Android Dose

Let’s face it:  When it comes to buying almost anything, we look for names that we know and trust.  Most people go with brands they have experience with.  Take myself for example.  If I’m looking to buy a new Indianapolis Colts beanie (which may happen soon), I look for the officially licensed NFL logo.  Pens are the same way; I prefer a Pilot over a BIC.  Clothes, food, video games, cars…  No matter what it is we’re shopping for, we look for brand names that we have had at least a semi-good experience with.  Those brands live up to their names.  They carry a special place in our hearts when we go to look for/at their products.  The same goes for our mobile devices, and that’s where my rant begins.

Everyone has had a chance to see the newest member of the Android family tree, coming from the Samsung branch.  It’s black, has a slight curve to it, capacitive touch buttons on the bottom, full of Gingerbread, and was “unnamed” in the hands of Eric Schmidt during a sneak peak at w2o.  Unfortunately everyone knew EXACTLY what this device was:  The fabled Nexus S.  Now normally I wouldn’t put a new device down so much that it goes EMO and melts into a smoldering mass of silicon, but I have to say, “Really?”

Let’s look at the positives:  One, it runs Gingerbread.  Okay, great.   Two, it’s equipped with an NFC chip.  Big whoop.  Three, it’s got 16GB of internal storage.  Can you tell I’m trying NOT to roll my eyes here?  Good.

Now that those are done with, let’s compare and bring up the negatives.

Again, it runs Gingerbread.  Great.  Too bad ALL of the other SGS devices are STILL waiting for Froyo, with the exception of some.  Here’s the kicker:  Since the Gingerbread source droped, we’ve been seeing Gingy-flavored ROMs on all types of devices along the tree.  So my Nexus has to wait for it; it’s cool with me.  CM7 is gonna caress its naughty bits with a little spice.  And that NFC chip?  Yeah, NOT exactly something that’s going to benefit me.  Last time I checked, my Visa card and FourSquare can do the same things, together of course.  Then there’s the 16GB of internal storage…

We’ll pause right here for a “woo-sah” moment…  Breathe…

Okay, I’m good.  I’m wondering who made the decision to just off ANY SD storage at ALL and go with straight internal.  I really am.  In the end, all I’m going to say is, honestly, it’s a stupid idea.  Sure, it may be a LITTLE faster than a standard SD, but a major downside is that you can’t REPLACE that memory.  Say you want a shiny, new 32GB SD card?  OOPS!  Can’t do it.  And nandroid backups?  *HA!*

Woo-sah man, woo-sah…  I’m not getting mad or bent out of shape because of the virtual myriad of problems this device has already, and I can only IMAGINE what’s going to happen down the line when some aspiring dev or team decides to tackle this one.  Okay, so maybe I am, and I don’t own the damn thing.  What I’m really concerned with is when John Q. Coffeedrinker buys this thing, thinking he’s better than sliced bread, to find out he’s worse off than he was with his Droid 1.  And you put the Legendary (#ShamelessPlugToMe) name of “Nexus” on it?  Seriously…  REALLY?!  That’s one that you have to earn, and if Google thought HTC earned it with the N1, then the Nexus S (or 2, or U, or whatever) needs to earn it too.

Let me know what you think.  I don’t rant often, but when I do, it’s usually because of a bad design scheme.

Woo-sah…

It’s 36 degrees on the football field of Havre de Grace High School. The Varsity football teams of the Havre de Grace High School Warriors and the Bohemia Manor High School Eagles take to the field, the winner moves forward to the state championship semi-finals. The air is lung-numbing cold, but that doesn’t stop proud students, players, family and friends from missing the game. Yours truly included.

“Okay, wait. What does this have to do with Android?”

Not a damn thing. As all of our readers know by now, I usually reserve the middle of the week for my op-ed column. But not this week. This week, I dedicate my column to the BoManor Eagles, who have taken this season by storm. The virtual underdogs of their division, the Eagles have shown every team they have faced the will, determination, and overall grit it takes to win. And win they did, from full-range blowouts to variances of a few points. In fact, the Eagles had one of the best records in their division of 12-2. Amongst the leaders of the team were my two boys; the younger, a junior on Special Teams and defensive tackle who can lay a player twice his size out flat, and the older, a senior wide receiver and cornerback with hands made of glue and hydraulics for legs.

A close game throughout, late in the fourth quarter, the score is tied 34-34.  With a little more than four minutes to go, the Warriors score on a long pass into the end zone, which sailed just above my oldest sons’ fingertips.  Demoralized and disappointed, the Eagles attempted to rally back, but two interceptions on two subsequent drives sealed the deal for BoManor.  The second devastating loss of the season, the Eagles lost 40-34.

As the players marched off the field, heads hung in disappointment and sadness, the oldest, clad in red and black Under Armour, walks up to my lady, his mother, drops his gear, and wrapped his arms around her, tears streaming down his face.  He then turns to me, wrapping his arms around me, crying on my shoulder.  There are very few times that I will shed a tear, much less cry all out; this moment, this time with him at his lowest, was one of them.  I looked him in his eye after a moment and told him, “Hold your head up high son.  You played a great game, and had a great season.  I couldn’t be any more proud of you.”

And so ends another great season of football, and for my oldest, the last for his high school years.  The younger still has one more year, and we both hope that he makes the best of it.  I dedicate this article and Corona to the Bohemia Manor Eagles varsity football team.  Thanks for a great season boys.  You deserve this drink…

Great news!  AndroidDose.com and Androidfeens.com have teamed up to give you the chance to win a choice of cases!  All you need to do is give a caption to the picture posted below.  Credit for the picture goes to Clay (@htcclay) for posting to Twitter today.  This contest will end at 12:00 a.m. EST, Tuesday, November 16th, right after “Android After Dark”, at which time we will select three (3) winners.  So put your funniest thinking caps on, and give us your best caption in the comments!  We only ask that they’re clean; keep the bad ones on the back burner.

So what case can you win?  A case for the Droid X, the HTC Incredible, the HTC Aria, or the Motorola i1, provided by our friends at Androidfeens.com.  Alright already, we’ll stop with the formalities.  In the picture below, we have a police officer stopping a Dunkin’ Donuts truck and talking to the driver.  Talk about a stereotype!

UPDATE:  Well, it seems like we have our winners.  Who are they?  Here’s the list:

Justin Marden:  “Excuse me sir, i’m going to need to inspect your inventory.. to make sure there’s nothing illegal back there.”

Shannon:  “Daily quota fulfilled with single traffic stop. Local precinct chief hails officer for keeping his eyes open!”

Michael Kruback:  “Sir I think you know “how to get out of this.”

On behalf of AndroidDose and AndroidFeens, we thank you for leaving your comments and captions. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this again sometime soon!  We’ll be getting in touch with the winners shortly!

Google does what it can to hire and retain the best and the brightest minds around.  Who can blame them?  They have strategically taken over the web search niche, being favored by the elite and educated alike.  However, in this economic climate, it’s increasingly harder for companies to keep such talent.  So what’s a mega-corp like Google to do?  Give everyone a pay raise.  A 10%, across the board pay raise at that!  It’s Mountain View’s hope that such a bold move would boost morale and encourage those hard-working, ping-pong playing chaps to stick around.

Unfortunately, one person got a pink slip instead of a raise.

Late Tuesday, CEO Eric Schmidt announced the raise via an internal memo to all employees.  A copy of said memo had been received by Fortune, along with Business Insider, who initially broke the story.  Unfortunately for the leaker, Google PD not only found out who it was that leaked the memo, (s)he was also terminated.  We’re talking within hours here folks.  In a prepared statement, a spokesman said the following:

“While we don’t typically comment on internal matters, we do believe that competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company,”

What does this mean for John Q. Hamandegger who’s looking to leave the company?  Simple:  Google is willing to pay you even MORE for your talents and knowledge.  After doing some rudimentary information-gathering, I found that a lot of employees of the popular social networking site Facebook, about 15%, list Google as their former employer.  One person in this list is Lars Rasmussen, creator of Google Maps and Google Wave.  Another is Google’s former chief of sales and operations, Sheryl Sandberg, who is number 2 on the Facebook ladder, along with former Product Manager Bret Taylor, who is now the chief technology officer for Facebook.  Other notable figures include YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley, and AdMob co-founder Omar Hamoui.

However you look at it, you have to give it to Google.  In an era where businesses would rather cut salaries or lay-off a slew of staff, Google decides to invest in its talent from within.  Be warned, however; it’s best to tell your family about a big raise, and not the world.

Source:  CNNmoney.com

I want to tell everyone something that may be common knowledge, and it may not:  I like sweets.  In some cases I LOVE sweets.  Ben and Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” ice cream, Dunkin’ Donuts’ Boston Creme’s, various flavors of pies and cookies, the list goes on.  In fact, as I look over that last line, my mouth waters for English Toffee.  To say I couldn’t get enough of them would be a partial understatement; no one likes a stomach ache.  I’ll even say that sweets and desserts are one of my umpteen food groups, next to (nearly) anything deep-fried, baked, broiled or boiled.

“Oh-kay…  Now that we know you have a sweet tooth, where are you going with this?”

As everyone knows, there’s a rumor flying around that the wacky bakers in Mountain View are supposed to be serving up some Gingerbread for the Nexus One, supposedly today in fact.  Now I won’t lie, I’ve been trolling the Web, looking for some sign that the tweet posted by Alvaro Fuentes (@kron0x) of the OHA has some truth to it.  I’ve even entertained the idea of flashing my Nexus One back to stock, just in the hope that I would receive such a phantom update.  Keyword: entertained, because CyanogenMod 6 still graces her naughty bits.  Still, all of the possibilities that have been floating around about “Gingerbread-this” and “Gingerbread-that” got me to thinking: . o O (Is Google fattening us loyalists up for the kill?)

Side note:  Feel free to comment on my thought-bubble.  You can only do so much with text.

Let’s take a quick look-see.  Unlike HTC, who has NO base for their random hardware code-names (although “Passion” seems to fit the Nexus One to a T), Google has taken akin to using pastries and other sugary goodness to name their releases.  Now as far as this man on the street knows, we have Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, FroYo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb, with Ice Cream even being thrown around in some circles.  Notice the similarities; these are not just yummy desserts and pastries, they’re also alphabetically correct.  And therein lies my concern.  What happens when they get to the letter Z?  Notice how I didn’t say the word “if”; at this rate, Google will hit the letter Z.  But what happens AFTER that?

Do I think that Google will give up the goat once they run out of letters?  Absolutely not.  In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Google places the source code for each release in a time capsule, to be dug up 150 years later and revamped by those smarter than we.  However, I do worry that there’s only so many pies a bakery can have for sale, and once they’re gone, a lot of users are going to have a sour taste in their mouths.

To be fair, I found a dessert that actually begins with the letter Z.  Who’s hungry for Zeppoli?  I’m not, but it sounds like Ben & Jerry are whispering in my ear…