seanmonstar

Feb 7 2012

Chrome for Android →

Exciting news for Android. It’s always been a wonder why the stock Browser wasn’t Chrome, and now it is. And it really rocks. The tab interface is fun to use.

However, since it uses an updated version of the webkit rendering engine, it should need to load that library upon initialization. The standard engine is always in memory, something that’s held back Firefox for Android. Yet, Chrome doesn’t seem to suffer from this.

Perhaps the mobile Firefox engineers already know, but I can think of 3 possibilities:

  • There’s a way to keep the new libraries in memory.
  • There’s a way to replace the default engine
  • Or they just handle the loading in a better way.

Whichever it is, hopefully mobile Firefox can find a way to improve their loading to be close to equivalent to Chrome’s loading.


Jan 23 2012

Cross Device Jabbering

People love to talk to each other. Especially when they’re friends. People do so every day across SMS, Facebook, and GTalk. It would be better for everyone if companies worked together to let everyone communicate with their friends in an easier fashion. It’d be easier than you might think.

GTalk comes as part of Google’s suite of apps by default on Android phones, so everyone who has one has an account. Plus, everyone who has a GMail account, is also signed up to use GTalk. Google+ Chat recently uses GTalk in the webapp, but the mobile version is some other service that can’t chat with people on a desktop computer.

iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads sold now come with iMessage, which intelligently blends SMS with a chat-like service. The way it manages to decide which service to use is the model that all these companies should use for what I describe below.

Even if your friends don’t have smartphones, many have a Facebook account, and use it all day long. Facebook released an app, Messenger, that does similar things as iMessage, where it tries to use its Chat service to talk to your friends before reverting to SMS.

GTalk and Facebook Chat already use the Jabber protocol (or XMPP) to communicate. There’s reasons to believe that iMessage could be close to supporting the Jabber protocol. iMessage and Facebook Messenger already intelligently pick which service to use. These 3 companies could work individually to allow their application to try to guess, based on contact information you already have of the user, if they can be reached through the Jabber protocol on one of the other services. This would cut down tremendously on the need for SMS, as well as alleviate the need for a user to have to remember the best way to contact one of their friends. The computers should figure this stuff out for us!

I understand the desire for lock-in1, but at this point, each service is so big, it would be better to improve communication between them, and compete on other features. Each company needs to admit that they aren’t going to have all the users, and so it would actually make their service better if it included our friends on other services.

  1. Is there anything here with saying Facebook Chat is using it’s social network advantage to require people to only contact Facebook friends through Chat? Sounds ridiculous, right? It also sounds a lot like the complaint over Search Plus Your World. ↩


Jan 9 2012

Samsung Will Not Upgrade Galaxy S Phones →

Samsung, regarding upgrading the Galaxy S software to Android 4:

A full update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the GALAXY Tab(7-inch) and GALAXY S is not practicable due to hardware limitations.

This, as the Nexus S (which is the same internal hardware) is running Android 4 right now.

If an OEM were to release less phones a year, but provide excellent support for them for more than a year1, I could strongly recommend to my friends to only buy from them. But I can’t recommend Samsung, since they don’t.

I can only recommend Google’s Nexus brand, now.

  1. Heck, most OEMs hardly support their devices for more than a month. ↩


Dec 20 2011

Or: Competition is Good →

John Gruber on the threat of Google:

A different perspective would be that Google is the bigger threat, and that using Apple products is a way to better protect our privacy and personal information.

This was in response to Dave Winer suggesting why he uses Android:

If there is no alternative to iOS then Apple will have exclusive control over what makes it to market. That is a future none of us should want to live in.

I agree that both threats are very real. Which is why I hope neither wins, but that they continue to compete, forcing each other to be less evil.


Nov 18 2011

Galaxy Nexus on The Verge →

Joshua Topolsky about Ice Cream Sandwich:

I want to note that moving around all of these screens is buttery smooth. There’s no lag, no stutter. Animations are fluid, and everything feels cohesive and solid. It’s like Ice Cream Sandwich is more “there” than previous versions of Android.

I’m very excited for this new version. However, as neat as the Galaxy Nexus seems, why does it have to be almost 5-inches? I want something to fit in my pocket, not a sad attempt of tablet.


Oct 27 2011

Android Orphans →

Michael Degusta, on a truly sad fact about Android:

In other words, Apple’s way of getting you to buy a new phone is to make you really happy with your current one, whereas apparently Android phone makers think they can get you to buy a new phone by making you really unhappy with your current one.

It’s not Android’s fault, but it still affects 99% of all Android consumers, and it’s killing Android’s image.


Oct 11 2011

The iPad Needs Competition

Apple fans unanimously believe that tablet makers should stop trying to compete with the iPad. They think that instead, tablets should try to fill other purposes, like the Kindle Fire does.

This is a terrible idea.

It would be similar to saying that no one should compete with Porsches, because they already make great cars. There are lots of people who want a quality car that isn’t a Porsche. If no others existed, they would be stuck with either selecting a quality car they didn’t want, or buying a car not built for the purpose they want.

Back to tablets, if the only quality, general-purpose tablet is the iPad, then anyone who wants something different needs to buy a tablet built for reading and games (Kindle Fire) to try to fill his desires of using a tablet to replace his notebook.

In any other market, the notion that there should be only one without competition is non-sense. Why do technology enthusiasts think differently?1

  1. Both sides are guilty of this. Apple fans think only the iPad matters. Fandroids think that Apple devices should die. I personally think both are great, and appeal to different audiences. ↩


Oct 5 2011

Who said Android apps can’t look good? →

It kills me that companies who bothered to make a decent iOS app can’t be bothered to make their Android app look good as well.

It’s a common misunderstanding that Android apps are harder to program than iOS.

The real reason Android Apps historically haven’t looked good is because people haven’t put in the same care in building those apps.


Aug 15 2011

Google and Motorola →

I’m sure you’ve seen else where that Google has bought Motorola. While people are busy talking about the boring patent portfolio that Google gains, I’m more interested in this part by Larry Page:

Motorola’s total commitment to Android in mobile devices is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere.

Google’s Nexus devices are the “pure” Android experience, and are far better devices for it. With Google now directly controlling how the hardware should match the software, this could mean many more devices that don’t get the OEM skin-cruft, and far faster updates. Hopefully we’ll see less devices that make Android look bad.

Also an interesting note, is that Google will now be making money directly related the quality of their software and hardware combination. We’ll see how this affects features and the user experience, as opposed to currently, where Google only makes money indirectly through ads in mobile search.

Update: On the flip side, what if Google offered high quality Motorola phones for super cheap (free after a new contract), eating the cost at having more people having good Android’s in their hands? With good, fast devices, there would be more searchs, and more Maps usage. Both would be an increase to places Google could advertise. Just a thought.


Aug 2 2011

An iOS Developer Takes on Android →

An unbiased look at programming for Android, after having programmed for iOS. He gave it a good go, and realized that it’s terribleness has been exaggerated.1

About Eclipse:

You’re going to just hate Eclipse. You’re going to hate it with the heat of a thousand suns. […] The upside is, after acclimating to Eclipse, you’ll enjoy some seriously amazing, productivity-boosting code completion, refactoring, and automatic fixing. It’ll basically write your code for you.

And Android’s View system:

The best part is that it’s zero-effort-easy to make layouts that automatically resize for portrait/landscape device orientations and varying screen sizes. This is in stark contrast to the absolutely primitive springs and struts system in Cocoa/iOS.

It’s a true shame about the animation issues, however.

  1. By iOS developers who’ve tried for an hour to set up Eclipse, give up, and declare Android programming to be the devil. ↩


Page 1 of 6