A recent project I worked on was creating the site (and underlying architecture of) http://wtad.wyomingcityschools.org .

On my own site I’m planning to have it work similarly…different pages containing different posts…however I want to have different pages display different posts. For example, have a “projects” page, and have a post about each project on the page. This allows people to comment on every page of the site, and makes it easy for me to create (IMO).

I’ll put the link up here once I decide on a domain and get the ball rolling!

The Nexus One.  Fast.  Sleek. Light.  Durable.  I purchased the Nexus one the day I could and received it two days later.  And yes, I paid $530 for it.

Upon taking it out of the box, I was immediately amazed by how thin it is.  It’s so sleek and fits in the hand so nicely.  Every edge is gracefully curved and the screen is HUGE and gorgeous.  The light up trackball is also a nice touch.  So far, I’m not digging the power button on top too much because I have to reach my index finger up, press it, then slide my thumb across the screen, whereas on my G1 I merely had to hit menu twice in a row.  It’s just a minor quirk I have, nothing too terrible.

Service on this phone is not as good as the service I got on my G1.  Especially, I think, for data.  Apparently other users are having this problem and I expect HTC/Google to fix this by sending out a radio update for the phone.  No one wants to DOWNGRADE the service their phone gets when UPGRADING their phone.

I can deal with the virtual keyboard.  The pre-installed one is decent…a little worse than the iPhone’s but not bad at all.  I also installed HTC_IME from XDA-Devs because I prefer that keyboard to the stock one.  However, as of right now, it’s not customized for the N1’s resolution, and so looks stretched/landscape is kind of messed up.  It also seems to lag for me just a tiny tiny bit.  I installed Swype tonight and let me say IT IS AMAZING.  I have a really early build but I can say I’d probably be willing to pay up to $5 for this keyboard.  When you think of just sliding your finger across the screen and not actually typing, it seems like it would be hard and not work well.  It, however, is EXTREMELY easy and VERY accurate.  I’m impressed.

This phone is FAST.  Ridiculously fast.  At one point I had around 18 apps open and it didn’t miss a beat.  I love Android 2.1, and I love having a headphone jack.  The battery life is also better than my G1’s was.  So far, it can definitely last a day.  However, I don’t ever really have 3G all day long, so maybe that would make it die faster.  But being in the same locations with both N1 and G1, the N1 gets better battery life, especially on stand-by.

I don’t know what else to say about this phone.  It’s really really really fast and the experience while using it is great.  It’s a great multi-tasker if you learn to hold the home key to get to recently used programs.  I downloaded apps from the market (Dolphin Browser and a 3rd party gallery) which add multi-touch, although I expect Cyanogen to add it (multi-touch) to the stock applications soon.  But the 3rd party apps I’m using for multi-touch use it BEAUTIFULLY – on par with the iPhone, for sure.  My last complaint is that the touch buttons on the bottom sometimes don’t register as easily as I’d like them to.  You have to hit the upper half of the button in order for it to register.What else to say about this phone?  I guess this isn’t really a full REVIEW, I’d leave you to go read Gizmodo or some other blog’s extremely hateful and biased review of the phone for that.  Engadget straight up bashed it, so don’t go there.  Apparently BGR also did not do it justice.  I read Gizmodo’s and I think it’s the least critical.  (Not that it’s UNDER-critical in any way, the other blogs are way over-critical and focus on minor things that won’t affect your experience).

So there you have it.  This is a great phone.  It’s super fast.  It’s beautiful.  Go out and buy it.  Android is just getting started.

The Nexus One does not have a physical keyboard.  I’m not sure how much this will affect me.  I find the predict/replace feature on Android’s touch screen keyboard to be better than the iPhone’s.  Typing accuracy is worse, but actually having the right word come out is better.  This could also be because the iPhone’s screen is bigger.  That brings me to another point.  Side by side of Nexus One and iPhone, the iPhone’s screen is wider.  The Nexus One’s is just taller and a little skinnier, I think.  This is bad because that means the keys are smashed together.  Besides the whole onscreen keyboard debate, I can’t think of another downside to this phone, besides money.

What do I gain?  The fastest mobile processor and tons of RAM.  This phone should still be one of the top 5 fastest phones on the market by the end of 2010.  Nothing should “surpass it” except for maybe phones that have HDMI-out or something, but I don’t want or need that.  So speed is a HUGE plus.  It’s also beautiful and sleek.  I would ruin this by being paranoid and getting a case, but it’s beautiful none the less.  Screen is brighter, bigger, better.  The camera has a flash.  3.5mm headphone jack!  That’s great!  Not to mention someone on XDA saying it has 3 times the battery life of the G1, which would be amazing.

Is speed and looks worth it?  It can’t really do anything that my phone can’t, except for play music out of a headphone jack and take pictures in the dark.  Can I justify $530 on a phone that really isn’t that much better than my G1?  I’m thinking of iPhone owners.  How many 3G users upgraded to the 3GS?  That’s basically what I would compare this to.  Kind of.  I think I can justify this.  For a couple of reasons.

I would have the best phone on the market for a while.  It’s made by Google so it will always be up-to-date (where-as the G1 is probably at the end of its updating life).  Better battery life is almost a must at this point.  Also, a skinnier phone would be nice.  But the real reason is so that I can leave my G1 in my car and have not only a usable “standalone” GPS (using CoPilot from market), but a BACKUP phone.  One to take that I wouldn’t cry if it got destroyed.  I’m thinking of when I go to Kings Island or other places where a phone could get destroyed.  Right now whenever I go to Kings Island I use my Razr V3i = PAIN.  It’s hard not having a smart phone while standing in long lines.  It’s also hard having a phone with a WORSE battery life than the G1.  So having the convenience of a backup phone?  Worth it.

So I guess I’m going to make this purchase as soon as possible (January 5th!).  It’s a great phone, “perfect” in every way (minus the keyboard).  I’ve also made a lot of money over break.  So look forward to my first impressions post when I get it.

The Nexus One.  Beauty.  This is the Android phone many have been waiting for.  Pictured left, it is the true “Google Phone”, AKA “Nexus One”.  Granted, what I’m about to say is all based on rumors, but a lot of it is probably true.  I’m going to compare this a lot to the iPhone, but that’s because that’s the only true competition this phone has.

I’ve been waiting for an Android phone with a big screen, a slim and beautiful figure, and a TRACKBALL.  Not to mention one with a good camera, SNAPDRAGON (1ghz) PROCESSOR, and probably a flash for the 5MP camera.  The big, capacitive screen is probably going to be the best, brightest, clearest, and most responsive screen on an Android device yet.  And trackballs are good for when you have gloves on.  Seriously.  I went to a couple football games recently and it was great being able to use my phone using the trackball with thin gloves on…while laughing at everyone with an iPhone who couldn’t use it with gloves.  Some people are saying that trackballs are outdated and that the capacitive pads (not sure what they’re really called) on the new Blackberries are so much better.  But then you can’t use the phone with gloves, so what’s the point!  The trackball lights up and glows, as seen in some of the YouTube videos of this phone (they are short and non-informative and some have been pulled).  I also hope the trackball sticks up above the screen.  This sounds weird, but I dropped my G1 once and it slid across concrete…face down.  This would have been disastrous if it hadn’t been for the chin / trackball of the G1.  When I get the Nexus One, I will definitely get a case, but it’s still nice to have that extra protection.

Speed.  My biggest complaint with Android vs. the iPhone has to be speed.  I have Cyanogen’s latest and it still isn’t fast at all compared to the iPhone.  Web browsing on Android is a joke for me; even when I’m on Wi-Fi, web pages load and render slow because the G1’s processor sucks so badly.  Enter the Nexus One.  It’s 1ghz Snapdragon processor will give it a faster processor THAN THE IPHONE.  It should now be able to play 3d games, multi-task, load/render web pages and data quickly, and never lag.  The increased RAM and processing power this phone has over the G1 is enough for me to cave in and buy it.  I’m also excited because it’s stunningly beautiful; more so than the iPhone, in my opinion.  The only thing I haven’t heard rumored that better be part of it is MULTITOUCH.  Web browsing on the iPhone is so damn usable mainly because of multi-touch.  It would also be awesome if it has a flash (I think it does).  Physically, this phone is amazing.  Except for one thing.

Keyboard.  I’m scared.  I’ve rarely used on-screen keyboards.  The iPhone’s is really great and responsive, but I’m still slow at it.  I know over time I would get better, but I don’t think I could ever be as fast with an on-screen keyboard as I am with a hardware one.  I leave my fingers on the keys and slide them around and push when I need to.  You can’t do this with an on-screen keyboard.  (However, a company has actually designed a program on top of Android that allows you to just slide fingers over the keys you want…it’s called Swype – http://tinyurl.com/yhlujgk).  Has anyone reading this used an on-screen keyboard and become equally efficient with one as a hardware one?  Comment.  I’m not that worried because the screen is HUGE and the processor can handle it, but it would be nice to have a hardware keyboard…even if it would add thickness.

This phone is amazing for another reason.  It’s the true Google Phone (rumor).  The Android 2.1 software loaded on this is slick.  It’s beautiful, fast, and seems to have some new UI features that haven’t been used in Android yet.  It also has new weather and news programs.  Engadget has some nice pictures – http://tinyurl.com/ya6eh6s.  Since it’s made and sold by Google (presumably), it will be the most updated Android device.  It’s being used by all Google employees who received them free last Friday – so every Google application should be made specifically for this big screen and processing power.  Not that Google would neglect other Android devices, but this is their baby.  It’s powerful, sleek, and beautiful.  And I want one.

Price.  How much will Google sell this for?  Will it be just another Dev Phone or will it be something more…will Google try to sell it unlocked directly to consumers?  Will they themselves subsidize it?  Or will it be another ridiculously expensive phone, where the only sensible way to buy it is through T-Mobile on a contract so it’s subsidized?  Here’s my opinion/hope/dream.  I want this phone to knock the cell phone market off it’s feet.  I want it to be $200.  Unlocked.  Straight from Google.  Ready for action.  Think about this.  Mobile advertising is about to pick up exponentially.  Google has AdMob…so it’s in.  They want more people on the mobile web.  If they sell this phone unlocked making no profit from the sales of the phone itself, but get this phone into the hands of a million more people, then they will make a lot of money in advertising.  A ton.  Not to mention once people get their first smartphone, they rarely go back to dumbphones.  So it would secure Google’s future of a strong mobile advertising market as well.  (Some of this I stole from a Gizmodo article, which said the phone will probably be around $200 to make.)  I’m not saying Google should take a hit and subsidize the phone themselves (that would be even more amazing though), but if they just didn’t make a profit or made a really small profit from the hardware, it could be very beneficial to them in the long run with advertising.

Release date.  Right now the rumored release date for the beautiful Nexus One in January 5th.  I hope this is true, and that they open pre-orders on Christmas and deliver it to my door on January 5th.  Sure, I’m scared about the lack of an onscreen keyboard, but that’s a small sacrifice for the speed and stability this phone will have over my current G1.  And if tons of unintelligent iPhone users can use one, I can learn.  (I’m not saying iPhone users are stupid, I’m saying there are a lot of stupid people who own iPhones that are just fine with the onscreen keyboard).  With this phone comes the true Android Version 2.  One with overly-adequate processing power.  One that can get the job done.  I want the Google Phone.

I used to use Windows backup when I had Vista.  While running, it barely slowed down my system at all.  Now when I run the backup in Windows 7, my machine literally becomes nearly unusable.  I’ve cancelled it every time it’s started because it’s too painful to sit through.  I know you’re not supposed to backup things while you’re on the computer, but I usually just have it run every Sunday whether I’m on a computer or not.

For that matter, why does Windows 7 insist on making a system image (I think that’s what it calls it) of my VISTA partition?  Why can’t you select certain partitions to make disk images of?  My Vista partition is no longer in use; I don’t care about it.  Why are you creating an image of it?

Is anyone else having this problem?  I think if anything it should be running faster than it did in Windows Vista because I’m now on a 64-bit install instead of 32-bit and thus using all 4 gb of my RAM (when before it would only use 3.5).  Microsoft really needs to fix the speed that it takes to backup files.  I don’t care if my backup takes 4 hours instead of 1.  I just want my computer to be usable when backup is running, because now I keep cancelling it and so I don’t have a backup.  I think I’m going to set it to run every Monday night at 1am and disable auto-shut down for Mondays.  Either way, this is irritating.

So I just successfully figured out how to backup and restore all Locale (THE PROGRAM) settings/preferences/profiles/etc.

TO BACKUP:
adb pull /data/data/edu.mit.locale /locale

TO RESTORE (after wipe):
adb push /locale /data/data/edu.mit.locale

Please don’t ask how to setup ADB…SEARCH XDA-Developers if you have problems with that.

I take no responsibility if this messes up your phone (but I have no idea how it would so don’t be scared…).

I can’t even begin to describe how much I am looking forward to the Cupcake Update.  For those of you that don’t know, Google/T-Mobile is releasing a MAJOR update for the Android platform (more specifically the T-Mobile G1.  This update is nicknamed “Cupcake” (because of all the goodies it will bring), and has been rumored to be released since the dawn of 2009.

Recently the image above has appeared on T-Mobile Germany’s website, stating “Software update in May, with new features:”.  This is the confirmation and release date that many people have been looking forward to!

Some of the new features include:

• Video Recording (and playback)
• On-Screen Keyboard
• Automatic portrait/landscape rotation for programs
• Bluetooth stereo headset support
• One-click Picasa/YouTube uploads.
• Also rumored are some rotation animations and some UI element changes.

The on-screen keyboard and video recording are what I’ve been looking forward to since I got the device.  This is definitely an exciting update, and I hope to do a review of it as soon as I get it!

Are you one of those people who keeps everything up-to-date on your computer?  The kind of person who never clicks “no” when asked to update certain software?  So am I.  So naturally, everything on our computers is completely up-to-date, right?  Wrong.

I installed this program thinking it might catch at max 5 programs which just never notified me that an update was available.  It found 24 UPDATES.  This blew me away.  Anyway, I took the time to download and install the updated programs and now I can say that my computer is up-to-date (mostly).

The software is really easy to use.  I think I got the portable version and so I didn’t even install it.  I opened the .exe file and it scanned the software on my computer.  It then gives you a list, and the things with the green down arrows (shown in the picture to the left) are programs which have newer versions available.

So basically.  Open, and then go through and click the green down arrows.  It will then lead you to a webpage.  Click the green down arrow on that webpage to lead you to another page, where you click that green arrow to download the .exe file of the program.  Then install like normal.

This program is so great because it gives direct download links for the new installer files.  This is a huge time saver.

Two warnings:

1. Some software (such as Nero Burning ROM) link to the TRIAL .exe, so don’t install that if you have the full version on your computer.

2. I’m not sure but it may link to some beta software.  In the case of Picasa, it tells me that I don’t have the newest Picasa, but if I open Picasa and check for updates the “official” way, it tells me no updates are available.

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