Can't Paint so I code :)

Since my operation (which took at the 26th of April) I'm still can't sit, it's been a month already and I've become literally a couch! This doesn't help when you want to draw, since I lay down all day, the only thing I can do is sit in front of my laptop and do what I also do best, which is programming.

This time I'm not programing for the x86 (Intel) based PCs, I took on me to study the newest operating system: Android by Google.

Having installed the programming workspace and the integrated development environment (IDE) called Eclipse and Google's Android's SDK (Software Development Kit) I was able to configure the system, the Emulator and create an 'Hello World' project.

After sleepless nights, sunny days (I had times where I didn't go out of home for a week or two) I managed to learn the basic ideas of how stuff work and code a background running music player that updates the screen and send notifications back to the user on an interval of time:



I will keep develop this app for fun and learn more about how Android works (Mainly graphics). I must say that it is an impressive looking operating system that allows you to do so many and integrate your code with others apps (also the fact that it is open source and mult-task makes it cool)

As for the phones that runs the Android:
1. T-Mobile G1 - can be modified the heck out of it!
2. HTC Magic - can be modified the heck out of it!
3. Samsung Galaxy - I guess it can be modified, I don't know
4. HTC Hero - Closed sourced project (but u can probably still can mod it to other androids)

The phones as you buy them will not come as ROOT permissions so you could not install anything on them unless you know how to go down a firmware with a ROOT users and than update on newer version while still keeping the ROOT permissions.

It's funny, Google makes an open sources tree branch of their Android OS (as for now, it is called 'Cupcake') but yet u can download it, mod it, compile it and install it on your own phone just like any other Linux systems (which is what Android based on, Linux kernel 2.6.x)

I don't know when I will own an Android phone, maybe I will try get the HTC Hero and develop for it (while my emulator is helpful, it is slow as hell - and on my laptop it ain't pretty!)

Until I can paint and draw again, I will play with android more and more.