With the introduction of non-free applications on the Android Market, a flood of new apps have emerged. Most applications are still free, though, and some are very useful. My first non-free application was TeleNav, which is a turn-by-turn GPS navigation system with traffic alerts. With the traffic feature, it is a very useful application and worth the money.
I've had some ideas (and so has my wife) for new applications. While there may exist an application in the market that would work, sometimes you just want an application to work the way YOU want. I'd really like a client time tracker that worked the way our central time application works at my job. I'd like a better shopping list application (and so would my wife). To this end, I'm starting to dabble in Android development.
Android development is Java based and, well, I don't know Java. Or any other programming language to be honest with you. Maybe it's time to stretch my brain and learn something new. All the Android development stuff (SDK, Eclipse IDE) is free, so there's no outlay of cash. The SDK includes an Android handset emulator, so you can run and test your application on your computer. There are a large number of web sites devoted to helping Android developers, so there's no lack of online support and help.
I've followed the VERY helpful Android Developers Web Site and installed all the software I need to begin. I even created my first "Hello, World" Android app that runs on my phone (the emulator screen shot is above). I'm not sure if I have enough free time to actually complete a big project, but learning a new programming language could be very useful in other facets of life, and I really have been enjoying my G1 phone. It will be interesting using home-grown applications on it.
