The Android project keeps moving forward. Recently, the winners of the Developer Challenge have been announced. Of these, there are a number that I think will be great to have.
Locale. Automatically changes phone settings based on triggers. What this means is that you can set your phone to automatically go to vibrate at work or at the movie theater, and to automatically increase (or mute) its volume during the hours when your normally sleep.
Compare Everywhere. Scan a barcode with the phone’s camera and get instant results on the lowest prices for that item in the local area.
Cooking Capsules. Cooking instruction from shopping through serving using text, photos and video. I am hopeless at cooking; something like this will be invaluable. Things like this have existed on the internet before, but it’s been socially awkward to try to use a laptop in the store or at the stove.
PebbleBox. A social platform focusing on the integrated GPS and maps. Anyone can publish events, attractions, and posts about a particular location.
Piggyback. An impromptu carpool management system, complete with automatic paypal-backed fares.
Cab4me. Call a taxi anywhere in the world without speaking a word. This app uses the maps and GPS features well; the cab can be called to your current location with a single click, and you can select your destination on the map. Taxis are a rare expense for me, but invaluable when I need them.
PedNav. For use in cities, it generates walking and public-transit based routes and itineraries between arbitrary points. It also includes a system for browsing nearby venues for a number of types of attraction.
Of course, the cool part is that all these and others will be available for free from the launch date, and the only thing anyone else needs to post their own app is a free signup as an app developer. This all adds up to unprecedented flexibility. Say you’re a hardware manufacturer and you want to sell a flash that clamps onto the phone and is controlled through the USB port. There is absolutely no reason you could not do this. When anyone can post code, and everyone has access to the entire OS, everyone wins.
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