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
Category: Mobile Phone
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
Making Your Phone YOUR Phone
After waiting a very long time for Verizon to release a Gingerbread ROM for my Droid 2 phone, I started hearing that this might not happen until the third or fourth quarter of the year – if ever. I appreciate Verizon’s position. They want to ensure that their new Android devices (with Gingerbread or Honeycomb) have the best features. And if previously existing phones get updates, then there is less “incentive” for customers to upgrade to the “new” phones.
I understand the sentiment inherent in Verizon’s approach (and their public statements). But as a tech savvy customer, I really despise being treated like a rebel. I bought an Android phone so that I could customize my own wireless experience. I bought an Android phone to have access to the broadest range of applications. I didn’t buy this phone to ensure the hegemony of Verizon.
Consequently, I chose to root my phone. Then I chose to upgrade my phone to a custom ROM (i.e., Liberty). And I was supremely excited when Google released Gingerbread (and the SDK) late last year. But I have waited to take the plunge and install a Gingerbread-based ROM. First, Gingerbread ROMs were very immature. Second, I really wanted to have a ROM based upon the vendor builds. A few months ago, I got excited that there was a leak of Verizon’s D2 Gingerbread build. But that leak has not been followed by a general release. So I waited.
Since the leak earlier this year, there has been a lot of growth. There are numerous Gingerbread builds for the D2. And the folks on the Liberty team have been working on their new build. As of this week, Liberty Gingerbread (a.k.a., LGB) is now at v0.8. With this latest release, stability has increased. And performance is always improving.
So after a lot of hesitancy (and a wedding or two), I’ve finally decided to tae the plunge. I am now running on LGB v0.8. So what did it take to get from Liberty 2.0.1 to the latest build? Here was what I did:
- As a first step, I needed to deploy a Gingerbread build so that I could be on the new Linux kernel. I followed the recommendation found here and grabbed the ‘monster leak’ file. With a great deal of hesitancy, I flashed the revised kernel (wiping the system and cache) – and crossed my fingers. The result was a very vanilla build. But I was now on the right kernel.
- Once I had the right base, I then re-downloaded the ‘donate’ version of the Liberty Toolbox. From within this tool, I was able to download and flash the new bits for Liberty 0.8.
- My first thoughts about the new build were “wow” and “this thing sucks major power.” So I decided to get to work. The first order of business was to get all of my apps installed onto the new system. I could have used Titanium Backup. It is an awesome tool. But I chose to see how the base Android Market app would do on a Gingerbread ROM. For the most part, I was satisfied that my apps were recovered. But a few key apps didn’t get restored. I’m still researching why this was the case. But I now have all of my apps restored.
- On Liberty 2.0.1, I used Advanced Task Killer to keep my system clean. But since I am now on a new kernel, I want to ensure that I test the base memory management capabilities of Gingerbread. Therefore, I uninstalled ATK. It may find it’s way back onto the phone at some point. But for now, I’m living with the base OS task management.
- Since I was already seeing some battery issues, I decided that I would enable Juice Defender. I had purchased Juice Defender Ultimate. But was disappointed to learn that the Ultimate version didn’t work on Gingerbread. But the basic program did work fine. So I now have a good battery management tool that is helping to deal with battery management.
- The overall look and feel of the new LGB ROM is great. But if I was going to rock a new ROM, I really wanted to make it look fantastic. So I downloaded a new theme (GingerComb Juiced). I also paid for the Beautiful Widgets pack. I really love the widgets in this package. So I now have a “killer look” to my fresh new system.
- I rounded out the effort by switching to LauncherPro Plus. The New Liberty Launcher is good. But I have grown so accustomed to LauncherPro that I decided to replace the default launcher.
So what is the result of all of these changes? First, my phone looks great.
Second, my phone appears to be operating well with reasonable task, memory and battery management. But time will tell on this front. Finally, I have stuck my finger in Lord Farquaad’s eye (i.e., Verizon). This phone is mine. Yes, I respect Verizon’s right to deny me support. But they can never take my freedom!
-Roo
Platform Pivot Possibilities
Anyone who has read my musings before already knows that I have loved technology for a very long time. You are also aware that I’ve used many different forms and flavors of technology. The list of operating systems is quite long. On the server side, I’ve used: Univac Exec 8, IBM MVS, IBM VM/ESA, IBM MVS/ESA, IBM z/OS, SunOS, Solaris, Irix, DG-UX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Windows NT, Win2K(x), Linux and a host of other platforms. On the desktop, I’ve used: CPM, UCSD Pascal, HDOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows (many flavors), MacOS (many flavors), Xenix, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux (many flavors) and a plethora of experimental OSes.
As you look at this list, you have to be thinking a few things:
- Roo is really old,
- Roo is fickle,
- Roo has been through a lot of tech transitions, and
- Roo is really, really old
So why would I recite this list? Am I building a new resume? [No, I’m not.] Am I a preening, arrogant technology elitist? [Yes, I am. But that’s not the reason I recorded the list.] I wrote the list because I’m becoming convinced that it is time for yet another technology pivot.
There are some big trends that are becoming absolutely obvious:
- Computing technology is for everyone. So it must necessarily be simple and bullet-proof. Over the past three years, I have deployed more “appliance” devices at home than I have deployed computers. Yes the appliances are computers. But for the average consumer, they are plug and play functionality. This includes: set top boxes, wireless routers, wireless extenders, wireless printers, wireless cameras, wireless phones, wireless monitoring systems, etc.
- Everything is becoming mobile. Computers are getting smaller. They are embedded in everything (including my heart). And they are increasingly becoming disconnected from fixed structures (like an office or a home).
- We are finally starting to see new user interfaces. Just as the keyboard was displaced by the mouse, the mouse is now being displaced by human touch. Haven’t we had pen computing for almost a decade? Yes, we have. But the iPhone made touch computing ubiquitous. More importantly, touch is not the only new user interface. Speech recognition is becoming ubiquitous as well. I can now talk to my phone and place calls (or write emails). I can now talk to my car (or its GPS) and get driving directions. With speech and touch replacing the hands and fingers that were tethered to a swivel chair, we are accelerating the move towards mobility.
- Retail purchasing and provisioning are finally reducing the need to go to the store. It is very possible to sit in your chair at home and order anything for delivery right to your door. I won’t go into the moral impacts of promoting such sedentary lives. But I do think that this change is transforming the way that we live – and the computer systems that we utilize.
These trends (and a few other minor trends) are allowing new competitors to jump into prominent positions. And these changes are putting strains on older competitors.
The big boys do see these trends. Microsoft recognizes these changes. And I think that they are trying to compete in these spaces. But their corporate identity (based on sales pros getting commissions) is becoming outdated. Their corporate ethos allowed them to miss the entire music resurgence that Apple inspired. Sure, Microsoft is now in that business. But not before Apple seized the entire market. The Zune is cool. And the Zune market is feature-complete. But the battle was lost because Microsoft was trying to protect their existing channel model.
The Microsoft phone strategy has been equally anemic. They did indeed recognize the mobility trend. But Windows Mobile was incomplete and clunky. Can WP7 and its successors thrive? Uh, using the number ‘7’ in your name won’t repeat the Windows 7 success. Did Microsoft have a chance? Yes. Can they seize market from both Google and Apple? Sure, but they are taking table scraps from their competitors. And their corporate heritage is holding them back. Android has succeeded because it is repeating Microsoft’s PC success: Google has built an open platform.
Microsoft isn’t the only company at a crossroads. Apple is also at a crossroads. Their model of retail purchase via iTunes and delivery to a desktop device is now under assault. The iTunes infrastructure has always used the desktop as the hub of your music experience. But staying with that model would be like staying with high-end audio equipment. Sure, some audiophiles still have a stylus and all of their other component gear. But component audio was replaced by compact discs and then by PC audio.
The new model is to buy the rights to the music and to store the music remotely. This allows you to access your content anytime and anywhere. You don’t have to be at your desktop. You don’t have to stream from that same desktop. And you don’t have to sync with that desktop. You store your licensed content in the “cloud” and then stream it to wherever you want to play it. For me, this meant that I could stream some cool music to Meredith’s outdoor wedding site while we decorated that site. It also means that I can have my entire library available while I’m at work or in the car or on my bike.
And as of this morning, I’ve now switched all of my podcast content from my desktop (and iTunes) to my mobile device. I’m playing with both Doggcatcher and Google Listen. I haven’t chosen my final podcast catcher, but the choice to push content to my mobile device is now made.
That’s a horribly long setup to the real point of this article: I have finally broken the musical cord that tied me to my desktop computer. And last year, I severed the cord related to web content browsing. For me, this mobility push has been thanks to Google and Android. For others, they are thanking Apple and iOS. But the trend is obvious: cloud-based music is yet another desktop tether that can be severed. And with cloud-based services like file storage (via Google Docs, or Dropbox or any number of other tools), I can snip yet another tether.
Think of a bundle of helium-filled balloons. I’m slowly snipping the strings that hold them down. And I think I may soon be cutting the last of the ties that hold me to my desktop computer. Once I can effectively type on a mobile device, I may be able to come out of the cave where my desktop computer is connected.
The final straw will be whenever I purchase a tablet. And when that happens, I will be free of both Microsoft and Apple. I may end up being dependent upon new vendors (like Google or Amazon). But it is just about time to change things up in my computing ecosystem. I can’t wait for yet another technology transition.
-Roo
A Welcome (And Unexpected) Resolution
Last weekend, I tried to get my Android phone to scrobble the songs that I listened to via Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player. I tried the Last.fm Android client. I loaded the ScrobbleDroid client (which did work with the Android Music app). But I had no success. So I set the problem aside for a few days.
And then things started to work.
I decided to play something at the office. And I noticed that there was a message in the information bar of my phone. The message was simple: my music was being scrobbled to Last.fm (via the Last.fm client). This was great news. But as an analytical geek, I was disappointed because I had no idea which change resulted in the successful outcome I was experiencing.
Unsatisfied with success, I’m now trying to reconstruct my apparent success. The only thing that changed during the time between when it wasn’t working and the time that it began working was that a new version of the Last.fm client was deployed to my phone. [Note: I used passive voice in the last sentence because I didn’t deploy it by choice. I had selected automatic updates for this app. And it got updated. Using active voice, I would say that my phone (and the app market) updated the application.]
Since this is the only change I can identify thus far, I must lean towards this change as being the probable source of my success. But I am not wholly convinced – yet. There is an obvious interaction between Google Music, Last.fm and ScrobbleDroid. And since one of those components did change, then I could just close the book: problem solved. Unfortunately, I haven”t seen the code for any of these components, so I can’t really say which is the root cause for the change in status.
But at this moment, I am going to accept victory as a desirable outcome. I now have one cloud music application that does meet the majority of my listening needs. That system is the Google Music client. I also have one retail music channel that meets my needs. That music channel is Amazon.
On the whole, I have one question: what’s changed? That’s easy. I’ve finally broken the leash that iTunes has on my music library. Now that I am not wholly dependent upon Apple, I can objectively evaluate the iCloud offering whenever it becomes available.
For now, there is peace in the music valley at Chez Roo.
-Roo
Which One Will I Choose?
Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent time and money on assessing a variety of streaming audio solutions. My assessment has considered many factors. But chief among those factors was the mobile experience. When I was at home, I used iTunes. It’s not that iTunes is necessarily the best. Indeed, I’ve used dozens of tools at home. As a general rule, I have always favored things that also provide for metadata management (e.g., MediaMonkey). But iTunes has always been the “gold standard” for both “look and feel” as well as for application compatibility. Everyone is “compatible” with iTunes because it IS the de facto market leader.
But that market may be shifting – at least for me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve assessed two different audio streaming tools: Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music. Both have their pros and cons. Google has much more storage available that is (currently) free of charge. Amazon has a pre-exisiting (and built-in) retail channel that allows for easy (and impulsive) music purchasing. Both have good web clients. And both have good Android clients.
But both suffer from one key problem: I can’t capture and record my listening data on Last.fm. Yes, I can scrobble data from the web client (if I use third-party scripts to do the job). But neither product has any native capability to scrobble from an Android device. There are music players that do scrobble from Android. If you use the Android Music player, you can use tools like ScrobbleDroid. And if you are a fan of Winamp, you can scrobble through the Last.fm Android app. But neither of these players can stream audio from my library. So I was stuck in a quandary. Should I store music on my phone and utilize a player that scrobbles? Or should I use a cloud-based music player and forego the ability to scrobble my music?
The only solution was to either code up my own solution – or use something that already does both. Since I still have another wedding in five weeks,I chose the latter approach. Based upon some searches in Google and Twitter, I decided that I would try out the Audiogalaxy product. Based upon its marketing, the product provides streaming audio (from your home and through their servers) and the product scrobbles via the Last.fm Android app. So I began yet another quest in search of a mythical chalice.
Audiogalaxy is relatively simple to install. The site provides the step-by-step instructions that will get you going. But the basic process is as follows:
- Create a free account on the Audiogalaxy site.
- Download and install the Audiogalaxy “helper” application.
- Point the “helper” application at your music files.
- Wait for the helper application to collect metadata and send it to the Audiogalaxy service.
- Install the Android app on your phone.
- Start listening to your music.
The process is relatively straightforward. And I had no technical issues with the setup. I can now listen to my music library from my phone. And as I listen, my listening habits are recorded at Last.fm.
Unfortunately, Audiogalaxy has the same privacy issues that are present in Amazon’s service and also present in Google’s service: all of your music is streamed through a third-party service. So the architecture of all of these products is an architecture of control, not anonymity.
As I’ve said before, this doesn’t pose a problem for me at this time. After all, my music is positively pedestrian. But what would happen if my musical tastes were more scandalous? Or what would happen if the government decided that rock music was not to be tolerated at all? Then where would I be? I would need to rethink my listening habits. Of course, if something that draconian ever happened, then I would rethink my need to scrobble at all! And for those kinds of over-the-top situations, I might need to assemble a BOB (bug out bag)! 😉
After this exercise, I now have a streaming solution that I can utilize. And I think I know what to look for when it comes to government snooping into my private life. And there is one more option that has to be noted: Apple has not put its offering on the table yet. Maybe that offering will be announced this week. If so, I suspect that my options will grow even broader.
Finally, I really ought to point you to a vey fine comparison of all of these options. David Ruddock (and the folks at AndroidPolice) put together a great comparison of music apps on the Android platform. Check it out for a comprehensive view of all of the Android options.
-Roo
ScrobbleDroid – Closer, But Not Quite There Yet
For many music fans, a key to their listening experience is scrobbling to Last.fm. For those not familiar with the term, it refers to recording the songs that you play. Last.fm has built its unique offering based on the ability to record when and how you listen to music. The process of recording is called scrobbling. For years, whenever you listened to things on iTunes, they could be recorded on Last.fm’s site. Even the Songbird team built scrobling into their basic product offering.
Why is this data important? That’s a great question. People care about this kind of data for a variety of reasons. Some people just want their friends and followers to know more about themselves. Some people like to be considered experts in something (e.g., a band, an album or a community of mutual interests). And some people like to meet and interact with other people that share their interests. Scrobbling collects data that makes all of these things possible. [Note: Scrobbling also lets record companies and bands target their music and their marketing to serious fans.]
Because a large and active community chooses to publicly record their music preferences via scrobbling, most music products have open interfaces and/or direct interfaces to the Last.fm service. Consequently, you can scrobble with almost any PC or Mac-based music player. But this is not the case with mobile phone-based music players.
Because most music players on Android do not provide native support for scrobbling, creative people have built their own scrobbling engines for use on the Android platform. ScrobbleDroid is one such engine. This product was originally a Google Code project. It is now a product that can be obtained from the Android Market. And it is an excellent (and free) tool for scrobbling your listening habits to Last.fm.
Unfortunately, it only works if you use the Android Music application. So it currently supports only music that is stored on your Android phone. But I have high hopes that someday, it will be extended to support both the Google Music platform as well as the Amazon Cloud Drive platform.
In the meantime, if any of you know of a different scrobbling tool that works with streaming music, drop me a note (via comment, email or Twitter).
-Roo
Google Music Is A Real Beta
I have spent a great deal of time this week working with the new Google Music Beta. And I am finally at a point where I can speak with a degree of confidence. What do I think of the new Google service? I think it is a real beta. It has some very rough edges. But it is chock full of promise. It has some unique and innovative features. And there are some things that are simply undone or they are incomplete.
The Good
There are a lot of outstanding features in the Google offering.
- The current Google offering provides for storage of up to 20,000 songs. This is outstanding. If this model is carried forward, Google Music will destroy the competition by starving the market. My song base alone is over 12GB. So if I stay with Amazon, I will need to pay for a 20GB allotment. That will mean ~$20 per year. That’s not much. But when it’s compared to a free product, I will always take free – unless free doesn’t meet my minimum feature requirements. [Note: Google may get themselves into some trouble with such a generous storage limit. The government might choose to bring a case against Google for anti-competitive practices. I don’t think that I’d agree with such a claim. But I can see where Amazon and Apple might support someone else bringing such a claim to the federal courts.]
- The service itself is stable and the music streams reliably. While I have had some challenges with streaming to my phone, most of my experience has been outstanding.
- The user interface on the phone is beautiful. It is a joy to work with the mobile tool. While the “look and feel” of the Amazon tool is eminently functional, it is positively clunky. Google has obviously spent some time making the mobile experience very appealing.
The Bad
Despite all the good features, there are some serious shortcomings in the initial offering.
- The tool that loads music onto the service is positively anemic. As noted in my previous post, loading music is an all-or-nothing proposition. To load individual songs (or new sub-folders in a nested hierarchy), you have to reconfigure the music loading tool to point to specific folders. Then you have to find the option in Settings that allows you to manually load music. Then you have to push the Start Now button. Google really needs to spend some time working on this process. You can “stretch” the tool to do your bidding. But ease of use in music loading is a definite weakness.
- The view options are really limited. Yes, you can navigate around in the web client. But it is not a beautiful and robust client: it is a functional client. That said, the Android client is beautiful. And it has some of the view options that I like. But it would be nice to have similar options between dissimilar clients. Whether for good or ill, the Amazon client has a common appearance across every platform – including the Apple platform.
- There is no music store interface. When I went through the process of loading files, I noted that some of the songs (that I had on my hard drive) came from questionable sources. In my case, I had gotten a copy of “Riders on the Storm” (by the Doors) from the web. I had used the song for a video that I had made for my son a few years ago. But I had never gotten around to buying a copy of the song. So I used Amazon’s service to buy the “Best of…” album from The Doors. Having an integrated service (from any vendor) would be most welcome. I have found that since using the Amazon client, I’ve probably purchased a half dozen albums that I would have otherwise not purchased. This is especially true of impulse purchases. Having an electronic wallet and an “always on” connection has allowed me to experience impulse buying in a whole new light.
- There are no tag searching or tag editing options at all. For some folks, ID3 tags are vitally important. And there is no attention to this subject at all.
- There is no support for scrobbling music to Last.fm. Yes, there are ways of scrobbling when using the web client. Dan Slaughter has put together some excellent scripts that work with both Google Music and Amazon Cloud Drive. You can find information about these tools here. But it must be noted that there is no support currently available for the mobile (i.e., Android) client.
The Ugly
Finally, there are some ugly issues that really need to be resolved before this product can become a traditional Google beta (i.e., a complete product).
It took me almost a week to get the product to work on my phone. The product would install successfully. And I could see all of the local music, but I couldn’t see anything that was on my cloud drive. At first, I thought that this was a problem with my custom ROM. I use Liberty 2.0. And some apps have trouble with some of the things that jrummy does with the ROM. But that was not the case.
I was about ready to give up on it when I had an unforeseen (and problematic) product upgrade for LauncherPro. My entire LauncherPro config was wiped out and needed to be rebuilt. Once I solved that problem, I went back to the Google Music service. And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but my music collection (but no tiny reindeer). I have to assume that the cleanup of LauncherPro solved my issues – though I have no way of proving it. Either way, the Google Music product now works superbly – though I wish I really knew what caused the trouble in the first place.
But to me, the most troubling aspect of this service (as well as the Amazon service) is the issue of privacy. It is one thing to believe in the safety and security of your own home. But when you store your media on an external service that is not within your home, do you have any degree of privacy? Perhaps you do. Then again, perhaps you don’t.
Part of me is very troubled that I have my musical tastes (and my reading tastes) exposed to any corporation. But it would be even more troubling if that same corporation made my content tastes accessible to the government. Do I have anything to fear currently? No, I really don’t. I try to ensure that all of my content is licensed. And I am pretty darned pedestrian in my reading and musical tastes. In fact, most people call me a prude. But I don’t want the government to know what I think. It’s none of their business. Finally, I broadcast (via blog, tweet and scrobble) all of my media-related activities. So am I concerned that anyone will use this information against me? No, I’m not. At least, I’m not concerned currently.
But what happens if corporations (or the government) change and become more insidious? Or what happens when they try to use my data for their own selfish marketing needs? For me, this possibility is real. And it gives me reason to pause. I don’t want to see the firemen break down my front door and seize my copy of the Bible (or the sonnets of Shakespeare, or the music of The Doors).
Bottom Line
I am impressed with the Google service. I really like their Android client. I hope that they will create a common client interface across all platforms (including Apple’s iOS). And I really hope that they take time and care in developing their EULA. There are some real challenges that must be solved. Nevertheless, the “all you can drink” service is far more compelling than a “pay per gigabyte” service.
But for now, I’m leaning towards the Amazon platform. It is a little more polished and a lot more ubiquitous. Moreover, the Amazon case for privacy is a little more comforting (given Google’s historic willingness to work with the repressive Chinese government). Finally, Amazon’s integration with a working retail channel is far more compelling. But if Google can overcome some (or all) of these hurdles, they do have a chance to win my business.
-Roo
Liberty 2.0: Not Quite Gingerbread – But Very Sweet
The Android Gingerbread SDK has been out for many weeks. And we are just starting to see some custom ROM’s starting to show up. In fact, there was quite a bit of buzz about a “leak” of Verizon’s Droid 2 Gingerbread build. I was sorely tempted to dive right into this one.
But I chose to wait. I bypassed the fancy bauble that might have fascinated me for a moment. Instead, I decided to support @kejar and @jrummy by installing their latest build of the Liberty ROM. And I am so glad that I did. This new version of their ROM is wonderful. It is clean and fast. And it has all of the stability that you can expect from a Froyo-based build. And since it is based on the most common Android platform, all of the apps that I depend upon are fully supported on the build. Better still, I am comfortable because all of the newest apps are still within my reach – including the latest Amazon Cloud Drive player.
So what does Liberty 2.0 bring to the table? For me, the big ticket items are as follows:
- Busybox 1.17.2
- Sysctl enabled by default
- Cron scheduler enabled
- Some amazing updates to the Liberty Toolbox
- Tons of themes, tons of fixes, and a couple key Blur features
Do these changes give me all that I want? Of course not. I want Gingerbread. Give me some of that sweetness. Of course, once I have that, I want some Honeycomb as well. But for now, I have Liberty – and I am thrilled. This version is more stable. This version looks sharper (mostly due to wider theme support). And this version runs everything I have. I can wait a little longer for Moto, Verizon and the Liberty team to give me Libertybread.
-Roo
P.S. As you may be able to tell, I’m using the EpicBlue Theme. It really rocks!
P.P.S. I went ahead and purchased the *Donate* version of the Liberty Toolbox (from the Amazon Market). You should too!
Does Amazon Have the Whole Enchilada?
For those who have read my musings for some time, you’ll know that I use a lot of Amazon services.
- I have purchased music from Amazon for many years. Why would I use Amazon’s music service when iTunes owned the market? Because I really believe in competition. And I really believe in good prices. And I really believe in digital freedom. Consequently, I’ve bought many dozens of albums from Amazon’s music service. And recently, I’ve purchased from both my home computer and my Android phone.
- I’ve also used Amazon’s Video service for a few years. Amazon decided that they would boldly venture into the same market that Netflix and Blockbuster had already captured. I originally chose Amazon because they weren’t Apple. But then I began to use their service more fully. And I realized that because they weren’t Apple, they were intrinsically better.
Yeah, that’s an exaggeration. But not by much. I bought a Panasonic Blu-Ray player. And it included streaming from Amazon VOD. Because both Amazon and Panasonic had an established history of leveraging open source technologies, it was a natural harmony. And as my Viera Cast capabilities grew, so have the Amazon VOD capabilities – especially with the Amazon prime membership that my wife has.
But while I’ve had Amazon VOD for about two years, I haven’t really exploited it much until I had the right wireless infrastructure at home. Now that I have that in place, it’s been wonderful using the Amazon service. I can get almost any video I want whenever I want it. And if I choose to buy it, then Amazon has provided a video locker to store the digital content in. - Since getting my Android phone last year, I have been waiting for Amazon to open up their own Android market. This week, they finally made it official and started vending apps using their retail purchasing engine. I haven’t bought a lot of apps from them yet. But if they provide the same application re-installs that the Google market does, then I may switch my purchases to Amazon. [Note: I really love automatic reinstallation of apps from the Android market. Every time that I switch ROM’s, I need to reload my system. So this is a sticking point for me.]
I’ve used a lot of “cloud-based” storage in the past. While at Microsoft, I tinkered with SkyDrive. BTW, this was a revolutionary concept that suffered from a horrible implementation. [Note: That is quite typical for many Microsoft technologies. They can always out-market you on technology that they acquire. And they can almost always build really cool new things. But they oftentimes have trouble building and marketing first-generation technology.]
But when SkyDrive didn’t seize the market, the most notable cloud-based storage tool in the market became DropBox. DropBox got a lot of the technology right. And they really captured a chunk of the geek market. Indeed, Cindy and I have used DropBox for several years. And it has been a wonderful success whenever she has needed a collaborative storage platform for her master’s degree classwork. But like SkyDrive, DropBox never made a big enough splash in the market to begin to seize the consumer marketplace.
And now it’s Amazon’s turn.
I REALLY love the cloud storage offering that Amazon released this week. If you’ve had your head in the clouds (or had your head stuck somewhere else), then I will tell you that the Amazon service is called the Amazon Cloud Drive. I love the name. It leverages the notion of the cloud (as popularized by Microsoft ads) and adds to it the simple and well-understood notion of the “drive” as storage. Hence, Cloud Drive may well be a marketing winner.
And the Cloud Drive offering is fairly complete. You can use it on your PC or Mac. And you can use it on your phone. And you can use it on a tablet. So far, it seems to really “sing” with music-based files. Of course, that makes sense as music files are the largest commodity that will be stored. It will be months (or maybe even years) before videos will become a ubiquitous on the service. So adroit mastery of music files hits the Amazon sweet spot.
And they have chosen a good niche for the amount of free storage. It is larger than either DropBox or SkyDrive. The current offering is 5GB for free. I suspect that Apple and Google may try and best this with a 25GB offering. But we’ll have to see. The folks at Forbes think that the first major reply will be to up the storage limits. If that happens, I would bet that Amazon will respond. That might be a fun price war to watch.
So far, I really like the first volley in the impending digital storage wars. Like the folks at Forbes, I see Apple and Google jumping in on this. And I think that Google may just buy DropBox. They don’t need the DropBox tech. But they may want the customers and the buzz. But I also think that you may see some other folks jumping in. I do believe that Microsoft may burnish and re-launch SkyDrive. If they do, this might be hella fun.
And I really think that storage vendors and media player vendors are going to want to get in on the action. While they may not be able to make a complete offering themselves, it will be nice to see how they are used as channel providers to the bigger players.
So what will it take to win? Winners (and survivors) will need the following:
- They will need capital to purchase and implement the vast quantities of storage that may be required.
- They will need established data center management skills to make the cloud-based storage initiative viable.
- They will need marketing to get the message to customers
- They will need partners for channel depth and diversity of correlated features/capabilities.
- They will need digital content.
- They will need a retail channel (with a strong purchasing and delivery engine).
Google has many of these. I do think that they lack diverse content – although YouTube does help. What they really need is some content partners – like Sony???
Apple has some of these. Nevertheless, they lack a robust and diverse partner ecosystem. Yes, they have lots of partners. But they re so closed that they are technologically inbred. And they don’t have a lot of online storage already in their pipeline. Yes, they sell content. But they don’t really store it for their customers. They move it to their customers’ devices.
Amazon has most of these (except for the brand identity across many markets). They do have all of the pieces in place. But no one knows that. They have content. They have storage. They have the retail channel. But they need critical mind-share in the consumer marketplace
I think that the market can bear all three of these big players – for now. And Amazon is first out of the gate. If they can capture enough early market, they may be the big winner.
I just wish that I could get “credit” for all of the Amazon MP3 purchases I’ve already made. I hate to move all my stuff right back to them – and then have to buy additional storage. It’s not fair! Wah! Wah! Wah!
-Roo
