Technology Android

[Casey]

All of you should read this. Aside from the being the first carrier to introduce Android, this article explains the other reasons that T-Mobile are so significant when it comes to Android.

The power of open source: An Android story

 

[dilla]

Ah, fair enough. I'm the opposite, phones that are all (or mostly black) just don't do it for me. I had the White/Silver G1, and before that Purple/Black Sidekick Slide and Black/Silver Sidekick 3. I like that the G2 has the combination of the metal and the matte plastic. The main thing that bugs me about the Samsung ones is that the plastic is glossy. I don't like that at all, plus it's a super fingerprint magnet. They are much lighter though, which I concede might be an issue for some people.

Coonie MP size is not important at all. a 5MP camera with a decent lens will take better photos than a 12MP one with a standard lens. Even the Android devices with 8MP+ cameras have standard lenses and therefore the quality of the picture still isn't that great. If photos and videos are a priority for you, wait for something to come out with a Carl Zeiss lens or another well known brand. Some Nokia and HTC Windows phones already have them, so it's only a matter of time.

I don't really see the need to take any serious video with a phone either. None of them have good motion tracking at all, regardless of the MP size. And of course, for video, motion tracking is the most important thing. I got a full HD pocket Kodak Zi8 camcorder for just over $100 and the videos it takes are incredible. It even has a mic input so you can get professional sound as well. That's another thing you're not gonna get on a phone camcorder, decent sound quality. If I don't have my camcorder with me and i REALLY want to capture something, sure I'll take a few video clips, but if you plan on sharing it, the quality will still be that of a phone camcorder, and not a real camcorder. Regardless of whether it is "technically" HD because it has a resolution of 720p or higher, as I said that shit just ain't important.

Well, I never "shat on dual-cores," like Aron said, but does the core really influence that? Or..the number of cores? See, I take pictures frequently, and it never had to be professional quality, but it would be nice if I were to view them on a screen bigger like on a notebook, then I want it to retain as much clarity as possible.

I have thought about getting the Flip HD, but then I realize what I mentioned above, and that $100 may not be worth it considering I don't video that often.

So while the camera quality, I should say, is an important factor, I guess it won't make or break the sale. But I would feel shitty buying another 5 MP phone if I had to today. I'm sure there's an 8 MP camera phone with the best quality, like the DX.

 

[Casey]

Megapixel size doesn't determine the clarity of a photo. The lens does. At full screen on even a big laptop, I very much doubt you would even notice the different between a 5MP and a 8MP photo if they were both just standard phone cameras with regular lenses.

I was just looking at cameras the other day, and I saw two Olympus ones in the same range..... the one that was 8MP cost around £100, and the one that was 5MP costs £200. Because it had a far superior lens. If you're concerned about picture quality, you can't go by MP size. It's just one factor, and a largely unimportant one. Would you feel shitty buying a 5MP camera that had a great lens over a 8MP one with a normal lens that takes inferior pictures? It's just a marketing gimmick really.

It's also a question of knowledge. If you know the differences between all the different focus modes, the ISO's, the appropriate brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness levels to use in different areas, when to change the white balance, etc, you'll consistently get good photos regardless of the camera. If you're just a point-and-shoot guy then you can't expect to magically get better photos just because you have a camera that offers more megapixels. It doesn't work that way.

 

[dilla]

I have taken physics. I realize how the lens affects clarity. What I am asking is if what ARon has said is true. That the processor determines quality of recording. He said 1080p needs dual cores. Regardless of how good the quality of it all is, do you need DCs to record at 1080p?

And I don't have any knowledge of shading and lighting all those other effects on pictures. I just want to take a close of up something and send it to someone and it not being grainy. Doesn't need to be professional with fancy effects. Just that the person can see most of the detail of what I'm shooting. I have seen people take pictures of their cars with their camera phones (and apologize for it), yet it still looks rather crisp and you can see most of the details of the car's exterior.

 

[Casey]

Nope, you don't.

The ability to encode/decode at high resolutions like 1080p is handled by the GPU. The likes of the PowerVR IPs from Imagination Technologies, for example. The latest GPU's are gonna work the same in a single core or a dual core. As far as recording HD video, you're gonna need a phone with a decent GPU and a decent lens. Doesn't matter too much if the processor is single or dual when it comes to video.

I think maybe ARon's underlying point was that the quality of the processor and the quality of the GPU are exponentially linked. Meaning, you splash out for a premium phone with a dual core processor, then chances are it's gonna have a good GPU too. Dual core is not a prerequisite for having a decent GPU, it's just that in the real world instances you might find that the latest GPU's are going hand in hand with the latest processors.

As for the car thing, I very much doubt a standard 5MP picture of a car would be any grainier than a standard 8MP one.

 

[dilla]

Have you had any experience with the DX's 8MP camera? I only mention MP again because the DX is really one of the few phones I know of that has an 8MP camera, but now that I know that not all camera phone lenses are created equal, is it a solid camera on the phone?

 

[ARon]

Yeah for sure, I'd venture to say ours lasted about the same amount of time since you got yours a bit before me, how COOOOOl! I should put it on display, this thing is legend.

 

[ARon]

LG Optimus 3D. We're about to get our first 3d recording, glasses free cell phone...and I'm not excited

 

[Casey]

Have you had any experience with the DX's 8MP camera? I only mention MP again because the DX is really one of the few phones I know of that has an 8MP camera, but now that I know that not all camera phone lenses are created equal, is it a solid camera on the phone?

It is OK. In this instance, I'd say them advertising that it's an 8MP is mostly a marketing gimmick because they know that the vast majority of people believe that more megapixels=better camera.

Photos taken on the Droid-X are noticeably inferior to the 5MP camera on the iPhone 4. The 8MP camera on the Xperia X10 shits on them both.

 

[dilla]

My buddy has an Xperia. Didn't know its camera quality was so good. Shame that it's still on 2.1..or JUST got updated to 2.2. Hopefully Sony gets on their shit the next time around.

Best camera for pictures and video...the Xperia?

 

[S O F I]

you must be one of the few people on earth who likes to take lots of pics and NOT post them on facebook. Kudos to you.

 

[ARon]

It's because of how he looks

 

[Casey]

My buddy has an Xperia. Didn't know its camera quality was so good. Shame that it's still on 2.1..or JUST got updated to 2.2. Hopefully Sony gets on their shit the next time around.

Best camera for pictures and video...the Xperia?

Yeah, Sony did mess it up in a few ways, they waited way too long to launch it and it didn't get updated fast enough. But yeah, for pics and vids it's easily the best Android device out there.

Despite it's flaws, for it being their first Android phone it was still impressive. I liken the situation to Samsung and LG. Both of those companies offered horrible Android phones at first. Then look. They both massively stepped their game up and now both have some of the best Android devices out there and some incredible stuff in the pipeline.

Sony is the same way. They are betting BIG on Android this year. They just announced that all Playstation 1 games will be coming to Android, for phones running Gingerbread and beyond.

And they just announced the Xperia Arc, which looks excellent. Once this comes out, it'll take the crown for best pics/vids as well as more than holding it's own over other high end devices from other companies.

4.2" screen and it's crazy thin too. Just 8.7mm. Even at it's thickest point you can see it's just slightly wider than the headphone socket:

And have a read of this regarding it's camera:

The new XperiaTM arc really is something when it comes to the imaging capabilities.

From a user interface perspective parts of the camera UI is new and brings new settings and even further refined ease-of-use.

It’s also already now a lot faster compared to our earlier products, especially when comparing the time needed in between shots when trying to shoot action scenes. We have set very aggressive targets for that time between shots and it will be optimized even further in the work ongoing up until launch.

The main addition compared to earlier models though are the improvements in light sensitivity in the sensor itself. The camera sensor is a new type of sensor from Sony called Exmor RTM for mobile which relies on back-illuminated sensor technology. What’s new is that the actual light sensors are moved to the front, in front of the “wiring” connecting the individual photo diodes together which makes it a lot more sensitive for light. More information can be found here.

Another thing when it comes to light sensitivity is that the lens of the XperiaTM arc has an aperture value of f/2.4. In short what this means is that the opening letting the light in is bigger than before which also makes more light hit the sensor.

These two things together makes the XperiaTM arc shoot pictures in low-light situations such as indoors or at night in a completely new way for a mobile phone. At least I who also use a lot of cameras have always been very aware of this limitation with mobile cameras where indoor pics often come out blurry due to subject or hand movement. With increased sensitivity in both the lens and the sensor the shutter time can be decreased and therefore minimize blur.

Not forgetting the Xperia Play (aka Playstation Phone):

which in combination with all those PS1 games, and other emulators, is gonna be pretty awesome.

Combine those with the LG Optimus 2X, LG Optimus 3D, Motorola Atrix, Motorola XOOM, LG G-Slate, HTC Thunderbolt 4G, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, HTC Inspire 4G, Dell Streak 7, Sidekick 4G, Vibrant 4G, HTC Flyer, HTC Scribe, Droid Bionic and Motorola Droid X2 (Daytona) and you are looking at one HELL of a year for Android and it's only February, and no doubt a bunch more devices are gonna get unveiled at MWC.

Throw Google Music (a game changer) into the mix. Throw Google TV finally getting Android Market into the mix. Which might well launch with the new web-based Market too. And then there's Google I/O in May.

If 2010 was the year that Android began bitch-slapping iOS, RIM, Symbian etc.... 2011 is the year that it decimates them into little pieces. There's already rumors that RIM are considering doing a deal with Google to run Android apps on Blackberrys through a Dalvik Virtual Machine. There's already talk of Nokia's new CEO saying they need to start building Android devices.....Windows Phone 7 has yet to see any real traction and I think it's just too far behind to catch up.

iOS is the only real competitor and with Steve Jobs taking leave of absence for an unspecified amount of time, Apple will definitely suffer.

With Larry Page as the new CEO, development at Google will speed up too. His track record speaks for itself.

 

[ARon]

Android outsold Symbian last quarter as well. It's #1!

One thing I wish would stop happening is a million different devices. I wish each company would make the best thing they can make and leave it at that, make one for each price point as well but whatever.

 

[dilla]

you must be one of the few people on earth who likes to take lots of pics and NOT post them on facebook. Kudos to you.

Yeah, I take pics of stuff that mean something to me, not the rest of the world. So a lot of cars and a lot of funny shit I may send to friends. Not to say I don't share the pics, but yeah, Facebook picture whores are the worst. Hot girls are the exemption.

It's because of how he looks

Yeah, Sony did mess it up in a few ways, they waited way too long to launch it and it didn't get updated fast enough. But yeah, for pics and vids it's easily the best Android device out there.

Despite it's flaws, for it being their first Android phone it was still impressive. I liken the situation to Samsung and LG. Both of those companies offered horrible Android phones at first. Then look. They both massively stepped their game up and now both have some of the best Android devices out there and some incredible stuff in the pipeline.

Sony is the same way. They are betting BIG on Android this year. They just announced that all Playstation 1 games will be coming to Android, for phones running Gingerbread and beyond.

And they just announced the Xperia Arc, which looks excellent. Once this comes out, it'll take the crown for best pics/vids as well as more than holding it's own over other high end devices from other companies.

4.2" screen and it's crazy thin too. Just 8.7mm. Even at it's thickest point you can see it's just slightly wider than the headphone socket:

And have a read of this regarding it's camera:



Not forgetting the Xperia Play (aka Playstation Phone):

which in combination with all those PS1 games, and other emulators, is gonna be pretty awesome.

Combine those with the LG Optimus 2X, LG Optimus 3D, Motorola Atrix, Motorola XOOM, LG G-Slate, HTC Thunderbolt 4G, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, HTC Inspire 4G, Dell Streak 7, Sidekick 4G, Vibrant 4G, HTC Flyer, HTC Scribe, Droid Bionic and Motorola Droid X2 (Daytona) and you are looking at one HELL of a year for Android and it's only February, and no doubt a bunch more devices are gonna get unveiled at MWC.

Throw Google Music (a game changer) into the mix. Throw Google TV finally getting Android Market into the mix. Which might well launch with the new web-based Market too. And then there's Google I/O in May.

If 2010 was the year that Android began bitch-slapping iOS, RIM, Symbian etc.... 2011 is the year that it decimates them into little pieces. There's already rumors that RIM are considering doing a deal with Google to run Android apps on Blackberrys through a Dalvik Virtual Machine. There's already talk of Nokia's new CEO saying they need to start building Android devices.....Windows Phone 7 has yet to see any real traction and I think it's just too far behind to catch up.

iOS is the only real competitor and with Steve Jobs taking leave of absence for an unspecified amount of time, Apple will definitely suffer.

With Larry Page as the new CEO, development at Google will speed up too. His track record speaks for itself.

Just curious as to how Apple will suffer due to Jobs' departure? You don't think his crew can maintain the company in his absence?

I gotta say, I don't think this war is over and it won't be for long. Something new could sprout up, much the way Android did, and become the dark horse in this race. If we're going by sales, iOS is far from suffering majorly, and Android's recent success could short-lived. People are still gonna buy iOS devices and it's taken Android a few stabs to really compete with iOS devices. The tablets, so far, have been inferior to the iPad and despite all these new, great phones being announced by many manufacturers, the buzz is still about the VZW iPhone Pro, which isn't that spectacular to begin with. Yet not many people will be able to tell you the different Android devices coming out on VZW alone.

What I'm saying is many people don't consciously buy a phone. Consciously meaning with knowledge of phones. I would say most people just buy a phone based on looks and feel, and prior to the recent bevy of Android devices, the iPhone had the looks and feel, not to mention was the first one to get the smartphone to be a fashion accessory and mainstream, which is what got it selling in the first place.

So the same way Apple got to the top with the iPhone (looks, being.."hip") could be the very reason Android is on the upswing now. Sure, there are educated consumers who buy after having done a good amount of research on the phones and their capabilities and compare them to the consumer's needs, but how many do you think buy the phone going "oh man, look at the specs on this bitch...2.8 Niggahertz? That shit can run Crysis!"?

What I'm trying to say is many of the people that buy Android phones may not be doing it deliberately. They just want any phone that works well and looks nice, etc. Not to mention, not everyone is on AT&T in the States, so the iPhone was out of the question, and still is for two other major carriers. Not Android's fault there, no, but I feel the numbers are a tad misleading. Reading about "300% increase" in relation to sales or activations or whatever it is blogs are reporting now, just sounds stupid and misleading. It doesn't cure AIDS, why is it all of a sudden such a hot commodity?

Most people know about the restrictive ways of Apple and their products. But that will not stop someone from buying it ignorantly after looking at just the aesthetics and popularity of it. Not one person I have asked with an Android phone knows what rooting is. Most of them don't know the specs of their phones, even slightly. Even that is understandable, but when they don't know the true capabilities of their phones, is their purchase really substantial, aside from a profit standpoint? I'm sure Google's happy, but it just seems that some people excited by this sudden increase in sales, activations, etc. are like parents shitting themselves after their few months old child "accidentally" puts together sounds that sound remotely close to a full sentence. They dunno what the fuck they just did or how they did it, yet others are popping champagne bottles over it and all for the wrong reasons.

TL;DR: No doubt, Android is growing, but I feel it's for the same reasons the iPhone did. It's a new wave in popularity and demand. And like all waves, they come to a crashing end soon afterwards. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but someone has to be in this circlejerk these blogs are promoting.

 

[Casey]

Take a look at how Apple went crashing and burning after they fired Jobs in the mid 80's. They were on the brink of going under completely when he came back and saved the company in the mid 90's. OK, this time is different because he's not fired, he's on a leave of absence. The problem, though, is that Apple is a dictatorship. Jobs calls every shot. So when that's not happening.....it's DEFINITELY a problem.

Regarding VZW iPhone..... people around the world are laughing their asses off about how some media and people in the US are creaming their pants about a phone that's over halfway through it's life cycle anyway. It's the funniest thing. As Rubin said, "no one carrier in any one location makes much difference to our strategy". I'm paraphrasing, but he was talking about VZW. It's really not a big deal. Here in the UK, and in other countries, the iPhone has been available on multiple carriers for years. I'm pretty sure all of the major carriers here have it. Has that made a difference regarding Android adoption? Not a chance. Nowhere near.

What's worth bearing in mind is that Google don't care if people are buying Android and aren't really aware of what they have or it's capabilities. Most of those people will at the very least know they have an Android device, meaning when they launch new products and services for Android like Google Music, the advertisements will state "now available for Android" or whatever....all of these people WILL be aware that they can run these products etc.
Developers go where the people are. So the more people you have using your platform, the more developers you'll have making apps. So it's a numbers game. Apple can't win a numbers game with one phone. It's just not gonna happen. I've mentioned it before, but again it's like Mac OS VS Windows in the 90s. Windows was just too popular, more affordable, and there were a fuckton more programs for it and still are.

Worldwide MacOS market share is less than 10%. It seems like more when you only pay attention to the hipster tech media and college kids with too much money, but go out into the REAL world and it's just not significant at all.

To further the analogy, and to answer your pessimism about the success being a "wave".... let me put it this way. Microsoft arguably gave Apple the death blow when they released Windows 95. Almost 15 years later, they are still dominating and furthermore, Windows 7 has become the biggest selling operating system of all time. And it took that title after less than a year of being released.

 

[Casey]

Oh, Google are livestreaming tomorrow's Android event at youtube.com/android. It's gonna be a good one so be sure to tune in.

Some exciting news might be announced

Rumor: Google to unveil browser-based Android Market with Google Music cloud services on Wednesday – Android and Me

 

[dilla]

Take a look at how Apple went crashing and burning after they fired Jobs in the mid 80's. They were on the brink of going under completely when he came back and saved the company in the mid 90's. OK, this time is different because he's not fired, he's on a leave of absence. The problem, though, is that Apple is a dictatorship. Jobs calls every shot. So when that's not happening.....it's DEFINITELY a problem.

Regarding VZW iPhone..... people around the world are laughing their asses off about how some media and people in the US are creaming their pants about a phone that's over halfway through it's life cycle anyway. It's the funniest thing. As Rubin said, "no one carrier in any one location makes much difference to our strategy". I'm paraphrasing, but he was talking about VZW. It's really not a big deal. Here in the UK, and in other countries, the iPhone has been available on multiple carriers for years. I'm pretty sure all of the major carriers here have it. Has that made a difference regarding Android adoption? Not a chance. Nowhere near.

What's worth bearing in mind is that Google don't care if people are buying Android and aren't really aware of what they have or it's capabilities. Most of those people will at the very least know they have an Android device, meaning when they launch new products and services for Android like Google Music, the advertisements will state "now available for Android" or whatever....all of these people WILL be aware that they can run these products etc.
Developers go where the people are. So the more people you have using your platform, the more developers you'll have making apps. So it's a numbers game. Apple can't win a numbers game with one phone. It's just not gonna happen. I've mentioned it before, but again it's like Mac OS VS Windows in the 90s. Windows was just too popular, more affordable, and there were a fuckton more programs for it and still are.

Worldwide MacOS market share is less than 10%. It seems like more when you only pay attention to the hipster tech media and college kids with too much money, but go out into the REAL world and it's just not significant at all.

To further the analogy, and to answer your pessimism about the success being a "wave".... let me put it this way. Microsoft arguably gave Apple the death blow when they released Windows 95. Almost 15 years later, they are still dominating and furthermore, Windows 7 has become the biggest selling operating system of all time. And it took that title after less than a year of being released.

Yeah, I agree with your points. But you don't see Apple as being different today than what they were back in..96? When Jobs was fired? More money, a more diverse lineup of products? More success in general?

And about MacOS, that's a huge part of the company, but what about reports of the iPad generating enough revenue to be its own company? Sure, a good bit of hipsters buy an iPad for the fuck of it, but I know plenty of people that use it professionally, as a physician, engineer, etc. Sure, there are other tablets but again, back to the popularity thing, the iPad was first and got a strong hold of the tablet market, much like the iPhone did. These upcoming Android tablets, especially those with the Tegra 2, look to really make a dent, especially since the iPad 2 specs haven't been released yet, but I think it'll take some time.

No doubt, I think Apple is gonna be eclipsed again, I guess it's their fault for letting the phone market go with just one phone and the tablet market go with just one tablet (3G vs. WiFi, I don't think, really counts).

Oh well, more power to em. It would be quite a fall for Apple this time around, if it were to happen. At least last time, not many people owned Macs in relation to Windows.

 

[masta247]

Jobs was much more useful when Apple had to grow and find its own direction. Now they have their position settled in the mainstream but Jobs has that amazing ability to sell piece-of-shit products as the-most-awesome-thing-ever. A lot of Apple products would fail without him.

In short, with Steve Jobs even the most stupid idea gets sold, people want it despite the fact that nobody needs it and the market follows with their better versions of that because Apple can't do things really well but people still buy Apple because "it's the original and it's Apple".
Without Jobs I think that Apple couldn't launch new products with the same success and people wouldn't get blinded to buy them to the same extent. The competition wouldn't really be so desperate to follow and they would move their own ways.

Bare in mind that Apple products aren't what you buy driven by a reasonable and educated decision. People buy them because Apple makes them want it and Jobs is what creates that "magic".

 

[Flipmo]

Jobs just have to say words like: AWESOME, RAD, SPECTACULAR... and the fanboys run to buy the products.