2010.09.07 Meeting Notes

Location

Informal Roundtable Discussion

• Google Android operating system
  Bill Kendrick, Kyle Ambroff, Grant Bowman brought a variety of Android-based mobile phones to talk about and pass around
  • 3 in attendance planning on getting an Android phone soon
  • 1 has 'rooted' their phone (replaced stock OS with another)
  • 6 interested in developing applications for Android
  • 2 already programming Android apps
  • No interest shown in non-phone devices (e.g., tablets)
  • Killer apps:
    • Squirrelcam
    • Gmail
    • Google Calendar
    • Google Maps
    • SSH (secure shell)
    • Web browser
    • Google Listen (audio/'podcast' player)
    • Twitter (microblogging)
    • Facebook (social network)
    • Evernote (cloud-based note-taking)
    • Amazon Kindle (ebook reader)
    • System Panel (app management/killer)
    • Weather
  • New version of Android OS (2.2, aka "Froyo") will allow app installation onto SD card (versus internal storage); apps will need to utilize an API to take advantage of this
  • Why Android instead of iPhone?
    • iPhone, iPod, iPad require a computer with iTunes (at the very least, to first use the device); iTunes is not available for Linux
    • Android app store is easier to get apps onto than iPhone's
    • Some thoughts posted at http://gigaom.com/2010/09/07/should-android-be-startups-first-choice/