iPhone vs. Android (myTouch 3G) -- What Matters To Me
No long post about why I’m switching phones, just this: iPhone vs. Android/myTouch. And a comparison of the things that matter to me.Note: I did not have a myTouch to test with — but did have a G1 handy. I’ve tried to restrict my comparison to OS and network related issues, attempting to leave device specifics and/or speed issues out of it.
App StoreOne of my biggest annoyances with my Nokia E71 is the lack of a good app store. When I originally purchased the device last year, there were a few random JAR’s floating around the net for things like Twitter and Hotspot creation, but discovery (and support) of these apps was near-impossible. They recently release their “Ovi Store”, which is just as impossible to use as the previous setup. I don’t need 60,000 apps — but I certainly want a few extensions to the platform that will allow me to use my smartphone as a powerful 3rd screen.Apple likes to tout its app store as having tons and tons (and tons) of apps. Like I said, I don’t need 60,000 of them — I just need a few that work and work well. I think that despite a few bad pieces of press over the Google Voice incident (and other rejected apps), I really like their app store. I like that:- I can browse it on my desktop
- I can backup my apps simply, through iTunes
- Apple is making strides to increase discovery of new apps beyond a simple “Top 10” list
- Developers make their iPhone apps FIRST. If they have time and money, they make an Android app. It’d be nice to be in that first group for once. (after being a Mac user for so many years. Ironic, no?)
Android apps are … well, they’re there. The Market app is, well … functional. I think the total now is around 5,000 apps(?). Not bad, but not great. I’m not excited about constantly seeing cool/helpful apps on my friend’s iPhones and then being disappointed that a similar app doesn’t exist on my Android phone. And yes, I’m positive that will happen. Like with music, I’m not too keen on Android’s lack of desktop-syncing capabilities.Winner: iPhoneMulti-TaskingI multi-task a lot, so it’s an incredibly important feature to me. You can frequently find me hopping back and forth between my email, web, contacts, maps, etc. My Nokia has a great (and fast) switching function and I love it.The Apple cannot multi-task. I’ve had people try to tell me that the closed apps remember their state, but the reality is that a) this only occurs in native apps, and b) I still must go find the app I was just in and re-open it. “Switching” between apps is simply not an option.The Android OS can switch like a pro.Winner: AndroidCameraThe iPhone’s camera flat out pisses me off. The other night, my little toddler girl decided to try on some of mommy’s shoes and her hat. Seeing this insane amount of cuteness, I reached for the nearest photo-taking device within reach: my wife’s iPhone. I “pressed” the “shutter” button (a completely unsatisfying experience) and the result? A blurry blob of a fast-moving toddler. It seems the iPhone’s camera is great for taking well-lit photos of slow-moving subjects. The shutter speed (no, it doesn’t actually have a shutter) is laggy and makes it difficult to take photos.My tests today with the G1 produced different, yet equally annoying results. The G1’s camera taking functionality seems far more responsive to the touch, however, when pressed, the camera pauses, focuses, and snaps. There’s about a whole second lag there — and this seems to be by design of the camera taking software. Different issue, equally annoying.Winner: TIE (or “double fail” if you prefer)Network CoverageDespite a horrendous looking coverage map for T-mobile on their website, their coverage in San Francisco and San Diego is actually pretty stellar. I actually spent an afternoon driving up and down I-5 from San Diego to Oceanside, constantly checking both a T-mobile and ATT phone. The Tmo coverage map showed North County as having zero 3G coverage, but it was full bars — just like my ATT device.Based on a few other press releases, Tmo seems to be expanding their 3G coverage at an incredibly rapid rate — in addition, I’ve heard a few rumors of them getting ready to launch their 4G service soon.On the flip side, I’ve been pretty dissatisfied with ATT over the last two years. Despite decent coverage, I frequently get “network busy” timeouts when trying to make a mid-day call in San Francisco. In addition, dropped calls are not that uncommon for ATT and I’ve seen a drastic rise in reports about dropped calls on the iPhone.So, ATT’s got a larger coverage area, but struggles with network overload and quality. Tmo’s making some serious headway in expanding their coverage, but still falls behind in overall coverage area.Winner: TIEGoogle IntegrationI’ve sold my soul to Google: Gmail, Calendar, Reader, etc. — I love it all. And I want my phone to work with these applications easily.The setup on the G1 the other night was seamless. Gmail in the OS? Done. Calendar, contacts, lovely. Even Google Voice — simple. It even includes a quick switcher to change the mode in which Voice operates — all calls, international only, etc.I haven’t done my homework on Gmail on the iPhone, but a quick search in the store showed tons of Gmail apps — none of them over a 3-star rating. I’ve seen some posts about getting Gmail to do Push notification, etc. It all seems like a hack (IMAP is nice, but avoids the delete/archive workflow I’ve come to love in Gmail). And of course, no Google Voice. Even when Apple finally quits their PR pissing match with ATT and Google and they release the app, I’m sure it will be handicapped in some way for quite some time.Winner: AndroidBatteryEverything I hear about the iPhone battery makes me sad. At the last CTIA conference in San Francisco, I attented some after-work drinks with some business partners and our two business development guys. They entered the bar, and frantically began looking around for somewhere to charge their iPhones. “What are you guys doing?” I asked. “We haven’t charged our iPhones since 11am [it was 6pm] and they’re almost dead.” Sad.I thought the newer OS improvements and maybe the 3GS would fix this problem, but no. My wife — far from a “power user” — is constantly on the look out for an open plug, and God forbid if we forget her charger and we’re out for the day. We pulled into San Diego last night after a long day driving down from SF — her battery was red. My Nokia had a full charge. Sad.I have no idea how to compare the myTouch’s battery, but it can’t be as bad as the iPhone. And yes, I consider this a fair and valid argument.The specs put the phones at equal talk time, but with the myTouch clocking in at double the standby time.Winner: Android (simply because the iPhone has disqualified itself)Plan CostLooking at my wife’s iPhone bill makes me queasy. She even swore to me she’s not on the unlimited plan, but viewing her bill still makes me think I might need to pick up a 2nd job to cover the cost.The Tmo plan averages about 25% less.Winner: AndroidOS Overall UI/UXI love the iPhone OS. It’s slick and simple. It reminds me of OS X (duh). The User Interface reaches the perfect balance between simplicity and power — the novice smartphone user can download their Light Saber app, and I can run SSH. The menus make sense and Apple has gone to great lengths to make sure app developer conform to well thought out and well document specifications.The Android shines with its home screen customization and widget features — I love them! However, there are 2 big annoyances I’ve had the last few days:
- The “menu” convention needs more rules around it for developers. I got the Twidroid app and instantly began asking myself: “Where’s the _______ section?” Behold! The MENU hardware button. Apps now split up their functionality — some of it is on-screen, some of it is hidden in this menu button. This UI convention makes it difficult to navigate any app because different developers do different things with the Menu. You’re taking the user out of the touch-screen environment and asking them to go back to pressing a hardware button that may, or may not, do what they think it should. iPhone apps on the other hand, place all functionality on-screen. No ifs ands or buts. I like that — and it makes for a less confusing user experience.
- Exiting applications: some 3rd party apps have an “Exit Application” button, some don’t. Why? Why do I have to run a 3rd party task manager app to close these other apps? Very annoying.
Granted, these are simple annoyances, and I’m sure the OS will get cleaned up with a few more iterations and a few more developers learning that UI actually matters. But for now…Winner: iPhoneMusicI’m sick of carrying around my iPod. I’m looking forward to having a phone that does music — easier.My E71 can play music, but two things restrict me from doing it frequently: 1) it doesn’t easily sync to anything, so I must mount it as a drive or transfer files over Bluetooth. 2) It doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so I’ve got to go find an adapter. Something I still haven’t done in a year and don’t ever foresee myself doing.And these are the two major problems I have with Android here. Sure, I could use DoubleTwist, but like I said with Gmail earlier, I’m not keen on using hacks to implement functionality I think should just work. And the headphone jack is just … dumb. When will device makers learn that no one carries around USB headphones?On the other hand, syncing the iPhone with iTunes is a breeze and it’s got a legit headphone jack.Winner: iPhoneConclusion9 items that matter to me, two ties. The score? iPhone 3, Android 4. So, naturally, the winner isssss….???I have no idea. Honestly. Maybe I should weight these items to help me out. Despite the score, I still feel like the two are 50-50. I guess the iPhone’s App Store and OS UI are both important enough for me to even out the deficit in multi-tasking, battery life, and Google integration.I dunno.Which phone do you think I should buy? Leave a comment and let me know.
My First Attempt With Phing
I’ve finally come to the place where I need some help in automated deployments. I’ve got a few weekend PHP projects that are getting large enough that deploying them takes a few minutes — minutes where stuff can break and stay broken until I remember the exact command line call I need to make to fix them. SVN export, symlinks, mkdir’s, etc etc. I want to automate this crap!
My first attempt was with using Capistrano. I’d heard it could be hacked a bit to make it deploy just about anything. So I installed the gem and tinkered. The trouble is, I don’t have time to learn Ruby right now. Furthermore, I don’t like having the Ruby/Capistrano dependencies.
…and in walks Phing — automated deployment using PHP and XML. Hey! I know those!
Installing Phing was a bit more troublesome than Capistrano — mainly because my hosting company (Dreamhost) has some restrictions around installing PEAR modules and also a small issue in that the default command line bin for PHP is v4 — no good for Phing, which requires PHP5.
A few hours later, and viola! Phing is ready to roll.
Monday Update (On A Wednesday)
How Im feeling about this week: anxious
Chipotle Will Be the Death of Me
Here’s what I had for lunch today. I’d heard that Chipotle’s “nutritional” information was tough to look at, but … wow. I think I need to go workout now.
| Nutrition Facts | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| Calories 950 | Cal from Fat 355 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 39g | 59% |
The Things Tourists Say
Yes, I enjoy climbing small little rocks. No, I do not use a rope. No, it is actually far less dangerous that roped climbing. Yes, I’ve climbed with a rope. No, I have not climbed anything on El Cap. No, it is not my life’s dream to do The Nose. This thing on my back? It’s a big foam pad. Just in case I fall asleep and fall backwards. I have narcolepsy.
Ah, tourists - when will you learn? The answer? Never.
And that’s ok. Honest. After years of heading up the Tramway in Palm Springs with a crashpad on my back, I’m used to the weird questions and even weirder looks from tourists.
Tourist: “Is that a massage table?”
Me : “Yes, yes it is. My buddy and I like to head up the mountain, hike deep into the woods, and give each other nature massages. They’re really quite great - you should try it.”
(Of course, the louder and more excited you get when saying this, the more looks you get from the Tram passengers)
And my recent trip to Yosemite was no different. This was my 4th trip to Yosemite this year (and my 4th ever). The other three trips were made in the off-season and — in the spring — Yosemite seemed to be filled more with climbers and adventurists than 30-person families with bike racks, campers, and 4-burner behemoth grills. In the off-season, it seemed so common to see a crashpad or a rack full of cams that I don’t think I ever got a tourist question. But in the summer-time, the bouldering becomes slippery and those in-the-know seem to avoid the Valley and head for Tahoe.
Along with the summer-time hordes comes the uninitiated — and like I said, it doesn’t bother me anymore. I get a pretty good chuckle — especially hearing parents explaining my sport to their kids.
One lovely afternoon, my friend Dave informed me he’d seen a great looking boulder just off the road that connects Curry Village to the Happy Isles shuttle stop. We hopped on our bikes and cruised over. Despite a bit of chalk on a short finger crack, the rest of the boulder was dirty. We set to work with my brushes, shaving off the dead moss and removing layers of dirt and pine needles. We made quick work of the left and right aretes. Dave then saw another line just to the right of the left arete. Dave and I both spent 30 minutes or so trying to work out the moves.
The boulder is road-side and across from a very popular hiking trail, so there were plenty of tourists checking out our progress as they walked by. Most were quiet, but my two favorite comments were:
- Son: “Look dad! Look at the rock climbers!”
Dad: “Yeah, son — they’re practicing their rock climbing.” (No, sir! This is rock climbing… my goal is not to get strong for aid climbing [please note the subtle climbing humor here]) - After I took a good fall after turning the lip, a lady called out: “Good thing this isn’t Half Dome - you’d be dead! Haha” To this I simply had no reply. Normally (especially hours later), I would have some fantastically sarcastic retort to a comment like this, but I still have nothing. I just hope people aren’t soloing v4’s heading up the cables. (I’ve heard the 1,000 steps are hard, but I don’t think they’re v4). No. See? Even that isn’t a good retort. I’ll work on it and get back to you with something funnier.
I must give a tip o’ the hat to another friend, Jake, who came across us as he was coming back from Half Dome. “Are you guys bouldering?” Jake, I applaud you. Yes, we are bouldering. It’s hard. And it’s fun. Carry on.
But my favorite moment of the week came on our 2nd day of our trip. I’d spotted a great looking boulder only a few hundred yards from our campsite. I’d attempted some headlamp climbing, but despite chalk on a few start holds, the rest of the climb was dirty and untouched. So the next morning, I loaded up my backpack with a few pieces of gear and a short 30m rope. I planned to head to the boulder, throw a rope over the top and rappel onto the climb to clean it.
I left Upper Pines Campground and joined the same trail mentioned earlier, heading towards Happy Isles. I crossed the road and fell into the flow of foot traffic, just in front of a girl and her mom.
Girl: “Look mommy - he’s got a big rope!” (I smiled, knowing the 30m rope was half the standard length, but enjoying the little girl’s enthusiasm and awe)
Mommy: “Yes, dear. It looks like he’s going rock climbing.”
Having a daughter myself, my mind turned to my not-too-distant-future of teaching my daughter the “ropes” of rock climbing. I smiled and continued walking just in front of them. As I neared the boulder just off the trail to my right, the girl made a keen observation:
Girl: “Look mommy - I think he’s going to go climb that rock.”
Mommy: “No, dear. I’m sure he’s going to go climb something much bigger.”
With almost a hint of spite towards the older woman, I smiled big as I stripped off my pack, and began setting up the rope. I smiled at the girl as she walked by as if to say: “See? Your imagination wins! And frankly my dear, you don’t need to run out 30 pitches on El Cap to have a good time.” I hope I run into that little girl again — maybe next time on a 30-foot-long low-ball traverse.
The rest of my afternoon was spent hanging on a gri gri, roasting in the sun, and filling my shoes with brushed-off dirt and gray lichen. The occasional tourist would stop along the path and offer me an inquisitive glance. I was far enough away to not hear any of the comments, but I’m sure the sight of a guy hanging off a small boulder — with a toothbrush in one hand and a toilet brush in another — was something they’d not seen before.
“Look mommy - he’s scrubbing the rock with a toilet brush.”
“No dear, I’m sure he’s just practicing for his janitorial job in Curry Village.”
Epilogue: enjoy this forum post from WestCoastBouldering.com about the dumbest crashpad question we’ve ever gotten from a tourist.
Geektool Setup
After reading a Lifehacker article this last week, I discovered and dived into a Mac app called GeekTool. Similar to Rainmeter for the PC, “GeekTool is a PrefPane (System Preferences module) for Panther or Tiger to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop (or even in front of all windows).”
I got a few scripts from Nicinabox, a few from IamAwesome, and the rest were either grabbed from other sites or I wrote them myself.
NOTE: A few of these scripts require Lynx - a text-only web browser.
Here’s the current setup:
And here are the details:
Font: Century Gothic
Scripts:
FullTimedate "+%l:%M:%S %p"
Daydate "+%d"
Monthdate +%B
Day of Weekdate +%A
CPUtop -l 1| awk '/CPU usage/ {print $8, $9}'
top -l 1| awk '/CPU usage/ {print $10, $11}'
top -l 1| awk '/CPU usage/ {print $12, $13}'
Memorytop -l 1 | awk '/PhysMem/ {print "Used: " $8 " \nFree: " $10}'
Networkmyen0=`ifconfig en0 | grep "inet " | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | awk '{print $2}'`
if [ "$myen0" != "" ]
then
echo "Ethernet: $myen0"
else
echo "Ethernet: INACTIVE"
fi
myen1=`ifconfig en1 | grep "inet " | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | awk '{print $2}'`
if [ "$myen1" != "" ]
then
echo "Airport: $myen1"
else
echo "Airport: INACTIVE"
fi
wip=`curl --silent https://checkip.dyndns.org | awk '{print $6}' | cut -f 1 -d "<"`
echo "External: $wip"
Weather Templynx -dump https://printer.wunderground.com/auto/printer/CA/YOURCITY.html |awk '/Temp/{printf $2, ": "; for (i=3; i<=3; i++) printf $i " " }'
Weather Conditionslynx -dump https://printer.wunderground.com/auto/printer/CA/YOURCITY.html|awk '/Cond/ && !/Fore/ {for (i=2; i<=10; i++) printf $i " " }'
Weather Sunrisecurl https://m.wund.com/US/CA/YOURCITY.html | grep 'Sunrise' | sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba' | sed -e 's/Sunrise/Sunrise: /g' | sed -e 's/PST//g'
Weather Sunsetcurl https://m.wund.com/US/CA/YOURCITY.html | grep 'Sunset' | sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba' | sed -e 's/Sunset/Sunset: /g' | sed -e 's/PST//g'
Weather Forecastcurl --silent "https://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=YOURZIP&u=f" | grep -e "Forecast:" -A 2 | tail -n 2 | sed -e 's/<br \/>//' -e 's/<BR \/>//' | sed "s/\(.*\)\.\ \(.*\)/\1\?\2/" | tr "?" "\n" | sed "s/High\:\ \(.*\)\ Low\:\ \(.*\)/\?H\: \1\ L\:\ \2/" | sed "s/\?\(.*\)/\\1/"
PHP Scripts (placed in ~/Sites/)
Weather Image:
(Be Sure to replace CITYDATA in $url with your own city from Yahoo)
<?php
$url="https://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/YOURCITYCODE.html";
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 0; // set to zero for no timeout
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
$file_contents = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$divStart = "<div class=\"forecast-icon\"";
$strEnd = "'); _background-image/* */: none;";
$start = strpos($file_contents, $divStart) + 50;
$end = strpos($file_contents, $strEnd);
$length = $end-$start;
$imagepath=substr($file_contents, $start , $length);
$image=imagecreatefrompng($imagepath);
imagealphablending($image, true);
imagesavealpha($image, true);
header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($image);
?>
Gmail
(Be Sure to replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with yours from gmail)<?php
$url = 'https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom';
$buffer = file_get_contents($url);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($buffer);
echo $xml->fullcount . " unread\n";
foreach($xml->entry as $entry){
echo $entry->title . " (from: " . $entry->author->name . ")\n";
}
?>
Military Service
I flew down to San Diego this week to attend the military funeral for my Grandpa who passed away recently. My wife just recently lost her Grandpa (also military) and told me the service was not to be missed.
Despite the fog, the view from Ft. Rosecrans (San Diego) was gorgeous. The service was obviously small and included one soldier playing taps on a bugle, two soldiers unfolding then folding the flag, and finished by one of the soldiers presenting the flag to my Grandma.
It was quiet, intimate, and respectful — perfectly suited for my pops.
Bishop - March 2009
Just got back from a week climbing in Bishop. It was by far the best climbing trip I’ve ever taken. Aside from getting so much time on the rock (never done a climbing trip longer than 3 days before), I ticked some amazing problems that had been on my project list for a long time.
First, some pictures…
Finishing up “King Tut” (v3)
Ripped a flapper on “Seven Spanish Angels” (v6)
Grabbing the pinch on “Seven Spanish Angels” (v6)
My kiddo kickin it in the Ice Caves
Half way up “The Hunk” (v2R)
Topping out “The Hunk” (v2R)
Sitting atop my proudest send - High Plains Drifter (v7)
And here are some videos of the climbs I did. I didn’t manage to take any video on this trip — I wanted to focus on enjoying the climbs without the hassle of setting up a video camera. But these videos of other climbers should suffice.
Seven Spanish Angels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-nQb8MlMi8
Green Wall Center
https://www.vimeo.com/2757179
Serengeti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXTXEMWqBa8
High Plains Drifter
https://www.vimeo.com/1313657
Pure - a mini review
I’m at work and need to catch up on email, so here’s my quick and dirty review of “Pure” — a climbing flick from Chuck Fryberger. I’ve not yet read some other reviews I know are out there, so hopefully my opinions here are … pure.
PHP's "strtotime" vs JAVA's ... nothing
PHP”s “strtotime” function is one of the coolest core functions of the language. I never really noticed how great it was until today.
Hi there, I'm Jon.
Writer. Musician. Adventurer. Nerd.
Purveyor of GIFs and dad jokes.