For backing up commercial DVDs such as Skins season 1-3, I use the following toolchain:
ripit4me (no longer in development, site defunct, find it on Google) reads the DVD. Pick 1-Click Mode, Full DVD and choose an empty folder.
The software runs DVD Decrypter (no longer in development either, site also defunct but canonical download url available) which does the work specified by ripit4me.
Point HandBrake at the folder containing the now decrypted media files, choose the Standard preset and select a Matroska container and the subtitles to rip.
For each title on the DVD, select the title, then the subtitles, then a destination filename, and click Add to Queue. You cannot alter the entries sent to the queue, only remove them and rearrange them.
I haven't made any Android apps from scratch, but after reading about the APIs I have some ideas:
Some kind of scripting environment that attaches listeners and acts upon things, for instance, when an SMS is received, if the message body matches some regular expression, perform some HTTP GET. (This is definitely out of my scope)
Otherwise, just some similar thing that is scriptable by changing the source (similar to dwm).
The Camera app in Android 2.2 can keep the flash on. Previously this required root in apps like N1 Torch for access to the Linux device file. Now it should be possible through the API. (Has this already been done?)
I'm not big into GUI design but I'd love to do some kind of scripting on my phone.