Working remotely and how I bought a 27" iMac

I don't travel much. To be honest, the largest amount of traveling I do is to the shopping centre over the weekend. My daily work commute is less than 5 minutes (and a similar number of kilometers).

 

So why do I need a laptop ? Well, I do a fair amount of work from home. This work is not particularly system intensive; it primarily comprises reading e-mail, browsing, some RSS feeds and Skype. The heavy lifting is generally done at work. I've been waiting for Core i7-based quad-coreMacbook's for at least a year, and so have a few other people. Bottom line, I don't forsee it for at least another 6 months to a year, if then.

 

Meanwhile, the quad-core iMac has been around for a while, is well priced, and gotten good reviews. The 27" also has the added ability to be used as an external monitor, which is useful once the machine outlives its useful life.

 

So I ordered a custom version; 2.93GHz quad-core i7, with 8GB of RAM. It arrived last week, and I can only say, "Wowzers!". The thing is blazingly fast, and consumes everything I'm throwing at it with ease. I migrated all my data across, and am using it full-time for a week now. All I can say is wow, wow, wow!

 

So, initial thoughts;

• For what you get, its a great price
• The unexpected Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and trackpad (which I wasn't expecting) is cool - what is mind-boggling is that they were already paired with the machine before unpacking them
• 27" is quite large; obscenely large, actually (maybe a bit too big)
• Its a pity there is no eSATA support, or ability to expand using ExpressCard support

 

For what I need it to do, its great.

 

PS. I've ordered a 11" Macbook Air as a companion device to use remotely; its fast enough for what I need (I've played around with a few), the screen is large enough and when used with Dropbox to sync my data, will be flawless. Also, all the stupidity of the previous generation seems to have been sorted out.

 

I'll survive by using the iPad I'm borrowing in the interim. It sucks.

 

My Air is only arriving in January 2011 (thanks Apple) for putting Africa at the bottom of your priority list. A post for that when it arrives, for sure!

iPad (and iDorks / iTards)

So the Apple iPad generated a huge amount of interest and attention. I've managed to play with one for about 3 weeks now, sufficient time to talk about it authoritatively.

 

Likes;

1. Its fast and highly responsive
2. The screen size is right - a 7" would be too small
3. Gestures are a more intuitive method to browse / peruse information
4. The battery life is brilliant - almost a full week, with an hour or three use per day

 

Dislikes;

1. its fundamentally unusable when not connected to the Internet
2. Most apps are still not multi-tasking / threaded compatible
3. It has no camera for video conferencing
4. The video out is controlled on an app-level
5. There is no USB interface to get content onto it
6. You're in this diminishingly exclusive club of posers

 

Summary;

if you wanting to use it a a computer replacement, it isn't. If you're using it a tool to augment content consumption, its ideal. Overall, is it worth R7000 ? Nope.

Desire HD

I was very happy and comfortable using the HTC Desire, which is an Android phone. It was stable, fast and felt much more integrated and polished than the Nexus One, itself a good device.

 

Then HTC announced the Desire HD, a bigger version of the Desire. To be honest, if screen size bugged you before, its about the only compelling reason to change to this. Superficial thoughts on it are;

 

• it is bigger (maybe uncomfortably too big)
• the build quality is poorer than its sibling (it scratches ridiculously easily)
• the battery life is lower because of the larger screen
• it feels slightly snappier (but not significant enough to warrant changing)
• htcsense.com has a long way to go - I'm not sure where this is hosted, but connectivity and the site itself needs a major improvement

HTCSense.com is a portal where users of qualified phones can track their phones (ala MobileMe), lock / wipe them remotely, access their backed up data, etc. Its a great promise, but needs some more polish and thought.

 

So, overall, happy with it, but as happy as I was with the Desire. Nice, but not different enough to justify a change.

 

PS. These can also be rooted and its annoying that Google doesn't force manufacturers to do this out the box

Updates on the rooted Desire

I mentioned yesterday that I was using an HTC Desire. Some quick pointers;

1. The image I used has the option to underclock and do various other things; don't use them, they caused my phone to be incredibly unstable.
   
2. You can install Wavesecure as a system service, allowing you to enable the GPS tracking remotely.

Using an HTC Desire

After mucking around with CM6, I decided to spend some more time with HTC Sense UI.

I like it; it feels polished, gets useful stuff done without getting in the way, and appears to be more stable than CM6. I've been plagued with random reboots while the device is locked and I'm sleeping, and this isn't great for me.

So, I pulled out a HTC Desire, switched on, and ran through the OTA upgrade, only to discover that it cannot be rooted. So, I had to follow this route to downgrade, and then used the unrevoked method to install a custom recovery, Clockworkmod. I then applied a pre-rooted image, from XDA-Developers. This is a good, stable combination which I'd highly recommend!

PS. unrevoked have released a version that can downgrade from the 2.2 upgrade. Much easier.

PPS. The compelling things for me in the HTC mods are

• Corporate directory integration
• A much better dialler with T9 lookups
• Some pretty, useful and pretty useful widgets
• A better launcher

 

Hacking your Android phone

So if you read the previous post I wrote on Android, you'll know that I managed to get hold of a Nexus One, which is unfortunately not available except through Vodafone. The device came with Android 2.1, which I was pleasantly able to upgrade to 2.2 with an OTA upgrade by doing a "Check for Updates". Android 2.2 is blazingly fast, introduces some new features and is generally pretty stable and robust.

 

But, I was bored with it - it felt like there was much more tweaking that was possible, and I wasn't seeing it. My device was rooted, by following this post. That was required primarily to buy paid apps from the market (in retrospect, if that was the only reason, I should have used appbrain.com, which allows you to buy apps). I had heard about Cyanogenmod before, but frankly didn't have the cajones to try it.

 

Well, I've tried it, and it is the best OS to mate to amazing hardware. It is supremely flexible, and allows me to customise almost every aspect of the device. I'd highly, highly recommend it! Note to HTC users, there is a lot of goodness in the Sense UI which is now available on almost all their devices. Be warned, naked Android is not as pretty as what you have. Check the Cyanogenmod Wiki for a how-to relevant to your device.

 

If you own a HTC Desire (which frankly I would leave with Sense, and just root), you're in trouble if you updated to 2.2; you won't be able to root, and hence, no custom recovery and therefore no new mod. Downgrade to 2.1 and use the unrevoked method.

 

PS. If you're new to Android and don't like the battery life you're getting, download Screebl Lite (and then reduce your screen timeout to the lowest you can) and JuiceDefender from the Market. They'll do wonders. When you root your device, get SetCPU and change the CPU clock speed to underclock when the screen is off, and overclock when on. Works great!

 

PPS. I'm not going to paste links to apps, they change too often.

 

PPPS. The full list of apps that I have on my device as "must have's" are;

1. 1Password - popular Mac password manager port for Android
2. 3G Watchdog - check your data usage and whinge when you hit particular limits
3. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 - self explanatory
4. Adobe Reader - self explantory
5. AK Notepad - to take notes :-)
6. AndFTP - ftp client
7. Antennas - check to see how rubbish the mobile networks are
8. Apps Organiser - best way to organise apps, I would die without this; organise and then create category shortcuts on your home screen(s)
9. Astro File Manager - self explanatory
10. Autostarts - tells you what apps are being called on which system event hooks
11. Battery Left widget - nicest looking battery life estimator I could find
12. Beautiful Widgets - nice looking clock and weather widgets
13. Better Keyboard - stock Android keyboard is rubbish
14. Bluetooth File Transfer - should be in the base OS, but isn't - go figure
15. ConnectBot - ssh client
16. Documents to Go - view Microsoft docs on your mobile
17. DroidStats - analyse your SMS and calls
18. Earth - self explanatory
19. Factbook - CIA-backed DB on various cities and countries
20. Feedr - RSS reader
21. FeedSquares - another RSS reader (but pretty)
22. Fring - used to be useful, now only as a sip client
23. Goggles - Google's LBS demo app
24. Google Sky Map - pretty nifty, lets you know what's up!
25. Google Translate - self explanatory
26. Handcent SMS - much better than the stock messaging / SMS app
27. Here I Am 2 - tells your mates your exact GPS co-ordinates
28. IM+ - multi-IM server client
29. IMDB - because looking up movie information is important on a Friday/Saturday night
30. InstaFetch - Instapaper client
31. JED - I have new shareholders :-)
32. JuiceDefender - monitors and optimises battery by cutting features (e.g. 3g radio)
33. LauncherPro - MUCH better than the stock launcher, very customisable and fast
34. Linkpack for Android - to compare sizes
35. Brut Navigation (Maps and Navigation) - enable Navigation outside the US and UK - get from here
36. MarketEnabler - allow you to buy apps from anywhere
37. MyBackup Pro - self explanatory
38. NubDial - T9-style predictive dialler
39. ONN - for kicks, fun client
40. Paypal - nothing really useful
41. Phonalyzer - similar to DroidStats, but with graphs
42. Places Directory - tell you where to go close by
43. Pure Calendar widget - allows you to see your calendar in a variety of forms
44. Quadrant Standard - to compare sizes
45. RealCalc - for when the stock calculator doesn't hack it
46. ROM Manager Premium - because you never know when you want to try another ROM ;-)
47. Root Explorer - similar to Astro, nothing that I need more, not sure why I bought it
48. Route Recorder Free - tells you where you've been (Zen!)
49. Screebl Pro - Pro version of the screen saving tool mentioned earlier
50. SDMove - move apps to the SD card
51. SendContact - send business cards to people
52. Shazam - tells you what music is playing
53. Ookla Speed Test - to compare sizes
54. SystemPanel Lite - quick system-wide info tool
55. TaskManager - tells you what is running
56. Titanium Backup - best backup tool ever
57. Trackball Alert Pro - flash different colours LED / trackball on particular system events
58. Vibrate During Meetings - self explanatory
59. Visual Task Switcher - pretty, not essential or important
60. WaveSecure - great tool, gives you the ability to remote wipe and manage your device
61. Wifi Analyzer - lets you feel like you have a very expensive spectrum analyser (when you don't)
62. XE Currency - again, I have shares in foreign currency :-)

The best phone I've ever used - period.

I mentioned previously my experiences with an iPhone; in essence, I hated it. I had played around with Android on a Motorola Milestone, and thought that was pretty awesome - although the Milestone had its own issues. I got my hands on a Google Nexus One - fortuitously it appears, as Google is no longer selling them.

 

Its only been two days, but this is, without a doubt, the best phone I've ever used.

 

• Its blazingly fast
• It gets its updates directly from Google
• You can unlock the bootloader

 

Mine is already rooted (because I want to run market-enabler, the tool that allows me to buy apps outside of the US), running Froyo, aka Android 2.2. Major highlights for me include the ability to run Flash and the fact that its so much faster than Eclair, aka 2.1. The battery life for a phone with this type of screen isn't bad (it lasts me one full business day), but thats not enough, so I have ordered an extended battery.

 

Useful links;

How to root your 2.2 Nexus One

Make sure your Amonra recovery doesn't get destroyed on every reboot