Android Market Has a New Face Thanks to doubleTwist

As an owner of both an iPod Touch and a Droid, I am familiar with both platforms and use both daily.  There are two big selling points that give the iPod touch/iPhone a leg up on the Droid for me: the ability to sync media simply by plugging the device in and the organization and availability in the App Store.  There have been a couple of solutions to help the Droid out in these areas, but the best product I have seen is doubleTwist.  Up until this month, doubleTwist was a great, easy way to syncing Android devices, and certain other mobile platforms, to sync to your computer as simply as an iPhone.

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Dell's Aero Whisks Its Way To AT&T

You might recognize this little bugger as the Dell Mini 3. Well, Dell has finally brought the little guy to the US, rebranded as the Dell Aero. It's running Dell's iteration of the Android platform, but no details have been announced yet, so I'm seriously concerned about whether Dell has built their spin on the platform on 1.6, or worse, 1.5 instead of 2.1 or even 2.0 might suffice. 

Since there are no details on the device announced just yet, I'll take this minute to point out how big of a problem the fragmentation of the Android platform has become. As great as the OS is, the simple fact that manufacturers are still building on top of severely outdated software is an issue. I'm not saying the iPhone school of thought is the way to go, but something's gotta give.

Do you have an Android device? Is it running old software? Do you find yourself wanting the new hotness? Leave it in the comments!

Update on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Mark Burstiner

Android 1.5 is confirmed for the device, but Dell is feeling pretty good about 2.1 being right around the corner. Thanks, Engadget!

Gesture Search on Android

For those Android users who voice search just doesn't satisfy, Google has just released an app for you. Gesture Search is the name of the app and it allows users to search by simply drawing the first letter of whatever they are looking for. Here's how Google explains it:

Say you want to call your friend Anne. Just open Gesture Search and draw letter "A", and Gesture Search returns a list of items that have words starting with "A". If your handwriting isn't all that neat, that's okay. If the "A" you draw looks a bit like an "H", as seen in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, "H" results will be brought up as well. If needed, you can also erase a query by crossing it horizontally: left to right erases the entire query, and right to left removes the last letter or space in the query. Now you can either scroll down the list to find Anne or write more letters to refine the search.

It seems like the app actually does a decent job of recognizing my handwriting, admittedly I have only played with it for a little while though. For users who have issue with the voice search (I am not one of them), this may be a nice alternative for your searching needs.

Google Shopper Helps Users Shop Smarter

It's not revolutionary, but Google has put out an Android app to help users shop. It scans everything from images to barcodes to QR codes. It's obviously going up against apps like ShopSavvy, but that hasn't stopped them. You can check out more info on the app on its landing page. You can even scan a QR code with Google Goggles that will take you right to the app in the Android Market. Check out the video below, and if you've got an Android device, get downloading and let us know what you think in the comments.

Check out the demo vid after the jump.

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