From Drop Box

Just found this cool honeycomb theme.  Currently only for ApeX 1.4.1 for Droid2/X.  Head over to androidforums for the goodies.

Ah it is about time.  We are just one day away from the announcement everyone has been waiting for since 2007.  Finally a carrier with infrastructure capable of handling the massive amount of data being pulled by the most popular smartphone in the world, the iPhone 4.  

That’s right, it has been all but confirmed by Apple and Verizon themselves that the iPhone will be announced on Big Red’s network tomorrow, January 11, 2011.  Antenna issue be damned (or resolved), Cuppertino’s beautiful piece of hardware is sure to sway many would-be droid customers (see mindless consumer) to opt for the fancy glass and metal iPhone.  

Can iPhone stop what DROID does?

Well it turns out that iPhone does also.  And it does it smoother and more intuitively.  Not including Flash, the browsing experience is much smoother on an iPhone than any Android device to date.  The user interface is less customizable, and thus more intuitive for new users.  The seamless mac and pc integration coupled with a beautiful design render the iPhone 4 a winner, and it shows in the numbers.  When the iPhone comes to Verizon, will it be a droid-killer?

source

Here’s what I think will happen. For simplicity’s sake I am going to use Verizon’s DROID branding to indicate all of their Android handsets (basically including Samsung’s Galaxy S variant).  

• Nerds will still drool over Android

Android will always be the platform of the nerds.  It has to be.  Full customization power users desire can only be achieved through an Android handset that can be easily unlocked and rooted.  This is only hindered by manufacturer’s boneheaded bootloader lockdowns and the like. The iPhone will never see such customizability.  It is a designed experience that, while very good, is also forced and unavoidable.  

The addictive nature of total control acquired through full customization of an android handset is uncontested by the iPhone.  Apple does not want the user to have full control of the experience.  They want anyone to be able to pick up any iOS device and use it with no learning curve. Apple has made some sacrifices to be able to provide this experience, allowing the Android to fill the void and become the favored platform of those seeking this deeper experience.  This brings me to my second point.

• Most DROID lovers won’t ditch Android for the iPhone 4

Still, there is something to be said for the iPhone’s popularity on AT&T and in Europe.  Apple single-handedly revolutionized the smartphone industry in 2007 with the first iPhone.  The first android phone (HTC G1) did not hit the market until Fall 2008. The Droid 1, which I will claim as the first popular android handset on Verizon, appeared just over a year ago in November 2009.  For 2 years Verizon customers hoped the iPhone would come their way before the Droid stepped in and stole the market.  Verizon’s rock solid network coupled with AT&T’s ridiculous drop call rates has prevented many from switching over the years.  Still, most bought the Droid because it was “like an iPhone”, not “like the G1.”  

• Many Droid 1 owners that have not upgraded to a newer, faster android phone will upgrade to the iPhone.

The experience on the early Android phones was not as good as the older generation iPhones.  I personally know many early adopters of the Droid 1 that didn’t fall in love with Android enough to pass up an iPhone (after all that’s what they wanted in the first place).

By now, most power users have forked over the cash for one of Verizon’s smartphone offerings already, whether it be the Droid 1, 2, global, pro, X, Incredible, or Samsung Fascinate.  Those that haven’t upgraded to a smartphone but could benefit from having one will probably upgrade sometime after the iPhone 4 is released for Verizon.

• New smartphone buyers will choose the iPhone 4.

Before I ramble on I am going to post this and come back to it later.  My main points are listed below.

1. New customers will choose iPhone over Android
2. Android phones will not see a drop in sales
3. People will still buy the iPhone 4 this spring even if Apple has released a new iPhone every June for the past 4 years.
4. Nerds will be Nerds
5. Verizon will make a ton of money

Thank you and goodbye.  Will update this as I deem necessary over the coming days.

Introducing the Motorola Atrix.

Moving into my new apartment I have been internetless (yeah that’s a word) for the past few days.  The past week has been CES 2011, so I have been missing out on a bunch of gadget/tech news.  Basically CES is where manufacturers debut flagship products for the new year.  This gives a flavor of where the industry is headed for the new year.

Motorola has announced the Atrix, a higher resolution (960x540) smartphone running Froyo with a dual core processor and 4G HSPA+ capability on AT&T’s “network”.

The amazing thing about this phone is not the specs, but the integration of a desktop like experience when attached to a dock with monitor and keyboard.  Even more handsome is the Motorola laptop dock which pairs a laptop like device (basically a keyboard, battery, trackpad, and screen that runs off the phone and charges it while in the dock.  Hit up the engadget video for the action.  

Source: Engadget

There’s an issue with Google’s open-source mobile phone platform.  It’s open.  

Unlike iOS, phone manufacturers can tweak the little green guy (the android) to their liking.  Unfortunately that means bloating the devices with shitty software (that you can’t delete) and adding clunky UI elements to differentiate the experience from other devices.  Sounds absurd? It’s exactly what’s going on, and everyone with at least a minor interest in the development of the platform is aware of this.

Rather than toting truly revolutionary hardware, manufacturers are using the same components and attempting to slap a new face on the software.  For Motorola this means it’s intrusive, ugly, and slow blur interface.  For HTC it means its somewhat more bearable Sense UI.  For Samsung it means hideous TouchWiz.  Seriously guys, just stop trying.

So what do you do if you bought a flagship device such as the Droid X only to find a hideous clunky mask of blur in the way of the true android experience?  return it?  of course not.  Root it, ROM it, and say goodbye to Motoblur.   The folks over at XDA-developers and Droidforums are on the leading edge of the battle against Blur.  After trying all the ROMs available, three stand head and shoulders above the rest.  Fission,  ApeX and RubiX are the cream of the crop.  Almost all traces of Blur are removed from these three ROMs and the results are nothing short of spectacular.  Battery life is dramatically increased and performance is much faster than the stock Droid X experience.

To give a quantitative comparison for speed, I achieved Quadrant standard benchmarks of 1300-1400 with Motorola’s Froyo Build 2.3.15.  Here’s my best to date on Fission 2.1:

Happy ROMming.  If you are looking for some good guides, just google it :) . Adios Motoblur.

You wrestle yourself to the ground

You springboard and kick yourself in the mouth
Cause all of that drama, that embarrassed charade
Couldn’t stop you or settle you down

So you got back with your black hole
And you don’t care who’s out there or who knows
Cause you’re spent and you’re sad
Cause you’ve bronzed it, it’s your badge
And you’ve fixed it to all your clothes

Every t-shirt and overcoat
So it’s with you through hot or cold
But I would tear it from the cloth
Yeah, I would tear it from the cloth
Grow up and knock it off

Cause there’s a world awake outside
With injustice and music and july, july
With history’s arc, 
With your family, 
With art.
But it don’t mean nothing
Not to you, not tonight

You can’t see past the length of your nose
The biggest problems, well you’re sure they’re your own
That girl you cut loose
Those two friends that cursed you

And all that powder that you can’t leave alone

And you say, you know, you know, you know
But I know that you don’t, you don’t, you don’t
Cause if you did, you’d really try
If you did, you’d really try to let all that die

So marry yourself to your work
And crowd your confusion with words
Then round out your life with some records you like
While you bury your love in the dirt

Cause it’s endless, the ditch you can dig
You’re stubborn, and you’re prideful, and you’re all over it
So I suggest you make sense of the time you’ve got left
So you don’t end up back where you’ve been

And you say you won’t, you won’t, you won’t
And I hope that you don’t, you don’t, you don’t
But if you mean it, then stand up and fight
But if you mean it, then stand up and fight
Cause I mean, it’s only your life

I mean it’s only your life
To fix or ruin
To figure what to do with
It’s only your life
To fix or ruin
Cause no one else is going to do it
Cause it’s only your life