Amazon.com app for the G1, plus updated Cardiotrainer and Twidroid apps

Last week I installed the Amazon.com app for the G1. I have been trying it out, and it is really nice. Among other things, you can use the G1 camera to scan a bar code of a product in a store. The product's entry at Amazon comes up right away. Not only do you get to see the Amazon price, and I suppose order the product right away if it is cheaper than whatever store you were at when you looked at the barcode, but you can browse the product description and more importantly the customer reviews. Note that this is different from the Amazon MP3 store app that comes with the G1.

This has been REALLY handy at places like Best Buy and Fry's where the product displays are largely uninformative, and the staff are either scarce or well-intentioned but perhaps not very knowledgeable. Last Saturday I was at Best Buy looking at BluRay players that had internet connectivity, comparing various models from LG, Samsung, and Sony, and I scanned the bar code and then read the reviews for each one. At the time, the LG BD 390 had by far the best customer reviews, so even though I didn't buy anything that day, that is the one I am leaning toward. More interestingly, I showed the reviews to another guy who was also looking at BluRay players and trying to decide between Samsung, LG, and Sony, and when he saw the difference in the ratings between the LG and the others, he picked up the LG and headed off to the cash register. I was thinking I should have asked Best Buy for a commission.

Anyway I think the Amazon.com app works really nicely. Being able to read the customer reviews was great. You may ask, why didn't I just order straight from Amazon? Basically there are some things I still hesitate to order from Amazon if based on past experience they tend to fail easily. I have had bad experiences with DVD players in the past so prefer to buy them at stores like Best Buy where it is easy for me to return them.

About the only shortcoming I identified with the Amazon.com app was that when I was reading the manufacturer's product descriptions, the links to learn more about specific features were disabled. A "learn more" link that in a regular browser would have taken me to more detail was simple raw text with no linking. This was a problem since I did want to check on some very specific features, and it was unclear from the product packaging and the conversation with the salesperson how they were implement.

Meanwhile, there is a major new release of Cardiotrainer out, and it works really well. The UI is much improved. If you haven't downloaded it yet, but need something for tracking your workouts, do so immediately. I wish they would start charging for it so I could pay them some money for coming up with such a nice app. The app is constantly improving, and the team seems very eager to hear suggestions that they can implement, so it will only get better.

I installed the latest version of Twidroid, looks very nice. I may upgrade to the pro version soon.

Cheonggye Stream (청계천) in Seoul, August 2009

I just spent a few days in Korea, and it was great. I had some opportunities to get out in the evening and take pictures of the Cheonggye Stream and surroundings in downtown Seoul. It was very close to my hotel, the Best Western Premier Kukdo, maybe five minutes walk or so. The Cheonggye Stream is an interesting and apparently successful example of an effort to recreate a public space in a large metropolis by removing existing infrastructure. As I understand it, there had been a stream originally that was gradually paved over in the fifties and sixties. An elevated highway was built in the seventies. More recently, a mayor of Seoul who went on to become President pushed for the removal of the elevated highway and the restoration of the stream, along with creation of a landscaped public space on either side. According to the Wikipedia article, the project was controversial, and perhaps remains so, but it does seem to have created a popular public space. Both nights I was out, there were hundreds of people out strolling, or just sitting on the banks strolling. It may look deserted from my photos because I was waiting for breaks in the crowds to shoot.

The gallery of Cheonggye Stream photos is here. If you're too busy to look at that, here is a collection of favorites.

A few examples:







An alley in a nearby industrial area: