Android Design

In an attempt to reign in the variety of design styles within Android applications, Google unveiled Android Design.  It’s a site that was released specifically to give developers ideas on how to make their Android Apps look and feel more integrated into the Android operating system.  The site includes design principles, an overview of UI, and many other design related resources for Android developers to take advantage of.

As expected, the Android Design site itself is quite beautiful.  Their message about design and UI concepts would probably not carry much weight if they weren’t presented with great design in mind.  It seems that the search giant is starting to see that focusing on simplicity and keeping design tasteful will help them win in the long run.  My primary complaint about Android thus far has always been that it feels too cluttered.  Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), along with design help like this, will help to alleviate that complaint and push Android even further into the market share lead.

International CES 2012

Well, it’s that time of year again.  You know…that time of year when every other tech geek blogger is usually spouting off about the next best technologies being demo’d at CES.  For anyone that doesn’t know, CES is the world’s largest consumer electronics tradeshow.  In fact, it’s epic in size.  Some 3,000 companies show up to peddle their latest tech to the masses.  And every year, the “experts” predict the next top consumer technologies from the heap of contenders.  The issue that I take with CES is that inevitably, the most hyped technologies turn out to be total duds once they hit the market.

Remember 2009?  The hot tech buzz coming out of CES 2009 was Palm’s webOS.  How’d that work out?  Oh that’s right, Palm ended up near death and got purchased by HP only to see their precious webOS get turned into an even bigger failure in the tablet market.  Another hyped product from CES 2009 was the “Netbook”.  Remember these?  I know several people who actually got one.  Cheap, low spec laptops designed with couch web surfing in mind.  The result?  Enter the tablet, exit the netbook.

How about 2010?  Well, everyone was certain that 3D television would be the next smash hit.  Cut to a couple years later and 3D television isn’t really any further along than it was then.  I’ve seen 3D television in action before and it’s kinda cool.  It probably isn’t going anywhere as a technology, but it will probably never be a true selling point.

Well, what about last year?  CES 2011 was the year of the Android Tablets!  Something like 100 different Android based tablets were splashed around in front of the cheering ocean of consumer geeks.  They were ALL going to give the Apple iPad a run for its money.  I LOVE Android tablets.  I prefer a good Android tablet to the iPad.  However, MY opinion doesn’t translate into financial success for a technology.  The masses wanted iPads.  Most of the tablets exhibited at CES 2011 never made it to the marketplace at all.

So what’s my point?  When I see every tech blog out there spraying nonsense into the ether about this technology or that technology based on reports from CES, I get frustrated.  Ultra Definition Television?  Really?  They aren’t even trying anymore.  Flying cars, robot servants, holographic video phones…The utopian technolust world of The Jetsons sadly seems like a fallacy.  Perhaps, the best we can do is get The Jetsons boxset in 3D.

iPhone 5

After expecting the iPhone 5 earlier this year and instead being presented with the iPhone 4S, a lot of people have dismissed the iPhone 5 for now.  Not us though!  We are still digging through rumors and strangely worded press releases to get the truth for you!  We have come to the conclusion that the release date for the iPhone 5 will likely be in mid 2012.  We would bet on Summer 2012.  As soon as we get more information, we will post it here!   Below are some rumors about the coming iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 Specs

If you want to know what will be in it, just look at the licensed hardware manufacturers!  A glimpse at ARM’s roadmap shows a quad-core processor planned to launch around the same time as the iPhone 5.  It will likely be called the A6.  Quad-core will be the mobile trend of 2012.

iPhone 5 Mobile Network

The iPhone 5 will most definitely be 4g LTE.  It would be the death of the iPhone if it didn’t!

iPhone 5 Form Factor

When the iPhone 5 is released, we will be seeing a completely new form factor.  It will likely be a drastic change from the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

We will continue to post updates here as we get them!

An example of the Intel 4004 chipset, world's first integrated microprocessor.

So I know I am a week late, but I thought we would be remiss here at TechRemedy if we didn’t make a post recognizing the 40th birthday of the Intel 4004, the world’s first integrated microprocessor. Without the 4004, life as we know it would be much, much different, and technology might still be living in vacuum tubes.

Those first generation 4004 processors ran at a clock speed of 108 KHz, which was then increased to 740 KHz in the production models. It used 2300 processors, and was capable of handling about 92,600 instructions per second. Intel’s newest consumer product line, the i7, has 43,000,000% more transistors than that 4004 chipset, and the i7 can handle 92 billion instructions per second.

To make this example of Moore’s Law in action a little more apparent, Intel kindly prepared an infographic (found here) which states that if today’s i7 was built using the 1971 tech, it would be the size of a conference room, and that if today’s chipsets used as much energy as there 1971 counterparts, running a laptop today would cost over $25,000 a month.

I, for one, welcome our new microprocessor overlords. Well, our 40 year microprocessor overlords. Same difference.

Check out more on the evolution of the microprocessor here and some more fun facts here.

Adobe Flash Player in the Android Marketplace

Today, Adobe announced that it is cutting Mobile Flash along with 750 jobs.

“Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices, however, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.  We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.”

- Danny Winokur, Adobe’s vice president of interactive development

I hate to say this, but Apple sure got this one right!  I never would have thought that HTML5 would kill Mobile Flash so quickly.  I’m happy with the forward progress of HTML5, but I will be sad to see Mobile Flash Player go.

The Amiga 7" Tablet

With yesterday’s post by Elizabeth Millar, I am feeling quite nostalgic!  Does anyone remember Amiga?  Remember?  They were the makers of the greatest Operating System ever.  Anyways, I had assumed that they weren’t around anymore.  Boy, was I wrong!  I came across some great news for Android lovers.  Amiga has introduced a new 7″ Android tablet for under $100!  So, what does $98 buy you these days?  Well, it’s pretty damn impressive for the price!

The new Amiga Tablet comes with a 750 MHz processor, multi-touch display, 4GB of storage, Wi-Fi, and more!  It comes with Android 2.2 (froyo) and it is capable of handling most tasks.  Amiga is also going to be offering accessories for the device including keyboards, cases, etc.

My favorite thing about Android is the ability to make affordable portable devices.  My first Android device was a 7″ Huaweii Ideos Tablet that cost around $300.  I still use it constantly.  Since then, I have become very loyal to the Android world for my portable devices.  My phone and 3/4 of my tablets are Android powered.  Do you think that a $98 Android Tablet is a good thing for the Tablet market?  Let me know in the comments!  Here’s what gave Amiga its big break back in the day:

The Greatest Operating System Ever.

trying to keep up with the latest buzz on our new girlfriend, Siri…. it turns out that she will let anyone use the voice activation feature on your new iPhone 4s, even if you password lock it.

Click on the above link to follow the steps to fix this little glitch.

iPad Mini?

There are a few rumors floating around that Apple might be planning to release an iPad Mini in 2012.  The rumors range from a smaller form-factor tablet to a tablet the same size as the iPad with a much lower price point.  To top off the rumors, suppliers have leaked information that Apple has ordered some 7.85-inch touch displays.  Well, that is interesting!  With Amazon’s announcement of the Amazon Kindle Fire, Apple might be scrambling to maintain its place at the top of tablet mountain.  One of my chief complaints about the iPad is its size.  It’s not very useful for carrying around with you.

The rumor that Apple will release an iPad with the same form-factor and cheaper hardware is also interesting.  To make something as popular as the iPad more affordable would certainly be a huge selling point.  My dream is still a completely open and unlocked Android Tablet in the 7-inch to 8-inch display size at a decent price.  The Huawei tablets come the closest to what I want, but something with Honeycomb would be great.  We will see what happens and will continue to keep our readers informed.

Kindle 6" E Ink with WiFi via Amazon.com

After years of wonderful reading with my 2nd Generation Kindle, I thought it was time to upgrade to the latest version. Why, you ask? The $79 price tag was enough to convince me to give it a go.

My first thoughts when opening the box were, “Wow, it’s so very thin and small!” Without the keyboard, this thing is tiny! I immediately went to plug it in and noticed that there was no wall plug. Not to worry, I’m a nerd and my house has USB ports in the electrical outlets. Turns out they no longer come with the power adapter, although you can purchase it for $19.99 or $9.99 if it’s on sale. Kind of lame, but heck, it keeps the price point down a bit.

Setup

As with the other Kindles, the setup is a breeze, and it walks you through each step. While going through this process I noticed how much sharper the new E Ink display is on this device. I thought it was great on my 2nd Gen Kindle, but there is really no comparison. In just a few moments, I had transferred the books from my old device.

It was during the setup that I noticed that it uses WiFi instead of the 3G Wireless that my 2nd Gen had, which didn’t require searching for WiFi hotspots and connecting to networks. It just did it all automagically. So far this isn’t a big deal as I get most of my books from the Library Website or Amazon via my desktop computer or iPad. I’ll come back and comment on this at a later date if I notice that it’s beginning to be a burden…just something to keep in mind.

Suprises

With the setup out of the way, I decided to let it sleep and fully charge. That is when I noticed my screensaver. It wasn’t Jane Austin, it wasn’t James Joyce, no, it wasn’t even those fun fishies…it was an ad! Turns out that that $79 Kindle has advertisements as the screensaver as well as a small banner on the bottom of your home screen. At first I was a bit miffed that I fell for this, so I went online to see where I went wrong. Turns out the version without “special offers” is $109. Now, $109 is still pretty a pretty darn good price, but I’ve mentioned before that I’m a cheap S.O.B., so upon learning this I reassured myself that I did the right thing. After all, that extra $30 was pretty much what I spent on my cover, so it’s all good. Honestly, I’m so desensitized to being bombarded with online ads, that it really doesn’t bother me. As long as they don’t start putting their “special offers” within the books I’m reading, I’ll be fine.

Functionality

It’s basically the same as the previous versions except it doesn’t have a keypad. Instead, if you need to use the keypad, there’s a button you press to deploy the on-screen keypad, and you use the 5-way controller to select letters. I hardly ever used the keypad, and so far, I don’t miss it. The page turning buttons are quite thin and located more on the edge of the device rather than on the front. At first this was awkward for me, but after reading a few chapters I got used to it.

Reading on it is still a little strange since it’s so thin and small, but each time I do, I notice the differences from my old Kindle less and less. I think once my cover arrives, it will give the device the sturdy feel that I’m used to.

Aesthetic

One thing I love-Love-LOVE about this new Kindle is how symmetrical it is. Instead of reading “Amazon Kindle” on the top of the device, it just says, “kindle.” Directly below it are the four buttons—back, keypad, menu, and home—with the 5-way controller separating them. The page-turning buttons are located on the sides, a forward and backward button on both the left and right sides of the device. The sleek brushed metal color is also a nice touch.

Overall

Coming from the 2nd Gen, I am very happy with this purchase. It’s smaller, lighter, and the display is wonderful. I know it’s the same 6″ display, but I swear it looks bigger on this one! Must be my pride in the new device clouding my vision. I’d say that if you already have the 3rd Gen, or “Kindle Keyboard” as it’s referred to, you won’t notice that much of a difference—aside from the omitted keyboard. If you have a 1st or 2nd Gen Kindle and are looking for something smaller and lighter to carry around, this just might be for you. There is also the Kindle Touch, but that won’t be released until November 21st. If you buy one of these devices, keep in mind they have the option of coming with or without “Special Offers.”

iPhone 4....S

Hmmm…it looks an awful lot like the iPhone 4…in fact, it looks EXACTLY like the iPhone 4!  But Apple…how are pretentious people supposed to display that they are better than all the iPhone 4 people now?  Well, suck it up suckers…you’ll have to wait for the iPhone 5 for that!  So, why did Apple do this to us?  Why did they cover our mouths in our sleep while slowly pushing a sword into our backs?  The answer is simple…marketing.

Let’s say that X number of people were planning on buying an iPhone 5. Now that the iPhone 4S is coming out first, there will certainly be Y number of people who get the 4S. And then when the iPhone 5 comes out, Z number of people will get one. The formula is simple. Y + Z > X.

DAMN YOU APPLE!  Just you wait…the lines will still be wrapped around the mall for the 4S…and then the 5….and then the iPhone 5S…and onward for the rest of our lives.  So get used to it.  Of course you could always just switch to an Android phone!

Don’t forget to circle me on Google+!

Update

Check out our iPhone 5 rumors post!