Android Strengths and Ailments

I posted these on my twitter timeline. So, if you haven't already, follow me @arnab_das

Android Strengths:

Android Strengths #1 : Extremely user friendly interface. Widgets, home screens, etc. make this one of the most user friendly OSes.

Android Strengths #2 : Notifications. Even the iOS users admit that the notification system is THE feature of Android.

Android Strengths #3 : 15 minutes payment return policy on apps. Okay maybe 15 minutes isnt enough, but for most apps, it is actually.

Android Strengths #4 : OS compatibility. Most android phones work perfectly with Windows, Mac and Linux, at least in the Mass Storage mode.

Android Strengths #5 : Root Access. This can be done with the "other" OS as well, but being open source it can give unprecedented control

Android Ailments:

Android Ailments #1 : Extremely Poor Support. Getting support from Google is tougher than seeing God Himself. No form of official support.

Android Ailments #2 : No policy to control apps. Malicious, unstable apps are flooding the market. Google is taking action way too late.

Android Ailments #3 : Compatibility. There is absolutely no guarantee that an app which runs on one android device will work on another. This is actually worst when the apps one is talking about turn out to be "paid" apps. Thats when it hurts.

Android Ailments #4 : No control over updates. One has absolutely no idea when one's phone will go out of date. Could be a year or a month!

Android Ailments #5 : Overall app interface, stability and usability still needs a lot of work. Force-close/hangs still very common issues.

And then it finally happened

Yup, it did. The inevitable.

I am now an official Android fanboy. Okay, maybe not the trolling, FUD spreading anti Apple one I used to be, but a fan of the Linux based OS I am.

Fact is, I was getting a pretty good deal on my N97 Mini, something which I thought was a decent amount considering that it was running a pretty much dead (now officially dead) OS. I exchanged that phone and spared a few bucks for a blazingly fast Galaxy S.

First impressions? WOW!

Still reading? I usually stop watching videos the moment the unboxing happens and the reviewer goes WOW! Thats a turn off. But now that I'm about to write a review (albeit a very boringly crappy one), I realise that its only a natural reaction.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. So basically this thing has some pretty nifty features with a sleek UI. The processor is decent and so is the RAM. TouchWiz never really looked like a Sense UI competitor to me, but after using it for a few days now, I think its pretty good, although Sense still gets my vote.

Audio quality on the phone is a bit on the suckier side. And so are the earphones. Apart from that its a pretty nifty phone. If you're in the market for a new phone. Get an android and let the OS take over your life.

5 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Mac

Image by [kilodelta] via Flickr

1. They look good - Yes, Macs are the ultimate toys for someone into computers. They dont look geeky but they do look classy. The minimalistic design has won it fans all over the world and is a winning fecture of all Macs.

2. They have no driver issues - Since Macs are custom made by Apple to run OSX, it doesnt have any driver issues at all. All the hardware components are Apple certified for top notch performance.

3. Synchronisation - if you own and iPhone or any other Apple device, owning a Mac is going to improve the whole "Apple" experience by a thousand times! It is this synchronisation with its other devices which has convinced many users of the need for a Mac.

4. Support System - Let's face it, Apple's support system is superb. If you ever face any sort of problem with your Mac, support and help is only a phone call or an email away.

5. A class of its own - Apple users are a hallowed species. Only around 2-3% people of the entire planet own Macs and hence the moment you buy one, you are immediately elevated to this supreme class of ultra rich users. This is in contrast to the "everyone is equal" philosophy of Linux and open source softwares.

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy A Mac

Image by chrismear via Flickr

1. Macs are expensive - Its no secret that Macs are expensive toys, well out of reach of many, infact most of PC users. In an age where "value-for-money" has acquired a whole new meaning, expensive Macs do tend to go against the consumer friendly trend.

2. Hardware Issues - Yes the Macs do come with pretty decent (decent as in okayish) configuration. But frankly its standard models are nowhere near as powerful as today's PCs. Most games (the few ones which run on a Mac) have more demanding system requirements specifications for the OSX versions than their Windows counterparts. Also, ports (or lack of it) have forever plagued the Macs. Apple somehow enjoys sticking to dated ports and trying to dodge recent trends.

3. Upgrading Issues - I think most of us are aware of this drawback, because the Mac is such a compact piece of work, it does not give the user much upgrading options. Upgrading a hard drive in many models is impossible and changing the motherboard could kill the device altogether.

4. Its closed source - Its a fact that Mac laves you with no other option but to run Apple's OSX. Now that is a really good OS, but since its closed source, development wise its prospects are limited and security feature solidifications completely dependent on the whims and fancies of the developers employed by Apple.

5. Lack of softwares - Like it or not this is a big issue. Windows has a plethora of softwares for various purposes but OSX has few. Even Linux has more softwares than OSX. The reason is of course the closed source nature of the OS and the lack of users.

So these were my top 5 reasons why I think you shouldnt buy a Mac. To keep the argument fair, I will blog next about why you should buy a Mac.

Purchase Apps from Ubuntu Software Center?

Image via Wikipedia

I have been pretty open in the past about my love of open source softwares. The best thing about open source is that development doesnt get stagnated if the developer gets bored of the project. Also, since most open source softwares are free (as in free for downloding) their popularity is guaranteed.

What is not guaranteed though is the popularity of the OS 'for' open source. Most Linux based distributions these days suffer from the acute problem of sheer obscurity! Even Ubuntu which is (quite wrongly) said to be almost synonymous with Linux suffers from this problem. After all more that 90% of the world's PCs run on Windows. This sheer lack of popularity is one of the reasons why big developers and companies have stayed away from Linux. Most think that since Linux is all about free and open source, there's no money to be made here. Thats partly true. But shattering that myth Canonical has now introduced an option to purchase apps right from the Ubuntu Software Center.

I know many will be up in arms about this and a few might stop using Ubuntu altogether crying foul. But the fact is (and rude as it might sound), we need to grow up, desperately. Most Linux based distros suffer from acute shortage of funds and to sustain development of a distribution, funds are a necessity. There's another theory. Linux is a hotbed of open source apps, and there are many. However sad as it might sound, there are very few professional grade apps with support system out there. GIMP is a great application, but only a fool would compare it with Adobe Photoshop (I used to be one such fool). Similarly I think there is a severe shortage of games on the Linux platform. If developers and companies are encouraged to come up with more decent quality applications and those are featured on the Ubuntu Software Center, I think it can only be good. After all, even the Canonical online store has options to buy closed softwares from them.

The Linux Usageshare

Linux is everywhere now. In the servers where it originally belonged and perhaps still belongs, in the desktop and now more recently even in mobile devices and tablets. But what has remained a mystery for a long time is exactly what the Linux market share is. Windows is touted as the most popular OS with over 90% market share. Mac OSX is said to have around 4-5 percent and Linux a measly 1-2% according to Wikipedia.

(Shown below are the relative market share of various OSes according to Wikipedia)

So Windows is the most popular OS. I think there's no controversy regarding that. What creates a controversy though is the market share of Linux. Now keeping a tab on Windows market share is relatively easy, since there is a definite sales figure (and perhaps tracking). But when it comes to Linux, because its free and no "buying issue" is involved, tracking the total number of users is extremely difficult. What complicates the problem further is the presence of literally hundreds of distros. Yes, Ubuntu is without doubt the most popular Linux distro (Distrowatch reports an overwhelming hits per day statistic in favour of Ubuntu), but its not the only one. Fedora is very popular among Linux users, and there is a dedicated fan following for OpenSUSE, Free BSD, CentOS.

(Shown below is a screenshot from Distrowatch showing average hits per day)

Tracking the growth of each of these distros requires an immense amount of coordination effort among companies and developers which unfortunately the Linux sphere has not seen in the past. Distro bashing these days is a favourite pastime for many and the importance of a collective effort to create a platform for collaboration and the bigger picture is missed altogether.

Canonical has recently brought a new tracking application to its distro Ubuntu which helps it to collect info about how long the OS is installed on the PC etc. As of now there is no detailed info about exactly what information Canonical is collecting and what it intends to do with it and as expected there this concern has been reciprocated by a few users. (See Slashdot and Phoronix more info on this)

So why is tracking all that important? Why is the marketshare such a hallowed statistic? Why does a normal user need to even bother about what percentage of users are using the same OS he's using? The answer has been eloquently given by Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack who says:

"There are hundreds of conflicting estimates of how many Linux machines are out there. Knowing how many people are using Linux is important because larger numbers provide leverage when we go asking for drivers from hardware manufacturers, apps from software makers or try and convince OEMs to bundle Linux."

(Source: TechNewsWorld)

Linux needs more support from hardware manufacturers and drivers support to improve the "Linux experience", if I may say so. The only way to convince manufacturers and developers to do that is to give them hard data. Thats a fair argument I think, as long as the user is aware of the info that the company is collecting.

After all for most (if not all) Linux is much more than just an OS.

Does closed source somehow contribute to open source?

Image via Wikipedia

In my earlier posts I have openly discussed my doubts about the relevance of closed source softwares and OSes in today's world. However as I delved deep into the matter, a deeper understanding has struck me.

Closed source OSes like Windows and Mac are the epitome and prototype of functionality. Eg. Windows supports practically an innumerable amount of hardware across the planet and still manages to mesmerise the user with its intuitive and friendly interface. Mac on the other hand is an icon of style and glamour. The hardware is exquisitely designed and the same goes for OSX. Linux OSes however arent as user friendly as Windows. Although a lot has changed and Ubuntu has created a benchmark for usability as far as Linux OSes are concerned, but it still has a long way to go.

Now frankly, these closed source OSes set the benchmark for usability and open source ones (harsh and unkind as it might sound) kind of follow those 'set paths'. I therefore believe that its very important that closed source apps and OSes coexist with open source ones.

Apple...to bite or not to

Image via WikipediaThis is a post which comes from the bottom of my heart. I havent planned it, and I'm kind of typing it out as the thoughts start coming in. But this is something which I feel should be discussed and people should take a stance either for or against it.

What I'm talking about is Apple. Not the delicious fruit which keeps the doctor away, but the equally 'delicious' multinational corporation leading the pack in creating some of the most stunning (and yes, I mean that word) products the world has ever seen. The iPod, Mac, iPhone and now the talk of the town the iPad, all created by this magic company headed by the charismatic Steve Jobs. These folks have handed us some of the coolest of products imaginable, almost as if fulfilling our childhood fantasies of playing around with some of the coolest gadgets. That is possible primarily because of the fact that they dont have to depend on other corporations/companies for their stuff. They are in control of every stage of the process of creating that stunning device, starting with the hardware, the design to the software and its nitty-gritties. These guys have the power over it all, and they do an awesome job, totally utilising this 'control' to their advantage. They also have this super tight lipped culture where nothing about anything really, gets leaked to the outside world, which of course, adds to the hype. As a result what we as consumers get are totally out of the box products never even imagined by other companies, and so revolutionary that it changes the landscape of technology overnight! As a direct consequence of that, Apple today is one of the biggest mobile companies in the world, with revenue rivalling that of giants like Nokia. And I'm quite sure that in no time, the Mac will compete with Windows for the more popular OS tag (the more stylish OS award has already been won by the Mac). Awesome corporation Apple, isnt it? Of course it is.

The thing is, however, inspite of all this glamour and glitz and hype about everything Apple, there is something the company is creating. Its making the technological world more 'closed'. There's a certain way Apple OSes/softwares are designed and the consumers are meant to use it as Apple deems fit. In other words, Apple controls the way we experience its products. I'll just give you an example. Say there's a minor glitch/absence of a particular feature in an Apple software, now what do you do then? At the most, you send a feedback to Apple and expect them to take care of it (erm...leaving the problem totally at their disposal which most of the time ends up in the company releasing a new improved version of the product leaving you with no other option but to spend your moolah all over again in getting that improved product), since no one else can because Apple doesnt wish to release the source code (in lay man's terms that means instructions about how a program performs/functions). But what if there's a really good software developer willing to do that rectification/debugging of that software and add some more features to it for free! If you could, would you hand it over to that guy? I dont know about your answer but I would. But Apple wouldnt want us to hand it over to that guy simply because it means that the company loses control over the product.

This is exactly how closed source and open source softwares (and corporations as well) function. The situation described above is not something which might bother you now, but trust me, this will become a bigger issue every time pro-closed source corporations (eg. Microsoft, Apple, etc.) keep coming up with these awesome products. These products are seriously cool devices in the guise of something else...something different, something meant to steer the technological world in a particular direction favourable for the particular company.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not anti-Apple. I honestly believe the world would be a duller place to live in without the blessings of Apple and its products (and I am a fan of the iPhone and Mac). But I certainly dont like the way Apple resists from releasing a single letter of the source code of its OSes. I wont talk about Microsoft Windows, because already there is a significant number of people who are 'tired of' that OS and want to/have already shifted to Mac and Linux. And that number certainly isnt decreasing. However Apple already has an awesome user-friendly OS which is both secure, stable and easy to use (the former two cannot be applied to Windows). In other words, Mac is a better all round OS than Windows (and is destined for greater success, perhaps of titanic proportions if they let developers across the world help them in their endeavour). Who knows, had Apple gone open-source, the Mac would have been the OS on 97% of computers across the planet today and not the other way round.

Imageshack now has an uploader

For many of us, flickr and picasa are just way too 'light' for our blogging needs. Imageshack with its unlimited storage and registration-less service is an easy winner for bulk image uploads especially for people who like to link to images and hate those stupid alert messages about depleting storage etc.

Imageshack has recently upgraded its interface. And they now have a plethora of uploading options for its users, much like flickr. It has introduced the ImageShack Uploader (remember flickr uploadr?) for its users. And Linux lovers need not fret coz there's now a Linux version of their uploader! Although I wasnt able to download the .deb file, I'm pretty sure its a temporary issue and will be resolved soon.

In the meantime do check out the awesome uploading options imageshack has managed to come up with. (Imageshack uploading options)

My picks of 2009

These are my picks for the best 'revolutionary' softwares/OSes/web apps of 2009:



1. Google Chrome - This is without doubt the most interesting product of 2009. Although it was released in September 2008, Chrome really came of age in 2009. There's now a Windows, Mac as well as a Linux version of Chrome and the usability and feature set of Chrome has virtually doubled in the past few months. Its looking like a much more complete browser now than it ever did! And well here's the thing, I was an ardent fan of Firefox (maybe I still am) but seriously, Firefox doesnt really have the 'nifty-ness' of Chrome and frankly speaking, the development of Firefox isnt really headed in that direction! And now Chrome has a really good set of "Extensions" (aka the "add-ons"), so you wont really miss Firefox!



2. icloud - Cloud computing is the future, there's no debate about that. The thin line between desktop and online computing has been blurred forever thanks to cloud computing. Now you can access your favourite desktop apps and files no matter where in the world you are. And among all the other cloud computing 'sites', icloud is without any doubt the sleeker and the most popular one. This surely was one of the most awesome stuff we've seen in 2009 and we're surely gonna see more of cloud in the years to come.



3. Ubuntu - Linux also came of age in 2009. This year saw the release of one of the most user-friendly Linux OSes ever, Ubuntu 9.10 (codenamed Karmic Koala). It shattered the myth that Linux was all about terminals, kernels and everything geeky. Linux as of now is as user-friendly (and in some instances, even more) than its Windows counterpart. The sheer fact that everything is customisable is the plus point of Ubuntu. Also, the impenetrable security of Ubuntu has also been the talking point. Ubuntu is coming up with its LTS (Long Term Support) release next year 10.04 codenamed Lucid Lynx which promises to be another revolutionary step in Linux.



4. Twitter - Who'd have thought a 140 character stupid social networking concept would turn out to be one of the most most important path breaking achievements in the social networking scene! Twitter has used 2009 to usher into a social networking giant, competing with the likes of Facebook and Myspace. Sure Twitter has teething problems and annoying outages but the fact is for millions around the globe (and that includes celebs as well), Twitter has become a way of life.



5. DivX 7 - An unlikely candidate you might say? Erm...no. Infact I might venture to say, the release of DivX 7 was perhaps the most important landmark achievement of 2009. What does that mean? Well in the words of Wikipedia, "On the 6th of January 2009, DivX 7 was released, which added H.264 video, AAC audio and Matroska container support, surpassing the restrictions of their previous formats." So now, you can convert your favourite high definition videos to a format which will compress them to a large extent (much larger extent than Xvid or DivX) without apparent loss in quality! If you have a video which you want to share with the world, size is now no at all a barrier. (Some might say H264 and Matroska existed way before DivX 7 released, but the fact is because DivX 7 has integrated these codecs, it will now receive a worldwide recognition and acceptance from users. What this also means is that come 2010, and we might see products aka Blu Ray Disc Players which will play videos which use the H264 codec! Should suffice to say, this is music to millions of videophiles across the planet)

That was my pick of 2009.