The funny thing is that HTC seems to be one of the cooler manufacturers, in terms of allowing customization and root; they're typically haven't taken the same bold killswitch action that Motorola has done. This move on the G2 is surprising to me.
I have an EVO (HTC Supersonic) right now. I didn't plan on rooting it as I was somewhat happy with the entire phone, but what really started to bug me is that I couldn't delete the default Sprint apps. Then with the 2.2 Froyo update, I didn't have the option to use the Android launcher/homescreen (instead of Sense). It's not that Sense was bad, I just wanted to try something else on my "OPEN PLATFORM" Android phone and was prevented from doing so.
I finally decided to take the plunge, root it, and install a custom ROM, and I couldn't be happier! I now have control of my phone; I can install/uninstall/modify whatever I want. I don't need NFL/NASCAR/SprintZone/facebook/twitter/peep/flickr taking up space and constantly launching when I don't even have accounts set up for those services.
Oddly enough, since I've tried some of the AOSP stuff I realized I don't necessarily hate Sense; the HTC Dialer, Contacts (People), MMS app, and even their Browser are quite nice.
From what I've heard from the people in the industry that I know (not many, admittedly), working for one of the big game development companies is the opposite of fun. Low salaries, boring projects, long hours, and abusive management are considered normal. The smaller companies generally provide a much better working environment.
I have a handful of friends who work at one of the big name developers. This is exactly the case. This is only a guess, but it's probably because of supply and demand. There are so many people who want to work in the industry that many are willing to accept long hours, low salaries, and abusive management. If you don't accept these terms, someone else gladly will.
Now I also have a bunch of friends who work for a flash game developer (think facebook games); it's a much different there than it is that console/PC game studios. They work long hours, but they all have fun doing it and they get paid very well.
I don't mind the account access so much, but why does every friggin' app in the marketplace need coarse location data? As soon as I see that, I run away and don't look back. Give me a pay option so I can buy the good application and not have to share my location data with marketers.
If I recall, no US carrier has ever allowed VOIP traffic on 3g
I've used nimbuzz on my android device and successfully made VOIP calls (through SkypeOut) over Sprint's 3G. The only problem is that the delay was horrible. Nimbuzz also offers a credit-based VOIP service.
On a side note, the movie wasn't completely ridiculous.
The artificial heart shown in the movie is actually a real artificial heart, the AbioCor from Abiomed. However the real artificial heart is totally internal and does not include a battery box as shown in the movie. The latest AbioCors can run on battery without recharging (done via external RF chargers) for over 4 hours.
Don't forget about CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE... such a lovely Hollywood gem! (I'm being a bit sarcastic but not entirely; don't expect to be blown away by some deep drama and realistic concepts; put reality aside and go in looking for a silly story with some mindless action and it's a hit! Works for me!)
Android's ecosystem is going to get murkier and weirder.
I not your uneducated consumer; I know a thing or two about the Android platform, yet it's still murky as hell to me with all the different flavors of UI by different manufacturers that don't all look or smell the same!
It's no different than all the various linux distributions available; sure they're all Linux under the hood and can be customized to your liking, but many have different UIs and different ways of doing things which scares your typical consumer away, preventing it from gaining any significant market share.
I wonder if this Amazon App Store application will behave like the Amazon MP3 store application that came pre-installed on my phone; constantly starts on its own and consumes resources for no apparent reason even though I never use it, has full network permissions, can read my phone state and identity, can modify my SD card contents, and has access to my system tools (change Wi-Fi state, prevent phone from sleeping), and worst of all can't be uninstalled (Thank You, Sprint and HTC!).
I would like the option to restrict specific permissions at the application level. Currently when I'm about to install an application, I'm given a list of permissions the application is requesting where I can choose to either install the app, or not install if I don't agree with something. Now I know that this has the potential to break many applications or cause some problems if I have the ability to deny a specific permission, but it would be nice if this could be implemented somehow to give the user more control over security.
I'll give you one example; I wanted to install Pandora radio on my phone. Pandora wants to access my contacts and my GPS location information. WHY? Why should a streaming audio application need to know my contacts or location? The contact permission is needed so I can share a song with someone on my contacts; it sounds simple enough, but I'd be much more comfortable denying that permission as I'll never be using that feature. Location is presumably needed for targeted advertising, but that's pretty creepy. Can't they just be happy enough with (very coarse) location data based off of the IP address that I'm using to connect?
I've had an EVO for about three months. I'm ready to throw in the towel and go back to my blackberry, but I'm stuck in a contract for two years so I'll ride it out. Email, instant messaging (Yahoo/Google/AIM), and light duty web browsing are all I do, and the blackberry was perfect for that, not to mention 3x the battery life of the EVO and a much more usable keyboard, all in a smaller package that's sure to take more abuse.
Don't get me wrong, I like the EVO and I sort of knew what I was getting myself into, but I agree with you about the redundant apps and overall lack of quality with most of the offerings in the marketplace.
Studies have shown that it's not the act of holding the phone that is the problem, but rather the fact that you're concentrating on something other than the road.
So why do many states prohibit the act of holding your phone in your hand and require you to use a headset instead? That implies that holding a phone causes problems while driving.
I seriously don't understand this one. I find it more cumbersome to use a headset and keep it in my ear.
Here's a scenario that bothers me: My HTC EVO came pre-installed with a Facebook app and Facebook for HTC Sense (widgets) which I cannot remove. Sometimes an action inside the Facebook app will transfer me to Facebook's web site, within the web browser on my phone, and all of the sudden I'm logged into my Facebook account via the web site. There's some mechanism where my user ID and password gets sent to the browser, but I don't know how this is done, and I have no indication that it's secure. It just seems too easy for a piece of malware to extract my login.
I'm equally as worried about the info from my Google account; is my data and account information handled securely?
I wouldn't really say it's a smartphone without the phone; it's more of a music and video playing iPod that has a web browser and WiFi capabilities, with some PDA functionality. Now that the iPad is out however, the Touch may not be as appealing but I'm sure there's still a market for it.
I know entering "Obama is " brings up some entertaining results, but here's a nice (perhaps unfortunate if you're at work) effect - When I type "Bush is " in the search bar, without pressing anything, the first search result is:
Bush is back! - Sex News, Sex Talk - Salon.com Dec 11, 2008... Not in the White House. But thanks to the recession, women are skipping the Brazilian and finally growing a little hair down there.
Now the FBI is proposing a similar requirement that would require online service providers, perhaps even software makers, to only offer encrypted communication unless the companies have a way to unlock the communications.
Requiring providers to only offer encrypted communications unless they have a way to decrypt them? Shouldn't that say "..to only offer encrypted communications if they provide a way to decrypt them?"
I'm just an engineer, so what do I know about grammar.
I think Segways would be much more popular if they weren't so expensive. I would love to own one but can't justify the price. Heck, I don't even think the price to rent one for a city tour is a good value; I can rent a bike for a tiny fraction of the price, and it's probably better for my health.
I'm trying to create a similar plugin, only converting a specific type of text to garbage; the problem is that I don't have time to start from scratch and I can't find anything similar to start with as a base.
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Is there any *good* quad band Android phone that is rootable and will work around the world? If so, I think I know what I want next.
The funny thing is that HTC seems to be one of the cooler manufacturers, in terms of allowing customization and root; they're typically haven't taken the same bold killswitch action that Motorola has done. This move on the G2 is surprising to me.
I have an EVO (HTC Supersonic) right now. I didn't plan on rooting it as I was somewhat happy with the entire phone, but what really started to bug me is that I couldn't delete the default Sprint apps. Then with the 2.2 Froyo update, I didn't have the option to use the Android launcher/homescreen (instead of Sense). It's not that Sense was bad, I just wanted to try something else on my "OPEN PLATFORM" Android phone and was prevented from doing so.
I finally decided to take the plunge, root it, and install a custom ROM, and I couldn't be happier! I now have control of my phone; I can install/uninstall/modify whatever I want. I don't need NFL/NASCAR/SprintZone/facebook/twitter/peep/flickr taking up space and constantly launching when I don't even have accounts set up for those services.
Oddly enough, since I've tried some of the AOSP stuff I realized I don't necessarily hate Sense; the HTC Dialer, Contacts (People), MMS app, and even their Browser are quite nice.
You had friends in K-12? You're much different than most of us here.
I have a handful of friends who work at one of the big name developers. This is exactly the case. This is only a guess, but it's probably because of supply and demand. There are so many people who want to work in the industry that many are willing to accept long hours, low salaries, and abusive management. If you don't accept these terms, someone else gladly will.
Now I also have a bunch of friends who work for a flash game developer (think facebook games); it's a much different there than it is that console/PC game studios. They work long hours, but they all have fun doing it and they get paid very well.
Holy 1994! Who needs flash when you have the beloved animated .gif!
I'd like some more information about this setup. I'd gladly pay $110 a year for the channels you mentioned. How can I get it?
I don't mind the account access so much, but why does every friggin' app in the marketplace need coarse location data? As soon as I see that, I run away and don't look back. Give me a pay option so I can buy the good application and not have to share my location data with marketers.
I've used nimbuzz on my android device and successfully made VOIP calls (through SkypeOut) over Sprint's 3G. The only problem is that the delay was horrible. Nimbuzz also offers a credit-based VOIP service.
Don't forget about CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE... such a lovely Hollywood gem! (I'm being a bit sarcastic but not entirely; don't expect to be blown away by some deep drama and realistic concepts; put reality aside and go in looking for a silly story with some mindless action and it's a hit! Works for me!)
I not your uneducated consumer; I know a thing or two about the Android platform, yet it's still murky as hell to me with all the different flavors of UI by different manufacturers that don't all look or smell the same!
It's no different than all the various linux distributions available; sure they're all Linux under the hood and can be customized to your liking, but many have different UIs and different ways of doing things which scares your typical consumer away, preventing it from gaining any significant market share.
I wonder if this Amazon App Store application will behave like the Amazon MP3 store application that came pre-installed on my phone; constantly starts on its own and consumes resources for no apparent reason even though I never use it, has full network permissions, can read my phone state and identity, can modify my SD card contents, and has access to my system tools (change Wi-Fi state, prevent phone from sleeping), and worst of all can't be uninstalled (Thank You, Sprint and HTC!).
I would like the option to restrict specific permissions at the application level. Currently when I'm about to install an application, I'm given a list of permissions the application is requesting where I can choose to either install the app, or not install if I don't agree with something. Now I know that this has the potential to break many applications or cause some problems if I have the ability to deny a specific permission, but it would be nice if this could be implemented somehow to give the user more control over security.
I'll give you one example; I wanted to install Pandora radio on my phone. Pandora wants to access my contacts and my GPS location information. WHY? Why should a streaming audio application need to know my contacts or location? The contact permission is needed so I can share a song with someone on my contacts; it sounds simple enough, but I'd be much more comfortable denying that permission as I'll never be using that feature. Location is presumably needed for targeted advertising, but that's pretty creepy. Can't they just be happy enough with (very coarse) location data based off of the IP address that I'm using to connect?
I've had an EVO for about three months. I'm ready to throw in the towel and go back to my blackberry, but I'm stuck in a contract for two years so I'll ride it out. Email, instant messaging (Yahoo/Google/AIM), and light duty web browsing are all I do, and the blackberry was perfect for that, not to mention 3x the battery life of the EVO and a much more usable keyboard, all in a smaller package that's sure to take more abuse.
Don't get me wrong, I like the EVO and I sort of knew what I was getting myself into, but I agree with you about the redundant apps and overall lack of quality with most of the offerings in the marketplace.
Those 90% of idiots probably couldn't drive well, even if they weren't texting or talking on the phone.
So why do many states prohibit the act of holding your phone in your hand and require you to use a headset instead? That implies that holding a phone causes problems while driving.
I seriously don't understand this one. I find it more cumbersome to use a headset and keep it in my ear.
Here's a scenario that bothers me: My HTC EVO came pre-installed with a Facebook app and Facebook for HTC Sense (widgets) which I cannot remove. Sometimes an action inside the Facebook app will transfer me to Facebook's web site, within the web browser on my phone, and all of the sudden I'm logged into my Facebook account via the web site. There's some mechanism where my user ID and password gets sent to the browser, but I don't know how this is done, and I have no indication that it's secure. It just seems too easy for a piece of malware to extract my login.
I'm equally as worried about the info from my Google account; is my data and account information handled securely?
I wouldn't really say it's a smartphone without the phone; it's more of a music and video playing iPod that has a web browser and WiFi capabilities, with some PDA functionality. Now that the iPad is out however, the Touch may not be as appealing but I'm sure there's still a market for it.
Requiring providers to only offer encrypted communications unless they have a way to decrypt them? Shouldn't that say "..to only offer encrypted communications if they provide a way to decrypt them?"
I'm just an engineer, so what do I know about grammar.
Perhaps their server's OS is less than 1K
I'd rather an asteroid than a hemorrhoid.
The funny thing about OSX is that you could use it 100% of the time and still maintain your "1337 cred."
I think Segways would be much more popular if they weren't so expensive. I would love to own one but can't justify the price. Heck, I don't even think the price to rent one for a city tour is a good value; I can rent a bike for a tiny fraction of the price, and it's probably better for my health.
Would you mind sharing the code?
I'm trying to create a similar plugin, only converting a specific type of text to garbage; the problem is that I don't have time to start from scratch and I can't find anything similar to start with as a base.
Even when such software is scrutinized, it doesn't always work properly.