Geogad has just released a new improved version of its Android app, Geogad Tours. This new, revised version now includes

• More ways to upload your own video-based tour stops directly from your phone
• Purchase tours directly from your phone
• More maps to identify tour locations
• Improved look and feel to make it even more fun to surf for tour stops

Geogad had the privilege of launching the improved Geogad Tours app at at the 4G Symposium held at Stanford University yesterday. The app was presented to a packed auditorium filled with industry reps from across Silicon Valley. The demo was well-received and went on to win the ”Best 4G Mobile Consumer Application” award. Our thanks to both the judges from Intel, Sprint, Clear, Cisco, Comcast and for Stanford, Sprint, and Clearwire for organizing this wonderful events.

Developers at the Informal Android Developer Meetup occasionally ask about the future of Android,especially in comparison to iPhone. The latest news shows that Google’s efforts and Android’s open source programming are paying off. Third party counts of the apps on the Android Market peg the number at 50K, which is quite a nice boost from the 40K or so apps on it last month. The iPhone apps still number around 200K, but many of these apps are probably being converted right now.

The number of iPhone devices are three, the iPhone, the iTouch, and the new iPad. Currently, there are 36 devices running Android. Forecasts have said that there will be about 50 Android devices released this year, about 1 a week, which will keep Android developers busy. 

The future of Android looks bright. I have always thought of iPhone as a cell phone on training wheels. It taught people, especially Americans, how to use a smartphone and the potential that smartphones had. Now that people are familiar with smartphones, they can graduate to more advanced smartphones that fit their personalities. We are seeing the past playing out again. Like the PC vs. Mac arguments, the open nature of the Android OS will result in a large number of devices that have a wide range of capabilites and prices. The closed nature of the iPhone will result in a beautiful, well-thought out device that is extremely expensive compared to others and slowly adds new features.

As regular readers of this blog know, Geogad has been a big supporter of the Android ecosystem and is available to travelers through its own Android app. It has also been a big supporter of the upcoming Android Hackathon, the first Android hackathon in Silicon Valley. This event will take place on March 13 at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View.

The best feature of hackathons is the way that programmer spontaneously come together to form teams to transform an idea into a working app. To help beginning Android programmers pick up the basics on Android, Geogad will be presenting some introductory classes on Android in the weeks before the hackathon.

The first class is scheduled for Feb. 16 from 6:00 to 8:30 PM. The class will take place at Access Growth in Santa Clara. Two instructors will teach up to 20 students on the basics of Android including

• Setting up Eclipse to create and run Android projects.
• In-depth look at a few Hello World-type projects.
• Lifecycle of an Activity
• Intents, Services and launch modes
• Android tools bundled in the SDK
• Techniques for debugging Android projects

Since this is a good bit of material to cover in a relatively short time, all students are required to have downloaded and installed the latest versions of Eclipse, Sun’s JDK 6, and the Android SDK before arriving at the class. Students must already know how to programming in the Java programming language on which Android is based.

This class will cost $25 per person and is limited to 20 students. You can register here. For more information, contact service at geogad.com

Introductory Android Class

 Before the hackathon begins, Geogad will be helping beginning Android programmers learn some of the basics to allow them to contribute to the team projects.

I received an offer to publish ads through a tourist agency. Nothing unusual there, but they did have a new service that I had never seen offered before. Below is a quote from the agencies marketing literature. (I am not going to mention the agency’s name to protect the non-technical in their marketing department.)

Mobile Tag

Half and Full Page advertisers: link your ad to a mobile tag and instantly interact with our readers! Use this platform to transform and promote your unique offer, incentive or feature.

What is a Mobile Tag?

Microsoft Mobile Tags are small, colorful codes that connect your print ad to the digital world. Users with Internet-enabled camera phones can simply snap the Tag on your ad and instantly receive additional information about your product. Reporting is available 24/7 to track the number of scans your tag is receiving!

Microsoft has done it again. Despite dozens of different organizations coming together to create an open source and/or free option with QR codes, Microsoft ignores the standards and creates their own version that is free-for-now but exclusively owned by them. Travelers to Asia and Europe are already familiar with “mobile tags”, better known to geeks as QR codes. These codes are being heavily pushed by Google with the Android OS.

As Allen Stern points out, the biggest problems with Microsoft’s Mobile Tags, besides ignoring what the rest of the industry is already doing, is that it transforms the 2D QR-code-like grid into a colorful mess of triangles. While the QR code can be easily printed in black and white, the red, yellow and green triangles of Microsoft’s mess will require 4-color printing. This is no small deal for companies since it represents an increase in cost.

Google has announced the winners of its Android Developer Competition 2. Check out the winning apps. For the Android developers reading this post, start planning your next Android apps!