Android App for Coin Collecting - US Coins

As I have been learning Android development I have been playing around with a couple of projects. One of them is something I imagined having a long time ago, but there really just wasn't an easy way to do it.

I collect coins. It's one of the nerdy hobbies I have. Sometimes I'm more interested then others, but almost all the time I will look through my change, and any spare change I happen to come across that someone might let me look through. I've even rolled change for people just to look for something that might interest me to keep in my collection for later.

One of the problems I always had when collecting coins is knowing what coins are already in my collection. It's impossible to remember, and its kind of a pain in the ass to keep notes and carry them around with you. That's why I wrote an application that I call US Coins.

In short what it does is gives you a list of coins that is stored on your Android device. It shows the mint figures for each coin, and it gives you a very convenient way to click and keep track of the coins in your collection.

I decided to put US Coins on the Android Market for $1.49
It's a work in progress. Check it out here.

I figure a lot of people wont want to pay for the application so I am making free versions too. They have ads, and are slightly less convenient because they are standalone applications.

Check out my developer page on the market to download the free versions.

Android Dev

I got a new phone this year. I was long overdue that's for sure. I upgrade from a Nextel to an EVO, and I don't have to tell most of you how much of an advancement that was. I'm not exactly sure why I drug my feet for so long. Maybe it was because I couldn't figure out which phone I wanted. Or perhaps I just wanted to see how the smart phone market was going to play out. For a while I even considered an iPhone, which I am really glad I didn't go with. (No offense Apple fanboys; Not my fault AT&T slacked on their 4G network.)

I went with Android, and I can't lie its one of those things that makes my inner geek come out. The phone hardware in itself adds to the android experience. This phone is one of the top of the line now, but I know in 2 years, they will be so much better. I can't help but realize how things are going to spawn from these new technological devices that are becoming more and more common place.

It's already changing how my friends interact with each other. A couple of weekends ago we were sitting at Founders, I pulled out my phone to see what was going on in the Facebook world. That's when I see that Why Not Astronaut is playing Itty Bitty. I proceed to tell the friends, and we made it a point to go out and see the band. Ten years ago you would have to hear about this on the radio, or from a poster, or maybe you were on their emailing list. That or one of your friends heard about it and told you. Now more then ever new information is available to us instantly. Just hit F5 or tap Refresh.

That brings me to advertising. Now days it seems like more businesses are using websites like Facebook and Twitter to advertise. Not only are they posting on these sites to let all their fans and followers know what deals are going on. It's so much a part of the industry that they advertise their Facebook and Twitter pages on their fucking television commercials! Anyone can clearly see this isn't going away.

People go to their favorite bar and they can check-in on FourSquare. Your buddies got here earlier, you could see that if you were FourSquare friends. But who am I kidding, you probably already knew they were here because you saw that FourSquare automatically checked them in on Facebook. Yay, Jimmy just got a badge.

These things seem like fads, and you know, some of them are. At the same time, a lot of these things are going to change the way that we communicate and interact with each other.

The possible, probable, likely, definite expansion of this new market is inevitable. Android is just one of the players helping make this possible. My particular interest in them comes from one main reason. Android is open. Wide Open!

It took me a couple of hours reading, downloading and installing, before I was on my way to making my first 'Hello World' app. Which I completed and ran about 20 minutes later. Yeah, it took 20 minutes guys, I read it a couple of times to make sure I remember! I realize applications aren't this easy to program, but how easy it was to get started blew my mind. You know that if I wanted to I could publish that application and put it on the android market? You can't say the same thing with iPhone... let me know if they accepted you to the market place sometime in the next couple of weeks would you? Rejected? You didn't put a swear word in there did you? Uh Ohhhhh!

I have a couple of great ideas for applications to get started. Some are just for fun, others are likely things that people would use regularly in their daily life. Hopefully you see something I made on the market someday!