crucial to share them with your audience ASAP. G1 works wonders at that
3. Geotagging for pictures. In many cases a map proves to be very helpful when telling your vacation story. Your geotagged pictures taken with G1 give you such a map with no hassle
   

As it stands now, for "high-end" vacations you do want to take your high end camera and camcorder gear. On the other hand, for an average getaway-and-relax vacation a camera-equipped smartphone might be just what the doctor ordered.

This is not to say there is no room for improvement. Picture quality is mediocre, video quality is even worse. No flash. No zoom.

It looks like the forthcoming smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy and Sony Ericsson whatever-it-will-be-called are trying to address the issues. It's just a matter of time when the likes of Flip get on the Android bandwagon and build a high quality pocket-size camera phone. Meanwhile we'll relax and mind our business.

T-Mobile G1 as a Navigation System

Over the past week I've had a very interesting experience using my G1 as a navigation device during my Outer Banks vacation.

Outer Banks is a narrow strip of islands just off North Carolina shore. It's a wonderful place to have a vacation at. Unfortunately a smartphone can't appreciate all the natural wonders of the place. In fact I could imagine that it is scared of the place as some of its senses are blocked most of the time. Network connectivity is spotty (that's not 3G vs Edge, rather that's yes vs no). Data connection is even spottier. GPS connectivity tends to hold up but is not perfect.

All the above provides for a challenging navigation environment... for the device. It's sort of odd for a human being to see it struggle as there's pretty much one major road out there.

Poor man's navigation system on G1 is the built-in GPS unit backed by Google Maps. Anyone who has tried such a navigation system for a little while is familiar with the hearty pale-blue circle symbolizing GPS surrender to the network-based location. You'll see it occasionally at Outer Banks.

A new experience is the view of the blue GPS dot on a virgin Google-branded screen. That's what happens when your trusty GPS is on duty but the network is not available. Outer Banks boasts plenty of such locations.

As odd as it might sound, Outer Banks is one of those places where navigating by G1 will more likely get you lost than "navigating" by looking around.

For an Android-based phone to be of practical use as a navigation device it has to possess a number of qualities it currently lacks:

• On-device maps to eliminate the dependency on the network for map data
• Turn-by-turn voice-enabled navigation software that uses such maps. TeleNav for T-Mobile G1 in its current incarnation is not a viable option as it requires data connection
  
• A dashboard mounting cradle to allow for a view of the map with the peripheral vision

Hopefully Garmin will come up to a device that satisfies all the requirements above. Until then better options are a dedicated navigation system, relying on your sense of direction, or just looking around.