Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. I feel like the internet was a better place back in 2006 and 2007, but I don’t have any proof. In those days, the word “blogger” wasn’t a derogatory term. No one dared to call themselves a journalist, because that’s not what we were. We, which I’m going to define as people who have been writing stuff online for over half a decade, wrote essays to each other. We’d link to each other’s work, have civilized arguments, and every once in a while we’d get together to have a few beers.
But then some of us got hungry. We wanted to make a lot of money, so we plastered our sites with ads. We hired people to write articles so they’d show up in Google’s search results. Some of us even started other sites so we could build up a portfolio of web properties that would make our pitch to advertisers that much more attractive. I’m not saying I’m pure, because I’m not. I sold out in 2007 to IntoMobile because they offered me something that I couldn’t say no to, the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world. After I got my first paycheck, I moved to Finland to try and get a job at Nokia. It took a few months, but I got in. Then the economy went to hell and I found myself back on my ass, but hey, at least the internet was always there, waiting to take me back. This probably seems like rambling to those of you who don’t know me, but to the few that do, all I want to say is welcome. Welcome to a project that’s being made possible thanks to Gautam from iPhone Hacks. He saw my tweets saying I was interested in working on something new, and now we’re here. Say hello to Android Beat. Simply put, I’m going to do my best to give you guys daily reports on what I find interesting in the Android world. Why Android? I’m not going to lie to you, I think Google is the most interesting company currently in existence. I love Apple for what they do, this piece is being written on a MacBook Pro, but I still think Google is in the best position to become one of the most important companies of this century. Unlike other sites, I’m not going to be ashamed to share stuff that I didn’t make. If The Verge, Engadget, Pocketnow, whoever, uploaded an awesome video to YouTube, I’m going to embed it here. This site is currently in beta since I’m technically still on holiday, but come April, it’s going to be fully up and running. I’ll have a Twitter account to share with you, there will likely be an RSS feed, and for the weirdos who want to subscribe to Android Beat using Facebook or Google+, I’ll have something for you too.
