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@philknudson
Relocated!!
I have found that my readership on here is not nearly as good as my readership on Wordpress, so I have moved all of the posts here over to my other blog (which although has not received any posts in the last 12 months or so, still has more readers than this one which has had many posts!!)
New Blog:
philknudson.wordpress.com
Galaxy Note 2 Short Review
Now that I've been playing around with the galaxy note 2 for a little while I wanted to take an opportunity to discuss how I feel about it. I ended up getting the galaxy note 2 at the beginning of November, and I can say without a doubt this is one of the best phones that I've ever had the opportunity to play around with. I think that's it surpasses the galaxy S3 by leaps and bounds due to the quad core exynos 4412 processor [that's a quad core 1.6 GHz processor], and overall phenomenal hardware. Here are a few things that I like about the galaxy note to
the battery life is absolutely phenomenal. It has a 3100 mAH battery which ends up lasting an insane amount of time. For example, as I write this my battery on the note 2 is 47% and it has been discharging for 14 hours and 16 min. and that includes screen on time of just over two hours. Admittedly, this isn't one of my heavier usage days, however the battery stands up to the most grueling of days, and I find that even by the end, I still have no less than 20 to 25% battery left.
The screen is gorgeous. The 5.5 inch 720p super amoled display is absolutely stunning. I'm very glad to see that they did not go to the pentile matrix pixel configuration on this phone, because you can truly see a difference in both sharpness and clarity of color.
The power of this phone is quite impressive. I can't say that this is the fastest phone on the market because there are phones like the LG Optimus G which are pushing the boundaries of what's mobile processors are capable of with brand new A15 technology, but I have to admit that this galaxy note 2 is no slouch. Despite the insanely fast 1.6 GHz processor, the battery still runs fine, and if really necessary, you can turn on the power saver mode which essentially under clocks the processor so that you can save a little bit of battery life. Most of the time I have power saver enabled, and it's really hard to notice that there's any difference in performance for the majority of stuff that I do with the phone. Even playing the odd game doesn't necessarily mean you have to take it out of power saver mode. The phone moves about very quickly, responds very fast, and is all-around joy to use.
also the stylus is quite a neat feature. I do tend to find that I don't need to use the stylus the majority of the time, but there are a few different reasons that I do like using it from time to time. For example, when I'm outside during the winter using gloves, I much prefer pulling out the stylus to taking my glove off and bearing the cold. Also, I do like being able to scratch down quick notes including when people are giving me directions or phone numbers over the phone, rather than looking around for a piece of paper.
there are a few little odd things that I have found about the galaxy note however. for example, using the drawing app tends to be a little bit sluggish at times, but not unbearable. Another oddity is that the Canadian version is missing certain software aspects that I think are quite interesting. For example, it doesn't have the multitasking feature where you can have two windows open at the same time. It does have the pop-up browser and pop-up video player, but in the international version and select versions in the United States and around the world, there is a feature that allows you to have, say, an Internet browser open on the top half of the screen and your text messages open on the bottom half of the screen so that you're able to switch between those two apps immediately. Furthermore, you're able to adjust the division point of those apps so that you can make one larger or smaller than the other. Another missing feature is the ability to do screen video recordings, which would be particularly nice when sending tutorials to my dad for how to use the phone or find specific features that he cannot find.
Overall, this phone is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone who can deal with the size. Honestly, it's not overly large now that I've used it for quite a while, and I know many people who interact with me on a daily basis who don't find it to be large anymore, it's just something that you do have to get used to. And on that note (no pun intended), it does fit in my jeans and my jacket breast pocket quite nicely.
If you have any questions about the galaxy note 2, I would be more than happy to answer them for you.
Have a good night.
-Phil Knudson
My Concern About Android
I really like the android smartphones that are out there! I think they have a lot more features and greater versatility and customizability than other alternatives on the market however I do have one major concern with them; the lack of consistent updating of the operating system. What I mean by this, is that the newest version of Android (4.1) is out on some devices, yet many have not even received the 4.0 Icecream Sandwich!
Look at this distribution of phones on various versions of android:
Compare that to the other leading phone operating system, iPhone, and you see a very different picture:
Comparing the two, you can see that iPhone has 80% of it's users on iOS version 5.0 (the most recent major update) and above. Android on the other hand only has about 20% of users on version 4.0 and above. This gets even worse if you try to compare the most recent update to the operating systems. iPhone has 61% on iOS 5.1.0 compared to android only having a sliver equal to probably less than 1% on 4.1 Jelly Bean.
When a new version of android comes out, it should be released to all phones. One of the reasons this doesn't happen is that every manufacturer has a different "skin" or "overlay" such as HTC's Sense UI or Samsung's TouchWiz. They are built on top of the android operating system so that you are unable to simply update the android layer. Honestly, they should either a) remove the custom skin's entirely across all android phones, or b) they should make them less integrated so securely in to the android layer so that when a new version of android comes out, you can simply toggle off the overlay until that manufacturer updates it so all features work.
Honestly, I feel that the overlay should be optional. I would prefer to have a Samsung Galaxy S3 than a galaxy Nexus, but I would prefer to use the stock android operating system, or at least have the choice to choose between them without having to install a custom rom.
If Google can solve this problem, then it will make their phones significantly more accessible and competitive in the mobile phone market!
Hi. what do you think of the galaxy note? is it good? and if you would choose, galaxy note or galaxy s3?
Thanks for the response!
I've tried both of them and both are really good but are definitely made for different people. The galaxy note has a lot of advantages in the area of the capabilities that you can do with the stylus. Also the larger screen is never a bad thing in my opinion. However the Galaxy S3 is faster (not a whole lot faster but it still is). One major advantage the S3 has over the note is the developer support. I don't know if you're the type of person who will "root" your phone and install custom roms but if you are, then you will find a much larger developer network for the S3 simply due to it's popularity. As you may know, I'm contemplating this very decision as well since I still have my trusty iPhone 3GS. Overall if I was forced to choose one of those two phones right now, it would be the Galaxy S3 (faster, newer software - I don't know exactly how long it will take for samsung to allow Ice cream Sandwich android on to the note. Even then, other devices will have started getting the Jelly Bean update.) Hopefully that will help answer your question. Feel free to get back to me if you have questions in the future!
Macbook Pro Dilemma
I'm deciding which new Macbook pro to get. My old one has started going wonky so I have decided I'm gonna get a new one. There is a problem though: I don't know which one to get. The new retina one is really sweet, but there are pros and cons to it relative to the non-retina one. Here I'm going to just outline the pros and cons of going with the retina model over the regular one.
Pros:
Great screen resolution 2880x1800
Better speaker system
Supposedly quieter fans
Thinner/Lighter
Solid State Flash Hard Drive and RAM
Cons:
EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't have firewire 800 (not overly necessary, but I've been using it quite a bit lately)
Potentially unnecessary
What do I mean by unnecessary? Well:
The 1680x1050 on my current Macbook pro is already gorgeous
Speakers - although better, for the price I could just get an epic speaker system. Also, I use headphones often so again, no difference.
I have never had a problem with the weight or size of my current Mac
Solid state flash drive - although fast, you could upgrade the drive on the non-retina mac, for a fraction of the savings
All the other parts of the computer including the graphics card and the processor, are identical, I could buy the cheaper computer, AND a Apple Thunderbolt Display (which is a 27" incredible display, with better speakers in it) for only $200 more than just the retina laptop.
Its just a very complicated scenario, where I'm not sure what I should be getting. I'm gonna give it some more thought. To be fair, I haven't seen the retina display in person, and everyone has said that once you see it, the screen blows you away. Yet again, do I need that? Why don't I just get the equally powerful, but cheaper regular version, and get a great monitor? Isn't that more cost effective?
Despite all of the support against the retina display, I'm such a tech-junkie that I'm leaning towards the retina display! Oh well.
The Samsung Galaxy SIII
Oh how I have been waiting for this phone to be announced!!! But now that it has been, do I really want it? There was so much hype regarding this phone that I had long ago expected that the phone would not meet the wild expectations of the public. There were crazy speculations that although amazing, were simply just not possible. Ultimately the phone that was announced was good but not great. There were certain things that most people had thought would have been a given in this phone that just did not come to fruition.
One of these things is the Super AMOLED HD Plus display. Although it is a good screen, it really isn't any better than that of the galaxy nexus. There have been many criticisms of the galaxy nexus because of how it uses a technology called Pentile Matrix in the display of pixels on screen. Everyone expected a better quality screen as a given but alas, that did not happen.
A second problem with this phone is that the buttons on the bottom are still using a 2011 Android Gingerbread layout. The HTC ONE X did a great job of implementing a multitasking button that is a big part of the new android 4.0 operating system. Yes, you can simply click and hold the home button on the S3 so this one isn't too big of a deal.
Another problem is the colour. This is very subjective, but I don't particularly like the look of it. I don't know what it is about the sort of brushed metal blue look, but it's really just not for me. If I were to get this phone, I would be seriously considering the white version.
The next thing I need to bring up is the processor. In a previous post, I described the differences between A9 and A15. A while ago I saw that they announced that the S3 will be using the quad core A9. That was a bit of a disappointment because the dual core a15 would have destroyed it. Oh well. So after watching the release video and reading up on things I have discovered that they won't be even using the Exynos quad core in all the phones. Specifically, the phones that will be coming to Canada (the LTE version) will be using the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4. This is the SAME processor that is in the HTC One X in Canada. Excuse me, but for a company that has been trying to be cutting edge (and succeeding) in the mobile market, taking a processor that has already been used seems like a silly move. As I've said before, the Exynos line of processors are some of the best ones in the world, but here I am, wanting to take advantage of LTE speeds, and not being able to get an Exynos Processor. This isn't all bad news though, because benchmarks have been leaking out that have been showing that the Snapdragon S4 is more powerful than the Exynos 4412 anyways. DERP!!! When the Galaxy S2 came out, it was the most powerful smartphone for the better part of the year. Even to this day, the original Galaxy S2 can almost go head to head with most recent smartphones. Now samsung releases a phone that is admittedly better than many others, but will be bested in a month or two. That doesn't sound cutting edge to me.
As much as I want to get a new phone, I'm undecided about the Galaxy S3. Anything is better than my current phone but the Galaxy S3 seems to be like the iPhone 4S was to the iPhone 4, an evolutionary step rather than a revolutionary one.
Honestly the best transformer ever! Not only is this cool because it actually transforms, but the way it runs at the very end is HILARIOUS!! Click the image to watch it go!
Sweetest Keyboard in the world!!! Someday I will hopefully be able to get one of these keyboards. It is amazing! you basically can customize the keys so that different pictures, symbols and information shows up under the keys because they have tiny little screens. This means that you could have the colour of the keys always changing colour, or more practically, you could have the keyboard with lower-case letters on it, then when you hold shift, it would turn to upper-case letters. Or in gaming, if you play first person shooters, you would be able to have arrows on your keyboard rather than A S D and W and different symbols representing different keyboard shortcuts. There are practically endless ways that you can utilize this technology!!!
I remember when the original Optimus Keyboard was shown as a concept, I've seen it become a reality. Now there is a new, "Mini" version of the optimus, that actually adds a cool feature. It has a little screen between the Fn keys and the number keys, that allows you display information dictated by your computer. Examples are widgets with weather, stocks, etc, or meta-data from songs, or scores from videogames, etc. Its really quite a great idea, and its in full colour which makes it look fantastic. Although, the $1,086 USD price tag is a bit high for me at the moment!!!
HTC One X - A few thoughts
A couple days ago I got to play around with an HTC One X. That is a really nice phone, so this post will just discuss a few of my thoughts.
I really liked the camera, speed, screen, multi-tasking and size. The camera seems to have a really good sensor, even though the design does make the lens stick out a bit on the back, making it look kinda weird, and making it potentially easier to scratch the lens. I tried out multitasking on the phone, and it REALLY impressed me!!! it was very smooth, and looked beautiful. it really helped having a dedicated multi-tasking button as one of the three buttons along the bottom, however that also leads me to some of my dislikes. The three buttons along the bottom from left to right are, Back, Home, Multitasking. As nice as this is, it really should have four buttons. The options button has become a very important functional button in the Android operating system. Pretty much every other phone on the market has one, and I'm not sure why it was removed in this phone. to be fair, the galaxy nexus doesn't have this button either so its possible they are just trying to move towards that type of control scheme, but I have always liked that button.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and definitely a very good contender for flagship android device. However, we are yet to see what samsung has up it's sleeve for the galaxy s3. Only time will tell
3DTV Positives and Negatives
Here's the thing about 3dtv. They are cool. but they also aren't. I got a new tv a few months ago that happened to be a 3D TV, but that wasn't the reason I bought it. When you are looking at TVs now, the best quality TVs for 2D watching just also include 3D functionality. This has caused a problem for many consumers who swear that they don't want any 3D tvs. A few months back I sold HDTVs to customers and the number of times I had to deal with objections about getting a TV that is labeled as 3D was countless! This is essentially the advice that I game to my customers:
Yes, this TV does have 3D support, and I realize that you may never even use the 3D capabilities of this TV, but if you compare this TV to one that does not have 3D support, when watching entertainment in 2D, the 3D tv is still better. TV manufactures still are making a wide variety of qualities of TV, and it just so happens that they reserve the 3D capabilities for their best TVs, regardless if you use the 3d or not.
So for customers I had to convince them that if they were looking to get the best 2D picture possible, they would be purchasing a TV that had 3D support. So that is just one problem with 3DTV.
Now, when I purchased my TV, I purchased it a) because it was a good deal, and b) because it was a fantastic quality TV. I have the 60" panasonic GT30 plasma. I did not really expect to use 3D for most of my entertainment watching, in fact, the TV doesn't even come with a pair of 3D glasses, those are sold separately! I just wanted the best (and biggest) TV that my money (or lack-there-of) could buy. For me, the panasonic was the best choice.
I want to take a second to just explain the two types of 3dtv, active and passive. Active 3DTVs alternate the picture back and forth usually about 120 times per second. So if time were paused, you would only see one image on the screen at any given time. That image would be for either the left eye or the right eye. The glasses with active TVs are powered so that they are in sync with the back and forth flickering of the TV image so that one of the two images will always be seen only by the left eye, and the other image will only be seen by the right eye (because the left eye is getting blocked due to the glasses). This allows you to see the image in full 1080p, resulting in a sharper image, but since the screen alternates back and forth, you tend to get a little bit of stuttering when things are moving faster on screen.
The second type of 3D is passive. This type uses polarized lines of pixels so that one of the lenses of the polarized (non-powered) glasses sees half of the pixels on screen, and the other lens would see the other half of the pixels. This means that the image is not switching back and forth, therefore there is typically no stuttering as is present in the active 3D, but since the lines of pixels alternate in visibility between left eye and right eye, that means that at any given time, each eye is only seeing half the pixels on screen. This means that rather than seeing a 1080p image (1,080 horizontal lines that make up the image) each eye only sees 540 lines. This essentially turns an HD image into something only slightly better than enhanced definition, (480 lines that make up the image).
Between the two of them, each has their pros and cons. Either one has a tradeoff. With active, you get full 1080p in each eye rather than only 540p per eye, but with passive, you get an image that is displayed on screen 120 times per second and sometimes more, whereas with active you alternate between eyes so you essentially only get 60 frames per eye per second, so you get stutter in fast moving scenes.
Now that you know the difference, I just want to say that there are other technologies that don't involve using glasses, much like the Nintendo 3DS. Its a technology that is being used on some TVs in europe as well which is called parallax barriers I believe. It essentially allows the viewing of 3D images without having to wear glasses. It is still a very new technology that doesn't have the same 3D depth or clarity that the other technologies have.
I personally don't care about having to wear glasses, many of them are really light and comfortable to wear, even for long periods of time. So I believe there are two options for how to make these two technologies better. For active 3D, you simply have to increase the flicker speed so that each eye is seeing 120 frames or more per second. For passive 3D, you have to increase the resolution of the TV set, so that even after each eye is only seeing half the pixels, they will each be seeing a 1080p image. Until I see what results these two changes actually produce in the quality of 3DTV viewing, I can't say which would be a better choice.
As for my personal 3D usage, although I said I wouldn't be using 3D much, I am finding that when there is a really cool movie like Transformers 3, I am choosing to watch the 3D version of it because it just gets me that much more immersed in the experience.
My Thoughts on Tablets
I personally haven't found the right way to use tablets yet. I have my laptop, and I have my smartphone. I still don't think I need that in-between device. I have a macbook pro for my laptop, and I'm so far pleased with that. I have an iPhone 3gs as my smartphone (although soon to be replaced by a larger and more capable android device). I will get the best android available so that I have as much capability as possible from my mobile phone. Then, if I need a larger screen or keyboard, then I have my laptop. Why do I need another device to go in-between that can do marginally more than my smartphone, but definitely less than my laptop?
I had a chat with someone not so long ago who was arguing in favour of tablets. He was saying that if I needed a keyboard, I could just bring along a case that has keyboard built in. He kept on saying things that I could add on to the tablet to meet my needs. At the end of all that, I would be carrying essentially a laptop. SO WHY DON'T I JUST USE A LAPTOP!!! I said to him, I could see getting a Windows 8 Tablet, because that way it would actually have a functional operating system under the mobile platform. Thats the only time I could see leaving a laptop out of the question and replacing it with a tablet for a business trip or meeting.
The only place I could see using a tablet is as a device that could have a copy of a powerpoint presentation or report that I could pass around amongst group members. I see the tablet as being a device that is cool simply because you can pass the device around to others easier than a laptop. Only problem with that: I would end up developing and writing the powerpoint presentation or report on my computer. I will not be building that on a tablet. No way.
Maybe as I progress through my professional career a need for a tablet my develop but I'm not there yet.
Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2
As you may know, I am really excited to get a new phone. My old iPhone 3GS is just BARELY still doing things I need it to do, but its just SO SLOW! So I've been holding out for the announcement of the new samsung galaxy device. The Galaxy S2 is certainly one of the best android phones available on the market. It has been that way since the phone first came out! That is pretty fantastic. Now a little about me, I have been in consumer electronics sales for many years, and most recently I have sold mobile phones to customers over the past year. That being said, now that I've sold the Galaxy note so many times, and to so many people, I've come to really love the product!!
Yes, the note is big, but it is just so functional for me! I personally use my phone for a total of 10 minutes of calling per month. The rest of my time per month is spent on web browsing, email, texting, games, document management, music, and navigation. All of those things are screen based, so for me, a big screen is definitely a good thing! Plus the new S-pen is a crazy cool idea, which has so many great uses as you can see from my previous post here. That being said, the note is just a little behind the curve in terms of tech.
The reason i say its behind is because there is a new galaxy device coming out soon. May 3rd will be an announcement day for a new galaxy device. More likely than not, the device announced will be the Galaxy S3. That phone will probably be the flagship android device for the majority of the next year. That being said, the galaxy note came out internationally in October of 2011, and was launched in north america in February of 2012. That wasn't that long ago, and I don't see Samsung feasibly launching another Galaxy Note so quickly after their previous note, especially given it's success with the phone so far. Plus, launching a new Note alongside the new Galaxy S3 would potentially cannibalize the sales of their main device. So they will probably try to stagger the two devices by 6 months.
It makes little sense for me to buy a note now so soon before a new galaxy s3 comes out. So I will wait for the new processors that are available in this next wave of next gen phones.
Here is the big dilemma though. I feel like the S3 will launch with the Exynos 4412, quad core, A9 processor. This is a decent processor, probably the best one on the market, but not by much. Samsung has two other processors in the works, a 5250 (dual core A15) and a 5450 (quad core A15). A15 is so much better than A9 for too many reasons to list at the moment. This is why I REALLY hope the S3 launches with the dual core a15 because it will actually far surpass the capabilities of a quad core a9. Yes, a quad core a15 would blow everything else out of the water, but that isn't a feasible processor to put into a phone in the immediate future (the period in which i need to get a new phone). Also, the number of cores in the phone is going to be turning into the same kind of race for numbers that has happened with camera megapixels. MORE CORES IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER! A more efficient processor is more important, but since all of these other companies are marketing quad core phones, i think samsung may just have to fall in to the war, because it makes no business sense to fight upstream against the masses, simply because people will believe quad core is better than dual core.
Here is my prediction:
Galaxy s3 launches at end of may/beginning of june internationally with the Exynos 4412, quad core processor.
Galaxy Note 2 will come to the market in December with the Exynos 5250.
If my prediction is accurate, then I simply can't wait that long to replace my slow, aging phone. I'll just have to wait until May 3rd to hear what Samsung finally announces.
Fax Machines...
I often wonder why fax machines are so prevalent in modern business communications. I just don't see that as being efficient given the many other means of communication available to businesses.
For some people, fax machines may be convenient if they are unsure how to scan documents, or don't want to mail the documents, or for that matter if they don't have access to internet at all. For that reason, I can understand why a company would want to have an option for customers or clients that fall in to that category to be able to send documents relatively quickly across great distances. However, companies should not LIMIT their means of communication to fax machines.
If a document needs to be signed, there are so many ways to digitally sign documents. In fact adobe PDFs have a feature that allows you to sign documents simply by signing a white piece of paper, then holding that paper up to your webcam.
An efficient company would set up primary communications in an automated system where the user inputs the data themselves on to a web-enabled form, so that when submitted, the information is immediately collected and compiled into the database. This removes all intermediate steps of mailing, faxing, interpreting hand-written information, and inputting that information into the system.
The reason I thought of this was filling out applications for my line of credit and my student loans. I kept running in to situations where a person on the other end (after I mailed the information out - as that was the only way to send the info to them) was unable to read a certain line of the application because the box was too small and I had to squish my address in to it. All of that confusion and delay of approximately 3 days would have been avoided (not to mention that the info would have reached them faster) had they just had me input the data on their secure server and submit electronically.
Just a thought.
Optical Media Vs Streaming
Digital distribution of media is a great thing. Its a WONDERFUL thing, but there are still so many problems with it, especially in countries like Canada where the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission) hinders competition between telecommunications companies. In this post I will outline some of my thoughts about the problems with online streaming of movies/tv shows with respect to the conditions that are here in my country, Canada.
1) Quality of Content - By quality, I refer to the actual visual quality of the content that is being streamed vs that which is played from a disk such as Blu Ray. There is simply no comparison. Sure, both can be 1080p, and sure both look good, but Blu Ray is leaps and bounds better. Better clarity, sharpness, depth of colour, sound quality (uncompressed audio) true 24p frame rates, wide gamut colour capabilities, the list goes on and on. All of these things are only really achievable by optical media. Technically, digital distribution IS ABSOLUTELY CAPABLE OF THESE THINGS, but this is simply not feasible right now for the following reason
2) Size of Files - If I look at a Blu Ray, the full file size of that Blu Ray is often in the realm of 40-50GB. If I stream the exactly same movie in the best quality possible on Netflix (assuming that its available - a big problem with the Netflix service in Canada) the file being streamed is approximately 2GB per hour, so say max of like 4-5 GB. Clearly there are a lot of details that end up getting missed or compressed when you have something of 40-50gb getting shrunken down to something 4-5gb. Now, lets say that in a perfect world, Netflix DID stream a movie at FULL Blu Ray quality. That would mean that you use about 40-50GBs per movie that you watch. This is a problem.
3) Canadian Telecommunications - In canada, due to the regulations in place by the CRTC, there is no competition and therefore there are pretty tough bandwidth caps on the majority of ISPs. On my current plan, I have a bandwidth cap of 95GB per month. If I had access to this theoretical full blu ray quality stream, then I would be able to watch 2 movies per month, but if I did that, I would not be allowed to do any web browsing otherwise they will kill me with overage charges. Even on the highest bandwidth available through rogers, which at the time of writing this is 250GB per month, one would be able to watch 5 movies before using up all of the bandwidth for the entire month. If you are someone who watches 1 movie every weekend (which I would say isn't too heavy of usage) then you would have barely enough bandwidth to do anything else. Again, this is all theoretical as Netflix does not currently offer this hypothetical service that I'm speaking of. Given the ACTUAL usage of netflix, my plan could get almost 50 hours of streaming, which is awesome, but I sacrifice quality.
My wish is this: CRTC opens up the canadian telecommunications market so as to allow for competition. Hopefully, this will lower prices in canada, and will raise downloading limits (or at least make them more affordable). This in turn would make something like this hypothetical blu ray quality netflix service a feasible option for netflix to invest in developing. Yes, this would ultimately destroy the market for optical media, but thats just the way of technology.
Ultimately, what I'm saying is that when there is a good movie out, I will still get it for Blu Ray before I even consider watching it on Netflix, or other online streaming sources.
Linksys Frustration - E4200
I have a linksys E4200 router. I have been trying literally for months to get this thing to work the way I want it to. I just have some issues with the entire system that seem like they should be so easy / obvious but aren't that way at all.
First of all, I want to have the USB port on it connected to both a printer and a networked hard drive. This is just simply not possible. It should be as simple as attaching a USB hub to the usb port and then attaching the devices you want, ie) multiple hard drives, printers whatever. NOPE!!! The E4200 does not recognize USB hubs... FAIL
Next problem is with the network sharing of a hard drive. It does share very nicely. Works well for sharing files off the connected hard drive. where it fails, is that it is not easy to be able to write files to the hard drive. I dont know if this problem is localized to Mac operating systems, (a quick google search seems to indicate that the issue is present on all systems). It shouldn't take someone who is actually quite technologically inclined months to figure out how to do something that seems like it should be as simple as changing a setting. No combination of settings through the grossly outdated user interface works.
In theory, this router looks really awesome, but in actuality, it fails to meet my expectations. If you don't need a router IMMEDIATELY, then I would say wait for now, and hopefully either linksys or another company will make a truly next-gen router with USB 3.0 support, usb hub support, simple UI, and powerful media player capabilities.
iPhone vs Android
Today i had a really great conversation with a guy about the argument between iPhone and Android. He was one of the first people I've talked to who was able to make a legitimate argument for iPhone other than, "because it's an iphone and I like the apps". His argument was that he is more involved in the jailbreak world than an average person. In fact, he was more involved in the underpinnings of what is capable through jailbreaking than even the more avid jailbreakers. He is an individual who actually has been on the Mac operating systems since '82 i believe. He has pretty much learned Unix codes and commands inside and out, and is capable of tweaking the iphone's mobile substrates much more specifically than he is capable of on android. He actually did make a very good argument (at the least for his personal use) because he is incredibly familiar with the capabilities of iOS and the processes that even I as an average jailbreaker, never would bother getting involved in. Although, my argument was as follows:
Yes, if you have prior knowledge of how to jailbreak and code and do so much with the iOS system or other Unix systems, then yes, it is possible that iPhone could be a better system for you. The problem is that if I had asked every single person that i talked to today whether they knew even knew what Unix was, I would have had maybe less than a 1% response. Most people don't have a damn clue what that does. And furthermore, jailbreaking is not easily accessible to everyone. When jailbreakme.com worked, then it was much more available to people. There were many more people who were capable of jailbreaking their devices. Now, that is not an option. This is why if you remove even the most basic level of iphone customization, (just base level jailbreaking) then the average consumer has a lot more customization right out of the box. Widgets alone are a big level of customization for the average consumer.
Now if you were to look at the "elite" tweakers of both iPhones and Androids, those who will be willing to not only jailbreak iphones but also root androids and get to the level of coding on their respective devices, then there is a lot of customization on both. Thats where the next thing comes in, since a stock android has roughly the same customizability as a jailbroken iphone, so then once you introduce the option of rooting an android device, and the fact that the hardware is so much more powerful, it gives you many more long term development capabilities. In other words, there will be more room to use the devices resources to accomplish more complex tasks, faster.
Admittedly, I wrote this post while watching a TV show so I'm quite positive that this was more of a rant than an actual comparison, its just something I wanted to talk about! Leading me to one final thought, I really REALLY want a new phone...
Voicemail on Cell Phones?
This is something I am on the fence about, voicemail on Cell Phones. With most carriers, the cost of voicemail is either separate (or is built in to the cost of the plan - because nothing is free). But I ask why can't it be free? At home, it is the function of my actual phone to record messages for my listening pleasure. On my phone, it is my carrier that records the message. Why couldn't my cellphone just do the same job as my home phone? Being all smart and everything, I know that it would be capable of it.
After thinking about it, I can understand CERTAIN scenarios where having an off-device voicemail service is beneficial:
1) Your phone is off (hence, it can't record a voicemail) - and in extension the battery is dead.
2) You are travelling, and would rather not get dinged for roaming by having the phone connect the call and record the message.
3) You like ensuring that your message won't be lost if you lose your phone.
But here I am, someone who never leaves my calling area, and needs voicemail in those "just in case" scenarios. My phone is almost always on, and ready to receive. It just seems that for me, spending that extra few dollars (which for me roughly works out to $4 per month or almost $50 per year) is wasteful, but required. Oh well. Welcome to the monopoly that is telecommunications....