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Android Desserts

Now I didn’t know this, but I guess it was obvious.

Firstly though I will admit when I heard the name Froyo I was a bit bemused, wasn’t sure what it was, thought it might be some character out of Lord of the Rings. It turned out that the name of the Android software update was in fact what they call Frozen Yoghurt.

I was well pleased when they upgraded my Nexus One to Froyo and quite liked the Gingerbread update when it eventually arrived.

However what I have only recently found out, is that there is a pattern to the android version names

Cupcake
Donut
Eclair
Froyo
Gingerbread
Honeycomb
Ice Cream Sandwich

Not it’s not that are all desserts, think that’s pretty obvious, but they’re also in alphabetical order.

Now I didn’t know this, but I guess it was obvious.

In case you were wondering there were no A or B desserts, but they probably had Alpha and Beta.

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WIRED gone haywire…

I have quite enjoyed reading WIRED magazine on my iPad and have written about the “app” on my e-Learning Stuff Blog where I review iPad apps.

I reviewed when it first came out and then four months later.

Over the last few months I have “missed” a few issues, but I was never one to read every issue of WIRED anyway, or as was the case the last issue I got was a paper version as I was on a plane to Inverness. During that time WIRED have updated their app a few times.

You can then when going back to look at the app to find that all my back issues were missing and it appeared that I would need to re-buy the issues I had already bought. Prior to this the app would indicate which issues I hadn’t bought, which issues I had bought and downloaded, and which issues I had bought but could download again. Now it seemed to indicate that all my back issues were gone and I would need to buy them again!

No I wouldn’t do that.

Was annoyed so didn’t pursue it further and certainly didn’t buy another issue either…

A few days ago I looked again at the app, wondering if it had been fixed, and from the first look, no they hadn’t. I then decided to do a quick Google search and see what others were saying and doing and it was then that I found out what had happened.

It would seem that updating the app and a change in the process of how apps deal with in-app purchases meant that though the app shows all my back issues as needing to be bought again… if I went and purchased them, it would say “You’ve already purchased this. Tap OK to download it again for free.”

So I can get my back issues back for free.

Now the challenge is to remember which ones I bought… have to go and check the e-mail. Not as simple as it should be!

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Airsync Androidness

I have had a Google Nexus One for a while now, but though I have downloaded many different apps, they’ve all had one thing in common, they were free. I realised that I had never bought an Android App for the Nexus One. This is very unlike my iPhone experience where I have bought quite a few apps.

So when it came to buying my first Android App, I was a little apprehensive. To be honest the experience was not very positive and could have been better.

So what was the app?

Well it was doubleTwist AirSync.

As well as letting me sync the Nexus One with my Mac over wifi using doubleTwist, there were two other features that made me think that this was going to be a worthwhile purchase.

doubleTwist now supports AirPlay for users who have upgraded to AirSync. Stream to Apple TV (music, videos and photos) and DLNA devices (music and videos). Beta support for Sonos.

When a supported device such as the Apple TV is recognized on the same WiFi network as your Android device, you can start streaming to it from the doubleTwist playback controls if you are an AirSync user.

So what went wrong, why was the process not very positive?

Well… after finding the app in the Android Market Place (which was easy), I tentatively clicked the purchase link.

It took me to a purchase screen and as I had used Google Checkout before it remembered my details. I paid for the purchase, I fully expected the app to download and then I could start using it. Well that’s what I expected, but that’s not what happened.

It didn’t download, all I got was a message that I was awaiting for the purchase to be authorised.

Initially I thought it was broken or had failed. However an e-mail from Google said that my purchase had gone through and I was charged for the App. Still the phone was saying that it was waiting for the purchase to be authorised…

It did this for a few hours before finally the app installed, I could use it, pair it and sync it with doubleTwist. No idea if that delay is normal and certainly I had not warning that this would happen. If I knew it was going to take hours then fair enough, however there was no warning or explanation.

So what of the app? I do like it and the ability to stream video, audio and photos from the Nexus One to my Apple TV is a real plus. Most of the videos I tried worked fine, but then they were encoded for the iPhone and I would expect them to work through the Apple TV. I was disappointed though that native videos i recorded on my Nexus One didn’t work. Well one did, but the rest didn’t. The one that did was a recent video, older ones failed to stream.

So I am pleased with the app, however less happy with the purchasing experience. Hopefully next time (and yes there will be a next time) it will be a more positive experience.

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Tethering Widget

Even though I have been using my Google Nexus One for tethering (portable wifi hotspot) for a while now, one of the annoyances was having to go into the menu structure to turn it on.

Menu -> Settings -> Wireless -> Portable Hotspot -> Turn it on….

There didn’t seem to be a quick way to add menu items to the screen. You couldn’t add it as a shortcut either.

After doing some of the Google stuff, I found that there was a free widget I could download that would then give me a widget on the home screen to turn the portable wifi hotspot on and off with a single click. Result!

Find it here.

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Still Kindling

I’ve had my Kindle for over eight months now and I am still using it on a regular basis for reading. I will say that the Kindle App on my iPad probably gets heavier use, but only because with a “back light” the iPad is easier to read in the evening. For daylight and bright sun though, the Kindle does win out. I was on a train recently and the sun was streaming in through the window. The iPad was very difficult if not impossible to read from, whilst the Kindle was a dream. If you read outside a lot or on trains, then the Kindle is certainly a much better option than the iPad. The battery life on the Kindle is incredible, we’re talking weeks between charges, rather than the day for the iPad.

I have found with the Kindle App on the iPad, means I don’t use iBooks at all, though I do have a few books on my shelf to read.

I do find that I have quite enjoyed reading a magazine on the Kindle, and unlike magazines on the iPad the lack of adverts certainly makes up for the lack of colour and interactive content. Downside is that he magazines can only be read ON the Kindle and can not be read in the Kindle App on the iPad. Why? Well it can’t just be to annoy me, can it?

What I am finding is that I am reading more now than before. Of course there are still quite a few books that I would like to read that aren’t in Kindle format, so have had to resort to paper. To be honest I have even bought some paper books too, which were available in Kindle format. For me the Kindle doesn’t replace paper books it complements them, giving me opportunities and more choice about what I can read, where and when I want to.

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Turn off the wifi

Following my previous post about the Nexus One battery life I received some useful suggestions from Gia and Dan.

If the Nexus One is searching for wifi access points then as Dan pointed out, this will drain the battery quite rapidly. This is not unique to the Nexus One, I have had similar issues with the iPhone 3GS and the Nokia N95. I had hoped that the issues would have been resolved with newer phones.

It’s interesting though to see the impact of wifi and the power requirements are still an issue.

It is the constant searching that has such a hit on the battery life, if the Nexus One is connected to a wireless access point then this has a lot less of an impact on the battery. That’s the reason why when using wifi on my iPad I don’t have similar battery issues as I am connected to wifi. Likewise when using the portable wifi hotspot on the Nexus One I find that I don’t have the battery problems either. Interestingly you don’t need to have the wifi turned on to use the portable wifi hotspot, the phone will turn on the wifi transmitter when you turn on the hotspot and turn it off when you turn the hotspot off.

I did find turning off the wifi did make a big difference to battery life on the Nexus One, so it is remaining off. Apart from having to turn it back on when I am using the phone at home, it hasn’t been such a big deal and hasn’t been annoying, whereas the lack of battery life was much more annoying. Still may follow Gia’s suggestions and get a new battery and use my old one as a spare.

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Nexus to Nothing

One of the things I have noticed about using the Google Nexus One for more stuff is how awful the battery life is! I can barely get it to last the day, especially if I am using applications. As a phone and a portable wifi hotspot, it seems to be okay, but as soon as I start using Twitter or Foursquare then this seems to kill the battery life.

Yes if I turn off wifi, 3G and GPS then the phone battery does last a fair bit of time, but if I do that I might as well get a cheap Nokia phone which is just a phone!

My iPhone 3GS to be honest also has a pretty poor battery and as it gets close to its second birthday, the battery life appears to be getting worse! What is different though with the 3GS is that I have an external case which includes a battery, so I can usually ensure (even with heavy usage) that the 3GS lasts all day.

However the Nexus One has trouble doing even that!

My solution would be to buy a battery case as I have for my iPhone, but buying accessories for the Nexus One is not easy. Another option would be a spare battery, and I have considered that. I use to do that with an older phone I had a few years back.

My current solution is to carry the charger with me and I also have a car charger in the car too. As the Nexus One has a mini-USB port that does make life a little easier.

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Where am I?

One thing I have realised is that location services work better on my Nexus One when the GPS is switched on!

Well I didn’t realise it was switched off.

My first indication that something was amiss was when using the Foursquare app which didn’t appear to be as accurate than using my iPhone in the same location. I just put it down to the iPhone been “better” and I was inside.

After this happened outside, I thought I better check the settings, and yes the GPS was turned off! Turning it back on and Foursquare was spot on to where I was.

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Bluetooth interference

I’d forgotten how annoying Bluetooth interference can be. I was on the train to London and I had only brought my iPad, but also brought my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard so that I could type up some stuff.

However as I tried to type I was getting typing errors like this.

So there IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The iPad also kept “losing” the keyboard.

The reason for the keyboard problems wasn’t an issue with the iPad or the keyboard, but was Bluetooth interference from my Google Nexus One. I use the Nexus One as my portable wireless hotspot and due to the constraints of the seating on the train it was placed next to the iPad.

London Paddington

Moving the Nexus One resulted in the keyboard problems disappearing.

So why didn’t I just turn off Bluetooth on the Nexus One? Well that would seem to be the easy solution, the reason I didn’t was that it was already off. The interference actually comes from the wifi on the Nexus One and not Bluetooth, and if I turn off the wifi then I lose my internet connection. So easy solution, move the Nexus One, not that simple in the cramped seats of First Great Western.

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WiFi, wot WiFi?

One of the real benefits of running Froyo (and now Gingerbread) on my Google Nexus One has been the facility to use it as a portable wifi hotspot. Despite often been in locations with free wifi, more often I have reverted to the Nexus One as the quality of the free wifi connection has left a lot be desired.

The other day for example I was in my local Costa coffee shop which has free wifi for customers.

It seems to take ages for my non-3G iPad to connect to the wifi and an age for the wifi login screen to come up. You have to create an account (which means I need to remember that account), you then need to enter your credentials and the “code” you are given when you bought the coffee. By which time you have drunk the coffee… The connection isn’t that good either, sometimes a little flaky, and if the connection drops, you need to go through the process again. So if I am rushed for time, I will probably use my Nexus One and turn on the wifi hotspot feature whilst I am queing for coffee, so that when I sit down it is up and running and my iPad will connect automatically. Now I know you could say, why didn’t you get a 3G iPad then you wouldn’t need this, well in reply I would say that I was already paying for 3G on the Nexus One and why would I want to spend more money on another 3G connection? I have a legacy T-Mobile Web’n’Walk Plus account that allows me to use my phone as a modem (or as I can now as a wireless hotspot).

Another time I do use it is at conferences. Most conferences I attend now actually have had decent wifi so haven’t had to worry… however recently at a conference in Harrogate, the conference wifi, which though free, would normally cost £4 per hour, was somewhat flaky, basically I don’t think it could cope with the number of delegates who had multiple wifi devices, iPads, phones and laptops.

Not quite full #uksg

As a result I got a better connection from the Nexus One than I did with the conference wifi. This is something I have written about before on my e-Learning blog. That though was written in 2007, here we are four years later, the iPhone has proved quite popular, we now see more smartphones with wifi and there is of course the iPad.

You would think that conference venues would know that decent robust scalable wifi is not just an extra these days, but a standard requirement for events.

Till that happens, I am pleased I can continue to get my own wifi through the Google Nexus One.