I love my XM Satellite Radio. I got it for Father's Day three or four years ago, and I can't imagine not having it. I only listen to a few stations regularly - but I have those stations wherever I go and I love that. For its size, Atlanta has a shortage of good Sports Talk radio, which is what I listen to primarily. With my XM I can tune into ESPN anytime I like, as well as classical or anything else when the mood strikes me.
As far as music goes though, I find XM extremely limited. It may seem ridiculous to say that about a service that has over 130 channels, but it's true. There is the old joke about cable tv - 100 channels and nothing good on - that applies to XM as well. Within about a year I had a become familiar with the play lists on most of the stations, at least those I would listen to in the first place. When you factor in personal taste, there are maybe 30 music stations on XM that I would want to listen to. I guess I've gotten old because Pop music sounds like total crap to me now. The Classic Rock offering on XM is very limited, and the Alternative stations are about the same. Call me naive, but I didn't expect XM to have playlists - I figured sooner or later I'd hear a bit of everything. Not so much.
Then I discovered Pandora. I know, I'm a bit late to the party on this one - but don't the coolest people always arrive last? Pandora is a super concept - listen to music, give it a thumb's up, thumb's down, or no rating and the magic behind the curtain will learn from your likes and dislikes. Pandora will continue to funnel you new music that you may also like based on your feedback. The amazing thing is, it works - really, really well. Pandora suggested to me what may be my new favorite band: the Black Keys. They've been around for maybe a decade, but I hadn't heard of them. There are numerous other songs and bands that I would've never heard that Pandora has introduced me to, and I love listening to my custom station when I get the chance. It is called McDeadagain Eclectic for anyone who might care to have a listen.
So I had a great internet app for music and xm in my car for Sports Talk radio, but this was a bit limiting. Sometimes I wanted to listen to Pandora in the car and other times I wanted ESPN while working. Furthermore, I was maintaining a second subscription to XM for my wife's car which I only used maybe once or twice a month.
Now that I have a reliable phone (the Droid Razr) on the most reliable network (say what you want about Verizon Wireless, their 4G LTE network is fantastic) I have a solution that will allow me to listen to what I want, where I want, anytime AND save me around $100 a year.
First I cancelled both of my radio subscriptions with XM and signed up for an internet-only subscription. The customer service rep gave me a year's subscription for $91 - that's just about $7.50 a month and includes more stations then my traditional subscription did. Your mileage may vary, but the rep I worked with was extremely accommodating.
Next I installed the Pandora and SiriusXM applications from the Android Market onto my Razr. Harder to find was a good car dock application. In another case of a company making a very, very dumb decision, Motorola apparently left a means to access the standard car dock mode directly off the Razr, electing instead to make this launch automatically WITH the Motorola brand Razr car dock. This is a very poor decision on their part. I did find a free app that would launch the standard car dock mode, but it is extremely inflexible. It only allows for one application shortcut to be added, otherwise you get what they give you. How un-android!
Luckily there are a lot of car-dock apps available in the android market. After some research I've decided to pilot Car Dock Home v3 for awhile. It's not pretty, but it's extremely flexible and simple to configure - which is good enough for me. I'll always take function over form. This app launches a blank layout and allows me to customize seven home screens with up to six large icons each. Now I have Bluetooth, navigation, Xm, Pandora, and phone dialer apps all right on my home screen along with an option to exit car mode. The orientation rotates automatically with the phone. Too bad the stock car mode doesn't work this well.
Now with my phone all set up and ready I just needed a way to listen to it in my car. That's right, I don't have Bluetooth in my car! I drive a ten year old Oldsmobile Alero - it's a classic. Luckily I had a friend point me towards a Bluetooth FM modulator. After a quick search on amazon.com I found a gizmo that seems a bit too good to be true. The Gogroove FlexSMART X2 is a pretty cool gadget. You plug it into your cigarette lighter and pair it to your phone via Bluetooth. It will auto-search for the clearest FM channel, then you tune your car stereo to that channel. It has play and fwd buttons that will work with Pandora (and also reverse in case you are playing mp3s). It has a built-in hands free function for calls and according to the reviews the sound is great both for music and calls. I'll know for myself soon - it will arrive today. If this wasn't enough, it also comes with three cables you might need and includes a usb charging port (suprisingly, many of these devices have usb for data, but not charging).
It's also worth mentioning I found a great universal car mount. It cost only $15 and works great, I just about any phone made should fit well in this.
So I went from paying for two XM radio subscriptions and having limited access to the media that I want, to paying about 70% less to have everything I want in the palm of my hand. I love technology!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Mechanical Keyboard:Believe the Hype
If you don't like romances you might just want to skip this one, because I'm in love with my mechanical keyboard.
There's not really a lot more I can actually say about my new Ducky DK9008G2-B. I've already described the features in my previous article. The truth is you just have to type on this keyboard to really understand the difference. I think I end up finding longer ways to say things just so I can type a few more words. Seriously - it's that good.
The Cherry MX Brown switches are as-advertised. They require just the right amount of force to push down so that I'm not working too hard but they have nice resistance. After each keystroke they pop back up ready to go to work again.
The board itself appears solid and quality-built in every way. It is NOT flashy and I'm glad. My advice to anyone in the market for a mechanical keyboard is function over form. Get a standard board built well and I don't think you'll regret it.
In fact, I liked my first Ducky so well, I bought another, less expensive model for work. This model, the Ducky DK1087-B uses the same Cherry Brown switches and appears to be of the same build quality as the 9008 series, but has no ten key pad. This is fine for me, and in fact I may use this board for gaming as I don't need the ten key pad much, if ever, on that computer. This board was about $40 less than the first one I got so while it's not cheap at $98, it's still 30% less than the other model.
Both keyboards can be found on amazon.com and at this point they get my recommendation.
Finding Value in Google Voice
I've had a Google Voice number for a few years now; as soon as I heard about it I signed up and waited patiently for my invitation. However, as feature-rich as the service is, I never did switch over to using it as my primary number for a couple of reasons.
First of all, when I started using Google Voice I had issues with call quality. It reminded me of the initial VOIP services (I was an early adopter of that too) in that it was plagued with static and some echo issues. I use my phone a lot for business and it wasn't of a quality I could rely on.
Even if the call quality had been excellent - and at this point it may well be - I still couldn't use Google Voice as my primary number because of my plan minutes. I believe every major carrier offers free mobile to mobile to other callers on the same network - Sprint even offers free mobile calls to ANY other mobile number. However, when you use Google Voice your call is routed through a Google Voice number and this means that every minute of every call you make counts against your plan minutes during daytime hours. I've always tried to keep my minutes as low as possible to save on my monthly fee so this isn't something I'm willing to overlook.
Here's a description of how Google Voice makes a domestic call for you straight from the Help section of the site:
Each time you place a call, instead of dialing the number you want to reach, Google Voice dials a US-based direct access number. The Google Voice server then forwards your call to the actual destination number. This allows for faster call setup and the ability to place calls without a data connection. These direct access numbers may show in your phone's call log, or on your phone bill.Searching the internet a bit you can find some creative attempts to 'game' the system by adding the Google Voice numbers to your friends and family plan and forwarding calls, but it was a bit more than I was willing to go through and I never had a high level of confidence in any of the methods outlined.
A unique direct access phone number is assigned to each person that you call. The direct access numbers are stored in the Google Voice application, not in your Contacts. They can be purged from your phone at any time by signing out of the Google Voice app.
Note: Direct access numbers are assigned randomly, and may include numbers that are out of your local calling area, or even out of state. If you don't have a nationwide calling plan, you may be charged long distance rates by your carrier.
However Google Voice and Google Voice Lite do offer at least one great feature that I've cannot now live without: visual voicemail.
Nothing used to drive me nuts more than sitting through one voicemail after another on Verizon, who wouldn't let you delete a message until you'd heard the entire thing (and of course you were using minutes while listening). In fact, I don't want to listen through my voicemails at all - most of the time I just call the person back if I want to speak with them or ignore them if I don't. In other words, I think some genius designed visual voicemail specifically for me.
Problem is, Verizon wants to charge $3 a month for this feature. This is so absurd I'm not even going to go into it - suffice it to say as much as I love visual voicemail I'm not paying extra for it - our wireless bill is already north of $200 a month.
This is where Google Voice rides in on a white steed to save the day. With my Android phone (the Droid Razr) I can simply configure Google Voice to be my voicemail for my existing number. I don't have to give anyone my Google Voice number and they have no idea it routed to my Google Voice voicemail. Unbelievable. I have no idea how this works but I think it's cool as hell. It's highly configurable and works great. I can choose to get a status bar notification, email, and/or text when you miss a call or receive a new voicemail. Additionally, I have a Google Voice extension in my browser (Chrome) to alert me if I have any new messages or missed calls. Furthermore I can send text messages if the mood strikes me - and let's not forget the website has all these features and more.
The only glitch I encountered - and I set this up on three different phones - was the final step in the process of setting up Google Voice on the phone. It just sat there working for minutes, I don't know how long it took to finish the process but it happened all three times. Nonetheless all phones have Google Voice up and running as voicemail so don't worry if you experience this glitch.
I should also add Google Voice gives tremendously flexibility for voicemail messages, you can sort your contacts into groups and have a different greeting for each group, for instance. I won't go into all the features but it's got everything I could imagine.
We set up my wife on Google Voice Lite. As the name implies, this is a limited feature version which doesn't actually provide her with a Google Voice number. It simply sets up voicemail for her, and she also uses it to make international calls at competitive rates. Because we use Android phones, she can direct dial internationally and Google Voice will automatically be used to make the call. For anyone else you have to do a little extra work by calling your own personal access number and then the international number you want to call. Cost is handled by buying credits on the Google Voice account and these can be automatically reloaded at a level you determine, or you can manually pay as you go.
Google Voice has a great feature set and is the best visual voicemail I've used - and best of all it's free. If you're interested it's now open to anyone, you can get on board here.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Quick Update on the Droid Razr
After my full review on the Droid Razr I realized that I wrote a lot of fairly negative (mostly nitpicky) stuff about the phone but then said I really like it. I wanted to just add a quick summary of my thoughts, forgetting all the in-depth tech mumbo-jumbo. With that said, here's the Cliff's Notes:
Sometimes when I'm reading reviews about the Droid Razr I wonder if there are two different phones out there by the same name. I love the darn thing.
No phone is perfect for all people, and thankfully there are a lot of great options out there for consumers to choose from. Having said that, I got Razr's for my wife and myself, and my coworker has one and we are all very happy with them.
I've heard complaints about the screen, but it looks great to me. The colors may be a bit over-saturated but I'm not studying the darn pixels, I'm browsing the web or watching a youtube video or using tweetdeck or - heaven forbid - making a call! Screen looks great as far as I'm concerned.
This phone is FAST. It's fast at everything. Seriously. Sometimes it feels like the phone is reading my mind. Navigation, email, calendar, voicemail, web, everything is just lickety-split. The hardware and the LTE network combine for a great experience.
I love the profile. The phone looks sleek and modern, yet feels durable. Even in my Otterbox case it still feels slim.
Battery life has been great. I set up Smart Actions for shutting services down at night, etc. and I'm getting a full 24 hours on one charge for an average day - maybe 10-12 hours under heavy usage. Full charge in the morning gets me through the day. Yeah, I can't take the battery out, but I've never done that with a phone so it doesn't bother me a bit.
I guess people have gotten to a point where they are really interested in scrutinizing every little thing about today's smartphones, and that's fine. Bottom line to me though this is right up there with the best smartphones on the market.
Sometimes when I'm reading reviews about the Droid Razr I wonder if there are two different phones out there by the same name. I love the darn thing.
No phone is perfect for all people, and thankfully there are a lot of great options out there for consumers to choose from. Having said that, I got Razr's for my wife and myself, and my coworker has one and we are all very happy with them.
I've heard complaints about the screen, but it looks great to me. The colors may be a bit over-saturated but I'm not studying the darn pixels, I'm browsing the web or watching a youtube video or using tweetdeck or - heaven forbid - making a call! Screen looks great as far as I'm concerned.
This phone is FAST. It's fast at everything. Seriously. Sometimes it feels like the phone is reading my mind. Navigation, email, calendar, voicemail, web, everything is just lickety-split. The hardware and the LTE network combine for a great experience.
I love the profile. The phone looks sleek and modern, yet feels durable. Even in my Otterbox case it still feels slim.
Battery life has been great. I set up Smart Actions for shutting services down at night, etc. and I'm getting a full 24 hours on one charge for an average day - maybe 10-12 hours under heavy usage. Full charge in the morning gets me through the day. Yeah, I can't take the battery out, but I've never done that with a phone so it doesn't bother me a bit.
I guess people have gotten to a point where they are really interested in scrutinizing every little thing about today's smartphones, and that's fine. Bottom line to me though this is right up there with the best smartphones on the market.
Friday, December 2, 2011
A week with the Droid Razr
I've had the Droid Razr for a full week now so I think that's enough time to share my thoughts. I don't like reviews written a day or two after someone has started using a device - that's just not enough time to get an accurate impression.
Initially I fully intended to wait for the Galaxy Nexus; as I use the Razr I'm constantly comparing it to what I hear about the Nexus. I did like the Razr very much and when Amazon offered the phone at one penny for new activations (we switched to Verizon from Sprint) I went ahead. AmazonWireless has the best deals on smart phones I've found, and I have 30 days to exchange the phone for another model if I'm not happy with it so I had nothing to lose by 'test-driving' the Razr.
Now on to the phone!
From the packaging to the power cable to the Razr hardware itself, everything feels sleek and durable. I'm not going to pretend I'm an engineer, but the impression is that this device is constructed of the highest quality materials and it gives me a feeling that I'll never have to worry about hardware problems. As light as it is, the Razr still feels tough as nails.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think this phone is 'sexy' - if that's possible for a bit of plastic, glass, and metal. I love the design. It is a bit wide, and I find that I've adjusted the way I hold the phone slightly to compensate. I'm a male with medium to smaller hands and my wife is tiny and I've heard no complaints from her, but if you're considering this phone you might want to test drive it in the store before ordering.
In order to make the phone as thin as it is Motorola made the phone wider and longer than the screen relative to most phones we're seeing now where the bezel is very close to the screen edge. I don't find this to be an issue and the appearance is quite 'normal' looking. The phone does have the four Android buttons (capacitive touch) on the bottom for Menu, Home, Back, and Search. This has been the standard for all Android phones but will go the way of the Dodo with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android OS 4.0), where these options are part of the OS. Personally, I like having the static buttons on the bottom of the phone.
Additionally, the phone is thicker just at the top, where Motorola chose to put the headphone jack, rear camera and the micro-usb and hdmi ports. This actually helps me to pull the phone out of my pocket so I like it. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side as you look down at the face of the phone, and there is a flip door on the left for the sim and microsd cards.
In case you aren't familiar with them, here are a list of the more important specs (credit to hexus.net) on the phone:
I was surprised to find that only 3 GB of the onboard memory is available for applications. It's a lot more than I had on my previous phone, the HTC Evo 4g, but I expected that the entire 16GB of onboard memory would be available - aside from the portion needed to run the Android OS, of course. It is possible to move portions of many applications to the sd card to save space but this is cumbersome and I've had it cause problems with widgets for applications - they don't seem to work when the application is moved to the sd card.
Eventually I stopped admiring my phone and actually turned it on and started using it. The phone is fully charged rapidly, the first time it took 3 hours and since then I think it's been under 2 hours from 10% to fully charged. When powering on the device for the first time I was walked through the setup wizard which I was familiar with having come from another android phone. My previous phone used HTC's Sense interface and the Razr has the Motorola (don't call me Blur) interface. I honestly don't know what they're calling it now, so I'll just call it the MotoUI.
Generally speaking, I don't like the MotoUI as much as Sense. It's not bad, it just doesn't feel quite as intuitive. The Sense interface is bright and attractive, well known for the oversized clock and weather widget on the home screen. The Razr has nothing like this and thought it's not a functional issue, I miss it.
Instead, the Razr's interface keeps with the 'Droid' theme - it's a bit dark and robotic. Even the default text notification sound is a robotic voice saying 'droid.' Frankly I think going this direction limits the market for this phone. Though I know two women who own it, I certainly don't think the theme is one that would attract female customers. Then again, I've never known much about women. That's another blog though.
What Motorola has done well is provide some platforms to bring together various social media and text applications. There is a messaging inbox that has links to both individual text and chat applications and also a universal inbox with them all aggregated into one feed. There is a similar aggregation for social media applications.
Another welcome application from Motorola is the Smart Actions they've included. This fantastic app provides an amazingly powerful and flexible means to automatically manage your phone. You make use of triggers like time and location to launch apps, turn off your ringer, disable the wifi radio, and more. The options are nearly endless and it works great. Not only is Smart Actions functional, it also can increase the battery life significantly by intelligently turning off features when you don't need them - i.e. background data, wifi, and gps can be disabled overnight, then set to turn on at a certain time OR when the phone is moved. Pretty slick stuff.
Speaking of battery life - at first I would say the battery life was OK. Better than my old phone, but I wasn't getting a full day out of a charge like I had hoped and expected. I found that the Android OS was using up the greatest percentage of my battery, whereas my friend with a Bionic had that as the third greatest drain behind the display and sleep mode. He was getting a solid day out of his battery, so I did a little investigating to see if I could figure out what might be draining mine.
What I found really surprised me. Fortunately, some enterprising person with a great deal more patience and technical know-how then I have did extensive research on the subject for all of us. I recommend anyone with an android phone read the entire post here, but the takeaway is that widgets can really kill the battery life. I've removed all of mine. I can certainly add them back one at a time until one of them starts to drain the battery and then I'll know who the culprit is, but it just isn't that important to me. Android is great about notifications and otherwise I use shortcuts to apps which works fine for me. So now I have very frequent data polling, push email, live wallpaper, and I can use my phone regularly and get over 24 hours on a charge. I think with heavy use it will still get me through a work day, unless I'm using the phone as a mobile hotspot of course. Bottom line - I'm very happy with the battery life as far as the hardware is concerned, Android has some work left to do from an OS perspective (or maybe it's the fault of the widget developers, hard for me to say).
The Razr touchscreen is a dream come true. Everything with this phone is just instantaneous - sometimes it feels like the Droid is a step ahead of me. The sensitivity is perfect, and I just love it. Apps appear instantly. I can individually clear items from the notification window-shade. I'm probably gushing, because it's just truly fantastic.
I have five home screens to customize, and apps or widgets (if you still care about those after reading above) can be added from the Menu button or a long press on the screen or from a long press on the app in the Apps list. The latter is now one page long and scrolls page by page to the right. All very smart and good improvements. There are four software buttons that remain static on each home page and these too are customizable - again very smart. One of the things I love about Android is the ability to make it fit my needs.
One problem I've had is with the Calender. I have one google account for personal use and one for work. The calendar synced fine for my personal account but none of my existing calendar entries appeared for my work account. New entries appear fine, and I didn't have enough old ones that it was a big problem for me, so I didn't spend any time trying to fix this, but it could really be a problem for some people if they had the same bug.
Additionally, I wasn't able to login to the My Verizon app to check my data usage, etc. but after 24 hours that started working.
Without a doubt, the biggest unsolved problem has to do with the mobile hotspot feature. One of my laptops can connect to the phone's hotspot but doesn't get an ip address. My other laptop connects and gets an ip address but can't go to any https site. There are many users with this issue and it's been reported and discussed on the Motorola forums. I don't know if the problem is Verizon's or Motorola's, but this needs to be fixed pronto, especially with what they charge for this feature (an additional $20 a month with 2GB extra data).
As with almost every phone on every carrier, Verizon has felt it necessary to put maybe half a dozen apps on the phone that I don't use, don't want, and cannot uninstall. They are not intrusive but it drives me nuts - when will carriers and computer manufacturers stop doing this?
All in all, I love this phone. It's sleek, wicked fast, has a nice looking screen (I don't understand the complaints I've read, it looks great to me), plenty of memory and for the most part it works great. I expect some issues with any new phone, and the Droid Razr has exceeded my expectations in this area. Neither my wife nor my friend have had any issues with theirs either. Oh, and since it's a phone, I guess I should mention that call quality is fine. Not great, but not bad. Since it's Verizon I haven't had an issue connecting or hearing anyone, and the entire time I've had the phone it's had a 4G signal (I live in Atlanta).
The hype surrounding the Galaxy Nexus is tempting, but I believe I'll stick with the Razr. I feel in a hardware comparison it beats the Nexus, and it should have Android's Ice Cream Sandwich update first quarter next year according to Motorola. I'm glad I gave this phone a try as I'm quite happy with it.
Bonus review!
I bought the OtterBox Commuter Series case for the phone and I love it. It is absolutely top quality. I got it for just over $20 on amazon.com, and it came with a screen protector which went on great and has an excellent feel to it. I've never put a screen protector on before and this one went on with ease, no bubbles and perfectly positioned. My finger glides over it very nicely. I previously had a Zagg Invisible Shield which cost half as much as the case and was far too tacky for my taste.
The case itself is a silicone inner layer protected by a harder poly-carbonate shell. I especially like that this shell is not grippy like silicone, so the phone slips in and out of my pocket with ease. I highly recommend this case if you have a Razr.
Initially I fully intended to wait for the Galaxy Nexus; as I use the Razr I'm constantly comparing it to what I hear about the Nexus. I did like the Razr very much and when Amazon offered the phone at one penny for new activations (we switched to Verizon from Sprint) I went ahead. AmazonWireless has the best deals on smart phones I've found, and I have 30 days to exchange the phone for another model if I'm not happy with it so I had nothing to lose by 'test-driving' the Razr.
Now on to the phone!
From the packaging to the power cable to the Razr hardware itself, everything feels sleek and durable. I'm not going to pretend I'm an engineer, but the impression is that this device is constructed of the highest quality materials and it gives me a feeling that I'll never have to worry about hardware problems. As light as it is, the Razr still feels tough as nails.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think this phone is 'sexy' - if that's possible for a bit of plastic, glass, and metal. I love the design. It is a bit wide, and I find that I've adjusted the way I hold the phone slightly to compensate. I'm a male with medium to smaller hands and my wife is tiny and I've heard no complaints from her, but if you're considering this phone you might want to test drive it in the store before ordering.
In order to make the phone as thin as it is Motorola made the phone wider and longer than the screen relative to most phones we're seeing now where the bezel is very close to the screen edge. I don't find this to be an issue and the appearance is quite 'normal' looking. The phone does have the four Android buttons (capacitive touch) on the bottom for Menu, Home, Back, and Search. This has been the standard for all Android phones but will go the way of the Dodo with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android OS 4.0), where these options are part of the OS. Personally, I like having the static buttons on the bottom of the phone.
Additionally, the phone is thicker just at the top, where Motorola chose to put the headphone jack, rear camera and the micro-usb and hdmi ports. This actually helps me to pull the phone out of my pocket so I like it. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side as you look down at the face of the phone, and there is a flip door on the left for the sim and microsd cards.
In case you aren't familiar with them, here are a list of the more important specs (credit to hexus.net) on the phone:
The specsHaving the charger port at the top of the phone makes it a bit inconvenient to use the phone for calls while charging, but otherwise the location of the ports, cards and buttons makes sense. There's been some deal made about the battery not being removable on this phone by the end user - it must be replaced by Verizon. Again, I don't have an issue with this as I don't carry a spare battery, and as I'll describe in more detail below I've configured this phone to last over a day on a charge with normal use. If a hard reset is necessary, this can be done by holding the power button and volume down at the same time.
• 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD touchscreen display
• scratch-resistant corning Gorilla Glass
• 7.1mm profile – the world’s thinnest smartphone
• precision machined stainless steel core
• laminated construction for enhanced rigidity
• Kevlar back coating
• Motorola Splash Guard nanotechnology (water-proof capabilities)v • Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 8-megapixel camera with 1,080p HD Video recording support
• Battery: 12.5 hours talk time, 8.9 hours of video playback
• webtop technology
• Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
• Moto Cast – personal cloud support
• Enterprise features: Citix Receiver, GoToMeeting, Videoconference with HD webcam
• Business Ready: Corporate email access, Corporate calendar and addresses, Microsoft Office documents support
• Security capabilities: FIPS 140-2 government-grade data encryption, remote wipe of device and SD card
• Accessories: Elite Silver BT Headset, Universal Travel Charger, P893 Portable Power Pack, 10.1-inch Lapdock 100, 14.1-inch Lapdock 500 Pro, Vehicle Navigation Dock, HD Station and HD Dock, Wireless Keyboard with Trackpad Mouse
• Moto ACTV compatibility
• 4G LTE via Verizon
The RAZR will support 4G LTE via Verizon and come with 16GB onboard memory and 16GB memory card bundled with it.
I was surprised to find that only 3 GB of the onboard memory is available for applications. It's a lot more than I had on my previous phone, the HTC Evo 4g, but I expected that the entire 16GB of onboard memory would be available - aside from the portion needed to run the Android OS, of course. It is possible to move portions of many applications to the sd card to save space but this is cumbersome and I've had it cause problems with widgets for applications - they don't seem to work when the application is moved to the sd card.
Eventually I stopped admiring my phone and actually turned it on and started using it. The phone is fully charged rapidly, the first time it took 3 hours and since then I think it's been under 2 hours from 10% to fully charged. When powering on the device for the first time I was walked through the setup wizard which I was familiar with having come from another android phone. My previous phone used HTC's Sense interface and the Razr has the Motorola (don't call me Blur) interface. I honestly don't know what they're calling it now, so I'll just call it the MotoUI.
Generally speaking, I don't like the MotoUI as much as Sense. It's not bad, it just doesn't feel quite as intuitive. The Sense interface is bright and attractive, well known for the oversized clock and weather widget on the home screen. The Razr has nothing like this and thought it's not a functional issue, I miss it.
Instead, the Razr's interface keeps with the 'Droid' theme - it's a bit dark and robotic. Even the default text notification sound is a robotic voice saying 'droid.' Frankly I think going this direction limits the market for this phone. Though I know two women who own it, I certainly don't think the theme is one that would attract female customers. Then again, I've never known much about women. That's another blog though.
What Motorola has done well is provide some platforms to bring together various social media and text applications. There is a messaging inbox that has links to both individual text and chat applications and also a universal inbox with them all aggregated into one feed. There is a similar aggregation for social media applications.
Another welcome application from Motorola is the Smart Actions they've included. This fantastic app provides an amazingly powerful and flexible means to automatically manage your phone. You make use of triggers like time and location to launch apps, turn off your ringer, disable the wifi radio, and more. The options are nearly endless and it works great. Not only is Smart Actions functional, it also can increase the battery life significantly by intelligently turning off features when you don't need them - i.e. background data, wifi, and gps can be disabled overnight, then set to turn on at a certain time OR when the phone is moved. Pretty slick stuff.
Speaking of battery life - at first I would say the battery life was OK. Better than my old phone, but I wasn't getting a full day out of a charge like I had hoped and expected. I found that the Android OS was using up the greatest percentage of my battery, whereas my friend with a Bionic had that as the third greatest drain behind the display and sleep mode. He was getting a solid day out of his battery, so I did a little investigating to see if I could figure out what might be draining mine.
What I found really surprised me. Fortunately, some enterprising person with a great deal more patience and technical know-how then I have did extensive research on the subject for all of us. I recommend anyone with an android phone read the entire post here, but the takeaway is that widgets can really kill the battery life. I've removed all of mine. I can certainly add them back one at a time until one of them starts to drain the battery and then I'll know who the culprit is, but it just isn't that important to me. Android is great about notifications and otherwise I use shortcuts to apps which works fine for me. So now I have very frequent data polling, push email, live wallpaper, and I can use my phone regularly and get over 24 hours on a charge. I think with heavy use it will still get me through a work day, unless I'm using the phone as a mobile hotspot of course. Bottom line - I'm very happy with the battery life as far as the hardware is concerned, Android has some work left to do from an OS perspective (or maybe it's the fault of the widget developers, hard for me to say).
The Razr touchscreen is a dream come true. Everything with this phone is just instantaneous - sometimes it feels like the Droid is a step ahead of me. The sensitivity is perfect, and I just love it. Apps appear instantly. I can individually clear items from the notification window-shade. I'm probably gushing, because it's just truly fantastic.
I have five home screens to customize, and apps or widgets (if you still care about those after reading above) can be added from the Menu button or a long press on the screen or from a long press on the app in the Apps list. The latter is now one page long and scrolls page by page to the right. All very smart and good improvements. There are four software buttons that remain static on each home page and these too are customizable - again very smart. One of the things I love about Android is the ability to make it fit my needs.
One problem I've had is with the Calender. I have one google account for personal use and one for work. The calendar synced fine for my personal account but none of my existing calendar entries appeared for my work account. New entries appear fine, and I didn't have enough old ones that it was a big problem for me, so I didn't spend any time trying to fix this, but it could really be a problem for some people if they had the same bug.
Additionally, I wasn't able to login to the My Verizon app to check my data usage, etc. but after 24 hours that started working.
Without a doubt, the biggest unsolved problem has to do with the mobile hotspot feature. One of my laptops can connect to the phone's hotspot but doesn't get an ip address. My other laptop connects and gets an ip address but can't go to any https site. There are many users with this issue and it's been reported and discussed on the Motorola forums. I don't know if the problem is Verizon's or Motorola's, but this needs to be fixed pronto, especially with what they charge for this feature (an additional $20 a month with 2GB extra data).
As with almost every phone on every carrier, Verizon has felt it necessary to put maybe half a dozen apps on the phone that I don't use, don't want, and cannot uninstall. They are not intrusive but it drives me nuts - when will carriers and computer manufacturers stop doing this?
All in all, I love this phone. It's sleek, wicked fast, has a nice looking screen (I don't understand the complaints I've read, it looks great to me), plenty of memory and for the most part it works great. I expect some issues with any new phone, and the Droid Razr has exceeded my expectations in this area. Neither my wife nor my friend have had any issues with theirs either. Oh, and since it's a phone, I guess I should mention that call quality is fine. Not great, but not bad. Since it's Verizon I haven't had an issue connecting or hearing anyone, and the entire time I've had the phone it's had a 4G signal (I live in Atlanta).
The hype surrounding the Galaxy Nexus is tempting, but I believe I'll stick with the Razr. I feel in a hardware comparison it beats the Nexus, and it should have Android's Ice Cream Sandwich update first quarter next year according to Motorola. I'm glad I gave this phone a try as I'm quite happy with it.
Bonus review!
I bought the OtterBox Commuter Series case for the phone and I love it. It is absolutely top quality. I got it for just over $20 on amazon.com, and it came with a screen protector which went on great and has an excellent feel to it. I've never put a screen protector on before and this one went on with ease, no bubbles and perfectly positioned. My finger glides over it very nicely. I previously had a Zagg Invisible Shield which cost half as much as the case and was far too tacky for my taste.
The case itself is a silicone inner layer protected by a harder poly-carbonate shell. I especially like that this shell is not grippy like silicone, so the phone slips in and out of my pocket with ease. I highly recommend this case if you have a Razr.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
My Search for the Perfect Mechanical Keyboard
For the past month I've been trying to decide what mechanical keyboard would be perfect for me.
I'm guessing that opener leads most everyone to ask a number of questions:
Overclock.net Mechanical Keyboard Guide
That is a fantastic guide.
So why do I need a mechanical keyboard? I absolutely do not need one. Any attempt to justify the purchase of a keyboard this expensive - they start around $100 and go up from there - would be a bit silly. I do work on a computer all day, but I'm not a writer and I don't type quickly enough that it can make a huge difference. Furthermore, I'm getting this for my home computer, and I only spend a couple of hours on that one each night.
I want it because I love gadgets. I love having a tricked out gaming rig with all the best accessories money can buy. The pro's use it, so I want one. I know it's silly, but it's true. The experience is supposed to be dramatically better - if I really do end up loving it I'll get a less expensive model for work.
After deciding that I just can't live without a mechanical keyboard, I then had the difficult decision to pick out the one that was just right - these keyboards are expensive and last for years so whatever I get I'll have for a long time. Anyone who knows me knows that I agonize over most purchases to a ridiculous degree. I want to get something with high quality, good features, and at a fair price - and even then it's hard for me to pull the trigger. This was no different, and fortunately for me my hesitance actually saved me from purchasing the wrong keyboard for my needs).
Which brings me to what I was looking for. When selecting a mechanical keyboard, I had to choose which switch type I like as well as all the other features a keyboard can have (macros, backlighting, etc.). At first I was set on the Cherry MX Black switches, regarded as the choice of pro gamers. Backlighting was a feature I like but didn't have to have, macros don't matter much to me, I like the media keys and I think usb ports on the laptop are nice to have.
With all this in mind, I first looked at the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate. This tricked out keyboard is backlit, offers over a dozen programmable macro keys, and many other features. However, it uses Cherry MX Blue switches, which I decided against. While these are the easiest of the Black, Brown, and Blue switches to activate, they have a 'clicky' sound built in. I don't mind the noise of a mechanical keyboard, but I don't want it purposefully accentuated. Further, there are questions of the build quality of the BlackWidow, as many users complain of similar problems with sticky keys and short lifespan.
Next I found the Tt eSports Meka G-Unit. This keyboard is just awesome. It looks cool, comes with a detachable usb cord, a sack to carry it in, a nice wrist wrest, and it's built like a tank. It's gotten great reviews too. There's just one problem - it was due in stores sometime this past summer and yet it still hasn't arrived. I was told five weeks ago it would be available in three weeks. I think it safely qualifies as the best keyboard money can't buy. It worked out well for me though, because given the month to wait on this one I did some more research and realized it would not be right for me.
The Meka G-Unit uses Cherry MX Black switches, the type I wanted before I knew what I wanted. These switches are the most durable, but also require the most force to depress. I want to be faster and save my hands from typing fatigue, so these are really not the switches for me.
In ruling out the Blue and Black switches in favor of the Brown (regarded as a great compromise between the Blue and Black) I also had to let go of the idea for a 'fancy' tricked-out backlit keyboard. At first I was a little discouraged about this but then realized it was far more important to me that my new keyboard feels and works great than whether it has backlighting or a fancy logo.
So I began my search for a mechanical keyboard with MX Brown switches. For this switch being the 'sweet spot' between the Black and Blue variants, there is a surprisingly limited number of boards available using them. Most of what is available is absolutely simplistic - a standard US 104 key layout. I wasn't completely against this, but was still hoping for something with just a little more to it.
As I often do, I placed myself in Google's hands at this point. I did a search for best mechanical keyboard and looked at an article called Top 5 Gaming Keyboards Mechanical Edition. Though I didn't necessarily agree with the whole list, it introduced me to the Ducky brand and mentioned that this is what most Asian pro-gamers use. Since Asians are the finest RTS players in the world, I figure if this is good enough for them it's good enough for me.
Some more research and I found that the 1000 series of boards is the entry level and probably not the quality I was looking for. However, the 9000 series is top of the line, and Amazon carries several of them (Amazon absolutely rocks). Since I know I want the ten key numpad and already had settled on the Cherry Brown switches I quickly picked out the model I wanted: the DK9008G2-B.
Nothing too fancy, this keyboard does come with some replaceable keys for those used most often in gaming. It also enables you to disable the Windows key, a must for gaming, and has four shortcut keys: Calculator, My Computer, default email client and default internet browser. Additionally, the usb cord is detachable and can be routed through three different channels which helps get it just right for my layout.
The keyboard should arrive tomorrow and I intend to type all my future entries here on it in nirvana (for $138 it better be!).
I'm guessing that opener leads most everyone to ask a number of questions:
- What is a mechanical keyboard?
- Why do I need one?
- How could it take a month to pick one out?
- Are you seeking professional help?
We'll skip the last question, that one is for a different blog altogether...
Before covering what a mechanical keyboard is all about, let's talk about what kind of keyboard you are most likely using. Almost all keyboards today use rubber domes under the keys to provide resistance. The keystroke is actuated and the bottom of the key press. This type of key is used because it's inexpensive. It does not have a great feel and does not last very long (relatively speaking). Because you must completely depress the key to actuate it, this takes longer and causes finger fatigue (again, relatively speaking).
By contrast, a mechanical keyboard consists of an individual switch for each key. The switch actuates before the key is fully depressed, and there are a variety of switches which have different levels of resistance, 'clickiness,' actuation distance, etc. I won't go on any further because honestly I'm just regurgitating what I learned here about mechanical keyboards anyway:
Overclock.net Mechanical Keyboard Guide
That is a fantastic guide.
So why do I need a mechanical keyboard? I absolutely do not need one. Any attempt to justify the purchase of a keyboard this expensive - they start around $100 and go up from there - would be a bit silly. I do work on a computer all day, but I'm not a writer and I don't type quickly enough that it can make a huge difference. Furthermore, I'm getting this for my home computer, and I only spend a couple of hours on that one each night.
I want it because I love gadgets. I love having a tricked out gaming rig with all the best accessories money can buy. The pro's use it, so I want one. I know it's silly, but it's true. The experience is supposed to be dramatically better - if I really do end up loving it I'll get a less expensive model for work.
After deciding that I just can't live without a mechanical keyboard, I then had the difficult decision to pick out the one that was just right - these keyboards are expensive and last for years so whatever I get I'll have for a long time. Anyone who knows me knows that I agonize over most purchases to a ridiculous degree. I want to get something with high quality, good features, and at a fair price - and even then it's hard for me to pull the trigger. This was no different, and fortunately for me my hesitance actually saved me from purchasing the wrong keyboard for my needs).
Which brings me to what I was looking for. When selecting a mechanical keyboard, I had to choose which switch type I like as well as all the other features a keyboard can have (macros, backlighting, etc.). At first I was set on the Cherry MX Black switches, regarded as the choice of pro gamers. Backlighting was a feature I like but didn't have to have, macros don't matter much to me, I like the media keys and I think usb ports on the laptop are nice to have.
With all this in mind, I first looked at the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate. This tricked out keyboard is backlit, offers over a dozen programmable macro keys, and many other features. However, it uses Cherry MX Blue switches, which I decided against. While these are the easiest of the Black, Brown, and Blue switches to activate, they have a 'clicky' sound built in. I don't mind the noise of a mechanical keyboard, but I don't want it purposefully accentuated. Further, there are questions of the build quality of the BlackWidow, as many users complain of similar problems with sticky keys and short lifespan.
Next I found the Tt eSports Meka G-Unit. This keyboard is just awesome. It looks cool, comes with a detachable usb cord, a sack to carry it in, a nice wrist wrest, and it's built like a tank. It's gotten great reviews too. There's just one problem - it was due in stores sometime this past summer and yet it still hasn't arrived. I was told five weeks ago it would be available in three weeks. I think it safely qualifies as the best keyboard money can't buy. It worked out well for me though, because given the month to wait on this one I did some more research and realized it would not be right for me.
The Meka G-Unit uses Cherry MX Black switches, the type I wanted before I knew what I wanted. These switches are the most durable, but also require the most force to depress. I want to be faster and save my hands from typing fatigue, so these are really not the switches for me.
In ruling out the Blue and Black switches in favor of the Brown (regarded as a great compromise between the Blue and Black) I also had to let go of the idea for a 'fancy' tricked-out backlit keyboard. At first I was a little discouraged about this but then realized it was far more important to me that my new keyboard feels and works great than whether it has backlighting or a fancy logo.
So I began my search for a mechanical keyboard with MX Brown switches. For this switch being the 'sweet spot' between the Black and Blue variants, there is a surprisingly limited number of boards available using them. Most of what is available is absolutely simplistic - a standard US 104 key layout. I wasn't completely against this, but was still hoping for something with just a little more to it.
As I often do, I placed myself in Google's hands at this point. I did a search for best mechanical keyboard and looked at an article called Top 5 Gaming Keyboards Mechanical Edition. Though I didn't necessarily agree with the whole list, it introduced me to the Ducky brand and mentioned that this is what most Asian pro-gamers use. Since Asians are the finest RTS players in the world, I figure if this is good enough for them it's good enough for me.
Some more research and I found that the 1000 series of boards is the entry level and probably not the quality I was looking for. However, the 9000 series is top of the line, and Amazon carries several of them (Amazon absolutely rocks). Since I know I want the ten key numpad and already had settled on the Cherry Brown switches I quickly picked out the model I wanted: the DK9008G2-B.
Nothing too fancy, this keyboard does come with some replaceable keys for those used most often in gaming. It also enables you to disable the Windows key, a must for gaming, and has four shortcut keys: Calculator, My Computer, default email client and default internet browser. Additionally, the usb cord is detachable and can be routed through three different channels which helps get it just right for my layout.
The keyboard should arrive tomorrow and I intend to type all my future entries here on it in nirvana (for $138 it better be!).
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Update: +1, HootSuite, and Google+ integration
As promised I headed over to Google+ to see if I could answer some of the questions I posed to myself earlier today.
To the claim that my +1 "helps friends and contacts identify which content may be most useful to them", I can say I have never, ever seen any site where I noticed one of my friends or contacts had given it a +1. Even if I had, I'm already on the site, so at this point does it matter that my friend likes it? This looks to me like a miss on Google's part.
On to my question about who is seeing my posts on Google+. This is really just as simple as it looks. If you share a post with one of your circles, it appears in the Stream of the members of that circle. If you share to Public, it appears in the Stream of members of all your circles, and to anyone who views your profile. I'm still further exploring how the Incoming stream is populated; as far as I can tell it is people who have me in one of their circles without me reciprocating.
Finally, I did try out HootSuite and at least in the free version there is no integration with Google+. Disappointing. In fact, HootSuite is a pilot partner of integration with Google+ Pages, a functionality aimed at enterprises and groups. This is the only API released, and we can only hope Google will release the API for Google+ personal soon.
Here is an excerpt of a good article at Wired.com describing what's possible now and what should be possible soon:
Meanwhile I'm still going to test drive HootSuite and see how it compares to TweetDeck - at first glance it looks very full featured.
First, more on the +1 button:
What happens when you +1 something?So, is this working? Until now, I didn't know there was a +1's tab in my profile. Then again, I don't usually look at my own profile. The question is, does anyone else? Heck if I know... I have now made the +1's tab Public, and also enabled people to send me a message (anyone on the web) or an email (people in my circles only). I don't know if this functionality is not intuitive, or if I just never took the proper time to figure it out. Maybe I'm flattering myself, but I feel like if I have to search around to the answer for something, then it wasn't simple to figure out. Having said that, Google does provide a thorough introduction to Google+ which I'll now take the time to explore.
When you +1 something, the +1 button will turn blue to confirm that you've recommended the page, and your +1 will be added to the +1's tab of your profile. Here you can manage all your +1’s and decide whether you want to publicly display the +1’s tab.
If you’re a Google+ user, you’ll also have the option to share the webpage you +1’d in Google+. Just click the "Share on Google+" box, enter your comments, choose the circles you’d like to post to, and clickShare. Like other content you share, these +1’s will appear in the streams of the people you share with.
Regardless of the circles you choose to share to on Google+, and whether you chose to publicly share your +1’s tab, your +1’s will still be visible to others viewing the content you +1’d. For instance, your +1 could appear as part of an anonymous aggregated count of the people who have also +1’d the same thing. Your name could also appear next to the +1 button on a website, or beneath a search result or ad on Google Search. This helps friends and contacts identify which content may be most useful to them.
To the claim that my +1 "helps friends and contacts identify which content may be most useful to them", I can say I have never, ever seen any site where I noticed one of my friends or contacts had given it a +1. Even if I had, I'm already on the site, so at this point does it matter that my friend likes it? This looks to me like a miss on Google's part.
On to my question about who is seeing my posts on Google+. This is really just as simple as it looks. If you share a post with one of your circles, it appears in the Stream of the members of that circle. If you share to Public, it appears in the Stream of members of all your circles, and to anyone who views your profile. I'm still further exploring how the Incoming stream is populated; as far as I can tell it is people who have me in one of their circles without me reciprocating.
Finally, I did try out HootSuite and at least in the free version there is no integration with Google+. Disappointing. In fact, HootSuite is a pilot partner of integration with Google+ Pages, a functionality aimed at enterprises and groups. This is the only API released, and we can only hope Google will release the API for Google+ personal soon.
Here is an excerpt of a good article at Wired.com describing what's possible now and what should be possible soon:
Google’s finally unwrapped the first public iteration of an application programming interface, or API, for Google+. APIs let software programs and services talk to each other, pulling or pushing data between the two. Every Twitter client or integrated service uses Twitter’s published APIs. Now these and other developers can make use of similar kinds of data from Google’s new social network.Call me lazy but I say the sooner the better. As long as I manage all my social media except Google+ in one place it will necessarily remain an afterthought.
To be clear, they can’t use all of it. For now, Google+’s API is limited to public posts and data only. Applications can also use the open authentication OAuth 2 to allow users to identify themselves on Google+ rather than using the long numerical identifiers and authorize each app.
However, because Google+’s API is limited to public data, you can’t really build a full-featured Google+ or Universal Social Media client around it yet. We’ll probably see a lot of news skimmers, some simple integration with location, check-in, or commenting services, and a handful of somewhat more developed app prototypes. In the very near future, the API gives developers a chance to play around. For Google, it gradually and gracefully extends the overall reach of the platform. It also helps the company see possibilities it may have missed in its own development.
Meanwhile I'm still going to test drive HootSuite and see how it compares to TweetDeck - at first glance it looks very full featured.
Methods and Platforms to Make the Most of Social Media
I find social media to be a bit of a paradox. There is a clever commercial Toyota came up with that shows a young adult woman lamenting her parents plight because they only have a few Facebook friends: meanwhile the scene cuts to her parents out mountain biking with a bunch of friends. The message is clearly that they are too busy actually socializing to take part in the virtual social medium. Clever and worth some thought.
Does this mean I'm giving up social media? Not hardly. However, I'm constantly looking for ways to streamline my experience so that social media adds to my life rather than interfering with it. Social media walks a fine line: it can be informative or intrusive.
Facebook is a perfect example of this. I had all but stopped using it about a year ago. If I made a comment on someone's wall and someone else commented, I got an email and a notification in Facebook. In fact, I felt like if someone in my network sneezed I got an email. I went so far as to 'clean up' my friend's list - the horror! It got to a point where I missed any information I would've been interested in for the flood of information I wasn't.
Then a couple of things happened: I figured out how to turn off email notifications and Facebook added the 'hide updates' feature. I got Facebookstein back under control (in fact his table manners are excellent now).
Twitter is actually a similar tightrope to walk. So many accounts are promoting one thing or another, if I'm not careful who or what I follow any valuable information is lost in an avalanche of updates. The list of users I follow tends to be fairly dynamic for this reason; if I find a particular person or service I'm following annoying (for lack of a nicer term) I unfollow with extreme prejudice. Of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus (the social media services I frequent) I find Twitter has the highest percentage of muck to wade through for anything I'm actually interested in. On the other hand, it's also one of the fastest ways to get anecdotal feedback on almost anything - I'm just scratched the surface of the potential to spot trends and find this pretty intriguing.
That brings me to Google Plus. This is without question the least intrusive of the three services I use, but almost to a detrimental degree. I tend to forget about Google Plus, which is NOT the hallmark of a great social media service. When I do check it, there doesn't seem to be much activity. What I've been trying to figure out is why?
The interface is clean and well-integrated with all other Google services. It's easy to get to and as I said above not intrusive. Most sites and articles now offer a '+1' button allowing anyone to give a virtual thumb's up to what they've read. Here's where I think things break down a bit.
What does my +1 do? Admittedly, I haven't done any research on this (yet), but I have no idea what purpose it serves for me to +1 something. Yes, I see the icon turn from white to blue indicating I've given my approval, but I already knew that, didn't I? In many cases giving a +1 allows me then the option to share the article with my Google Plus circles - but what if I choose not to? Is there any value in the +1 itself?
I'm sure the answer is out there, but the fact that I have to look for it indicates a problem. With Facebook, if I 'like' something it shows up on my 'Wall' and is shared with anyone of my friends who is monitoring my updates. Pretty clear. With Google Plus I have to take the additional step of sharing with my circles, and if I don't do so I'm unclear what the point is of the +1.
Is this what Google Plus seems so quiet? Are my friends out there +1-ing like crazy but not sharing? Are they sharing with circles that I don't belong too?
This is another issue I have with Google Plus: I'm rarely clear on the exact audience to my posts. I have approximately two dozen followers that I don't know, and I'm unclear how they found me. When I share I almost always share to my circles (rarely Public, though that's changing) so I don't know how people have found me or what information I've put out that would cause them to follow me. Again, I think this should be clear, especially if Google wants the masses to get actively on board.
The final issue with Google Plus is accessibility. There are dozens of applications which aggregate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, et.al. but I haven't had one that included Google Plus. In fact that's what motivated me to write this article (can I call it that?) today. When I began to look for a client that would bring all my social media together it started me thinking about what I've used to this point.
I began using Facebook and Twitter in their native web form - how mundane! For a short time I used Fishbowl my Microsoft, which showed promise but as I remember was a bit buggy. From there I used Seesmic for sometime and that was a very solid application. For some reason though - and unfortunately I cannot remember what - I went to Tweetdeck, which I'm using now and also like very well. However it does not include Google Plus and so my search began today.
From a quick Google search I found the following Google Plus post from Marshall Kirkpatrick:
I feel Google Plus slipping away,,,
which echoed my feelings about Google Plus and the need for integration with a social media platform. His post yielded many comments in a short time, some suggesting that HootSuite offers Google Plus integration and others claiming this is an invitation (or paid) feature only).
I'm going to download HootSuite out and give it a try. I like the idea of an independent platform (TweetDeck was bought by Twitter) and it offers analytics that TweetDeck doesn't (as far as I know). I'll report back here on the overall experience once I've used it for a fair amount of time. I'll also see if I can get some answers to the questions I posed on how exactly +1 and Google Plus work.
Does this mean I'm giving up social media? Not hardly. However, I'm constantly looking for ways to streamline my experience so that social media adds to my life rather than interfering with it. Social media walks a fine line: it can be informative or intrusive.
Facebook is a perfect example of this. I had all but stopped using it about a year ago. If I made a comment on someone's wall and someone else commented, I got an email and a notification in Facebook. In fact, I felt like if someone in my network sneezed I got an email. I went so far as to 'clean up' my friend's list - the horror! It got to a point where I missed any information I would've been interested in for the flood of information I wasn't.
Then a couple of things happened: I figured out how to turn off email notifications and Facebook added the 'hide updates' feature. I got Facebookstein back under control (in fact his table manners are excellent now).
Twitter is actually a similar tightrope to walk. So many accounts are promoting one thing or another, if I'm not careful who or what I follow any valuable information is lost in an avalanche of updates. The list of users I follow tends to be fairly dynamic for this reason; if I find a particular person or service I'm following annoying (for lack of a nicer term) I unfollow with extreme prejudice. Of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus (the social media services I frequent) I find Twitter has the highest percentage of muck to wade through for anything I'm actually interested in. On the other hand, it's also one of the fastest ways to get anecdotal feedback on almost anything - I'm just scratched the surface of the potential to spot trends and find this pretty intriguing.
That brings me to Google Plus. This is without question the least intrusive of the three services I use, but almost to a detrimental degree. I tend to forget about Google Plus, which is NOT the hallmark of a great social media service. When I do check it, there doesn't seem to be much activity. What I've been trying to figure out is why?
The interface is clean and well-integrated with all other Google services. It's easy to get to and as I said above not intrusive. Most sites and articles now offer a '+1' button allowing anyone to give a virtual thumb's up to what they've read. Here's where I think things break down a bit.
What does my +1 do? Admittedly, I haven't done any research on this (yet), but I have no idea what purpose it serves for me to +1 something. Yes, I see the icon turn from white to blue indicating I've given my approval, but I already knew that, didn't I? In many cases giving a +1 allows me then the option to share the article with my Google Plus circles - but what if I choose not to? Is there any value in the +1 itself?
I'm sure the answer is out there, but the fact that I have to look for it indicates a problem. With Facebook, if I 'like' something it shows up on my 'Wall' and is shared with anyone of my friends who is monitoring my updates. Pretty clear. With Google Plus I have to take the additional step of sharing with my circles, and if I don't do so I'm unclear what the point is of the +1.
Is this what Google Plus seems so quiet? Are my friends out there +1-ing like crazy but not sharing? Are they sharing with circles that I don't belong too?
This is another issue I have with Google Plus: I'm rarely clear on the exact audience to my posts. I have approximately two dozen followers that I don't know, and I'm unclear how they found me. When I share I almost always share to my circles (rarely Public, though that's changing) so I don't know how people have found me or what information I've put out that would cause them to follow me. Again, I think this should be clear, especially if Google wants the masses to get actively on board.
The final issue with Google Plus is accessibility. There are dozens of applications which aggregate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, et.al. but I haven't had one that included Google Plus. In fact that's what motivated me to write this article (can I call it that?) today. When I began to look for a client that would bring all my social media together it started me thinking about what I've used to this point.
I began using Facebook and Twitter in their native web form - how mundane! For a short time I used Fishbowl my Microsoft, which showed promise but as I remember was a bit buggy. From there I used Seesmic for sometime and that was a very solid application. For some reason though - and unfortunately I cannot remember what - I went to Tweetdeck, which I'm using now and also like very well. However it does not include Google Plus and so my search began today.
From a quick Google search I found the following Google Plus post from Marshall Kirkpatrick:
I feel Google Plus slipping away,,,
which echoed my feelings about Google Plus and the need for integration with a social media platform. His post yielded many comments in a short time, some suggesting that HootSuite offers Google Plus integration and others claiming this is an invitation (or paid) feature only).
I'm going to download HootSuite out and give it a try. I like the idea of an independent platform (TweetDeck was bought by Twitter) and it offers analytics that TweetDeck doesn't (as far as I know). I'll report back here on the overall experience once I've used it for a fair amount of time. I'll also see if I can get some answers to the questions I posed on how exactly +1 and Google Plus work.
Friday, November 25, 2011
The first step is the hardest...
I guess I'll do like they suggested in school and use this first entry to tell you what I'm going to tell you.
I love tech. I love games and gadgets. I stream netflix from my phone, roku, xbox360, and bluray player. I'm always on the lookout for the next gadget or service that will make life better or easier or cooler.
On top of this I enjoy what social media has done for all of us. I get 'updates' on gear and games from Twitter (via Tweetdeck). I can get feedback from 100's of people by making a post with a hashtag. Granted, it ain't scientific research, but crowd-sourcing information if a newborn and will only get better. Just ask movie studios - a new flic can easily be done after opening night based on the power of social media - word gets out FAST.
So what does this all have to do with some Schmo starting another blog? I think it comes down to the defining value of information - trust. Let's take a recent example.
After a little under two years with Sprint I've had enough and I'm switching my wife and I back to Verizon Wireless. As part of the process we were in the market for new smartphones, so I began researching which Android phone would be perfect for each of us. Not so easy right now as there are some great choices with the Droid Razr, the HTC Rezound, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Much of my time was spent following trends on twitter, doing searches on Google, and sharing some of my findings on twitter, facebook and Google Plus. What I found was that I started to have trust in certain people's tweets more than others, and certain people (some I knew and others I didn't) began to ask me for feedback on the purchase I made (I got the Razr for a penny from Amazon).
Reviews from the big tech sites are great, but people still like to ask someone they know what they think about something - and for good or bad after we interact via social media we begin at a certain point to feel that we 'know' one another. It's not a big reach to follow this line of thinking, after all this is what Netflix's entire movie recommendation logarithm is based on; they start to see similarities between user's rankings and use that to predict what else they might have in common.
Likewise, I follow someone on twitter or facebook because I like what he or she has to say, and over time I get to 'know' the person and value their opinion to some degree.
Or maybe I'm full of crap.
Nonetheless, here I am with my own little tech blog. Next up I'll share my initial thoughts on the Razr as I continue to break it in and consider whether I'll swap it for a Galaxy Nexus (assuming the latter is ever brought to market).
That's all for now, Happy Black Friday everybody.
I love tech. I love games and gadgets. I stream netflix from my phone, roku, xbox360, and bluray player. I'm always on the lookout for the next gadget or service that will make life better or easier or cooler.
On top of this I enjoy what social media has done for all of us. I get 'updates' on gear and games from Twitter (via Tweetdeck). I can get feedback from 100's of people by making a post with a hashtag. Granted, it ain't scientific research, but crowd-sourcing information if a newborn and will only get better. Just ask movie studios - a new flic can easily be done after opening night based on the power of social media - word gets out FAST.
So what does this all have to do with some Schmo starting another blog? I think it comes down to the defining value of information - trust. Let's take a recent example.
After a little under two years with Sprint I've had enough and I'm switching my wife and I back to Verizon Wireless. As part of the process we were in the market for new smartphones, so I began researching which Android phone would be perfect for each of us. Not so easy right now as there are some great choices with the Droid Razr, the HTC Rezound, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Much of my time was spent following trends on twitter, doing searches on Google, and sharing some of my findings on twitter, facebook and Google Plus. What I found was that I started to have trust in certain people's tweets more than others, and certain people (some I knew and others I didn't) began to ask me for feedback on the purchase I made (I got the Razr for a penny from Amazon).
Reviews from the big tech sites are great, but people still like to ask someone they know what they think about something - and for good or bad after we interact via social media we begin at a certain point to feel that we 'know' one another. It's not a big reach to follow this line of thinking, after all this is what Netflix's entire movie recommendation logarithm is based on; they start to see similarities between user's rankings and use that to predict what else they might have in common.
Likewise, I follow someone on twitter or facebook because I like what he or she has to say, and over time I get to 'know' the person and value their opinion to some degree.
Or maybe I'm full of crap.
Nonetheless, here I am with my own little tech blog. Next up I'll share my initial thoughts on the Razr as I continue to break it in and consider whether I'll swap it for a Galaxy Nexus (assuming the latter is ever brought to market).
That's all for now, Happy Black Friday everybody.
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