Skyscanner

EdiAUG - Honor -Skyscanner Events

What a week! As well as with my day job, this week I was busy helping facilitate the Edinburgh Android User Group - Honor - Skyscanner events.
The events were hosted by Skyscanner in their Edinburgh and Glasgow offices (one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday) and featured a short introductory talk from Skyscanner and a talk from Wilkin Lee of Honor about Honor and Huawei.
Not only were the talks interesting (even if I do say so myself), but Wilkin used a familiar competition format and gave away a Honor Holly at each of the events.

I had a great time and have delayed new device purchases until the Honor 6+ is out at the beginning of May. The camera, especially in low light conditions, blew me away and the device overall is lovely.

Interested in engaging with me and EdiAUG for an Android/mobile related event? Ping me on Google Plus.

Thanks to Skyscanner for support and hosting, and thanks to Wilkin and James of Honor for travelling to Scotland for the events.

March Of The Droids 2015

Last weekend was March Of The Droids 2015. I attended the event representing Skyscanner, had a great time and met many awesome similarly minded Android enthusiasts.
James Bricknell introducing me to the stage. Photo credit: Julie Wills
Thanks to everyone who attended, including Huawei with Honor, HTC and ASUS.

Another March Of The Droids is over, may the suspense and trepidation before the announcement of the 2016 event be great!

What's in your bag Matteo Doni?

From tomorrow, I will be attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for Skyscanner.

As most tech websites with people attending events, I thought I might as well show off the gadgetry I will be taking with me in the image below.
Tesco's version of camouflage Crocs and a selfie stick.
If you hadn't already got the reference, this is a homage to Matthew Inman (aka The Oatmeal) and his selfie stick shopper guide.

On Tuesday night (Wednesday morning for me) I will also be a guest on All About Android talking about a device I have been reviewing and what's happening at MWC.

Will you be at MWC 2015 and want to meet up to talk mobile tech? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll see if we can meet up amid the madness.

DroidCon London 2014

This week I attended DroidCon London 2014 conference representing my employer, Skyscanner.
The event was extremely informative and entertaining. Day 1 was mostly BarCamp format. Later in the afternoon there was a DemoCamp event where I demoed the Skyscanner Hotels app for Android on stage and then the closing talk in the auditorium was delivered by Chet Haase of Google.

Day 2 was opened by Chet Haase who showcased what is new in Android 5.0 Lollipop, and then a series of more structured and formal talks.
My key takeaways from the conference can be summarised here:
  • Intel are throwing a the kitchen sink at Android and working very closely with Google and OEMs. Devices running on Intel should get prompt updates to new versions of Android as Intel will be updating drivers within 30 days of Google releasing the OS source code. 
  • Companies large and small throughout Europe are conceptualising and developing apps and services and ensuring their presence on the Android platform is significant.
  • Testing and test methodologies, particularly with regards to automation, are of great interest and concern to the Android developer community.
  • Android 5.0 Lollipop is going to sweep through the world like wildfire and Material Design, Google's new design language, is going to be adopted widely even on older (4.0.+) versions of the OS.
I really enjoyed my time at DroidCon London 2014, and interacted with some of the top people involved in the mobile industry. Thanks to everyone who participated and organised, it was an extremely enjoyable experience. I hope to attend again next year.

All About Android 165: It's Creepy... Creepy Good

This week I had the honour of being a guest on All About Android, the TWiT.tv show about all things Android. I really enjoyed being on the show with Gina Trapani, Jason Howell, Ron Richards and Bryan Burnett. Discussing some of my favourite subjects on AAA was great! Check out the episode here.
You can also subscribe to All About Android on YouTube, TWiT.tv and on iTunes.


March of the Droids 2014

It is that time of year again: the days are getting longer and warmer, the fridges have faster turnover of Hooch and/or Cider and some of us have started rocking our solar power banks. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is almost time for March of the Droids.
March of the Droids is an event organised by Android Enthusiasts throughout the UK and has the backing of several websites and companies. This year one of the sponsors is my employer Skyscanner, and I will be giving a talk on Mobile Application Testing at Skyscanner.
March of the Droids 2014 takes place on May 10th (12:00) in Bournemouth, Dorset (England). The plan for the event looks great with Paul O'Brien (MoDaCo), Jon Love (Clove), Tom Mleko (HyperBees) and myself giving talks. As well as the talks, there will be the usual real life socialising, libations, food, shenanigans and tomfoolery.

At time of writing, there are still some tickets available so if you would like to attend the reasonably priced event (£12.50) you can buy tickets here.

I look forward to catching up with everyone there, delivering my talk (and prizes too) and having a great time. Who knows, we may even end up trying to give away some smartphone cases...

Feel free to pop a comment in the section below if you have any questions.

More details on March of the Droids 2014 can be found here: http://www.marchofthedroids.co.uk/

If you are looking for flights, car hire or a hotel for the event check out http://www.skyscanner.net/


EdiAUG Is Back!

I am pleased to officially announce that the Edinburgh Android User Group is back and has organised a meetup for next week. Head over to the official EdiAUG Blog for more info about the event being held at Skyscanner HQ.
As usual, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me on Google Plus if you would like more info on the event.

Updated "About", My New Job

I've updated my "About" page for this blog. Just to make it clear, I'm now a full time employee at Skyscanner.net, the search engine that allows you to search for flights, car hire and hotels via price and location.
Skyscanner.net mug!
I would also use this post to thank everyone at Skyscanner for making me feel welcome and patiently answering all the questions I've had as a newbie. A special thanks goes out to Cristina, Monika, Grzegorz and Ian who have really helped me get up to speed with the rest of the team and who have looked after me since I joined.

As usual feel free to leave comments and/or questions below, in the snazzy new Google Plus commenting system.