by Donald Melanson,
There's certainly no shortage of means to customize your Android experience, but there's few tweaks as innovative as this new Eyes-Free shell developed by Charles Chen and T.V. Raman., which makes the handset more accessible to the blind, or anyone simply looking to make a call without having to divert their attention. As those following Android development may be aware, the underlying code for the shell has actually been available for some time, but it's only just now been made available to general G1-toting public on Android Marketplace. One of the stand-out components is the brilliantly simple dialer, which automatically brings up a 5 no matter where you touch the screen, from which you can then simply slide your finger to dial the rest of the numbers, with an audible click providing some added assurance as you move over the numbers. Things don't stop there, of course, with the shell also able to provide things like single-touch access for the current date and time, audible notifications of battery life and signal strength, and even a mini app that draws on the phone's GPS capabilities to announce your present location. Head on past the break for a quick video of dialer, and dive into the read link below for a more thorough overview.


engadget.com

By Jason Chen,

Digitimes, who was already kinda wrong this morning, says that HTC will release a second Android phone by April and a third is already in development.

The third phone already being in development is a super-obvious rumor, since every company has tons of things going on simultaneously, but a second Android phone by April? Sure, that's possible. I mean, all HTC needs to do is pick one of the hundreds of form factors they already have, slap the Android OS on it, make sure stuff like the battery life isn't atrocious, and it's going to be better than the G1.

However, being possible is one thing, but being true is another. So we'll wait and see whether or not April is the right month. [Digitimes via Electronista]

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