Life as a Nerd in a World of Untrained Brains

Now I don’t know if it is because I am getting old, or fussy or just more like a UB but I seem to get pretty frustrated these days when technology doesn’t work in the way I expect or want it to.

It’s really annoying when my phone crashes, or my computers don’t respond or open programs or they crash. (By this I mean PC & Mac, don’t go thinking Mac’s are exempt here.. oh no!) I’ve encountered this quite a bit recently with pretty much all my devices. Phone resets itself, Mac won’t open programs properly, iPad battery life being generally awful, Older phone having terrible sound quality when listening to music.

It just seems that I can’t win with technology at the moment. So again I don’t know if, as I get older I am becoming less tolerant to the failings of technology or whether I am becoming more closed minded in the sense I just don’t wish to tinker with it as much.

Hmmm tough call!

It’s been a while and for that I apologise. However I have switched roles in the technology world and this has removed my ability for an unbiased view on things. However I shall now make more of an effort to return to my usual tech head ways.

So what’s the topic of discussion this weekend?

Simple. Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft return to the smartphone arena with updates galore. Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is the alternative to iOS and Android in case you had been in a hole for the past two years…. oh wait you have with your iOS device. This makes sense….

Anyway. All UB prejudice aside what is Windows Phone 8 like as a platform now it has been released into the wild?

Hmmm mixed feelings on this one. A bit of backstory….

Wait… get that violin outta here!!! Jerk.

So I was and always have been a Windows Phone evangelist. I was able to sell the platform to many a UB in my time as an unbiased tech support person, thingy. The reason for this was that in my eyes Windows Phone was the best of iOS and Android put into a new platform. The simplicity and security of iOS combined with the difference that Android brings.

It’s not all rosy though. Windows Phone 7.5 (codename Mango) was severely lacking in features and despite being a very light OS (it was able to run on single core processors and not a lot of memory like iOS) devices had pretty boor battery life, yeah Nokia I’m looking at you! Plus as Android OEM’s continued to push the  OS and their hardware further and further Windows Phone seemed dated quicker and quicker (a lot like iOS actually). The interesting fact with this is that now all three OS’s are going with one major platform upgrade per year leaving hardware upgrades to the OEM’s. However in Windows Phone’s case, this isn’t enough. 7.5 brought in crucial features like Tethering, more apps and other stuff that I can’t even remember. That is part of the point really. Windows Phone 8 (codename Apollo) brings in a lot more hardware changes like support for larger screen sizes, dual core processors, more memory, external memory plus extra software features like Skype integration and more live tiles plus the ability to resize tiles, which is actually quite simply a brilliant innovation.

Now back to where I was. I’ve been playing with Windows Phone 8 for a week now on a prototype dev device which has been treating me well. (I hate prototype devices) However it has highlighted several things that Microsoft seemed to have not fixed from the very beginning with 7. I shall list these now.

1. You cannot charge the device with it powered off. By this I mean if the device is off and you plug it in, it switches itself on, which is annoying if you want a good nights sleep.
2. If you reboot (or battery pull) the device with an unread SMS in your inbox it gets deleted.
3. If your device has the wrong time or date and you have an unread SMS it gets deleted
4. If your device has the wrong time or date and you have just sent an SMS, it’s no longer there
5. It’s down to OEM’s to allow changing the sound configuration (fine if you’ve a HTC device, not so if you don’t)
6. No centralised notification options
7. Further to above, no notification centre.

There are more but they’re the ones that bug me the most. 

Windows Phone is still an intriguing platform and I’m patient enough to wait for the developers to port over some of my favourite apps like Pocket, Tumblr, Finance/banking apps, Sports apps, Dropbox app & support and a Starbucks app. These are realistically all that are missing. I don’t use anything else.

(N.B. You people out there that love Instagram… I don’t need to or want to see photos of your food with ‘cool’ filters so shut it)

Microsoft need to work on these basic things in my view for me to take Windows Phone a little more seriously than I did in the past. Android 4.1 & 4.2 Jellybean were a massive upgrade to the platform and brought in much needed changes. I hated Android prior to Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) but I’ve grown used to it now and I’m really leaning towards it at present because of the innovation that it has brought to the smartphone arena.

Come on Microsoft I want you to reel me back in!

So what are the top 10 things UB’s ask tech fiends that are completely retarded?

Here is a list from my personal list:

1. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
2. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
3. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
4. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
5. I’m going to wait for the iPhone 6… (not technically a question but whatever)
6. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
7. What does the iPhone 5 look like?
8. When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
9. Backup, what do you mean backup?
10. What do you mean my iPhone doesn’t save contacts to the SIM card?

and BAM I probably just lost my job for punching you in the face.

What are the questions the UB’s around you ask?

So Friday again, man the week goes fast….sometimes! The trenches have been busy this week yet again with many UB’s rolling through like thunder. The questions have been equally as entertaining though.

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Its Friday! (Well It was) and while that means a lot to most people, to me it means nothing. But what it does mean is that it’s time for another edition of UB Weekly! 

This week I have been asked the same question a lot! (Surprisingly it’s not when is the iPhone 5 coming out which ranks in at number 2) This question happens to be related to data, or more precisely - information. Data is a term now more commonly associated with smartphone data plans, which, is fair enough.

Information. Always a hot topic in the world of tech. Its protection, its safety etc etc. People are very fussy about their data. Well UB’s are anyway. Most tech orientated people ensure their data is backed up somewhere (usually in the cloud) so that if something happens to a device of theirs the only pain they feel is for the device. Most UB’s are not like this, they think their phone or device is full proof and will never fail and never delete their data. Until it is too late of course.

Me: I’m going to have to do a hard reset, this will mean all your data/information on the device will be lost.

CR: All of it?

Me: Yep, all of it.

CR: You mean I’ll lose all my contacts?

Me: Yep, everything.

CR: What about my messages?

Me: Yeah, er everything, kinda said you’ll lose everything.

CR: What about my music?

Me: ….. Everything

CR: Ohhh does that mean photos of my kids/partner/drunken nights out…

ME: ….. this is getting ridiculous now.

So that’s how the conversation goes usually. And half the time it’ll be like that again when the restore is finished. Half the time, people agree because they’ll have a working device but then when the restore is actually finished and they have a fully factory reset device its a look of disbelief.

“So i’ve got nothing on here no?”

………

Sometimes though, no matter how many times I say to people. YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING they still obviously don’t listen, they agree then rage and vent when they find I have deleted everything. I smile and say, I did warn you numerous times. Retard.

…You realise your not a tech god.

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So, I have a new feature for you. I’ve been reading Emails from the Command Line on Gizmodo UK and reading BOFH on The Register. Both of which are hilarious. Several friends have already thought about this sort of blog but I decided today to implement it. In UB weekly I will post the most retarded story of the week from life on the frontline as a technology advisor and dealing with the general public.

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Today I’ve got one acronym for you, it has 3 letters and begins with N and ends with C…. No its not NEC but close. Its NFC dumbass.

NFC is growing and growing and the acronym is becoming more and more widespread and mentioned at present. What is NFC though and what does it mean to us?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication which in non tech babble means the wireless transfer of data between two devices close to one another. Before you say it, no its not Bluetooth and it’s remarkably different and simple. NFC unlike Bluetooth needs two devices to physically make contact. You see, NFC only works with distances of up to 10cm depending on the service or device most devices are in the <5cm area too. NFC in practical terms is used with current debit and credit cards with many UK high st banks and is supported by both Visa and MasterCard for payments. However, NFC has other uses beyond banking. Sony launched last month their brand new Xperia S with which they bundled some smart tags (network dependant) these are actually NFC based tags that launch apps and perform different functions. Sony have tried to show people how NFC can be used for other purposes. For example, one tag will put your phone on silent, turn down the brightness and turn on your alarm. Pretty cool and useful. 

NFC is slowly being introduced into all the top Android Smartphones. Samsung even re-released its best-selling Galaxy SII smartphone with NFC support. All the newest Android phones out recently fully support it. Galaxy Nexus, Xperia S, HTC One S, X and V, Galaxy SII and expect more going forward.

Soon expect NFC to be expanding to advertising too. Soon it’ll be everywhere.

Try it out with your smartphone and see what the fuss is about (excludes iPhone). There are Apps on the Google Play store that even allow you to write and create tags from blank ones so you can customise them for your own needs.

Brilliant stuff.

Being a child of the digital age is not an easy one. Sure it means generally speaking i’m pretty good with technology and that I understand it better than previous generations but it also has a downside.

It’s ugly and its not a buzzword but it is called laziness.

Lots of technology is there to enhance and enrich our lives, computers, smartphones, the Internet all enrich our lives in some way or another. They help us get things done quicker and more efficiently, they help us reconnect with old friends and connect with friends, relatives and loved ones around the world. All these things are great and show the real benefits of technology. However they also have a dark side too.

We all know that one person that stalks their ex or partner via Facebook to make sure they aren’t up to no good. We also know that person is very suspicious of everything everyone around them is doing with their tech and when on the internet. This sort of behaviour is exhibited because technology brings us closer together, in these cases as there are many, technology can serve to drive people apart. Its where technology is used to abuse personal space and privacy. The recent phone hacking scandal here in the UK is a great example of this sort of technology abuse. We also all know that one person that uses technology to hide things from their partner and use it indecently. What is weird though is that among the generations above ‘Generation Y’ this is the sort of tech abuse that is most likely to happen. 

However this is not the only dark side to technology. The other major one is the one I mentioned earlier. Laziness.

Some technology seems to have a curious side affect of making us lazier. Most of this is again an unfortunate dark side to tech that was meant to be created to enrich our lives. But in making things easier it has made people lazier as a side effect.

Auto-Correct is a big one on this side, whereby now many children can’t spell or even write properly in written exams because their smartphones effectively spell for them. Social Networking means we no longer speak to our friends or family, we just Facebook them, or tweet them (some may even +1 them, who knows) we don’t pick up the phone and have a good conversation anymore. There are people of all ages I have seen that get lost in Facebook & Twitter, they sit and use the site constantly. It’s unhealthy and unnatural.

As a tech fiend though, I am not immune to this.

I create and build tech solely to make life more interesting and in turn easier for myself. I built a server for all my media meaning I could get it off my various machines and into a central place. This however means all I need to play music is a phone or a remote. no longer do I have to move around or use my PC. I can lie in bed and listen to music without lifting more than a finger. This means generally I don’t.

I find ways to link all my tech so I can use it all at the same time, this is great as it makes me more productive, but this can also make me lazier through not having to do or think as much to get things done. 

Technology brings light to many areas of the world, but remember it has a dark side too. Soon when Skynet exists we’ll regret making our tech smarter at the detriment of ourselves.

This is not a warning, just a notice.

Today I had my first taste of Android 4.0 on The HTC One range with the One X. I liked what I saw and touched. I liked the multitasking implementation which was beautifully Sense and beautifully different. I also liked the speed of the One X I was playing with. Most of all I loved how Sense 4.0 UI was no longer shoved down your throat and obscene in look, feel and use. I liked the new simplicity of Sense 4.0. Great stuff.

There is a but in here though, I know you were waiting for it really!

The but is the other devices I had the opportunity of playing with last week. And before you ask, no they weren’t new and no the Galaxy SIII does not exist.

So I had the ‘pleasure’ of playing with A HTC Sensation XE with Android 4.0 running Sense UI v3.6 and a Samsung Galaxy SII running TouchWiz 4.0 and Android 4.0. 

Unfortunately for HTC and Samsung, the pleasure was all theirs and none of mine. So what is wrong with me you ask? 3 great phones all running the same great operating system.

If that was true I wouldn’t be writing this right now. Quite frankly the legacy devices (XE and GSII) were horrible to use.

Why you may ask?

Simple. HTC & Samsung took all the best UI tweaks & features of ICS and removed them in favour of their own UI skins (Sense & TouchWiz).

Granted the GSII looks exactly the same and will not alienate non power users and UB’s but this is part of the problem. Samsung has removed all the great UI tweaks Google made with ICS on the Galaxy Nexus in favour of TouchWiz, which despite being ok to use is not as easy to use now as Vanilla Android 4.0. The only thing Samsung seem to have kept is the data counter, settings menu style, Face unlock & the addition of the camera features like the panoramic capabilities. I miss the sweeping menus, the ability to add widgets directly from the main menu, the roboto font, the speed of the OS in general and more. All of which are missing from the GSII’s ICS implementation. Now I was never a GSII fan, I’ve hated TouchWiz since its origins on the Tocco range but now I simply abhor it. 

Now onto HTC who seem to have gone for an even more baffling stance (for now anyway) where they have decided that the new awesome and simple Sense 4.0 is just not right for their older, Sensation range. So they decided to release Sense 3.6 for ICS on the older devices. Soooo HTC, you decide that you have to develop and release 2 UI’s for the same OS depending on which handset the customer has?

Great strategy…. ‘in tech la la land’ maybe.

HTC’s legacy Android 4.0 implementation is the same as Samsung’s. They have effectively shoehorned ICS onto the device whilst keeping their UI the same. Now with the One range out this is an even weirder option as there are striking differences between the two UI’s. Many of the features of Sense 3.5 were there because they weren’t on Android 2.5 Gingerbread. With ICS the UI adds elements of Vanilla ICS like the multitasking pane and folders but doesn’t do so in a way that makes it feel consistently Sense or consistently ICS. It feels hashed together and looks nothing like HTC Sense 4.0 on the One range, nothing at all. The main menu is also strange, forgoing the stock ICS implementation which as I mentioned already was a beautiful re-design. It’s the same in Android 4.0 with Sense 3.6, the same up & down swiping. It is only odd because in Sense 4.0 its completely the opposite, with a side to side swiping navigation style. That in itself is irritating.

HTC & Samsung seem to be taking the the same steps with their legacy handset upgrades to Android 4.0 ICS. Until the Galaxy SIII comes out to remains to be seen whether Samsung follow HTC in fragmenting their UI as well. It is unlikely but given what HTC has done, anything goes right now.

I was never a fan of Sense 3.5 either, it was vulgar, to in your face and too slow even when paired with dual-core processing. It crashed too frequently and was just cumbersome and hogged memory. Sense 4.0 is a vast improvement but the fact that HTC are not bringing it to legacy devices makes me sad. I thought the One range was meant to bring HTC back from the doldrums of Android and back into competition with Samsung. But it seems HTC are far more content with fragmenting Android even more. 

The Android UI wars are raging on and now it seems they are helping to fragment Android even more than previously, despite wanting to make it familiar for current users it actually seems to be doing the opposite and alienating people who want to use the brilliant Android 4.0 ICS as seen on the Galaxy Nexus.

Is it time for Google to start putting it’s foot down on how OEM’s treat its operating system? Maybe Google should introduce slightly stricter rules on customisation and what UI & software features should be kept from the vanilla builds.

I for one stick to my guns, I always said for me to use an Android device it would have to be running Vanilla Android. The only devices I’ve ever wanted to own were the Nexus One and now the Galaxy Nexus. For good reason I say.