..and the world laughs with you

First things first, the new FlyLo album, Cosmogramma is awesome.  Second off, as usual, appypolly loggy for non-updates...we recently participated in the launch of a major new clinical system at work (end of November) and I personally have been very engaged working in that.  Additionally, I was recently promoted from a role as system administrator on our team, to being the system engineering manager (or team lead for development and sysadmins), so that's been keeping me occupied also.  Under the normal guise of insomnia, I felt compelled to share my latest thoughts with the world.

Phones (the end of the saga, I promise)

Looking back, I have a lot of angsty phone entries...probably most of my 2009 drivel was about them.  I tweeted back in January, but I managed to squeeze my way out of the Sprint contract due to them upping some fees on me.  A week later I was back on big red VZW rocking a newly supported BlackBerry Tour.  Sadly, less than a month later I find out that the vaunted BES is going away (!) and being replaced by NES.  Having had them recommend that I get a Tour weeks earlier (while knowing well in advance about the pending change to NES), I felt burned.  Despite the best keyboard ever, there is no point in owning a BlackBerry w/o BES IMHO.  If you are using NES, get a phone that doesn't suck w/ apps, WiFi, Webkit browser, etc.  NES is not as good as BES (not real-time, but a 5-min push for email...no enterprise LDAP contact search, etc.) and it is actually a stand-alone app on Android (which is cool IMHO).  With the pending release of the Incredible, I waited.

Finally last Tuesday, I got my Incredible, and so far I am loving it.  Now that I've had a week, here are my thoughts on Android and the Incredible:

Love:

• Lack of corporate email: means less interruptions at home
• Apps are super
• Android Marketplace: lots of great apps
• 3rd-party apps: able to install stuff outside of the Marketplace
• Apps can hook DEEP into the OS to do crazy stuff like enable tethering, replace the on-screen keyboard, etc.
• Deep Google Voice integration
• Flash in my browser.
• Speech-to-text for EVERY FIELD EVER...seriously, the Google implementation destroys Nuance Dragon ... ON MY PHONE (lol)
• Pretend-multitasking that is good-enough, w/ user-controllable services
• able to do crazy SSH tunnels, etc.
• able to kill/control any process transparently
• Device mounts as mass storage w/ 8GB of local storage AND separate mount point of microSD card...this is very convenient
• Easy to type most goofy characters/symbols
• Very intelligent/not painful keyboard autocorrect
• Great camera, fast and adjustable
• Expose-esque nature of Sense UI
• HTC widgets destroy stock Androids widgets
• Sense supports basic, global notification profiles (vibrate, silent, noisey)...this was a major fear I had, having looked at Nexus One and Droid, coming from the *extreme* power of BlackBerry profiles
• Sense integration (but w/ nice, clean, logical filters) merges Facebook, Twitter, Google contacts, etc. into one giant pool.
• Did I mention that Sense UI rocks?
• The phone is damn fast: I can barely tell the difference between 3G and WiFi for most basic browsing tasks and downloads, plus the UI is super-responsive and web browser rarely chunks up.

Hate:

• Lack of corporate email: totally disconnected during the day when not at my desk...very weird feeling of being out of the loop
• Lack of corporate calendar: almost a deal-breaker, but I'll survive
• Google Talk app irritates me a lot
• idles me to orange...I prefer always being green or red...I don't like the information leak of "Mark hasn't used the app for >= 15 min"
• can't read long status messages or click links from status messages
• landscape mode consumes full screen w/ keyboard when typing, so you have to close keyboard before sending to make sure your messages makes sense if they chatted w/ you while you were typing
• Twidroid widgets all suck (yes, also the "pro" ones), but it is the only Twitter app w/ name autocompletion, so I am running like 3x twitter apps at once (HTC FriendStream, HTC Twitter, Twidroid)
• Inability to rotate in many apps and OS...and even when rotation works it only works in 2 modes: upright and -90°.  This means if I want to chat in landscape mode (easier to type), I need to hold the phone goofy to avoid the volume rocker and it's not possible to set it on desk while charging to just observe the display
• AMOLED doesn't work well outside

I really thought I would miss the physical BlackBerry keyboard, but so far, I am really loving the Android.  Being able to do stuff all the cool iPhone kids could do for a while (barcode scanning w/ Google Products or Amazon, Augmented Reality browsers like Layar and Google Goggles, online banking w/ ability to photo-deposit checks in real-time) is really nice.

iPad Wi-Fi+3G

I originally was strongly opposed, labeling it the next Apple TV.  However, after seeing my roommates joojoo IRL (yes, he was one of the "lucky" 60), I am pretty confident that the only possibilities for competition in this form factor have several not-yet-met requirements:

• Display: aside from the Notion Ink Adam, no one has shown off anything as gorgeous as the IPS/LED unit Apple is rocking.  This is fundamental, especially if they want to compete w/ the Kindle/Nook world
• Battery: sorry, x86 can't hack it in low-power, so it will need to be an ARM-based machine that can handle >8 hours...netbook battery life w/ less functionality isn't a tenable position for a tablet.  This also excludes Win7 (nothing of value lost), but just to be clear about Win7...
• OS: aka UI + Apps...Android is the only possibility of competition w/ iPhone OS, so any of the custom Linux derivatives or Win7 devices aren't going to hack it.  Multitouch needs to be a design foundation, not just an input method and a few demo apps.  The Apple consistency is incredible and the wide array of apps is what pushes the iPad from niche toy to versatile necessity and netbook killer.  Even stock Android sucks, only HTC's Sense has covered the gaps and only the Android Marketplace can compete here.  I have high hopes for WebOS now that they have HP backing them, but the small app market is a major limitation at this exact moment.

What I hate:

• Lack of multi-tasking (shocker)...also means no cool app co-operation (the way you can set up an SSH tunnel w/ Connectbot on Android, then use the web browser or VNC or RDP app).
• Flash (sorry, not that I'm a fan, but some websites are useless w/o it).
• Lack of hover capability on websites (unreasonable to expect people to update ancient designs and the hover meme for navigation/help is quite widely perpetuated).
• Inconsistency in Safari behavior when switching windows (sometimes a page reloads, sometimes not...this can hose things like phpmyadmin).
• Keyboard autocorrect is great when texting or emailing like a normal human, but trying to write SQL in phpmyadmin is an exercise in masochism.
• Lack of number keys on default keyboard is bad, and lack of ease-to-get-to symbols make sentences like this one (with parens, dashes, /s) painful to type quickly
• Sometimes on larger wifi-networks (e.g. at the hospital) it re-prompts for WEP key when you re-connect (presumably to a new physical AP sharing the same SSID, etc.)...for the hospital network I can remember the key, but for larger WPA or non-human-readable keys, this is INSANELY painful.
• Transitional period for apps: Not every app is taking advantage of the ability to use the so-called "USB file sync" basic file management component of iTunes, so some apps want you to install a WiFi server on a PC to share files.  This is lame.  Also, apps can't share that pool of data (so if I want to test 3-4 comic readers, I need to upload my comics 3-4 times, once per app).  Additionally, most music apps can't seem to access the iTunes library yet (even though some like SoundHound can).  Also, not all apps have gone/plan-to-go universal, which just makes it annoying to manually uninstall the iPhone/iPod touch version from the iPad.
• iTunes tethering for sync: this is a hellacious limitation...imagine if you had to do the same thing w/ a netbook...even on the ipod touch this is close to ridiculous (it makes marginal sense for the tiny-screened, fewer buttoned ipods), but for the iPad it is straight-up offensive.  You can't even queue up file loads w/o the device plugged in.  They should just switch to allocating some space for mass storage so apps can share and add a file manager app.
• In line with that, I still can't believe I need to launch iCal, hit refresh, then plug-in my iPad, and click "sync" for it to update calendar event on a Google Calendar.  That is actually more painful than using Google Calendar by launching the turd of a browser that the BlackBerry has and logging into the mobile app (which I did to avoid groupwise conflics when on BES).
• My corporate IT group only supports NotifyLink on iPhone, WinMo, and BlackBerry...so no corporate hook-up...similarly, our webmail app (Groupwise 8) doesn't work in "full" mode (browser crash or unable to open messages) and the "light" mode is so gimped it isn't even worth using.  Also, our VPN is not supported by iPhone OS (yet...I think it works in 4).
• VGA dongle requires individual apps to be programmed to use it as a separate output, no OS-level mirroring option (LAME)...the lack of support is a big disappointment, and I don't expect lots of 3rd-party devs to add this feature...I think the VGA dongle will never take off as a result

What I love:

• Apps...I will have a whole subsection on what I use it for, but suffice to say even the early apps leave mind=blown
• Functionally infinite battery: I seriously started using it at 7:30am in a meeting and it lasted until I went to bed at 10:30pm (still at 8%)...this includes far heavier use than when I had a laptop (due to being easier to carry/quicker to fire up...yes even w/ my X25-M G2) and running the screen in torch mode and flipping on 3G a few times.
• Typing in landscape mode is magical, like how I imagine Star Trek.  Portrait mode is like texting, and my hands are barely big enough to do it uncomfortably...I would imagine people with smaller hands probably just hate it.  I originally expected to haul a bluetooth keyboard everywhere, but this is not going to happen.
• Rotation works in pretty much every 3rd party app and native app perfectly (finally!)
• Ability to read comics: paper is inconvenient and expensive, and IrfanView on a PC (my previous solution) required a monitor reconfiguration and uncomfortable sitting at a desk to read for hours). I cranked through Scott Pilgrim over the weekend, and I loved it.  Despite the BS regarding the best reader (Mobi Comic Reader was banned for violating dev agreement, screwing people like me who didn't buy apps before hardware and waited on 3G, and also existing customers who now can't get updates or re-download if their PC gets hosed), even mediocre readers like Comic Zeal or CloudReaders work well-enough.
• Potential hardware greatness
• Speaking of hardware, the GPS is the fastest/most accurate I've ever personally used, far faster than the Dash Express I had and more accurate than the BlackBerry Tour I gave up
• AT&T 3G in Baltimore is totally acceptable.  It is a bummer that YouTube defaults to 1997 RealVideo mode, but web browsing and maps are snappy.  Cheap data ($30/mo, unlimited, no-contract) was one of my 3 reasons for buying (data, GPS, battery) and Verizon can't compete ($60/mo, 5GB/mo, 2-year contract): yes, The Network is faster, but not double-the-price-indentured-servitude faster.
• Did I mention the apps?  This thing can replace literally thousands of dollars of hardware.

Music Apps:

• Beatwave (free): equivalent to the Yamaha Tenori-on ($1000)
• TouchOSC ($5): an infinitely configurable OSC controller, equivalent to the JazzMutant Lemur ($2000).  Able to replace any number of control surfaces like the Akai APC40 Ableton controller ($400), the Korg Kaoss Pad ($400), etc.
TouchOSC / Ableton Live from max Min on Vimeo.
• Hex OSC Full ($16): a harmonic table OSC keyboard, equivalent to the C-Thru AXiS-64 ($2000)
• Korg iELECTRIBE ($10): drum machine, manufacturer-made software version of the Korg Electribe ($500), lacks MIDI 

So yeah, for $31 in apps (and $700 in up front hardware cost), I get about $6300 of specialty-hardware functionality.  Pretty sick, considering the $700 investment was likely worth it sans music apps, so this is just like icing on the cake.

Music apps in the wishlist:

• AC-7 Pro ($10): mixing/automation/transport controller, equivalent to Mackie Control Universal Pro ($1300)
• ELECTRIFY ($15): sample-based groovebox, equivalent to something like the Akai MPC500 ($600) or Roland SP-808.
• bleepBOX! ($15) is similar
• chipPad ($5): more of a tracker-like solution 
• Reforge ($5): wave editor, like a light-weight version of Audacity or SoundBooth
• Studio Track ($40): more of a 4-track replacement than wave editor, but reviews say it crashes a lot
• Sonorasaurus Rex ($15): DJ software, waiting for it to support iTunes library directly, but wondering how monitoring, stereo, etc work...
• DiddyMidiDJ ($5): DJ control surface using OSC for Traktor
• Sound Scope Space ($5): synth app, but it lacks MIDI/OSC AFAIK

I'll do another post w/o other apps later.  Time for work.