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My Very Own Protocol Droid

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Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#121

Post by Semaphor »

endemic wrote: post #78
justinph wrote: post #70

I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.

Agreed, local syncing is indeed unfortunate, but not sure how else it could be better unless Google builds an iTunes-esque desktop client, which is never going to happen. However, once I started using Google Music, I never looked back.

Syncing works pretty well with MediaMonkey [1] though I'm not sure what part of it's syncing features are in the free version.

[1] http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#122

Post by runjake »

SonicSoul wrote: post #80
Irregardless wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Default will depend on which phone you get, but there's no shortage of great free ones in the market (Astro and ES File Explorer, for example). Also, Android phones work just like a USB drive if you want to drag and drop files then access them from another computer later. You can store anything you want and create your own folders, unlike the iPhone where you can only sync certain media types through iTunes. That's w…

i recently re-installed ES File Explorer and was floored with how much work went into it! i've used it years ago so i could see the difference. it is now also an app manager, ftp client, bluetooth/network explorer.. and it's FREE! i'm also not seeing any ads. how can they afford to put so much work into this app?

I'd start by checking their privacy policy.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#124

Post by lttlrck »

ChrisClark wrote: post #87
xauronx wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that they needed to was my comment. Personally, even as a mobile developer, customizing my phone is not my hobby. I'd prefer a new foreign car that has certain limitations to a used Jeep that I can extend in any way I want.

But you need specific skills to customize your Jeep. On Android it takes 30 seconds and no skill to install the keyboard you want. It's not a very hard thing to do, I'm sure as a mobile developer you don't mind installing apps other than the ones that come with your phone. A different keyboard is just another app to fulfil a need, go to the Store, click install, new keyboard. Done.

The ability to customize a Jeep is not a mainstream selling point. Whether it is easy or not is irrelevant for most consumers.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#125

Post by lttlrck »

Nice, but nothing compelling. Match irritates me no end, but I don't need to switch phone platforms to fix that. Showing me the way home is a neat trick, but I know my way home thanks.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#126

Post by curveship »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #15
parfe wrote: post #7

> Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device. Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka W…

Can you give examples of good stuff you've seen from Google Now that have been a real help to you? Stuff that's genuinely useful rather than just "look at that" cool. EDIT: So far I'm seeing a lot of reasons why Apple wanted to get into maps. A lot of the value add here seems to be navigation related.

Several people have mentioned Google Now mining their email for flight reservations. I've seen that, but recently saw a new twist: it wasn't me flying but some friends coming to visit me who had forwarded me their details. Google Now put up a card for their flight, and labelled it with them as passengers, meaning it had distinguished between a reservation for me and one for them. Then the next day, along with the weather card for my town, it showed one for theirs as well. It had recognized that I picked them up.

Another story, this time where I was the one visiting: after spending a night at friends, Google Now added a card for directions and driving time back to what it called "Unknown location." From my location info, it surmised I was staying at that place and was offering directions back. Being in a foreign city, this was actually very useful.

Creepy, yes, but useful.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#127

Post by base698 »

xauronx wrote: post #51
Irregardless wrote: post #28

There's no doubt Apple is playing catch-up with Android these days. Siri was their only real innovation in the last 3 iPhones, and Google leapfrogged it within months. Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to implement a decent notification system, their auto-correct is garbage, there's no file manager, you can't set a default browser (or default anything, for that matter), there are no widgets, no app shortcuts, no custo…

> "their auto-correct is garbage" The last three people who switched from iPhone to Android asked me what was wrong with Androids auto-correct and why it didn't "work". They ended up having to install a third party keyboard to get anything they could stand to interact with.

If it was the Galaxy that was Samsung's fault. It was the most infuriating autocorrect I've ever seen. If you hit space then back spaced to correct a word you typed it tried to autocorrect your correction but not the whole world.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#128

Post by runjake »

M4v3R wrote: post #48
parfe wrote: post #7

> Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device. Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka W…

> XCode is garbage Once in a while I see an argument like this and I wonder - does this guy really do mobile development? For the better part of last year I was into Android development, in Eclipse. If XCode is garbage, I don't know what Eclipse is. Resource-hogging, buggy monster with seven heads with shit on them, probably. I could list annoyances of Eclipse that got me for hours. On the other hand, in last month I…

and I wonder - does this guy really do mobile development?

...

in last month I jumped in to iOS development. And XCode was a breeze

Something's off here. You're questioning veteran iOS developers' abilities after having started iOS development a month ago?

I used to do iOS development and still keep in touch with several iOS developers of apps everyone has on their devices. The best I can get out of any of them is "XCode is okay", but more often than not, there's expletives and scathing remarks, especially since XCode 4, when they "iTunesified" the interface.

You just started iOS development, which means you're still getting the hang of things and the workflows. Give it a little time before you call people out.

That said, I can't say that Android development is much better, although I've just gone through the tutorials on developer.android.com for the heck of it.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#129

Post by Irregardless »

ryanhuff wrote: post #116
Irregardless wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autocorrect is one of the most common complaints I see about the iPhone. Whether it's professional reviewers or normal users, there seems to be a consensus that the stock Android keyboard and autocorrect have now surpassed their iOS counterparts. I'm not sure what your friends were doing or which phones they had, but as others have said, Android at least offers you the ability to switch keyboards if the stock keyboar…

I am an Android user, and I complain about the autocorrect (and keyboard) frequently. Maybe the iPhone would be the same for me, but others appear to breeze through typing on the iPhone, while I encounter a constant stream of backing up to fix typos, etc. And regarding third party keyboards, how about Google do a good keyboard that doesn't require installing a third party app? Is that too much to ask? It seems like a…

Which phone are you using? I have a Nexus with the stock 4.1 (Jelly Bean) keyboard and it corrects everything as expected -- proximity errors, misspellings, contractions, hyphenation, capitalization, etc.

Android also shows you a list of potential matches for what you typed, and you can add new words to the dictionary on the fly just by selecting the word you've entered from the list. Not to mention it only takes a single backspace to undo a bad autocorrect on Android.

> And regarding third party keyboards, how about Google do a good keyboard that doesn't require installing a third party app? It seems like an important enough feature to do right instead of abdicating responsibility to others.

No keyboard will please 100% of smartphone users. The only way to make everyone happy is to let them pick the keyboard that suits them best.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#130

Post by _Simon »

parfe wrote: post #53
M4v3R wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> XCode is garbage Once in a while I see an argument like this and I wonder - does this guy really do mobile development? For the better part of last year I was into Android development, in Eclipse. If XCode is garbage, I don't know what Eclipse is. Resource-hogging, buggy monster with seven heads with shit on them, probably. I could list annoyances of Eclipse that got me for hours. On the other hand, in last month I…

>does this guy really do mobile development? Nope. Like my comment said: "Targeting the Mac"

So why do you feel qualified to comment?
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