Some things I've found in development

I've been doing quite a bit of coding (with SpotLog and others) and pushed some apps much further down the development path than before.

Some things I've found:

• Performance of the built-in SQL-Lite db is really quite good.  At least for select and read operations.  Some insert/update opertions on a large db are a bit slow, but the reads are fast - which is more important for my purposes.
• The Android ListView is pretty good.  Linked to a db query it can display results from a db and still performs well for large data sets, it can be formatted reasonably and still scales well.
• Android layouts are a bit weird.  I've not really got them to do what I want and scale and adjust in the way I would like - or at least I don't feel that they are working properly and while I'm getting results that are OK, it seems a bit of a compromise with too many hard-coded values.
• Code re-use is a bit awkward.  I've developed some classes for things like db access and scolling views - but there doesn't seem to be an easy and obvious way to resuse code in multiple projects.  I've found my own ways round it, but it's still a bit clunky.
• It's quite easy (and very useful) to spawn a worker thread - so if a task requires lengthy processing it can easily be set off in a worker thread while the main thread continues to handle the UI.

SpotLog available for testing

Ok, a big step - this is the first time I've published an Android app to somebody else - but I've now made SpotLog available to other people for testing.

And there's a page here where you can find some definition files for SpotLog.

If you are interested in testing and commenting on SpotLog, please get in touch.

Getting started with SpotLog

brief guide for people testing spotLog

SpotLog has three main areas:

1. The notepad, where you enter sightings
2. The data book, which holds details of classes and locomotives
3. The log, which is the log of sightings.

We need to start with the the data book.

The Data Book

  

Click the book tab (second tab) to get to the data

book.

If you have not yet imported or created any railway or class definitions, these pages will be blank.

The databook is organised in layers, 

• The top layer is the "Company" or "Railway" layer - for example a databook set up for Switzerland might have railways "Rhatische Bahn", "SBB, "BLS" "MGB" etc.
  For the UK you would probably have "Mainline", "London Underground", "Croydon Tramlink" etc.
• The next layer is the class layer (see first screenshot above).  You get to the class layer by clicking on a railway record in the railway list.  The class layer shows all the classes for a given railway.
• The third layer - loco layer (second screenshot) shows class detail, by clicking on a class in the second layer, you get to the detail record for the class which shows all the locos in that class.
• (Not yet implemented) it will be possible in due course to go down to a fourth level to see details of an individual loco

Creating records in the databook

The first thing we need to do is set up some railway and/or class records in the databook.  This can be done two ways, either by creating the records by hand, or by importing a data definition file.

To create a railway record

• Click the Databook tab
• Click the menu button and select "New Railway"
• A blank form for the company/railway opens, enter railway details in the three boxes:
• Railway Name (eg UK mainline railways)
• Company initials (short ref)  (eg UK)
• Any notes about the railway
• Click Add

The new railway record should then appear in the databook view, you can click on the entry to see classes defined for that railway, or long-click it to edit the record.

To create a class record

• Click the databook tab
• Click the menu button and select "New Class"
• A blank class form appears, complete the boxes 
• Select the railway this class applies to
• Enter the class code (eg "66")
• Enter the number range (eg 66001 to 66250)
• Enter a note if required
• Click Add

The records for this class will be created in the databook  (this can take a little while if the number range (as above) is large)

At the moment, the only data for each class is the class name, the number and a brief note.  I plan to add space for more data, such as build data, technical info and/or link to a web page, eg wikipedia page.

You should now have one railway and one class defined in the databook:  When you click the book tab, the railway (UK) will be displayed, click the railway to see the list of classes defined for that railway (ie just "66" at the moment) and click the class record to see the list of loco's (66001 > 66250 if you followed the steps above).

To edit a class record


You can edit the class record (or the railway record) by clicking on the record and holding your finger down (long-click) this will open the record in the same form as above to edit and update it (or delete it).

Hint where a class has gaps in its numbering, eg UK Class 66 is 66001-66250 then 66301-66305 etc you use the edit option to add the additional number ranges, eg create the record as above - this creates the entries for 66001 to 66250, then edit the class 66 record and change the number range to 66301 to 66305 - now when you click "update" numbers 301-305 are created (and the original 001-250 are kept).  You can repeat this to add other ranges, eg 701-746 as required.

Exporting and Importing data definitions


You can export a class definition to an external file and then reimport into the application.  Thus if someone has gone to the trouble to enter all the data for the class 66 (for example) they could then share that definition with other users.  Users are encouraged to share definition data ;-)

You can export definition data at the level of Class or Railway.  If you export a class, only that class data is included in the file, if you export at the railway level, all data for that railway and all its classes is exported to a single file.

Export is in XML format:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>
<Definition>
  <Company Code="UK Mainline railways" Name="UK "> 
    <Class Code="66"> 
      <Loco Number="66001"/> 
      <Loco Number="66002"/> 
      <Loco Number="66003"/> 
      <Loco Number="66004"/>

etc

To export a data definition.
Select the Book tab, and navigate to the railway or class you want to export, select "Export Defs" from the menu, choose a suitable file name and location, and the XML file will be created.


To import a data definition
You can import files in two formats 1) XML (As above)  2) Tab separated text files
To import a file, load the file onto the device, select the Book tab and click the menu button, select "import" and navigate to the import file, the data will be imported into the database and will update any existing records.

Text file format
You can import text files into the database, the text file format should be a line for each record with company code, class code, number and name separated by tabs:

Company Code<tab>Class Code<tab>Number<tab>Name

The text file provides an easy way to import bulk data from other sources, eg spreadsheet, as it is generally easier to edit the text file than the XML file. 


Loco names and other information  each loco has an additional field, intended for holding the loco name, it could also be used for things like livery information.  At present the only way to put data into this field is by editing the XML or TXT input files and importing the info.  The ability to edit this info within the application will be added soon.

Once we have some information in the databook we can turn to the notepad page

The NotePad
The notepad is the page for recording loco sightings:

This screen is designed to provide an easy and quick way of capturing loco sightings

The first, and most important box is the top left "Num" box - this is where the numbers are entered.  Numbers can be entered using the normal device keys, or the large number pad on this screen.
You can also provide additional information such as railway (enter the railway short code), location or a note in the other boxes provided.
Note that the railway info and location info is only used if the tick boxes next to the text fields are ticked.
The "clr" buttons may be used to clear the location and note boxes if required.

Once information, primarily the number, is entered, click "Add" to record the sighting.  Note that there are two "Add" buttons, the left hand "Add" button records the train sighting, the righthand "Add (P) button does the same but with the additional information that a photograph was taken of the train.

When you click "Add" or "Add(P)" the information is added to the list below the number pads and the application will try to match it with a record in the databook.  While the matching process takes place, you can carry on entering numbers using the notepad.
When you click the add button, you will see the record appear at the top of the list under the number pad, and then disappear again once it has been matched - once it has disappeared, look in the databook or the log to see the record.


How the matching process works:

• If no railway code is given, the program looks for a unique match of the number with loco's defined in the databook.  If there is a match and only one match, the record is applied to that locomotive.
• If a railway code is given, the program looks for a unique match of the number with loco's defined for that railway in the databook.  If there is a match and only one match, the record is applied to that locomotive.
• If the record can not be matched, or matches more than one loco record, the record is left in the notepad list.

Example using Swiss RhB and MGB railways:

• I enter "107" using the notepad keys and click "Add"
• The record for 107 appears in the list under the notepad and the matching process starts.
• The matching process will find that there are two possible matches for 107:  a) an electric loco belonging to the MGB b) a steam loco belonging to the RhB. Since the matching process can not resolve this ambiguity, the record is left in the notepad list.
• If I had entered the railway code "MGB" and ticked the railway box, the matching process would have been able to resolve the record and add it to the log.

Resolving Ambiguities

If a record is not matched, it can be edited to get a match with the database.

To edit a record, click it in the notepad list - the data is removed from the list and put back in the notepad form - it can then be edited, or information such as company added and then the "Add" button clicked again.

Example - using the same information as above

• "107" has not been removed from the list, so I need to add or change information.
• Click the record in the notepad list - the data is loaded back into the form
• I enter "MGB" in the railway box and tick the railway tick
• I click "Add"
• The information - including the railway code is added to the notepad list and the match process is started
• This time - with the extra information, an exact match is found, so the record is transferred to the log and removed from the notepad list.

In future it will be possible to resolve ambiguous matches with a form, eg in the above example clicking the record would pop up a form with a choice of "RhB Steam loco" or "MGB Electric loco", selecting one would enter the record against that loco.


Viewing records

Once entered, you can view records in two places:

• The log shows a time sorted list of records with newest at the top and older ones below.  The log shows the loco recorded, the location and if a photograph was taken.
  it will be possible in future to click a record to go to the entry for that locomotive.
• The databook shows records against locomotives, so going down to the third (loco) level in the databook shows a tick against locos that have been seen.  In future it will be possible to click a loco to see the records for that specific locomotive.

And more


This is a very new application and will continue to develop, future additions will probably include:

• Add GPS location to a record
• Output log as formatted HTML
• Support for UIC loco numbering
• Ability to enter or import historic data (at present all records get timestamped with current time)
• Resolve matches in notepad list
• Choose columns seen on log screen
• Ability to temp disable a railway from matching, eg if I'm in the UK I might disable swiss railways as I'm unlikely to see any swiss locos ;-(

suggestions for other features are welcomed

Spotlog development

Continued to develop the spotlog application, and is probably ready to be used ... but there's always more to do.

Main screen for entering sightings:

The "book" tab shows info on classes and locos.  This screen shows the classes of the Rhátische Bahn:

Clicking on a class takes us to the detail for that class:

The green "tick" shows a record against that loco.

Finally, the log screen shows the log:

The orange camera icon indicates a picture was recorded.

Trainspotting

OK.  I confess, I used to be a trainspotter. ....  and sometime I still note down numbers, especially when I'm photographing trains and want to record the details of the train in the photograph.

So, again, here's another app that I used to use on my Windows mobile PDA and would now like on my Android device.

Quickly thrown together (as I would like to use it on a forth-coming trip to Switzerland), the app lets me note down train numbers with details such as location etc, and has a database of classes and loco's to match records against.

MapApp

so I wrote myself a map app....


Having discovered that using my existing set of maps with OruxMaps was going to be difficult I had a little play with writing my own.

Not too challenging so far - reading the GPS position is pretty straightforward, displaying the bitmap tiles not too difficult.  Just need to get round issues like scaling and handling display changes (eg orientation).

So need to think about the basic functions I need, such as track recording and playback.

Maps

I want maps on my device when I'm out and about (and without needing a live internet connection to download).

On my windows mobile device I used to use GPSTuner (until I got fed up with the pricing /licensing model ) and then I wrote my own mapviewer programmer for the windows mobile platform.  So I have quite a lot of maps in GPSTuner format (which uses map tiles) and PC tools (of my own making) for downloading, calibrating and managing them.

I have been using OruxMaps on the Android, and it works well.  I would recommend it.  Plus points include free, good tools for downloading maps on the PC (And on Android device) from a variety of sources and good support response from the developer.  However, it doesn't handle tiled maps and it looks as though converting my existing set of maps to use with OruxMaps isn't going to work.

So, I'm thinking about taking my windows mobile code and writing something similar on the Android.

Rails

Rails is an Android train set.

You can lay tracks, place signals, run trains.  It's at a VERY early stage of development - but already fun to play with.

Status so far:

• Can lay track, place signals, add trains.
• Can choose route at points.
• Trains run.  Stop at red signals, reverse at end of track.
• Signals, clear to green as trains approach (if line clear), show red if not clear.
• Map size, approx 4000*4000

Current limitations

• Trains only one vehicle long
• Limited options for setting routes
• Trains don't corner smoothly, it the angle jumps by 45 degrees as the train turns a corner - I'd like the train to turn smoothly

What's next

• Longer trains
• Smooth curving
• Add stops to layout
• Add text labels
• More routing options

Longer term

• Zoom in out / Overview
• Isometric view
• More train types

Four Apps

I now have four apps in various stages of Development.

 KLibrarian is an app for managing eBook collections.  It scans eBook library (Kindle at the moment) and lists book status, notes and highlights.  It can extract and display the notes/highlights in the book.

 Praxis is an app for practising German/English .  It has a dictionary of words, and uses templates to generate phrases in either language, the user has to enter the translation in the other language.

 Rails is an android train set.  You can build tracks, set signal and run trains.

The fourth app (no thumbnail) is a sync app - it connects over WiFi and syncs folders on the Android tablet with folders on a PC (or network).  Full two-way sync.

Syncing files with PC

One of the things I need on my tablet is the ability to sync files with (various) PC folders.

I've been using PCFileSync so far - it works well and is faurly easy to use, but has some shortcomings in my experience:

• Doesn't do a "proper sync".  ie it will copy files bi-directionally, but doesn't replicate deletes.  So if I have files on both tablet and PC and delete the one on the PC, next time I sync it will copy the file from the tablet back to the PC.
  So in my docs folder, for example, I have lots of ~temp files from word and can't (easily) get rid of them.
  
• Seems to have an issue with file date/times. For example, every time I start the program it (re)copies eveyrything in the folder.  I'm not sure if this is a feature of the software or something to do with the way Android (and SD card) handles file dates

So, I've started working on my own file sync program.  Features I want include:

1. Proper two-way sync, including deletes
2. Option to store files removed in a backup folder (on the PC)
3. Can detect different wifi networks and run different sync sets, eg I want to do one set of syncs at home and a different set when connected to work wifi.

So, it's going.  It does two way sync and can detect which wifi it is on and sync sets as appropriate.  It doesn't do sub-folders or backups yet and the UI is not very freindly.  But it's working and useful :-)

First steps in development

One of my goals with trying out Android was to look at developing applications for the system.

I have previously done a lot of development on Windows Mobile devices, and I wanted to see how the Android system compares.

I expected to be converting one or more of the windows mobile programs I had previously written and used:

• Mapping programs and tools  (not going to look at this as yet, as the available Android programs seem satisfactory)
• Database tools for things like bug tracking / lists of eBooks etc
• German language training (another interest, learning German)
• Various tools / simulations for my other interest: railways.

I've chosen to go with the language trainer first.

The idea - as for the Windows Mobile program - is that the program has a database of words and templates of sentances/phrases.  It uses the database to construct phrases in the two languages (German or English) and presents these to the user, who has to respond with the correct translation.

I used to use my Windows Mobile version whenever I had an odd moment to fill, to practise and improve my German vocabulary and grammar.

So I've chosen this as my first venture into Android programming as it will get me familiar with some key areas such as a) the java language b) the Android user interface and c) SQLite databases.

It's coming along, I've got the DB implemented (and imported my previous dataset into it - I had the foresight to dump my windows DB to XML before the windows device died).

So first impressions of Android development:  it's not bad.

• Emulator on the PC works well, fairly easy to debug.
• Android UI is pretty straightforward - although I have had a few issues trying to tweak UI boxes to the size I wanted
• SQLite DB works pretty well and seems quite fast.

WiFi update

As previously commented, initially I found the wifi performance of my tablet pretty poor: it was very difficult to get it to connect, both at home and at work.

As my home router was giving other problems, I upgraded my home router and performace with the new (which supports PSK2) is much better.  The tablet connects almost always automatically and stays connected better and longer.

Still not so great at work unfortunatly ...

SD Card

This device has an SD card slot, and there is a 32GB SD card in the slot - but nothing is using it.

In the file system I have:

• Root
• extsd  
• sdcard
• etc

EXTSD is the external (32GB) sd card.  SDCARD is internal storage.  In Settings\Storage I have:

External SD card:  29.71GB total / 29.71 GB available
NAND memory:  6.69GB Total / 6.29GB available

Files, eg applications installed to SD, Kindle eBooks etc are going to the NAND memory (which is sdcard) in the file system.

So how does this work?  And how can I make use of the 32GB SD card?

Bluetooth connection!

Now that I've got Gingerbread on the device - next step is to get bluetooth and GPS working:

Plugged in the bluetooth dongle:  is recognised by the device and I can turn on bluetooth (the bluetooth options weren't on the Froyo version).

Scan for devices - finds bluetooth GPS unit, and will pair with it.  But not recognised as GPS unit.

Visit market - download and install Bluetooth GPS provider.  Also get GPS essentials while I'm there.

BT GPS provider installed - turn on and connect - is showing satellite info from GPS receiver.

Start GPS essentials - shows GPS data including lat long and position on map.

Looks as though it's all working ok.

A bit fiddly to connect up all the bits - might be an easier way to do it - but at least it works!


Open Orux Maps - shows map centered on current location - seems to work ok.

(OK, stationary in my study at the moment, will need to see what it does with movement tomorrow)

Amazon Review

I've had two of these from Wendy Lou:  The first had Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) on it but unfortunately failed to charge after the first 24 hrs.  Wendy Lou promptly replaced it (And refunded the postage cost) with a second unit which has worked OK.  However the second unit had Android 2.2 (Froyo) not Android 2.3 which was a little disappointing.

I then took the unit away on holiday where it fulfilled the main purpose of being able to read eBooks on it (using Kindle).

General comments: the device is quite large (good screen, can read a whole page width of technical text book in PDF format on it) but it also quite thick and heavy and not the most comfortable device to hold and read for long periods.  It's important to note what this device does not have (I guess you get what you pay for) - it does not have 3G, GPS or Bluetooth.

With the first device (A2.3) I was able to connect an external bluetooth dongle - and thus access a GPS receiver - but the replacement device with A2.2 on it would not connect to the external bluetooth dongle and thus could not be used with GPS.  I have now upgraded it to Android 2.3 and hope to able to connect to a dongle and thus access gps - the device comes with a suitable connector to do this.

I've also found WiFi performance rather poor.  The unit will connect to my home wifi (and at work) but often looses the connection and will refuse to reconnect for some time which gets very frustrating.  I'm not sure if this is the device or the wifi - but will continue to investigate now that I have upgraded to Gingerbread (seems better), and will try different wifi systems and settings.

Further and ongoing notes can be found at http://stepsinandroid.blogspot.com/

Gingerbread!

I've just upgraded my tablet to Android 2.3: Gingerbread ;-)

I found these instructions for upgrading the HAIPAD M7.  Now, the device I bought is a "TabTech M7" - but as far as I could tell it's the same device as the HAIPAD M7.  So I downloaded the files as per the instructions on the Haipad page, copied them to an SD card, put it in the device and restarted.

Cross fingers and hope!

All seems well, device now restarted and has Android 2.3 Gingerbread ... it has however lost all the apps I had installed, so I need to get them back on the device (and hope they still work) and see what new features I've got.

Apps reinstalled and working on 2.3:

• Blogger
• Kindle
• Flash Player (10.3)
• Dolphin Browser
• FeedR
• K9 Mail
• TaskList
• KeePassDroid

Haven't tried attaching an exernal bluetooth dongle (which was one of the main points of getting A2.3) yet, but I notice the bluetooth settings are now available in settings - which is a good sign.

Apps I use

These are the apps I use at the moment on my tablet:

• Kindle (ebook reader)
• Feedr (rss reader, good offline)
• K9 mail (email,  good offline)
• OfficeSuite (doc editor)
• Orux maps (offline maps)
• PcFileSync (sync files over wifi)
• GoWeather (offline weather forecasts)
• KeePassDroid
• ESV Bible

Apps I don't use

These are apps I've tried and abandoned:

• Aldiko
• Moon+ reader
• CoolReader
• FbReader
• IReader
• GReader
• Flow notes
• Pocket

Wifi worked

A wifi success
Popped into s MacDonalds for coffee and deified wifi, and the tablet connected fairly easily.

Document editing

Another requirement is editing documents (word doc etc)
I wanted features like

• Essential
• Open and edit DOC / DOCX
• Bold / Italic / Underline
• Fonts
• Tables
• Bullets
• Nice
• Insert table / insert row
• Pictures
• Styles
• Multiple docs
• Table of contents
• Spell check

Eventually I found OfficeSuite which does most of this including tables and bullets - I couldn't find any other apps that handled tables and bullets as well.
I also downloaded an alternative keyboard (the gingerbread keyboard) and I find this better than the default 2.2 keyboard.
A couple of niggles

• sometimes it's not easy to position the cursor - cursor keys would help - this device doesn't have them,  and there aren't any on screen
• in OfficeSuite some functions are difficult to get to (eg deep in menues) - might be easier if the menu button on this device was better placed.

How does power work?

I'm not sure how power works on this.
If I leave the tablet for a short while the screen goes off (fine) and pressing the home key wakes it up. Ok.
But if I leave it longer, it shuts down completely and when restarted (with the power key) goes through the full boot process.
I can't find any settings to manage this.

Dreadful wifi

I'm finding the wifi on this tablet very frustrating.
Currently away from home - I know there are several wifi signals (my phone can see them) but the tablet won't connect.  (Or reconnect in some instances).
As usual I don't know if that is normal for Android 2.2 or just this model.

Bluetooth dongle

I'd really like to use GPS with this tablet but it hasn't got Gps or Bluetooth :-(

The Android 2.3 device I had briefly recognized a Bluetooth dongle in the USB socket, but this one (2.2) doesn't seem to want to.

I thought I had put it into USB host mode, but now I'm not sure, and there isn't much info I can find on host mode.

Weather apps

I would like a weather forecast app that works offline.

• BBC weather (not an official BBC app) is ok, but not offline.
• The weather channel app has more info, but doesn't work offline either
• now trying Go Weather which has more info (more dates ahead), multiple locations and claims to work offline (not tried yet).  Would be even better if it could display multiple locations at once ...

Dreadful wifi

Wifi performance of this thing is dreadful - takes forever to get it to connect and is not reliable when it does.

RSS Readers

I want an RSS reader that works offline.  Should read standard RSS and cache posts - including images - for offline reading.
I've been using greader - which is good - except it's caching seems a bit erratic and I can't work out how to get it to accept some RSS feeds (eg some 'private' ones on websites I manage, where I know the URL but it doesn't appear in Google)
I'm trying NewsRob as an alternative.

more:

NewsRob looks like it works, but the display is a bit crude.

Next app to try is FeedR  looks better than NewsRob, and seems happy with all the RSS I want it to look at - need to see how it performs offline.

Wifi problems

The wifi performance of this tablet is really not good.
It's Ok when it's connected, but it's very hard to get it to connect. Once it drops the connection, goes out of range, or powers down , reconnecting the wifi is difficult.
Sometimes it needs many attempts before it will connect.  Other times - if left alone it might reconnect - or it might not.
It might be my home wifi - but it's similar at work.
Really not good.

Mapping programs

One of the things I want to do on the tablet is mapping. I'm a bit hampered by lack of GPS for the moment.
There are plenty of mapping options but most use live connections to fetch maps - I need something that I can download  maps at home and use offline.
Oruxmaps seems to do the trick - there is a map creation program that lets me download on the PC and use on the tablet.

eReaders

A crucial application for my device is eReader.  I used to use MobiPocket on my windows mobile device and it did most things I wanted.  My requirements for an eReader include:

• Store / Organise / Read eBooks
• Pictures
• Table
• Text formatting including bullets, alignment, different fonts and sizes, text colour
• Search
• Ability to annotate including highlights and notes  (and ideally extract these annotations later)
• Read eBooks in various formats and from various sources (including ones I've generated myself)

Nice to have would include:

• Styles
• zoom view

So far, I've tried various eReaders on the tablet, including:

• Kindle
• Aldiko
• iReader
• FBReader
• Cool Reader
• Moon+ Reader

disappointingly,  most of them don't support much formatting - ie fonts and text sizes, a lot of them don't do annotation very well.

Which leaves me with Kindle - only supports mobi format, but otherwise has good formatting and annotation. So I'm going to use that for the moment.

Posting offline

This post was composed on the tablet while offline

Replacement tablet

Received  replacement tablet.  Android 2.2 :-(

No gps or bluetooth and won't  recognise bluetooth dongle.

but at least it works and charges.

Unfortunatly, as we are going away soon ... I don't have time to get it changed or to mess around with it, so this is it.

Dead Tablet

The tablet won't charge  ;-(

Will have to send it back.

Tabtech M7

Received a Tabtech M7 android tablet (ordered on Amazon).

Realtively cheap device, not a great spec, but will suffice for first steps in Android.

• 7 inch screen
• 8Gb storage  (+up to 32Gb mini SD card)
• No GPS
• No Bluetooth
• Android 2.3

Looks like it will recognise a bluetooth dongle plugged into the USB so that should allow access to GPS that way.

What do I want from a tablet?

What do I want in a tablet? - apart from the obvious (infinite battery life, light weight, decent size screen, infinite storage)....

for personal use:

• email
• eReader (flexible on format and comfortable to hold)
• rss reader (and offline as well)
• maps  (decent quality mapping with gps and track recording)
• plenty of storage
• ability to edit word documents (.docx) and excel spreadsheets
• something like One Note for odd notes
• sync with desktop PC(s)
• Bible with different versions (I used Laridian on Windows mobile)
• Password manager

for work purposes:

• Ability to read technical documents / text books  (this means a decent size screen and PDF format)
• Remote desktop to windows servers
• Ability to access sharepoint systems, including sync for offline use (and edit)
• Sync with work calendar and contacts

In the past I have developed quite a lot of code for my Windows mobile devices - I'd need to replace or redevelop these on the new platform.  My apps include:

• Sharepoint client tool
• Offline railway timetable tool
• Mapping and GPS tracking program
• Code changes/bugs database
• Railway database
• Program for learning / testing German language
• Tool for noting railway track layouts

Why I bought an Android

I've used Windows Mobile PDAs for some years - and I like the Windows Mobile platform (at least I used to like Windows Mobile 6).  However,

• I'm not keen on Windows Mobile 7
• I can't see a device I like at the moment.

My last device was an O2 XDA flint - windows mobile 6, lots of storage, nice size screen, very nice, but sadly it has now died :-(

So I need to get something new ... not windows mobile, so it's time to look at Android tablets.