Today Motorola responded to all of the eFuse nonsense with something that makes the situation a bit better.

Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com.

This is very good compared to bricking the phone.  At least the phone can be recovered by the user instead of having to ship it to Motorola for a repair(not sure of the complete details and how warranty would work).  I’m also happy to see that Moto responded so quickly to the public.  However, this still does not sit well with me as Android was developed with developers and tinkering in mind.  If I want to mess around with my device, why can’t I?

(Thanks to Tom for pointing this out for me)

Well…

Yesterday’s post has already shown us that Motorola should really rework some of their business practices, but it also puts them in a precarious position in the OHA by going against what the OHA is exactly trying to stop, carrier and corporate lockdown of mobile devices. Some even think that because of the eFuse Moto should be asked to leave the OHA, and I’m not entirely sure that they’re wrong in asking this. If they are supposed to abide by the OHA terms, they should. No deviations.

Now for another punch in the OHA/Android face, T-Mobile and Verizon are now installing “junkware” in their new Android phones that cannot be removed in most circumstances. The LA Times blog is reporting that, “the Droid X comes loaded with several nonstandard applications for Google’s Android, most of which cannot be removed” and that T-Mobile’s new Samsung Vibrant is also loaded with some extra apps that cannot be removed. What kind of apps are installed? Here’s a few snips:

Among the [Droid X's] so-called junkware is a Blockbuster video app and a demo for an Electronic Arts game called Need for Speed: Shift….The EA racing game, which provides limited functionality and a large button on the introduction screen urging players to buy the full version, can be removed…

Skype, which is included with other Android handsets Verizon sells, is a permanent fixture, as is a utility called City ID. The latter program provides location information about phone numbers on the incoming call screen. But it works for only 15 days before asking users to pay $1.99 per month…

The T-Mobile Vibrant phone from Samsung, meanwhile, has four of these extra apps staring you in the face.

One is the movie “Avatar,” permanently loaded onto the device…Another is a live video channel called MobiTV — good for only 30 days. The third is a link to install an EA game called The Sims 3: Collector’s Edition. The last is an outdated version of Amazon’s Kindle app.

There’s also Slacker Radio, which cannot be used before providing an e-mail address, and a button leading to Gogo Inflight Internet’s website, which includes a one-month trial for Web surfing (only on plans that provide the service).

Try as you might, none of these apps can be uninstalled.

That is an awful lot of software to load onto a phone that runs an operating system that is supposed to be “free” and “open” for it’s users. The fact that most of them cannot be uninstalled is the most enraging part. I’m also sure that these apps take up a good deal of storage space.

Samsung, Motorola, Verizon, and T-Mobile are completely going against the principles of the OHA which they are all (with the exception of Verizon) a part of. But I’d probably blame the carries more because in the end, they are the one’s with final say on what is loaded on their devices.

So, should all of them be asked to leave the OHA? I’d say that if they continue this trend then yes. The OHA should give them an ultimatum to stop and they should take it or leave. If the OHA fails to even deliver on that then what is the point of the OHA? If you’re not going to stand by one of your most basic principles then you have failed.

While I don’t think this is worse than the eFuse in the Droid X, it certainly is something that needs to be resolved just as rapidly. Putting a few small applications on a phone specific to your company is not really a problem, not allowing your customers to remove them is.

According to a source at My Droid World (and Motorola themselves), the Droid X has an eFuse chip installed in the device. The long and short of it is that Motorola has installed this eFuse in the new Droid X which checks the phone for the proper kernel, boot-loader, and ROM and if the proper software is not found it will automatically “trip a fuse” to corrupt the phone’s boot-loader forcing you to get it repaired and will most likely void your warranty. Oh and did I mention that the phone can ONLY be repaired by Motorola, so the Verizon Store won’t help you (well, they’ll ship it to them for you) and you’ll most likely end up pay for a new phone.

Why is Motorola doing this to their phones? According to the Motorola blog:

We understand there is a community of developers interested in going beyond Android application development and experimenting with Android system development and re-flashing phones. For these developers, we highly recommend obtaining either a Google ADP1 developer phone or a Nexus One, both of which are intended for these purposes. At this time, Motorola Android-based handsets are intended for use by consumers and Android application developers, and we have currently chosen not to go into the business of providing fully unlocked developer phones.

Now if I read that correctly, Motorola just told people to buy an HTC device (the Nexus One or a Google ADP1 dev phone) and not their product because their “Android-based handsets are intended for use by consumers and Android application developers.” So, the DROID was a fluke? Well…

When we do deviate from our normal practice, such as we did with the DROID, there is a specific business reason for doing so. We understand this can result in some confusion, and apologize for any frustration.

You’re joking, right? You deviated on the DROID for a “business reason” and now that everyone loves your Android-based phones, you’re going to change it? How stupid does that sound?

First, if you’re going to say you have a reason you could at least tell the people what that reason was even if it’s most likely about money. Secondly, why would you want to change something that has worked already? You know the whole “no fix if no broke” thing? The DROID was probably the best smartphone released last year because of it’s features and it’s openness. Taking one of those key selling points away is really going to piss people off. Also, not only is it frustrating, it’s just a punch right in the face of all the people who praised your phone for it’s openness.

What happens when (like the MyTouch 3g and G1, etc) the developers stop caring about a phone so much that they don’t release a new version of Android for it, when their phones are still capable of running them? Or if Motorola decides not to update the SenseUI on the phone and you’re stuck with whatever they stop with? Well, of course you’re supposed to buy another phone from them, but it probably won’t be a Moto phone if the eFuse is still there. But there are a lot of people want to get all they can from their device (I mean, you did pay $200+ for it!). So they’ll end up going the route of rooting a phone and installing a modded Android install and continue to be happy with your device. Does it change that fact that it’s still a Motorola brand phone? No, it just shows that your hardware still kicks ass 2 years after it was released instead of going to the bottom of the old electronics drawer or whatever.

I realize not everyone cares about modding their phones, hell it’s most likely a larger portion than the people who do care, but the issue is that Motorola is making it okay for a company to brick YOUR phone if they don’t like what you do to it. You know, the phone YOU paid for with YOUR money (which Motorola took of course!). A lot of people buy devices based on how much the company lets you tinker with the device after you buy it.

I’m almost positive that the phone will still be hacked, but this is going to cause a big backlash in the Android community against Motorola (and probably Verizon even though they most likely have nothing to do with it). A lot of Android folk are very pro-open-source and while the software is still “open” the hardware will strike you down if you try to change it.

While I won’t tell people not to buy a Moto phone again I will say that the Droid X will probably be a bad choice if you’re going to alter the base software or if you want the phone to last a long time.

TUAW blogger, Steven Sande, recently wrote an entry entitled: “My weekend Windows experience, or why I love Apple so much”. This is just a long title for some Mac fanboy bashing Windows like it’s 1998 again. Posts like this are a dime a dozen, and some of them have valid points, but this one just really got me annoyed for many reasons.

Now, if you read the article you’ll know that this guy just bought a “rather inexpensive Chinese-made” Wifi webcam from Amazon that claimed it was compatible with “Apple Mac and Windows”. After he gets the product he finds that it first needs to be set up in Windows before it can be used on Mac, therefore the company lied which means that a) the camera you bought is made by a shitty company in China, b) you should just send it back and get a real camera, and c) anything you do after this point is your own fault, right? Not to this guy, he decided to set it up in Windows Vista, excuse me, a Windows Vista VM on his Mac. This is all fine and dandy, but so far nothing is here about why he enjoys Mac over Windows. Now, his “process”:

3) Fire up Windows, then realize that I can’t use the camera software install CD since it’s one of those mini ones that were so popular in 1998. They don’t work in slot-type SuperDrives. Need to download the software from vendor’s website.
4) Start up IE7 in Windows.
5) Can’t get to downloads page from IE7 so download and install Firefox.
6) Go to vendor site, get to the downloads page. Can’t download the software until I download and install the Flash plug-in.
7) Install Flash Player.
8 ) Download the software, finally. It’s an .rar archive.

Now, all of these steps are pointless. The first thing I notice is that he’s in Windows, which is installed on his computer, and he is using IE7 and doesn’t have Firefox installed already, why he didn’t have it installed is a mystery to me, but it begs the question why couldn’t IE7 download it? This is another problem with the camera’s manufacturer, not Windows. Same with the next step, installing Flash; why is Flash needed by this vendor to download a file, and why the hell wasn’t it installed already anyway? I suppose you don’t want to install all of this extras stuff on your Windows VM because you want to save space for your Mac, but these are essential things for any Windows install, so that’s your fault, not Windows.

9) Windows has no idea what an rar file is. I have it “use the Web service to find the correct program.” I find out that WinZip or StuffIt Expander will work.
10) Realize that WinZip is a program that, with all the add-INS, will cost me almost US$37. Didn’t it used to be free?
11) Go to StuffIt site and download free StuffIt Expander. Wait while McAfee scans for viruses.

These steps here made me want to smack this guy through the machine. First, if you claim to have years of experience working on windows machines (In the article: “I am familiar with Windows. Way too familiar, as at one point in my career I was a project manager on a 12,000-seat Windows deployment for a large enterprise.”) you would know to just get WinRAR or 7Zip and you’d be done with this stupid mess, but no, you use the “find correct program online” option like a moron and decide to download StuffIt (a pain in the ass in it’s own) instead of WinZip (which you can use free forever). And that last line about McAfee just makes it even worse. You were the “project manager” of a large enterprise deployment and you’re using McAfee?

12) Install StuffIt Expander. “This may take several minutes” it says.
13) Installation continues for an incredibly long time, most of which is marked by a status message that doesn’t change. Considering taking up smoking. Read War and Peace cover to cover while waiting for installation to complete, then build a 1:1 scale model of La Sagreda Familia out of toothpicks. About to perform a self-appendectomy when the installation finally finishes. Put away the X-acto knife and vodka.
14) Trying to reinstall StuffIt when Windows tells me in needs to activate. That’s perplexing since I installed and activated this legal copy of Windows Vista Ultimate weeks ago. Decide to at least try reinstalling StuffIt before going through activation again.
15) StuffIt Expander installer won’t run since it says that there’s already another installation in progress. System monitor shows no other application is running.
16) Restart Windows. Or at least try to. It takes forever to shut down. Finally Force Quit VMWare and hope for the best.
17) Re-launch VMWare, which unfortunately comes up in Windows shutdown mode. Finally find the Shut Down command in VMWare, then restart Windows Vista. It’s now 7:55 PM. Windows Vista plays its 4-tone startup tune, which I salute with two raised middle fingers.
18) Start up the StuffIt Expander installer again. Get an error message. Re-download the installer and try again, this time sacrificing a chicken while starting the installer. The installer takes its good time, but finally shows a completed installation. I feel sorry for the chicken, but happy that StuffIt Expander is installed.

Okay, you’re installing StuffIt inside of a Windows Vista VM and it’s taking forever and you’re surprised? You’re also surprised that it takes forever to shutdown, and restart in a VM? Okay, you’re blaming Windows for running slow in a VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT when it’s not really designed to be run in one. Ever think to blame VMWare for this? Or StuffIt for making a bad installer? Oh right, you’re a fanboy.

Windows asking for activation means one simple thing, you didn’t activate.  I know it says you did, but you didn’t. That is your fault.  Sure, it’s a very annoying occurrence to have to activate Windows, we all hate it, but it’s your own dumb-ass fault.

19) What was I doing before all of this? Oh, yeah – I was trying to unzip the webcam installer. This goes well until the unzip crashes. I see the installer on my desktop, so I double-click to install. This installer runs quickly, but I need to reboot the Windows virtual machine.
20) Weeping uncontrollably, I wait as the virtual machine lies to me about shutting down. It’s now 8:09 PM. I wait, and wait. Did I mention the waiting?
21) I’m so bloody tired of waiting for the shutdown that I invoke the Shutdown menu item again. Windows reboots again.
22) Double-click the webcam software. After I nearly have a heart attack when it temporarily can’t find the .exe file, it launches. This program is supposed to find a camera on the network and allow me to change settings. It’s doing nothing, so I decide to start pinging addresses on my network from Safari. I find my printer’s built-in web server, but not the webcam.
23) While I’m playing on the Mac, Windows mysteriously reboots itself. WTF?
24) I figure out that Windows thinks it is on another subnet. I look at some of the glowing reviews on Amazon and see the key phrase “connect to the camera over Ethernet the first time.” Nice of the vendor to put that in the docs. I’m tired. It’s now 8:58 PM. I decide to try this tomorrow on my old iMac since I have work to do. I’ll set up a small Ethernet network using a router I have, and hope that I can get this to work.

Again, most of this is the camera vendors fault and the fact that you’re running a VM.

Number 24 wouldn’t come naturally to someone who isn’t a tech person, but since this guy claims he is one, he should already know that when running in a VM you’re on a fake subnet created by the host to allow you to share the network connection. And the fact that you didn’t setup the camera over Ethernet FIRST is beyond me. For someone who knows technology this is pretty fucking stupid. Also, what kind of tech person doesn’t have a fucking network setup in their house? How do you not have an extra Ethernet port somewhere, ANYWHERE in your house? What the hell?

25) It’s now the next afternoon. I set up the old Linksys router, grab a few Ethernet cables, and fire up the camera app on the old iMac under VMWare and Win XP. Not surprisingly, Win XP works much better than Vista and within about 5 minutes I’m seeing the camera “anonymous” in the camera app.
27) Reading the tiny print in the poorly-translated user manual for the webcam, I see that the vendor recommends using IE to bring up the built-in administrative web page and set up Wi-Fi. I double-click the name of the camera, and I’m immediately rewarded with a login screen for the admin web page. I log in using the default user ID and password, and then watch as IE7 proceeds to block the various controls that are trying to load.
28) At this point I’m discouraged and shouting four and more-letter expletives at IE7. I decide that it’s time to grab my spouse and go out to eat (and drink) away my frustration. A few beers later we’re back home and I download Firefox onto the virtual Win machine.
29) I launch Firefox, go to the IP address of the camera, and become very happy when the camera controller loads properly and responds to my commands.
30) With the webcam finally up and running, I tell Windows XP to quit. Soon I’m greeted with a happy message that says something like “Windows is installing update 1 of 37. Do not shut down this machine.” I wander off.
31) Two hours later, the message says “Windows is installing update 31 of 37.” I may never get to shut down Windows.
32) Another hour passes. The message hasn’t changed. I decide that Windows XP has locked up, and I invoke the magic VMWare virtual power switch. Who knows if the flippin’ thing was updated or not?

Alright, you decided to ditch the Vista VM and go for a XP VM, good job, it only took you a day to figure that out. Now you’re going to try IE7 again and you say it’s “block[ing] the various controls that are trying to load” and you’re now discouraged to use IE7? Guess what, that means the camera vendor fucked up again, not Windows. Windows is in fact probably doing you a nice favor by blocking this vendors’ shitty software. Not to mention, you can tell IE7 to load those controls fairly easily. Also, if you’re using a web browser to set this up now…why not just use Mac OS? As a matter of fact, why didn’t you do steps 1-20 in Mac OS? All you had to do was fire up Safari and download the RAR file and open it with your StuffIt expander in Mac OS and guess what, you’d have taken like 4 hours out of this entire cluster-fuck process you went through. Again, if you’re a tech guy you should know this shit.

The last few things are just asinine. You’re blaming windows for taking forever to shutdown again (IN A VM!) because it needs to install updates. Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but you are supposed to install updates. If you;d boot into your VM more often to secure it with updates you wouldn’t have to wait an hour to install 37 fucking updates.

Then this ass-hat goes on to put this in:

But the point of this entire exercise was that if Apple had ever stooped to selling Wi-Fi webcams, the installation process would probably be like this:

1) Plug your Apple iCam into a wall socket.
2) Launch the iCam utility software on your Mac or Windows PC. It’s included on the CD that came with your device.
3) Your iCam appears in the “cameras on this network” list. Highlight the camera you wish to update.
4) Give the camera a name, and click save. Note the web address that is now listed on the page — this address is where you can point any web browser in the world to view your camera and listen to what’s going on in streaming stereo audio.

Guess what, if you bought a better camera instead of your cheap Chinese piece of shit (your own words only shortened) you could have done this. Just because it’s not Apple doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be simple. He also goes to bring up the virtual machine issue:

And I’m certain that someone will say “A real PC wouldn’t have done that; you’re running a virtual machine on a slow Mac.” Wrong, this type of thing has happened to me many times on real PCs as well. This isn’t a slow Mac; it’s a quad-core i7 iMac running 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate.

Guess what? They’re right. You wouldn’t have had half of these issues. I don’t care what kind of processor you have, running in a virtual environment is never the same speed or experience.

So this bothers me for a few reasons as I stated above; first it just shows how stupid people like to blame their fuck-ups on technology that they obviously don’t know. Whether it’s some moron complaining about installing updates in Windows when they haven’t updated their computer in a decade, or it’s some guy saying “Macs are dum cuz they don’t have 2 mouse buttins” it’s all the same idea. You bash the OS you don’t like with stupid shit like this.

This also upsets me as a Mac user in general. According to Steve Sande’s bio on TUAW:

“[Steve is] A 52 year-old Apple geek, Steve has been writing online since 1986, when he started up a Mac Bulletin Board System (BBS). He’s been a Mac user since ’84, was a Newton Developer, and has been involved in the mobile computing space since 1993.Steve lives in Colorado with his rocket-scientist wife of 30 years, a cat, and many Apple products.”

This guy has been working on computers since before I was born, and I guarantee that this guy has been using ONLY Macs since then. So he’s not a Windows person: he is an Apple user. He knows what Apple people deal with from people when it comes to tech support for products, and what people think of Apple users (hippies who don’t know how to use a computer…blah..blah) and guess what; it’s because of guys like Steve Sande that people think this. You bitch and moan about Windows problems and then go to say “Well if this was Apple it’ll be like this and so much better.” Yes, Apple makes it super fucking easy to setup things with them, but if you notice one simple thing you’ll realize how they can do this: They are all made by the same company. Surprise! Apple products work very well with other products made by Apple, they’re designed for each other! Do you know how easy it is for me to set up my HP 1020 Laserjet in Windows over network? It’s so easy that I probably don’t need to explain it (plug in, turn on, find on network, done). It was a nightmare in Mac OS. I have to download third-party drivers and then an extra program just so it can find the printer, then I have to change some folders around until it works properly. So am I going to bash Mac OS because they made it so hard for me to get my printer working? Fuck no. I’m blaming HP because they decided to stop support for Mac OS 10.5.

I see things like this everyday online, in both directions.  Go on an Apple-based blog and it’s WINDOWS SUX! Any gaming site and it’s GET A REAL COMPUTER! MACS SUX!  Turns out, the users suck, not the machines.  If you’re not smart enough to do something or to realize that something you have just won’t work with your system the don’t blame Windows or Mac OS, blame yourself.

First thing, I’m really not a tablet PC type of person anyway, so I was hoping that it would at least have something different than other tablets, or even something so good that I might even want to get one.  Lets face it, I do like my Apple products; my 80GB iPod, my old 40GB iPod, my MacBook Pro, the lab machines, the servers, etc.  I enjoy using them for the most part and I believe that Apple does make quality products.  And you already know my disdain for the iPhone from my last two posts, so you can’t really say I’m a fanboy; meaning I’m not going to buy everything Steve Jobs says because he said to, NO. I’m going to buy a product I feel has a use in my life, and that I will like to use.  And the iPad just doesn’t do it for me.

There are many things that they should/could have done differently with it, but they didn’t.  I admit, it’s very nice looking and I can see some uses for it (below) but I just don’t think it’s practical for most.

The iPad would be an excellent control for, say, a media system or a professional presentation.  I can see people buying one of these for their office to use as a datebook or a replacement for magazines and newspapers or even to control things in their office (lights, music, etc). Using it as an eReader or an internet device when on the road? I just don’t see it.  Reading the screen would probably be like reading a book on your computer screen, you’ll go blind.  Why is the Kindle so popular? It uses e-ink and doesn’t blind you with back lighting.  That’s the whole point of it.  Don’t get me wrong, using the iPad as a magazine or newspaper reader would be great, you can’t do that shit with e-ink but $400 for a magazine reader? I don’t know…

I also don’t see people buying this thing as a gaming device.  (Yes, I know that’s not the point of the iPad) Sure, it can do some nifty graphics and tilt functions, but it’s so big compared to a Nintendo DS or a PSP.  And those systems won’t make you look like an idiot steering a box in public.  And about the games and apps; all iPhone apps work on it, great, now I can have an iPhone sized app running on my 9 inch tablet, way to utilize the screen space.  Yeah, you can zoom in, but what happens when you zoom in on things that weren’t meant to be zoomed in on? That’s right, it looks like a piece of mosaic.

The drawing features are nice. I can see many artists or designers wanting this to sketch out things on the fly and be able to send it to someone without a scanner or whatnot…but why not take that a step more?  Make a deal with Wacom and allow it to become an actual Wacom tablet.  Charge like $50 for an app that when you plug it into your PC it shows the screen of the PC and allows you to draw on it! Genius! That would actually make it multifunction; hell I’d consider buying it then.

Speaking of multifunction, I must say this:

HAHAHAHAHA!

They didn’t learn that people really wanted multitasking. I know many folks who were very pissed off about this and I just ask them, “you’re surprised?” Good luck on the next update.

Oh and another one: Think they’d learn from their AT&T problems?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Unfortunately, sticking with AT&T was inevitable; the iPhone is AT&T only, so why in the hell would they move to another carrier?  If they released a new iPhone for Verizon then I’d see it to be more plausible…until then, enjoy your AT&T iPad users!

Oh and the name…iPad?  You’re fucking Apple! You couldn’t have used one of the much better names like iTablet or my personal favorite, the iSlate? You went with the name in which MadTV did a skit on already making the joke that everyone is making now? Wow. Someone missed that joke from like 3 years ago. That’s why people are making those jokes, not really because of the maxipad/pad reference, but because it was already a stupid joke on MadTV.

I’m not saying that the iPad is a failure, or it’s a completely useless product, because it’s not.  I’m just giving my $0.02.

Before I even get into the list I come across this

This is the first of a series of letters to Apple on your behalf, telling the gang in Cupertino what would make their wonder-phone even more wondrous

And it even goes into a real letter to Apple.

Dear Apple,

While it’s clear the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market right now, you have a lot of competition creeping up. We want to help you blow them out of the water with the iPhone OS 4.0. Here are our suggestions:

Now, if you know Apple AT ALL you know that they really don’t listen to the user. TUAW certainly knows this since they write about Apple all the time.  Apple’s idea of market research is “Steve said this was good, so it’s good.”  This isn’t always the case of course; they brought back firewire to all of their laptops after omitting it on most for a time, but Apple really isn’t going to listen to you all that much.  They will look at the market and see what other phones have that they missed, and probably include some of those.  For instance, people use removable-media on their devices a lot, some people prefer it over internal media of course.  Will Apple ever put a microSD card in their iPhone or iPod? Probably not.  Why?  Probably because it’s something else that could break that they don’t want to have to worry about, but it’s probably because they don’t want people to add more space to their devices without buying a whole new device.

Now to the list (please read the article if you’re going to ask questions or complain or whatever, I will only be posting the main idea of each item, not the description of the idea)

1. The lock screen needs to change

This one is nothing too crazy.  The lock screen could change of course to show more information; a list of to-do’s, emails, whatever.  So this one I really don’t have an issue with.  Other phones do this a bit; on Android you get your notifications with an icon in the top menu bar as well as a different colored blinking LED on the front of the phone.

2. A new home screen. The iPhone is the smartest phone on the market. Make it smarter. Introduce a location-aware home screen.

This is another one that I really don’t have an issue with.  I actually like this idea and wonder why more phones/devices don’t have it.

3. That new home screen? Let us access it by vertically swiping.

This one confused me a little bit. I can see the desire to have all of your feeds and shit within a simple swipe, but why?  Do something like Android and use a drop down menu at the top.  You select the top menu and slide it out, this way you don’t accidentally swipe vertically while you’re reading something and open your home screen. The mock-up looks nice:

Credit: Teehan+Lax

But it reminds me of the drop down in Android, just more refined.

4. Overhaul app navigation.

This is another one I really like.  Tape the home button when on your app menu and it shows all of your homescreens in a nice “exposé” style manner.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7soM07Y3qNI

This should be standard too.  If hold my home button on my DROID it brings up my running programs and I can switch between them (more on multitasking later).

5. 85% of us want multitasking and 3rd party background apps

This is where I get a little annoyed with iPhone users.  Now, multitasking is something that the Palm Pre does with WebOS, as well as Android phones, but the iPhone falls short here.  It SHOULD have it, but iPhone users used to ask me “Who needs that?” or “Who cares about that?”  Well, apparently 85% of the people polled care about it enough to respond to TUAW.  This is a good demand…until I see the next line: “but not at the cost of battery life.” What? Really? You want to run multiple applications at once and not use battery life? What kind of engineering do you think Apple does?  Come on now, be realistic!

6. Almost 80% of us want Flash, even if it’s a bad idea.

Again, a pretty good request.  I want it on my DROID too.  Apparently it’ll be out for Android before the iPhone though.  Also, running Flash on anything MacOS related is a death sentence.  They realize this in the post, but I’m just throwing it in there also.

7. We love that you introduced landscape mode across virtually all apps in iPhone OS 3.0, but 70% of us want the ability to selectively turn it off.

Okay, this really isn’t built into the phone?  Android has it built in already…why didn’t Apple?  I don’t know. But it’s actually a legit request also.

8. When we leave an app, we want it to remember where we were.

This one is part of the whole multitasking thing. When multitasking comes, this better be in it, or you’re doing it wrong! (Yes, Android for the most part has this, and I believe WebOS does as well.)

9. 65% of us want the ability to remove Apple-branded apps.

This next one is a fair request, but it just won’t happen. Apple doesn’t care…really.  They don’t want you to remove their apps on the iPhone because, well, it’s their apps.  There are ways apparently to hid the app from your screen, but not to remove them. These apps are so small what should it matter? This is what you’re getting with a brand; the device and the apps to come with it.  Same on most devices.

10. 60% of us want a universal “documents” folder.

Okay, fair again, but a question is why doesn’t it do this anyway? “We realize this breaks the sandboxing model that prevents one app from blowing away data belonging to another one, but we have every confidence you can make it work.” Yeah, and when an app comes out that removes all of your pictures and documents who are you going to blame for allowing this? Thought so.

11. Better Support for Codecs and Add-ons.

This one is basically asking to allow WMV and AVI stuff to run. I suppose this is another valid request. Next!

12. The iPhone is a hard drive with a screen, so….[Give us Disk mode in the OS. 50% of us want to use our iPhone as an external USB/Wi-Fi hard drive.]

One of my favorites. I wonder why Apple doesn’t allow this.  Maybe it’s because they don’t want people to be able to remove their apps so easily, or copy some over, or maybe it’s because they want their users to use iTunes.  You know, one of their most popular pieces of software.  It’s all about controlling the environment the phone runs with.  You can use other programs to add songs, and documents and pictures, but adding apps is all iTunes.  There is really no third party app vendor, is there? You’re stuck with iTunes, like it or not.

So that’s really my $.02 on this blog entry.  It’s probably biased, but it’s me being honest.  I like the iPhone.  I think it’s a great device, but it does have some stupid flaws that can easily be fixed (as well as being a shitty phone).  Unfortunately these requests might fall on deaf ears,  Steve Jobs is not going to listen much, he’s going to make you listen.

Fixing or adding any of these features to the iPhone will still not help if you’re sitting on a shitty network. I’ll keep m DROID and use an iPod Touch (or my 6th Gen iPod Classic).  I’ll at least be able to do everything I can on an iPhone while actually being able to make phone calls.
There will most likely be a part 2 from this article, so I may just have to wager in on that one as well.

Hi, remember me?

Finally in 2004 or so we got fed up with Cingular’s shitty service (me being in NY for school also made this easier as we needed some method of communication) and the lack of minutes, etc., I decided to drop my grandmothers Cingular plan (she got it for us) and pay for my own Verizon Wireless family plan.  It cost a bit more, but we got nice new LG vx4500s, 700 minutes, and a MUCH better network. It was a big step.  That was 5 1/2 years ago and after 5 different phones I’m still with Big Red.  I have come to upgrade many things with my plan and demand much more from them, but not much else has changed.

My phones with verizon

There is a progression of my Verizon phones.  “But you said 5, that’s only 3!” You’re right, and I’m sure you knew I wasn’t going to write about my cell phones since 2002 without a reason, right?

Right.

In September I was eligible for a new phone on my “new every two” offer.  Psyched, I took to the interwebs and researched phones that I would love to have vibrate in my pocket when people decided to call me.  I looked far and wide, and read review after review of phones.  I went to the store and used the many phones offered, and used friends’ phones as benchmarking.  I came to 2 conclusions while doing this:

1. I wanted a phone with a touch screen. I don’t know why, I think it’s the “new thing” but I wanted a touch screen dammit.
2. I wanted a full QWERTY keyboard. I do a shit-ton of texting now, and this became mandatory now. I didn’t know if a software keyboard would be alright for me, so I wanted a REAL keyboard.

With those in mind I nixed my previous idea of obtaining the LG Dare (a rather pretty touch screen phone, but NO keyboard) and instead opted for the new LG touch screen phone, the LG enV Touch (vx1100). I used the voyager for a little while from a friend, and I kinda liked it.  When I started to test out the enV Touch I wanted it badly.  It was everything I needed, beautiful screen, nice tactile keyboard, and even an HTML browser; which came in handy when I opted to get the unlimited data plan for it.

After using the phone for about a month I started noticing weird issues where the phone would turn itself off randomly, or reset to default screens or just not receive calls (it wouldn’t ring, it would just say I had a missed call). Verizon told me it was defective and sent me a new phone, free of charge of course, since it was still within 30 days from purchase.  The second phone was even worse!  It was to the point where I didn’t get ANY phone calls on it for days, and I would only text because that was truly the ONLY reliable means to contact me.  Mind you, when the phone worked it was actually a great phone and texting device. But I got fed up and called Verizon about it.

Fuck you enV Touch

Now here is the side note, during my time owning the phone, Verizon came out with the DROID, Motorola’s Android-based smart phone.  Reading reviews and playing with the system, I really really wanted this phone. I’ve become increasing interested in getting all of these mobile applications and using my phone for other things besides texting, calling, and occasionally searching Google for a place to eat. The issue was that I couldn’t upgrade because I just did, but if you have proper cause (which I’ll explain in a minute) you can get an early upgrade for your device without any penalty. I had to figure out a way to make my shitty phone turn into a DROID, and quickly.

I called Verizon and stated my issues about the phone.  I informed the woman that this was my second one in 2 months, and I do not want just a refurb that is going to end up doing the same damn thing.  I informed her that I have actually read reviews on THEIR OWN WEBSITE about people returning their phones 5 times in 3 months and still having the same issue. So I tell her I want a different phone, no bullshit.  Finally she tells me, “This falls under our 2 in 90 rule [or some shit].  If you return a phone 2 times the next time you return it you get a choice of a different phone from a matrix.”

Woah. Wat?

Apparently some phones can only allow you to get some other phones when you exchange them.  Usually these “matrix phones” are refurb or pre-used pieces of shit or other phones “similar” to the current one (like the LG Chocolate Touch).  I say “No, I want to choose my own phone like I was upgrading.” I inform the woman of my current status with them; I’m up-to-date on my payments, never missed a payment in 5 years, etc. After being on hold for a few moments the woman comes back and tells me that because of my continued loyalty to them they will give me a phone exchange for ANY phone they have at the store! All I have to do is pay the price difference of the phones and renew my 2-year contract.  Fine. Signed, sealed, done!

I arrive at my store and to my amazement, it’s not a phone exchange (meaning I’d have to give my enV touch back in exchange for the DROID) it’s an early upgrade.  I keep my enV Touch (which is not really a plus, but whatever) and get the DROID at the upgrade price.  After paying my $300 + taxes I walk out of the store with the DROID.

DROID, bitches!

Review of the DROID (Kinda)

So after having the phone for a bit now I’ve come to really love this phone more and more. Just a quick review (because this really isn’t a review blog) should suffice.

The screen on this phone is BEAUTIFUL.  It’s huge, bright, responsive, and just amazing. The Android interface is actually very intuitive and easy to work with.  The apps for it are pretty good; I wish some of them were a bit more refined with some things (the facebook app sometimes loads the browser for some things, which I think is a bit weird, but that’s not the phone’s fault, it’s the app).

It comes with a pre-installed 16GB microSD card.  This is enough space for plenty of apps and music and if you need more go buy a 32GB card! I love that it uses microSD as storage instead of non-removable internal storage.

It’s one of the few android phones with a real keyboard.  The keyboard is very flat, so it’s a bit tough to get used to typing on, but it functions very nicely.  Even when not using the real keyboard the virtual one is surprisingly responsive and easy to type on, much better than the one on the enV Touch.

One thing that surprised me was it’s feel. Yeah, the feeling of the phone.  What do I mean? It doesn’t feel like a piece of plastic that’s going to fall apart in your hand if you squeeze it. It’s heavy, sturdy, and just really solidly build.  You could probably bludgeon someone to death with it, that’s how it feels.

Its also a very quick phone.  Apps are pretty fast to load, websites load nicely (over wifi and Verizon’s network).  It doesn’t feel laggy that much at all.

I know there are a lot more things to talk about with this phone, but I’m not going to go into it too much.  I’m sure I’ll blog more about how much this thing kicks ass, and how much I prefer AndroidOS to the iPhone’s OS, but that’s going to be for later.

So, fuck the iPhone and AT&T, give me my DROID!

Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer

My next computer was a used Apple Performa 400. My first computer that was really usable. It ran some version of System 7, had a geoport 56k modem, and a 15-inch monitor. The computer came with some productivity software (Claris Works, Pagemaker) and some games (Sim City, Myst, Doom II). The hard drive was 750MB. Although the thing never died (computer or hard drive) the system would just stop working from various System 7 related crap. I lost it 2 times in the year or so I owned it, and finally I let it go.

Macintosh Performa 400

As you can tell from the title, this post is obviously not about those machines. No, this post is just about systems I have had that never wanted to go. They never died, I never had major hardware issues, just the occasional software hiccup. I’m going to start with my first REAL machine. It was a no name brand custom PC purchased sometime in 1998.

My parents finally decided it was time for me to get a real system. After years of begging for a real computer our friend Rocco decided to put it on his credit card for my parents and actually get me a full, new, computer system. We drove to this computer store way out in the middle of no where and look around a bit. My dad and Rocco had no idea what to look for, but I did. I found one machine that stood out from the others; 300mhz AMD K6-2 processor, 32MB SDRAM, 56K modem, 8MB onboard VRAM, 52x CD drive, 4GB hard drive with windows 95, a beautiful 17-inch monitor, and even 2 USB ports! This was it. I wanted it, and I got it for $975 with a year warranty.

I was one of the only people on my block to have a 56k modem, and a computer that could play games and movies and music. I was one of the first people out of all of my friends with a new computer all to himself. I started eBay-ing at around 15 or 16, when I got my first job. With that money I started to upgrade my system. I upgraded the video to a Savage 4 PCI card, a Diamond audio sound card, I got up to 96MB ram, a CD-R (which was $300 when I first bought it), I added a 10GB and a 12GB hard drive for music and programs, and used the original 4GB Seagate drive as the system drive. I installed so many versions of Linux and windows it could make your head spin. I formatted it so many times I lost count. It was on almost all the time, hours and hours of intense (at the time) gaming, loud music, viruses, everything. I just worked that machine for everything it was worth and nothing inside it ever failed. Then I finally “upgraded” to a 450Mhz P3 Dell Gigaplex which was given to me from my old school library. I re-purposed the old machine as my own personal webserver (I had Cable internet in my house which another thing I really adopted first:  getting the best internet in the neighborhood…before cable was DSL).

The old webserver lasted through most of my undergraduate career sitting in my bedroom at home (and then our house in South Philly) idling on my cable connection 24/7 for maybe 3 years. I used it to host various things (pictures, my former website, friends’ pics, class projects, etc). In 2007 or so I finally decided to take the server offline, and drop the cable internet. I was never home anymore, and my parents didn’t go online at all, it was just an extra $45/mo that wasn’t going anywhere. The system was still using the original 4GB Seagate drive, original USB controller, original RAM, and the original video card (not the Savage 4) and even the original power supply. All working when I took it offline. It was slow, the CMOS battery kept dying (which I replaced 2 times in its lifetime), and it was loud from the old drives and old dusty fans, but it still worked perfectly.

The replacement Dell I had was tossed for an upgrade I got in college, another old Dell Dimension XPS with 700mhz P3 (The old Dell wasn’t dead, I just traded it for the other Dell). It was an old webserver years before, and I used it as my computer in my dorm for a few semesters. Many papers and hours of movies and gaming occurred on this machine’s life in my dorm also. It’s now used as my parents only computer at home. It’s running XP, has wireless, 512MB RAM, 2 hard drives, and still works fine.

Dell Dimension XPS

My replacement for that, a PowerMac Blue and White G3 is sitting in my basement in Philly. It has a G4 upgrade in it, a 20GB and a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-R/RW, 512+MB RAM. That computer is from 1999, and it still works. I got the Mac from my current employer who was throwing it out. The original 60GB drive died on it (which is only my second drive failure in my life, my other was my old Toshiba laptop 5+ years into its life) and the system needs to be reinstalled…but it still WORKS.

Blue and White G3

I have a lot of hardware like the the Dell and the Mac; my old third-gen iPod (still used for storage!), my old Toshiba laptop (needs new hard drive, screen hinges are breaking), and other various systems I have built over my life. These all still work fine. Is it something I do to my systems that make them last longer? I like to think so. I like to think that I do take good care of my systems and try to get the most life out of them. Maybe it’s also that I just don’t thrown systems out at all until they are completely useless to me. Whatever it is, I have surprisingly good luck with hardware. I’m going to be replacing the Dell at home with an actual new computer sometime in the near future, but that dell will be reused as a server somewhere I can assume.

I’m not saying I have the best luck with machines, older entries clearly state that that I don’t, but I do have surprisingly good luck.

So I wonder, why do people have so many issues with their new machines which they spent thousands on and I have almost no issues at all on older systems? Do they not make computers like they used to? Is hardware getting crappier? Or is it that performance comes with the high price of high failure rates? I can safely assume that a 10,000RPM 700GB drive will get much more wear and tear on it than a 300GB 7200RPM drive, but shouldn’t the failure rate be lowered as time goes on with technology? We have better materials, and better methods of testing hardware now. Should we just stick to old hardware because it’s “safer?” Or should we just accept the high failure rate because performance is worth much more? I wonder.

Over the summer I made a lot of changes to the network, mainly I changed it over to use WPA2 Enterprise with our RADIUS server. The logins are taken from our Open Directory LDAP (the ones people use to log into our machines, website, wiki, etc.) and thats how people connect. Works great in MacOS, I select the network, put my user and pass in and voila! Windows was another story.

My MBP has Windows 7 Ultimate; I was able to connect to the network after changing some WIndows defaults. It does ask for a login, which is better than what XP did, but it still had some issues. I had to disable the “Check server certificate against blah blah”, because it’s a self-signed cert it wouldn’t work. I also need to disable “Use windows login password to login to this network.” I understand most people using “enterprise” networks all use AD or whatever to login to their computer, but why make that default? Not to mention, to change both of these options it’s 5 levels down or so buried deep in the wireless preferences. It’s impossible to change if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Windows 7 connects fine now. No issues, it’s actually very stable. Issues arise when Vista users connect. Now, when I add the network for a Vista user it comes up as WPA2 Enterprise (good), AES (great), it even prompts for a user and password (excellent). No connection. I change those settings above again, because it’s by default, still nothing. I go into even more advances prefs by changing the authentication method to MSCHAPv2 or TTLS, PEAP, whatever works. Nothing works. I check all of the Vista prefs with my working Windows 7 prefs, they are identical. What is the issue then?

After a good Google search, and more and more searches, and stops to Apple discussions, and everything else I can think if, I see similar results. Apparently Windows Vista HOME does not work with WPA2 Enterprise. It just doesn’t work. It’s “broken” as some would put it, or “disabled.” Whatever the reason, my question is “Why??” Why do you put WPA2 Enterprise network prefs and even allow me to add said network to my computer when I can’t fucking connect to it? Explain that one, please! If you don’t want Home users to connect to enterprise networks, take the fucking thing out, don’t just make it act like it works and then not let it. How do I know it’s a client issue and not a server issue? Logs.

My server logs all RADIUS connections and attempts to authenticate. My server issues the challenge to the machine, but the machine apparently ignores it, or throws it away, or wipes its ass with it. It does NOTHING.

Now, I was having this issue with some other computers as well, Windows XP users. Their main issue was that they didn’t have updated drivers or settings were screwed up, but they eventually worked most of the time. I’ve also tried with some Vista Pro computers, and yes it works most of the time. The times it doesn’t usually work, I tell the people to get the software from their card manufacturer and use it, and then it seems to magically work.

What is wrong with WIndows wireless? You got me, but I finally told those people who couldn’t connect to either upgrade or deal with it and connect to a poly network. Hell, Poly’s putting N-Wireless in, I might just use it from now on also!

Last week this changed when I noticed my laptop spontaneously turning off at random points during use. Even when fully charged it would cut off, and not allow me to start unless I plugged it in, even though there was a 70% charge on the battery. Fed up I decided t was time to bring it in for service, again. The night before I was going to bring it in brought on a whole new issue. After placing my laptop on the table I noticed it was not sitting evenly. I look underneath and notice the battery is sticking out…maybe it’s not plugged in all the way? I pop the battery off and find it to be bulging outward!

MacBook Pro battery with a bulge...

This is a very dangerous thing to happen to a battery. So now I know there is an issue and my battery is not “just old.” I brought it to Tekserve the very next morning and after 2 hours of waiting and checking they determine that not only is the battery bad, the adapter is as well.

Why am I writing about my battery? I’m mainly writing to talk about how Tekserve tested and made sure there really was an issue. The woman who helped me took my laptop to the table behind her and popped in a USB stick with some sort of battery/adapter testing program from Apple. The test came up as both “Good” at first. She retested, both came as “bad”. She retested, one came ad good, one as bad, etc. She did this at least 4 times, and then tested with a known good battery and adapter, and came to the conclusion that “AFTER NUMEROUS TESTS I have deemed that both are broken and need to be replaced.” She found this out after TESTING what I told her to test.

So a few things to keep in mind here:
1. If your battery starts to bulge, please get it replaced and stop using it ASAP. It’s dangerous.
2. It might not be just the battery, get the adapter checked.
3. Tekserve tests their shit…as everyone should.
4. A new battery and adapter make me happy.

Now I have a 1 cycle battery for free:-)

Brand new battery info.