Is it worth buying an Android phone in Ireland?

245

Hi,

Looking for some advice - I'm interested in getting a smart phone and was thinking of something running Android. I'm pre-pay on O2 and had my eye on the Samsung Galaxy Spica as being a reasonable compromise between cost & functionality. Problem is that Android paid adds aren't available in Ireland and it seems that the free ones can be buggy. The other problem is that there aren't many Irish focussed apps, compared with say, iPhone apps which have Dart, bus, fuel price etc apps. I know that if I unlock the phone and get a UK pre-pay sim, I can get Android paid apps then but I don't want to start hacking the phone and I'm not interested in paying O2 a fortune in credit to get the unlock code.

So in summary, I like the look of the Spica, its battery life and standard functionality. Looks like Android 2.1 will be available for it very soon (the manual is already available for download on the Samsung Ireland site) but I don't want to miss out on the kind of apps that iPhone users take for granted.

So, is it worth buying an Android phone in Ireland if you want to keep things simple, want to enjoy good quality and locally focussed apps, don't want to hack and don't want to pay a premium for buying an unlocked phone from a third party supplier?

Mr E

The number of different handsets has increased in multiples since last year - Android isn't going anywhere. With the increase in handsets, it will be sooner rather than later before the paid apps are made available here.

Compared to the Apple AppStore, the Android Market is still finding its feet (and yet there are lots and lots of great apps - most free). To say free apps are buggy is an awful generalisation - just because its free doesn't mean its buggy. Read reviews on the marketplace before downloading anything.

There is a dart app already (called NEXT Dart) and I'm sure others will follow as Android handsets become more widespread in Ireland.

RonMexico

Paid €335 for a sim free acer liquid recently. Using my O2 payg sim and it is great. Currently has donut 1.6 but due to be upgraded to eclair 2.1 soon. Loads of quality apps available for free including dublin speed cams, cinema guide, jaertel, flights, fuel price etc. Go for it.

245

RonMexico wrote: »

Paid €335 for a sim free acer liquid recently. Using my O2 payg sim and it is great. Currently has donut 1.6 but due to be upgraded to eclair 2.1 soon. Loads of quality apps available for free including dublin speed cams, cinema guide, jaertel, flights, fuel price etc. Go for it.

Sounds good - I'll give it a go - thanks

Atomic Pineapple

If theres an app missing then there is a few irish android developers on here so you could always put a request up and i'm sure someone will develop it.

I'm looking for an app to develop in my spare time for Android at the minute

generalmiaow

Answering this really boils down to what apps you actually want. There's a great (web based and free) app for finding bus stops using android's GPS (dublinbus2go.com, the same guy makes a thing for finding dublin bikes at dublinbikes2go.com), and layar has a few very Ireland-relevant layers. I think a boardsie has made an android app for cinema times too. I'm not really sure what other sort of localised apps you need or could exist, though I'm not fully familiar with what's available in the itunes app store.

Google really need to sort out making paid apps available here; and Ireland isn't even the only country where you can't buy them, there are only a handful of countries where you can. One barrier is probably that we can't have a google checkout seller's account here yet (presumably some weird tax or regulatory hurdle).

However the phones are still very useful without paid apps, and I haven't personally bought any that I kept using. Some of the free apps are extremely good, and there are going to be a lot more Irish focused ones soon, once the market opens up. Quite a lot of local stuff is actually available through google's dense information in the localised search and maps.



Also: I know this doesn't apply to the OP because he mentioned he didn't want any hacking involved, but if you really need to buy a particular paid app and are not afraid to root or flash new roms, you can use MarketEnabler and then you can buy them, you don't need a UK sim at all.

mooman

draffodx wrote: »

If theres an app missing then there is a few irish android developers on here so you could always put a request up and i'm sure someone will develop it.

I'm looking for an app to develop in my spare time for Android at the minute

How about a GAA scores app along the lines of Soccer Liverscores, I don't know how popular it would be but it's something Id make for myself if I had the know-how:)

jimmycrackcorm

mooman wrote: »

How about a GAA scores app along the lines of Soccer Liverscores, I don't know how popular it would be but it's something Id make for myself if I had the know-how:)

I wouldn't mind doing this as I want to write an app for my new Desire. Where can you get the live results from? You'd also need to get the kick-off times so that the APP could sleep until a kick-off before polling for score updates...

dionsiseire

It wouldnt be a bad idea to get a list together of Ireland Related Items, currently uncatered for by the Android Market

I reckon once i get time to sit down with some Android api's and learn what im doing i'll write one for my Music News Site (Goldenplec.com) to poll the Wordpress API and then that would serve as a template for other good music blogs on WP.

I currently use

Jaertel
Dublin Traffic Cams
IRL Cinema Guide

All good apps

If we work together we can get a good list together and when people capable of developing are free they might give it a go!

pawrick

I've been using the

Jaertel
Dublin Traffic Cams



world newspapers links to Irish times, Indo, Examiner and some other Irish paper site.

scoreboard does the rugby.

ALso saw one for flights from Irish airports but didn't check it yet.

New to this myself but have found it great so far - just wish i could get Irish radio stations

dionsiseire

Try Tune Wiki App

it allows Last.FM and Shoutcast Streaming

a couple of the Irish Stations streams can be gotten on Shoutcast, Newstalk is there and Today FM was there but i cant see it now

Cherry Rplayer should do similar too

All via streaming though

dionsiseire

Just been looking at the market

Eircom WEP Cracker has made an appearance, handy handy app

mooman

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I wouldn't mind doing this as I want to write an app for my new Desire. Where can you get the live results from? You'd also need to get the kick-off times so that the APP could sleep until a kick-off before polling for score updates...

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/gaa_fixtures_footballleague.html there's probably a better site than that to use, I'll see if I can find one later.

generalmiaow

dionsiseire wrote: »

Just been looking at the market

Eircom WEP Cracker has made an appearance, handy handy app

This isn't really any use to me (why would I steal strangers' wifi when I have 3G) but I am a bit surprised it doesn't pull the SSIDs of actual WEP networks using android.net.wifi.ScanResult. You know, for password recovery purposes.

Atomic Pineapple

The problem with making a GAA livescores app is that there is nowhere that updates the scores from live games properly, I've often looked for the result of a game online only to find that I can only get the half time score hours after the game has ended

generalmiaow

draffodx wrote: »

The problem with making a GAA livescores app is that there is nowhere that updates the scores from live games properly, I've often looked for the result of a game online only to find that I can only get the half time score hours after the game has ended

I am not much for watching sports, I admit, but how quickly do the scores update on teletext? That stuff is very easy to OCR.*

I can just imagine a notification bar full of points and goals! (push notification might be a bit hard to achieve)

* Obviously this implies a server at the backend
If you had a server at the backend with a TV tuner, you could do some very bizarre stuff.

Atomic Pineapple

Teletext is the worst of the lot, I once seen it not updated a day after games :mad:

mooman

If only the BBC had a proper GAA section:)

245

A pumps.ie app would be nice...

Fresh Pots

245 wrote: »

A pumps.ie app would be nice...

There's already a pumps app. Search the market for "thefuelapp"

245

squared wrote: »

There's already a pumps app. Search the market for "thefuelapp"

Thanks - downloaded it

LinoRichie

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

You'd also need to get the kick-off times so that the APP could sleep until a kick-off before polling for score updates...

Throw-in!

pawrick

dionsiseire wrote: »

Try Tune Wiki App

it allows Last.FM and Shoutcast Streaming

a couple of the Irish Stations streams can be gotten on Shoutcast, Newstalk is there and Today FM was there but i cant see it now

Cherry Rplayer should do similar too

All via streaming though

thanks for the info - works a treat through shoutcasting just had to do a search on their names