Because according to level 4 Motorola support on why I can’t install Google’s own .apk web install app to allow scripting:
due to carrier restrictions the option to enable untrusted sources has been disabled
Guess, what, due to carrier stupidity I’m returning this otherwise pretty nifty phone. I’m also looking to turning off AT&T completely, dumping my iPhone, and going with an android phone.
For those of you not familiar with HTC’s, Motorola’s, and other manufacturer’s phones running what is called the “Android OS”, here’s a quick rundown of what it is and why the two versions of it are so great.
But first, vocabulary you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with:
Important Terms
Phones
So, what is the Android UI? Basically, it’s what most Android users are seeing on their phones if they have any phone such as the Motorola Droid and Google G1. The real distinguishing feature about the Android UI is how industrial it looks. It’s very clean-cut, uses matte colors, orange highlights, green checkmark and radio buttons, and a lot of silver and dark grey interface elements. Here’s an example:
This is an example of the 2.0 firmware Android lockscreen, found on the Motorola Droid. This is one of the better examples of the Android v2.0 UI’s flashy interface elements.
This shows what the screen on a Droid might look like while docked in a desktop dock. Android v2.0+ has a unique interface when docked that allows users to access, music, photo slideshows, and alarm clock settings, as well as weather, straight from the dock interface.
This is what a typical Android v2.0+ settings menu looks like. As all Android-based interfaces, it is very simple, easy to navigate, and the icon metaphors are east to decipher.
This is an example of the older v1.5 – v1.6 Android interface. Very plain, and sort of feels like an old Linux distribution. Good thing, too, because the Android OS is actually based on Linux.
So all in all, the default Android interface has come a long way from 1.5 to 2.0, and we have yet to see a good many changes come with 2.1 (whenever that is). Maybe not interface-related changes, per say, but it’s very possible that the Droid, which runs Android v2.0.1 and the default Android UI, might get some sort of Sense UI upgrade in the near future.
And now, Sense UI… My favorite. The Sense UI is an HTC-created interface that is laid over the Android system to make it look beautiful. Some people may disagree, but this being my personal blog, if you don’t like the Sense UI, you have no soul, and no sense of great design. Sense is gorgeous. Let me explain.
Let’s start with the lock screen.
It’s simple, it’s elegant, and it’s not obtrusive if you’ve got a background image you want to see when you turn your phone on.
Press the bar and drag down to unlock the phone. This version is the HTC Hero version of the lockscreen. The Droid Eris has more of a curved version of the clock/unlock bar that’s shown above.
This is what a Sense UI phone’s home screen looks like. The icons are a style fitting of the phone, and the bottom bar allows for quick access to applications, phone functions, and settings. The flip clock/weather widget on the top animates when the time or weather changes. Pretty cool. When I had my Eris (before I switched to the Droid), that was my favorite feature.
This is the “new” Sense UI, which people are guessing will be updated later this year. It’s codenamed “Espresso”, and is generally a nicer-looking update to the current Sense UI. As long as it has that widget… :p
So, to close, I hope you learned a bit about the two Android interfaces available to consumers on current Android-based phones. I know I didn’t cover everything there is to know about the UI’s, nor did I explain the (form) features of the phones that factor into the decision to run Sense or not, but that may be for another time. Until my next post.
Motorola Devour jkOnTheRun
This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.
You asked for it and you’ve got it! The Motorola Devour (s mot) is the latest Android (s goog) phone appearing on the Verizon (s vz) network in the U.S. The Devour has a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a unique side-mounting battery. Motorola includes its Motoblur technology on the phone, which is a unique social network aggregator.
The phone owner’s social networks are easily configured for Motoblur, and once that is done, all status updates appear on the home screen in real time. In the video I show how my friend’s Facebook and Twitter updates all pop onto the home screen as they occur. I also show how well the phone performs with all of this activity.
Our in-depth review contains the details and lots of photos of the Devour.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Mobile OSs Are No Longer Just About Mobile
Although not disclosing too much information, HTC don’t seem to be too worried about Apple’s ‘let’s sue because we’re scared’ tactics.
In an article on the Mobile Blog, HTC have said they will protect its’ innovations as creations and that they have their own patents. Google are also said to stand strongly behind HTC on the issue – and why wouldn’t they seeing as they develop the Android system themselves.
Read the full article here
View security cameras on your Android phone
Our new standalone DVR systems and Alnet PC-Based DVR Systems not only provide the ability to record from your home or business security cameras, but also can provide you with the ability to view your cameras remotely over the internet from a Google Android based PDA phone. These 2 types of systems have totally different remote viewing capabilities.
The most basic remote viewing is our H.264 Standalone DVR, this system provides a basic remote viewing through a standard web browser. This system will load a JPG for up to 4 cameras at once and can be set to refresh the image up to 1 time per second. This provides you with the ability to watch your camera system from your Google Android G1, Droid, Eris, Hero, Moment or other Android PDA phones.
Our more advanced Alnet PC-Based DVR Systems provide improved resolution of recording, better remote viewing and enhanced abilities for viewing from your Google Android PDA phone. This software has an app designed specifically for connecting to your camera system, and can stream live video up to 30 frames per second, playback video from your server, control Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras or even control inputs and outputs that are connected to the system. This PC-Based Alnet DVR system consists of a DVR Card and software that will install into your PC and record from the cameras onto your PC and is great for home or business security camera systems.
Find out more about the features and types of systems that allow you to view security cameras on your Android PDA phone
One of the key questions about where the demand opportunity for high-tech will be is about the adoption of smartphones: what will be their penetration?
One of the important considerations here is the price point:
A news item from DigiTimes, which follows the ODM and EMS community in Taiwan and China closely suggests that prices may be falling faster than (some had) anticipated, heralding smartphones for the teeming masses, rather than just the technological elite.
Prices for Android-powered smartphones are declining at a pace faster than expected due to competition for orders from handset makers in Taiwan and China…
Huawei Technologies has pursued an aggressive pricing strategy to push sales of its Android phones, especially through telecom channels… China-based telecom equipment and handset maker is making a second customized Android-powered phone, the Pulse Mini, for T-Mobile, which will begin to market the model in the UK in April 2010 with an unlocked price [that] represents a reduction of over 54% compared to … its predecessor, the Pulse, said the sources. Huawei began to ship the Pulse to T-Mobile in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Despite the threat from Huawei, most Taiwan handset makers insisted that they will continue to focus on medium- to high-end Android models to avoid fierce completion in the low-end segment.
I haven’t talked here about my new toy: an HTC Magic smartphone which runs the Google Android operating system (version 1.6 for now). I’ve had it for almost two months and I love what it can do. For me, it’s better than an iPhone, and it was so much cheaper to boot!
I have one nagging problem: I want to be able to track my data usage at an application level. There are many apps which will track usage by day, and I can get a good picture of how much data I am using, but not why I’m using it. Surely this isn’t a new need. Can someone please point me towards an app that’ll do this? If there’s an app for this, it’s not easily found in the Android Market or on the web using numerous granular Google searches.
