Desi app stores?

The biggies are gonna roll out Desi app stores. And that seems to means Nokia and RIM. Apple gets mentioned in the piece, but their response leaves us with the feeling that they have no such plans. Sony Ericsson gets a passing mention. Google, no word...It basically seems to mean that Indian developers will be allowed to put up apps - it probably wont mean anything more than that.

What is big idea of a desi app store when the global version can do the trick? It is as great an idea as having an India specific social network. But there are already apps like Cab Lite in which Indian operators are present, so it does not prevent people from making "worldwide" apps too. In any case, this is good news for teams like ours.

And it is a good thing to create markets for apps. One, it will prove to many of the naysayers that the Indian IT market has no talent. It will also be an answer to the many who doubt Indias technical expertise. Also, it lets people do stuff that may be "too small" or in the "blind spot" of phone companies. The good thing about apps is that it allows users to customise their phone. In a nation with a multitude of languages, this is the best way to customise. But if that needs to happen, apps have be made available to phones with a much lower budget...

But there is a lot of potential out there...

Bangalore BMTC Volvo routes

Here comes our second app in the Android market. We have put up the Bangalore BMTC Volvo bus route finder as an app. Enter the "To" and "From" destination to get the appropriate Volvo bus routes. Enter just "To" or "From" for bus originating and terminating respectively. Or just get the route number listing and routes.

The Bangalore BMTC Volvo route finder is useful even if you new to the city. So, if you are visiting Bangalore (and have an Android phone), do install it and try out these bus services.

Go green, use public transport.

We are planning to enable the next version with GPS capability too...

Jai Hanuman

So, finally, after months of trial and error, we managed to get our first app on the marketplace. It is a very simple one, where we have tried to digitise the Hanuman Chalisa.

Lots of learnings, lots of missteps, but finally we made it. Do let us know how you like it.

But then again, this is the first one. We have a few more in the pipeline that will be up soon...

Plox Lite

If you have ever played tower defence, this is a familiar game, but on a phone it seemed to be doubly exciting. After Trap, this is another game that I was completely addicted to for a while.
Worth a try...

Music Lite

This is not a multi-touch application, but does its job well for a single touch app. Its a nice musical keyboard with an option for a piano and a keyboard (with the full extended version avaiable for a payment).
Clearly worth it, if you are into this sort of thing!

Trap!

Heres a game I was completely addicted to. Trap is the name and what you are supposed to do is trap those floating balls using lines that go end to end. If any ball meets any unfinished line, then you lose a life. There are various bonuses, special balls and stuff to keep you occupied for a long long time. It does not seem so great when you start, but as you play, like any good game, it is supremely addictive.

Zebra paint!

A stunningly simple painting application - really loved by kids. Choose the colour with your finger, touch the relevant spot on the screen - thats it. Choose from a range of pre loaded pictures and a whole range of colours on the palette. Keeps kids busy for a while...

Where will you read books?

The great book reader war is on. Yes. Its Kindle versus google. Kindle wants you to buy a new e-book reader, while Google is giving it on your mobile phone. The big difference is that Kindle lets you buy almost anything on Amazon, while Google will let you buy stuff on its "book search". Right now it is too early to call and clearly, they can both co-exist, but since this is a mobile phone blog, here goes.

15 million books in your pocket. Imagine that!

How many do you want to read? Go ahead, download that book and read it on your phone..

Google Latitude

Google Latitude is such a smart idea.

Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device. It's also an iGoogle gadget on your computer. Once you've opted in to Latitude, you can see the approximate location of your friends and loved ones who have decided to share their location with you. So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one's flight landed safely, despite bad weather. [Google Blog]

The future of the mobile phone is not the phone itself, but the network that it enables. So, imagine the potential uses of Latitude - if a group of friends is visiting a new city, you will know where each one of you are. Its so easy. (You will relate to this only if you have gotten lost in a new city while going together in a group). I also think it will be wonderfully useful for senior citizens...

Premium app store?

Wired reports that rumour has it that the iPhone will soon have a premium app store.

The Apple App store is a big hit among users. Independent app makers can make hundreds of thousands of dollars hawking games such as iShooter or Twitter apps like Tweetie.

But along with the increased downloads, developers have seen the average price for games pushed down steadily. Three weeks ago, Silicon Valley Insider analyzed prices of the top 100 paid apps in the iPhone app store. Their spreadsheet showed apps prices dropped an average of 19 percent over the previous two months.

A premium section or a tiered App Store could help change that. The premium section could offer a channel for the more expensive products and protect the $20 price point. [Wired]

Dont know how far it is true, but this is a good direction. And if Apple does it, can the others be far behind?

Power Manager

The power manager app is a nifty app that lets your conserve battery power. It shows battery life in percent, battery status and automatically lets you conserve power if you are running low. Nice...

Tub Thumper

What are you waiting for? Beat those drums - lightly, with your touch ;)

Ding!

Now, doesnt that Ring a bell? Choose from desk bell, gong and cow bell. Cute, we thought :)

Steels a steal!!

We took a look at Chomp SMS that changes the SMS interface of the G1. If there is an SMS program, can a browser be far behind?

Actually there are more than a few browsers available on the G1. Other than the default browser (with which I was neither impressed nor unhappy), we tried out the Steel. The Steel practically makes the slide-out keyboard redundant. On touching the address bar, the virtual keyboard pops up and you can enter the address of any site.

Once you click a link, rather, touch a link, the superbly intuitive thumb level controls take over. (See pic.) You can chose to either copy, share, open, enlarge or magnify depending on where you have "touched".

The copy, paste option particularly impressed me, because otherwise the copy, paste function takes a little while getting used to. So, right now, Steel is what we are using. Got to try out the Opera too sometime...

Software is king!

The most popular

First up, we decided to try some of the more popular apps. Those which exploit the full features of the phone or which bring out the whole point of the Android phone. Two of them qualified right away. Chomp SMS and Labyrinth.

If you ever end up buying the phone, Chomp SMS will probably be the first on your list. It converts whatever format the G1 had for SMS into a iPhone similar format. Cute, fast and works very well. It even recreates a virtual keyboard for you that vibrates for every alphabet you touch.In one word - unmissable! This is one app that has got a lot of publicity and we were keen to see how it worked and we were very happy with it. (Of course, it does not let you forward and therein lies a secret.)

Perhaps it was done this way. The original SMS format for the phone is, well, just about ok. Chomp SMS gives it a dash of panache. Perhaps it was done to prove a point. That software is king in this phone. Do whatever you like. (or as that popular Honda ditty used to go - Hate Something, Change Something.)

Whoever has heard of accelerometer has probably heard of Labyrinth as well. Now, having realized that a statement like that is an overstatement, let me retract that. The best way to tryout the accelerometer functionality is to try out Labyrinth. It involves moving a steel coloured ball through a maze of holes into a specific hole using your hands to tilt and shift the phone and hence the ball. When the ball falls into any hole, you get a tactile response (neatly done) that is almost spooky the first few times.

And while it is not easy, it is real fun. Steady, slow hands do the trick. And the first 8 levels are free, post which you can download the entire 800 levels. Freemium model? Absolutely.

More later...