Verizon’s Motorola Droid

A response to Motorola Droid Hands on! as posted on Boy Genius Report

For the past couple of hours, I’ve been frantically Googling, trying to find out more information about the new phone of Verizon’s that I saw advertised this weekend, while I was up in Chicago, and what I found was pretty darn interesting.

I’m not going to lie, my uberness when it comes it cell phones is pretty low.  I worked at a camp for quite awhile, and spend a fair amount of time outside, so I’m pretty hard on phones.  And by hard on phones, I mean my current one has a burn hole.  I’m not even joking.

Having said that, I’ve been looking more and more at a smart phone recently, with very frustrating results.  Now, truth be told, I’m a bit of an Apple fanboy.  I like their products, and will continue to use (and purchase) them regularly.

Ok, cool, so why don’t I have an iPhone, right?  Because, frankly, AT&T is full of fail.  Their network sucks, their support sucks, and their coverage sucks.  Combine that with the fact that almost all of my friends are on the Verizon network, and that’s why I haven’t changed over (killer hardware, but not quite that killer).

Probably the biggest problem I have with Verizon is that it has a bomber network, but the phone choices suck.  I want a smartphone with WiFi, that has an intelligent design, and doesn’t have all of the stupid Verizon software bundled up with it.  Which is why I don’t have a cool phone yet.

And which is where my ramblings end, and I’m actually going to talk about the Droid.  Originally called the Motorola Sholes, this thing is going to (probably) be launched at the end of this month, for a price (probably) of around $200.  Oh, yeah, and it’s going to be running Google Android.  From Wikipedia:

Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. It was initially developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.

Now I may be an Apple fanboy, but I am definitely a Google fanboy, and the Android Platform rocks by sox, as it were.  And from the rumors I’ve been reading, this phone was a combined Google/Motorola/Verizon project.  And when I say combined, I mean Google dictated, and Motorola build.  In order for this phone to be Android powered, Verizon has to open it up to all of the features, or they don’t get to use it, so hello intelligent design.  Add in the fact that it has build in WiFi, and I want one, and would be willing to step up to the data plan needed.

My complaints at this point are that frankly, the phone looks kinda fugly, like a Razor throwback.  Hopefully the exterior design isn’t finalized?  I’m also wary of Motorola, but since this will become Verizon’s flagship phone, and Google had such a heavy hand on the design, hopefully we’ll see a solid product.

I’m not particularly concerned about the lack of the iPhone’s app library, my (made up) research shows that of the 8,768,757,646 (approximate) applications available, around 95% (roughly) of them are either fart simulators or tower defense games, and I really don’t have much of a need for either.

It’s running Android 2.0. Duh.

It’s thin. Just slightly thicker than an iPhone 3GS and the thinnest QWERTY-slider we’ve ever seen.

It is the fastest Android device we’ve ever used. (It’s running a TI OMAP3430 processor)

The feel of the device is very reminiscent of the OQO 02 model computer. Just smaller. It’s metal with a non-spring-assisted slide, very sturdy, and half soft-touch plastic.

Awesome capacitive display. Plus it’s huge. Easily the best screen we’ve ever seen on an Android handset, and an amazing screen overall.

The QWERTY keyboard is actually pretty usable and has a soft-touch rubberized finish. We’ve been told the keyboard design isn’t final on this unit, thus the two no-shows.

Have we mentioned this phone flies? It’s the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive. From what we’ve been told, Google had a direct hand in the Motorola Droid. Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone. Interesting, huh?

So is this thing going to be the iPhone killer Verizon is pegging it as?  Probably not, but it’s as close as I’m going to get, and I’m planning on picking one up as soon as they come out.

Apple Tablet Rumors

A response to Tablet Rumors Getting Pretty Specific as posted on MacLife

Fatigued of tablet rumors yet? Some of us are. Then something comes along that really jazzes us up.

At first these whispers started out rather vague, with conflicting sizes and hardware specs, but as the year closes out specifics are starting to coalesce. Is it a secret too big to keep or is it the bandwagon of rumor-mongering? Only time will tell.

I try pretty hard not to get  into the whole follow all the rumors of new stuff that might or might not be in development, but the thought of an Apple made tablet has me drooling.  Now to make sure we’re all on the same page, a little Wikipedia:

Generically, tablet PC refers to a laptop or slate-shaped mobile computer, equipped with a touchscreen or graphics tablet/screen hybrid to operate the computer with a stylus or digital pen, or a fingertip, instead of a keyboard or mouse.

Ok, so we’re clear what a tablet is?  Cool.  Now I’ve never really been a huge fan of the whole tablet idea. Well, I like the idea, but there have always been some major flaws with the ones I have played with.

Input method is the biggest issue that I’ve run into.  Anyone ever used one of the older Palm Pilots?  Ever tried to write on one with the shorthand?  Yeah, it didn’t work very well.  If Apple really does come out with a tablet, they are going to have to get around this, somehow.

I can’t see them going the stylus route, they’re easy to lose, and the feel really isn’t that great.  Since what I’m picturing, and what several of the articles that I’ve read seem to be pointing towards an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch, this leads me immediately to thinking of the touchscreen on them.  Not too shabby for texting and such, but pretty temperamental when it comes to longer strings of text.  And could you imagine trying to type quickly on a full size touchscreen?  I just don’t see it being efficient at all, since you just lose that whole tactile interaction that you have when using a standard keyboard, making it prone to mistakes.  So speaking of tactile, has anyone used the Verizon Blackberry with the clicky touch screen?  If you have, it’s pretty much failsagna (related to lasagna, but much more failtastic).  They could go with the whole slide out keyboard dealie that a couple of the tablets have, but that’s gonna make the sucker fat, which isn’t the way Apple tends to roll.

The maclife.com article is talking about how this isn’t going to be a netbook, more an eBook reader.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  If eBooks where more realistically priced, I’d be more interested.  Is there going to be a new eBook store on the iTunes store?  I would assume so.  What are we talking about price wise, anyway?  Apple stuff isn’t cheap, and I really can’t see too many people dropping a G or so to read The Wall Street Journal on their iTab.

In order for me to get one of these suckers, it would have to have WiFi, and it would have to have a pretty banging web browser.  I expect it to play music and movies, of course.  You up the usability if iWork or MS Office is compatible with it, but this leads to other problems as well.

In the end, we’re all going to have to wait and see, but if anyone can make a tablet that the masses will yearn for, I think Apple is the one to do it (anyone want some Kool-Aid?).  This is the type of stuff the makes me wish that IU had an HCI undergrad program, btw Jennifer…

Wired.com’s Beer Robot

A response to How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator as posted on Wired.com

It started out innocently enough. After work one day at the local brewpub, three Wired.com staffers had a revelation: “What our office really needs is a kegerator!”

We didn’t know this passing idea, the kind you often have after several beers but never follow up on (”Dude, we should totally road trip to Jazzfest this year!”), would culminate in a keg party at that same brewpub to celebrate the public debut of Beer Robot.

But at the next editor’s meeting, we suggested converting a fridge into a kegerator for our How-To Wiki. Who’s going to say no to that? Nobody in that meeting anyway. Soon we had dreamed up a super geeky, tricked-out kegerator that would have all sorts of functions involving everything from a Twitter stream to a Wii.

Now I realize what you’re all thinking here.

“John, this has nothing to do with I101, you’re just blogging about beer.”

And see, that’s where you’re wrong.  Well, kind of at least.  Look, this thing has an entire side that looks like HAL 9000, therefore it has EVERYTHING to do with Informatics.

Now, the main part of the project I guess may not really be that relevant (but seriously, it’s beer, so of course it’s relevant), but some of the little things they have added to it are what really made it grab my attention.  Now I feel like I’ve done a fairly good job of making my views on Twitter known.  If there’s one major disadvantage with the internetz, it’s the phenomenon of making otherwise intelligent people turn into loud, obnoxious idiots, and I really feel that Twitter does a wonderful job catering to that group.

With that little rant out of the way, let’s continue.  The guys over at wired.com installed a flowmeter into the kegerator, and now the sucker Tweets when it’s running low on beer, when it’s out, and when a new keg has been hooked up.  I would much rather read about the adventures of a kegerator then the adventures of an idiot.  I’m just sayin’.  Now while realistically this has no redeeming social value whatsoever, projects like this open up a whole new world of possibilities.

We’ve all heard about how future houses are going to do all sorts of pretty cool things.  You’ll be able to pop online (or text it, or apparently go to Twitter) from the store, and it’ll tell you “Hey, you should probably order some more milk, since you’re about out and this bottle expired like three weeks ago, you bum.”  Technology like that used in the Beer Robot is what I think are the foundations of what will become new technology trends.  Between RFID tags and wireless dodads that send off Tweets (and their not dumb equivalents), there are some really, really cool possibilities out there, just looking for some geeks to write the idea down on a bar napkin somewhere.

Downsides?  Well, I’m sure that somewhere out there, in the sick, sick land of the internet, someone has hooked up their toilet to Tweet every time it’s flushed.