I was a lucky recipient of one of the wonderful Developer Conference Android phones but since the free month of service ran out it’s been acting as a development paperweight–until now. Since I also have a iPhone (on the Rogers network) here in Canada, I figured there must be a way to get the Android phone working with my existing plan. After a bit of poking and prodding I’ve managed to do just that and it was quite easy:

1. Take the Rogers SIM from your iPhone and stick it in the Android. (Make sure you have an iPhone data plan with Rogers because the Android phones are data hogs). This will immediately get you voice calling functions.
2. Next, on the Android, go to Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile networks > Access Point Names and create a new APN (press menu and Save once you finish editing):

Name: Rogers
APN: internet.com
Username: wapuser1
Password: wap
MCC: 302
MNC: 72

That’s it. Now you’ll have data access via EDGE on the Android using you iPhone’s SIM.

Techcrunch has released an interesting video showing off a new way to type–or should I say “swype”–on a touchscreen phone. The basic premiss is that instead of lifting your finger to “tap” a letter, you simply slide your finger around the screen and the device will guess what word you mean. It’s similar to the often funny T9 predictive typing technology used on most mobile phones.

Sounds interesting but based on the video below I’m not really impressed. First, the comparison to typing on the iPhone isn’t that great. Following along on my iPhone I could easily punch out the message just as fast as the Swyping user. Secondly, there seems to be a lot of pausing in the output on the Swyping display. I can see this leading to situations where you stop to think and end up forgetting where you were in a word or loosing your train of thought. I could also see a lot of situations where you’re back “swyping” to edit what was entered a few words ago since it guessed wrong (though the iPhone isn’t much better in that regard).

I haven’t tried it myself so maybe it’ll surprise me but at the moment it just looks awkward. See for yourself:

The wonderful Smashing Magazine just posted a great article on “iPhone Apps Design Mistakes” but all of what they say can be applied directly to any mobile app, not just iPhone apps:

Designing a great app isn’t a simple task. Jacob Nielsen recently asserted that “the mobile user experience is still miserable.” Extracting user insights from testing is a challenge. People have difficulty telling you what they want; they usually only know it when they see it. But developers don’t have to tackle user research alone. Interaction designers are trained to find relevant user groups, talk to customers and read between the lines. They understand how real-world context affects an application’s design.

It takes a lot of leg work, but your efforts to understand user needs will be rewarded. The forefront of mobile technology is an exciting place to be.