Android

A short list of technologies you could be using right now if it weren’t for the Apple Fanboys

It is no secret that I love my Motorola Droid, and that the number of Apple Fanboys out there will rebuke anything that is better than any iProduct because it doesn’t bear the Apple logo on it.

So, while the Fanboys bask in the glow of their latest underachieving iProduct (the iPad), here are a list of things that would be really cool right now that would be sold in the American market if Steve Jobs didn’t use the What’s New section of Popular Science magazine as toilet paper.

Despite my objections to devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook, these devices, can and will appeal to consumers more than any iProduct. The only improvement that would significantly defeat Apple from killing these devices is if some sort of Indiglo or Illuminator electroluminescent background were embedded into the background.

Other technologies such as electrowetting and rollability could be used.

Later this year, Lumus will release Lumusvision, a translucent head-mounted display (HMD) that sheds most of the stigmas that the Virtual Reality trend of the 1990s of the big, bulky, ugly, heavy, and geeky HMDs. While the HMD currently featured on the Lumus website still looks rather geeky, this can be modified, especially if a few eyeglass designers get involved.

Another thing iProduct Fanboys will not see is Flash. That $500 used to buy an iPad could have been better spent on an HP or Dell netbook or Tablet PC and still be able to watch videos on YouTube, run more than one application, and connect their USB devices to their computer.

Finally, as computing devices become smaller and more energy efficient, I strongly advocate adding some portable alternative energy system be embedded into the device to increase time between charges. Even if you don’t live in a high solar area, you can still power your device while it is hibernating during the day or running. The reason photovoltaic systems are not endorsed is because people expect a small panel to power a bunch of large industrial factories. Solar has been, and always will be, designed for the small scale unless there is a way to gather more photons but more importantly boost the current in a system.

The real problem with solar panels isn’t due to the lack of direct sunlight (which indirect light could work on some systems) or low voltage (solar panels can generate a good amount of voltage), but the low electrical current. A dilemma that I am personally trying to figure out.

As proof that solar can be a viable alternative for small scale electronics and devices such as netbooks, I’m going to attempt to try developing a system where I can reduce my energy consumption, increase my independence, and optimize performance.

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Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 Android, Augmented Reality, Electronics, Flash, computers, consumerism, energy No Comments

Why Verizon won’t be taking over Charter anytime soon

I have plenty of positive things to say about both companies even if Charter suffered through financial troubles and Verizon’s services is still quite expensive.

You would think that two companies of which one provides some pretty good Internet service and a fairly decent channel line up and another company known for its excellent phone service and outstanding wireless internet coverage would be interested in joining forces against their rivals at AT&T, right?

WRONG! Sadly, these two modest contenders are not at all happy with each other and the St. Louis area doesn’t really know it. Then of course there are the lawsuits between Charter and Verizon. (Note to self: Insert picture of two grown men sissy-fighting with each other in relationship to how these two companies are behaving.)

Charter is still a cable based internet service provider, whereas Verizon can not find a place in the St. Louis market to provide their FTTx (a.k.a. FiOS) service in the St. Louis area. So the duopoly between Charter and AT&T still exists in the St. Louis area in terms of High-Speed Internet service. (Unless of course, Google comes to bless us with whatever they plan on giving out. PLEASE COME HERE, GOOGLE!)

Meanwhile, Verizon, who beat the snot out of AT&T in both Consumer Reports and Zagats consumer ratings this winter, is still both a wireless carrier competing with AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile not only provides wireless phone service but wireless Internet as well.

One of the great things about Verizon is that I can use my Motorola Droid and tether it to my netbook using a program called PDANet.

Since it has been a while since I have blogged, I think I should explain some of the details of my netbook.

In February, I became involved with a group called a hackerspace. The local hackerspace group, Arch Reactor, had an open house meeting that I ‘m pretty happy that I went to and joined the group. (Hence no time for blogging as of late.) Most of the time we hang around and talk about making stuff (not necessarily hacking, but also art, electronics including Ardruino, woodworking, robotics, and a bit of gardening).

Since most of the guys bring their laptops or netbooks, I used some of my rainy-day funds to buy a refurbished HP Mini from someone on eBay. It was probably one one of the best purchases I made. The computer is in great condition (with exception for a little scratch on the bottom of the computer), there is an extra-long lasting Lithium-ion battery on it. And it still runs Windows XP.

So what if I don’t have Vista or 7 on this thing? Most of the time I am either on the Internet or using UNIX-like program with Cygwin as well as an arsenal of other free open-source software available for Windows. To which I’ve tossed out just about all the software that comes on this system. Norton Internet Security (TRIALWARE! Annoying as hell!), Microsoft Office (Trialware! Use OpenOffice.org instead!), Microsoft Works (Crap). I wish I could toss out Internet Explorer, especially since I am using Chrome. But I figured, the less Microsoft stuff I have to use, the less of a security threat I can be subject to. On top of that, XP is stable enough to do some fancy computer stuff like changing the startup animation, the login screen, and replacing the GUI interface.

Anyway, back to PDANet.

PDANet is probably the best $20 worth of software that you will ever spend if you are both the owner of a Motorola Droid or other Android enabled device and the owner of a Netbook with Windows or Mac on it.

Using your phone and your computer to tether with each other to have wireless Internet is downright awesome. I would have almost have been tempted to cancel my Charter subscription if only Verizon didn’t allow any other ports to be used for things like IRC chat, SSH, or even Usenet. (AT&T is the same way, so I can probably speculate and say that every other wireless provider also is not really all that keen at the moment to use any other port than the ones used for web browsing.)

Clearly, Verizon (and its rivals) have issues still with people using their network for doing things other than downloading stupid videos of cats playing the keyboard. But like any computer system that can be modified (even Windows and Android), there is a way around it.

Having a netbook is does not mean the retirement of my old Linux system that I built myself. In fact, it opens the door to allowing for me to better my computer skills and to attempt to make the two computers communicate with each other (of which despite their form factor have pretty much the same abilities and hardware standards for the most part).

My loyal Linux machine is in need for some hardware upgrades that due to the current economy, it was much cheaper to find a netbook to take care of some of the dirty work that the Linux machine could have. That and the netbook is about 20 decibels quieter than the Linux Machine. An issue that is on my todo list when I head out to Micro Center, when and if the Missouri state legislature (particularly Cynthia Davis and Jane Cunningham) pull the head out of their butts and realize that a socialized healthcare system is the reform this country needs to get people back to work. The same can be said about the Tea Party which is also threatening to kill Metro. (Vote YES on Proposition A on April 6th! I like riding the bus, but if adding a half-cent sales tax to cut the time I spend commuting to and from Downtown (which is an hour!) is wrong, then I definitely don’t want to be right!)

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Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 Activism, Android, Business, Free Software List, Internet, Linux, Metro, Missouri, cellphones, computers, hackerspaces, hardware, healthcare, irc, mass transit, ssh No Comments

Droid Does Quite Well

Generally when I write my critiques, I have an unconventional way of writing them. I like to point out the faults and grevances first before pointing out the praise, features, and benefits. This way, when someone finishes reading the article they can think postively about the thing that I wrote about. This can work the opposite way if you list the postive first and the negative second.

I’ve had my Motorola Droid for nearly a week now. Though it is a good phone it is not without grevances.

First, there is the grevances with Verizon. The usage of mail in rebates is so last century. The fact that I have to pay an extra $100 to get that $100 back is BS. The concept of the rebate system seems to be on the idea that people are lazy and that they will not take the effort to photocopy a sales recept (easily done at the workplace, local library, Kinkos, or if you are lucky to have an open top printer/scanner). I certainly wasn’t going to go to Sam’s to pay $184 for a $199 phone that is worth paying an extra $8 for an insurance policy. It also would have been nice if Verizon would have created a printout of what the bill would look like. Though service will likely be near $100/month, there are a few things that can be done to reduce the cost of service. When I find out, I’ll be sure to write about it.

Next, their is the grevances with Motorola. I was suprised to here that the Droid was Motorola’s Hail Mary Pass in that hearing things like Motorola has been putting out some bad phones over the years. The Droid is a good phone….but Motorola wasn’t truthful in reporting the SAR rating of the phone. While Motorola told the FCC that it had an SAR rating of 0.89 W/kg (body) and 1.10 W/kg (head), the manual for the Droid has different values. Like 1.5 W/kg (body) and 1.49 W/kg (head). Of course, it is not like there is someone who keeps track of these things, right? On the other hand, I did disable the GPS on the phone, which probably explains why I don’t need to recharge the thing every four hours. GPS is a nice feature to work with mapping applications, but it can be a real battery drainer and privacy invader.

Which brings me to the final set of grevances that I have with Google. Google has played a big part in the Android Operating system development. It was kind of a let down that the applications I though Google had availble to use Google’s services weren’t there, or were so much better if used in the Internet browser than on the phone. Sure, you have Google Maps (which is good), Google Calendar (also good), and Gmail (which could use an upgrade), but Google does not have any applications for Tasks, Notes, or Docs. These applications are available for iPhone from Google, but Android users, no matter which phone you are using, will need to go to the Internet for that.

Seeing as how the Android operating system now brings Google applications to a mobile device, one can’t help but wonder if the guy at Google who decided to discontinue Google Notebook isn’t kicking himself right now. Notebook would have been a great app for Android, and the fact that it was discontinued is a foolish mistake. It would be like Microsoft removing Notepad because you have Word. Hopefully, someone will reinstate this service so that moble users can jot down notes.

The Android Market deserves both praise and criticism.

If anyone is not aware of the Anonymous hacker group, you should probably know that these guys mean business even in their quirky unorthodox ways. Anonymous is fickle. To either laud or jeer them would be hazardous to one’s online reputation. However, I find their motives of dealing soundboards in the Android Market (under the guise of “Onymous Heroes”) to be conspicuous. While it is great that the Android has many free appications to try out (although It would be nice to see a few more from Google and the Android group), the fact that one of the most stand-alone-complex group might not be so obvious to many users is a little concerning but at the same time a reminder that not everyone is creating programs in the Market (or App Store for that matter) with good intentions. That is, other groups (not like Anonymous) could have their own applications on the market to do some bad things. It is sort of like a reminder by them to say “hey watch your back” or taking advice from a theif on how to better safeguard your home from intrusion. On the other hand, the fact that no one is really keeping an eye on the Market to weed out programs that can be potential secuirty threats should make Android users wary of who the download their software from.

Reguardless, I do have plans on writing many reviews in the future about Android Apps. I would also like to develop some of them. I probably should put more effort into writing things in Java, to which that is what brings me to the upside of this review.

The Android operating system is Linux based, but many of the programs are written in Java. Perhaps I had alot of bad experiences with Java (as I don’t even use Java when browsing the Internet as the processes will keep on running), but the performance of Java on the Android is remarkable! Back when I had a Motorola RAZR, Java was unplesant. Palm couldn’t use Java work a dan on the Treo. But Android, has pretty much saved Java from being just another legacy language. Android doesn’t use the Java 2 SE or ME standards, which probably explains why Android programs are so fluid.

As stated earlier, the security flaws of the Android operating system is not with the operating sysetem itself, but with programs from some shady individuals selling their wares on the Market. However, there are gems among the junk. Where Palm Treo didn’t have the random number generation to develop a proper encryption key to run things like SSH and IRC (or battery life), the Android operating system does. Security is also one of the main goals of the Android operating system. If anything bad happens to the phone because of a program, Google will know about it. So basically, security is very good on the phone.

The Droid has a beautiful and sharp 16:9 screen. Despite the criticism by many critics about the camera, I think they seem to forget that the camera has two flashes on it. And why is everyone complaining about the 5 megapixel camera? Sure, you have to hold down the picture button to take a photo, but 5 megapixels is a sharp good of not great quality camera. (Perhaps my review of digital cameras is short sighted, then again, I don’t exactly have $700 at the moment to go out and buy the latest Nikon camera on the market. So in my opinion, 5 MP is good.)

Another thing the critics have been ripping on is the audio. Perhaps it is the foolish assumption that because a phone has a speakerphone on it that it can be used as a radio. Well…yes and no. Like just about all other smartphones, you will need to use headphones or an audio adaptor that plugs into your car stereo or home audio equipment. With a 3.5mm headphone jack, any set of headphones can be plugged into the Droid. The iPhone, much like my previous phone which was a Palm Treo, does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, iPhone users need to use an adaptor, which in my previous experience of using audio adaptors for headphones, is an unplesant experience as it makes listening to music impossible afte a while. The Droid, like its competitor the Palm Pre, has a 3.5mm jack as opposed with the G1 that has no jack (USB audio only has one purpose: SKYPE!).

Droid does streaming audio much like the iPhone. If there is one Application I can recommend right now, it is imeem Moble. Streaming audio has evolved over the years. Just remember when you do streaming audido, do it where you can get WiFi. Otherwise, don’t forget to bring your music collection with you. (Remember: “unlimited” on the 3G network, no matter which telecom you use, means 5GB.)

So to call the iPhone better because “it has 100,000 apps” and that “it is more popular” is clearly a sign that the critics are not interested in what is new or what is better, just what is cool. Remember that next time when you try to listen to music on your iPhone but can’t because your headphones sound awful because you need to use an adaptor. Remember that when you can’t swap batteries, run multiple applications, take night shots with the camera, or make a phonecall without having to deal with the Jack-In-The-Box-speaker-quality sound.

The Droid Does but Android still needs development.

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Thursday, November 12th, 2009 Android, Linux, Programming, Software, Writing, cellphones, critique, hackers, hardware, java, maps, music, product review, security, ssh No Comments

Motorola Droid: OH GOD! YES!

If you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of months, Verizon has been taking shots at AT&T.

Despite my past complaints about Verzions brash behavior with customers, they now have in their posession the next big thing. So much so, that tonight I saw a commercial for the the Motorola Droid.

Verizon and Motorola have it out for AT&T and Apple! Motorola has the upperhand with successes like the MOTORAZR, which most of my family still uses after all these years! They are selling their phones to just about every provider, and have recently got on board with distributing phones with the Android operating system.

November bodes well for Motorola, with the release of the Motorola Blur for T-Mobile and the Droid (a.k.a. Scholes) with Verizion. The difference between the Blur and the Droid is that Droid will have Android v2.0 and is speculated to be less locked up that the T-Moble Android phones–something that has irked Android developers.

However, the FCC is has not yet gotten with the program, as CNET’s Kent German is reporting that the GSM (old technology) version of the Droid has been approved by the FCC but not the CDMA (new techonology) version. This is expected to change in the near future.

One advantage this time is that the FCC has a tech-friendly FCC chairman especially since there are people so audacious and willing to stand up against “those evil Silicon Vally corporations that make millions because of net neutrality” (*cough*Comcast!*cough*AT&T*cough*). The NCTA commerical demonizing the tech companies was like having the oil industry telling you that the environmental activists are making billions of dollars of of protecting the environment from the oil industries envriornmental destruction. If saving the environment from the oil industry (especially since they do the most damage) is wrong, I don’t want to be right! (Save the Internet!)

Anyway, hopefully the Droid with its “netbook level of computing power” won’t put out as much radation as the T-Mobile/HTC Touch.

We now await November with open arms in the anticipation of triple threat Verizon/Motorola/Android iPhone killer.

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Sunday, October 18th, 2009 Android, Linux, telecom No Comments

T-Mobile’s G2 suffering from Cellphone Anorexia

The world suffers from many psychological, psychiatric, and mental ailments. None more tragic than those of anorexia nervosa. Being told that you will never get anywhere in the world unless you are pretty and slim (to which we learned alot recently that being pretty and slim is bullsh*t) causes people to be overly self-conscious and to feel bad.

Such is the case with the Apple iPhone. It’s slim design has put HTC phone designers in the bathroom hurting themselves when developing the HTC Magic (a.k.a. the G2). (See Gizmodo’s review of the G2)

There is nothing wrong with the HTC Dream’s design. (Just a reminder, the HTC Dream is marketed as the T-Mobile G1.) If anything, it just needs a headphone jack.

A tactle keyboard is a must have for any Smartphone. This quality has made phones like the Blackberry so successful. But now Blackberry is suffering from Cellphone Anorexia as are several other competitors as they try to make phones that look like knock offs of the Apple iPhone. Such conformity threatens concept phones like the Nokia Morph.

But being thin and pretty does not matter! Especially with cellphones. Just like humans, it’s no good having a thin and pretty girlfriend if she isn’t smart and is not afraid to eat out at alot of restaurants. (Tell that to Jeff Zucker at NBC!) The thing about smartphone is that they have alot of applications and that they love to consume energy to run those applications! Think of it as having a pancake breakfast on the day of the final exams. You need that energy to jumpstart your brain! Likewise, there is no shame giving your smartphone a battery that will run those applications without having to make a pit stop to recharge or breaking the bank.

There is nothing great about being pretty and thin as it requires alot of maintenance to be such for alot of people and completely wrong to be that way by taking alot of self-injuring shortcuts.

Be happy about who you are, not what others want you to be.

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Sunday, May 17th, 2009 Android, cellphones No Comments

Why pay for the 3G when you’ll only need the EDGE?

(Quick note: Imagine the guy who announces the ads for the monster truck rally’s reading the title fo today’s article.)

The major cellphone distributors have been bragging for about the past couple of years about 3G (Thrid Generation Moble Communication).

This is great if you live in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Not so much if you live in the St. Louis Area.

A simple comparison of all the major mobile broadband networks (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon), the one with the least coverage of advanced services being the most honest, states that the St. Louis area really isn’t in the 3G neck of the woods. However, EDGE still is.

Having EDGE instead of 3G really is not a bad thing. You still get the Internet at broadband speeds (about 1Mbps max, 400kbps avg), which really isn’t that bad of a deal. It’s not like you need to download the entire Lord of the Rings movie trillogy to you smartphone. Since there still is a cap on bandwidth on mobile networks, it really isn’t that great of an idea to do so anyway.

It is my firm personal believe that telephones, much like computers, should not be used as televisions. First of it is dangerous to watch your cellphone while driving. You shouldn’t be even watching TV while driving in the first place. The same can be said about texting. Talking on the cellphone is possible, since people usually talk to each other in the car as well as listen to music or the radio. However, if you must use you phone while driving, put it on speaker or use a headset. But TV is an absolute no-no for cellphones.

While advances in cellphone technology have made it possible to watch video even streaming broadcasts, the phone as a TV is a terrible idea, and a distraction from the real world.

The phone as a computer is much better. Even more so when ports are not restricted. Text messaging is fun, I’ll admit. Getting calendar reminders and using Twitter (@MrHacks in case you are interested) to share what you are doing and to quickly expressing your thoughts on the days events is quite fun and informative. But it is quite clear that the major telecom providers only interest in data services is to make distractions affordable and information expensive.

I’d much rather use my cellphone as a mini SSH terminal anyday over watching the crap that is on television.

Having a phone where you can replace the standard short-lived battery with one that has an extended life is also good. I used to be into notebook computers. But their short battery life only served as a back up power source if the lights went out. The rest of the time, I would be tethered to the wall.

Notebooks also have the weakness of being limited to small WIFI networks that had restrictions placed by the adminstrator. The phone’s only restruction is a cap on bandwith that varies depending on what services you use. As much as I am a critic against bandwidth caps, this problem is tollerable for the moment.

Another problem with Notebooks is the fact that the sleep and hibernate functions either don’t work or are frustrating to use no matter what operating system you use. The phone can be shut off and the user can pick up from where they left off.

Perhaps it is the fact that I am still using a Palm Treo that I have not been able to enjoy advanced features that newer cellphones have, such as the ability to multitask between programs and the ability to synch the device with the Internet instead of another computer. As I work to prepare to switch phones, as well as networks, I am beginning to contemplate how I should go about this transition.

The first step is to find a program that allows my older phone to communicate with my online calendar and contacts lists. There are some programs which could wiple out everything. When I find which program does not do this, I’ll let you know.

The HTC Dream is a very attractive phone. Marketed as the T-Mobile G1 in the United States, the Android operating system has made this phone look like a vibrant alternative to the Apple iPhone’s minimalism and restrictions against users and developers. The Dream, like any good cellphone also has a removable battery (always convenient, since no cellphone is perfect).

Then there is the HTC Magic, scheduled to come out next month, though no provider has called dibs on it yet. There is a good chance T-Mobile will probably be the one as the buzz on the Internet seems to point toward a G2 in the near future.

One of the many wishes I had for cellphone/computer development is being able to enjoy the weather as well as work. Notebooks could only make promises. And when backlights added to LCD screens came to smaller devices such as cellphones, it became hard to see the screen in daylight. At this point, the only problem that cellphones have yet to conquire is daylight visiblity.

The cellphone has unplugged the computer, unteathered us to the wired network, conquired the lifespan of the battery, and paved the way for the minimization of storage. But hardware is only as good as the software that runs on it.

Secure Shell, or SSH, is a MUST if you are into computer programming or run a website. Accessing a smaller computer to interact with a larger machine has been one of the great things about computers. The fact that you don’t have to download many programs to use them. There was a program for Palm devices called TuSSH that was pretty good but because non-Palm created programs love to suck up the battery, and because Palm’s random number generator and security features are not as tight as they are with the latest generation of cell phones, TuSSH kind of faded away.

Android has an SSH program called ConnectBot that looks very good.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is another thing that Palm devices couldn’t do. Android can do IRC. IRCell is a program. One of my many problems with IRC is really finding a chat room where people don’t exclude you from joining the conversation. In the future, I plan on finding and identifying IRC networks that won’t abuse you for not being part of their clique.

Finally, there are hopes that Flash will make it to the Android platform. While I can’t provide any links to software that may be available, the fact that it is on the table is exciting. Hopefully, this will be available when the G2 comes to market later this year.

I have quite a todo list going here. Let’s try to make it shorter.

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Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 Android, Flash, Palm, cellphones, hardware, irc, ssh, telecom No Comments

 

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