Here are screen shots of our first theme called White on Black:

Home Screen

Device Health

Settings Dial

Now you can create your own custom theme for Open Gesture. Click here to download the sample Eclipse project. You will also find Photoshop files to help you customize our views such as the Settings dial, Device health and Screen navigator. So go ahead and let your imagination run wild.

If you have issues regarding themes please post them on our forums. If you create a theme also post it on our forums for the rest to see.

The icons and clock in this theme are borrowed from the Smorg Theme uploaded on the XDA forums. All thanks goes to the original contributors.

So when time came to launch it into the Android market we were reluctant. Reluctant for a lot of reasons:

1. Lack of frequent, useful updates: The Android market is going to be almost one year old. And the number of updates have been made to it ever since? Zero (I mean significant changes that enhance user experience)

2. Limitation to showcase -  All you have to show your potential user is a description that is limited to 238 characters. No screen shots, no long description, no changelog. Yes you can put a link to your site but that is just too cumbersome for users. In our experience none of the users bother clicking on a link in the description.

3. Piracy. Yes as software developers this is something that we have to get used to. We are not whining but Google definitely didn’t try hard to prevent piracy.

Now in the spirit of being open Android has made it very easy for you to pass around apps and install them. All you need is an “APK” file which akin to that of an “EXE” on Windows and you can install it on your device. For Beta testing this is fantastic, however, when you have a paid app on the market which claims to have “copy protection” you expect it to work. The minute Open Gesture went live it got pirated and we had twice as many people install the pirated version than the ones that actually purchased a copy.

4. So you think the Android Market is unfriendly from the end-user side of things? Well, let’s see when we decided to launch a free version of Open Gesture and at the same time provide an update to the pro version. The way things are cached in their session it bungled up the Pro with Lite and made both of them FREE.

And guess what, once an app is Free on the Android market you cannot switch it back to paid. So how do we fix this? We can’t!?! Aside from posting to a forum there is no other mechanism of support. No number to call, no email. Nobody that seems like they can come forward and help. The only other solution is to repackage the app and upload it again and that is what we ended up doing, we lost all our comments, ratings and not to mention pissed off customers.

We know what it is like to put our best face forward and get critized but the Android Market has been out for nearly a year and with no updates it feels like the neglected child that nobody cares about.

A start-up is an uphill battle and there are days when we feel battered by the bug-reports and general complaints. Then there are days when we’re on seventh heaven. Today, is one of the latter moments. Why you ask? BECAUSE MICHAEL ARRINGTON TWEETED ABOUT OPEN GESTURE!

Yeah, we’re still pinching ourselves but its true! Michael recently changed camps and became an Android user and this morning we found him tweeting about Open Gesture!

Thanks Michael, we really appreciate the endorsement.

And so Open Gesture was born - to address some real issues we encountered in our day-to-day interaction with the device.

1. Gesture recognition:
We found that the touch screen was being underutilized and so the answer was the gesture. We think gestures not only simplify the android desktop experience but also makes it a lot of fun! You can assign gestures to the most commonly used apps or contacts. Yep, drawing a simple ‘W’ can open up The Weather Channel app and a ‘<3′ gesture will call your sweetheart. You can draw any gesture that you fancy.

2. System settings access:
A simple ‘|’ (up) gesture on the desktop reveals the most frequently accessed ‘System settings’. From here, you can adjust/change/switch off/on all your system settings.

To be notified when Open Gesture launches click here.

First, it validates our products: while we’re often convinced of the utility of our apps, it definitely helps to know they are making our users’ lives easier and more efficient.

Second, it provides insights and feedback that we couldn’t have thought of ourselves.

Joe Doherty from IT World included our apps in his ‘Five iPhone apps for amusement and efficiency‘ list. Here are excerpts:

Wouldn’t you like to use your iPhone for you grocery list? Well, put down that pen and paper. There is a development group out there called Hollowire, and they are writing some really interesting applications. One of the more useful apps they offer is one called, ShopALot. Create your grocery shopping lists from the ShopALot online grocery catalog. The app will allow you to see nutritional information, compare pricing of similar products, show images of the item for easy identification on the shelves (I like this feature since I spend a lot of time blankly staring at my grocery list wondering just what the heck I’m looking for. What is a “leek” anyway?), and the option to use your phone’s camera to document any items not currently in their database by taking a photo and reading the barcode. Pretty slick. And, at the low price of $1.99, you’ll save money on pens & paper and have a cool grocery list to boot! 

Another wonderful application developed by Hollowire seemingly specifically for me (and my dad) is called Proxido. This is a VERY clever idea for those of us out there who are slowly losing their grey matter. What you do is input tasks and to-do’s for the different places you need to go. This application will read your GPS coordinates and popup a reminder of what you need to do in the vicinity. Hoo-ha. Real life example? Driving down the road past my Home Depot. Suddenly, Proxido comes to live to tell me to, with all speed, get my butt into that store and purchase the ceiling lamp I can’t ever seem to remember to buy. With this app I will look like a hero and never forget another task.

The interview consisted of why and how we built Minutes Tracker and about the android platform. 

Click here to view the complete interview. 

We would like to thank AndroidTapp for posting a great review of Minutes Tracker and for interviewing us.

Now this is not an easy problem to tackle, we had several hurdles along the way. Most carriers do not provide developers with an API to access this kind of information (although that would be great). The reasons could vary but my guess is that they prefer their customers to incur overages because that’s where they make their money. Also we did not want our app to be dependent on internet connectivity so we built an app that completely resides on your device without needing any external help. The result is Minutes Tracker, an app that not only tracks free minutes but it looks good doing so. We built an interface that is not only fun to look at but easy to read at a glance. Although, if you don’t have the time and patience to open up Minutes Tracker, you don’t have to, because not only will it flash a notification after every call but it will also notify you when you are running low minutes.

We don’t make any claims for accuracy of the information but we feel some information is better than none. We are already working on the next version of Minutes Tracker that will make the information not only accurate but reliable. So go ahead install it and if you like it then don’t forget to give us a good review.