Image from AndroidGuys.com
OK, so the second Android Developer Challenge is underway and the ADC2 team have released an app to allow the community to vote. It’s a bit of a mare to find as they haven’t released it into the “Sort Apps by Date” category so you either need to do a search for ‘Challenge’ (it’s up there at the top) or follow this handy QR code that Phandroid provided on their review of the app 
Now, as the Phandroid guys mentioned, there are a couple of issues with the app, for me the first one is that it’s incessant! But I just cleared the notification and now I know that I can just pop into and out of the app when I want. The second is that most of the apps can only be downloaded through the ADC2 app itself, and – like the Mission Impossible tapes – they self destruct after you’ve reviewed them. You can’t start reviewing a new app until you’ve reviewed the old one, even if it’s something that you have no interest in, or even can’t understand! (I had an app in Japanese that I had to review so I just did my best with the limited info I could get). Another problem is if you are given an app that asks for permissions you don’t want to allow – you can’t refuse to download it and move on to the next one you HAVE to install the app and then review it then it will be removed.
Has no-one in the ADC2 team heard of security??? One example that particularly concerned me was NovuPhone. It’s an intriguing concept and I really wish them well, but I’m not comfortable giving my personal details to a company that can’t even fill in the links on their homepage, and particularly not an app that needs my IMEI number, phone number, and the permissions to take full control of my phone. I’m sure they’re a nice enough company and I doubt that they have any malice but I don’t want to take that risk.
It makes me wonder if these limitations are going to skew the voting somewhat – it seems a very draconian process and I don’t think everyone will have the patience to trawl through all the apps they get bombarded with. But we shall see.
Anyway, I started making a few notes because the ADC2 app only allows you to mark apps with the usual 5 star rating but this time in categories: Originality of Concept, Effective Use of the Android Platform, Polish and Appeal & Indispensability. And I thought I’d share those notes here (As I make more I’ll probably just tag them on later!):
Design Draw by Moplix Software
This is a fun app, although not something that I’d want to keep. It gives plenty of scope for users to tweak the designs and would be quite good for scrapbookers etc… I’m not sure that it’ll be much use to actual companies or people who want to create their own personal brand. It makes good use of the touchscreen and trackball although the input buttons do seem to be a bit lethargic and unresponsive. While it makes use of the functions of the platform it doesn’t actually take into account what has become standard practice across the OS (no use of the Menu button etc…) and so isn’t as user friendly as other apps. The GUI also looks a little unpolished and dated, almost like it had been designed for Windows 3.1 era. I only had one forceclose issue when closing my G1 and the screen moving from Landscape to Portrait but the programme rescued itself admirably!
This app looks quite professional, with 11 sounds including airplane engines, thunder, rain and the (to be expected) white noise. The images that are included to demonstrate the sound are a high quality and the previous & next buttons fit well with the Android GUI. The timer option is great and works well.
There is however some difficulty because the prev & next buttons are the only way to navigate. This app could probably do with a menu to get to the sound you want quickly.
The 10.5 MB size of the app is a huge problem too!
Virtual Q by Antony Jose Vijay David
I really don’t understand what’s going on with this one, it’s very user unfriendly, just a selection of 4 buttons, a search function which needs the exact name of the queue you want to join.
This app needs a help function, preferably with some description of what people would use this for. It feels like it has potential, I just don’t know what the potential is for!
Xeeku Reader by Xeeku Services
This is an excellent and attractive RSS/Google Reader app that’s straightforward and easy to use. The only concern that I have is that it does seem a bit like information overkill. You can find a couple of their other apps here.
