I've got a HTC Desire Android handset and I use the Twitter Application that ships with it, Peep. Recently it stopped logging in for me, after a quick search around online it looks like Twitter have finally made their OAuth login authentication mandatory for third party applications.

This is a good thing in itself, but it does raise the question of when a platform changes from being just 'open' to being so wide spread that it is considered as a public API. I'm not in a position to comment on why Peep wasn't updated to work with OAuth before it was released, but it does make you question who is responsible for maintaining the service levels of public API's.

If Twitter have published and promoted their API, surely it is their best interests to maintain its functionality, and ensure some level of backwards compatibility? This is a tricky point to argue, as on one hand it is very good that they are maturing their platform with new features and security, but on the other hand they do risk alienating the community they rely on by introducing new features that require third party application changes. By this I mean changes that require an update, and are not backwards compatible, rather than just not updating and missing out on any new functionality.

This is especially prominent in this instance as it affects the Twitter Application that actually ships with HTC Android handsets, so it is guaranteed to be quite widespread.

I didn't even know that there was a SCUMM (Lucas Arts game engine from the early 90's) emulator for the Android platform until I read a blog post by Justin Carter (http://www.madfellas.com/ where he mentioned he was playing with it.

It takes a little bit of tweaking to get running on Android 2.0 and up devices, and all the useful files aren't in the Android marketplace, so here is my short guide, with links to getting SCUMMVM running on your Android handset.

[ More ]

I've recently convinced a colleague at work to switch from his iPhone to the Android platform. His one caveat was that you could get hold of the same Applications, or at least Applications that would provide the same functionality.

Almost all the Applications he used we available on both platforms, the most process to replicate is synchronising your phone with iTunes. Obviously the iPhone does this out of the box, but how can you do this on the Android platform?

The answer is DoubleTwist a free Application that can manage synchronising removable disks with iTunes and Windows Media player.

[ More ]