WaveSecure
WaveSecure is the must have security app on your phone. It can help track down lost or stolen phones, remotely track the location of the phone/sim information, and even remotely lock or wipe the phone is needed. In addition, you can use it to backup/restore data on your phone. Finally, if your phone is stolen and a new sim card in inserted, WaveSecure will lock down the phone unless the secure code is entered.
WaveSecure is currently free for Android but costs $19.90 per year subscription on other platforms.

Contact Owner
You can never be too paranoid. Another security app that displays your (or anyone else’s ) contact information on the “lock screen” of your Android device, so that if you happen to lose it the finder will know how to contact you.

Advanced Task Manager
While there are other free task managers, this app is a step above and beyond. The user interface is well thought out, clean and professional. You can view process/system level information, memory footprints of currently running apps and if you have root access, you can terminate running apps. You can also white-list apps that should not be terminated.
Currently sells for 99c.

Google Voice
If you make plenty of long distance/international calling, this is a must have app. No longer do you need to call a central line, remember passcodes and then dial the international number. Just setup international dialing through voice, and dial away just like you would any local contact. International rates are very reasonable and sound quality is impeccable. In addition, messaging to and from voice is free and no text messaging charges apply. Check out the site for all the other goodies that generally apply to Google Voice and aren’t specific to Android.

Wifi tether for Root Users
This doesn’t apply to the community as a whole because you need to be running a custom ROM with root access. This app created a wireless access point to which you can connect your laptop to and then tether connections through your phone’s data connection. It couldn’t be easier to setup, supports encryption and in general works great.

There are many other apps that came close but didn’t make the top 5 cut. Some of them include Gesture Search, Juice Defender, Meebo IM, Shazam and Sipdroid.

Windows 7 finally made it to my laptop about a month back. I’m very impressed. Drivers so far have been no problem but for some I did have to dig a little deeper. Jump lists, Aero peek etc are all new and exciting features all built in making the need for 3rd party software redundant. The UI is clean and stylish making it at par with Apple’s OS if not marginally better. Boot times are quick (though not scientific, I feel it is significantly faster than XP on the same laptop with the same configuration). While the default security options are quite obstructive and chatty, it was easy to disable (unlike Vista).

Other than the obvious features, there are some minor ones I really love. Since I didn’t stick with Vista long enough, its hard to say if they were introduced in Vista and I just happened to find in 7. For example, I love the fact when I can vertically maximize windows by pulling one edge to the end of the screen. Hovering over taskbar items shows a little preview of all open windows for that app and keeping your mouse over it for a while makes all other windows except that one disappear. You also see similar effects with Alt+Tab. Process handling is by far the best thing about it. If an application hangs, 7 will grey out the app making it clear to the user that it isn’t responding. Also if you try continue to use (maximize, close etc) an app that isn’t responding, 7 will prompt with a dialog asking if the app should be terminated or diagnosed for problems. This is much more convenient than having to bring up task manager and find and kill the app.

Overall, I’m very pleased with 7. I highly recommend giving it a spin.

The iPhone looks great. You can’t beat how even the worst apps look so good. However, if you want a smart computer in your hands, this isn’t it. Sure you can check email and browse but you can’t background apps, everything is tightly controlled by Apple making it very frustrating for a tech buff like me to appreciate.

The G1 shine in these areas. However, it’s also its pitfall. I’m running cyanogen’s modified ROM. It gives me the latest and greatest in Android releases which I cannot get officially. But I also get random crashes, extreme slowness at times and other quirks that make the phone unusable at times. You could argue I could stick with the standard Google ROM. But then I’m running software that is a year old. Also, by running the official ROM, it does resolve all my issues. I can still run multiple apps in the background. This still makes the 500Mhz processor crawl to a halt at times. Since Android cannot control what apps are good or bad, or how much processing times each app takes up, it ends up making the phone unusable. If I stop all backgrounding apps, the phone is useful again but then, its just the iPhone.

So does iPhone have it right then. Yes and no. The ‘closed’ Apple policy has advantages. It can control things like user experience by blocking on not providing certain features (ie backgrounding, full bluetooth control etc). Users end up with a phone that works well under most circumstances and with ample battery life.

Android provides users with the platform ‘openness’. However, this leads users frustrated with a phone that could potentially run terribly slow or drain the battery within hours of use.

I think Android has the right approach. A lot of the problems are limitations of hardware. A faster processor, better battery can go a long way to alleviate the current issues. The openness is a more important aspect to maintain. Early adopters will feel the pain.

In the meantime, if someone has an old SE phone, I’d love to have it.

Well, here is the solution. And it is of course from Google.

http://www.seobook.com/excuse-me-where-did-googles-organic-search-results-go

Highlights of the migration

• New RAID 6 server so my data is secure.
• Centralized LDAP Authentication system. No duplicate/multiple registration.
• Email. Yay! I finally I have own email and don’t need to rely on Google or anyone else.
• Space.  This is relative to my old server. Currently This is at 2TB after RAID but there is provisioning for a lot more.

First things first, living with the google stock image was good. But using a modded image takes this device to the next level. A rooted phone gives you access to some of the best apps I’m using the legendary CyanogenMod image that is based of the Cupcake 1.5 image and boasts massive optimization to give your phone some serious oomph.

Overall Android works very well. As a phone, it is easy and intuitive, everything is laid out well and should be a breeze for even dumbphone users. As a smartphone, the modded image provides almost anything that any other OS has to offer. Multi-touch, MS Exchange, WPA enterprise, wifi tethering (genius) among others make the package complete. Apps like Google Voice, Sherpa and Locale make everyday use of the phone just brilliant. Heck, I can even get turn-by-turn directions using CoPilot for just $35, which is a bargain considering a standalone one runs you around $100 or more.

Downsides. The one that bugs me the most is the lack of a better phone. I like the physical keyboard on my G1 but I’d be willing to use the soft-keyboard for a lighter smaller phone with a better battery life. Can’t wait for Rachael. However, this isn’t an OS issue. There are some issues with speed in certain areas. For example, switching orientation from portrait to landscape or back has a clear 4 second hang time. The touch screen sometimes isn’t responsive (again not sure if this is software or hardware). Apps like CoPilot or other more CPU intensive ones run sluggish on the G1 (maybe newer faster processors could fix this).  While there are plenty of good apps in the market, there are certain areas where it is lacking. For example, the best task manager in the market is TasKiller, which is far from being perfect. T

The market search is terrible. Search is bad on a google OS? How does that make any sense? They are a search company! What is worse is that there isn’t a good website either to compensate for this. For example, a market website that lists all market apps, which can be searched and sorted by ratings or downloads (overall, month, week etc), post comments, links to developer site and other such info (Hint: Firefox addons).

I see Android as being well poised to challenge the market. Should keep things fresh and interesting as the competition heats up

However, unlike the desktop/laptop OS’s where Apple can be rigid about policies, the phone market isn’t where Apple can afford to keep up with these nuisances. For one, this market segment has much more competition. Also, things can change quickly with a year or two. There is a minor wow-factor with the iPhone but that is quickly fading with better Andriod sets coming out and Palm, Mircrosoft among others pushing their own OS’s which are just as competive.

I was a Sony Ericsson (not smartphone) user for a long time. I tried various other models and none seemed to match up to the Sony Ericsson in terms of usability. I think the interface was simple, placement of menu items was very intuitive and in general just easy to use.

The Android OS does just that. Everything is laid out in easy to read, intuitive places, Menu options are short and do not overwhelm. Enabling and disabling services is easy.

Most of the things I dislike about Android aren’t really the OS’s fault. It is the HTC G1. It is big and bulky, feels cheap and just lacking glam. However, the OS isn’t without its flaws. Considering it is currently at 1.5 I understand it has plenty of time to develop. However

* There is no support for WPA-Enterprise. The browser doesn’t support bookmarklets. I think these and others like these are basic functionality and needs to be addressed.

* The menu button provides additional options for the app or the OS in general. For one, this isn’t intuitive. Moreover, the options are still very basic. Furthermore, the options cannot be user configured. For example, if you are using the browser and want to go to the home page, you need to click Menu -> More -> Home page. If I want Home page to show on the main menu, there is no way to do this.

* The battery like is terrible. Not the OS fault but it contributes. Backgrounding processes keeps them running and keeps the battery draining. I’m not a fan of push notifications really, but something needs to be done.

* Wifi pickup is weak. Don’t know what the cause is but at coffee shops where my laptop works fine, the G1 doesn’t pick up the SSID or picks it up briefly then drops.

There are tons of other minor things but I suppose those exist with every phone out there.

It’s not all grey. As a smartphone, Android is great. It’s interface is clean. The usability is great. Most apps in the market are free and good. There are tons of those great little features that I really like and make the phone fun to use.

Overall, I’m sticking with it. Since I haven’t used the IPhone intensely, this won’t be a shootout. But I dislike the way Apple arm-wrestles the market, the apps, and its users and I don’t want any part of that.

Finally, one thing to point out is I’m using the G1 with no data plan. While most people I met say this defeats the purpose, I disagree strongly. Wifi is predominant in most places and increasing daily. Besides the two places I spend most of my time has wireless access. So I don’t miss out on anything.

Overall rating 3.5 stars.

Looking out for pure media servers, I found Firefly Media Server. Compared to some others I tested, I found Firefly very easy to install and configure. It is very basic in what it offers and that probably its beauty. Since most of the complicated stuff should be left to the player itself, all it needs to do is serve the music is a reliable way. Using DAAP protocol, I can connect using a variety of players to access my music. Players could be desktop based or web-based and gives you plenty of options. There is even a DAAP client for the iphone (though not very good).

I currently use Songbird with Sonbird DAAP Plugin to access all my music. I’ve also set up a server side frontend to the server so I can access my music when I don’t have my client of choice with me. I’m very pleased with how this has turned out. My main concern with the setup is DAAP isn’t a widely used protocol. So for example, I can’t use it to stream music directly from the receiver. Also, there aren’t other hardware devices that can do this either (Roku probably is one that supports this).

Overall, Firefly media server get an enthusiastic thumbs up.