Flash back 8 years. What would you think of Fox News if they sold t-shirts gushing over newly elected George Bush?
You’d call them the right wing biased scum they are! Right?
Of course this is just a rouse of sorts. I ask because this is exactly what CNN is doing. No, not selling Bush fanboy shirts, but Obama ones.
This post will be a long one. Some time has passed since my last review. Here is what I have installed and how I rate them. These are apps in the Android Market, not the ones that come preprogrammed on the G1. Assume what’s not installed either 1) a duplicate of one I have installed, 2) terrible and has been uninstalled, or 3) doesn’t interest me.
AK Notepad
Simple note taker. Something like this should be included. Don’t like that it doesn’t have a “traditional” save or save as.
AndFTP
Simple FTP client. I really haven’t used it much. Or have a great need for it. If there was a html/text editor on the market, I guess I can use it to edit my websites. I kicked the tires on it, and it seems to work fine.
Any Cut
Used to create shortcuts. Pretty cool app and easy to use. For example I created a desktop icon/shortcut to call my house. And another one to open the browser straight to google reader. I like simple conveniences. This helps make conveniences conveniently.
aTrackDog
Love this app. It tracks all installed apps on the phone, and searches the market to see if there are updated versions. If there is an update, it links right to the new version to install. Before this, it was a pain in the neck to search each app one by one.
BistroMath
Tip calculator. Does what it’s supposed to do.
Bookmarker
A little clunky UI, bit it helps manage bookmarks. Another feature that should be built in, but oh well. It helps overcome the phone’s shortcoming.
Chess
Played a few times. What can I say, it’s chess.
Countdown Alarm
Pretty self explanatory. No more burnt Ellios pizzas for me!
Free Dictionary Org
Another no brainier. I used it once. And only once. Worked though. So I like it.
G-Notepad
Simple txt editor. One one problem though. It won’t save. Perhaps it’s a bug. I’ll hold on to it for a while to see if the bug is ever fixed. Or until someone comes out with one that works. I like saving txt files over what AK Notepad has to offer. Only if it works…
Gmote
Turns your phone into a remote for the media on your computer. Lousy UI. I’m holding on to this until they either polish it up or something better comes out. It’s also a PITA that the phone has to be connected to the same wireless network as the computer. ‘Cause most of the time I don’t know what each is connected to.
GPS Tracker
This is pretty sick. Sick as in good sick. When GPS is activated on the phone, you can track my every move!
http://mattsoreco.com/where/
Here I Am
This is pretty cool too. Same idea as GPS tracker, only you can e-mail or text the coordinates to anyone. That opens up a Google map with your location. I guess it can come in handy if you are lost in God knows where and you need to explain where you are to someone.
imeem
Copied and pasted from my last app update: Streaming music based on favorites. I like it so far, I just need to play with it more and add more favorites.
I guess the downfall is the UI, or else I’d use it much more. Also, you can only skip 6 songs in a given time, so that’s a drawback.
Last.fm
Another streaming music app based on favorites. Picks up where imeem leaves off in terms of UI and unlimited skipping of songs. Only thing, it has some critical bugs to work out. It doesn’t play in the background (unless the app is open). That’s pretty stupid. It also hasn’t been saving any of the songs I “loved,” costing me 2 hours of my life on the weekend. It they work these things out, I’ll be ditching imeem for this.
OI File Manager
Simple file manager. Chalk it up to another feature that should have come with the phone. At lease all of these apps are free for now.
Picasa
Pretty cool add on that lets you sent to Picasa straight from the picture viewer.
PicSay
Lets you add captions and other cool things to pictures. I’ll probably never use it. I guess I want to be cool, so I’ll leave it on.
Pictorial
I actually just uninstalled this one since it appears Picasa mobile web version now lets you view all pics. There used to be a 50 or so pic limit per album. It was good while it lasted. It lets you interact with your Picasa albums.
QSearch
I guess the novelty wore off since my last post. A basic on screen keyboard which allows you to save milliseconds of life and time by enabling you to do Google searches without having to open the keypad.
Quickpedia
Basically wikipedia reformatted for the screensize. I realize how much I don’t use wikipedia since I used this once just to check it out. Good if you use wikipedia though.
Quote Pro
Stock quotes. Nice interface. I can see how much my 401k isn’t worth anymore.
Ringdroid
Haven’t used and probably never will. I’m happy with the funky default ringtone. Another app to make me look cool I guss.
Save MMS
Lets you save text message attachments. Another app that should come standard. Pretty useful given the phone’s lack of ability.
Scoreboard
“Live” sports scoreboard, which allows you to track your favorite teams (nfl, mlb, nhl, nba, et al). It’s also supposed to send you an alert whenever there is a score change during one of your favorite teams’ games. For some reason, for me it’s always late and I don’t get the alerts. I’ll hold for bug updates as this has potential.
Scrambled Net
Cool game.
Shazam
Identifies music playing (on the radio for instance), then lets you tag it, buy it, and/or look up artist. I’ve actually used it, so it’s not just to make me look cool!
ShopSavvy
Lets you scan a barcode of a product, then gives you comparitive pricing in the area. Good for an unsavvy shopper like myself. I haven’t needed it yet though.
Solitaire
Just your basic solitaire games.
Stopwatch
Yes, I’ve used this several times to see how fast I can tap start then stop. I don’t know how much faster you can get than 00:00.1!
System Monitor
I hate that memory numbers this shows doesn’t match up with what the default phone dialog shows. It might be on my soon to kill list.
Text Easy
Never used, but can come in handy for texting multiple contacts. I don’t text much, if you can’t tell.
The Weather Channel
Easier than looking out the window or opening the door to see what it’s doing outside.
Toggle Settings
Eliminates the PITA of having to navigate through settings to do basic things like turn on/off wifi, gps, ringer modes, ets. You can manage all of that stuff on one simple screen.
Video Player
Haven’t used, but it might be ok I guess.
Voice Recorder
I should probably use this more to capture thoughts. Simple to use, save, and send.
Yellowbook
I know where everything is already. Probably good if I ever traveled more.
I need a break now.
The economic slump we’re in got me thinking about credit. Something really bugs me. At some point the amount of used credit out there will exceed (if it hasn’t already) the amount of money there will ever be.
When there are record sales years, is that really good for the economy on the whole if the sales were mostly on credit? It’s kind of just shifting a burden. Kind of like a pyramid scheme.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against loans and credit. As long as they are wise investments, like a home, education, or other things that have potential to return more than the value of the loan and interest.
I’d like to learn more about this. Where is there a politically unbiased economist when you need them?
I think the key to the economic stimulus is to invest in things that will return more than the investment. I don’t want to “create jobs” if the jobs are doing meaningless things. I don’t want to build roads if the roads won’t noticeably help modernization and productivity.
Good speech, right? The how and what are the million dollar questions. Alternative energy is a must, but that might be too long term. What to do?
Or raspberry wheat brew? I have to say, I was skeptical. I got a beer gift pack/sampler for Christmas and this poor lonely bottle went untouched. Out of curiosity, I cracked the bad boy open tonight. Expecting to take just one sip, I was pleasantly surprised. It was great, actually. The raspberry taste was faint. And the beer was light and smooth. Now I have to find this Purple Haze stuff around here:
http://abita.com/brews/purple-haze.php
What the heck is the purpose of an executive order if Obama turns around a few days later and goes against his very own order? That’s exactly what happened, and it’s absolutely baffling.
Obama’s ethics rule in his own words:
…represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any uh under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years.
Yippee!
Wait, not so fast.
The Obama administration has given an ethics waiver for Bill Lynn, a Defense Department nominee who is a former lobbyist.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/01/23/4435049-obama-admin-gives-waiver-for-lynn
Why this is worse than your Treasury Secretary not paying all of his taxes.
This isn’t change! It’s MORE of the same.
Perhaps. They ran out of room on the chart! I float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee!
When my wife saw me taking a picture of the screen, she let me know that I’m a loser. So I know this already.
Is it too much to expect things to work correctly? I’m often aggravated to no end over technology that’s almost there, but not quite. I blow my lid when I visit support forums, where people are cool with the bugs and where people offer workarounds as solutions.
Case in point… For over a year I had Google alerts set up to search for terms, then e-mail my Gmail, which I had set up a filter to send to my work e-mail. I had the rule for said alerts set so it forwarded the e-mail, then deleted it. Nice and clean. Then suddenly in November or so, it stopped working. I didn’t find this out for a while until I noticed I stopped getting the alerts. So I visit Goolge’s help forums. Many others had the same problem and were as frustrated with this as I was. This is where the tech Google fanboys dismissed this as not a bug (working correctly). And the “solution” is to take out the delete part of the rule. Um, NO, this is not a solution. It WAS working. Now it’s NOT working.
I see this more and more. Which brings me to the lay user, which is me. I’m not going to hack into registry files and what not to fix stuff that shouldn’t be broken. The SOLUTION is never a workaround. Especially complicated ones. If the thing isn’t working right, fix the damn thing.
That concludes my rant of the day.
Lately I’ve been perusing message boards and blogs on the G1 phone. There is a tremendous debate among users as to their satisfaction levels. This, along with my own dissatisfaction with Microsoft Vista, led me to do some thinking. I think it might be impossible for companies with complicated products to produce products that will satisfy every one of their customers.
Take for example Vista. I hate it. Why? Because XP was easy to navigate and find files, folders, programs, etc. So why mess with it? I think, and I might be wrong, that Microsoft modeled Vista and produced it with a heavy slant towards users who want a {buzzword alert} rich multimedia experience. I think the casual user, like me, was left out. And my frustrations are some very basic things, like folder structure. Suddenly I had to click 3 times where it used to take me one click.
Now take the G1. I’m a Google addict. I use almost every one of their products and services. So going with the G1 was a no brainer. In my opinion, Is the G1 perfect? No. But it met my basic expectations.
This brings me to the message boards and blogs. It seems G1 users are divided into pretty distinct camps that range from the extremely technical to the very casual. You have Android fans that don’t mind using the phone with a beta mindset to more casual users who demand a finished product.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? Can Google/HTC/Tmobile produce something to satisfy everyone? Consider the phone is being judged by the following:
1) Phone service
2) Text messaging
3) E-mail client
4) Web Browser
5) MP3 Player
6) Camera
7) Everything else from GPS maps to games, the list is endless.
I do take exception to a few notions. The phone is/was marketed to the general public, so the notion that customers should put up with bugs/annoyances to me is an unreasonable response to complaints. Also, a LOT of advice on both the G1 and Vista require technical modifications. This does not suit a less technically savvy user or those who don’t have the time or desire to tinker.
How does a company take all of these considerations and produce a product that’ll be widely accepted? Do they just aim for the middle?