Hello World - in Android

Its been quite some time since I coded something in Android after setting it up. In the meantime, my system got formatted, and change in office project meant I was not getting much time to work on programming. After all, Managers don't code - eh ?

Well, I dont know. I like coding. Its an itch I have to take care of. So, after the initial Android examples, I tried a little change in the Android's Hello World. I was awake anyways watching the Uruguay vs Netherland's World Cup match! :)

The code changed a bit from the default 'Hello World'. Instead of static text, I added a edit box and an 'ok' button. Clicking on it will make an alert box pop up with a small message.

Its a small piece of code - about 40 lines. However, the API is a bit confusing for me, especially since I am also relearning Java as I go along.

Next on the agenda - make a small graphics app.

Microsoft's Kin is no more

It looks like Microsoft has pulled the plug on developing their own phone - which they had named Kin. There are a lot of theories around why it did not do well, and why they shut down the Kin.

I think that the KIN was killed due to 2 major reasons :
1. It was not doing well.
2. Politics.

1. It was not doing well

Here, I think that the problems were 2 fold.

First the shitty name which no one can identify with. It just does not sound cool. The chap doing the branding , he is not worth the money that was being paid to him.

Two, it was being targetted at the teenagers - but in a way that is patronizing. It was supposed to have all the wow features - facebook , twitter integration etc. However, I doubt they even tried to look at the psychology of teenagers. Teenagers hate it when people tell them what to do - and that was exactly what Kin was doing. Teenagers love to be treated as adults - which Kin was not doing. Teenagers go for brands and cool names - the Kind did not have that.

However, I dont think that this was why the Kin line was pulled up. Microsoft has very deep pockets and can afford to have a loss making product in the market for quite a long while - as one can see from the xbox.

So, my hypothesis about pt 2.

2. Politics

I think internal egos and politics killed the Kin. The people in the Windows mobile had much more of a say than the people developing the Kin. There would have been a power struggle behind the scenes - and Kin eventually lost out. Interestingly, people seem to shun talking about office politics - its taboo to speak about it - but not speaking about it does not mean that it is not existing.

Now, I got a bad feeling about the 'Kin'nect - the motion detection stuff that Microsoft is building. They should change that name to something else ...