…to the show that never ends.
Last weekend was exciting – and frustrating. Seven days ago, I decided that I needed to switch to a different ROM on my phone. I loved Liberty GB. But about a month ago, it lost all of its momentum. Daily builds had dried up. And there was no sustainable roadmap for future development.
But the CyanogenMod distribution was thriving. Nightly builds were flourishing. And this ROM was even pushing boundaries by adopting cutting edge features from many sources – including the carriers. CM7 was headed towards Android 2.3.5 (which was delivered this past week). And CM& has included the T-Mobile Theme Chooser. This mod was smoking.
So last weekend, I took the plunge…
…and landed in a dry lake bed.
I really didn’t want to wipe my phone to bare metal. I had read quite a bit that seemed to indicate that I would need to wipe the cache, data and even system files on my phone. Since I had never wiped the system files and used SBF to rebuild my base system, I was nervous. Then I read a whole lot of posts that said that if I was on a Gingerbread build (of Liberty), I could just wipe cache and data and then install. So that’s what I did. And that’s when I landed in the dry lake bed.
The result of this approach was a fully bricked phone. In fact, I’ve never torched a system quite as successfully as I had torched my phone. There was absolutely nothing left on my phone. So I had to learn about SBF and then do it for myself. Fortunately, the process is simple. All you have to do is get the right software on your desktop, connect your phone via USB and then use the bootloader to re-deploy the basic image (that originally came from your carrier).
Once I flashed the phone, I was tempted to just stay put. That temptation lasted thirty minutes before I flashed the base CyanogenMod system.
And what a wonderful change this has been.
I love this ROM. It is fast. It is stable. Most importantly, it is actively developed. In the past seven days, I’ve loaded six nightly builds. The only reason that there weren’t seven nightlies is because one of the nightlies included a whole new Android build (i.e., 2.3.5). So there was no new build on July 26. I guess it took an extra day to put together such a big change.
It is even more exciting to see that CM7 is the productof a lot of code branches assembled together. I am so impressed with the T-Mobile theme chooser.
Is it the best such tool? Probably not. But it was developed within a massive company. Nevertheless, it was released as open source. So the CM folks pulled it into their ROM distribution. This is one of the greatest things about open source development. You are able to pick and choose the things you want to assemble together. I suspect that this theme chooser will now find its way into almost every Android distribution.
Vive le difference.
-Roo
Month: July 2011
Using Android to Remotely Control Media Playback
It’s interesting to see how mobile devices can be used for the oddest little tasks. My Android phone can do a lot. It can run all sorts of network apps. And the latest app I’ve picked up is a remote control tool for the VideoLAN VLC media player.
When you think about it, there isn’t a lot of “never been done before” tools in this kind of application. But the folks at VideoLAN have really assembled an innovative package.
An http server is installed on the machine that you want to control. The server accepts incoming web connections and processes these requests as control strings to manage the operation of a VLC media player on the target computer. The server provides content listing and content playback controls via http packets.
A TCP/IP control program on your phone communicates with the web server on your computer. The mobile control program has a nice little GUI that displays the content and allows you to manage the server.
The PC-based server can either send the content to a display attached to your system or the server can stream the ontent to your phone. And I was incredibly surprised at the picture quality when it was streamed to the phone. I wish I could share a picture with you, but ShootMe didn’t get any good screen captures of the Android-based VLC player. I’ll have to try and get these at a later time. But trust me when I say that the streaming quality is good.
So what did this experiment prove?
First, the open nature of the platform breeds this kind of innovative tinkering. People can fiddle and tweak things as much as they like. And you don’t have to go through the app police to get a permit in order to test, to distribute and to operate apps.
Second, the size of the Android developer community is huge. The sheer enormity of the developer base is leading to some very cool innovations.
Finally, it’s great to have lots of choices. But it can get crowded in any given application category. There needs to be a good method for recommendations and curation. The Amazon philosophy of 4/5 star customer ratings is an excellent way to weed through enormous piles of similarly featured tools.
Is this tool cool? It most certainly is cool. Is it an essential tool for home media center management? It most assuredly is not essential. But sometimes cool is enough – at least for tonight.
-Roo
My Phone, The Chew Toy
It’s marred and unseemly… but it still functions.
These words will haunt me for awhile. When I got up at 4:30, I really didn’t want to get moving. But my life has mission and purpose. So I got up and got prepared for the morning commute.
Everything was progressing to plan until I went to disconnect my phone from the charger. Alas, there was no phone there. I worried that I might have left the phone at Cheddars last night. But I dismissed that thought and proceeded to hunt the phone down. I called my mobile phone from the house phone. After three or four rings, I heard the phone vibrating. I chased down the sound.
When I found the phone, I was disheartened. The phone was in my wife’s chair in the family room. The protective case was utterly destroyed. And the phone itself has scratches and bite marks. Apparently, my 19 year old son’s 75 pound puppy had decided that my phone was a chew toy. He had disconnected my smartphone from the wall and carried it to the family room while I was asleep.
I was furious. Since everyone else was asleep, I restrained the urge to utter a primal scream. I settled myself and finished preparing for the morning commute. Then I hit the road, I was white hot. And that’s when God began to speak to my heart.
I wanted to rage. He calmed my heart. I wanted to punish the puppy. God reminded me that the puppy didn’t know any better. I wanted to have harsh words with my son. God reminded me that my son is a lot like the puppy… a whole lot like the puppy.
I was finally cooling down a bit. I then started to think about replacing the phone. My anger swelled. Then I thought about cool new replacements. And that’s when the real lesson began. Yes, the phone was blemished. And there are some serious teeth marks on the speaker grill. But the phone works. After all, I’m typing this, aren’t I?
God then spoke even more clearly: I am the phone. I was made with a purpose. And in my “as built” state, I was sleek and beautiful. Then I entered this fallen world. And the world wantonly ripped me from my purpose. It chewed me up. It marred my image of myself. But it didn’t alter my purpose. Nor has it prevented me from fulfilling that purpose. God will still use me to accomplish His purposes – despite the scratches and bite marks found throughout my soul.
Friends, don’t let your daily concerns rob you of the joy that can be found when fulfilling your God-ordained purpose. You WILL be marred and bruised. But your purpose remains. Go forth with joy as you discover and fulfill your purpose.
-Roo
Spotify @ Home
The social networks have been aglow with the news that Spotify has jumped the pond. It is being hailed as the closest thing to the second coming of the musical messiah. Indeed, some predict that Spotify will finally bring profitability to an otherwise flagging digital music market.
I don’t know about all of that. I sure hope that Spotify will prompt people to listen to and purchase even more music. What the world needs is a little more music and a whole lot less hostility. And from my vantage point, I am glad to see the blokes back east sending us some of their social music love.
This spring, I’ve really focused 0n my streaming music experience. Between Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music, I have been able to stream all of my music wherever I go. I can access my library at home and at work. I even played a bunch of wedding music as we set up the venue for Meredith’s wedding this past May.
And I’ve done a whole lot of cleanup of my digital library. I’ve gone back and purchased a lot of music that I once had in other formats (including vinyl, eight-track and cassette tapes). While I have chaffed at this since I did pay for the music once before, I have decided that I really want my favorite artists to see even more residuals from the music that they gave to me in my youth.
But that’s a different story. I am writing this post to describe what I’ve seen in the most recent tool to hit the American digital music industry: Spotify.
When all of my friends gushed about being able to stream music to their phones, I just yawned as they waxed positively poetic about Spotify. It sure sounded like it could do everything that I was already doing. So when I finally got my Spotify invite last week, I looked long and hard at the mobile experience and the streaming experience. And I quickly confirmed that Spotify wouldn’t offer me anything new in my streaming experience. So I set Spotify aside for a couple of days.
I finally got back to evaluating Spotify late last night. This time, I focused on the social music experience. And I must admit that the social side of Spotify is positively beautiful. You can scrobble to Last. fm. And you can post to Twitter and Facebook. I can’t wait until there is an interface for Goggle+. But until then, I am happily impressed with the ability to share my thoughts on music that I listen to.
Nevertheless, I am fairly confident that the real lynch pin of Spotify’s long-term success is not its basic capabilities. Rather, its success will be due to its ability to create and leverage music communities. Indeed, its playlist sharing capabilities may well be the real reason that Spotify will flourish her in the United States.
I can easily find dozens of playlists for the kind of music that I listen to. And I can easily find related music that is well worth checking out. For example, I found a great site that has all kinds of Christian music playlists. It is SpotifyforLife. This site is dedicated to the very music that I want to listen to. And it is stunningly simple to start listening to great mixes of favored and favorable music. Finally, I can easily connect with other people that truly love the same kinds of music that I love.
As for the Spotify music tool itself, I am singularly unimpressed by the UI. Don’t get me wrong. The UI is crisp and clean. But with dozens of good players already on the market, I can’t get too excited about the player experience.
So what is my summary assessment?
– Player and desktop experience = Acceptable
– Player and mobile experience = Underwhelming
– Streaming capabilities = Acceptable on the desktop but unacceptable (and expensive) on mobile devices
– Social capabiliies = Way above expectations – especially due to the incredibly active user communities that Spotify has spawned
I heartily recommend the free version of the tool. However, I cannot recommend the premium versions because you can get a better streaming experience for free from other products. But if you have become hooked on the social networking promises inherent in digital music, then you will be thrilled by this British import.
-Roo
A New Market Is On The Horizon
Just when you thought Google’s plate was too full (with Gingerbread/Honeycomb, Google Music and Google+), it looks like the Android team is sprucing up the Market a bit.
The snapshots above were taken from my phone on the new Market. The functionality is almost the same as it was before. But the look and feel seems vastly improved. More importantly, there are hints about new things on the horizon. In particular, there appears to be a movie rental option that may soon arrive in the Market.
But from my vantage point, I’m just satisfied with a Market that works when I need it. In the past, I’ve relied upon the Market to rebuild my system whenever I’ve had to do a clean install of Android. In fact, I just have to point a newly pressed image at the Market and let my phone build from there. It is seamless and nearly faultless. Sure it takes some time to rebuild. But the feature is well worth the wait.
Now, the Market also looks great as well. My only concern is that the newer images will require a great deal more downloading and file transfers. I sure hope that you aren’t paying for all the new graphics that Google is now pushing at you.
-Roo
Naming Your Phone Ain’t Easy
This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. When there weren’t too many things to be done, there were hugely important little things that needed to be addressed.
This ain’t either one of those! 🙂
Like a lot of other geeks and music freaks, I’ve been fiddling with Spotify. I’ll post a full review of Spotify sometime this weekend – along with a more complete review of Google+. But I saw some things when I installed Spotify that made me address a long-standing challenge I have with Android. Specifically, Spotify allows you to sync your music to your mobile devices based upon the host names that your mobile devices present to your WiFi infrastructure. But Android doesn’t provide useful names for your phone.
In fact, the name that most Android phones provide is positively hideous. It usually takes the form of Android + <hexadecimal character string>. And when you have three or more Android phones connecting to your WiFi router, this kind of naming is impossible to manage. Like most folks, I prefer seeing a name that is customer-selected.
So I began the great Google quest. I found out where the odd name comes from. I also found a means of changing that name via a command shell and rot privileges. I even found an app that will change the name – but it is only effective until the next reboot of the phone. Finally, I realized that I could change the name on my home network by updating the DHCP tables on the router itself.
So I can affect the change that I desire (see above). But it sure would be nice if Google (and the Android community) would update the core OS to allow for customer-selected host names. That way, the platform will be even more manageable for the average user.
-Roo
Naming Your Phone Ain't Easy
This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. When there weren’t too many things to be done, there were hugely important little things that needed to be addressed.
This ain’t either one of those! 🙂
Like a lot of other geeks and music freaks, I’ve been fiddling with Spotify. I’ll post a full review of Spotify sometime this weekend – along with a more complete review of Google+. But I saw some things when I installed Spotify that made me address a long-standing challenge I have with Android. Specifically, Spotify allows you to sync your music to your mobile devices based upon the host names that your mobile devices present to your WiFi infrastructure. But Android doesn’t provide useful names for your phone.
In fact, the name that most Android phones provide is positively hideous. It usually takes the form of Android + <hexadecimal character string>. And when you have three or more Android phones connecting to your WiFi router, this kind of naming is impossible to manage. Like most folks, I prefer seeing a name that is customer-selected.
So I began the great Google quest. I found out where the odd name comes from. I also found a means of changing that name via a command shell and rot privileges. I even found an app that will change the name – but it is only effective until the next reboot of the phone. Finally, I realized that I could change the name on my home network by updating the DHCP tables on the router itself.
So I can affect the change that I desire (see above). But it sure would be nice if Google (and the Android community) would update the core OS to allow for customer-selected host names. That way, the platform will be even more manageable for the average user.
-Roo
Sometimes You Have To Have Faith and Patience
Some of you have been asking me where the prenuptial posts have been. I have been loathe to post about the subject because there is still a great deal of emotional turmoil surrounding the situation. So without further fanfare, I am announcing that the upcoming marriage of Bailey and Daniel has been postponed.
While the dust clears and while God ministers to everyone’s heart, I ask for your continued prayers for both Bailey and Daniel. May God bless their hearts, minds and spirits. May they see His clarity of purpose. And may they have joy pursuing the path that He has ordained for them.
-Roo
Google+ Is Changing The Way I Blog
Google+ is already affecting the way that I blog – at least, a little bit. I really want people to be able to use +1 for my blog posts. And I didn’t see the GetSocial folks solving this issue any time soon. So I started to look around and see if there was any native way to accomplish the same thing.
Fortunately, the folks at WordPress are now including +1 as part of their sharing options. So I’ve activated the new sharing options and I’ve edited posts for July to eliminate the GetSocial code. The new sharing options are neater. And they include only a few options (i.e., +1, Twitter and Facebook).
In addition, I’ve decided to clean up some of my publishing options. In the past, I had Friendfeed sucking in all of my events and posting content notices to Twitter and Facebook. Since WordPress can publish these notices for you, I have decided to abandon Friendfeed (i.e., Facebook) as the publishing agency for my blog. This should make for a cleaner transition all the way around.
With these changes, I may be able to post more frequently. I certainly won’t have to insert canned code into every post. Therefore, I can use my phone to post most of the content I might otherwise have ignored. Maybe there will even be a few more posts from me. I certainly hope so.
-Roo
Google+ Comes Crashing Into Chez Roo
I’ve been hearing the buzz about Google+ for months. It has been the subject of many tech conversations for quite some time. But I’ve been way too busy with weddings and work. So Google+ has taken a back seat at our home. But that ended yesterday.
A few of my friends saw a plaintive lament for an invite. Within thirty minutes, I had a slew of invitations in my email. So thank to everyone who saw fit to share with me. As of yesterday, I’ve waded into the stream.
So what are my first thoughts? That’s such a tough question. I really loved Google Wave. And since I have been using Google Mail and Google Reader since their inception, I had no trouble getting aboard the Buzz bus. But Buzz didn’t get any real traction. I think that this was because Wave was focused on the act of collaboration and Buzz was focused primarily upon the content. But Facebook (and Friendfeed) were always focused on friends. And contact/friend management is the real key to social media finesse. Twitter and Facebook were always focused upon making and contacting friends.
After a few days with Google+, I think that they may have finally gotten the message. Google+ seems to be about you an your friends. The lame code word for this is Google+ Circles. I don’t like the analogy – although I do like the reference to the same meme in the Meet the Parents movies. Creating clusters of community is really important. I have so many subsets of friends. Some love cycling and some hate cycling. Some love tech while others just use tech. Some love politics while others shun them. Like most people, I have groups that can and must be dealt with independently. And Google+ gets this right. Now that they have finally spent some time focusing on the people aspects of community, they may just get some traction.
But as a tech enthusiast, I must admit that there are some very cool touches that have piqued my interest.
First, there is excellent integration with Android. I love the Android app. And it looks just like the web experience. You can see your own posts…
your entire stream…
and all the notifications that come your way while you are out and about. 
As the platform matures, I am sure that location-based services will start to flourish. But the cool part is that you won’t have to wait for Google to build these cool new features. Android is open. So you can and should be seeing all sorts of cool phone-based elements from developers near you.
And the desktop will also see some cool integration. Most of Google+ is accessible via Javascript. So extensions are not just limited to Android. I have had a great deal of fun selecting and integrating Chrome extensions into my browser. The coolest of these are the Push Contacts extension and the Surplus extension. Both of these extensions deserve their own post/review. But for now, take my advice and install them into your Chrome browser as soon as possible. They will make your Google+ experience even more pleasing.
But despite all the really cool possibilities that this platform portends, you do need to realize that this is still a beta – albeit a Google beta. One of the biggest shortcomings is the lack of integration with Google Reader – coupled with a complete abandonment of RSS as a content source. This is so incredibly important for me because I share so much content via Google Reader.
And I would really love to see some kind of integration with RSS and enclosures – especially audio content inclusion (like podcasts).
But for a first release (assuming you don’t include Wave and Buzz as early versions), then Google+ may well be able to attack the Zuckerberg monolith – and survive. Let’s hope so. And let’s hope that the DoJ keeps its ruddy mitts off of this conflict. True competition will yield real improvements in our social infrastructure.
-Roo