Tag Archives: Android

Walking a fine line with Apple fans this week

  By TurboFool | October 7, 2011 - 10:57 pm | Computers, Electronics, Phones, Software 4 Comments

The tech world is in mourning this week, and that’s fine. We (and I do mean we, despite what’s coming) lost a great, visionary leader in our world who had a major, profound impact on the shape of technology. No, he wasn’t much of a designer himself, and he wasn’t the messiah he was made out to be, but his drive was very, very much responsible for pushing the industry in some major directions.

The iPhone alone has been profoundly impactful on my life, even though I’ve never owned one. Although Android was in development well before its release, and other smartphones existed, and ALL of the technology that was put into the iPhone existed before it (plus plenty that didn’t hit it for months or years after), Apple managed to make it visible, usable, and accessible to the consumers. They also had the balls to use hardware that drove the cost of the phone up to 2-3 times what people expected to pay for a phone, knowing their hardcore fanbase would buy it, and allowing them to bring the cost of these parts down for the rest of the tech community. The need and the availability made the other smartphones that many of us prefer a feasible option.

Out of respect this week I’ve tried to hold my tongue in places I normally don’t. I try to avoid the Mac vs Windows (Macs are PCs, which even Steve referred to them as before their marketing decided to try to brand them as some other class) debate as much as possible, and more importantly I try very, very hard to avoid expressing a biased, fanboyish angle on it. I try to be fair, and I cede a ton of points in Apple’s favor despite my personal conclusions. But this week I’ve tried to avoid even that out of respect.

But the hyperbole the fanboys are spouting right now has reached a level that I just have to speak up on one thing that’s the most common issue I deal with here, and the most ridiculous one of all. And it comes down simply to this:

Windows users are not merely unenlightened.

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Tablets are nothing like game consoles

  By TurboFool | August 22, 2011 - 6:38 pm | Electronics, Gadgets, Software, Video Games Leave a comment

Today I saw a status on Facebook that caught my eye. A friend commented in reference to the failing of WebOS that it was time tablet manufacturers learned to go with the game console model of selling their hardware at a loss. I thought about this, and realized the flaw. Here’s my reply, copied-and-pasted:

Those two models can’t be compared for a variety of reasons:

In game consoles the manufacturer designs high-end hardware that’s beyond what’s feasible to sell at the price the market will bear. They take anywhere from a $100-200 loss at launch (unless you’re Nintendo, in which case you take no losses). Licensing fees, per game sold, are somewhere around $5-10 per game, so the manufacturer on games sold alone makes back that loss in 10-40 games sold per launch-priced console over its lifetime, plus profit on extra controllers and other accessories which are a higher profit margin. Meanwhile they don’t continue to take that same loss. Over the course of the first year the volume sold, die shrinks, and manufacturing improvements shave a good half of the loss off the cost of the unit, and typically there are no price drops. Price drops tend not to come until year two, when there’ve been even bigger die shrinks, various chips have been combined, and other components have been shrunk and cheapened. The first price drop typically correlates with the manufacturer being able to finally stop taking a loss on the hardware, now breaking even. The costs continue to decrease, and usually by year three or so they begin to make a small profit on the hardware while continuing to drop its price. By the end of its life they’re making a profit on every unit sold, continuing to sell games with those licensing fees, continuing to sell accessories that haven’t dropped in price at all, and have successfully recouped the lost profits on the launch systems while having more quickly recouped said costs as time went buy with each later system sold. This entire process is allowed for by one simple principle: the specs and capabilities of the system never change over those 5-10 years. Maybe pack-in hard drive increases in size, or hardware gets smaller, but the expensive design and specs never change.

In tablets, first off, unless you’re in a closed OS like iOS or WebOS, you’re not making ANY money off of software sold for it, and the vast majority of accessories are not licensed or made by you, and the vast majority of users don’t want them anyway. But assuming you’re on one of the closed OSes, there are two very notable differences: One is the price and profit of apps. Most of the apps are free, and most users stick as closely to the free apps as humanly possible. Of the apps that aren’t free, most are $.99-$1.99. Assuming a common figure, the cut of the app store is as much as 70 percent of that, so basically $.69-$1.39. Pretending they subsidized by the above-mentioned $100-200, that would be anywhere from 72 to 290 apps sold before they broke even on their initial loss. And unlike game consoles, they don’t get the luxury of continually lowered costs, eventually selling their hardware at a profit. Because they’re expected to release a new, better, faster, smarter, cooler, slimmer, higher-resolution model every six months to a year. So by the time their costs could begin to reduce, they’re forced to re-up with new hardware that costs about the same and the process begins again. And of course for Android and Windows Phone 7 it’s even hardware because the manufacturers have no cut in the app store, so their ONLY profit comes from the hardware, itself.

I’ve personally bought no more than ten apps since I switched to Android two years ago, and I’m on my second Android phone. Pretending either manufacturer could make a profit, they would have lost a ton of money on me with that model. I know we’re talking about tablets and not phones, but the model’s the same and the store is the same. Over the year or two I’d own a tablet before upgrading it–and pretending I’d even consider a closed OS–the odds of the manufacturer making even $50 from me is slim to none, and I doubt I’m anywhere near alone in that. It just makes no sense.

One place we may see this carry out differently: Amazon’s upcoming tablets. Rumors are they’re going to subsidize, and for them there’s more logic to this. Odds are they’ll customize the hell out of the Android OS to make their own Appstore the only one built in, and the easiest-to-use default. So they’ll have all the app sales, definitely. But Amazon also has arguably the best music store available, so they’ll also gain all the profits from people more easily buying music through them. And finally they have Kindle, which has already eclipsed all hardcopy book sales on their site. They’ll have a ton of new Kindle owners with their tablet buying books directly from their store. But it’s only by combining these THREE exclusive revenue streams that they could likely have any real hope of recouping their losses on the hardware. And even so, I doubt the discounts will be as huge as people are claiming. But time will tell.

Any thoughts? Flaws in my logic, or models I’m not thinking of in which a tablet, whether closed or open OS, could manage to earn its manufacturer money while sold at a profit?

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YouTube Remote – An example of the future

  By TurboFool | February 26, 2011 - 1:28 pm | Computers, Electronics, Entertainment, Gadgets, Internet, Phones, Software, Television, Video Leave a comment

No question one of the best parts of Android is its extensive app marketplace. On top of that, if you’re a fan of Google’s various services the integration it offers with them is extensive. From having your contacts available within seconds of first setting up your phone to having Google Maps remember your recent search history from your desktop, the connections are great. One place this ties in especially well is with YouTube.

ss-0-320-480-160-2-5e4bc14e6d6c83f703d7c95b99fdfeba7d39b28fNow of course Android ships with a solid YouTube app for viewing YouTube videos on your phone. It works beautifully, makes searching, accessing favorites, playlists, etc. easy, and it has a slick interface. But a few months back Google released an app called YouTube Remote that takes a different tact. Initially it appears quite similar in setup and layout, except it doesn’t actually play any videos—at least not on the phone. Instead you browse to YouTube.com/Leanback on your computer (preferably a HTPC) and make sure you’re logged in, then log into YouTube Remote with the same account. Suddenly you have Play/Pause/Skip Back/Skip Forward/Next/Previous buttons on your phone that control the video on the screen, you have access to your favorites, playlists, searches, and a queue so you can manage your entire experience from your phone.

Besides the portrait list view, if you tilt the phone to landscape you get full-screen controls overlaid on top of the video’s still and access to the Thumbs rating buttons and the ability to do most of the other things you’d want to do with a YouTube video besides simply watch it.

ss-1-320-480-160-2-f16ac65b78cd0622ecf8c6528667c9a7edc33507In my home a common activity when friends come over is for someone to remember this cool video they saw on YouTube and put it up on the TV. While that’s happening I’ll often think of another video we need to watch afterward, or someone else will shout out one we need to watch. With YouTube Remote, instead of having to remember these and search for them when the video’s over I can just search for them right on my phone, click the + button and add them to the queue so as soon as the current video’s over the next one starts. I can also reorder the search results or other lists, so if I’m on a Tim Minchin kick, or want to play some of Bo Burnham’s greatest hits I can just search for them, hit play, and then start reordering the search results without ever messing with my queue.

To me this represents a prime example of the future we’re living in. I’m using the slick, intuitive, touchscreen interface of my phone to control YouTube directly and have it push its contents to the computer on my TV. It’s so simple, it’s so easy, it’s so effortless, and I think it’s easily overlooked by most people as being exceptionally cool and sophisticated. Heck, I’m pretty sure few people have any awareness of this app, which is a shame.

What are the catches? Well, I think it’s arguably not that handy if you’re not on an HTPC, as directly using a keyboard and mouse are still easier options, minus the ability to add to the queue without interrupting the current video. Also if you get a text message or an email and go check it and the app manages to unload itself from memory, when you go back in it will completely overtake the current play session on the computer and start over with whatever video is at the top of the list it loads. I hope this gets fixed in a future version, as it’s about the only aspect of the setup that’s limited.

I hope to see better collaboration between devices of this type. There’s a lot of great syncing in place already, such as with Chrome automatically transferring EVERYTHING immediately upon logging in in a new location (including the Cr-48 netbook I was surprised with earlier this month), and there are great streaming options like Windows 7’s ability to stream my home music and video library to my notebook via Windows Media Player, or even using Remote Desktop to connect to my home computer from anywhere (including my phone). But it’s this type of instant communication between devices that genuinely enriches the experience and isn’t merely showing off that I’m excited about. I can’t wait to see more of it.

You can get YouTube Remote from the Android Market.

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Why I hate Android

  By TurboFool | February 24, 2011 - 10:21 am | Electronics, Gadgets, Phones, Software 2 Comments

Okay, first things first: that headline was pure sensationalism at its core. I love Android, and there are currently no alternatives to it that I would consider as reasonable replacements for everything Android does so damn well. But it’s very often the little things that can really frustrate you when dealing with a device or platform.

Case in point, Android’s handling of its multimedia duties. See, when Apple decided to get into the smartphone biz, they completely changed the paradigm of what we expected. Instead of a phone built around business needs that could also browse the web and play audio files, they started with an iPod and built around that. In fact that’s what led to many of the early jokes about the iPhone really just being an iPod that made phone calls. It was initially best at its roots and poor at everything else. It’s since improved drastically, although the joke that it’s terrible at making phone calls remains.

Meanwhile Android came from a more base concept of trying to do everything, and launched after the iPhone set the standard for these concepts. It, IMO, got the overall OS concept down much better, appreciating that we need to run more than one app at a time, that when something wants our attention it shouldn’t completely overtake the activity we’re participating in, and allowing applications to tie their needs together in all kinds of clever and involved ways. But what it lacked was the long history of multimedia experience to inform that functionality, and that’s where it still fails.

To be clear, Android’s built-in media abilities are fine. They do the job well, their interface is decent, and I have little need to complain about it. Some phones, such as the Galaxy S line, include support for a lot more codecs making it actually EASIER to play videos on my phone than on an iPhone (my Epic 4G has so far played every single video format I’ve thrown on its card, without conversion) or Zune, and include improved media players. As well the Android Market is packed with alternatives for better podcasting software than Google’s passable Listen app, better video players such as mVideoPlayer, better music apps such as DoubleTwist or WinAmp or a dozen others, streaming options like Slacker, etc. Point is, its flexibility allows it as a media device to functionally match or surpass the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 quite comfortably, even if not as fluidly or naturally. So it’s not in its technical abilities that Android fails me. It’s merely in one simple overlooked place: audio mixing.

Android seems, under most circumstances, unable to mix two disparate sources of audio into its output at the same time. When playing music, a video, streaming audio, playing a podcast, etc., any other audio playback that occurs (such as the variety of notifications your dozens of apps can use to get your attention, carefully customized to exactly your needs, or directions from your navigation software), the OS will simply kill whatever audio track was already playing for as long as it takes to play back the other audio (including any dead silence that was included in the clip before or after), and then continue playing the original line of audio. It doesn’t pause the audio, it merely mutes it. When playing back music this is unbelievably annoying and distracting, and when playing back an audio book or podcast it’s simply unforgiveable. The number of times I have to hit the skip back button in BeyondPod to see what I missed because an email came in while I was enjoying the latest Drabblecast is ridiculous, not to mention mildly unsafe. And even in music it leads me to avoid using Slacker or my other amazing music sources when I have guests in my car because it’s simply embarrassing to have the audio constantly shut down while we’re trying to enjoy ourselves. I find myself apologizing for it or simply shutting it off and switching to FM.

So far Google seems unconcerned with the issue despite the large number of complaints in their support sites about it. The problem’s existed throughout every version, and it doesn’t seem to be acknowledged. But it’s enough to make me consider digging out my Zune again just for audio, except it still fails to provide me the streaming options I’ve grown to expect since switching to Android.

Another smaller failing in this area is Android’s handling of Bluetooth when there’s an audio cable plugged into the device. It seems to assume that if I have anything plugged into the headphone jack that I must prefer to use that as my hands-free solution instead of the paired and connected Bluetooth headset. This might make sense if I were using the included headphones with microphone built in, but it’s a failed assumption when I’m in the car and have an audio cable plugged into my sound system. It’s even more of a failure since it doesn’t notice that my audio cable doesn’t have a line for microphone, can’t deliver audio to it, and doesn’t leave the phone’s built-in mic open. So when I’m driving and listening to music through my phone and I get a call, despite having my Bluetooth headset on and in my ear, I have to reach over and unplug the audio cable from my phone and then answer the call, otherwise I hear my caller through my car’s speakers and they hear nothing in response. The iPhone, as far as I’ve witnessed, actually asks you which device you want to answer through when a phone call comes in, routing to your Bluetooth or other options accordingly. Presumably if you were to hit the answer button ON your Bluetooth it would be smart enough to route there. Android still doesn’t do this.

These issues aren’t enough to override everything that I love about Android, but they are enough to cause some audible profanities in my car for reasons I don’t think are necessary. These SHOULD be easy to fix, as even Windows Mobile, for all its failings, worked fine in these circumstances. And yet, at least for now, they remain untouched. Google’s lack of concern on these types of matters seems to border almost on Apple’s methods of telling their users their desired features don’t matter, except Google instead simply ignores the problem entirely. It’s unfortunate, and I really hope it improves. While I’m sure there are other issues with Android that bug me, if these two problems were resolved I’d feel as close to 100% happy with it as I could in a technology world with a constantly moving target of expectations. Let’s shore this up and move on.

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Sprint and the Samsung Moment

  By TurboFool | May 21, 2010 - 9:10 am | Electronics, Gadgets, Internet, Phones Leave a comment

So I picked up Sprint’s Samsung Moment back in December because it was time to move to a modern phone OS. I’ve been a Windows Mobile user since before it was called Windows Mobile (Pocket PC 2002 was my first version), and had several Windows Mobile phone I liked overall and knew well. But I also knew their limitations, performance, and base functionality were not going to be compatible with the general way smartphones were meant to be used. While I won’t buy an iPhone, I’m not clueless about the advantages, and while I could defend Windows Mobile’s reasons for the way it did things until I was blue in the face, there were other matters that were hard to ignore.

So I made the decision to move to Android. I’m a Sprint user, and overall I’ve been very happy with Sprint. They’ve had their moments, and I’ve considered leaving on occasion, but they’ve always made good on their issues and their rates are good. So that narrowed my selection down to only two Android phones. There was just the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment; no Droid, no Nexus One. And since I’m pretty hard set on having a QWERTY keyboard (or at least was at the time), and the Moment has an 800Mhz processor instead of the more common 600Mhz, I decided to go that route.

Both phones were “crippled” (exaggerating, I know) with Android 1.5. Not that it’s a bad version, but we had phones with 2.0 and some hitting with 2.1 already, not to mention many on 1.6, and yet these two still had a version that even Google was not supporting in half their app releases. That said, Sprint promised an upgrade to 2.1 in the first half of 2010, so I made the jump.

In general the phone was fantastic overall. While it had issues to overcome, its Market apps allowed me to plug in and tie in functions and features that resolved nearly all complaints, and performance was mostly fantastic, although randomly as bad as my Windows Mobile phone at times. Still, it changed the way I used my phone in general and made me pretty happy. Battery life was dreadful, though, forcing me to buy an extra battery, since NOBODY makes accessories for the Moment. It also had an annoying habit of randomly dropping my connection overall, sometimes during a call, but usually while doing nothing. It would pick it back up shortly after, but it would kill anything I was streaming or browsing.

Eventually leaks of 2.1 for the Moment hit, which I ran and was instantly enamored with. Pretty much every remaining complaint I had was resolved and performance went way up. Minor nagging issues remained, though, like GPS would almost never lock on, and stability was iffy.

Now Sprint caught a lot of flack for how much they delayed the 2.1 update. I won’t give them that crap myself. The reality is I can’t imagine how difficult it is to build and ship a stable, functional update to an OS like this. And while they did keep delaying it, in the end Sprint did release the update in the first half of 2010 as promised, and overall it’s great.

But there are a few rather serious catches, and they have me concerned. For one, GPS is still awful. Randomly it will fail to find my location, or take five-plus minutes to do so, or even force me to fully power-cycle the phone before I can get a lock. And then once it does work, it’s extremely flakey. I can be driving along the freeway and suddenly be informed that I’m on a side-street near the freeway and be given directions to get back on the freeway I’m already on. This isn’t terrible on long stretches, but if I’m already near my destination, or on streets, it can completely break my ability to follow the directions. Wasn’t like this on 1.5.

Another bigger issue is what’s being referred to online as data lockup. Randomly, but usually when the phone’s connection is being pushed by large downloads (such as Market updates) or streaming music/video, the data connection will completely lock up. I’ll get the up-arrow on the EVDO symbol locked on, no Internet will work, and then eventually the whole EVDO symbol will disappear and the phone will be without Internet until I pull the battery (shutting down isn’t enough) and then reboot the phone. And then it could be as soon as five minutes after I start it up again before it happens again.

The thing is, no matter how happy I am with Sprint overall, I know their patterns, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see these issues go completely ignored. In fact, I suspect this may be the last official update we receive for this phone before Sprint moves their focus to the upcoming Moment 2. And that seems unreasonable to me. Perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe we can expect another patch. But after how crazy it was to get this one, I can’t imagine them putting that much more effort into a phone that’s about to be EOLed (end-of-lifed). Which leaves those of us who sunk $200 into this phone SOL until we can afford to sink another $200+ into their next phone once we qualify for an upgrade on this one, and who knows how we’ll be treated then?

This is one place where I have to begrudgingly give Apple some credit for the iPhone. By being the only manufacturer, and by having only one (albeit crappy) provider, they have a lot more control and accountability for issues like this. I’d like to see Google make some efforts to improve matters like that. Even so, I can also imagine this would be less of a problem if it were an HTC phone. They have a better track record when it comes to this sort of thing, and I expect we’d get better support.

We’ll see what happens going forward, and I’m hoping Sprint steps up and manages to do right by their users on issues like this. And I hope Google does a little more to improve the upgrade process for their hardware developers so there’s less random disparity. Meanwhile I have my eye on the HTC EVO 4G. It doesn’t have a keyboard, but it’s going to be a current-gen phone with HTC’s weight behind it. Unfortunately I’m not up for an upgrade again until December, so unless Sprint resolves these Moment issues, I’m going to be stuck with them until then. Prove me wrong, Sprint, please.

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