After reading a few articles, here's what I still want to know:
If you want to pay for the service, can you opt for a year-long contract or something? It seems like a reasonable price, but I'd rather not have yet another monthly charge.
How does the space work compared with whatever allocated space your other Google services have? Right now I've got some amount of Gmail space, some amount of Picasa space, unlimited (?) Google+ space for images and videos (which still show up in Picasa web but don't apply to the quota?), and then the Google Docs space. Will there be any consolidation of this? Do I want there to be?
Will we be able to use the GDrive app on my phone to store something like a keepass password file (encrypted) and access it from multiple devices? I can do that with Dropbox right now.
Anything? Does Instagram have any sort of lock on "Implementing digital image filters on a mobile phone" or something that would explain a $1 bil valuation? Seeing how there's a ton of ripoff apps I wouldn't think so but you never know. Couldn't Facebook have made something in-house and have it automatically Just Work for their existing users, most I assume who are a cross section from the Instagram users?
But isn't that the point, that having grown up on Earth they go through the things other kids go through and enjoy the things other teenagers enjoy? I assume it was something kids could relate to, and in addition they were ninjas. Who doesn't like ninjas!
If they're aliens why the hell would they enjoy Earth pizza and skateboarding and surfing and whatnot?
"Why would anyone want to use Linux as their everyday desktop (or laptop) operating system?"
For me, I find non-Microsoft web development much easier on Linux that in Windows. I can set up a dev environment with web server and database all native and local and for the most part it Just Works. On Windows I find I either have to still configure a Linux server VM and set up my stuff there to write code on Windows and target the VM server, or go through some sort of WAMP setup. But I never feel like the various pieces running on Windows are as good as their Linux counterparts which is where the final product is going to run anyway. Java development, too, seems to just work better in Linux.
That said, after running Ubuntu for a couple years on my laptop I reinstalled with Windows 7 and have been there ever since. I originally just wanted to play a Steam game and it just wasn't working under Linux. But I also grew tired of having to hack things and run scripts from the Internet just to make things work. Just off the top of my head I remember dealing with:
graphics drivers for my Thinkpad T500 CUPS pdf printing that just disappeared and kept needing to be re-added wrestling with browser plugins - things would work with Firefox but I'd have to play games to get them to work with Chromium wrestling with getting any sort of Citrix plugin to work on 64-bit so I could access my employer's network
More disconcerting to me was mention in a few of these articles that Gannett was going to start implementing paywall's for their papers' sites, too. I don't read the NYT, but my local area paper is a Gannett publication. I don't have time to read a newspaper, digital or print, to make it worth subscribing. But I'll check out the headlines every so often to keep up on what's going on. They already charge for archives and archive anything older than about a week so I'm already locked out of historical things.
Will a paid digital subscription open up the archives and get rid of the ads on the page? Gannett websites are some of the absolute worst I've come across in terms of ads, layout, Flash crap, and just overall awfulness.
I wondered if I was the only one that this was happening to. I'd be half way through building something and then all of a sudden the ball starts flying past the contact point where it was hitting before. I'll adjust for that, it'll work fine for awhile more and then third step in it starts missing that contact point. I couldn't figure out if there was some weird variation happening or if my work filter was screwing with whatever physics calculations were happening or if it was supposed to be truly random or what. Finally I just gave up and decided I had better things to bang my head against!
Can you use other payment systems for and within iOS apps? I guess I don't see the problem here? Why wouldn't you try to bolster the Android ecosystem when one of the common knocks against it is it's scattered nature of services?
So where are the rest of the super hi-res screens?
on
Apple Unveils New iPad
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Alright, so count me as a doubter that didn't think they'd pull out the super hi-res screen and keep it at the same price. So all of a sudden Apple comes out of nowhere with screen resolution that leapfrogs everything out there, including pretty much all of the LCD desktop monitors that I've used. So where is everyone else with super hi-res screens on commodity LCD monitors, laptops, etc.? Let alone Android tablets? When and where will we see those?
Anyone use dev tools in (not for) GNOME3 or Unity?
on
GNOME 3.4 Preview
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· Score: 1
Does anyone else have problems with 3rd party apps looking like crap in these new desktop environments? I tried Unity, and I think the latest GNOME I messed around with with 3.2 Things like Netbeans and Eclipse just didn't seem to fit and looked and acted awkward. The Unity sidebar was clumsy, and the unified menu in GNOME didn't work right. I always end up going back to GNOME 2.
It would be nice to feel like I'm not stuck on a Windows 95 based desktop, especially since everything seems to be going forward with these new ideas. But it all seems so clumsy compared with what Apple and Microsoft are doing with their interfaces.
Anecdotally that doesn't work nearly as simple as described; I've heard stories of the button not turning the right color, etc., so people still end up using the SMS way instead of the iPhone to iPhone way. Not to mention it doesn't do a damn thing for every non-iPhone user. Really wanna stick it to the carriers? Make a true cross platform SMS/MMS replacement that goes over the data network. BlackBerry could have done it if they release BBM for everyone, and I had hopes for Google+ Messenger.
Funny you mention this because the last few family machines I've had to mess with (and all of the computers that haven't been replaced yet at my wife's workplace) have been Pentium4/256MB Dell or Dell-knockoffs. What was with all the WinXP P4s with only 256MB of RAM? They don't run half-bad with 512 minimum or especially if you max out the RAM. But it's downright painful to run XP with a piddling 256MB....I can't believe they ever sold them.
I feel like the online component is a place where Nintendo had an opportunity to excel and they completely dropped the ball. The Wii had connectivity all along. It's storefront worked fine. But that was all. The Opera browser sucked, and still sucks. First they charged for it, but because it sucked they finally gave it away. You could add friends somehow, but it was some convoluted confusing manner of trading codes with each other and typing them in onscreen. They had downloadable games but no support for downloadable content (I'm looking at you, myriad of trivia games). Why? The Wii could have been a pioneer in living room web browsing and content but had nothing of it. It seems like Niintendo didn't thing this 'Internet' thing was going to take off or something.
And so now, they start to make an attempt at an online component but it's not going to be available to the millions of units already out there. Sigh....
Anyone else irritated by the term 'cable'? I mean, I know what it means and all but why not just call it a 'document' or 'leaked electronic message' or something?
Because for the most part, even though I know and understand what's going on I don't care enough to upgrade my old Linksys wireless router until it dies. I sign up for cable or DSL internet service, pick up a router at Best Buy or Newegg, plug it in, and everything just works. I'm pretty sure my podunk small cable operator isn't participating in ipv6 day; the CSRs I've talked to don't even know what it means. I think we have a *long* way to go before any home user is affected.
I just upgraded from an OG Droid to a Galaxy Nexus. While I understand the sentiment behind this fragmentation argument, I just never came across it...what are some examples? I was running Froyo 2.2 on the Droid, and I could run any app I had an interest in trying. I never came across anything that was Gingerbread-only or even ICS-only. When I've dabbled in Android development I figured you'd target the largest share of phones, which was 2.2 or maybe 2.3 at some point. There wasn't anything I was making use of that required the latest editions.
Maybe it's just games? I see these articles mention both apps and games, and I admit that I don't do any real "gaming" on my phone other than something like Angry Birds - which ran just fine on 2.2. I see the potential for apps not working on everything, and sure you could have a bunch of ICS-only apps coming out now that it's available - but is that actually happening?
Pretty much any Google app is better on Android. The way I've viewed it, when recommending phones to people, is that it depends on which non-phone camp you're in. I don't use iTunes, my email is Gmail, news reader is Google News, etc. My music is mostly from Amazon and stored in a folder structure but any major player is able to read the tags. And I've been dabbling in Google Music lately anyway. So Android gives me the best Google experience. The Google+ app is always going to get Android updates and features first, as is most any other app by Google. And like you mentioned, Google maps navigation is top notch. However, if someone has their life in iTunes and would love to have that seamlessly carry over to their phone. I'll tell them they might prefer the iPhone. For what it's worth, my wife just upgraded from a BB Storm 2 to an iPhone 4S. It was hardly a seamless upgrade and she spent the first few days complaining about how much of a pain it was to set up the new phone and make it do what she wanted. She even said at one point that it was easier to set up the BB than the iPhone! Ultimately I don't think there's that much of a difference anymore either. Both are a phone with a button and a bunch of app icons. Both get you on the web. Both have Facebook. However I've yet to still see anything really that the iPhone does better than my Galaxy Nexus.
A Google TV set top box with the usual Android app support, but also with full web browsing experience full web based streaming experience local and networked media playback, for both audio and video Dual-tuner CableCard support A third, OTA tuner (I want to potentially be able to record two things on cable while watching a third live event from OTA) Ability to hook up external storage, either via USB, etc, or on the network
Seems like this would beat out everyone's existing cable company provided crapbox and even Tivo's offerings.
Maybe if they released it as a package you could build yourself I could assemble the hardware? Is anyone putting something like this together?
From what I understood I thought it integrated with those devices poorly, at least for cable? I thought I had to use an IR repeater to work with the cable box which to me is clumsy and I don't think would give me the full ability of both tuners, either? I want a Google TV box with CableCard support so it can have the tuners all right there.
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I'm quite happy with my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, and wouldn't change it for any AT&T Android phone at the moment.
Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for!
After reading a few articles, here's what I still want to know:
If you want to pay for the service, can you opt for a year-long contract or something? It seems like a reasonable price, but I'd rather not have yet another monthly charge.
How does the space work compared with whatever allocated space your other Google services have? Right now I've got some amount of Gmail space, some amount of Picasa space, unlimited (?) Google+ space for images and videos (which still show up in Picasa web but don't apply to the quota?), and then the Google Docs space. Will there be any consolidation of this? Do I want there to be?
Will we be able to use the GDrive app on my phone to store something like a keepass password file (encrypted) and access it from multiple devices? I can do that with Dropbox right now.
Anything? Does Instagram have any sort of lock on "Implementing digital image filters on a mobile phone" or something that would explain a $1 bil valuation? Seeing how there's a ton of ripoff apps I wouldn't think so but you never know. Couldn't Facebook have made something in-house and have it automatically Just Work for their existing users, most I assume who are a cross section from the Instagram users?
Facebook supports Android as well.
Is that what you call it?
But isn't that the point, that having grown up on Earth they go through the things other kids go through and enjoy the things other teenagers enjoy? I assume it was something kids could relate to, and in addition they were ninjas. Who doesn't like ninjas!
If they're aliens why the hell would they enjoy Earth pizza and skateboarding and surfing and whatnot?
"Why would anyone want to use Linux as their everyday desktop (or laptop) operating system?"
For me, I find non-Microsoft web development much easier on Linux that in Windows. I can set up a dev environment with web server and database all native and local and for the most part it Just Works. On Windows I find I either have to still configure a Linux server VM and set up my stuff there to write code on Windows and target the VM server, or go through some sort of WAMP setup. But I never feel like the various pieces running on Windows are as good as their Linux counterparts which is where the final product is going to run anyway. Java development, too, seems to just work better in Linux.
That said, after running Ubuntu for a couple years on my laptop I reinstalled with Windows 7 and have been there ever since. I originally just wanted to play a Steam game and it just wasn't working under Linux. But I also grew tired of having to hack things and run scripts from the Internet just to make things work. Just off the top of my head I remember dealing with:
graphics drivers for my Thinkpad T500
CUPS pdf printing that just disappeared and kept needing to be re-added
wrestling with browser plugins - things would work with Firefox but I'd have to play games to get them to work with Chromium
wrestling with getting any sort of Citrix plugin to work on 64-bit so I could access my employer's network
More disconcerting to me was mention in a few of these articles that Gannett was going to start implementing paywall's for their papers' sites, too. I don't read the NYT, but my local area paper is a Gannett publication. I don't have time to read a newspaper, digital or print, to make it worth subscribing. But I'll check out the headlines every so often to keep up on what's going on. They already charge for archives and archive anything older than about a week so I'm already locked out of historical things.
Will a paid digital subscription open up the archives and get rid of the ads on the page? Gannett websites are some of the absolute worst I've come across in terms of ads, layout, Flash crap, and just overall awfulness.
I wondered if I was the only one that this was happening to. I'd be half way through building something and then all of a sudden the ball starts flying past the contact point where it was hitting before. I'll adjust for that, it'll work fine for awhile more and then third step in it starts missing that contact point. I couldn't figure out if there was some weird variation happening or if my work filter was screwing with whatever physics calculations were happening or if it was supposed to be truly random or what. Finally I just gave up and decided I had better things to bang my head against!
It's the Android Market - rebranded.
Can you use other payment systems for and within iOS apps? I guess I don't see the problem here? Why wouldn't you try to bolster the Android ecosystem when one of the common knocks against it is it's scattered nature of services?
Alright, so count me as a doubter that didn't think they'd pull out the super hi-res screen and keep it at the same price. So all of a sudden Apple comes out of nowhere with screen resolution that leapfrogs everything out there, including pretty much all of the LCD desktop monitors that I've used. So where is everyone else with super hi-res screens on commodity LCD monitors, laptops, etc.? Let alone Android tablets? When and where will we see those?
And when can I get wobbly windows back on GNOME3?
Does anyone else have problems with 3rd party apps looking like crap in these new desktop environments? I tried Unity, and I think the latest GNOME I messed around with with 3.2 Things like Netbeans and Eclipse just didn't seem to fit and looked and acted awkward. The Unity sidebar was clumsy, and the unified menu in GNOME didn't work right. I always end up going back to GNOME 2.
It would be nice to feel like I'm not stuck on a Windows 95 based desktop, especially since everything seems to be going forward with these new ideas. But it all seems so clumsy compared with what Apple and Microsoft are doing with their interfaces.
Anecdotally that doesn't work nearly as simple as described; I've heard stories of the button not turning the right color, etc., so people still end up using the SMS way instead of the iPhone to iPhone way. Not to mention it doesn't do a damn thing for every non-iPhone user. Really wanna stick it to the carriers? Make a true cross platform SMS/MMS replacement that goes over the data network. BlackBerry could have done it if they release BBM for everyone, and I had hopes for Google+ Messenger.
Funny you mention this because the last few family machines I've had to mess with (and all of the computers that haven't been replaced yet at my wife's workplace) have been Pentium4/256MB Dell or Dell-knockoffs. What was with all the WinXP P4s with only 256MB of RAM? They don't run half-bad with 512 minimum or especially if you max out the RAM. But it's downright painful to run XP with a piddling 256MB....I can't believe they ever sold them.
But that sounds like a lot of work!
I feel like the online component is a place where Nintendo had an opportunity to excel and they completely dropped the ball. The Wii had connectivity all along. It's storefront worked fine. But that was all. The Opera browser sucked, and still sucks. First they charged for it, but because it sucked they finally gave it away. You could add friends somehow, but it was some convoluted confusing manner of trading codes with each other and typing them in onscreen. They had downloadable games but no support for downloadable content (I'm looking at you, myriad of trivia games). Why? The Wii could have been a pioneer in living room web browsing and content but had nothing of it. It seems like Niintendo didn't thing this 'Internet' thing was going to take off or something.
And so now, they start to make an attempt at an online component but it's not going to be available to the millions of units already out there. Sigh....
Anyone else irritated by the term 'cable'? I mean, I know what it means and all but why not just call it a 'document' or 'leaked electronic message' or something?
Because for the most part, even though I know and understand what's going on I don't care enough to upgrade my old Linksys wireless router until it dies. I sign up for cable or DSL internet service, pick up a router at Best Buy or Newegg, plug it in, and everything just works. I'm pretty sure my podunk small cable operator isn't participating in ipv6 day; the CSRs I've talked to don't even know what it means. I think we have a *long* way to go before any home user is affected.
I don't know if it's a matter of change itself being denied, as much as it's being denied that change is a problem in the first place.
I just upgraded from an OG Droid to a Galaxy Nexus. While I understand the sentiment behind this fragmentation argument, I just never came across it...what are some examples? I was running Froyo 2.2 on the Droid, and I could run any app I had an interest in trying. I never came across anything that was Gingerbread-only or even ICS-only. When I've dabbled in Android development I figured you'd target the largest share of phones, which was 2.2 or maybe 2.3 at some point. There wasn't anything I was making use of that required the latest editions.
Maybe it's just games? I see these articles mention both apps and games, and I admit that I don't do any real "gaming" on my phone other than something like Angry Birds - which ran just fine on 2.2. I see the potential for apps not working on everything, and sure you could have a bunch of ICS-only apps coming out now that it's available - but is that actually happening?
Pretty much any Google app is better on Android. The way I've viewed it, when recommending phones to people, is that it depends on which non-phone camp you're in. I don't use iTunes, my email is Gmail, news reader is Google News, etc. My music is mostly from Amazon and stored in a folder structure but any major player is able to read the tags. And I've been dabbling in Google Music lately anyway. So Android gives me the best Google experience. The Google+ app is always going to get Android updates and features first, as is most any other app by Google. And like you mentioned, Google maps navigation is top notch. However, if someone has their life in iTunes and would love to have that seamlessly carry over to their phone. I'll tell them they might prefer the iPhone. For what it's worth, my wife just upgraded from a BB Storm 2 to an iPhone 4S. It was hardly a seamless upgrade and she spent the first few days complaining about how much of a pain it was to set up the new phone and make it do what she wanted. She even said at one point that it was easier to set up the BB than the iPhone! Ultimately I don't think there's that much of a difference anymore either. Both are a phone with a button and a bunch of app icons. Both get you on the web. Both have Facebook. However I've yet to still see anything really that the iPhone does better than my Galaxy Nexus.
More specifically, this is exactly what I want:
A Google TV set top box with the usual Android app support, but also with
full web browsing experience
full web based streaming experience
local and networked media playback, for both audio and video
Dual-tuner CableCard support
A third, OTA tuner (I want to potentially be able to record two things on cable while watching a third live event from OTA)
Ability to hook up external storage, either via USB, etc, or on the network
Seems like this would beat out everyone's existing cable company provided crapbox and even Tivo's offerings.
Maybe if they released it as a package you could build yourself I could assemble the hardware? Is anyone putting something like this together?
From what I understood I thought it integrated with those devices poorly, at least for cable? I thought I had to use an IR repeater to work with the cable box which to me is clumsy and I don't think would give me the full ability of both tuners, either? I want a Google TV box with CableCard support so it can have the tuners all right there.