10 Billion Android App Downloads - Missed opportunity?

So Google has announced that there have been 10 Billion apps downloaded on Android devices since its inception a few years ago - which is a staggering amount which clearly highlight it as a major competitor to the iPhone (Google announcement).

One billion is a pretty big number by any measurement. However, when it’s describing thespeed at which something is growing, it’s simply amazing. This past weekend, thanks to Android users around the world, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads—with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month. We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012.

Again this has got me thinking, am I missing out on something here? I have an android phone (HTC Desire) and yet I've still not tried to make myself an app yet.

My mission for this festive period is to have created my own app - the search for ideas starts now! I think I'll start using this tutorial and work it up from there. I'll try document my progress as I go.

P.S. if you are reading this and have anything you want developed you think would be useful then leave a comment!

YaCy - Can anything replace Google?

Reading an article from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15935550) about the newly launched YaCy search engine got me thinking about whether a search engine will ever replace Google as the dominant search engine. My immediate reaction to YaCy was "no chance" - it relies upon people downloading software and installing it in order for it to advance its indexing powers, something that Google just seems to do. No matter how much effort this is for people to contribute to it, it is more than it "just working".

I look at other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing and think to myself over the last 5 years I have never used them, I always use Google. "Googling" something has become part of normal language, you don't search the Internet you "Google" it. It's just the same as vacuum cleaners are called Hoovers. In a bizarre way Dyson's are seen as the best kind of Hoovers these days!

With the simplicity of Google, the neat features it has gradually added to it like blogs, email, Google Reader etc I just can't see anything replacing Google as the de facto standard for searching the Web.

Are programming reference books a thing of the past?

Something that struck me while working today was the C# reference book which currently acts as a monitor stand on my desk. Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform (Windows.Net) by Troelsen is no doubt a very good book, but it has served no use other than to help my posture! In saying that, this book is at least more useful than the ones gathering dust on my bookshelves at home.

So it does beg the question - are these types of book a thing of the past? Do we really need them? My response would be no - I have not needed one in 2 years so the likelihood of needing one is very low. Whenever I need to know something it is far quicker for me to use Google which will list examples of its use which can even be copied and pasted than it is to open up a book, check its index or contents. The same can be applied to finding out information outside of programming.

What are the implications of this? Does it lead to a poorer understanding of the material, and ultimately poorer code? Probably. When using classes or controls or components it is easy to dive in and use it, rather than to look at how it should be used, what the consequences are, what the better options are. Perhaps if you had to take more time to find out the information, you would make a more informed choice.

A good example of this can actually be found in my post yesterday about the MediaElement control (WPF MediaPlayer with Last.fm interaction). When using it I did a quick Google, found some examples and was able to create something in a matter of hours. However, my final product kinda defeated my original goal which was to replace Media Player with a lightweight alternative, as it transpired that the MediaElement actually uses Media Player behind the scenes.

Does this mean I have learned my lesson? No! Personally I don't have the patience to search through books when the information is at my fingertips, and I can run through examples within a couple of seconds. For me, this type of reference book has become a thing of the past.