Apple Has Lost Its Mojo

As an Android Activist I don't normally care much about Apple propaganda announcements.  However, I feel that after the latest Apple announcement of the iPad3 the new iPad (dumbest name ever), that maybe Apple has lost their innovative mojo. I am not saying this just as an Android fan but rather a technology professional. I look at the changes that have come out over the last few IOS device releases and see them being only evolutionary steps at best. I want to compare how Android is aggressively innovating in mobile compared to Apple.

When IOS first came out it was a true revolution in the mobile market. There was nothing like it with the app store and the hardware. I now look at iPhones and even iPads and think that they are just incremental changes to the previous versions.  The hardware has really not changed much and the OS is not breaking new ground.  They bump up the cameras or processors each release and you can talk to iPhones with Siri, but looking at IOS and the hardware today, it is not much different than it was a few years ago.  In contrast, look at Android 2.1 and 4.0 and see how Android is still innovating. I will admit that Android was in this mode of keeping the interface the same in version 1 through 2.3, but they broke the mold when they came out with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. At the same time, hardware manufacturers are pumping out phones and tablets to fit anyone's style.

Every time I see comparisons of Apple and Android sales numbers, the argument which is used to help either side is by saying that Apple is a hardware company and Google sells ads.  Apple is a hardware company and as such, they should be innovating the hardware side of their products. However, Android manufacturers are pushing the envelope much further than Apple is in hardware.  The iPhone and iPads today are not much different than the first generation versions. The screen size on the iPhone is maybe (in my opinion) the biggest factor in the explosion of Android devices. With Samsung trying 0.1" increments of every screen size they can make and other manufacturers trying so many different size screens, there is surely one that everyone will like.  I know retina screens are all the rage but the reason I drooled over the Vibrant when it was released was the spectacular 4" Super AMOLED screen.  That phone still has one of the best looking displays in a smartphone.  You are not going into AT&T, Sprint or Verizon today and looking at the iPhone and comparing it to one of these great Android displays thinking that the iPhone screen is impressive. It pales in comparison to most Android devices. Where is the Apple Mojo in hardware, their bread and butter?

If I could do a 6 month contract and subsidize a new phone I would do it in a heartbeat so I could try out all of the new phones.  With Android I have new hardware choices all of the time. On the phone I have that is 2 years old I could throw a new ROM on it today to make it feel like new.  You cannot do that on an iPhone!  Apple needs to understand that by sitting still with their hardware designs and OS they could easily get left behind like Blackberry did.

The iPad and tablet market is Apple's sweet spot right now.  They obviously own the market. But remember, at one time not too long ago they owned the smartphone market too.  Relying on the masses to keep buying their tablets if they do not innovate will be their downfall.

I really expected some big revelation for the new iPad. It didn't happen.  iPhoto is not a selling point to me on a tablet. I don't want to take pictures on a 9-10" tablet and I can edit on an Android tablet too. The new retina display is certainly a new thing for the iPad but by the third revision I expected that display to be included.  What else have they added? If I owned an iPad2 (which I don't) I wouldn't rush out to upgrade. The display on a iPad2 is decent enough. I could upgrade to IOS 5.1 and get the rest of the features.  And the upgrade in processors may be a big deal to tech geeks but I think to most users they wouldn't need to have a new quad core right away. In comparison, look at ASUS right now.  They are putting out solid devices with tablet and docks. With ICS finally seeing the light of day, coupled with this sleek hardware, I could care less about a boring iPad. I want functionality and form.  I want a device that can work and be as flexible as I am. With the Transformer series I can work on a tablet or use it as a laptop. With the Padfone we can add phone to that list too. Who is the true hardware innovator here?

On a side note, the biggest threat to both Apple and Android in the Tablet market will be Windows 8. Before you stop reading or clean that coffee you just spit out on your monitor, hear me out. Windows 8 is designed with touch in mind. I hate it on the desktop so far but I could see loving it on a tablet. I essentially use my Samsung Tab to work like a Windows tablet. I remote desktop into Windows servers and desktops to do a lot of my work. I do that because I can use the convenience of a tablet form factor to work on a Windows PC. If I could just use Windows on a tablet I could work on a real desktop OS with apps I am familiar with, plus a desktop browser without the mobile OS limitations we all get in Android and IOS today. I know I am not alone in this.  Imagine being able to use Office and all of your Windows apps plus simple printing on a tablet. Because of the iPad, many users now see the advantage of working on tablets and will buy a Windows tablet when they come out for these reasons. And yes I know that Android tablets and iPad's can print and I can switch the browser to a desktop emulation, but with Windows 8 I will not need any emulations. That is an important difference to keep in mind. But here again Apple is sitting on their hands waiting for someone to knock them off the top spot of tablet manufacturers. This market is key to the future of computing and Apple isn't doing enough to stay ahead and Android cannot get in to the game.

Finally, I love the fragmentation argument for Android. After my response to Ken Hess about why he would never buy an Android device, my boss and I debated the fragmentation issue.  My point was that in reality, most users do not know or care which version of Android they are running. They just need the device to work best for them. Apple fans always point to the fragmentation and wonder how we can live with it as they upgrade to the latest version of IOS on their beloved phones and tablets.  Truth be told, most of us know we could be on the latest and greatest version of Android today if we root our phones. I know some people don't want to go that route, but it is always an option for us.  What if the advantages of the yearly upgrades for iPhones and iPads become so minor that users wouldn't notice if they were on 4, 4.1, 5 or 5.1 and start to fragment IOS?  If Apple isn't going to add any value to upgrading why bother? I have heard several iPhone users in the last few years say that they didn't care to upgrade their phones hardware or software when a new one was released because there wasn't a compelling reason. I am sure they eventually did, but they weren't excited about it. On the Android side there are new compelling reasons released practically every day.  By not enticing IOS users to upgrade with better features they also could fragment their own user base as well.

Really, most people don't care as much about hardware as they do software and OSes.  Android is an OS and that is where their focus and strengths lie. You probably really care about the OS functionality and the apps on a daily basis more than the processor or the screen resolution. The hardware may be a key determining factor when purchasing a phone but becomes somewhat irrelevant over time.  OSes are exciting (or at least should be), not the hardware.  Maybe that is why Apple has lost its mojo. The interface on IOS has not changed enough to keep up with the times.  If Android keeps putting out exciting feature updates to the OS and hardware manufacturers keep pumping out new innovative devices, Apple could have their work cut out for them. They are fighting a whole industry of innovators who are willing to try new things to revolutionize the industry rather than continuing to be the next evolution.

App Review: Groove IP Lite

Previously, I had reviewed Groove IP by SNRB Labs which is a Voice Over IP (VOIP) app that routes your Google Voice phone calls over your data connection.  This allows you to use your data rather than your carrier provided minutes to make phone calls.  I still highly recommend that app and use it constantly.  It is my favorite utility app that I have installed on my Android phone.  The problem is that until now it was only a paid app.  At $4.99 it is hard to convince people that it is worth a try.  Now, Groove IP Lite has been released.  This is the ad supported free version that will let you see how well Groove IP could work on your phone.

With Groove IP I have literally only used 6 of my phone minutes for the last 3 months. It has allowed me to use the lowest voice minute plan that Verizon offers without worrying about going over my limit. Because I know I do not have to be concerned with the minutes I am using, I find that I call more now than I have for the last few years.  The way that this works is I use Google Voice for my phone number and all of my calls go there. I have it ring on my Nexus, my Tab and my desk phone at work.  With the addition of Groove IP I use my data to route the voice traffic over to the Google Voice servers through Google Talk on my Tab and Nexus. I am on wifi most of the time so I do not worry about data much, but even so, they claim it uses 1.2MB of data per minute.  I would have thought based on my experience with the app that it used even less since I have not seen a spike in my data usage.  It does not seem to be a data hog by any means.

One of the big limitations of the Lite version is that  you cannot route calls over 3G or 4G. If you want to test the app out before investing be sure to have a wifi connection to use. The full version will upgrade you to be able to use all connections.  The Lite version will also not let you integrate with the native dialer, meaning you have to use the Groove IP Lite dialer instead.  I don't find this to be a big loss since I use the Groove IP dialer now in place of the standard one even on the paid version.  It works just as well as the stock dialer and I don't have to enable logging in both dialers to see the call history.  In addition, you cannot set your Google Talk status to Invisible. I use this since I don't use Google Chat much. It allows me to appear offline. With the Lite version you will appear online and I find this annoying because people will sometimes think I am available and start chatting when in fact I don't want to be bothered.  Upgrading to the full version once you know it works for you is surely the way to go.

If you have a non-telephone tablet or a limited amount of minutes on your phone, go download Groove IP Lite. It is easy to setup and start using.  This new Lite version is the best way to see if it can work for you before you invest in the paid app.  I have had many people tell me that they were surprised by how simple the setup and usage of Groove IP is. I think you will be glad you tried it.

The Google Play Store Maximum File Size Increases

This week Google has made several changes to the market, now calling it Google Play and also increasing the 50MB limit on file sizes for apps.  The size increase will be very helpful especially to developers of games that need larger file downloads.  The way this works is that the file downloads initially will still be 50MB in the market but developers can house up to two, 2GB files for additional files directly on Google's servers.  Before, developers would have to host the additional files on their own servers.  With the change implemented in file size, the large apps that you download will come from Google's servers which we can hope will be faster and more reliable. The name change has gotten all of the press this week but long term, the file size increase will have a huge impact on the apps we download.

Another change along with the file sizes, will be the return policy.  The new policy is still a 15 minute window but it now starts after the download has completed.  There were times where the download took almost the entire 15 minutes to complete for me on low speed connections. It is frustrating when you paid for an app and the download took so long that you could not get it tested before the refund window closed.  I still wish Google would expand the refund window to 2 hours.  I think for most smaller apps 15 minutes is fine but as apps get larger and more complex, a few hours would be a more reasonable refund period. I have paid $20 for Office and remote desktop apps that took more time to download, test and configure than the refund windows allowed for. I think the short window is going to become more of an issue, but that is a post for another day.

Google does suggest that developers use the first file as a static download and the second file be the patch updates.  This will allow developers to (theoretically) only need to update the patch file.  It should also keep the file size smaller for the update files.  This method will make developer's deployments in the market an easier process since they should only have to update the one file.  Google seems to be really ramping up their efforts in the market. With the re-branding of the apps along with the increased file size, I think they may be trying to improve the user experience as well as the developer's ease of entry into the marketplace.  This seems to be a win for everyone.

Opinion: One More Thing...

The opinions expressed here are those of Steve Birchfield. They do not necessarily reflect those of the Android Activist or its readers (but probably do). I just want to be sure we are clear that this is strictly my opinion.

I recently have gone a few rounds online with ZDNet's Ken Hess about his article "Why I'll never own an Android-based anything". I will say that he has taken some heat for it on the site, on Google+ and even from Ashley Glenn on Rootzwiki. He has stood his ground. I commend him for that.  I don't doubt that Ken feels the way he said in the article at all. My only real issue with the article is that we all see writers push out these sensationalized headlines knowing it will stir anger and love for either side of the cause to get page views. He did say that it was his opinion and in fact the title suggests that. I know personally I see these headlines at ZDNet and other tech sites like this that are meant to be a commentary but lead you to believe they are factual. If this had been on Mr. Hess' personal blog I would not have even cared. But when a mainstream tech site posts it and emails me about it too, I think it might be a real news story rather than just opinion. When faced with these articles which are really opinions, it wasn't clear enough that this was only his opinion or feelings and not based on any definitive facts.

Ken Hess is a Windows and Linux system admin, so being an admin myself I have followed him on ZDNet and Google+. I have not always agreed with his articles but I have respected him.  But reading the article it made me question how much of a techie he really is. I consider myself a power user. Every system that I use, I try and maximize the potential of it. My phone is no different. In fact, I am probably harder on my phone than any computer I have ever owned.  I use it as a mobile laptop. I remote into servers to do work on them, I use it for my email accounts and I keep in touch with family and friends on it.  Through my phone and tablet I write articles and ideas down whenever they hit me. It wakes me up in the morning and is the last thing I look at before I go to bed at night. I was this way with my Blackberry phones before it. This is who I am at my core. I am a techie, nerd and geek all rolled into one.

I am also an artist of sorts. I take a raw piece of hardware and mold it into a powerhouse of utility. I take a basic phone and operating system, customize it and hack it into something more than it was intended to be. I want to push it to the limits and when I get there go even further.  I like how muggles normal people are amazed when I connect to a computer system and do things from my phone or make changes to something right before their eyes with only my phone in hand.  I love utilities that easily allow me to change systems and settings without having to login to a full desktop. Geeky stuff I know, but that is what I like to do.

When I look at IOS I see a system that has tons of apps and support but limitations in how I can maximize the potential of the operating system. Sure I can jailbreak an iPhone and do more with it, but unlike Android, you really become an outcast in the ecosystem when you take that path. With Android I can root and ROM and even the carriers know that this is likely to happen. I have sent phones in for repair that have been rooted, I have called support and even though it was obvious that it was not stock, I got support.  Try taking that jailbroken iPhone to an Apple store for loving support. Be sure to record the employee's reactions for me when you do!

But the article made me think that maybe Ken Hess is not the admin I thought he was. Maybe he isn't the artist I am. He wants a system that comes out of the box and does magical things without any effort. That's his prerogative and I am cool with that. I however, am not satisfied with the stock keyboard on the iPhone (and yes I support users with iPhones and set them up for Exchange and fix problems from time to time, so I do use them occasionally). I do not like that the desktop is every app you own. In Android I have my desktop streamlined for efficiency and hide the apps that I don't use often.  Heck, I don't like the stock keyboard in Android but I can change it out. I add in my own browser. I root the phone and remove apk's so that I don't have apps that are pre-installed even show up!

I know if my mother bought an Android phone (perish the thought!) she would live with whatever came on it unless my sister or I changed it for her. I would recommend she get an iPhone for that exact reason. So am I saying that perhaps (in my opinion) Ken Hess has the tech savvy ambitions of my mother?  Well, given the facts presented and his follow up comments, yes I am.  He doesn't want to have to change anything on it. That is ok. Android isn't for everyone. I know that and I do not want everyone to have it if it doesn't suit them.  But don't blast a headline on ZDNet saying how you think there is no worthy Android product. That is not true for everyone even though you may believe it. I could title this "Apple sucks and don't ever buy one" but it isn't true and even though it doesn't work for me personally I know there are some that love it and I try to understand why.  Ken, Android may not work for you, but for about 350 million others it is working. And though many people that have Ken in their circle of influence (i.e. - Amazon reviewers) that have Android phones may say Android is all of the bad things listed in your article, they still don't own an iPhone now do they?

Oh, there is one more thing, I know my opinion may anger many iPhone users but that's ok. I haven't said anything bad about iPhone or IOS, nor do I believe it is a bad platform and I hope I made it clear that it is only my opinion. I know IOS has a target audience that it should be in the hands of. I also know that Android also has a target audience. If that audience is a geek-centric group then that is who should buy them. I like to drive cars but I know that a stage 3 race car is not going to fit my needs very well on a daily basis, so I bought a four door car with a turbo powered engine because I have kids to load in the car but like to go 0-60 fast when I am driving alone. No differences here either. I need a race car for my every day driver and Ken needs a Buick. But do not tell everyone that because you drive like a 90 year old that cannot see over the steering wheel, that they should all buy Buicks. That is just doing a disservice to your readers.

Thanks for listening to me rant!

Edit: He did follow up and I think we all know this article is true. At least it is based in facts.

App Review: Majesty - Fantasy Kingdom Sim

I am not much of a gamer anymore.  There was a time when I would start playing a game and not stop until I had mastered it.  But these days I like spending my spare time doing other things, like writing about Android for instance.  I just don't find many games to be that entertaining on a phone or tablet.  That has all changed since loading the award winning Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom Sim by HeroCraft.  I have found a game I want to play and I have lost a few hours at a time doing so.

Majesty was originally a PC strategy game that has been brought over to Android. I like that some of the older PC games are finding a new life on mobile devices.  The late 90's and early 2000's offered some innovative titles on the PC platform.  Majesty was one of these great titles released at that time.  Now, on Android I think the game looks better than the original. It is colorful and the graphics are sharp.

The game play is different than most real time strategy games because you do not directly control the characters you create, called heroes. Instead, you offer rewards for them to destroy an item or to discover uncharted lands.  The enjoyment you get by building your kingdom is where the game shines. You do not need to worry that your heroes should be attacking a troll or you need to lead them to the battles. Instead, you build your buildings and add heroes to succeed.  In the game you build your blacksmith's shop and purchase upgraded weapons or armor. In your marketplace you buy potions so that your wizards can use new magic spells. You are building the kingdom to help your heroes be successful.

You not only build heroes, but as your kingdom grows you recruit heroes. This helps you become a stronger force to destroy enemies.  There are 10 different types of heroes you can build yourself with unique weapons and armor.  There are dozens of spells that help your heroes in battle.  With 30 buildings which are upgradable to several different levels, you can upgrade to get more capabilities with your heroes. This game quickly grows on you!

I ran this on my Galaxy Tab 7" tablet and the gameplay was quick and fluid. Even with a weaker GPU unit in the Tab, the game does not lag like other games with so many things going on at the same time. The game also played great on my Galaxy Nexus but in my opinion, the screen is a bit small for all of the items on that sized screen.  The sounds are just the right mix and the music sounds like you are at a renaissance festival. I normally turn all game sounds off but I found myself playing with headphones on and leaving the volume up.

As you start the game you are given the option to create a profile, enable/disable sounds and choose the point in the game where you want to begin.  You select or cancel by clicking on a check mark or an X.  The controls are consistent throughout the game but the placement of a few were off to the side or generally harder to find.  I also wish there was a way to turn off more of the prompts. After you run through the tutorial I did not want to see all of the prompts that I was given throughout the game.  This is a minor annoyance, but one that could be corrected.

Speaking of game play, it is relatively quick to play each round. You can stop and resume a round making playing on short breaks much easier.  I would start a round and sometimes walk away for a few moments letting my heroes fight while my tax collectors gathered more money.  I like being able to play and not have to babysit the heroes the whole game.  You start off most rounds with an ample amount of funds to build what you need.  There is nothing more frustrating than playing these real time strategy games when you are broke the whole time.  I have played some levels on all three difficulty levels because they were that much fun to play.  The addition of Skirmish mode needs to be mentioned.  People asked for this feature and HeroCraft delivered.  A skirmish mode was added to allow you to fight battles against AI opponents. This is a fun way to play different variations of the game. I found myself playing skirmish mode on Majesty: Northern Expansion for hours.

The game has already won several awards and with over 4600 reviews in the Android Market and sporting a very respectable 4.5 star rating, people love this game.  It is available on several platforms including Android, IOS, Bada and Symbian.  For Android, Majesty comes in the full version for $1.99 or a lite version for free. As I mentioned, they also have a new version that is called the Northern Expansion which offers new monsters, missions, weather conditions and lands. The Northern Expansion has a free and paid version also. I played the lite version and found the game to play just like the original but with new items.  Either way, you will find this real time strategy game worth your time.

Run Android ICS on a Windows 7 PC

Recently I talked about running ROMs and images as virtual machines (VM) on our phones.  All of that is still in the early stages of development but running Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) on your Windows 7  PC is a reality today.  Thanks to the free virtualization software VirtualBox by Oracle and Dinesh from the Sysprobs site you could load and run an ICS ROM on your PC. 

Dinesh runs the Sysprobs site and posts different virtual machine configurations and write ups all of the time.  He did a great Hackintosh write up for how to run a Mac Lion image in VirtualBox that I run on my PC to test Mac apps and settings.  He recently posted a way to run Ice Cream Sandwich in a VM.  Running ICS on a PC is a great way to get familiar with the look and feel of Ice Cream Sandwich without having to buy a tablet or new phone.  His site walks you through how to download and configure your computer to get the ROM running.  If you have a Windows PC with free disk space and some time to set this up you can be testing ICS today.

He does mention that this is a 4.0.1 image that they are running. He goes on to say that the Android x86 project home has some ISO files to start from scratch with and some of the more ambitious readers out there may want to try and update the OS to 4.0.3 or 4.0.4. I have tried creating bootable images from the Android x86 site before without much success.  Sysprobs' walkthroughs and recommended images have always worked for me in the past.  If you just want to see what all of the ICS hype is about, this is the fastest way to try it.  Running 4.0.1 will work fine for testing purposes.

I have run Gingerbread ROMs through VirtualBox and I was able to ADB on my PC through the virtual USB port to the ROM and push apps and updates to the VM.  These are powerful tools, and once you get the image booting you can run this VM like it is a real device.  This is geeky stuff!  But for the enthusiast like many of us are, running a VM opens up a world of possibilities.  You can snapshot the VM before doing anything potentially damaging and roll back to that snapshot if everything goes wrong.  All of this will let you test without having to brick your phone or root any devices.

A couple of final notes on this. I found another blog with some more information about running the ROM.  Between the two sites I think you should be able to successfully launch ICS on your desktop or laptop computer. The download of the VDI image is on a Japanese website.  Google translated it but the big Download button is all you really need.

Head over to Sysprobs to get started with virtualization.  These tools are free and the possibilities are unlimited.

My Google Drive Wish List

This week the Wall Street Journal reported that Google is close to releasing what was previously referred to as G-Drive. For those of you that have never heard of this, it is Google's version of Dropbox, an online repository for your files that synchronizes files to the cloud.  I decided to come up with a wish list of what I hope the service will be.

I think for Google Drive (the suspected new name of the service) to be a success, one of the key features is going to be the amount of free storage they are going to offer. Dropbox gives new users 2GB for free. SugarSync, another competing service and iCloud both offer 5GB for new users and I believe Google will need to up that amount to at least 10GB or more. 10GB of online storage should be enough for most people's needs.  I have a ton of music that I now have stored in the cloud on Google Music for free.  That leaves me with the data files.  I have my 5.5GB of photos and files in Google Docs and Picasa.  If I can keep all of my old files dating back to the late 90's plus pictures in fewer than 6GB then 10GB will be a good starting point.

Pricing for additional storage will be the next key component. 10GB should more than enough for the casual user of the service but heavy users will look to upgrade their allowed storage.  Google's current pricing for Google Docs and Picasa is ridiculously cheap in comparison to other services. For $5 a year I was given 20GB of storage to use between the services.  For $20 a year I could have 80GB of storage or jump up to 200GB for $50 a year. They have higher plans but I think most power users will find the pricing and amount of storage offered to be very reasonable. With Dropbox the next level up is 50GB for $9.95 a month.  SugarSync jumps to $49.99 a year or $4.99 a month for 30GB.  Both are a steep increase over free in comparison to Google's current pricing.

To compete head to head with Dropbox, Google will need to create a similar drive mapping feature on the desktop that you get with the Dropbox client.  I want to have a G: drive mapped on my PC that is the uplink to the cloud storage.  It will need to stay in sync with little to no effort on my part.  Google has done a good job of this in the past, but I am just concerned that if they miss this step that it will greatly hinder the service's usefulness.

On the Android devices, the integration to Android is going to be the key.  Like how Google+ uploads pictures automatically (if  you allow it), I want to be able to have my documents, music and pictures all to be uploaded to the Google Drive without having to manually start it. Having the ability to specify uploads over wifi only or being able to throttle uploads across cell networks of course is a must. But imagine all of your data files on your phone or tablet being uploaded to the cloud so that when you get to your desktop the files would be there. Sharing your data between a computer, phone, tablet or any web enabled device without any effort is what will keep people using it.  That is what cloud storage is really designed for.  The client needs to be an integral part of the OS once it is installed.

Support for other platforms will be necessary to compete with iCloud and SkyDrive. Until Android tablets take off iPad support will be critical, at least in the mainstream media's view.   But why not compete with Apple on their own devices? Also, as Windows 8 comes out this year it would be great to have a cloud solution ready to install on the new computers and tablets from day one.  Google needs to be everywhere they can be.  With a client on an Apple or Microsoft computer syncing up to the cloud and allowing you to get to those files on your mobile devices, this would let users migrate to the cloud without feeling like they are making a major change from what they are doing today.

What type of things would you like to see in the Google Drive service? Sound off below in the comments section.