Google Android Developer Challenge - Winning Mobile Apps

The Google Android Developer Challenge (round 1 of 2) to encourage the developer community to build outstanding mobile apps for the Android platform has concluded and winning apps can be previewed at http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/ . A brief rundown on the some of the ones that appeal to me:


Using the always-on and location awareness features and Google Maps integration, Cab4Me enables calling a taxi to any location worldwide with a single click. You do not need to know the number of the local cab company. You do not need to enter or even know the address you want to be picked up at. You do not need to place a call. I want it to work in Cambridge and Berlin, especially on cold, rainy nights when there are public transit strikes.


PicSay is an image editor for your mobile phone camera. Photos can be enhanced with color correction, highlighting, or distortion effects, you can add word balloons and titles to them and then share them via e-mail, your blog, or photo sharing sites. PicSay uses reverse geocoding via Android's location API to provide address information that can be used as text for a picture--instant (and customized) birthday cards, spontaneous dinner invitations, remarkably silly dog moments captured and documented!


No more uninformed, impulse buying with GoCart to help me gather as much information as I need to make smart, informed purchase in realtime in realplace with a bridge to online--"users can scan the barcode of a product in a store using their phone’s built-in camera. Once scanned, it will search for all the best prices on the Internet and through the inventories of nearby, local stores. After scanning a product, users can also read online reviews or create price alerts to help monitor price drops. Ah! No more walking through Frys, encountering the wireless keyboard section, memory being jogged that you need a new one (can't get my speech recognition software to run on Vista), thinking this looks nice and the price is right and then purchasing it at the counter along with the blank DVDs that you originally stopped it to buy, then wondering on the way home what the Amazon reviewers have to say about it or if you could have gotten it cheaper at Best Buy - which is also on your way home. And, as the developer suggests, using the wish list function to build a list for brainstorming gift ideas for the holiday season.