As I've said on my other site today, I got an Android-powered HTC Magic for my birthday.

However, I'll forgo the joke I told there about what the term is for jail-breaking an Android smartphone.

While the Google Android Market has a smaller amount of apps than Apple's App Store, you find some good programs occasionally.

Today's discovery is an app called Swift.

I'd call Swift a medium-level Twitter client for the Android platform.  You get a bit more than a simple updating client, but not quite as much as the Seesmic Twitter client.  You won't find lists in Swift.

What you do get is a clean interface, as you can see in the graphic above.

In the top-right corner we see the balloon for new tweets.  Below it, the timeline icons give you access to timeline, mentions, direct messages, search and profiles. When you press menu, you're given further options of new tweet, send saved tweets, change view, jump-to-now (refresh) and preferences.

Should you press on a particular user's tweet you get the reply and retweet buttons, along with an arrowed button for options to copy a tweet, copy a link to tweet, or save.

Admittedly, this app doesn't do as many tricks as, say, Twidroid or Seesmic.  Still, it's nice, clean, functional and effective.

Since I did bring up the topic of "rooting the android" (call it a jailbreak if you're Australian so you don't wet yourself laughing at that unintended euphemism), I should mention a great custom firmware which improves on a lot of original Android functions.

Cyanogen has been one of the best developers of custom roms for the Android devices.  His custom roms can be downloaded over-the-air through the CM Updater and themed.

If you look at the original Android desktop in the wikipedia entry on Android, you can see the need for a decent theme.  In this regard, non-official devs are probably doing Android a favor.

The tab for the apps drawer definitely benefits from some great theming.

Although Android is an open source system, there's still some debate on the topic of rooting the Android (and this is causing large amounts of laughter from Australians every time I use that term).  By the same token, some good custom roms are actually better than the mainstream ones.  They did NOT have the problem associated with Canada's Rogers G1s and HTC Magics where emergency 911 calls couldn't be made while using GPS.

It's up to you whether you want to leave your Android phone stock, or whether you want to use a custom rom.  If you're going to customize and gain root...make sure you read ALL the documentation and tutorials on it thoroughly.  Just do your homework right and your phone will be quite good afterwards.

If you do choose a custom rom, make sure also to choose one where all the things you need are working perfectly.  Devs make it clear which things do or don't work in each custom rom.

As long as one of the first things you put on a customized Android is the backup and restore recovery menu, you'll be fine.

Now I'm off to tweet some more with Swift...

Yesterday I examined the fact we don't yet have the Palm Pre in Australia.

There's another gadget I have yet to see here.  The Zune.

Whereas iPhones and Google phones are well-entrenched in Australia, the Zune media player doesn't seem to be in any Australian shops yet, or at least not in any big department stores I go to.

Then again, I'm sure friends in America will tell me it hasn't been a super-big hit over there either.

Perhaps it's got a lot to do with that name.

Zune.  Zune-y.  Rhymes with...

It doesn't catch the imagination like iPhone or iPod.

So it's interesting today to read Mashable and hear of the Zune PHONE.

Another Windows Mobile phone?

The specs at least sound good.

However, I've not been a great fan of Windows Mobile except for drawing programs.  I have painful memories of trying to set up the Internet using Microsoft's particularly strange way of doing it compared to other devices of a few years ago.  A Windows Mobile phone was the only one which needed a few dozen online tutorials to connect to the Net. The more recent versions of the OS seem to have improved things somewhat.

Then there's the naming of the project associated with this Zune phone.  Project Pink.  And you thought it couldn't get any funnier after naming a Mac tablet similarly to a sanitary product!

It all sounds well and good to try to imitate Apple (again) with a media player-cum-phone.  However, I would suggest getting away from the Zune label if they're really serious.  And it's really time for Microsoft to take a good hard look at the current (and future) Windows Mobile OS.

Both iPhone OS and Android have made great strides over Windows Mobile and it shows in current market share.

Even Nokia are having to look at going a bit better with Symbian OS.

I'm suppressing a yawn thinking of the Zune phone.

So, Mister Balmer, when ARE you getting the Zune to Australia...?

Today is my birthday. 

I've finally reached the half-century mark, though I still consider myself 50 years YOUNG, not 50 years old.  Considering I keep up on my tech enough to show youngsters how to use an iPhone, perhaps that's a good way of describing it.

So what did I get for my birthday?

A HTC Dream, otherwise known as a Google G1.

I've been an iPhone man the past year, but I feel good also having an Android OS phone to compare it with.  There's nothing like hands-on experience.

Of course, the day before my birthday, Google announced their Nexus One phone, so you might say I have a little Nexus One envy right now.  Looking at the Nexus One specs and UI, I can imagine somewhere down the line I'll get one.  Just not right now.

Meantime, I'm paying way more attention to Android-related news now and noted an article this morning about an Android-powered phone that will have a digital TV chip in it.

Now there's a 2010 trend I'd really like.  Free-to-air digital TV on your mobile/cell phone.  Heck, as long as reception was great, I'd actually budget for an Android phone capable of that.

In the meantime, I'm still praying that Vodafone Australia bring out an update to the HTC Dream to bring it up to Android 2.0 and/or the Sense interface.

Oh well.  Back to the birthday boy playing with his new toy...