Monthly Archives: October 2010

TEDxPSU

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.  This video is in the style of RSA Animate videos, though it doesn’t seem to be from them.  I encourage you to check out the RSA Animate videos as well.  The ones I’ve seen have all been well done and thought provoking.

This video discusses the reason I attended TEDxPSU:  to hear interesting ideas that might provide some inspiration.  Although I didn’t anticipate hearing any ideas directly relating to my work (though I did), simply hearing unique ideas expands the way we think about problems in general.  No matter what your field, this is beneficial.

It would be a disservice to the speakers for me to simply summarize their talks.  The TEDxPSU link above will send you to the home page of the event which has all of the live talks in a playlist.

I’d like to briefly praise the organizers at Penn State.  At the event, it was announced that another major university took three times as long and significantly more money to put on a similar event.  The individuals that put on an event of this caliber in only 6 months deserve more praise than I can offer here.

The people in charge of the original TED conference allow the use of the TED name for TEDx events like this one with one requirement: the organizers must present videos of previous TED and TEDx presenters.  Luckily for me, I had only seen 2 of the shorter videos presented.  However, I imagine if I would have previously seen the longer videos (of which there were 4 totaling over an hour), I would have been significantly less positive about the event as a whole.  That being said, I must again point out the excellent work done by the organizers to balance the presentations of all types.  There were a few presentations that were less intense (whether musical performances or just less dense talks), and they were well placed to break up the brain power required for some of the more dense talks.

If you have the opportunity to attend an event like this, you owe it to yourself to do so.  Even if the talks don’t apply directly to your work or interests, the range of topics is sure to get you thinking about problems in new ways.

Google Talk for Android

I find myself using Google’s instant message services (chat in Gmail, Talk on the Incredible) quite frequently, whether to share a link or catch up with a friend.  It is incredibly convenient to use as it allows me to focus on whatever I like and respond on my own time.  This wouldn’t be possible with a phone call.  While it would be possible with text messages, I find myself much more efficient with a full size keyboard and the ability to change windows to catch up with a conversation rather than pulling out my phone constantly. It also makes sharing links easier.

The services are even more convenient now that there is a mobile client for Google’s IM services.  This allows a user to continue a conversation on-the-go, rather than being forced to end it if he or she is simply leaving the computer for a brief time.

However, the two services don’t seem to work together flawlessly.  When I am working on two machines at once (laptop next to my desktop), it is easy to see how Gmail’s chat function handles the user having two instances of chat open at once:  It determines which is being used currently and minimizes the message boxes on the secondary instance while still sending messages to both.  Additionally, when the user ends a chat session, it removes the box from both instances of Gmail.

I have noticed while using the mobile client, that sometimes messages don’t get routed to it and instead end up still on the browser based client.  Furthermore, when the chat does route to my phone, messages are sent only there and not back to my PC in addition to the phone.  To ensure I don’t miss a message, I can always check the chat logs Google provides.  However, to do this on my phone, I currently have to exit the chat client, open the Gmail app, and go into my chat history.  The Google Talk mobile application would be significantly improved just by adding access to Gmail’s chat logs within the app.

Froyo for the Droid Incredible

Recently, the Droid Incredible finally got the newest revision of the Android OS, 2.2, codename Froyo.  I couldn’t wait to receive the auto update from Verizon, so I found the update file on the web and manually ran the install.  I didn’t really like hearing about the update months ago and having little idea on when I would receive it even up to a couple weeks ago.

I can say now that it was worth the wait.

Google did an excellent job with added features like Chrome2phone (see below), and HTC took the opportunity to improve some of the features in its Sense overlay for Android.

Overall, my phone just feels faster now.  From swiping between home screens to web browsing, it seems like every action has been sped up.  I use Dolphin Browser HD for viewing websites and opening new tabs has been sped up so much that I didn’t realize they were opening at first.  I literally opened the same tab several times thinking something was wrong before noticing I had five identical tabs.  I was expecting opening a new tab to slow down my browser as it did before the update.  Now that there is no pause, I wasn’t sure if the tab had actually opened.  One of the biggest improvements in speed I have noticed is trying to ‘share’ a website.  Previously, when I would touch the ‘share this website’ button, I would have to wait anywhere from 2-5 seconds. Now, though, I am almost instantaneously allowed to choose how to share the article.  Combined with Android2Cloud*, I can send a site to my computer in about 2 seconds.  Previously, I would have to wait for the share graphic to load then type in my email address to send it to myself, which took about 10 seconds.

In addition to the improvements in speed, both HTC and Google have provided a significant number of new features.  Google’s Chrome2phone allows users to send websites from their desktop or laptop to their Android device.  I have noticed that to save the link, you have to open the link when it gets sent to the device.  It would be nice if the C2P app on my phone saved the last 5 or 10 links sent.  Another great feature Google has added is the ability to update all apps at once and the ability to auto-update applications.  One of the most publicized additions to Froyo is Flash.  After the initial novelty wore off, I was unable to find any great uses for Flash on my phone.  My first stop was Robot Unicorn Attack, but I was unable to find a way to bring up the keyboard to use solely for the game.  I haven’t found any pressing uses for flash in the few weeks I’ve had the update.

One improvement I’ve noticed from HTC is for the keyboard as well as other apps that have a landscape mode:  they can be in landscape in either direction on the phone.  Previously, landscape only worked when the phone was tilted toward the volume controls.  Now it works when tilted away from the volume controls as well.

In addition to flash, animated GIF images run now as well.  Before the update, I could see an image of the first frame of a GIF, but the animation would not run.

HTC fixed their photo album app as well.  Before the update, it would require me to select the album I wanted to display every time I took a picture.  Now, it seems to update by itself to the latest photo I’ve taken, which is great.  Kudos to HTC for taking the update opportunity to fix some of their bugs.

On the downside, my battery seems to drain a bit faster.  I would like to note that I don’t browse many (if any) flash heavy sites.  I also have flash set to only load when I touch the flash frame, so I don’t think flash is the cause.  My battery still lasts through the day, and I could be wrong, but after some consideration, it seems to drain a bit faster on average.  If anything, I definitely don’t notice an increase in battery life, which I was hoping for with the new software.

Finally, Google updated the Google Voice app shortly after Froyo released.  I thought this would speed up the app and fix some problems I’ve had with it.  Notably, it keeps a stack of every text you respond to.  If you are responding to multiple friends and enter the program from the notifications bar, you can end up with a stack of many texts so that when you try to use the ‘back’ button to get out of the app, you end up tracing through that entire stack.  I was hoping the update would alleviate this problem.  Not only did the update not fix this problem, the application now seems less responsive overall.  Several times I’ve tried to access the app, it has taken several seconds to load, which I haven’t noticed with any other app.

Overall, I am incredibly happy with the Froyo update.  The minor problems I’ve had are more than made up for by the improvements and additions.  Now I just can’t wait to here about Gingerbread.

*Android2Cloud is a new app that is the reverse of Google’s Cloud to Device messaging API.  While the official Chrome2phone app sends sites from the web to your Android device, Android2Cloud performs the opposite task.  I find myself sending long articles to my PC far more often than I find myself sending websites to my phone.