Two days ago my Nexus One arrived. I've had a couple nights with it and so far I'm really impressed. It's just too bad the Nexus One has to die.

Most people know that I have a strong distaste for Apple's policies, and a strong affinity for their products. I really, really, really, reeeeealy want to like Apple. But I'm not the kind of person they like. I'm the kind of person who likes to pull things apart and have a look. I like to tinker. I also don't like being told what to do. Those two traits alone make me a bad customer in Apple's eyes. Thankfully, there's Google.

Now, I'm not fooling myself here. Google is another giant corporation and they have their own idiosyncrasies, but they just sync up better with my own bizarre traits.

Oh yeah, the phone...

I spent the entire first day with my Nexus One fiddling with settings, installing and uninstalling things, and testing out Google Goggles and the built-in speech recognition. It wasn't until my second day with the device that I realized I had yet to make or receive a call on it. When it first rang I wasn't entirely sure how to answer it! Thankfully I got it figured out (just slide my finger to the right) and my first call had decent volume and the person on the other end could hear me, so I guess that bit works just fine.

The phone is a fairly attractive phone (you can see my unboxing pics here), but not nearly as sexy as an iPhone. Until you turn it on - this is where the Nexus really shines. It is both fast and packed full of features, and getting the phone set up took very little time. One of the things I love about Android is how tight the integration is with GMail and my contacts. As soon as the phone got a connection all of my contacts were added, and my list of faves was set up for me.

Flash, Flash, Flash

Shortly after I first turned the Nexus One on I was given the option to update to the latest version of the Android OS. I had been excited about this update because version 2.2, codenamed Froyo, is the first to fully support the Flash player 10.1. And it does. I was a little shocked at how well Eco Zoo ran. It maintained a fairly stable frame rate even while doing Papervision3D in Flash.

I quickly tested out a couple of my own games, first Tilt! because I knew it could be played only using clicks. Next I tried out the beta version of Knaves Online, and while the interface isn't designed for such a small screen, it ran fairly well and was playable. I had worried that the Nexus One would run out of memory with a game that had such big art assets but Adobe and Google have really put together a fairly nice experience here.

The exciting thing about having Flash on my phone right now is that Adobe is pushing this like nobody's business. I have found not one, not two, but THREE different contests that are accepting entries for Flash games that run well on mobile devices.

Flash for Cash

The three contests are:

Cell Your Game

The Cell Your Flash Game contest being held by Flash Game License was the first one I noticed. The top prize is $2,600 US + the Adobe Master Collection, but they are giving $100 prizes to the top 11th - 150th entrants, so if you have something that would work well on a mobile device it might be worth doing a quick conversion.

Contest closes: September 6, 2010

Made for Mobile

The Made for Mobile contest being held by Mochi Media was the second contest to flow into my inbox, and it looks pretty great. The top prize is $7,000 US plus the Adobe Master Collection. Mochi is also giving out cash prizes to over 100 entrants. To enter the Mochi contest you will need to add in some of their custom features like live updating and ads, but you were going to do that anyway, weren't you?

Contest closes: September 24, 2010

Kongregate Mobile Game Contest

Last, but certainly not least, is the Kongregate Mobile Game Contest. Without a doubt Kongregate has been my favourite games portal over the last few years, and their contest is focused on helping them expand their list of titles into a new mobile portal. First prize is $5,000 US and the Adobe CS5 Web Premium Suite. Runner-ups will get $750 each or more if they are in the top 15. While Kongregate doesn't require that you use any of their special API features (leaderboards, achievements, etc.) it would certainly be a good idea, and would help you out in the judging.

Contest closes: August 23, 2010

My Initial Tests

I spent some time last night whipping up a quick game that I had been thinking about for a while and my first tests were very promising. The game looks pretty good on the Nexus One, and it runs pretty smoothly. Here's a quick YouTube video I did of it in action:

Why, Dear Lord, WHY?!

Immediately after getting my Nexus One I was flooded with links about the demise of the Nexus One. Apparently. The device just hasn't been selling very well, apparently most people want to be able to get their grubby little paws on a device before they buy it... Shocking. While the Google online store allowed you to add custom engraving to each device ordered, it is still a tough hurdle to overcome not being able to put the product in a consumer's hands before they buy it.