The man behind one of Twitter's best third-party Android clients has been hired by Twitter itself. Joaquim Vergès (no relation!), developer of Falcon Pro, tweeted today that he is going to work for the company...

The Verge - The developer of the best Android app for Twitter works for Twitter now

I know a lot of people might be optimistic about this. Arguably the developer of the best Twitter app on any platform, is heading to Twitter to work on their Android app. That's good news right? Maybe. But I'm not optimistic.

I've seen some of the most talented engineers of our time disappear into the Twitter Vortex and be smashed to pieces on the rocks that are their insane overheads. A little birdie (badum-tsss) tells me that over 70 iOS Developers build just their iPhone app. A large chunk of those work solely on the tools and processes required to allow that many people to work on one app. I know some people use and like their iOS app, but that's an insane amount of people to build something that to me is just not that great. As a reference point: Tweetbot, my iOS Twitter app of choice, has just two people working on it. Two. Falcon Pro, my favourite Android Twitter app, was one person. One. Both apps are, in my humble opinion, miles ahead of Twitter's own apps.

Maybe Twitter will magically turn things around. Maybe they will slim down their teams and remove the crazy overheads they operate under. Maybe they'll drop their obsession with A/B testing every tiny detail and just make a great app. Maybe a year from now I'll be using their Android app and love it. Maybe Australia will win the FIFA World Cup in 2018 too! Stranger things have happened...

For those that know me, it's a really poorly kept secret that my two favourite hardware makers in the world are Apple and Motorola. Apple just make amazing things, year in, year out. Sure their fans sometimes skew a bit annoying, and sure it's baffling why people celebrate them making 50% margins on a phone, but their hardware is amazing. Motorola for me though, especially in the last few years has been a treat to watch. The company has fallen a long way since the lofty days of the Razr. Up until a few years ago I'd completely written them off as making bland, unappealing hardware with no soul.

Then in 2013, something magical happened. The original Moto X.

This little phone was a breath of fresh air, not only for Motorola, but for all of Android. It was small, featured near stock Android and nestled perfectly into the palm of your hand. You could customise it using a new site called 'Moto Maker' and select different colour backs, fronts and even a highlight colour. It wasn't just colours either, Motorola had the audacity to offer materials you wouldn't really expect on your phone, like bamboo. While every other manufacturer was going crazy 'skinning' Android to make it look different, Motorola gave us the stock Android User Interface. While every other manufacturer was busy desperately trying to replace every app that came from Google with their own version of the same thing, Motorola instead opted to enhance the core parts of your phone experience in small ways. If the phone noticed you were driving a car, it would offer to read your text messages. If you twisted your hand twice, it would launch the camera app. It would even respond to 'OK Google Now' when your screen was locked and your hands were busy. It got so many things right, and restored Motorola's status as a premium phone maker in a lot of people's eyes.

Fast forward to 2014, and Motorola launched the Moto X. Same name but a brand new phone. It was bigger, had a better screen and camera and introduced bold new colours and materials like leather. I was initially skeptical of them taking such a perfectly sized phone with a 4.7" screen and increasing it to 5.2" but in the end it proved to be a great move. I of course ordered mine, with a custom leather back and orange highlights:

I loved that this phone was round, like the iPhone's of old that fit perfectly into my hand. I loved that it was grippy and didn't need a case to feel like I could use it. But...if I'm being honest, one thing still bugged me. The camera. It was good, but it didn't hold a candle to the one on my iPhone. In perfect conditions the photos looked the same, sure. On so many other occasions though, when the lighting was bad or the subject moved, the photos were terrible. So when the Galaxy S6 came around with its camera I shelved my poor Moto X and started using that instead.

So here we are, with me reluctantly using a Samsung phone...a company I really don't hold much love for...when who should come along to save me but Motorola! At an event 2 days ago they unveiled the Moto X 2015. The event itself was a bit cringeworthy, but the phones announced were interesting. I'm going to put aside the Moto G, not because it's not amazing, but because that could be a whole blog post in and of itself. That little budget phone that has redefined how a budget phone should look and feel continues to go from strength to strength. This year for the first time Motorola has opted for two models of the Moto X, the 'Moto X Play' and the 'Moto X Style'. If you're an Apple fan who doesn't know much about Motorola you'll probably assume this is a direct reaction to the iPhone 6 and 6+ lines that Apple sell. You'd be dead wrong. The Moto X Play isn't even coming to the US and appears to be Motorola's attempt at making a high end phone for the masses. At roughly half the price of an iPhone 6 and with some amazing specs in tow it's going to be very interesting to see how its story plays out (sorry).

But I'm all about the Moto X. Motorola said all the right things at the event. They've improved the camera and the screen of the 2014 model. Battery life is better. They are sticking to stock Android with a few custom additions. There are more customisation options now in Moto Maker. So I should be ecstatic right? Well honestly...no. I feel nervous and worried. Worried that the phone has gone from what seemed like a perfect 5.2" screen to a 5.7" one. Nervous that Motorola might end up being all talk and no game when it comes to the camera. On the camera front it really will be impossible to know until people start testing it. Hands on time from sites like The Verge help, but really you can't tell much about a phone by taking a few photos in a room. On the size front there's side by side shots of the Moto X and the Nexus 6 (a phone I find uncomfortably big) and it's definitely smaller. It's also smaller than the iPhone 6+ (another phone I find too big). But is it small enough? I sure as heck hope so Motorola. I've been impressed with your last two devices and your comeback in the last few years. Please don't let me down.

If you've ever been curious about how Google, Manufacturers and Carriers work together to bring you an Android phone, then this episode of Material is for you. We also discuss the recent Motorola event. It's worth staying past the closing music just to hear my favourite bit of any podcast yet!

• Pocket Casts Link
• Website

This weeks episode of Material Podcast is out! We had the privilege of interviewing Andrew Bunner and Akshay Kannan from the Google Nearby team. If you want to hear about some behind the scenes stuff about how this technology was made, and where it might be going, you owe it to yourself to listen.

• Pocket Casts Link
• Relay FM Website

When I first started Rusty Rants, I had no clear goal in mind for how often I'd post here. My idea was that whenever something took my fancy and was too long for Twitter, I'd drop it here. As the site got more and more popular though, it started to make me think twice before posting things to it. Is this good enough? What if I'm wrong about this? It certainly didn't help that I met a lot of people from both Google and Apple at I/O and WWDC that all said they read it. I felt like yelling "GET OFF MY LAWN KIDS"...but then I remembered that I'd set up this lawn and stuck a sign on it that said "Come take a look, everything is free".

So let's make a deal, you and I dear reader. I'll leave the stats page closed and post whatever takes my fancy. You in turn will just skip over anything that bores you. Deal? Deal. Awesome.

So the first thing I haven't been posting about is every time a new episode of Material comes out. I think I might from now on, just for kicks. Todays episode is for anyone who has ever wondered about what Google Now is, and where it's going. Next weeks episode is going to be super interesting, but I might leave that a surprise.

I wrote a draft of a slightly conspiratorial post about how it was interesting that Apple News and ad-blocking Safari extensions were both launching with iOS 9. One being exclusively supported by iAds, the other one potentially cutting off mobile ads on iOS at the knees. In hindsight I'm glad I didn't publish it without researching it more. I'd like to do more of that from now on. In fact for those on iOS 9, I added this very blog to the platform, just to see how it all worked. You can add it by tapping this link on your iOS 9 device.

Oh, and future posts should be more about other things and less about me. Look at me making all these rules with myself and agreements with you, my imaginary Internet friends. We should totally poke each other on Facebook sometime!