Some thoughts on little green men

No not the aliens that your typical tinfoil hat wearing nutter will recount in detail whilst drooling slightly - but as some of you will know I've been a user of Google Android for a couple of years now, on a number of different phones, versions and builds. Currently I'm using the native Android v2.2.1 on the Google reference Nexus One platform - and I have to say it's really rather good...

Naturally there are however some annoyances that I'd like to see tweaked :-

Memory Related

• More memory - the standard 512 MB ROM & 512 MB RAM (and in my unit an additional 32GB of SD card) might sound big compared to some devices, but the phone really would benefit from at least 1GB (but better 2GB) of RAM. With 160+ applications installed I find I'm now at the point of 'remove one to install one' re the dreaded 'low memory' warning...
• Cache management - with a number of common applications (eg Browser, Tweetdeck etc) I've started to notice that they consume RAM memory as cache but don't release it automatically, leading to applications having 10-15MB of RAM memory as cache (often triggering the 'low memory' warning)  until you manually clear the cache using the application manager.
• Not an Android core issue but some applications should handle memory better - for instance ChompSMS stores MMS images in RAM and not on SD storage, and refuses to receive text messages if the 'low memory' indicator is showing despite having GBs of SD card space free.

SD Card Storage Related

• There should be the ability to force any application to be moved or installed onto SD card storage - works fine on 'rooted' ROMs so should be a possible setting for standard ROMs
• Google to enable their applications to install on SD card storage, rather than the majority currently refusing to support it (for example gMail, Earth, Maps, Voice Search, YouTube, Listen, )
• To be able to 'partition' the SD card (or have a better USB driver) so that when the phone is connected to a PC via USB the applications & widgets on the SD card continue to operate.
• Fix the update bug that occasionally occurs (ie twice in 4 months for me) for applications installed onto SD card storage detailed here and fixed here

Application MarketPlace
MarketPlace improvements, for it to have :-

• Verified developers - ability for developers to get some for of 'tested & verified safe' certificate from a trusted authority, to ensure that the developer name shown in the MarketPlace really is from the perceived developer / company
• Verified applications - ability for applications to get some for of 'tested & verified safe' certificate from a trusted authority (eg to protect against malware & trojans etc)
• The application profile should be updated to show if the application supports move/install to SD card storage, and how much RAM the application uses after install (not just how much storage it needs)
• Ability to manage my phone's applications from a desktop PC browser - to be able to uninstall existing applications, browse & search the marketplace to install applications and upload my own APK applications for install. All of these changes to then be synchronised over-the-air to the device.
• To be able to do 'bulk backup/restore/installs' of applications onto devices - eg when I change device to be able to 'backup' all my existing installed apps and then 'restore/install' them onto new device in a single action
• To better align the various MarketPlace versions around the world - it's getting more than a bit irritating seeing applications that only exist in the USA version of the MarketPlace and not the international ones
• Sort out billing and payments to international developers - it's frustrating to only be able to get the 'lite' or 'free' version of an application via the MarketPlace, but then have to go to some other website to purchase a license key for the full featured version.
• It would be good to add-in age rating 'certificates' (eg as per films & PC games etc) for applications in the MarketPlace
• To be able to search and/or filter the display of applications in the MarketPlace by attributes (eg age suitability, support SD or not, size, release / update dates etc)

Miscellaneous

• Support for folders on the home screens (and more home screens - think a 5x5 grid of screens rather than current 1x5) - to allow applications to be grouped together into nested folders on any of the home screens
• Add back the WMA / WMV codecs that were previously in Android 1.x - yes MP3/MP4 are fine but support for WMx should also be standard as it was originally
• WiFi connectivity - now it might just by the CostlyCo utter junk that I'm currently suffering as a wireless router, but there does appear to be some fragility with working with wireless N based wifi networks
• Of course the topic of proxy servers and authenticated proxy servers via the wifi connection needs to be resolved in order to be able to use to enterprise networks properly
• Enable Live Wallpapers to work automatically upon reboot if they've been installed onto SD
• Full native OS / device backup/restore into the cloud - not just contacts and application purchases but all content on the phone. Yes you can purchase applications to do this but it really should be standard.
• To be able to completely uninstall some of the standard OS bundled applications I never use or want (eg Facebook & Twitter native clients etc)
• To be able to do remote phone location discovery/tracking and also secure erase management from a PC browser (ie should I leave my phone somewhere I can remotely discover where it is and issue a 'remote destroy' command etc)
• It would also be rather useful if they could 'fix' the Google 'Finance' application, as it spend more time failing to work or synchronise than it does working

For some of my previous posts re Android see here - as I said I'm a major fan of Android and what it's done to overturn a lacklustre & incumbent marketplace (anybody remember Symbian?). So for 2011 I'm looking forward to Android v2.3 & v3.0 to see just what of above gets done, and how far this real OS flies onwards past the competition...

Android recommends...

OK so I've been running Android since the day HTC released the Magic, and am now running both a Magic and a Nexus One. Having used lots of phones & mobile devices, with lots of operating systems and user interfaces I'm firmly in the 'Android is great' camp...

So I thought it might be a good idea to list a number of the applications I find useful, first a few web sites I'd recommend for people :-

            AndroidGuys.com
            AndroidCentral.com
            TalkAndroid.com
            PlanetAndroid.com
            XDA-developers.com

            PistonHeads.com Essential Android Software
            PistonHeads.com HTC Desire Software

Naturally my Android twitter list also has some good people within it :)

Android applications that have lasted the test of time and are still installed on my daily Nexus One are as follows :-

Applications

Google Search by Voice, Google Translate, Google Sky Map, Listen, Finance, Bump, Floating Image, RealCalc Scientific, Unit Converter, Shopsavvy, Layar, SSI gTasks, chompSMS, Twidroid Pro, F1 Live Racing, London Tube Status, Stopwatch, UK Expense Checker, LED Scroller, Call Location, Phonalyzer, BeebPlayer, TED mobile, Exchange Rates, EboBirthday, Scoreboard, Ocado on the Go, Google Goggles, Gesture Search, Google Earth

Utilities

GPS Status, Adobe Reader, Android System Info, Taskiller Full, Astro File Manager, Wifi Analyzer, MyBackup Pro, Antennas, RF Signal Tracker, Dindy, Power Manager Full, Autostarts, RoboTop, SMB File Sharing, Bubble, Turbo Mandlebrot, Save MMS, aTrackDog, No Signal Alert, Network Explorer, MagicMarker, Send2Printer, Upload 2 Nas, 

Widgets

Ringer Toggle, WiFi OnOff, BlueTooth OnOff

Games

Radiant, Robo Defense, Tower Raiders, Laser Reflections, iDemolished, Trap, Toss It Pro, Jewels, Replica Island, Age of conquest, Totem, Friction Mobile, Asphalt, Madagascar Puzzle

I also used to use :-

• Locale - great for location aware automatic execution & scheduling of tasks useful but too expensive now
• Lock 2.0 - but not sure need not re Android 2.1

So please let me know what Android applications or utilities you've found worthwhile :)

Cloud Backup & Android

Firstly a tip for Android users (and I'm a major fan of this platform for mobile devices) :-

If you change your Google account password, also make sure you change the password cached on your Android phone quickly afterwards - otherwise it appears that Google automatically decides that the failed login attempts from your phone (when it is auto syncing contacts, calender & email etc data) are a hacking attack and temporarily disabling your Google account... Clearly not good and needs some more thought from Google I think :(

Which leads me onto a related topic - cloud backup (which of course should really be cloud restore rather than cloud backup). In this context I'm really talking about the SaaS & PaaS definitions of cloud.

Firstly I should say that I'm greatly in favour of having multiple controlled & secured instances of data in several locations, my feeling is that for a lot of smaller organisations or individuals this simply doesn't occur. As such the technologies loosely referred to as 'cloud backup' could be invaluable to many people in easily & cost effectively enabling data persistence and recovery.

Now, before we dig into the real topic, there are lots of side-points to consider re security & availability in the cloud backup/recovery area, including :-

• Obviously the data needs to be protected, normally with encryption. My view is that this should have private keys supplied & owned by the user, and not by the backup/recovery provider. With the private keys similarly backed-up to a separate key escrow / backup & recovery provider.
• What SLAs does the provider have? (availability, accessibility, performance, integrity etc) and how, from where and how often are they measured & reported?
  
• How can you contact your provider should you have an issue? (a web form simply doesn't cut it)
  
• What guarantees do they offer to keep your data at their site available - are they a '2nd copy hoster' or do they treat your data with the same care as a master copy (eg do they do their own backups/replicas, can you treat their service as an archive rather than B&R etc?)
• What are the guarantees worth? what kind of financial penalties / compensation are available, how are they calculated & triggered and how do they compare re the value of the data?
• Is the provider somebody you'd trust with your banking details? As it's likely you'll either be giving them these, or all of the information behind them, in one form or another
• Cloud economics often rely on some form of content dedupe at the provider's end, you need to satisfy yourself that supplier's dedupe won't impact your security or encryption
  

But with the above in-mind, back to the real topic - the three real points I was wondering about here are a little bit different :-

• Should you backup your SaaS & PaaS cloud service data to your own local media (ie backing-up your part of the cloud)?

What happens to your data (your assets & value) when a service goes down, your account is deleted, the service is hacked, the company vanishes or... Can you backup your Google/Yahoo email to your local home NAS, can you backup your blog sites & social media pages to your local storage?

Irrespective of how it is done I'm increasingly of a belief that there is going to be a need for this. The first time it happens is often for some 'novelty' data which is irritating but little more, however as people rapidly move to cloud services that handle their data the risk & loss becomes higher...

Not saying stop using the SaaS services (different view re PaaS but that's another blog) as the prime system, but if the data is worth something (emotional, financial etc) then my view is that it should always be in two independent places, with one of those in the data owner's direct control.

So I'm wondering when the current generation of home NAS devices will start to include the ability to receive data from remote sites, or to have the ability to obtain that data automatically themselves?

• Can your cloud backup/recovery partner also backup your social media and SaaS services?

Moving on from the previous point, what I'm thinking about here is that rather than need to use local media, could your cloud backup partner (assuming they are different to your other PaaS/SaaS providers) also provide 'content aware' backups for your other internet data services such as blog sites, Facebook & MySpace sites, Twitter tweets/favourites/friends/followers, webmail and other PaaS / SaaS services etc?

• Could your cloud backup partner also move into providing a basic 'cloud DR' service?

It's a fairly simple step for a cloud partner to wrapper & automate the creation of an AWS EC2 image, load their backup/restore software onto that image and then allow the customer to restore their data 'as needed' to the EC2 image. Where in turn they can run the usual suite of common apps easily enough... Not earth changing but a simple enough value add that would provide transitory help for some situations...

Now I'm aware that some of the points above could be twisted into FUD, they certainly aren't intended as that (and I'll be more than grumpy if they do get used as FUD) - they are the questions I ask myself about my personal information storage (especially when an account gets disabled!).

In this topic (like many others) I certainly agree with some of the points that @StorageBod makes in his blog entry at http://storagebod.typepad.com/storagebods_blog/2009/08/information-haze.html re personal information being both of value and dispersed, with little current understanding from the public at large re the potential consequences...