Archive for category Android
Bluestacks brings Android apps to Windows. a few thoughts..
Yesterday the internet was abuzz with the launch of the alpha release of Bluestacks, a software package that promises Android apps on Windows.. crazy right? Well.. I couldn’t resist checking it out and I wanted to lay out some thoughts since this is a product I could see using rather frequently.
Samsung copies Apple with “Smart Case”.. wait, nevermind!
The “tech” (or better described as “Apple and how every product on the market relates to Apple”) blogs that I follow have been having a field day since last night, when one of them stumbled on a post from another Apple blog about a case that Samsung was apparently selling in their Korean retail stores. It looks a lot like Apple’s “Smart Cover” for the iPad 2.
Market Misconceptions?
The other day I wrote a bit about how people are confused and ignorant regarding Android tablets.. this is probably the clearest evidence I’ve seen yet-
All About Android, a podcast focused on Android , had this to say about the Asus Transformer:
“That’s gonna be prohibitive..” “It’s gotta be priced on par to the iPad or lower to really compete with it, it’s such a behemoth to compete against. And if it’s priced outside of that, it’s really hard to expect massive amounts of people to buy into it, unless it brings something ridiculously different than is on the market”
Guys.. it’s $100 cheaper than the iPad and it’s the only device I can think of that you can comfortably use at a desk, easily travel with, and pop the screen off for reading in bed.
Doesn’t that satisfy both conditions?
The iPad2: Clearing Jobs’ RDF away
Image by masayukig via Flickr
Did you hear? To great enthusiasm, Steve Jobs returned from his latest medical leave of absence yesterday to introduce the iPad2 to the world.
While this is certainly a worthwhile device to consider in the tablet space, there are, as usual, a few misleading things to clear up. This happens literally everytime Steve Jobs takes the stage, so this may become somewhat of a series. For now, let’s see what Steve got wrong(or lied about):
1. App Availability – While it’s true that there are thousands more iPad specific apps then there are Honeycomb specific apps, Steve missed one important thing. Because Honeycomb tablets aren’t locked down like the iPad is, they function much more like normal computers do and allow a full web experience including Flash. You can transfer your files to the device at will and view websites as they were meant to be viewed.
People use apps for everything on cell phones, and maybe that makes sense.. web sites aren’t formatted for 4″ or smaller screens. But with a 10″ screen, you’re in laptop territory. You can view sites comfortably. Does it bother you that there’s no specific app on your desktop computer for Google Maps, Youtube, or Facebook? No, you just use them within your web browser, and the experience is fine.
Of course, making you believe that you need everything to be an app is good for Steve – Apple get’s 30% of everything sold through their store.
I’ll also take this chance to point out that Android phone apps scale MUCH better to tablets than iPhone apps do. Rather than magnifying the entire screen(which makes text blurry), an Android device actually draws it’s objects natively to scale. Text stays crisp and readable. Images display larger, and if the developer made them big enough, they can display perfectly in a tablet-sized resolution.
2. Price – At one point during the event, Steve compared the price of the iPad to that of the Xoom. Again, he left out some key things. You’re getting more with the Xoom. It’s being reported that the iPad2 likely only has 256mb of RAM(Apple won’t specify) whereas the Xoom has a full gigabyte. This will result in MUCH better multitasking on the Xoom. This goes back to the Android tablets being more like actual computers, whereas Apple specifically wants the iPad to not be a computer. The Xoom also has a microsd slot for expanding it’s internal memory up to 64gb as well as an HDMI output port. The iPad2 also has HDMI capabilities – if you drop another $40 for a special cable.
Assuming you include that cable in the iPad’s price to make them a more even match, you’re basically looking at $30 more for the Xoom, which will net you that extra 3/4gb of RAM and the ability to upgrade your storage down the road.
3. Galaxy Tab sales were smooth, not small. – A few months back, a Samsung employee was misquoted as saying that sales of their tablet were “small”, when she actually had said “smooth”. This has been attributed to her being a Korean, not English, native speaker, but when I listened to the clip, it was pretty clear that she said smooth anyway. In either case, Samsung promptly stepped up to make sure everyone knew she said smooth.
Apparantly Steve didn’t get the memo – he put the misquote up on screen during yesterday’s presentation and used it to slam Samsung.
Let’s not kid ourselves.. we know they didn’t sell nearly as many Tabs as Apple sold Pads, but there’s no reason to misrepresent people.
So there you have it.. Steve Jobs latest misleading , magical , mathematical errors. If you were considering an iPad2 based on yesterday’s presentation, I hope I’ve given you a clearer understanding of what’s going on. If you still want that shiny new black or white iPad 2, more power to you – it really is a nice device.
But as you might have guessed, I’ll be sticking with something Android. I like my freedom.
Waiting for the Verizon iPhone? Don’t bother.
Last night, it became evident that there will be a Verizon iPhone coming sometime next year. This lead to to excitement all over the internet and major media cheering loudly as if something important was about to happen.
Ok,.. you got me. The release of the Verizon iPhone IS important, in a business sense. It will generate millions in profit for Verizon, and possibly hurt At&t as people flock away from their network and it’s reputation of unreliability. But that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.
It’s apparent to me that there are potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of people waiting with bated breathe for this phone, and I want to urge you to stop.
No, I’m not saying the iPhone is a bad phone. In fact it’s a pretty great phone. It was downright amazing or, as Steve Jobs might say, “magical”, when it released back in 2007. Back then, there was nothing like it. An ultra simple, streamlined device that could make calls, surf a full HTML internet, play media and some other neat things. It wasn’t long after that that 3rd party apps arrived, and the phone market has never been the same.
But this isn’t 2007. There is choice now. It’s no longer the iPhone or nothing. I figure there are three main types of people actively waiting for this iPhone:
- You have an iPhone on At&t and want to switch to Verizon.
- You’ve never had a smart phone because you’ve been waiting for the Verizon iPhone
- You have an Android/webOS/Windows phone, but never owned an iPhone.
For the first type of consumer, I get that. You have the iPhone, you like the iPhone, you just want better service. Keep on waiting.
It’s the other two types of people I am trying to warn with this blog post. I assume if you haven’t jumped into smartphones yet, or if you have an Android phone and can’t wait to drop it for an iPhone, that you believe that the iPhone has some mythical properties that will change your life. It won’t. Not any more than an Android phone at least.
See, there was a time, around 2008 or so, when Android phones were a bit behind the iPhone in terms of hardware, and VERY behind in terms of applications. That has completely changed.
For one, there are many Android phones available with matching or superior hardware to the iPhone4. Most of the “high end” Android phones are sporting a 1ghz processor, which matches that of the iPhone4. This includes the HTC Evo, Samsung Galaxy S variants, Nexus One, HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X, and probably a few others that I missed. If the front facing camera is a big deal, Android has that too. You can pick up either the HTC Evo or Samsung Epic on Sprint for those, or wait a bit for the HTC myTouch from T-Mobile, which will also feature Wifi-Calling. With so many choices, there is an Android phone out there that will fit exactly what you want.
And then there’s the apps. Ah yes.. “apps”, the keyword of the late 2000′s. This too, is an area where Android has caught up to Apple in a hurry. You may not realize this, but Android now has somewhere around 80,000 applications in the Android Market. Yes, there are still about 3x as many in the Apple App Store, but what you probably don’t realize is that the majority of all these apps are variations of each other, and the best of the best tend to come from established companies who release on both platforms anyway. Android also has a category of apps that iPhone does not: replacements for “stock” functions of the phone.
If you don’t like the home screen on your Android phone, for example, download a different one on the market. If you don’t like the included text messaging, replace it! If your phone uses a soft keyboard, you even to get to choose from dozens of those, all with different methods of making typing easier than carefully pecking at small letter chicklets on the screen(my personal favorite is Swype). Heck, you can even download alternate Android app stores if you prefer them over the normal Android market. Apple specifically forbids these kind of applications from making their way to the iPhone, so you’re stuck with Apple’s basic grid UI and all the preloaded applications that the phone comes with. The customization that this affords to Android is a feature often overlooked when considering a phone. If you want to preview the Android app store to discover what’s available before you jump in, you can use sites like Androlib.com or Cyrket.com to browse applications in your web browser.
Basically all I’m trying to point out is that there’s no great reason to specifically wait for an iPhone. You can jump into Android today, start enjoying smart phone life, and sacrifice NOTHING while doing it.
You’ll even be able to hold your phone any way you choose.
Android Market Spyware Scare.. let’s not get excited
TalkAndroid is reporting today that a Tip Calculator app in the android market is really a nasty little piece of spyware. Allegedly, this app will intercept all of your text messages and forward them to someone else via email.
So, which app is it? We don’t know. The source for this story is a press release from Chinese Android developer NetQin Mobile. In the release, they remind readers that they have conveniently released their mobile Anti Virus app to combat this and other mobile threats.
So, lets think about this. This unknown developer is warning us that the sky is falling unless we download their antivirus suite on our phones. Doesn’t this sound like something we’ve all seen before? Think about it. Think harder. Read the rest of this entry »
Reverse Lookup v1.9.9
Today I pushed out a fairly significant update to both Reverse Lookup and Reverse Lookup+. I think this is the biggest single update since I’ve been working on them, and it represents a turning point for the app.
Among the changes are code optimizations that improve performance and which will ease future development and maintenance. Probably the most notable change to the end user, is that I’ve added the first unofficial call data source to the search. What this means for users is that you should see fewer “Unlisted Toll Free” results. We still can’t get verified data for these numbers, but now there’s a good shot that the app will be able to return a good approximation on who’s calling. It won’t work all the time, of course, but I believe it will work often enough that most users should benefit.
There were a few other changes as well that I won’t get into here. For more information head over to the esMobile site or search for “Reverse Lookup” on the Android Market.
New Android Market Feature
One thing that quickly became apparant to me when I started developing for Android is that the userbase is largely – how can I put this? – immature.
Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone, but nonetheless the market comments can quickly become overrun by useless conversation, spam, and for some reason, lies.
In order to combat this, Google added comment flagging early on in the life of the market, and today I noticed another feature taking aim at these types of posts.(It’s entirely possible this has been going on for a while.. I’m not on the market enough to where I would have caught it immediately)
It appears that users can no longer leave a comment on an application that they have uninstalled. In these cases, Google now replaces their review with a message that they’ve uninstalled the application and their reason why.
This might be a good way to stop people from downloading apps just to make comments such as “first”, advertise their contact info, or otherwise to sabotage an apps ratings.
As a developer, I definitely see the advantage, though it’s possible to get stuck with “defective” ratings from users who just don’t understand the app. I guess with the good comes the bad.. but in this case I believe the positive results will outweigh the bad.
Google Voice is awesome
In case you haven’t heard, Google Voice is now open to the public. You should go sign up. I guarantee there’s something here that you can take advantage of.
To start off, Google gives you a new phone number which seamlessly integrates with your existing one. Callers who use the GV number are blindly forwarded to your real phone number(or any combination of several real numbers, depending how you set it up.)
Maybe your boss has a bad habit of calling you when you’re off the clock – no problem… route any of those 5pm or later calls from him straight back to your office number!
To cut down on mobile minutes, you may want to talk to your friends on your home phone when you aren’t on the go. You can schedule Google Voice to forward to that line during the hours when you know you’ll be home. Your friends won’t know the difference except that they dialed your Google Voice number to contact you.
You also get SMS service. Using the Google Voice Android app(or their web app for other , more.. ahem.. “tightly controlled experience” phones) you can send limitless texts without blowing through your plan’s quota. Heck, with the Google Voice Chrome extension, you can text back and forth from your web browser. How great is that?
FInally(but not really.. there’s a ton of other features that I’m not going to get to).. you get a great voicemail service. When callers leave you a voicemail(and you can use this service with your existing cell #), you can view the message on the web, as if it was an email. Google uses their excellent voice translation technology to deliver near-perfect transcriptions of any messages you receive. These messages can also be emailed to you if you wish. As mentioned before, I opted for the Google Voice Android App, which expectedly pops up a status bar notification when new VM or SMS messages arrive.
If you’re interested at all, I highly recommend giving it a shot. There’s a ton of ways to make Google Voice do exactly what you want and I haven’t covered even a fraction of them.
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