I am (hopefully) temporarily discontinuing Good Morning Geek so I can concentrate on other things. Look around for all of the archives.
Author Archives: Max Swisher
Jailbroken iOS still isn’t good enough
Okay, so by now you have propable figured out that I am an open source supporter,which is why I’m an android user. But I have gotten the question of why I don’t just use a jailbroken iPhone as that allows open development. Well, kind of.
One of the big things is if some random person creates an app and they don’t want to put it in the android market or it isn’t stable enough to release on the android market, they have to put it on some random location online. With an iPhone, you can’t install a random untrusted application. I mean, even when you’re jailbroken you still have to get your apps from cydia. With android, you can’t do this by default but you can by just checking a single checkbox in a settings pane (applications, to be exact). That’s what makes the difference. That is why I am able to run the beta of swype on my phone. Because I downloaded that app off of the swipe website because it wasn’t ready to be released onto the market and was in closed beta.
Another thing that this means is that if you want to have a closed beta and a few lucky testers, you just can’t with an iPhone. they all need the SDK from apple and that whole thing. With android, all you need is to switch a setting and hit the download button.
Another thing is stability. iOS was NOT made to be jailbroken, and it often reduces stability and speed.I recently jailbroke my iPad and after a few days I reverted because the SpringBoard kept crashing and everything was quite slow. Android is open-source without the loss in stability.
Personally, I think it’s inside is what matters. I mean, I can use a computer with a 0.6Ghz faster processor than the last and I can feel the snapy-ness. No one else I know can. I felt the same way when I started using the iPad. But I support open development of the iPhone, and I think it could have a lot more potential if it was open-source (or at least an open-source option was available for people who care more about it).
How to: Awesome mousepad, version 3!
Yes, I’ve already done two posts about creating your own amaing mousedpad that’s better (and cheaper) than the ones you can buy at a store. But here’s another one in case you don’t want to put together a whole thing with aprchment paper ducs tape and spend more than 2 minutes on.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Plastic folder
SHARPIE
Blue/duct tape
Scissors
The folder can't be rubber, make sure it's plastic!
This is by far the easiest one to do, and works just as well. Here’s what you do:
First, use the sharpie and maybe a ruler to mark on the front what size you want to have your mousepad. This is nice because you can have a custom sized mousepad.
Next, cut the flap off of the side of the folder you put the sharpie marks on.
Then, cut out your sharpie marks. Once you have done that, take some tape and tape it do your writing surface. Done!
This one glides a bit more compared to the other ones and is a bit more crisp. The other ones feature a nice cusion, so choose whichever one you think would be best for you! Unfortunately, the images are all broken, but try to d your best with the text. 🙂
Cortex App
No matter what we all browse the web. That’s how you got here in the first place. And one of the most popular things to do while browsing the web is to share different web sites with other people over facebook, twitter, and even tumblr (in this case). And sometimes you will come across an article that you want to save to read a bit later. Cortex lets you do all of those, but extraordinarily quickly.
Cortex is a chrome extension, which gives it cross-platform flexibility along with a super easy installation.
Once you have installed cortex, you need to connect your accounts by clicking on the pretty circle on your menubar then clicking connect accounts.
Connect your accounts here
As you can see, it can link to twitter, facebook, tumblr, and instapaper. Each of them use their own authorization system, and if things aren’t working right then try restarting your browser or waiting a few hours then restarting your browser.
Once you have accounts set up, it is time to start sharing.
To share a webpage it’s pretty simple: click and hold your mouse anywhere on the webpage. You should see something like this show up around your mouse:
Now when this shows up, keep your mouse held down and hover over which service you want to share the page with. Once you are on the letter/section, let go of your mouse and the link to the webpage will be instantly shared.
For facebook however it is a little bit more complicated.
When you hover over the f, another wheel will appear that has the profile pictures of the friends you selected up here.
Now, move your mouse over which friend you want to share it with, and now you can let go.
Although it may sound like it will take a long time, here’s proof otherwise:
I made that video when I was bored. 😛
To get cortexapp, you have to go to cortexapp.com and sign up for the beta then cross your fingers that you get an email back. 🙂
Phone Compatibility matcher
This is a general question to ask. You need to get a new phone, so you ask “which phone should I get?”
And most people these days go for a smartphone. iPhone or Droid are the only choices. By droid, I mean collectiveley the whole droid incredible 2 and x series. That part is up to you.
So here’s how this goes. Print out the first sheet and put a check next to every feature you are sure you would use very frequently and woule be helpful. No matter what, don’t check every option!!
Some of the options have an OR. This means you can only check one of the two.
Once you have filled out the sheet, print the second sheet. Put a check next to each number that you had checked on the first page. Add up the total number of checks for each column and look below to see which column means which score.
Hope this helps you decide whether to get Android or iPhone!
P.S. This was inspired by my science teacher Ms. Nabokov who created a similar sheet that determined if you were a tactile, visual, or auditory learner. Good idea!
Mac OS X Lion screws it all up
So if you check out the Mac OS X lion sneak peak, you’ll see what tey are trying to do. They are trying to put the iPad right on to your laptop. But what are they thinking?!
1. It’s a laptop, not a tablet!
iOS was made for touch screens. It’s interface was designed for touch screens. And when you try to put a touch screen system onto an OS without a touchscreen, it doesn’t work too well.
I mean, they even created a home screen with all of your apps that you can swipe through. If you had any idea that you were on a Mac (which by this point you might not) then you would know that you can just open spotlight and type it in faster than you can click the button in your dock then swipe through al of your home screens looking for the correct app….
2. I don’t need full screen apps!!!
They keep saying about how “On iPad, every app is displayed full screen, with no distractions” (<–That’s a direct quote by the way) but everybody hated that. I mean, windows is the world of computers. That is the way that everybody knows and loves when it comes to multitasking. Our computers are made for multitasking, and being able to access everything really fast is quite handy when using a laptop. And if you are in your own little world of a full screen app,you might as well just use a damn iPad! Now this doesn’t mean that there will be no windows at all, but here we are with homescreens and full screen apps in addition. I mean next thing we know, there will be a damn app store for the Mac!
3. I DON’T NEED AN APP STORE
Would you look at that.
Well, I think that this is an OK idea, and it’s cool and all, but I’m just afraid that this is going to lead to the same thing as iOS: Not letting any apps on unless they are approved into the app store. This is the bane of the iPad’s existence. Next thing we know, people are going to start Jailbreaking Macs, and when that happens, hello windows 7.
I think that some of these things might be cool, but they seem way too over the top. And these cool UIs are the only updates here, and I see no under the hood upgrades.
However I am not going to finish without saying that I thought the same negative things about the iPad and I was a *little* unhappy that it didn’t have Mac OS X. But it seems like apple knows what we want before we do. so once it is available in the apple store, I’ll write again about it. 😉
Why I am an android user
I don’t use the iPhone. I use a Droid Incredible (P.S. A Droid Incredible commercial came on the TV JUST as I wrote that sentence. Wow!). But being the apple lover I am, I get asked why I don’t use the iPhone daily. But here’s why.
I believe that computers in general started as a hobby. People could do whatever they wanted to do with their computers. People wrote code and embedded it into chips however they wanted to. The point behind the computer was that people could create electronic devices that could do things that people never imagined.
But to bring this to more than nerds in a garage, it had to be commercialized.
I have no problem with commercialization, but I have a problem with being selfish with your software. Keeping it to yourself for you to have fun with, and not sharing with others. That’s not how my mom taught me to be.
Android is open-source. This means that anyone (even if you are in a garage) can take what google has created and play with it. Mess it up. Make it better. Google is sharing.
Now Apple on the other hand, starts a lawsuit whenever someone uses their software. Psystar, for example. If you’ve never heard of them it’s not a big surprise. Psystar was a manufacturer of PCs that came with OS X preinstalled. And Apple decided to grab it back out of their hands and would you look at that, Psystar is gone.
And it is the exact same story with the iPhone OS. You will never find customized versions of the OS that you can install. You can tweak your current one with a couple of themes but you will never find a customized version of the OS. And if you do, make sure you don’t tell apple.
There are many many many different twists on the Android OS. One of the most popular ones would be Cyanogen, which is Android with some cool tweaks. It can be installed by rooting your phone, downloading an app from the official Android Market, downloading the ROM, and clicking install. Things will flash, files will move, and time will pass. But in the end, your phone is running a completely overhauled android OS. Now google recently got upset with Cyanogen, but the reason was because Cyanogen was including Google’s apps with it (Market, Maps, Navigation, etc.). Now it is disappointing that I can no longer download apps from the Android Marketplace when using Cyanogen, but at least cyanogen is available to download and install at will (without google’s apps, of course). Even though google is now keeping a little for itself, it is still sharing. And I like to see people share.
Failz to you Verizon, Failz to you.
How I feel. 🙂
So my Droid Incredible started to act up. Things weren’t quite working, and the phone kept rebooting itself. It also wouldn’t update to the 2.2 OTA. So we call Verizon and they tell us to go into the vrizon store because they had “More information.” So we schlep all the way over to a Verizon store and they say the EACT same things that they said over the phone. So we leave with absolutely no help. So the next day we call verizon AGAIN and we finally get a replacement phone shipped. But this hasn’t been the last of your problems. First of all, they tried to ship the phone to some invalid address in South Dakota, wherever THAT is. They were off only by half of a country. So then they send it to the correct address. Nope, it gets BETTER. I open it up and turn it on and activate it and sync it and everything, so it all looks good. Until I make the mistake of opening up the camera app. Low and behold, the camera wouldn’t focus properly. At all. It just didn’t focus. I changed every single setting possible. SD card in, SD card out, hard reset, soft reset, reprogramming. Nope. So I call verizon again and I tell them the problem and they say “Well, we can send you a replacement phone,” and I just say “That would be great. Thanks!”
So here I am with 2 faulty Droid Incredibles, and one of then happens to be a certified like-new replacement. That’s odd, because like new phones aren’t usually faulty like that.
So verizon, FAILz to you. I Hope this one works. It took 3 calls, a trip to the verizon store, and 2 weeks to get a phone that STILL doesn’t work properly. First time in 10 years. Yup, my WHOLE FAMILY have been verizon customers for 10 years. But from the way your customer service is, I’m not sure if it will last to much longer.This is your last chance Verizon, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you get it right.
Chrome OS isn’t (can’t be) the new Windows
So everyone is talking about how all of our normal applications are transferring to the internet; the cloud. But if you haven’t noticed, people are still buying powerhouses and desktops and the netbook business ain’t doin so hot. The iPad is selling like hotcakes but think about it: it’s not completely web-based, you can download games and things. Why isn’t the world using just the web for everything?
Because people in the world have more to do than just email and flash games and facebook and spreadsheets. The web isn’t powerful enough. Google Docs can’t do quite as much as iWork or even Microsoft Office. Because it isn’t as powerful. And we can only diagnose this if we dig down a little technically deeper.
When we are using a web-app, for example, google docs, not everything takes place on the web. The potential is actually downloaded to your computer and then executed in this tiny little cache. The processor isn’t web-based. You are just keeping the stuff up there. And this tiny little cache where the web-app is downloaded is just too small for anything more than a very lite application. If we were going to use a full featured but “web-based” Microsoft Word, it would take 10 minutes and 2 GB of a cache to download. The web isn’t fast enough to support powerful applications. What about the video editors out there. What about the photo editors out there. As amazing as it seems, The web doesn’t have enough power bandwidth to do advanced things such as video rendering.. That’s the reason that there is no online version of Final Cut. Developers can’t make their applications to rich because they are limited by the capabilities of the web-browser, download speed, and cache. But what do we get if we eliminate these barriers? We get a desktop application. What i’m trying to say is that Desktop applications are virtually unlimited. . Lets say I’m in a taxi and I just remembered that I had to do a presentation in a few hours. If I have a computer running ANYTHING OTHER THAN chrome OS, then I can open up my handy dandy presentation creation application and whip up a quick and easy slideshow. But if I’m web-based, then there is the variable of internet access. A netbook running chrome OS is completely useless if you are in a plane (unless of course the plane has WiFi).
So when google is trying to launch their Chrome OS, keep in mind why you are getting this computer/netbook. For some people, it may be fine. Maybe they just want to have a simple lite computer to use when in a meeting. But remember, if you opt for this the web is your only option, therefore you are limited in power, features, and accessibility.
Recent verizon support call: the good and the bad
So my Droid Incredible has been doing some odd things.
First of all, it didn’t update to 2.2 correctly. It tried and failed.
Second of all, it keeps rebooting itself randomly.
So we call up verizon support about both problems. Lets start with the bad:
The Bad:
We called and a nice lady answered who had us go through some simple procedures like a hard reset. We changed some settings to try and help the rebooting. As far as the update goes, she told us to go to our local verizon store because they had “more information”. So the next day we went and waited in line and everything and what does the guy say? There’s nothing we can do. You’ll just have to wait for the update. Now inferring logically, I argued that “The system has the phone marked as upgraded, even though it failed the install.” The guy says “WELL, it takes about a month to roll it out and everything.” He really didn’t get that we HAD gotten the update, it just didn’t install. Once again, “Well, you just have to wait about a month and see.” Thanks for the help. We schlepped all the way over to a verizon store, waited in line, and we get absolutely no valuable information. Great.
The good:
So after that, we call verizon again and someone knowledgeable picks up. We had to wait on hold for 8 minutes but let me say, it was well worth the wait. He asked about the water activation sticker and had us look at the firmware on the device. And he says (finally) “Well, the system has your device marked as upgraded, even though your phone says differently.” THANK YOU. I’M RIGHT. THE TWO OTHER PEOPLE WE TALKED TO WERE WRONG. So he asked if there was any physical damage and hallelujah, a replacement phone is on it’s way.
But the real question is, why did the two other people there have no idea what they were talking about? I mean, come on verizon. Why would you hire them if they aren’t knowledgeable? These are questions that may never be answered, but in the mean time, here comes a device with 2.2 pre-installed. Yay!
Beats by Dr. Dre studio
Well, the Solo HDs weren’t so hot. At all. But lets check out the original beats, the studios. Throughout this I will be comparing the headphones to their main competitor, bose.
Design
Like all beats products, these are nice. They feature smooth curves that give the bose style envy. Unlike bose, the exterior is reflective and streamlined. One of the biggest differences is how at the ear cups instead of having odd and obvious joints, you can’t see the joint one bit. This adds a much smoother aesthetic to it.
However, this cannot be defined as lightweight headphones (which luckily they aren’t). Unlike the Solo HDs, they are quite large and heavy and take up a lot of room. These headphones are great for thigns like airplane, car, or train rides, but I wouldn’t go on a run or hike or bicycling with these things. The Solo HDs were light and small, but that is one of the biggest trade-offs to headphones. Smaller size results in smaller sound, which results in degraded sound quality. And hence, the studios don’t have that same sound quality problems as the Solo HDs.
Features
Unlike the Solo HDs, I can actually include a section about features for these headphones!
A key feature would be the noise isolation. No, not active noise cancellation, just isolation. This is where the bose take the gold. The beats by dr. dre studio headphones do indeed have a form of noise cancellation, but it only blocks out the lower end of the sound spectrum. For example, I can still hear a car horn, unlike the Bose. But playing music also blocks out a large amount of sound on top of that.
Value
For $350 MSRP ($300 at an Apple store) it’s quite an expensive purchase. For so much money, you might as well get Bose. They are great headphones, as long as you can fork out the money.
YouTube Instant
Well, Google instant is out, but I found something that takes the same idea and applies it to youtube. They’ve simplified it into a you put in a search, a video appears. No click required.
It’s simple. just go to http://ytinstant.com and type in a search. Instantly (hence the name) the first video from your query will appear below. Bam. Whatcha. boom boom pow. No refreshing, just type and BAM.
But whatever you do, please don’t type in my name. 😛
Sadly, if you try to type in goodmorninggeek it will automatically revert to a suggestion of something like good morning workout :-\