We run down some basics of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich launch — and admit that we’re woefully under-informed about new Android developments. We discuss the future of media and what the latest convergence devices might do to the way we consume TV and movies. And we cover some Apple launch-day glitches and recommendations for iPhone cases.
thanks for the info, guys!
Is it possible to include links to what you talk about in the cast? I try to remember for when I’m in front of a computer, but sadly, I fail. I’ve re-listened to catch it, but again, I fail. I’d really like to check out that site for cables and cases.
Thanks!
I have an android phone and I’m trying to maximise the useage out of it. I would also love to have the setup that would have me connected in the house where things can be controlled, streamed to a multitude of devices (with ease).
2nd Hand information - Apparently, the features of Siri is not that great in the UK and it’s not as comprehensive as it is in the US.The general workaround is to use google. I think it’s something about OFCOM Need to do more research
The site is http://monoprice.com/
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=iphone+case+tpu&x=0&y=0
I’m a big Google enthusiast, and application developer. And follow a lot of news about phones and mobile operating systems & platforms. So, while listening to the cast here’s my thoughts on things…
iOS is more aesthetic, simplified, and consistent. More ideal for users who want things that “just work”.
Android is more open, configurable, which of course comes at a cost of a bit more complicated to use, or takes more research to make sure you get compatible accessories. More ideal for users who want things they can “tweak” or have “more options”.
Spell check & speech dictation, Android has had a long time. Not much new there.
Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) feature Face Lock is probably going to be big, but a “need to wait and see”. A couple thoughts I had regarding Face Lock is for one it could be a real life saver. If somebody has an accident and is unconscious emergency crews could possibly still unlock his device with Face Lock where they couldn’t with a gesture or password lock. But secondly, I wonder if somebody else could pull up a photo of the person (say from Facebook or something) on their phone, and use that to unlock the other person’s phone.
As for iOS Siri, Android has had a very good “Voice Actions” utility for a really long time. You long press a search button and can give it any command of “Send text message to …”, “Listen to …”, “Navigate to …”, “Call …”, “Send email to …”, “Map of …”, “Go to (website)”, and “Note to self …”. Or anything else just gets performed as a general Google search ( http://www.google.com/mobile/voice-actions/ ). However, from what I’ve seen from commercials (haven’t played with on yet), Siri has significantly improved upon this with understanding contexts; so saying “I’m locked out” it interprets as basically “Map of locksmiths” (because that Voice Action will open a map, mark locksmiths, and clicking any allows you to immediately dial them). And while you can also do things in Android like “number of feet in a mile”, and it will perform a Google search for that, it still gives you results on a webpage, instead of giving you a text-to-speech verbal response. That’s where Siri has the advantage. (Although there are also several other comparable alternatives on Android also)
Multi-tasking switcher, nice improvement, but not actually “huge”. Android has always done multi-tasking; this in effect now just captures a “screenshot” of the app prior to sending it to the back to be shown in the switcher. But the ability to kill an app by flicking it off to the side is pretty nice. So task killers, while typically highly discouraged on Android, still exist and get used. So to see it natively in the OS is a welcome addition.
As for the whole patent arguments going back and forth… they’re all freaking stupid to me! See topic of “convergent evolution”. If you have an unique idea or innovation that’s what patents and copyrights are for. But things that are “common sense”, should not be, and that’s where nearly all these patents issues that have had their details come to light, seem to revolve around. Seriously?! How can you claim a patent on “providing an intuitive interface for finger based interaction with a digital environment” (Yes, Microsoft tried to claim that one), or “Using a slide gesture to access additional systems” (Apple got that one, for real!)
ICS Camera, big improvements. Access camera from lock screen, nearly instant capture (take pictures with almost no delay at all). And it does automatic panoramic photo and stitching.
ICS also has some pretty significant improvements with the NFC capabilities. Two phones can exchange data with each other very easily with NFC (similar to what Bluetooth was intended to do, but without the hassle of pairing and limitations of working within specific bluetooth protocols). They demoed exchanging some contact information and map data between two phones using the NFC and mentioned being able to play multi-player games using it. Although they were holding the phones back to back for the demo. If that’s necessary I don’t see it being practical for gaming, but another “will have to see”.
ICS now also sync’s bookmarks!! I live in Google’s “cloud” already. My Documents, Calendar, Email all done there, so they’ve always just sync’ed (wirelessly) and worked with Android. Also, I use Chrome web browser which has an option of syncing your Chrome settings (apps, themes, bookmarks, etc) to your Google account, so if used on multiple computers (home, work, and chromebook) are all always sync’ed with each other. Now the Browser apparently will sync those bookmarks as well to it. That will be a very welcome improvement!
Android also has a system referred to in programming docs as “intents”. Basically, when an app is installed it can register with the OS what types of data it knows how to do something with (like Phone #s, Addresses, URLs, Photos, etc). Then with other apps you can “Share” or “Send” (or w/e term the app uses), and the app basically makes an announcement “Hey I have a <blah> here”. Then Android can provide you a menu of all the apps that can do something with that. So say you use the Camera app to snap a photo, then choose to “Share” it. Android will give you options such as “Scan with Google Goggles”, or “Send with Bluetooth”, “Upload with Picasa”, “Send with Messaging”, “Send to Facebook”, “Twitter”, “Google+”, “Dropbox”, “GroupMe”, “Gmail”, “Photoshop” or whatever other apps you may have. You then pick one, Android sends that data to the app, and that app does what it needs from there. That’s where the real magic of Android lies to me. 3rd party apps that can interact with other 3rd party apps, without knowing anything about each other in a super easy way the user doesn’t even really need to think about!
There hasn’t been any one huge “OMG Wow!” things I’ve seen in ICS, but there are a lot of aesthetic and utility improvements. And to me, lots of smaller improvements is better than one or two big improvement coughsiricough.
Thanks for all the info iPhone vs Android. I’m debating going ahead and getting a new phone before the holidays but the lure of an extra $50 off if I wait until April is warring with my “I want it now” voice. I guess if I wait, all the IOS5 bugs will be worked out? They’ll probably be new Android toys out there too just to make my decision even harder!
One question I do want to ask - for those who have an iPhone, do you use it like an iPod also? I already have an original iPod touch which works fine but I’m wondering what kinds of issues I might run in to if I try to consolidate 2 devices into 1. I’m a “keep separate things separate” girl who doesn’t like consolidation! What kinds of issues do I need to look out for if I do get an iPhone and start to use that for my pod casts and audiobooks?
Oui - as much as I like toys, change really scares me sometimes!
Good cast. I have a lot I could say about the camera stuff, and will do so in a follow up post.
I am so enjoying Modern Geek
Tks Chuck & Juan
Good stuff, interesting and really fun to listen to.
First of all for years I have used Body Glove cases with my Palm Pilots, phones and Droid. I’ve loved them over the years and they have served me well.
I love the price on those monoprice cases! On Juan’s advice I have ordered from monoprice many times and have save hundreds of dollars on stuff that works. I love that place.
But since I didn’t have this information that monoprice had iPhone cases at the time that I ordered the iPhone 4S through Verizon (which I had to do in order to transfer upgrade eligibility from Shootette who received an upgraded iPhone 4 this May transferred from somewhere else in our family plan), I went ahead and ordered this case (Incipio Double Cover):
I LOVE this case! It’s the best of both the soft and hard cover cases and is incredibly thin! I’ll keep everyone posted on how it performs over time. BTW - it comes in black, grey and white at this time.
~Shooter Out
Question for you Shooter:
I know you’ve been an Android user, and now recently bought an iPhone 4s, so I feel like you’re in a unique position to compare Android vs. iPhone.
I bought an Android T Mobile Sidekick a month so go (and love it), but it’s my first smartphone (which makes me easily impressed).
Not much chance I’ll be changing phones for the next couple years, but regardless, I’m just interested in what motivated you to make the jump to the iPhone? Thanks in advance.
It’s interesting that you bring this up because I’ve been thinking about who else has experience with both sides as well because I’d love to talk to them
First of all, I’ve only had the iPhone for less than a day right now so I won’t go too far into it right now. I’m still learning.
Second of all I’ll say that I loved my Droid. It was the perfect “segway” device for me because I was really worried about losing the keyboard at the time and the Motorola Droid gave the Best Of Both Worlds (and yes I am one of the GWCers that likes Commander Shelby). I would have gladly still kept it had it not been for three factors
-
My Droid was getting old and slooooow. I’m not sure if that was from me dropping it one too many times or hardware equipment malfunction over time. It could also have been from lack of RAM-style memory in my first generation Droid Motorola. I was experiencing some problems with the earbud plug due to drops that was starting to bug me and I was experiencing problems with the phone ringing when it wasn’t on mute. So I needed a new device no matter what it was. Chuck and Juan are right, the average lifespan of these things runs at about 18-24 months. It’s just the way things are.
-
Talking about memory I’ve upgraded from 16 GB in my Droid to 64 GB in my iPhone. For how I want to use it with video, gaming (yes I already purchased Final Fantasy thanks to Sean’s GWC 294 Bwana’s sponsored Video Gaming News segment), music, Kindle, etc, I need the 64GB. In fact I need more. I’m already running at only 4 GB of free space.
-
I love the interface with iTunes. That’s where my music is. That’s where a lot of my video is ported into for my mobile devices. It’s easy and quick. Droid just doesn’t have that easy transfer management system. Although I will say the Droid Bionic’s ability to wirelessly network with home computers does intrigue me. As far as I know the only interface between home computers and the iPhone is through iTunes or e-mail. If I’m wrong someone please correct me. I’m simply too young an iPhone user to be an expert.
I’ve been thinking this morning about sending my Droid down to Chuck for some professional grade testing and comparisons Droid to iPhone 3GS. We’ll see though.
Also, as a last note I’m liking Siri. I love the hands-off features while I’m driving to take notes, schedule appointments, play music, etc. There is a lot that SIRI doesn’t do. She doesn’t open the Pod Bay Doors, she doesn’t take us into WARP speed in 2 minutes so we all die and she doesn’t control a lot of the other apps like Twitter and Facebook. But what she does is a leap above what I had to do with my Droid.
Finally, I want to re-attack the lifespan issue. Getting a new device every 18-24 months DOES NOT MEAN having to buy the latest tech. Think of it as a car. Yes you can buy a new car but you will lose thousands of dollars just by driving it off the lot. But it you get a 2-4 year old vehicle with relatively low mileage you’ll save yourself maybe up to tens of thousands of dollars. Phone are NO DIFFERENT!
Yes, I went with the 64 GB iPhone 4S because I wanted/needed 64GB. But I also just bought Shooter Jr a new 32GB iPhone 4. I saved over $250 (around 50%) by doing so between the device cost and Applecare plus vs Verizon Asurion monthly $10.99 insurance cost. Yes, the Applecare plus is only for 24 months, but if the device lifetime is only 18-24 months odds are that you will not need insurance beyond 24 months.
Does that begin to answer your questions? I’m open for more and more specific questions if you have them.
~Shooter Out
ETA: Also in conjunction with point #1, my battery life was sucking pretty hard. I had to depend on portable external batteries or frequent recharging if used throughout an entire day.
You MORE than answered my question. Thank you so much for your detailed response.
I can see that the link to iTunes is a good point. Me, for now anyway, I like my little stick of gum sized iPod Nano as my entertain media device —music, podcasts etc. And I kinda like that being seperate from my phone (even though my Android phone could do all that.
I’m a weird perception space in that I got an iPad a year ago …and only experienced a smartphone very recently.
So to me anything like watching video, playing games, (and even tweeting)…I prefer to do on the nice large screen of an iPad. Doing any of that on a small phone screen seems lame to me. If I need to amuse myself with a phone, yeah there are some pass the time games that are fine–a Tetris for example.
One thing I’m really liking about Android is how well linked to Google it is.
I put something in my Google Calender, Google contacts or gmail on the web and …boom…it instant appears on my phone and vice versa. I don’t even think syncing is the right word cuz it’s automatic and instant.
Also, I buy an Android app online on my PC and …boom…it appears on the phone.
I love the iPad and it’s my only Apple device. But, can’t find anything major about iPhone that can’t be done on a Droid fun (though perhaps more clunkily).
I’m no zealot either way. Though. If I felt compelled I’d move to an iPhone, but I don’t imagine considering doing so for at least 2 years.
Also, I am the OTHER GWC that doesn’t hate Commander Shelby. She lives on in the great Star Trek novel series Star Trek New Frontier 
I was going to type up a few hundred words about the iPhone 4s and it’s camera, but why reinvent the wheel when this review here says exactly hat I wanted to say. Yes it’s a game changer and it will change how we shoot and share snapshots.
[video=youtube_share;Oxm-uE5ABRg]http://youtu.be/Oxm-uE5ABRg[/video]
Monoprice is awesome!
I just bought for Droid X cases as stocking-stuffers my wife and I, plus a new slimline mouse, a white HDMI cable for the Wii, and a 10-foot USB to micro-USB cable for my phone charger (so I can actually talk on it when it’s charging without standing like Quasimodo). With shipping, the order was still under $20, which is the price I’d easily pay for any one of those items at the Buy More.
How has this site been a secret for so long?
Another pro-tip for cable purchases: If you need something relatively common in a pinch, and you can’t wait for a Monoprice order, check out the local dollar stores. Though the quality at these stores may vary much quite a bit compared to monoprice/BuyMore, it’s a low-risk option, as the cost coffee money.
Between Monoprice and dollar stores, It’s been a very long time since I’ve paid more than $5 for most ethernet, USB or optical cables.
Funny: I actually have an S95 and an iPhone 4S. They’re different beasts entirely. Note in the review that all his test photos are in well-lit. I’d agree that for just shooting for fun in well-lit areas (with no intent to create large prints), the iPhone 4S is fine. But if it’s dim or you want to do anything remotely out of the ordinary, forget it. It’s a killer phone cam, but it’s not a camera.
Biggest issues for me, re: 4S cam:
No manual control (outside of focus/exposure lock)
Sensor is way too small for dim rooms sans flash
Flash sucks ballz, except for “yeah, you can see it” pictures (which is to be expected, but hey – we’re comparing to my S95)
No flash control (no second curtain, no adjustments at all)
Location of lens sucks (as pointed out in the review, hands get in the way)
No manual control for video, either
Bottom line: if you’re just pointing and shooting and don’t give a crap what you get – and this is all you do with your “point and shoot” pocket camera anyway – then the 4S is fine as a replacement. But if you own a point and shoot like the S95, you probably didn’t spend $450 for all those features for nothing, and you’ll get virtually none of 'em on the 4S. So if you’re comparing it to a $100 point and shoot, I agree. It’s no S95.
I agree with what you say Chuck, but the vast majority of users of cameras just want snapshots, and the biggest sellers for camera manufacturers are not cams like the S95 or my 1Ds Mark III, but users of things like a Digital Elph or something similar in the $150-200 price range. People like You or I have far more demanding needs, so there will always be a market for something like an S95 or cameras like the ones I uses, but for the vast majority of folks - and here is where camera manufacturers will be quaking in their collective boots - the largest sector of the camera buying market a product like the iPhone 4S is certainly more than perfect for their needs. Hell 8mp is already overkill for most photo journalism work, so the quality for say up to 11x14 print sizes is there in theory.
I took the plunge! My “I want it now” voice won out. Not that it will be here any time soon - the estimated ship date is after Thanksgiving…
A quick thing about Android’s Task Manager handling…
The way Android has nearly always handled task & memory management…
There has always been a very powerful task management system where Android very intelligently decides which tasks to kill if it needs to, based on various things (like apps that have an active Notification are less likely to be killed). And when Android does kill a process it sends a message to the application that the app developer can make use of so they can save current state data. Then if you switch back to that task, Android automatically sends another message to the application, giving it the previously saved data so the application can easily restore back exactly to where it was before Android informed it it was about to be killed. So in effect, apps can be killed and reactivated on the fly, completely transparently to the user, and only removed from memory when there is a need by the OS for that memory. It’s because of that Android never natively implemented a “Task Killer”, but has always had a “Task Switcher”. (But of course apps crash / lock up, so there is still a need for a Task Killer, even though Google doesn’t like them)
Honeycomb (Android for tablets), added the support for capturing a thumbnail image of the application so the quick task switching can actually show images of the applications (whether it has actually been killed and removed from memory or not, since it can quickly be restored to its previous state).
Then Ice Cream Sandwich feature has added support to the quick task switching so the user can “flick” away a task, and Android will kill it (if it still needs to) and remove it from the recent tasks list.
I’d like to add to the phone internal memory running low after installing too many apps discussion.
I am a proud owner of an HTC Desire, which is tech from almost 2 years ago. It’s internal memory is only 512Mb, worst of all after Android is installed, only 128 is available to me for installing apps. I ran out of space very quickly. Desire started out with Android 2.1 (Eclair), but OTA upgraded it to 2.2 (Froyo), and despite numerous times that HTC claimed it will upgrade the phone to 2.3 OTA, it never happened, at least not for me.
However, Android is about freedom. After I got tired of waiting for HTC’s official version of 2.3, I rooted my phone, and got the ROM from InsertCoin, now my phone is running Android 2.3.3, with HTC sense intact, better actually, free Car Panel navigation, and blazing fast. It’s pretty easy, I have no idea why I waited, especially when I build Android systems on development boards for my research…
The a2sd+ version of InsertCoin ROM i installed makes use of a 1.2GB EXT2 partition I created on my 8G sdcard. All the apps are now stored in that 1.2GB space, and I have no way of filling it. My internal memory is now 120MB, and did I mention it’s blazing fast?
So now it’s like a have a brand new phone. I can just reinstall my applications I purchased from Android market (no need to buy again), and the backup software allows me to return all apps to previous state (don’t have to redo angry birds or my 2010 MLB season).
Though all that’s thanks to Desire’s 1GHz Qualcomm snapdragon CPU. So if anyone wants to use Android and root the phone and try out custom ROMs, I suggest go for a phone with at least 1GHz CPU.