An old friend of mine knows quite a bit about movies, and I can stumble my way around the interwebs. So we, have joined forces to enlighten the world! Ok, maybe just to share some quick opinions about movies, but close enough.
Check it out over at The Idol or the Whip
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Kids and Tech
I've been hearing a lot of discussions about the level of technology and gadgetry in the lives of our children. Nielsen recently released a study of what children expressed interest in for Christmas gifts and the iPad topped the charts. As the questioned got older the field evened out a bit, but clearly gadgets are what they are looking for. The big questions are how much is too much and how early is too young?
Admittedly I come from a tech forward background. My dad brought home a TRS-80 when I was in first grade. When the IBM clones happened, it didn't take long before one found its way into our home. I was even allowed to dial into the VAX machines at dad's work to play text only games like Dungeon or Questprobe: Spider-Man and ASCII games like Rouge. It only makes sense that I'd want my offspring to enjoy the same things.
Fast forward to somewhere near present time and my daughter, at age six, has mastered every kids "computer" and is asking for more. She got a Leapfrog gaming system and that held her until she tried her cousin's Nintendo DS. This year, at eight, we're giving the Nabi2 tablet a try. I chose that one mostly because it can grow into a real tablet and not be another obsolete toy in six months.
Am I doing her a disservice getting her started with tech gadgets now, or am I keeping her prepared to relevant in a world where technology is advancing at a breakneck pace? Of course I don't want her into the less than PG side of the web for years to come, but what will the world look like in ten years when she's in college? What will she have to master to secure a good career in any field?
What about learning to live in a world where any poor decisions you make in the online world have real consequences? In the last two weeks two people have made the news by being fired over dumb decisions that we're displayed online in what they though were private places. One was a man on reddit.com being very creepy and borderline criminal who got outed. His job didn't want the negative press so it he went. The second was a young girl who worked for a charity and made the mistake of paying an inflammatory picture on Facebook. She had a co-worker snap a pic of her screaming and flipping off a sign that said Silence and Respect Arlington National Cemetery. I have no more pity for her than the reddit creeper, and I don't blame their employers for distancing themselves from the bad press.
How long will it take the public to become aware that this is the new normal? Will a generation raised on Facebook and Twitter view this kind of faux pas differently? If technology is moving into everything we do, and believe me there aren't many places that it hasn't yet (Google tweeting kettle), wouldn't exposing our children to tech in reasonable amounts be better for them long term? Why not have a family night working on html together, our building an app that sorts the chores evenly between the kids?
Electric lights, indoor plumbing, the automobile, television and now the internet and it's accessories....
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Must have app list reprised
Ok, it's about time I revisited this topic. There have been two major Android updates (ice cream sandwich, and jelly bean) since I first talked about this, along with a lot of maturing of the app availability in Google Play. The atmosphere and attitude toward paid apps in Android has also become more accepting. It's only fair that I revisit the topic.
I have also found value in the Amazon App Store. While I do not like their use of a DRM scheme that requires a call to the mothership every time you open an app, I do appreciate the Free App of The Day. It isn't always a quality app, but it is always free.
I would love to address tablet specific apps, but there just aren't that many on Android yet.
Let's start with the freebies. Everybody likes something for free right? I'll kick off with Google's stuff and then on to the rest of the Android world.
Google Music
This is a mix of several things in one. It is a cloud locker storage service for your music, a music player that can play local files as well as stream them from your locker, and a music store all in one. You'll have to set up the service from your home computer and upload all of your music (may take a while based on the size of your library) to get the full benefit. No worries if you have an expansive library, you get storage for up to twenty thousand songs for free. There also have been no reports of anyone being asked any questions about the origin of their music, so if it's a back up copy of your cd's you will be fine.
Google Voice
Another multi-platform service here. This is both a VOIP style phone alternative, SMS (but not MMS) provider, and visual voicemail all rolled into one. I primarily use it for the visual voicemail, but it is handy to have a second number to use on things that will be more public than you would want a cell number to be, like domain registration or a craigslist.org ad.
Google Maps
This one comes on any Google approved device. It is simply the all around best. Street view, turn by turn navigation (that doesn't have any missing cities or mis-labeled airports), and the ability to search for restaurants and other points of interest near you make this a strong front runner. You can get one, sometimes two pieces from other apps, but for the total package this is it.
Google Drive
This is Google's competitor to Dropbox, an online file storage service. It has a very similar feature set, just a different set of visual cues. They have also integrated Google Docs with Drive giving you the ability to create and edit office style docs on the go. Not better than Dropbox, but they do offer 5 GB of free storage and I'm sure that you can find a use for that.
Chrome
This replacement browser is only available to those running 4.0 and up. If your device supports it, go for it. To truly appreciate it though you need to use chrome on your computers too. It syncs bookmarks, auto-fill form data, saved passwords if you like, and even the last page that your other devices viewed.
Evernote
This app has become indispensable. I use it to save almost everything! It syncs across my myriad devices, has a cool tablet interface and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. It can be used to save important info (the number for your printer cartridges), make grocery lists, keep track of music that you want to buy or books that you want to read, or just to save notes for later. You can share your content with others, either note by note or entire notebooks. After a bit of playing with it, it becomes second nature to save just about anything that you might have normally written down on a scrap of paper here instead.
Mint
This is kind of like Evernote for money. You log into your bank and credit card accounts (and any other financial accounts you have including loans and retirement funds) through this app and it keeps tabs on where your money is coming from and going to. It can help you set up a budget for anything that you want, from saving up for something to measuring your disposable income. It may be frightening to give all of that info to someone (or one app), but rest assured that they work at least as hard on security as they do on their service.
Keeper
There are a TON of password management apps out there. I have tried almost all of them, paid and free. Keeper is a freemium (free with limited functionality) app so it's going here. The free app offers a vault for your passwords locked down with 128 bit AES encryption that is quite secure. It offers cool features like a self destruct if you enter the wrong master password too many times. It has the ability to organize your login information into folders, and back it up to their web servers. Even the limited free functions are worth the download. If you choose to pay $10 per year per device, then you can set them up very easily to sync across the internet or through your local network.
Nook
There are a lot of e-book reading apps out there. Some of them are tied to a book seller like this one, and some are free standing accepting most e-books that you bring from other places. For the former I prefer Nook. The library is one of the biggest out there and the prices are reasonable. There isn't as much self published material, but that can be a pro as well as a con since it keeps down some of the noise. The Nook app is more visually appealing with its virtual page turns and multiple fonts and colors. It was the first to offer lending or your books and syncing your place in your current book across any device (as long as it was purchased from them and not side loaded). In the end the choice between e-book apps will likely be about which store you prefer to buy your e-books from.
Kindle
I don't use it because my library is tied up in the Nook app, but the Kindle app is also available. It still isn't as good looking, but it does offer a couple of cool features. This one also offers syncing your current page across devices, but it offers a new feature that you can't get anywhere else. You can sync your current spot with audible.com books and skip back and forth between reading and listening to supported books.
Overdrive Media Console
This is what you'll need to borrow library e-books, and audio books. It includes its own reader and player apps. Not beautiful, but functional and it keeps the libraries providing free (if time restricted) content.
Angry Birds
This is the new Doom for mobile devices. You know that your operating system isn't "there" yet until there is a port of Angry Birds running on it. Chances are that you've at least heard of it or seen the merchandise in your local retailer.
Dropbox
This is the OG of online file storage. They have the most polished app of their type of service. It comes with what is becoming the industry standard of 5 GB free storage, but you can earn more for free by sharing it around a bit. They also offer instant hassle free uploading of any picture taken on your device (includes tablets) without counting it toward your storage limit. You can send individual files or folders to others, and also allow them to become a collaborator on folders. They would then be able to upload, download and otherwise make changes to files that you shared with them.
Pandora
This app is pretty awesome at understanding what makes music similar. You just tell it an artist, a song, an album, or a genre and it makes you a custom radio station. It is ad supported, so you will get commercials in your playlist. If you don't like a song then you can give it a thumbs down and you won't hear it again. If you just don't want to hear that song at the moment then you can skip up to six songs an hour. There are other similar services out there, but I have pretty much stuck with Pandora. If you don't like the ads, there is also a subscription that can be bought to get rid of the ads and remove the 6 skip limit.
Barcode Scanner
There are a few different apps that provide this functionality, including Google's Shopper, but this one provides the most bang in one place. You can scan pretty much any barcode, product, link, or QR code (those funny square barcodes). It can be fed into Amazon's app, Google's or any other app that helps you shop by barcode as well as reading any code that has another purpose like sending you to a website.
Shazam
This one is for those times when you hear a song on the radio, in a tv show or movie and want to know who sings it and what the title is. Just boot it up and it listens and gives you all the info about the song. Another big feature is that it lets you publish what you are listening to to your favorite social media network. If you are the kind of person that purchases music instead of subscribing to a service, then you can make use of the direct links to purchase the song from iTunes and Amazon.
Andmade Share
Sometimes you want to share a funny picture, link or webpage through more than one outlet. Facebook and MMS, Twitter and Linkedin, print and Email. That's what Andmade Share does, gives you a list of apps that you can send your content through and a checklist next to them so you can perform all the different functions before you return to the content. I have been using this one for months to send pics to my friends on Facebook and text to those that aren't.
Currents
This is another Google offering. It's basically a very pretty RSS reader. It takes the RSS feeds that you give it and presents them in a very magazine like manner. This is the direct competitor to FlipBoard on Android. I use this one daily to stay current on news from multiple sources.
Facebook and Twitter
Ok, I'm not going to cover these. They are simply portals to the services that you would find on the web.
Pocket
For those times when you see a cool webpage or article that you want to read or explore but just don't have the time for right now. Save it to your Pocket and read it later at your leisure. Especially cool if you find things on your phone and would like to view them later on your tablet.
Swype
Ok, one of the coolest features that Android offers is the ability to customize almost anything about your device. As a result you can have a custom keyboard, whic h is what Swype is. Instead of traditionally typing though, you simply drag your finger through the letters of the word that you want to spell and Swype does the rest. There is also a VERY accurate speech recognition engine in it as well. You talk, it types and punctuates. Now the only way to get it if it wasn't preinstalled by your phone manufacturer is to go to their website and download the Beta version.There are some competitors and Android itself is getting into the trace to type game on the next version, but Swype is still my favorite.
Banking apps
There is an app for almost every bank out there. If you get a crazy notion to try a new bank, give USAA a shot. Their app is amazing! Same day deposit of checks through the app, the ability to move money to and from any bank, pay almost any bill all without leaving the app.
Skype
This is the granddaddy of video calling apps. It works on 3g (or 4g) and on wifi. You can also use this to make phone calls, but that is a paid service. There are competitors, but Skype has the largest adoption rate and a great user experience.
Square Register
Ok, this app falls into my must haves, but the market for it may not be that huge. This app allows anyone to accept credit card payments and get them deposited straight into your bank account. You can combine a free credit card reader dongle that plugs into a headset jack for ease of use. You can either buy the reader at a retail location like Radio Shack for $10 and then get it refunded from Square, or fill out a form online and they will mail you one. I use it to collect small fees and for that time when somebody borrows a little cash and only has a card to pay it back.
Ok, now I'm going to get into paid apps. The attitude toward paid apps had gotten warmer in the last year. At first there wasn't too much opportunity for paid apps to make it very far, but with some advancements like carrier billing and more app availability, the Play store has become a great place to get quality paid apps. As a side note though, keep a watch on the Amazon App Store for their Free Paid App Of The Day. Often it's a new app that is trying to get started. Sometimes that's great, other times not so good. Sometimes it's a more seasoned app jump starting it's download numbers. Without further ado...paid apps.
Beautiful Widgets
This app gets you a bundle of very nice looking clock and weather widgets, as well as home screen animations. You can also get the weather set as your live wallpaper. Its cheap and pretty.
BeyondPod
This podcast manager is the best experience that I have found since Google Listen went down. There are a ton of options, schedule updates and download times, build playlists automatically, base your updates on network availability and so on. It handles video and audio, streamed or downloaded. If you like podcasts, this is the easiest way to handle them.
Business Calendar
After the recent update to Google Calendar, most of the features of this app have been folded into the stock Android experience. The biggest thing that I still use though is the awesome widget. It's resizable, the color and transparency are adjustable, and it's just good looking. Most importantly, you can choose what info you want the widget to display and how it does it.
Office Replacement Apps
Ok, I have tried almost every one of these apps that are on the market and they all have their ups and downs. There are rumors of an official Microsoft Office for Android release next year, but until then we will have to make do. Documents to Go Full seems to offer the best experience all around, but it falls down like almost all of them when it comes to Power Point documents. It definitely offers the best viewing experience for PDF and Excel files. QuickOffice Pro is the first runner up. They have a rich Word and Excel experience. Creating Excel sheets on any of these isn't as easy as it is on a pc, but it is manageable.
Netflix and Hulu+
These are both basically just portals to the same content that you would find on the web. The apps are technically free, but require you to set up a subscription through the web to access any content, so I put them here. I love being able to take their content with me when I'm not at home. This offers a great way to catch up on back episodes of your shows, keep yourself or your kids entertained on trips, or even a way to watch something quietly in another room. Traveling, especially in hotel rooms, waiting at a Dr appointment, or just something to do on your lunch break.
PrinterShare
This app allows you to print over any printers that are connected to the same network as you (when on wifi of course). Your printer doesn't have to be wifi, as long as it is connected to and visible from the network. It doesn't support every printer in the world, but it gets a lot of them. I use this one on a regular basis with Canon and Kodak printers. They offer a free version to make sure that your printer is compatible. It does require downloading a couple of separate libraries to render different files, but it warns you and is a direct download from within the app.
Photoshop Touch
This is a pretty awesome app. First thing to remember, you're working with a phone or tablet, not a computer. These devices don't have the horsepower that a full on pc has to offer, no matter how new or cool it is. That being said, this app offers a fairly large suite of tools to modify and retouch your pics. It contains a short tutorial for each function, but I would still say to practice before you get disappointed.
Games. Ok, yeah I know that there are a metric buttload of games available. I'm not much of an Android gamer and I don't really feel qualified to pass judgement either way on any of them. I have a hard time getting my attention caught by anything without a physical controller. I do enjoy the occasional round of Stupid Zombies, but that's where my expertise ends.
That's about it. I'm sure that I have missed someone's favorite app, and I look forward to hearing about it. The intent of this is all about discovery and I would love to find my next favorite out there!
I have also found value in the Amazon App Store. While I do not like their use of a DRM scheme that requires a call to the mothership every time you open an app, I do appreciate the Free App of The Day. It isn't always a quality app, but it is always free.
I would love to address tablet specific apps, but there just aren't that many on Android yet.
Let's start with the freebies. Everybody likes something for free right? I'll kick off with Google's stuff and then on to the rest of the Android world.
Google Music
This is a mix of several things in one. It is a cloud locker storage service for your music, a music player that can play local files as well as stream them from your locker, and a music store all in one. You'll have to set up the service from your home computer and upload all of your music (may take a while based on the size of your library) to get the full benefit. No worries if you have an expansive library, you get storage for up to twenty thousand songs for free. There also have been no reports of anyone being asked any questions about the origin of their music, so if it's a back up copy of your cd's you will be fine.
Google Voice
Another multi-platform service here. This is both a VOIP style phone alternative, SMS (but not MMS) provider, and visual voicemail all rolled into one. I primarily use it for the visual voicemail, but it is handy to have a second number to use on things that will be more public than you would want a cell number to be, like domain registration or a craigslist.org ad.
Google Maps
This one comes on any Google approved device. It is simply the all around best. Street view, turn by turn navigation (that doesn't have any missing cities or mis-labeled airports), and the ability to search for restaurants and other points of interest near you make this a strong front runner. You can get one, sometimes two pieces from other apps, but for the total package this is it.
Google Drive
This is Google's competitor to Dropbox, an online file storage service. It has a very similar feature set, just a different set of visual cues. They have also integrated Google Docs with Drive giving you the ability to create and edit office style docs on the go. Not better than Dropbox, but they do offer 5 GB of free storage and I'm sure that you can find a use for that.
Chrome
This replacement browser is only available to those running 4.0 and up. If your device supports it, go for it. To truly appreciate it though you need to use chrome on your computers too. It syncs bookmarks, auto-fill form data, saved passwords if you like, and even the last page that your other devices viewed.
Evernote
This app has become indispensable. I use it to save almost everything! It syncs across my myriad devices, has a cool tablet interface and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. It can be used to save important info (the number for your printer cartridges), make grocery lists, keep track of music that you want to buy or books that you want to read, or just to save notes for later. You can share your content with others, either note by note or entire notebooks. After a bit of playing with it, it becomes second nature to save just about anything that you might have normally written down on a scrap of paper here instead.
Mint
This is kind of like Evernote for money. You log into your bank and credit card accounts (and any other financial accounts you have including loans and retirement funds) through this app and it keeps tabs on where your money is coming from and going to. It can help you set up a budget for anything that you want, from saving up for something to measuring your disposable income. It may be frightening to give all of that info to someone (or one app), but rest assured that they work at least as hard on security as they do on their service.
Keeper
There are a TON of password management apps out there. I have tried almost all of them, paid and free. Keeper is a freemium (free with limited functionality) app so it's going here. The free app offers a vault for your passwords locked down with 128 bit AES encryption that is quite secure. It offers cool features like a self destruct if you enter the wrong master password too many times. It has the ability to organize your login information into folders, and back it up to their web servers. Even the limited free functions are worth the download. If you choose to pay $10 per year per device, then you can set them up very easily to sync across the internet or through your local network.
Nook
There are a lot of e-book reading apps out there. Some of them are tied to a book seller like this one, and some are free standing accepting most e-books that you bring from other places. For the former I prefer Nook. The library is one of the biggest out there and the prices are reasonable. There isn't as much self published material, but that can be a pro as well as a con since it keeps down some of the noise. The Nook app is more visually appealing with its virtual page turns and multiple fonts and colors. It was the first to offer lending or your books and syncing your place in your current book across any device (as long as it was purchased from them and not side loaded). In the end the choice between e-book apps will likely be about which store you prefer to buy your e-books from.
Kindle
I don't use it because my library is tied up in the Nook app, but the Kindle app is also available. It still isn't as good looking, but it does offer a couple of cool features. This one also offers syncing your current page across devices, but it offers a new feature that you can't get anywhere else. You can sync your current spot with audible.com books and skip back and forth between reading and listening to supported books.
Overdrive Media Console
This is what you'll need to borrow library e-books, and audio books. It includes its own reader and player apps. Not beautiful, but functional and it keeps the libraries providing free (if time restricted) content.
Angry Birds
This is the new Doom for mobile devices. You know that your operating system isn't "there" yet until there is a port of Angry Birds running on it. Chances are that you've at least heard of it or seen the merchandise in your local retailer.
Dropbox
This is the OG of online file storage. They have the most polished app of their type of service. It comes with what is becoming the industry standard of 5 GB free storage, but you can earn more for free by sharing it around a bit. They also offer instant hassle free uploading of any picture taken on your device (includes tablets) without counting it toward your storage limit. You can send individual files or folders to others, and also allow them to become a collaborator on folders. They would then be able to upload, download and otherwise make changes to files that you shared with them.
Pandora
This app is pretty awesome at understanding what makes music similar. You just tell it an artist, a song, an album, or a genre and it makes you a custom radio station. It is ad supported, so you will get commercials in your playlist. If you don't like a song then you can give it a thumbs down and you won't hear it again. If you just don't want to hear that song at the moment then you can skip up to six songs an hour. There are other similar services out there, but I have pretty much stuck with Pandora. If you don't like the ads, there is also a subscription that can be bought to get rid of the ads and remove the 6 skip limit.
Barcode Scanner
There are a few different apps that provide this functionality, including Google's Shopper, but this one provides the most bang in one place. You can scan pretty much any barcode, product, link, or QR code (those funny square barcodes). It can be fed into Amazon's app, Google's or any other app that helps you shop by barcode as well as reading any code that has another purpose like sending you to a website.
Shazam
This one is for those times when you hear a song on the radio, in a tv show or movie and want to know who sings it and what the title is. Just boot it up and it listens and gives you all the info about the song. Another big feature is that it lets you publish what you are listening to to your favorite social media network. If you are the kind of person that purchases music instead of subscribing to a service, then you can make use of the direct links to purchase the song from iTunes and Amazon.
Andmade Share
Sometimes you want to share a funny picture, link or webpage through more than one outlet. Facebook and MMS, Twitter and Linkedin, print and Email. That's what Andmade Share does, gives you a list of apps that you can send your content through and a checklist next to them so you can perform all the different functions before you return to the content. I have been using this one for months to send pics to my friends on Facebook and text to those that aren't.
Currents
This is another Google offering. It's basically a very pretty RSS reader. It takes the RSS feeds that you give it and presents them in a very magazine like manner. This is the direct competitor to FlipBoard on Android. I use this one daily to stay current on news from multiple sources.
Facebook and Twitter
Ok, I'm not going to cover these. They are simply portals to the services that you would find on the web.
For those times when you see a cool webpage or article that you want to read or explore but just don't have the time for right now. Save it to your Pocket and read it later at your leisure. Especially cool if you find things on your phone and would like to view them later on your tablet.
Swype
Ok, one of the coolest features that Android offers is the ability to customize almost anything about your device. As a result you can have a custom keyboard, whic h is what Swype is. Instead of traditionally typing though, you simply drag your finger through the letters of the word that you want to spell and Swype does the rest. There is also a VERY accurate speech recognition engine in it as well. You talk, it types and punctuates. Now the only way to get it if it wasn't preinstalled by your phone manufacturer is to go to their website and download the Beta version.There are some competitors and Android itself is getting into the trace to type game on the next version, but Swype is still my favorite.
Banking apps
There is an app for almost every bank out there. If you get a crazy notion to try a new bank, give USAA a shot. Their app is amazing! Same day deposit of checks through the app, the ability to move money to and from any bank, pay almost any bill all without leaving the app.
Skype
This is the granddaddy of video calling apps. It works on 3g (or 4g) and on wifi. You can also use this to make phone calls, but that is a paid service. There are competitors, but Skype has the largest adoption rate and a great user experience.
Square Register
Ok, this app falls into my must haves, but the market for it may not be that huge. This app allows anyone to accept credit card payments and get them deposited straight into your bank account. You can combine a free credit card reader dongle that plugs into a headset jack for ease of use. You can either buy the reader at a retail location like Radio Shack for $10 and then get it refunded from Square, or fill out a form online and they will mail you one. I use it to collect small fees and for that time when somebody borrows a little cash and only has a card to pay it back.
Ok, now I'm going to get into paid apps. The attitude toward paid apps had gotten warmer in the last year. At first there wasn't too much opportunity for paid apps to make it very far, but with some advancements like carrier billing and more app availability, the Play store has become a great place to get quality paid apps. As a side note though, keep a watch on the Amazon App Store for their Free Paid App Of The Day. Often it's a new app that is trying to get started. Sometimes that's great, other times not so good. Sometimes it's a more seasoned app jump starting it's download numbers. Without further ado...paid apps.
Beautiful Widgets
This app gets you a bundle of very nice looking clock and weather widgets, as well as home screen animations. You can also get the weather set as your live wallpaper. Its cheap and pretty.
BeyondPod
This podcast manager is the best experience that I have found since Google Listen went down. There are a ton of options, schedule updates and download times, build playlists automatically, base your updates on network availability and so on. It handles video and audio, streamed or downloaded. If you like podcasts, this is the easiest way to handle them.
Business Calendar
After the recent update to Google Calendar, most of the features of this app have been folded into the stock Android experience. The biggest thing that I still use though is the awesome widget. It's resizable, the color and transparency are adjustable, and it's just good looking. Most importantly, you can choose what info you want the widget to display and how it does it.
Office Replacement Apps
Ok, I have tried almost every one of these apps that are on the market and they all have their ups and downs. There are rumors of an official Microsoft Office for Android release next year, but until then we will have to make do. Documents to Go Full seems to offer the best experience all around, but it falls down like almost all of them when it comes to Power Point documents. It definitely offers the best viewing experience for PDF and Excel files. QuickOffice Pro is the first runner up. They have a rich Word and Excel experience. Creating Excel sheets on any of these isn't as easy as it is on a pc, but it is manageable.
Netflix and Hulu+
These are both basically just portals to the same content that you would find on the web. The apps are technically free, but require you to set up a subscription through the web to access any content, so I put them here. I love being able to take their content with me when I'm not at home. This offers a great way to catch up on back episodes of your shows, keep yourself or your kids entertained on trips, or even a way to watch something quietly in another room. Traveling, especially in hotel rooms, waiting at a Dr appointment, or just something to do on your lunch break.
PrinterShare
This app allows you to print over any printers that are connected to the same network as you (when on wifi of course). Your printer doesn't have to be wifi, as long as it is connected to and visible from the network. It doesn't support every printer in the world, but it gets a lot of them. I use this one on a regular basis with Canon and Kodak printers. They offer a free version to make sure that your printer is compatible. It does require downloading a couple of separate libraries to render different files, but it warns you and is a direct download from within the app.
Photoshop Touch
This is a pretty awesome app. First thing to remember, you're working with a phone or tablet, not a computer. These devices don't have the horsepower that a full on pc has to offer, no matter how new or cool it is. That being said, this app offers a fairly large suite of tools to modify and retouch your pics. It contains a short tutorial for each function, but I would still say to practice before you get disappointed.
Games. Ok, yeah I know that there are a metric buttload of games available. I'm not much of an Android gamer and I don't really feel qualified to pass judgement either way on any of them. I have a hard time getting my attention caught by anything without a physical controller. I do enjoy the occasional round of Stupid Zombies, but that's where my expertise ends.
That's about it. I'm sure that I have missed someone's favorite app, and I look forward to hearing about it. The intent of this is all about discovery and I would love to find my next favorite out there!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
What cord cutting doesn't have yet
I'll start by saying that I'm biased. I ditched satellite and cable a little over a year ago in favor of internet TV. I upped my bandwidth to the max available, subscribed to Netflix and Hulu plus, and bought a Roku.
Admittedly I'm not the average use case. I've never been one to avidly follow a show or wait excitedly for the next episode of something to come out. I'm also not much of a sports fan (meaning that I can't remember the last time that I watched sports on TV). These things, along with my geek tendency to make new tech work regardless of how much of a pain it is, and wanting to cut seventy dollars a month out of my budget made my switch a no brainer.
I went into it knowing that there would be shows that I couldn't get. CBS has infamously blocked it's content from anything other than TV and a PC Web browser. Those are the first pitfalls for the average consumer though. "No live sports?", "You can't get this show?" and "That sounds complicated" are the first things that I hear. The first two would be simple enough to fix with cooperation from content creators, but first they have to decide that it's in their best interest. The third is just a design question. With enough market interest there's always someone willing to invest the R&D capital to make an attempt at a better design. I think that there's another, much larger, obstacle that IPTV has to overcome, the social aspect.
There is seldom a day that goes by without my interacting with someone around something on television. Most often it's sports, but the incredible popularity of shows like American Idol, Mad Men and Glee have started plenty of conversations about regular programming. That's where one of my favorite features becomes a shortcoming. Shows are released on a schedule, but they are watched whenever you want. Having everything on demand is really convenient, but it makes it hard to talk about what came on last night. Network and cable television schedules have kept people on the same wavelength for decades. That's a lot of social conditioning to push against.
The DVR started this trend toward on-demand viewing. Because of the Tivo we had to start thinking about spoiler alerts when talking or writing about TV shows. It's still not there though. We're still trained to think in terms like "prime time" and "channel guide". To be truly mainstream, IPTV will have to find a way to reshape this norm.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
I think I love my phone
So, yeah. I didn't see this coming.
Technolust is usually my middle name. While I don't have all the
latest and greatest gadgets I can tell you all about most of them.
Hardware specs, software versions, release dates...all right up my
alley. Android, Windows and iOS. I may not use them all but I try to
stay up to date with the happenings of them all. Lighter, faster,
thinner, better connected, more memory, longer battery life, newer
apps. These are the things that you expect to be able to say about
the newest bits of tech. With all of that being said, why can't I
come up with a reason to upgrade my phone?
Seriously, the end of my dreaded
contract is fast approaching so of course I've been eyeballing every
option even rumored to be released any time soon. Try as I might
though, I haven't been able to convince myself that I would see any
huge difference from upgrading. Right now I'm rocking a Samsung
Vibrant that I've had for a year and a half. It's rooted and I'm
running Cyanogenmod, so I am not dependent on my carrier to get me
the latest version of Android. It has a very capable 1Ghz processor
and a beautiful AMOLED screen and plenty enough memory . The camera
isn't all that, but I'm seldom far from my actual camera. Sure, it
doesn't have a flash or a front facing camera. I have tried to make
that a reason to get a new phone, but it just isn't enough.
Maybe I'm spoiled. The history of my
cell phones has been filled with upgrades that marked significant
improvements in technology. Revolutionary rather than evolutionary. I
jumped from a feature phone to a Crackberry. Things like email and
the web were suddenly available to me no matter where I was. There
was just no going back after I had tasted that. Then on to the
glorious intro to Android the G1. I kept that end all be all phone
for over a year. It was SO much different. A new way to do everything
and a touchscreen to do it on. After I became used to that phone, I
began to dabble with modifying it. Rooting and installing custom
firmware kept my interest piqued and kept the phone doing everything
that I wanted it to. Then came upgrade time. About that time Qualcomm
had launched the 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and Samsung had followed
with the Hummingbird also at 1Ghz. After spending about a month
forcing myself to type on a touchscreen I decided that I could live
without a physical keyboard. In comes the Vibrant. The screen was so
much more responsive and beautiful. Apps ran so much faster, and the
Google Navigation was amazing. Swype took a while to get used to, but
once I did it was incredible how easy and fast it was to type with
one hand.
I think that maybe this is why I can't
find anything out at the moment that gets me excited enough to plunk
down my cash or pony up another two years for. Cell phones have
matured enough that most of the really killer features that you can
come up with are already in place. There's a ton of great devices out
there with loads of great features, but I just can't seem to find a
problem that they solve for me. I find myself chagrined that after
having so many conversations centered around what phone someone else
might like best, I find that the one I already have seems to be my
best fit.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Android App List
Ok, I've been meaning to do this for a while. I've promised it to a bunch of people but it has just taken forever to actually put this list together. This is my first shot at reviewing stuff, so be gentle with the constructive criticism.
I'm going to break this down into free and paid. Almost any paid app has some form of free version. Sometimes that's limited functionality, sometimes it's a trial period, but it's always a good idea to give it a shot before you pay for it. There is only about a fifteen minute window to get a refund if a paid app doesn't do what you would like it to, and that really isn't enough time to see if you like an app enough to pay for it.
Another point, all of the apps that I mention came from the Google Android Market. That's not to say that the Amazon App Store is any better or worse, I just prefer the Market.
Free Apps:
Mint - This app collects all of your financial information, including credit card accounts, bank accounts, and loans. It has handy payment reminders, balance monitoring, and a lot of interesting tips on making your money work for you.
Nook - Barnes & Noble makes their e-book app available on most platforms. You can read on your Nook, tablet, phone or computer and it will keep your place synced on all of them. You can purchase media on any of the platforms and download it to any of them. Animated page turns are a plus.
Kindle - About the same as the Nook app, but from Amazon. Not quite as pretty, but fully functional and a bigger library.
Angry birds - I won't plug any other games, but this is that game that you have to try.
OI shopping - This is a handy shopping list app. It has a lot of functionality like prices, quantity and brand. It can be used for any list, but it doesn't sync to a server so it is kind of limited.
Google Voice - This does require signing up for an account on google.com/voice. You're already in the googleverse though, so take the plunge. This app provides visual voicemail, wifi calling and free SMS. All of this stuff can be accessed from a computer as well as your phone.
Google Music - Another great service from the folks at Google. It starts by going to google.com/music and uploading all of your music. After it's in the cloud, you can use this app to stream your music anywhere that you have a data connection. You can also make a large part of it available offline (great for poor data coverage areas.
Google Listen - This is a podcast management app. You can subscribe directly from the app or from google.com/reader. It only does audio, but it does a pretty good job of automatically downloading the newest episode of your podcasts and dumping them after you listen.
Astrid - This is a great to-do list manager. You can have many separate lists and sync them all with Astrid's server or Google Tasks. It also offers a lot of sharing and collaboration options.
Keeper - Passwords, we all need them and it's a pain to keep track of them. Keeper allows you to save them behind 256 bit AES encryption. It includes the option to create random passwords that are really strong and a place to save them so that you don't have to remember them. This app also has a paid service that will let you sync your data across platforms, as well as backing up your data into the cloud. (I do subscribe to the paid service, but it isn't necessary)
Barcode Scanner - This is mostly a plug in, letting you scan barcodes with your camera. Handy from time to time.
Chrome to Phone - Only useful if you use the Chrome browser, also requires an extension on Chrome. This is where Jack Bauer gets his stuff...you can push a webpage from a PC to your phone or tablet. Pretty handy for taking things with you.
Documents to go - The most intuitive office suite that I've tried. The free version allows viewing all Office file formats and PDF. For editing, you'll have to upgrade to the paid version. (Another app that I paid for)
Dropbox - Another app that requires setting up an account somewhere. Start yourself an account on dropbox .com and you'll be able to keep any file that you want synced across any platform. Very handy for those that might be working from anywhere.
Google Maps - At one time this was part of the stock Android install. If it didn't come on your device, download it now. It lets you search for anything based on location, and has a turn-by-turn navigation function. This seems to be at least as good as most of the paid apps on IOS that do something similar.
Netflix - Obviously this is only useful if you are a Netflix subscriber, but if you are then you can get your movies and TV shows anywhere that you have a data connection.
Overdrive - This is a way to download ebooks from your library directly to your Android device. It's the same content that you would get if you downloaded it to your computer then used third party software to transfer it to your phone or tablet. It is only for getting stuff from your library though, don't expect it to do more.
Shazam - Ever heard a song on the radio that you wanted, but you didn't know who it was? This app uses your phone's microphone to listen for digital tags to recognize a song. It then offers to search for it on Amazon, Youtube and I think the Android Market.
Tweetcaster pro - The new Twitter app is pretty cool, but this one beats it up. It offers multiple account support, and it does a better job managing lists.
Beautiful widgets - The name says it all. If you don't have an HTC with Sense UI, then this package is a gorgeous upgrade for weather widgets.
Documents to go (Full Key) - The full key unlocks the ability to create new files and edit current ones. Doing this on a touchscreen is a little less intuitive than using a keyboard, but this app does a great job of keeping it clean while you're editing.
Keeper Subscription - Subscribing lets you take advantage of the backup and sync options. I enjoy being able to get to my passwords on my PC, as well as generating random passwords while using my PC to sign up for new accounts and then having it automatically saved to my phone.
I'm going to break this down into free and paid. Almost any paid app has some form of free version. Sometimes that's limited functionality, sometimes it's a trial period, but it's always a good idea to give it a shot before you pay for it. There is only about a fifteen minute window to get a refund if a paid app doesn't do what you would like it to, and that really isn't enough time to see if you like an app enough to pay for it.
Another point, all of the apps that I mention came from the Google Android Market. That's not to say that the Amazon App Store is any better or worse, I just prefer the Market.
Free Apps:
Evernote - A note taking app that can sync across almost any platform, including your PC or IOS device. It wasn't immediately obvious what I would use this for, but it has rapidly become indispensable for keeping track of things on my Nook Color (Rooted), computer and phone.
Mint - This app collects all of your financial information, including credit card accounts, bank accounts, and loans. It has handy payment reminders, balance monitoring, and a lot of interesting tips on making your money work for you.
Nook - Barnes & Noble makes their e-book app available on most platforms. You can read on your Nook, tablet, phone or computer and it will keep your place synced on all of them. You can purchase media on any of the platforms and download it to any of them. Animated page turns are a plus.
Kindle - About the same as the Nook app, but from Amazon. Not quite as pretty, but fully functional and a bigger library.
Angry birds - I won't plug any other games, but this is that game that you have to try.
OI shopping - This is a handy shopping list app. It has a lot of functionality like prices, quantity and brand. It can be used for any list, but it doesn't sync to a server so it is kind of limited.
Google Voice - This does require signing up for an account on google.com/voice. You're already in the googleverse though, so take the plunge. This app provides visual voicemail, wifi calling and free SMS. All of this stuff can be accessed from a computer as well as your phone.
Google Music - Another great service from the folks at Google. It starts by going to google.com/music and uploading all of your music. After it's in the cloud, you can use this app to stream your music anywhere that you have a data connection. You can also make a large part of it available offline (great for poor data coverage areas.
Google Listen - This is a podcast management app. You can subscribe directly from the app or from google.com/reader. It only does audio, but it does a pretty good job of automatically downloading the newest episode of your podcasts and dumping them after you listen.
Astrid - This is a great to-do list manager. You can have many separate lists and sync them all with Astrid's server or Google Tasks. It also offers a lot of sharing and collaboration options.
Keeper - Passwords, we all need them and it's a pain to keep track of them. Keeper allows you to save them behind 256 bit AES encryption. It includes the option to create random passwords that are really strong and a place to save them so that you don't have to remember them. This app also has a paid service that will let you sync your data across platforms, as well as backing up your data into the cloud. (I do subscribe to the paid service, but it isn't necessary)
Barcode Scanner - This is mostly a plug in, letting you scan barcodes with your camera. Handy from time to time.
Chrome to Phone - Only useful if you use the Chrome browser, also requires an extension on Chrome. This is where Jack Bauer gets his stuff...you can push a webpage from a PC to your phone or tablet. Pretty handy for taking things with you.
Documents to go - The most intuitive office suite that I've tried. The free version allows viewing all Office file formats and PDF. For editing, you'll have to upgrade to the paid version. (Another app that I paid for)
Dropbox - Another app that requires setting up an account somewhere. Start yourself an account on dropbox .com and you'll be able to keep any file that you want synced across any platform. Very handy for those that might be working from anywhere.
Google Maps - At one time this was part of the stock Android install. If it didn't come on your device, download it now. It lets you search for anything based on location, and has a turn-by-turn navigation function. This seems to be at least as good as most of the paid apps on IOS that do something similar.
Netflix - Obviously this is only useful if you are a Netflix subscriber, but if you are then you can get your movies and TV shows anywhere that you have a data connection.
Overdrive - This is a way to download ebooks from your library directly to your Android device. It's the same content that you would get if you downloaded it to your computer then used third party software to transfer it to your phone or tablet. It is only for getting stuff from your library though, don't expect it to do more.
Pandora - I don't know how long their business model will hold out, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. A great tool for music discovery, it is really smart about finding music that is similar to what you give a thumbs up.
Shazam - Ever heard a song on the radio that you wanted, but you didn't know who it was? This app uses your phone's microphone to listen for digital tags to recognize a song. It then offers to search for it on Amazon, Youtube and I think the Android Market.
Paid Apps:
I haven't paid for may apps, so this list is much smaller. You can get a paid app for free on the Amazon App Store every day. Sometimes it's a great one (Documents To Go offered their paid version once), sometimes it's less great.
Business calendar - The basic calendar is ok, but this one ramps it up quite a bit. The widget is clean and neat, and it will sync with any and all calendars that you use.
Tweetcaster pro - The new Twitter app is pretty cool, but this one beats it up. It offers multiple account support, and it does a better job managing lists.
Beautiful widgets - The name says it all. If you don't have an HTC with Sense UI, then this package is a gorgeous upgrade for weather widgets.
Documents to go (Full Key) - The full key unlocks the ability to create new files and edit current ones. Doing this on a touchscreen is a little less intuitive than using a keyboard, but this app does a great job of keeping it clean while you're editing.
Keeper Subscription - Subscribing lets you take advantage of the backup and sync options. I enjoy being able to get to my passwords on my PC, as well as generating random passwords while using my PC to sign up for new accounts and then having it automatically saved to my phone.
This isn't a comprehensive list, just the must haves. I'm sure that I've left something out that I'll have to add in later. As the new versions of Android roll out I'm sure that I'll have to update this, and I'd be glad to hear of any that I've missed.
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