RickyCadden.com

VloMo Numbers 7 and 8

// November 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // android, blogging

Since I missed yesterday’s VloMo, I decided to do two videos to make up for it. I realize that’s already the second time I’ve had to make up for slacking off, and I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time. The first is one that I’m known for, making videos while driving. The second is an introduction to the McDonald’s McRib sandwich.

The McRib really isn’t good enough to warrant its own video, honestly, but whatever.

VloMo Numbers 7 and 8

// November 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // android, blogging

Since I missed yesterday’s VloMo, I decided to do two videos to make up for it. I realize that’s already the second time I’ve had to make up for slacking off, and I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time. The first is one that I’m known for, making videos while driving. The second is an introduction to the McDonald’s McRib sandwich.

The McRib really isn’t good enough to warrant its own video, honestly, but whatever.

Presenting The Guru’s Custom Android Boot Animation

// October 9th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // android

Even though I’m not updating Symbian-Guru.com any longer, I’m still obviously attached to the whole Guru brand. I’ve used the Symbian-Guru wallpaper as the background on my Nexus One off and on, but recently decided that I needed to create a custom boot animation. The process is actually pretty simple, albeit quite tedious. I’ll share the instructions at the end of this post, if you want to try your hand.

To cut to the chase, here’s a video showing the boot animation on my Nexus One. It’s admittedly pretty rough, but now that I know what I’m doing, it’ll be easier to tweak and improve the animation.

You can download the bootanimation.zip file at http://bit.ly/guruboot if you want to use it on your phone, and please let me know if you do! You’ll need to have rooted your phone, and there are a few ways to do it.

1. You *should* be able to use Root Explorer or Android Mate to paste bootanimation.zip to the datalocal directory on your device.

if that doesn’t work, then

2. If you have the Android SDK installed on your computer, connect your phone with USB debugging enabled, and put the bootanimation.zip in the tools directory. Then use the following commands:

Here’s a great walkthrough on creating your own custom boot animation.

Presenting The Guru’s Custom Android Boot Animation

// October 9th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // android

Even though I’m not updating Symbian-Guru.com any longer, I’m still obviously attached to the whole Guru brand. I’ve used the Symbian-Guru wallpaper as the background on my Nexus One off and on, but recently decided that I needed to create a custom boot animation. The process is actually pretty simple, albeit quite tedious. I’ll share the instructions at the end of this post, if you want to try your hand.

To cut to the chase, here’s a video showing the boot animation on my Nexus One. It’s admittedly pretty rough, but now that I know what I’m doing, it’ll be easier to tweak and improve the animation.

You can download the bootanimation.zip file at http://bit.ly/guruboot if you want to use it on your phone, and please let me know if you do! You’ll need to have rooted your phone, and there are a few ways to do it.

1. You *should* be able to use Root Explorer or Android Mate to paste bootanimation.zip to the datalocal directory on your device.

if that doesn’t work, then

2. If you have the Android SDK installed on your computer, connect your phone with USB debugging enabled, and put the bootanimation.zip in the tools directory. Then use the following commands:

Here’s a great walkthrough on creating your own custom boot animation.

Day 6: A Retreat

// September 26th, 2010 // 6 Comments » // pc-free

Six days in and I’ve already broken, sort of. While I’m still doing quite well at keeping my personal Internet use limited to my Nexus One, I’ve come across a few instances that simply must be done from my computer.

1. Organizing Flickr photos – while the Flickr Mobile site is refreshingly awesome, it’s still limited. There is no option to organize your photos (at least that I have found), which is rather important if I’m going to keep things from getting out of control. Yes, of course, I could simply load the desktop version of the Flickr site up on my phone, but with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, that’s an exercise in frustration. Going forward, I’ll likely use this on my desktop only a few times a week.

2. Keeping track of new Twitter followers - I recently discovered that Tweetdeck has the option to add a column which shows your new Twitter followers. I try to keep up with this, and have found several valuable new contributors to my stream using this method. I haven’t yet found a similar view in any mobile Twitter clients, and when I loaded Tweetdeck up this weekend, I found that I had gained quite a few new followers. Going forward, I might pull this up one or two days a week, to keep my original plan.

3. Blogging – Yes, of course I can blog from my Nexus One, and I intend to force myself to do so at least once or twice per week. However, the onscreen keyboard and limited features of the WordPress for Android client make this incredibly difficult. This is particularly true when I’m wanting to blog about something such as a link from one of my friends, or about something that will be a longer form, such as this. Unfortunately, the WordPress app doesn’t make it easy to add links, especially from multiple sources and such.

All in all, I’ve really been enjoying the time away from my computer. It’s quite refreshing, actually. I am, however, seeing a bigger drain on my phone’s battery (obviously). This is something I expected, but didn’t really consider. Of course, for me, at work at a desk, this isn’t much of a factor.

Do you think you could cut back to only using your phone for the Internet, and not your computer? What limitations do you think you might face?

Day 2: Discoveries And Disappointments

// September 21st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // pc-free

This is the end of my second day of using my Nexus One as my only source of personal Internet and already I’m wanting to pull out my old familiar laptop and browser. The limitations of a 3.7-inch display and touchscreen keyboard are already proving to he bigger than I imagined.

The biggest issue is the keyboard. As important to me as reading different sites and keeping up with things is, its equally important for me to be able to comment on those that I find interesting. It’s not enough for me to be a spectator, I need to join the conversation and create content of my own. It’s a personal drive that I’ve always had and I’m not about to give it up now. I’m finding it quite difficult to contribute on my favorite sites, especially since many of them do not have a mobile-friendly interface. I’ve said it before, but if you’re covering the mobile space and your site doesn’t have a mobile-friendly experience, you’ve completely missed it.

In any case, I’ll continue to find ways to be a part of the conversation. I need to experiment with more of the features of the browser on this phone and get more comfortable with the on-screen keyboard.

One side benefit that I had considered and am pleased to see is enhanced productivity, specifically at work. Whereas I used to have Seesmic Web and Talk open pretty much all day, I’m now 100% reliant on my phone. This has kept my attention better focused, and I’m definitely enjoying that. Hopefully this little experiment will also help me be more productive on this blog, too.

Posted from WordPress for Android

Day 2: Discoveries And Disappointments

// September 21st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // pc-free

This is the end of my second day of using my Nexus One as my only source of personal Internet and already I’m wanting to pull out my old familiar laptop and browser. The limitations of a 3.7-inch display and touchscreen keyboard are already proving to he bigger than I imagined.

The biggest issue is the keyboard. As important to me as reading different sites and keeping up with things is, its equally important for me to be able to comment on those that I find interesting. It’s not enough for me to be a spectator, I need to join the conversation and create content of my own. It’s a personal drive that I’ve always had and I’m not about to give it up now. I’m finding it quite difficult to contribute on my favorite sites, especially since many of them do not have a mobile-friendly interface. I’ve said it before, but if you’re covering the mobile space and your site doesn’t have a mobile-friendly experience, you’ve completely missed it.

In any case, I’ll continue to find ways to be a part of the conversation. I need to experiment with more of the features of the browser on this phone and get more comfortable with the on-screen keyboard.

One side benefit that I had considered and am pleased to see is enhanced productivity, specifically at work. Whereas I used to have Seesmic Web and Talk open pretty much all day, I’m now 100% reliant on my phone. This has kept my attention better focused, and I’m definitely enjoying that. Hopefully this little experiment will also help me be more productive on this blog, too.

Posted from WordPress for Android

Day 1: Punishment

// September 20th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // pc-free

Today I decided to start a new experiment. I’m going to see how long I can go without using my laptop for personal Internet – instead relying on my Nexus One.

I’ve done something similar, on Symbian-Guru.com, called ‘PC-Free For Thirty Days’. However, that was more trying to see if a phone could truly replace a laptop. It can, but not without some major sacrifices. No, today’s experiment is more of a personal one. I want to see how long I, personally, can go without using my laptop for personal Internet. This will force me to change ways that I use my phone, bit will also force me to really assess how I use my laptop (and hopefully convince me to rely on it less). 

I am allowed to use my laptop still, for a few tasks. I obviously need it for syncing my iPod, storing photos, and watching movies. I’m also going to allow myself to play Lord of the Rings Online. Aside from that, all of my email, RSS, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc, will be done from my phone.

I’d like to think I can go at least a week, maybe two, with just my phone. Of course, it would be even cooler if I could go an entire month, but let’s take things slow. I’ll be reporting my frustrations and discoveries here every few days, if you’d like to keep up.

I can already see that blogging is going to be frustrating. Android has a nice WordPress app, but entering that much text on such a small screen will be,… interesting. I do have a Bluetooth keyboard that I will probably set up, so maybe that will help.

Is there anything specific that you’d like to hear more about with this experiment?

Posted from WordPress for Android

Day 1: Punishment

// September 20th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // pc-free

Today I decided to start a new experiment. I’m going to see how long I can go without using my laptop for personal Internet – instead relying on my Nexus One.

I’ve done something similar, on Symbian-Guru.com, called ‘PC-Free For Thirty Days’. However, that was more trying to see if a phone could truly replace a laptop. It can, but not without some major sacrifices. No, today’s experiment is more of a personal one. I want to see how long I, personally, can go without using my laptop for personal Internet. This will force me to change ways that I use my phone, bit will also force me to really assess how I use my laptop (and hopefully convince me to rely on it less). 

I am allowed to use my laptop still, for a few tasks. I obviously need it for syncing my iPod, storing photos, and watching movies. I’m also going to allow myself to play Lord of the Rings Online. Aside from that, all of my email, RSS, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc, will be done from my phone.

I’d like to think I can go at least a week, maybe two, with just my phone. Of course, it would be even cooler if I could go an entire month, but let’s take things slow. I’ll be reporting my frustrations and discoveries here every few days, if you’d like to keep up.

I can already see that blogging is going to be frustrating. Android has a nice WordPress app, but entering that much text on such a small screen will be,… interesting. I do have a Bluetooth keyboard that I will probably set up, so maybe that will help.

Is there anything specific that you’d like to hear more about with this experiment?

Posted from WordPress for Android

First Thoughts On The Nexus One

// July 29th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // android

A little over 3 weeks ago, I finally made the decision to dump Symbian and pick up a Nexus One, Google’s unbranded Android-powered smartphone. It was a big leap, given that I’ve pretty much exclusively used Symbian-powered smartphones for the past 6 years, and used them for everything. So, how do I like it?

For starters, the Nexus One is fast. The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s 1GHz SnapDragon processor, which is backed up with 512MB of RAM – quite the killer combination, especially to power a pocket-sized device. It’s a welcome change from…….pretty much every Symbian-powered smartphone I’ve ever used, and a feature of the phone that I doubt I’ll ever get tired of.

One thing that I’m really loving about the Nexus One and its Android operating system is the customization options. For instance, I don’t particularly care for the stock Android portrait keyboard – it’s rather plain, and I much prefer the HTC Sense UI keyboard, which shows you the symbols and lets you press and hold a letter to access its respective symbol. I’ve also lately been using the Swype beta, which gives a similar option, in addition to the line-drawing feature. The key here isn’t the keyboards – it’s the fact that since I don’t like the default, I can easily change it. Similarly, I find the default SMS app boring – so I installed Handcent, a free alternative that completely replaces the default. Just like that.

One of the things that I originally read about the Nexus One is the poor battery life. I definitely expected the worst, but have been pleased to find that I can actually get through a full workday without having to keep it plugged into the charger. Of course, I can kill the Nexus One in a single day quite easily – but then again, aside from the BlackBerry Bold 9700, that goes for any smartphone on the planet. I’m typically getting anywhere betwen 9-11 hours  of continuous use on my Nexus One with Twitter, Foursquare, email, texting, and some web browsing, along with music playback. Overall, I’d say I’m pretty satisfied with the battery life.

I’m also really enjoying the Android Market, which is where I’ve gotten most of my apps. While the Android Market could obviously use some upgrades in terms of app discovery, it does its current job quite nicely, and I really love getting notified when there are new versions of the apps that I have installed on my phone. It’s a far cry from the Ovi Store that I was used to, which doesn’t really do much aside from act as a storefront.

Overall, I’m really having a blast with my Nexus One. Of course, I’ve had to make some sacrifices, such as the phontography experience, but in the day-to-day usage, I’d say that’s been an entirely worthwhile sacrifice. I’ll have more thoughts on the Nexus One (and Android in general) next week, including a list of my top recommended apps.