[gopher] list "alpha test": Overbite for Android

[Cameron Kaiser]

Rob Sayers has been my guinea pig today and it seems to be working well for
him, so I'm opening this up to the group. (I have some interest in this from
@segphault at Ars Technica, so I want a good test before I let Ryan at it.)

Overbite Android is, just like it implies, a gopher client for Android.
Android 1.5 is required; 2.x is recommended, and it is fully compatible with
2.2 Froyo. It should work on any currently available form factor, including
QVGA all the way up to Droid X-level resolution. 

OA is incomplete -- it does not support file downloading yet and it does not
currently have internal bookmark support (though it can put shortcuts on the
Home screen as primitive bookmarks) -- but it does support item types
[017ghI] and fully integrates with the Android Browser so that any hURLs you
click are loaded in the Browser, and gopher:// URLs you click in the Browser
are automatically loaded in Overbite. It also handles portrait and landscape
modes (landscape recommended for obvious reasons), is localization-ready, and
zoom-aware (remembering your settings as you click around). I will also be
making source code (built with Eclipse) available.

I think expanding into the mobile space is critical for Gopher because this
is a niche it can easily gain a foothold in. In GPRS land, Gopher is the
fastest way to do anything because it is the least spendy on the network,
and when you're being charged by the KB/MB a low-bandwidth protocol will
in turn save you money. I have a friend who is tightly connected into Palm's
developer program and thinks that the upcoming PDK will be able to allow an
Overbite on webOS. I'd like to write an iPhone version, but I'm tired of
Apple screwing around and there's no guarantee they would allow it in the
App Store since it doesn't fart. A BlackBerry version might be possible. The
more places Gopher is visible in the mobile space, the more it can become a
viable alternative.

I would like your comments when you've tried it out. I'm particularly
interested in the following:

- Is it fast? I want it at least as fast, preferably faster than, the
  Browser.
- Does it integrate well with your workflow? Other than the swap in 
  activities, is Gopher's integration seamless?
- Is it useable? Are the touch landing zones sufficient?
- Is it attractive? It's supposed to be plain, but I am particularly
  interested in making sure the (semi) resolution-independent art works
  well on most handsets.
- Does it seem like an app a non-Gopher user might be curious about? What
  would make it more approachable to a new user?

Let me know your thoughts. THESE URLs are TEMPORARY.

	gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/9/AndroidOverbite.apk
	http://gopher.floodgap.com/AndroidOverbite.apk

-- 
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Don't wear rollerskates to a tug-of-war. -- Larry Wall ---------------------