Geeking Out On Y’all

So as I mentioned, the old phone is dead/dying. Lucky for me, HTC just released the Hero, an Android (Google’s mobile platform) phone for Sprint (my carrier). I got a chance to check it out last night and was suitably impressed. They are getting a unit in today and it’s got my name on it. I’m hugely excited.

Android is excellent because it is an OPEN SOURCE platform. That means that any nerd can make an application for it and distribute it. And no one (i.e. Apple) controls which apps you can or can’t publish. Rock on. When I get some time (a year or so from now), I’d love to check out their development kit and play around with developing some apps. Mostly so I can legitimately put this on my website.

I also had the pleasure of downloading Flickroom the other day. The app itself is nice, but nothing impressive … sort of just like Flickr in a desktop app. What really intrigued me was the way it was developed was by using an Open Source development standard from Adobe (Flex/AIR) that makes it a lot easier for the little guys (me) to develop desktop apps that play nicely with the web.

Once again, when I have time, I would love to check it out. Unfortunately, they did not have the presence of mind to create an awesome flash badge for their developers.