Four months with Android

⚭   My Dinner With Android

After four insightful months, Ryan Heise ends his Dinner With Android and draws a conclusion:

I approached this experiment with a lot of questions, the primary of which was quite simple: why do people use Android? I had my own preconceived answers — they dislike Apple or couldn’t get an iPhone for one reason or another — but I dove in with an open mind regardless. After over four months of Android 2.3 on a Nexus S, I’m left mostly answerless. [...] To be frank, I still don’t know who Android is for.

He also offers a great analogy about the UX of the two OS’s:

iOS feels like a manual transmission being operated by a seasoned driver. Android is a dumb teenager constantly dropping the clutch, and seemingly getting more and more frustrated as time goes on.

I keep saying that I’m fine with people using Android, as long as they don’t try to convince other people to use it – if one doesn’t already know about it, the differences between Andriod and iOS and the advantages of the former, than one’s not in the group of people that actually benefits from those advantages. That is to say, only people that enjoy tinkering with and reading about their gadgets benefit from Android more than from iOS. Or as Ryan puts it:

I know there are people who simply choose to use it, and I accept that. I don’t really care. But I just can’t wrap my head around any of the arguments that come up in support of it.

So can’t any customer that isn’t tech-savvy and interested in the technology behind those devices enough to read up on them before going into a shop to actually buy one of them.

This wrap-up is an excellent read, and while a lot of Android-fans might not agree with everything in it, it’s about as objective as one can get. I envy Ryan for his experience, and while I’m not going to go Android-only for any amount of time, I’m still hoping that some day, some manufacturer will step up and offer an an Android-equivalent of the iPod touch that is actually somewhat easy to get and not crap spec-wise, plus has the Market Place so that I can further back my thoughts of Android with actual experiences.

iPhone 4S – First Weekend Sales Top Four Million

⚭   Apple.com

Apple PR today, October 17, three days after the iPhone 4S launch:

Apple® today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone® 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. [...] “iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said Philip Schiller.

 Paul Thurrot on October 10:

Apple’s iPhone 4S, which was launched last week to mostly negative reviews, is an opening for Windows Phone 7.5, Lees says, pointing to data from IDC and Gartner suggesting that Microsoft’s mobile OS will surpass the iPhone by 2015.

Ina Fried, AllThingsD, on October 7:

 Initial reaction to the iPhone 4S was somewhat muted, given its similarity to the iPhone 4.

Reuters, on October 5:

Rival smartphone makers could exploit a rare letdown by Apple in the launch of its new iPhone 4S model, which failed to wow fans, and grab a bigger share of the most lucrative part of the phone market. [...] The lukewarm reception given for the new phone also hit shares in Apple’s suppliers.

 

Apple’s 4-million-iPhone-4S weekend in context

⚭   SplatF.com

Dan Frommer on SplatF:

Assuming an average sales price of more than $500 — a safe assumption — Apple pulled in $2 billion in iPhone revenue because of this. That doesn’t include accessories, app sales, iCloud upgrades, etc. Assuming a $650 ASP and some app sales, Apple could have pushed $3 billion.

That’s 6% of Google’s, 3% of Microsoft’s, and 2% of Apple’s yearly revenues in three days.

On Times that are a-Changin’

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I just love this video of a one-year-old trying to handle a magazine like an iPad that’s making the rounds right now (via TUAW).

While there are way to many people out there that would use this as an example of how the world is going down, technology is bad, Apple is evil – in short, how it is a bad thing that there are kids that miss out on growing up with physical copies of books or magazines – this is a wonderful, concise example of how Steve Jobs changed our world.

There are people that know it right now, and there are people that don’t think of him as an important historical figure yet; but in 20 years, I don’t think anyone of the latter will be left. It’s then that the first generation that grew up with the results of Jobs’ work from the second they were born – whose first birthday was captured on an iPhone, who had their bedtime stories red to them from an iPad, who watched movies on that long car trip on an iOS device, who take a 500g-tablet instead of a 5kg-backpack to school – is standing on their on feet. And just like today’s 60-year-olds wonder about the proficiency my generation has with computers because we got to learn how to use them in our early childhood, we will wonder about how the world has changed in ways we could neither foresee nor keep up with.

This coming generation will be the first unencumbered by legacy computing idioms, open to whatever we hand them, ready to take it places we can’t think of because we’re stuck with our workflows. It is then that Apple’s groundbreaking changes in direction will truly flourish: Those kids won’t scuff at a device that doesn’t offer them an USB port to plug their flash drives into – rather they’ll laugh about the old ways that seem so impractical to them.

It is then that everyone will acknowledge Steve Jobs’ legacy. There will be grim people that wish for an alternate history, one in which someone else laid out the tracks, one in which Apple did not get turned around and made into what it is today; there will be people that disagree with Jobs’ vision and Apple’s work, and there will not be a consensus on whether the company is good or evil, right or wrong, totalitarian or libertarian, empowering or limiting people in their choices. But no matter whether one likes it or not, with that generation having gone through their teens there will not be any doubt about how profoundly Jobs’s work has changed society.

How to retrieve a list of available/installed fonts in android?

⚭   StackOverflow.com

Via Stack Overflow:

There are only three fonts: normal (Droid Sans), serif (Droid Serif), and monospace (Droid Sans Mono). While there may be additional fonts buried in WebKit somewhere, they appear to be inaccessible to developers outside of WebKit. :-(

“Choice”. “Open”.

(Also gotta love that comment beneath: “Gotta appreciate the simplicity of options.” Every day, mate.)

Death is the destination we all share – and that is how it should be

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Again: If you do only one thing today, make it watching these 15 minutes:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. [...] No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

There will be a lot that Steve Jobs will be remembered for, but this speech better than anything else I’ve seen shows you the person the world just lost. Today – more than ever -, with the news not having settled in yet, watching this is the best way I can imagine to deal with this.

On the Amazon Kindle Tablet

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The Amazon Kindle Tablet MG Siegler kind-of unveiled sounds very interesting and enticing. Much of what I do on the iPad is reading, and the Kindle Tablet should do that pretty well; and since a lot of my reading is on-the-go, such as on a subway ride, I might even see the 7-inch-size as an advantage; while I don’t think it is a huge plus on device such as the iPad, that I do use for other things than reading, I don’t think it would bother me on a reading-only-device. Continue reading →