Technology Android

[THEV1LL4N]

i quite liked Buzz within Google+. It's a shame that it'll be shut down. It was like a twitter stream in its own section. a feed that didn't clutter the main page. I linked it to my google reader page and would occasionally share articles with various people.

 

[Casey]

Casey, again, I'll mention your unique case. It works for you because you follow people that actually use it. I don't know if these are everyday, casual users, like your friends and family, or if these are celebrities or blogs. Either way, they are active users. The point I'm trying to make is that my friends are not active. Apparently, masta's aren't either. The others on here haven't chimed in on their activity, but if we assume that their friends are just like masta's and mine, then there isn't much activity there either. So for you G+ is amazing, and this-and-that. For us, it's just something that a lot of hype at one point, but is like an abandoned house now, with just a few mice crawling around making some news every other day or week. You being the rockstar/philanthropist/etc. have all these venues to keep in contact with certain people. People that are always connected at all times to some sort of social network. Their livelihood lies in their phones, where they get emails, makes calls, texts, and in some cases, update their Facebook/Twitter/etc. But most of my friends, and I speak solely from my experience, do not update Facebook with many important things that I feel I need to know. They're not all degenerates working as baggers at a grocery store. These are people that are out and working as teachers, with companies as financiers, engineers, etc. Some are in graduate school or still in undergrad. Point being, they don't have the time to update their stuff, and if they, it isn't something they'd feel the need to share. Switch to your groups and I'm sure there are musicians and actors tweeting their doings, contests, their whereabouts, their next tour dates, etc. I don't know, I'm just assuming, I have no experience with this because I don't follow my "likes" on Facebook that closely to begin with. But these people actually have shit to say and places to be where they have the option of sharing their locations and doings. What about the rest of us with friends that just simply work or go to school? Most update with trivial things and others vent/bitch about life. I think that's the "rest of us" on this forum that don't live the fast lifestyle, fueled by working in the entertainment industry. So our Facebooks read a lot like the "My Life is Average" website.

One of the most active people on my G+ stream is a girl who simply works in a phone store.

Obviously I can't speak for who you have circled or who masta has. But its not simply celebrities or people with something to promote. Like Twitter, it's people who I might not know personally, but I'm interested in what they do or what they have to say. If your G+ stream seems empty, perhaps circle some people that do something and talk about things that interest you?

I just think everyone has unique needs in a social network and G+ is more flexible. I've never been able to share personal family pictures on FB before simply because fans find my account and add me. On G+ I post them to my family circle and it's all good.

I had a similar discussion with someone a few days who was trying to say that the "everyman" is not on G+ and that's why people will continue to be on facebook. I understand why people would say that but I don't agree at all, simply because I see LOTS of people on G+ who don't do anything "special". They're regular people who work in stores, or are teachers and engineers like you mentioned. Obviously there's less "everymen" on there but there's less of every type of user because there's less people overall. But the point is that if these people are finding usage in G+, there's no reason that others wouldn't, either and it's clearly just a matter of time with regards to a lot more people joining. For whatever reason, I just don't see usage or user numbers slowing down. Even if people simply begin using it because it's more convenient.

For what it's worth - I joined Twitter in 2007. There was no Android devices for another year. iPhone didn't have an App store, just the basic functionality it shipped with. Most people who had Twitter (and I'd say it was 99% techies at that time since it only launched earlier that year) updated through the web or through SMS. A guy I know hacked together a simple Sidekick client app where you could hold down one of the shoulder buttons, a simple text field would pop up and you'd type in your tweet and send it. Bare minimum. Anyway, Twitter was this fun little thing we all used and talked to other technically inclined people on for aaaaages. Slowly, more and more people of different background used it, and finally - in mid 2009, no less - it exploded with a lot of mainstream media coverage and suddenly everyone was on there, every OS had fully featured apps, etc etc. That's a full TWO YEARS after launch. There's a simple hack to see when people signed up, and if you look at the vast majority of people on Twitter, they joined in mid 2009 or later.

But I had maintained since 2007 that this would happen. It just seemed so obvious. It was fun, it was convenient, it was flexible.

G+ is a different story because it belongs to one of the biggest tech companies in the world. But, I still see a similar thing happening in time. G+, like Android, is innovating. FB will continue to try and rip off the features but in all likelihood G+ has a HUGE feature roadmap planned out and by the time FB rips off each idea, something new will come out. I see people on my stream using Hangouts still.....does anybody use that horrible, awkward, FB/Skype integration that forces you to download some shit onto your computer in order to use it?

 

[Casey]

In an unrelated note, how's it going with the TouchPad Coonie?

 

[dilla]

One of the most active people on my G+ stream is a girl who simply works in a phone store.

Obviously I can't speak for who you have circled or who masta has. But its not simply celebrities or people with something to promote. Like Twitter, it's people who I might not know personally, but I'm interested in what they do or what they have to say. If your G+ stream seems empty, perhaps circle some people that do something and talk about things that interest you?

I just think everyone has unique needs in a social network and G+ is more flexible. I've never been able to share personal family pictures on FB before simply because fans find my account and add me. On G+ I post them to my family circle and it's all good.

I had a similar discussion with someone a few days who was trying to say that the "everyman" is not on G+ and that's why people will continue to be on facebook. I understand why people would say that but I don't agree at all, simply because I see LOTS of people on G+ who don't do anything "special". They're regular people who work in stores, or are teachers and engineers like you mentioned. Obviously there's less "everymen" on there but there's less of every type of user because there's less people overall. But the point is that if these people are finding usage in G+, there's no reason that others wouldn't, either and it's clearly just a matter of time with regards to a lot more people joining. For whatever reason, I just don't see usage or user numbers slowing down. Even if people simply begin using it because it's more convenient.

For what it's worth - I joined Twitter in 2007. There was no Android devices for another year. iPhone didn't have an App store, just the basic functionality it shipped with. Most people who had Twitter (and I'd say it was 99% techies at that time since it only launched earlier that year) updated through the web or through SMS. A guy I know hacked together a simple Sidekick client app where you could hold down one of the shoulder buttons, a simple text field would pop up and you'd type in your tweet and send it. Bare minimum. Anyway, Twitter was this fun little thing we all used and talked to other technically inclined people on for aaaaages. Slowly, more and more people of different background used it, and finally - in mid 2009, no less - it exploded with a lot of mainstream media coverage and suddenly everyone was on there, every OS had fully featured apps, etc etc. That's a full TWO YEARS after launch. There's a simple hack to see when people signed up, and if you look at the vast majority of people on Twitter, they joined in mid 2009 or later.

But I had maintained since 2007 that this would happen. It just seemed so obvious. It was fun, it was convenient, it was flexible.

G+ is a different story because it belongs to one of the biggest tech companies in the world. But, I still see a similar thing happening in time. G+, like Android, is innovating. FB will continue to try and rip off the features but in all likelihood G+ has a HUGE feature roadmap planned out and by the time FB rips off each idea, something new will come out. I see people on my stream using Hangouts still.....does anybody use that horrible, awkward, FB/Skype integration that forces you to download some shit onto your computer in order to use it?

I see. I don't add people I don't know on Facebook. In fact, I usually look for reasons to remove people so that I don't have to worry about what I post on there offending people. Twitter is a bit different, and I am more passive about who I add. If I think they're funny or it's a celebrity I really like, I'll add them. The thing is this, I use Facebook multiple times a day. For Twitter, I usually have to remind myself to check it. Back in the States, when I had data on my phone, it would be more often, like on the bus, the shitter, etc. But now, when I'm out of the house for 9 hours during the day, with a smartphone with no data or voice (just WiFi), I tend to find myself forgetting a lot about Twitter. Maybe that'll change later on. But I mention my Twitter because I don't think I've ever tweeted anything, I just follow random people. That is where I feel comfortable just adding anyone to see what's up. I feel G+ is very similar to Facebook in terms of how I use /plan to use it. At first, I thought it would overtake Facebook, slowly but surely, so as I added new people to my circles, I took extra care to not let G+ become "Facebook 2" for me and let my friends list get out of hand and didn't add anyone who I just simply recognized.

Maybe I'll get around to taking G+ for a spin again, this time around treating it more like Twitter when it comes to how I add people.

The TP is back with my little sister. She uses it all the time. I haven't really been keeping track of the CM releases for the TP, but I think I remember reading that they had all, or almost-all, the features being functional on it. I figure the next time I'm home in December, it'll be far along enough in development that I can finally put Android on it and it remain stable enough that my sister can use it without encountering issues requiring me to answer them over the phone.

I think it's Gingerbread tat CM put on there, right? Not 3.0 HC? I'll have to look. i completely lost track of it. Can't wait to go home and use it, though.

 

[Casey]

Yeah, I think it's important to not use G+ in the same way as you would use FB. That's where people aren't getting it. It's not FB and it's not Twitter, but it has elements of both of them, and maybe a bit of Tumblr baked in too.

Yeah, CM7 is Gingerbread. There's no proper HC roms because the source was never made available. But ICS will get open sourced at some point soon so there will be ROMS of that.

 

[dilla]

I think I'll wait for that, then. I just looked up XDA and the ROMs are still in the alpha stages, with a good bit of features not working properly. I may wait a bit to root and install Android on it. It's still rather early to expect so much functionality out of it.

Do you think the OG Droid will see some sort of ICS ROM?

 

[masta247]

Any info on when ICS is going to hit latest-gen Android phones? When is it going to get open sourced? Or maybe some info about other new ICS devices?

 

[THEV1LL4N]

The ICS source code is already up on the developer website. Official updates won't make their way to handsets until Q1, Q2 and Q3 2012. Expect ROMs based on the code to be released though.

Coonie - are you in the Caribbean? I think the only way that the droid can even come close to getting ICS is if it is stripped down and has the fundamentals. If its older than the Nexus One, then it'd be a very small chance of it happening. What you need to remember is that it won't necessarily replicate the G1s longevity. Remeber, you are asking about updating from Android 2.0 to Android 4.0; the G1 went from Android 1.0/1.5/1.6 (minor updates) to Android 2.1 and 2.2. Those were not as major as ICS is from Gingerbread. Also, the G1 had a hidden partition that required reformatting in order to flash Eclair and eventually FroYo over it.

 

[dilla]

I just want the UI of ICS. I couldn't even recite the features of ICS. So I'm not after those. I want the UI of ICS running ICS, not using a theme for a launcher.

 

[masta247]

I can't wait for ICS's process management. Apparently you will be able to close unused apps and prevent processes from launching by themselves, which is awesome for me. Hopefully it'll make the battery life longer.
Both, Windows 7 Phone and Bada have multitasking with more rational process management and you can achieve a week of battery life on smartphones running them just because of that. Even iOS beats Anroid here but it doesn't count because it has no multitasking.

 

[dilla]

A proper task manager would be nice. I understand processes starting up on their own, but full-fledge apps is just ridiculous.

I found an app that lets me control my wireless network and who can access it with a press of a button. Sure, I could log into my router everytime, but this is more fun considering I have an open network just to troll people to joining.

 

[masta247]

Yeah, a proper task manager and process management along with optimizations is what I miss the most about Android. I'm a minimalist if it comes to that, I would love to close shit and just keep the UI layer running most of the time, instead of gazilion of things in the background. When I'm done with something I'd love to close it and there are a lot of reasons for that. What I hate with passion is.. apps that keep on running when I want to close them. Or open in a state that I previously left them in (like Android browser!). That's what I hate the most about Android actually.
I'd love my battery to last a couple of days instead of having to charge it ever 1 or 2 (which happens if I'm lucky with my Xperia Arc). Having a 4,2 inch LCD which is a battery hog is at least justified, but having my battery drained and system power used by things I want closed is annoying. I turn off the Wifi module which uses a lot of power and still know that there's some crap that wastes almost as much of my battery when I'm away from the city or when I'm just having a long day away from home and I have no means to charge my phone.
I know that from software engineering point of view the solution is as simple as introducing a reasonable process management and some optimizations and that's also why I find it that annoying - instead it's Google thinking that they know what I want better than I do, and they totally missed my needs with this and left me without a choice. It appears that with ICS they are working to fix that and making a huge step forward in a right direction.

 

[Casey]

Sandeep, ICS source code isn't available yet and it won't be until the GNex comes out. The SDK is out and all the alpha ICS ROMS that are available right now are hacked together using the SDK, which is NOTHING like a proper full ROM based on the source. A real ROM from source is like a human being, a hacked together SDK ROM is more like Frankenstein's Monster.

The OG Droid will undoubtedly see an ICS ROM. I guess it remains to be seen how well it works. There's actually even Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread ROMS for the G1 still that are supposed to run fairly well, so no reason why Droid won't get at least a stripped down ICS.

As for ICS updates, we're looking at Q1-Q2, but only for high-end devices released during 2011 and possibly Q4 2010. Google already said no ICS for the Nexus One, so if your hardware is similar to the N1 or lower you're probably SOL as far as getting an official update.

 

[dilla]

What is the most recent Droid CM build version?

http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?type=nightly&device=sholes

Is that 2.3.7?

I'm still on 7.0 Stable since early September. Just worked better for me. But would moving up to 2.3.7 bring about a lot of change? I am pretty OCD about having the latest version, and I've held off for about two months without feeling the need to upgrade.

 

[masta247]

http://www.gsmarena.com/zte_becomes_worlds_fourth_largest_mobile_phone_vendor-news-3331.php

ZTE overtook Apple as the third biggest mobile phone vendor. Surprising, I can't say I know a single person having a ZTE phone. I always thought that it's one of those no-name manufacturers.
This means that they have by far higher market share than the likes of Sony Ericsson, Motorola or HTC.

This is how the mobile phone market looks like at the moment:

Nokia lost 3,4% but they're holding to the no.1 position mainly because of their low-ends. Their smartphone sales are down by much more.
LG lost over 25% which has to be the biggest drop in history, for any company.

 

[Casey]

ZTE phones are often rebranded by carriers. For example, the "Orange San Francisco" which is a popular handset here in the UK, is a rebranded ZTE device, I think the ZTE Blade.

Coonie, yeah, CM 7.1 stable is based on 2.3.7. I would recommend the upgrade.

 

[dilla]

Should I get that or should I get the latest nightly? 7.1 was out 10/10...that's twenty days older than the latest nightly.

 

[dilla]

Speak of the devil, my Diaspora invite just came. Gonna go give it a spin. Or not.

 

[Casey]

Should I get that or should I get the latest nightly? 7.1 was out 10/10...that's twenty days older than the latest nightly.

Depends how comfortable you are with nightlies. Most people prefer a stable release. I think the nightlies are fairly stable right now. I'm running one from about a week ago on my NookColor, no problems with it. But I don't use the NC for as wide of variety of things as I do my phone.

 

[dilla]

I used nightlies almost exclusively prior to settling for the 7.0 stable. I might switch back.