Speaking of Android Software Updates

Vlad Savov:

Samsung has just distributed the worst news of this Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade cycle: the popular Galaxy S smartphone that sold 10 million units last year and the 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet won't be upgraded to Android 4.0. The company's argument is that they lack sufficient RAM and ROM to run the new OS alongside TouchWiz and other "experience-enhancing" software. This will come as a massive blow to the great many users of the Galaxy S, who would have rightly expected the 1GHz Hummingbird processor and accompanying memory to be able to handle ICS — it's the same hardware as you'll find inside the Nexus S, and that phone is receiving Android 4.0 over the air right now.

The difference is the Nexus S runs pure Android, and the Galaxy S runs Samsung's own TouchWiz skin. Samsung (and other manufacturers who skin Android) always claim these skins enhance the experience. Those must be some wicked enhancements to forego the next generation of the OS.

A Good Smartphone Comes But Once a Year

Chris Ziegler writes an amazing editorial at The Verge about the effect of dozens of Android phones released each year compared to one great iPhone.

One of the greatest detriments is not being able to update those seemingly countless devices in a timely fashion (if ever).

This one’s just simple math: more SKUs means more firmwares, and more versions of those firmwares. Each of those versions needs the care and feeding of an engineering team, and there are only so many engineers to go around. If a particular model is unpopular — which is more likely when you’re releasing a countless array of them — long-term support becomes an even greater risk.

Compare that to the iPhone 3GS, 4, & 4S, which are all capable of running iOS 5. The 3GS was released two and a half years ago. Can any Android phone make that same claim?

Best Buy Cancels Christmas

Downright shameful.

Shawn Blanc Reviews the Galaxy Nexus

Shawn Blanc, who has used an iPhone for 4 years, used a Galaxy Nexus as his primary phone for the past week. Some of his findings didn’t really surprise me.

Regarding the screen that is so large you could serve a lunch on it:

This gives the Galaxy Nexus an aura that makes me wonder if it’s supposed to be a tablet that makes phone calls or a phone that you need two hands to use. I realize that’s a goofy and exaggerated statement, but I exaggerate it to make a point I am serious about: the phone is simply too big.

If this were my full-time phone, I’d be sad.

And 4G LTE’s effect on battery life:

Earlier this week I spent some time driving around Kansas City in order to field test the turn-by-turn navigation, the LTE network, and the battery life. At 11:30 AM I started out and the battery of the Nexus was at 43-percent. After 25 minutes the battery had drained down to 33-percent even though it was plugged into a car charger.

Think about that. If you’re on a road trip and want to use the 4G LTE network to provide you with driving directions, your drive had better be shorter than 4 hours because even when plugged into a car charger, the battery will not last.

Shawn poses a great question, which nerds should pick up on: Who is fighting for the users?

…the Galaxy Nexus seems more like a phone that its makers can brag about making rather than a device that its users would brag about owning. It has all sorts of features that seem great on posters and billboards and board meeting reports, but none of those features enhance the actual user experience.

And regarding the difference between Android and iOS:

Android has options for just about everything. But, in spite of all its options and ability to customize, I didn’t find Android to be more powerful than iOS. Of all the options and choices that I was given by Android, there was nothing in Android that I could not also accomplish on iOS. In fact, the options and choices usually got in my way.

Moreover, of the millions of users on Android, how many exercise this freedom of choice that is a part of the Android OS?

This has always seemed to be the crux of the whole Android/iOS debate to me. Android seems great for nerds who love to tinker, or who have a hard time ceding any control over anything. iOS is far more simplistic in that Apple tends to make the decision that will make most people happy, not just the vocal minority.

I’d even go so far as to say even iOS offers far more things than the average user will ever discover. But the absence of discovering these little features will not interfere with the normal usage of the device.

Android should be reserved for those who know what they are getting into. If someone I know needs a recommendation for what smart phone to get, I would not recommend Android to them.

To those who want to use Android, I say go for it. I don’t think that choice is wrong — there are many fine things about the Android OS and many things it does differently and better than iOS.

[…]

Moreover, there was nothing on Android that made me feel more empowered compared to using my iPhone.

Sure, there are bits of the Android OS that I like and appreciate, but never once was I wowed or delighted. Which is unfortunate, because those are important elements when you are using a device day in and day out every day of the year.

iOS and the devices it runs on often get teased for being described as “magical”. Guess what? Magic wows and delights. People enjoy magic. After years of using iOS, it still holds me in childlike wonderment.

Skitch for iPad

I’ve been a long time user of Skitch on the Mac. It was created by plasq, which pretty much left it in indefinite beta (though it never felt like a beta to me). The app was recently sold to Evernote,which has expanded the product from being on just the Mac to Android, with the promise of Skitch coming to iOS.

Well, half of that promise was fulfilled today with Skitch for iPad. It’s a fantastic little app for marking up a screenshot, website, map, or photo. It exports directly to Evernote, the iPad’s camera roll, email, or Twitter via iOS 5’s Tweet Sheet.

Most often, I want to share a Skitch markup on Twitter, so this is great for me. Especially since I use Twitter mostly on iOS. The iPad version is great, but I really can’t wait to have Skitch on my iPhone.

¶ The Gift of Geek

Last year I posted about the duty of The Family Geek™ — be as helpful as possible when your family members receive shiny new technology as gifts. I’d like to take this moment to reiterate that, as I know I’ll be drinking my own medicine heavily this weekend.

Some things to be prepared for:

1. Be available. Set aside some time for one-on-one walkthroughs, or time to talk on the phone if your relative isn’t with you this holiday. That doesn’t mean you have to give up your entire holiday, but set aside a few hours for lending a helping hand.
2. Be patient. Your relatives aren’t as nerdy as you are. Keep that in mind, and don’t treat them like an idiot. It’s new to them, and it takes time to learn new things. Also, don’t rush through so much to point of making it impossible to retain. Start with the basics. There can always be more phone calls.
3. Run updates on their devices. One of the things I like to do is make sure everything is up to date on my relatives’ devices. There’s a few of them who never run updates, and there’s a lot that piles up over 6 months.
4. Backups. On the same note, make sure to set up your relatives for data backup in one way or another. This will save you a headache later.

There’s a lot of other stuff to do as the family geek, but these are a few things your relatives will appreciate.

¶ LTE

I don’t think we’ll be seeing LTE in an iPhone for some time. Why? Engadget’s review of the LTE Galaxy Nexus by Tim Stevens serves as Exhibit A (the strong emphasis is mine):

And then there’s the battery life. It’s well known that LTE can put a real hurting on phone longevity and that appears to be the case here as well, our Nexus struggling to hold on to a charge in day-to-day use with all antennas firing. We’ve as of yet had very limited time with the thing, but in our 24 hours of intensive testing we had to reach for the charger multiple times. Using Google Navigation with LTE enabled? The battery drained so fast our in-car charger couldn’t keep up, leaving us unsure of which exit to take off the 101.

Stephen Hackett, in response to another article regarding LTE’s affect on batteries, gets straight to the point:

I don’t think Apple will ship an LTE-equipped device until it can ensure the average user can enjoy good battery life with faster data enabled. Most people wouldn’t know how or when to turn off 4G.

In the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, Apple had a switch buried in Settings.app for forcing the 3G antenna off. The 4S has no such setting. As far as I’m concerned, Apple could have removed it from the 4 as well in iOS 5, but they didn’t. 3G hardware has become efficient enough to forego the need of a manual fallback. Wouldn’t it be nice if Apple never needed to have a manual fallback when it comes to 4G? I think it’s better for Apple to let 4G mature, instead of shoehorning it into what is still the best phone on the market.

Quote of the Day | John Gruber

John Gruber:

Apple’s business has never been about capturing the entirety — or even a unit-share majority — of any market. They just make cool things and sell them for a profit. That’s it.

Third-Parties

Back in May, I wrote some thoughts about what looked like the beginning of Twitter pushing third-party clients like Twitterrific and Tweetbot out of the service.

Recently, Business Insider interviewed Paul Haddad, the coding-half of Tweetbot maker Tapbots. I thought the following was worth mentioning:

BI: How has dealing with Twitter been, by the way? They still being awkward to developers about making clients, etc?

PH: It’s been much better over the last few months. I’m not sure they were ever harassing folks, I think it was just really bad communication. But regardless they’ve been really helpful over the last few months. The dev relations group in particular is great, I’m always pestering them with questions and bug reports.

There’s still a view out there that they are actively against third parties and I just don’t think that’s the case.

I find that to be incredibly reassuring that Twitter won’t pigeon-hole us into their single (crappy) experience.

¶ The Facebook Timeline

It’s always interesting when Facebook makes a significant change. Such changes are often followed by a flood of disgruntled friends and acquaintances in my feed. Last week, Facebook put the profile page and wall in the past and replaced it with Timeline. And so far I haven’t seen any outrage.

Opt-In

Part of the lack of whining may be because Facebook hasn’t forced this change…yet. Right now you have to visit the Timeline about page and click the Get Started button. You’ll then have immediate access to Timeline, which is a continuous stream of every single thing you have ever done on Facebook. Sounds a little daunting, doesn’t it?

Don’t worry, you get 7 days before your Timeline is viewable by anyone except you. So, if you have some things on there you’d rather not have everyone know about, you can go ahead and hide or delete items from the Timeline. If you finish your edits before the 7 day period, you can go ahead and press a button to publish it to the public immediately.

Telling a Story

I have to say, I really like Timeline. It furthers the idea of storytelling. You can feature certain events more prominently on your Timeline. For example, I put things like my engagement, wedding, when we moved, when my wife & I found out we were going to have a baby, said baby’s birth, and other neat things that I want my friends to know about me. The highlights of your life story are easy to showcase.

Another thing I like is featuring a photo at the top of your Timeline in addition to your profile pic. Facebook calls this your cover. I put a nice picture of a cup of coffee, since that is one of my little hobbies. It helps to communicate your interests. I think it looks great and adds more personality to the experience.

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Timeline surely won’t be liked by everyone, but I think many will embrace it as a great way to share life stories. Storytelling is how we pass on knowledge, build relationships, and find enjoyment. The Profile and Wall didn’t work well to communicate a story of who you are. Timeline makes significant steps in that direction. With so many of us using Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives, sharing stories has never been easier.