Flashback to 2010. A simpler time. I was finally abandoning my BlackBerry, which is basically one step above bag phone by today’s standards. I was torn between two devices: the Motoroala X and the Motorola Droid 2. I opted for the physical keyboard, and have not looked back.
Flash back to present. A time less simple. With Katie’s iPhone 4S in the mail, it is nearing my turn to make a decision regarding my new device. The best phone on the market, in my book, is the Droid Razr. The kicker is the soon to be released Droid 4…
...hmm
This thing has the same stuff under the hood as the Razr, very, very similar to the duality between the Droid 2 and X. Trading .3 inches and AMOLED for a smaller qHD screen…sort of a tough call.
But…the good news is that I have a few months left before I need to make the decision. My Christmas wishlist instead is one involving [link redacted] this year. I am a sucker for strange electronic devices…that should be apparent from the remote controlled clock. I’m hoping to pick up some hackable gizmos that I can chop apart, and leave the phone decision for another day.
The internets have been abuzz with talk of further stifling of Android tethering. Regardless of what will come of this, I would recommend getting a setup in place. May as well…you paid for the device. Am I right?
My breaking point came with continued poor results from the wireless connection at work. Enough was enough. After trying several mean with which to tether, I think I have found one that is suitable for my needs.
scrubbed MAC / IP
My hardware is simple…mid-line Dell Studio Notebook running Ubuntu 11.04…Droid 2, rooted, running Fro-Yo. Verizon with data plan…unlimited, if that is still the case. Connection…check
swantron = my connection
I played around with several apps, but have found that Barnacle Wifi Tether from the Android Market does the trick quite nicely. I have dumped several gigs through 3G, and it is decently fast. Haven’t had to reboot, or do anything wonky to this point. I have had two clients connected simultaneously, and it seems to be chugging along. You must configure the security settings, as this puppy lets it rip wide open out of the box.
Grab the app from the Market before Google folds to Verizon. If you need any help rooting your phone, holler at me as well.
Getting close to having my live wallpaper on the Android Market. I’ve hammered down the image, polished up the cube, tested the app on several emulators, and optimized the rotaion rate. More importantly, I haven’t drop kicked my notebook or tossed my Droid 2 out the door. I’m going to chalk this one up as a… +1 probably the best Android App developer I know of.
For the win. I don’t know any other Android app developers, but I’m still giving this a big For the win.
Here is a sneak peak of said wallpaper:
-1 no animated gif
Not too shabby, huh? I’ll figure out how to sign the cert tomorrow, and see if I can get an account started with Google. Stay tuned, Android folk. I’m going to offer this for free.99, so you all better fire this up on your mobiles and report some bugs.
Tech writers are the best. I most certainly don’t read the stuff that hits news aggregates because of informative banter and notable content, I read it for comic value.
Well… comic value and insight into human nature. Most notably: laziness
It seems to me that the easiest way to get published is to talk about a i* killer. Replace the wildcard with either “pod”
(expensive media player)
“pad”
(expensive tablet)
or “phone”…
(sort of like an Android, but worse, except for battery life, which doesn't matter)
…and write a half-assed article about a new product. Guaranteed Google, MSN, Yahoo, Drudge, or whoever else will have that bad boy on the front page.
Protip: Next time you are charged with the task of covering a new Samsung product’s press release, save some time and just go with “End of Apple???” and be done with it. The whole killer angle was spent several years ago…when we nerds were buying Sandisk players, loading Ubuntu on netbooks, and making wild guesses on forums what RIM was going to do with the next generation of BB phones. Oh….the good old days.
FWIW, I’ll put a Droid X up against all three of those products. For the price point, nothing can touch that machine…my Droid 2 included.
In the spirit of the season, I’d feeling merry. Promo code merry. I hope your season is filled with awesome technology, and I hope you take a tip out of my tech tip-book and use a NewEgg promo code for maximum FTW.
I have a sickness. I can’t get Angry Birds out of my head. Even trying to plug NewEgg, I’m thinking about the egg-shooting Angry Bird…
best. font. ever.
I used my artistic license to color that bird. Only an amateur would think that a blue Angry Bird would drop exploding eggs. Of course, the white Angry Bird is the egg dropper, and the blue Angry Bird is the shotgun-spray, ice attacker. Good stuff.
What can I say about NewEgg that won’t be common knowledge? Promo codes. Savings.com is my first stop before I hit NewEgg… right now, they have a code up that saves between ten and fifty percent. Not too bad, for thirty seconds of work. They usually have a variety of codes up…pretty awesome.
I’m still looking into TVs, hard. I have it hammered down to between 42 and 55 inches, and am leaning towards a 46 or 47…like this guy from NewEgg
Perfect Bedroom TV
$700 for a Samsung 46″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV…even the low end of that promo code range puts you in that tele for $630…probably under $600. Makes it hard to pass up.
Anyhow, take a look. Tablet PCs, memory, you name it. NewEgg / Savings.com…do it. I’ll be playing Angry Birds, FWIW.
Guess what? I’m posting this via my Droid 2, since Verizon’s 3G is faster than my Bresnan high-speed. Maybe one of their sys admins knocked some servers offline…I bet it is really hard to get around those racks with GIGANTIC CLOWN SHOES. Fuck Bresnan…whatever.
Here is a pic of an angry bird:
kaw kaw so mad kaw kaw
I feel your pain, angry bird. I’m picking up what you are angrily putting down. Now to the point of the post. I’m bringin Droid Apps back. You Apple fanboiz don’t know how to act.
Back in the day, I posted a little gem about the Android apps that I deemed must haves. Well, as fate would have it, my title brought me a bit of traffic. SEO FTW. Here is another (hopefully) perfectly titled post, that is dually of value for my fellow Android users.
Here we go…my top 5 Droid apps as of right now.
1) ATK, again. Battery life is still a perpetual issue. Blast your junk processes, and blast them often.
2) Angry Birds. Those birds are angrier than I. Best game I have seen on this damn thing. Bar none.
Tie, 3/4) Nesoid/GameBoid. Emultating the crap out of NES and GBA games. I found a bunch of stuff I used to play when I was a youngster. +1 usage of younster.
5) WiimoteControl. You know what…this will assuredly jump to the number two spot, once I can chop up the code and figure out the motion control aspect. Perhaps number one…who needs a ton of battery life when you can map the crap out of motions and use that as your input scheme I bet ten minutes with that interface combo will sufficiently blow your mind.
Grab one of these phones, root it, and grab those ^ apps. Good times will ensue.
I remember how excited I was when I picked up my first BlackBerry Pearl. My new, shiny, metallic, trackball-having, Brick Breaker playing, T9 is history-making-me-say, Blackberry Pearl. That bad boy had a two inch screen, if you measured it diagonally. I swear.
Actually, I have it sitting on my work bench right now. One second…
I was wrong…it is easily two and a quarter. Diagonal.
So the question at hand is quickly becoming an age-old question. What do we do with all of this tech once it hits the end of the road? For phones, this is increasingly hard…the older unit is too nice to toss, but too slow to hit paydirt on eBay. Now what?
I’d like to be coy and say something like “two words…[two words here]”…but URLs cross me up. So…here you go….check out sellcell.com. They can solve the problem of which I speak.
too...many....phones....
We still have a big ol’ tube TV upstairs. What do you do with a cathode ray tube? You can toss it in the trash, dropping heavy metals in the water table. You could bring it out to the sticks, and use it for target practice with a rifle. Or shotgun, equipped with slugs. Not that I would know, but that may make for a good target, albeit another way to pollute the crap out of the water run-off.
Fortunately for us (and quite unfortunately for the gun toting hillbillies) there are options when it comes to cell phones. I am proud to say that the cellular market has become pervasive enough to allow for cell phone recycling to take root. Even if you are completely over your cell phone, there are people willing to recycle it for you. They will give you far more loot for your old unit, provided it has a market value…i.e. it is not a Zach Morris phone. Or a BB Pearl. Snaps.
Well, I would say long story short, but my story was long to begin with. Long story in summation, a reputable EU company is extending their service to the US. They provide the best option out there, as far as uses for old cell phones are concerned. They are doing so well, that they can pay me to write about their launch in the States…dang.
Hit one of those links to see what is up. I’m still looking at my old BlackBerry…how pathetic does that little sucker look? Plus, nothing happens when you push on that screen…ghetto as hell.
I am now an official Android fanboi. It would be impossible to hide that fact. Granted, I have yet to root my Droid 2, but I am at least ninety something out of a possible one hundred ‘big into’ this OS. Pretty pumped I waited for Snapdragon…pretty pumped I feigned the urge to get a first generation device…pretty pumped that Apple and or AT&T are not around my neck of the woods…you name it. I’m in a good place, cellularly.
I have a stack of Verizon phones sitting around, with very little use. Zero use, in fact, unless you can count ‘looking at and laughing about how ridiculously horrid technology was two years ago’ a use, which in fact I do not. Good thing I found a site that will give you money for your mobile phone. Not just a bit, either. That is, of course, unless you are still rocking the Zach Morris phone:
and you can sit backwards in your chair...
Damn right A.C. is going to sit backwards in his chair, Preppy.
You know what is cool about SellMyMobile? Not only will they give you money for your cell, but they are saving the environment as well. My old Blackberry may not be as worth as much as the big hitters (iPhone, iPad, Nokia N8, etc.) but it will at very least stay out of a landfill. There are some toxins in that sucker…gold too, but also toxins.
Hit that bump up there to see what I’m talking about. Worth a shot, especially if you have a sweet phone that you are looking to monetize. Reduce, Reuse, Monetize. I think.
The proof is in the pudding (or in the froyo?) on this guy. Droid 2, hands down. Sorry Nexus fans.
I ran a benchmark test on my Droid 2 running Froyo. Here are the results, in slick, colorful, sideways bar graph form.
crappy pic...awesome font
Sorry for the awful picture quality…I had to log into my dual boot, in order to use Dell Webcam Central (garbage) to snap a picture of my phone. Turns out, my phone is also my camera, and I have yet to grab a screenshot app. Whatever. I’ll summarize the results.
Droid 2 with Froyo —— 1384 units
Nexus One 2.2 ——————— fewer unit than 1384
Others Played ——————– far fewer units than even 1384
Not sure what these units are, really, but the Droid 2 is clearly superior. I used an app called Quadrant, which is alleged to be quite legit.
It surprised me that the Droid X is lagging behind 2.2+ that much…it was supposed to be hotter than Hades. The Samsung Galaxy S is making a solid case for itself, sitting well above the Nexus One and HTC Desire.
As for those on the Moto Droid…hang in there. Hopefully you can manage to break your phone under warranty and get something with the Snapdragon under the hood.
****Bonus Bloggage…after I snapped the above picture and put together this post, I knuckled up on the Widowmaker pictured in the background. My knuckles indicate that I once again lost.****
Tending bar was easy money. Hang on for a sec…I’ll get to it, via a roundabout, Android laden path.
dolla dolla bill yall
As a new Droid 2 owner, I’m all about my apps. You know what? There are a lot of awful apps floating around the market place and or webs. There are some incredibly useful apps, both free and for purchase. I have purchased but one Android app so far…and I’m not embarrassed in the least to say that it is the paid version of Robo Defence. It both kicks ass at home, and at the job. In fact, I can barely make it through a meeting, that is, if I drop the ball and leave GPS rolling and nuke my battery, rendering my phone useless for a half-hour-turned-into-seventy-horrible-minutes-of-repeating-the-same-crap-from-the-last-twelve-emails. I mean meetings. I mean, I wish I could use my phone at work. But, I digress. I like apps.
Wouldn’t it be great, if there was some sort of app out there, that would pay you. Sit down, y’all…there is. Mobile plus marketing equals mobile marketing. Getting paid to play, in a nutshell.
This has been an incredibly long-winded intro to an easily summed-up moral of the story. I really think that WeReward has hit the nail on the head, and created the easiest means of making money I have ever encountered. Granted, I have tended a lot of bar, which is both easy and simultaneously a giant pain in the ass. How about getting paid to check into an advertiser’s place of business? Sounds okay…right? Hear an ad, respond to add, do nothing more, get some loot. Not too shabby.
I caught a video on a Fox affiliate about these guys and an iPhone app. Basically, they were pulling fifty bucks a month for taking pictures from some places that popped up on their phones. They have the same stuff for we Android users, and will have you RIM suckers covered in no time.
Hit that link above for some more info…it is pretty slick.
