All sorts of cool smartphones running Android are being produced lately. The HTC Evo 4G, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S (a.k.a. Captivate for AT&T or Vibrant for T-Mobile), just to name a few. Here's my humble yet entire adequate thoughts on the phones.
HTC Evo 4G
I wrote something about it a while back. Look there. It's good for you.
Motorola Droid X
Much the same as the Evo 4G. It's a little bit taller and actually has buttons--not the capacitive things the Evo has. Unfortunately, no stand, but it does have an external button for the camera, like a shutter release. Where the Evo has an ARM-based processor, the Droid X has an OMAP chip from TI clocked to 1GHz.
Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate/Vibrant)
Now for my personal favorite, the Galaxy S line. For one reason or another, Samsung decided to run the same phone innards with slightly different shells and sell them to different carriers. I recently went to the AT&T kiosk in the mall and played with the Captivate (the flavor AT&T gets). It's a nice thin (0.39") phone, but it feels a bit laggy when I use the menus and such. Perhaps if you dumb down the ultra-smooth interface, it would speed up.
As I understand it, it has a "6-axis accelerometer." Yes, there are only 3 dimensions in space. So, I suppose there are two accelerometers. Pretty cool, eh? Also, it comes with a 16GB microSD card. So, it doubles as a music/video/picture/whatever-else player.
And the second coolest part in the Galaxy S line is its 1GHz Hummingbird processor. It boasts 3x the processing power of the Snapdragon processor. Pretty sweet.
And the very coolest part: the AMOLED screen. As far as I can tell, this is the only phone with this spiffy screen. It's very thin, and the touchscreen is built right into the display, not overlaid. THAT is why this Samsung takes the cake.
All that isn't without it's drawback. Yeah, only one. By default, the GPS has issues, and you'd need a geek to fix it, although there are step-by-step instructions online.
As a final note, any one of these phones can and will blow the iPhone 4 away. But those loyal Apple users will need something more before they switch.
P.S.: The iPhone 4 has an antenna problem where if you hold it just right, you loose signal. I'd recommend you not buy the first version. In fact, I recommend you not buy any version.
8.04.2010
7.30.2010
Anybody for a free DVR?
A few days ago, I got the sudden urge to build a media center PC that could replace our 10+ year-old TiVo. I looked at several options, such as LinuxMCE, Windows Media Center, etc, but came to the conclusion that MythTV would fit the bill perfectly, so to speak.
The problem with LinuxMCE is it's too big. Between phone integration and home automation, there's not much room for just a media center. Windows Media Center is just Windows-y, so that one got ruled out quickly.
MythTV does exactly what I want. It's built to be a fast, efficient media center, but it's got enough features to pwn the TiVo, such as weather, video, and news feeds.
One of the coolest things about MythTV is it's modular--the database is different from the GUI. In theory, I could set up thinclients by each of my TVs, make a network boot image, and have a massive server sitting in the backroom somewhere. But, I don't have the money for that.
The only drawback to MythTV is it doesn't do channel handling really well. It also recommends an account on SchedulesDirect.org, which costs $20 per year for programming feeds.
As for the setup, it took me an afternoon, and I wouldn't recommend MythTV to a first-time Linux user. There are some hoops I had to jump through to make it work with my TV tuner. Kudos to Dave Kerr for giving me a Hauppauge PVR-150. It's not the best tuner in the world, but it works.
Some interesting links:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_pvr150.html
http://www.mythtv.org/
http://www.mythbuntu.org/
http://www.linuxmce.com/
The problem with LinuxMCE is it's too big. Between phone integration and home automation, there's not much room for just a media center. Windows Media Center is just Windows-y, so that one got ruled out quickly.
MythTV does exactly what I want. It's built to be a fast, efficient media center, but it's got enough features to pwn the TiVo, such as weather, video, and news feeds.One of the coolest things about MythTV is it's modular--the database is different from the GUI. In theory, I could set up thinclients by each of my TVs, make a network boot image, and have a massive server sitting in the backroom somewhere. But, I don't have the money for that.
The only drawback to MythTV is it doesn't do channel handling really well. It also recommends an account on SchedulesDirect.org, which costs $20 per year for programming feeds.
As for the setup, it took me an afternoon, and I wouldn't recommend MythTV to a first-time Linux user. There are some hoops I had to jump through to make it work with my TV tuner. Kudos to Dave Kerr for giving me a Hauppauge PVR-150. It's not the best tuner in the world, but it works.
Some interesting links:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_pvr150.html
http://www.mythtv.org/
http://www.mythbuntu.org/
http://www.linuxmce.com/
6.21.2010
A New Internet
Well, not an entirely new internet, but a whole new breed of domains.
We've all heard of .COMs (you're at one right now) and .NETs and .ORGs. They're the things on the end of website names. Google.com, microsoft.com, blogger.com, pbs.org, etc. Over the years, the list of possible domain names has been dwindling to the point where it's hard to start a business because you can't buy a domain name.
Enter the .CO. Registration for this domain extension began on April 26 (2010, of course) and will continue until July 20 at 2 PM Eastern time. Oh, but you don't actually get your domain until July 20 at 2 PM Eastern. And it's expensive too! Godaddy.com (there's a .com again) sells the "priority" registration for $300 and the "standard" registration for $30. Oh, that's only for the first year. Currently, .COMs are running at $10.69 per year.
Overall, I'm sure it will benefit the internet as a whole. Registrar companies (Godaddy, NetworkSolutions, etc.) claim that it a "global, recognizable, and creditable domain" and that "it's meaningful, memorable, and intuitive to use for people around the world", obviously trying to stimulate international trade.
I intend to make sure we get Speedshow.co in the mix. For those of you who don't know, Speedshow is a photography scoring system my dad and I are building. More details later, I'm sure.
About .CO domains: http://marketing.networksolutions.com/dms/DOM/dotCO/index.php
We've all heard of .COMs (you're at one right now) and .NETs and .ORGs. They're the things on the end of website names. Google.com, microsoft.com, blogger.com, pbs.org, etc. Over the years, the list of possible domain names has been dwindling to the point where it's hard to start a business because you can't buy a domain name.
Enter the .CO. Registration for this domain extension began on April 26 (2010, of course) and will continue until July 20 at 2 PM Eastern time. Oh, but you don't actually get your domain until July 20 at 2 PM Eastern. And it's expensive too! Godaddy.com (there's a .com again) sells the "priority" registration for $300 and the "standard" registration for $30. Oh, that's only for the first year. Currently, .COMs are running at $10.69 per year.
Overall, I'm sure it will benefit the internet as a whole. Registrar companies (Godaddy, NetworkSolutions, etc.) claim that it a "global, recognizable, and creditable domain" and that "it's meaningful, memorable, and intuitive to use for people around the world", obviously trying to stimulate international trade.
I intend to make sure we get Speedshow.co in the mix. For those of you who don't know, Speedshow is a photography scoring system my dad and I are building. More details later, I'm sure.
About .CO domains: http://marketing.networksolutions.com/dms/DOM/dotCO/index.php
The 2010 Summer Solstice
It's about time for the Summer Solstice for the year AD 2010. So, what exactly is a solstice.
Simply put, it's the time when we're farthest away from the Sun. First: the complex definition.
Now, everybody knows that planets orbit around something much bigger, like a star. Orbits, in this case, can be assumed to be circular (even though every astronomer will tell you that they're "elliptical"), thus they don't really contribute to our seasons. Our Earth has an axial tilt of about 23.44 degrees (the tropics are at 23.44 degrees N and S). Again, that's not hugely important, although it is what causes the important part. Now here's why we have seasons: because of the atmosphere having a larger angle to the sun, more energy gets reflected into space because of atmospheric diffusion. Likewise, when the sun is higher in the sky (summer in the Northern hemisphere), the sun would have less atmosphere to go through and, thus, less atmospheric diffusion.
What?! Here's the simpler definition: basically, we're flying through space at about 67,000 miles an hour relative to the sun. In about 15,000 miles, the South Pole will be as far away from the Sun as it has been and will be this year.
Wikipedia has a great article on solstices.
Ok, I'm done :-)
Simply put, it's the time when we're farthest away from the Sun. First: the complex definition.
Now, everybody knows that planets orbit around something much bigger, like a star. Orbits, in this case, can be assumed to be circular (even though every astronomer will tell you that they're "elliptical"), thus they don't really contribute to our seasons. Our Earth has an axial tilt of about 23.44 degrees (the tropics are at 23.44 degrees N and S). Again, that's not hugely important, although it is what causes the important part. Now here's why we have seasons: because of the atmosphere having a larger angle to the sun, more energy gets reflected into space because of atmospheric diffusion. Likewise, when the sun is higher in the sky (summer in the Northern hemisphere), the sun would have less atmosphere to go through and, thus, less atmospheric diffusion.
What?! Here's the simpler definition: basically, we're flying through space at about 67,000 miles an hour relative to the sun. In about 15,000 miles, the South Pole will be as far away from the Sun as it has been and will be this year.
Wikipedia has a great article on solstices.
Ok, I'm done :-)
6.19.2010
The coolest website ever!
If you ever get a sudden urge to buy a gift for your beloved geek, there's a wonderful site out there built almost just for that purpose (more like geek stuff in geek speak for geeks). ThinkGeek contains everything necessary to sustain your geek for quite some time. They sell everything from shirts with a caffeine molecule silkscreened on the front to little magnetic spheres that stick together amazingly well.
Not to give anybody ideas, of course. BTW, I don't drink caffeine (more on that later, I'm sure).
Not to give anybody ideas, of course. BTW, I don't drink caffeine (more on that later, I'm sure).
Hello world!
Alrighty then. Here's my first blog post. Ever! That seems kind of strange for me, doesn't it?
Ok, so this first post will be about the HTC Evo 4G.
Isn't it pretty? It's built for watching movies on it's epic-ly large 4.3" touchscreen, which supports multitouch btw. It's running Android 2.1 for the OS (more on that sometime later).
One of the coolest things about this phone is it's a mobile hotspot. You can sync 5 of your favorite wireless devices (e.g. your laptop and 4 of your buddies' laptops) and they'll be on the same network as well as provided with the fastest cellular network available, 4G.
There's an EIGHT megapixel camera on the back, PLUS (get this), a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. What can you do with an 8 megapixel camera? Take high-def 720p video--from your cell phone! And what's with that camera on the front? Video conferencing. Seriously. On your cell phone. Wow.
How about that 1GHz Snapdragon processor, eh?! That's way faster than my first desktop computer (at a whopping THREE hundred THIRTY THREE MHz). What are you going to do with a 1GHz processor in a cell phone?! Compute pi to the gazillion-th place in a fraction of a second? I really don't have a good answer for that one.
Here's another first: native HDMI output. Unfortunately, it's not 1080p. In fact, it's only 720p, but it's still called "high-def" by the designers, so there's still some coolness factor in that.
Finally the "standard" features: terrible battery life, epic GPS/aGPS-ness, and the standard buttons on the bottom. By my standards, they left out the slide-out keypad. Overall, move out of the way, Droid. The Evo 4G is here.
Does it wash my car too?
Ok, so this first post will be about the HTC Evo 4G.
One of the coolest things about this phone is it's a mobile hotspot. You can sync 5 of your favorite wireless devices (e.g. your laptop and 4 of your buddies' laptops) and they'll be on the same network as well as provided with the fastest cellular network available, 4G.
There's an EIGHT megapixel camera on the back, PLUS (get this), a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. What can you do with an 8 megapixel camera? Take high-def 720p video--from your cell phone! And what's with that camera on the front? Video conferencing. Seriously. On your cell phone. Wow.
How about that 1GHz Snapdragon processor, eh?! That's way faster than my first desktop computer (at a whopping THREE hundred THIRTY THREE MHz). What are you going to do with a 1GHz processor in a cell phone?! Compute pi to the gazillion-th place in a fraction of a second? I really don't have a good answer for that one.
Here's another first: native HDMI output. Unfortunately, it's not 1080p. In fact, it's only 720p, but it's still called "high-def" by the designers, so there's still some coolness factor in that.
Finally the "standard" features: terrible battery life, epic GPS/aGPS-ness, and the standard buttons on the bottom. By my standards, they left out the slide-out keypad. Overall, move out of the way, Droid. The Evo 4G is here.
Does it wash my car too?
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