Tag: Android

I've Upped the Ante – My Increasing Android Investment

Lorin Olsen

image

Android has been my smartphone OS for almost a year.  And it has served me quite well.  But it has its limitations on a smartphone.  The limitations are many.  And some of them are even noteworthy.  But my biggest challenge with my smartphone is that it is a wholly inadequate platform for writing notes and blogging. 

Why is that?  That’s easy.  Since voice recognition and voice transcription are still in their infancy, it is very hard to work with text documentation.  First, the soft keyboard is difficult – especially for someone with big hands.  And even with my Droid 2, the keyboard is just not suited for touch typing.  So while I can surf the web and I can take photos, I can’t use a smartphone to really spend any time blogging and/or recording my thoughts.  But that is not a fault with Android.  It is just an example of needing the right tool for the job.  Yes, I stumbled my way through some updates.  But it was always cumbersome.

But that changed this afternoon.  As a part of my fiftieth birthday celebration, I am now the proud owner of an Android tablet.  My wife and I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 today.  And I really love the device – and the Honeycomb platform.  The list of my likes is rather large.  And even though I am tremendously happy thus far, there are a few things that are quite annoying about the platform. 

Nevertheless, I think I may wait on posting a full review of the platform.  After all, an entirely new computing domain should warrant a few days use before I pontificate on the subject.  For now, I’ll settle for an overview.  One sentence summary: the Android tablet environment fills a needed gap in my computing spectrum.  

Where is that gap?  It’s the space where I need media and mobility. It’s where I still need some real computing – but I can’t carry a big laptop.  It is a place where I can stuff tablet and keyboard into a back pack or a bike pannier – and still be confident that I can do a complete job.  Bottom line: This is my new mobility space. 

And I want that space to be open – not constrained.  I want to connect to wireless networks with ease.  And I want to use the device to access my other devices while I am away from them.  And I want to install the things that I want to install – not just what someone else thinks that I need.  I don’t want someone else’s handcuffs.  And if I am handcuffed, I’ll pick the lock to free my hands.

Innovation is about taking existing pieces and building a whole new thing.  So my new tablet is the melding of technologies that I have used before into a package that is compelling.  At the same time, I want to have access to the computer.  Think of it this way.  I want a car.  But I hate the fact that some dealer has me over a barrel because he has the only computer that can read the sensors and program the electronics.  Some folks may be satisfied with that situation.  I am not.  Consequently, I have an Android tablet. 

-Roo

I’ve Upped the Ante – My Increasing Android Investment

Lorin Olsen

image

Android has been my smartphone OS for almost a year.  And it has served me quite well.  But it has its limitations on a smartphone.  The limitations are many.  And some of them are even noteworthy.  But my biggest challenge with my smartphone is that it is a wholly inadequate platform for writing notes and blogging. 

Why is that?  That’s easy.  Since voice recognition and voice transcription are still in their infancy, it is very hard to work with text documentation.  First, the soft keyboard is difficult – especially for someone with big hands.  And even with my Droid 2, the keyboard is just not suited for touch typing.  So while I can surf the web and I can take photos, I can’t use a smartphone to really spend any time blogging and/or recording my thoughts.  But that is not a fault with Android.  It is just an example of needing the right tool for the job.  Yes, I stumbled my way through some updates.  But it was always cumbersome.

But that changed this afternoon.  As a part of my fiftieth birthday celebration, I am now the proud owner of an Android tablet.  My wife and I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 today.  And I really love the device – and the Honeycomb platform.  The list of my likes is rather large.  And even though I am tremendously happy thus far, there are a few things that are quite annoying about the platform. 

Nevertheless, I think I may wait on posting a full review of the platform.  After all, an entirely new computing domain should warrant a few days use before I pontificate on the subject.  For now, I’ll settle for an overview.  One sentence summary: the Android tablet environment fills a needed gap in my computing spectrum.  

Where is that gap?  It’s the space where I need media and mobility. It’s where I still need some real computing – but I can’t carry a big laptop.  It is a place where I can stuff tablet and keyboard into a back pack or a bike pannier – and still be confident that I can do a complete job.  Bottom line: This is my new mobility space. 

And I want that space to be open – not constrained.  I want to connect to wireless networks with ease.  And I want to use the device to access my other devices while I am away from them.  And I want to install the things that I want to install – not just what someone else thinks that I need.  I don’t want someone else’s handcuffs.  And if I am handcuffed, I’ll pick the lock to free my hands.

Innovation is about taking existing pieces and building a whole new thing.  So my new tablet is the melding of technologies that I have used before into a package that is compelling.  At the same time, I want to have access to the computer.  Think of it this way.  I want a car.  But I hate the fact that some dealer has me over a barrel because he has the only computer that can read the sensors and program the electronics.  Some folks may be satisfied with that situation.  I am not.  Consequently, I have an Android tablet. 

-Roo

Making Your Phone YOUR Phone

Lorin Olsen


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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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

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Which One Will I Choose?

Lorin Olsen


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:

  1. Create a free account on the Audiogalaxy site.
  2. Download and install the Audiogalaxy “helper” application.
  3. Point the “helper” application at your music files.
  4. Wait for the helper application to collect metadata and send it to the Audiogalaxy service.
  5. Install the Android app on your phone.
  6. 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

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My Gingerbread Was Too Crumbly

Lorin Olsen


Yesterday was a very odd day.  At work, we are doing final validation of the data center before we bring it online.  At home, we are doing final preparations for the wedding.  So it was obviously the right time to upgrade my phone to Gingerbread.
The first chore was picking a ROM.  Since I have invested in Liberty, I figured that I would go down that route.  After a little research, I had a clear and unambiguous strategy.

  1. Use ROM Manager to backup the current system
  2. Flash my phone with the GB leak for the D2
  3. Update from the GB leak to Liberty GB 0.5

It’s a small list that is chock full of many other steps – and a boatload of assumptions.  But this list was my starting point.  So I started the process with a backup.  That took about thirty minutes.  Then I downloaded the leaked ROM.  After reading about the process, I realized that ROM Manager wouldn’t do the job.  I needed to use RSDLite to perform an SBF restore.
I started to have an odd feeling when I tried to reboot into basic recovery mode.  [Note: You can’t use ROM Manager or Clockwork Recovery for this.]  After rebooting  and getting into recovery, I connected the phone via USB.  And nothing happened.  I couldn’t see the device in RSDLite.  After restarting the phone and getting the right version of RSDLite, I was able to see the phone in the list of devices identified by RSDLIte (that was running on the PC).  But when I tried to perform the recovery, I got a series of odd messages that seemed to indicate that the SBF file I had was not the right file for the phone that I have.  Arghhh.
Since I didn’t know where to get the right SBF file, I decided that it was time to go back to where I came from.  Unfortunately, I had wiped the phone in preparation for Gingerbread.  Fortunately, I had taken a backup.  So I booted into Clockwork Recovery and started my restore.  Too bad that the recovery never finished.
After two hours of waiting for the recovery to finish, I punted.  I used Clockwork Recovery to flash back to Liberty 1.5.  That worked flawlessly.  Then I upgraded to Liberty 2.01.  That worked flawlessly as well.  So now I just had to rebuild the apps.  I figured that this would be easy.  I’d just go into the Market, start a download, and watched the rest of the apps download by themselves.  Too bad that this did not happen.  Instead, I had to download the purchased  apps one by one.  And then I had to start downloading all of the free apps that I’ve installed.
But there is very good news to the story.  I had been having trouble with the phone’s camera.  That’s probably because I tried to load a bunch of add-ons last month.  When I did, I broke the camera functionality.  But now that I have rebuilt the system, all the weird errors are now a thing of the past.  My phone is much more functional.  And since I store all of my contacts and all of my music in the cloud, I am back to complete functionality.  And it only took about six hours of my life.
I will definitely do this again.  But next time, I will make sure about the SBF file that I use.  And I will prepare a formal checklist.  That will ensure that I don’t burn hours in pursuit of something only to find myself performing a costly system cleanup.
-Roo

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Liberty 2.0: Not Quite Gingerbread – But Very Sweet

Lorin Olsen

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!

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Liberty: An Ideal and a ROM

Lorin Olsen

Last weekend, I wrote about installing and using a new ROM for my Droid 2.  At the time that I wrote that post, I knew that I would be replacing it with another post very shortly.  That time is now.  And the reason I am writing this post is because I have once again changed the Android ROM for my Droid 2.  As of 7AM this morning, I switched to the new Liberty ROM.  This ROM is a collaboration between two exceptional Android contributors.  Kejar and JRummy have united to build a very interesting new ROM – and it rocks.
Why did I switch – yet again?  First, you have to know that sampling and deploying ROM’s is a very addictive thing.  It meets some fundamental control issues that every geek must address.  Second, I really wanted to join into a very “new” thing.  So leaping onto Liberty meets the “cool” threshold I set for many technologies.
But beyond coolness, style and swagger, Liberty represents freedom from the historical bonds associated with phones and their operating systems.  It represents the work of the common man.  And it represents a labor of love for many people.  Android is truly about open communications.  And the Liberty ROM brings us the best of that open ideal for communications technology.
-Roo

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GummyJAR Starts Out As A Gooey Mess

Lorin Olsen

After using ApeX 1.3.1 for almost a week, I decided it would be time for a few more changes to the phone.  Sometimes, I amaze myself with the brazenness of my ego.  But that amazement never occurs before the fact.  Rather, I plunge headlong into the fray.  And I invariably clean up the mess after the fact.  And that was the case today as well.
I started today by downloading GummyJAR.  GummyJAR is a custom ROM that attempts to be both AOSP-compliant and extremely fast.  Rather that use pre-built binaries, the developers recompiled everything.  The result of this is a much faster build
The download process itself was positively wonderful.  Since I’m using ROM Manager Premium, I can download straight to my SD card.    And the process only took a few minutes.  So while I was waiting on downloads, I decided to take a backup of all of my apps using Titanium Backup.  Once I had a good backup, it was time to launch the install. I chose to wipe cache and data.  And with that, the install began.  It took about ten minutes to boot into recovery, copy the files and start the glistening new OS.  And the OS began without a hitch.
The next step was the coolest thing I’ve seen in at least… four or five days. I went to the Android app market and selected one of the apps I had purchased already.  And within a few minutes the Market app was downloading several dozen apps to repopulate my system.  This is totally awesome.  And the recovery went without a hitch.
So within an hour, my phone had a new OS with all of my apps.  I was flush with excitement.  I felt the swelling of pride rise in my heart.  So I decided to make yet another change: I used Titanium Backup to move many of these newly deployed apps to my SD card.  And that’s when the trouble began.
My first inkling of trouble came when TB couldn’t move some of my apps.  But I was amazed at just how many had moved before things failed.  In the past, I had been able to move 15-20 of my 104 apps to my SD card.  The rest didn’t move.  But TB was telling me that it could move 79 of the apps.  I felt great – even though a few apps didn’t move as expected.  Things seemed to be working – and then I rebooted my phone.
After rebooting, very few of my apps were visible.  This puzzled me.  And some of the really important apps seemed to be gone – including ClockworkMod and ROM Manager.  I tried to uninstall the apps and re-install them to no avail.  Indeed, the Market wouldn’t install these apps as it believed that they were still available on my phone.  But they acted just as if the SD card had not mounted – even though it had.  After struggling with the issue for half an hour, I decided to just restore from a backup.  But I could get TB to work at all.
So in desperation, I decided I would just boot into recovery mode and recover to a different ROM.  But ROM Manager wasn’t working.  So I tried to manually enter Clockwork Recovery.  But I had no joy.  And I was starting to feel desperate.
I rebooted the phone into GummyJAR.  But this time, I could see the apps – and I could run them.  So I downloaded a fresh ROM and rebooted.  But on restart the apps were gone once again.  As I was pulling my hair out, I figured that maybe the process of trying to go into bootstrap recovery had some effect that allowed successful execution of the apps I had moved.  For whatever reason, this did have the desired effect.  I could access my apps.  So the first thing I did was run TB and move all apps back to internal memory.  This took about five minutes and the process ended without error.  Then I went into ROM Manager and re-installed the Clockwork Recovery software.
Upon reboot, everything came back in a functioning state.  I have used the phone for about an hour.  And I’ve rebooted the phone almost a half dozen times.  And everything is working well.  Phew.  I had bad dreams of humbly going to the forums and begging for assistance.  Fortunately, I accepted my slice of humble pie and I wasn’t forced to make public penance.
So what was the problem?  What caused the trouble?  Since moving the apps with TB was the start of the trouble and moving them back was the end of the trouble, my conclusion is simple: using any tool to force an app to SD is a bad idea.  And it is a worse idea to move any apps when testing a new ROM.
But the good news is very good.  The GummyJAR ROM is very cool.  It is a complete AOSP solution.  And there are no vestiges of MotoBlur on the phone at all.  For this, I am very thankful.  And I’ve learned a lot along the way.  And this ROM is blazingly fast.  So I will be living on this one until the new Gingerbread ROM’s start to surface in a few weeks.
So I am happy as I live with this new ROM and I dream about the new Motorola Xoom and its Android 3.0 goodness.
 
-Roo

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I’m Like a Kid at Christmas!

Lorin Olsen

I love Christmas for so many reasons:

  1. Today is a reminder that God is with us.  He emptied himself (Philippians 2) to dwell among us.
  2. Today is a reminder that there is always a home where we belong.  I loved the pastor’s homily last night.  He spoke of the prodigal son.  This really IS the true Christmas story. God allows us to choose a path that leads to ruination.  But He is always waiting for us to return.  And He rushes to meet us upon our return.  The birth of Jesus is testament to God rushing to meet His children.
  3. I really do love the gifting process.  I love buying and making gifts for others.  I am thrilled to see joy as someone opens a surprise or when a deep desire (or unmet need) is realized.
  4. And I love kids at Christmas – cuz I am really a kid at heart.

So when the Christmas hubbub finally began to subside, I decided to give myself a little Christmas cheer: I decided to treat myself to ApeX 1.3.1 for the holidays.  Once I had secured root access, I couldn’t wait very long – and it only took four days for my resolve to waver.  I pulled down Rom Manager, installed a bootstrap recovery tool (i.e., ClockworkMod) and got to work.

The process was oh so simple.  There are dozens of “howto” guides on the Net.  So I won’t reinvent them here.  But I will say that the process is not nearly as daunting as the first few WinMo cookers I deployed a few years ago.  If you are cautious, then you can do this with confidence.    And there is so much assistance that you can obtain.  I won’t be a link farm for these kinds of things – especially as there are legal implications.  But I can say that all you need can be found on Google.

-Roo

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I'm Like a Kid at Christmas!

Lorin Olsen

I love Christmas for so many reasons:

  1. Today is a reminder that God is with us.  He emptied himself (Philippians 2) to dwell among us.
  2. Today is a reminder that there is always a home where we belong.  I loved the pastor’s homily last night.  He spoke of the prodigal son.  This really IS the true Christmas story. God allows us to choose a path that leads to ruination.  But He is always waiting for us to return.  And He rushes to meet us upon our return.  The birth of Jesus is testament to God rushing to meet His children.
  3. I really do love the gifting process.  I love buying and making gifts for others.  I am thrilled to see joy as someone opens a surprise or when a deep desire (or unmet need) is realized.
  4. And I love kids at Christmas – cuz I am really a kid at heart.

So when the Christmas hubbub finally began to subside, I decided to give myself a little Christmas cheer: I decided to treat myself to ApeX 1.3.1 for the holidays.  Once I had secured root access, I couldn’t wait very long – and it only took four days for my resolve to waver.  I pulled down Rom Manager, installed a bootstrap recovery tool (i.e., ClockworkMod) and got to work.
The process was oh so simple.  There are dozens of “howto” guides on the Net.  So I won’t reinvent them here.  But I will say that the process is not nearly as daunting as the first few WinMo cookers I deployed a few years ago.  If you are cautious, then you can do this with confidence.    And there is so much assistance that you can obtain.  I won’t be a link farm for these kinds of things – especially as there are legal implications.  But I can say that all you need can be found on Google.
-Roo

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