The Dosquatch Says…

I’m having an issue with SMS that’s seriously twisting my panties in a knot. I have a friend, and the things she says are important to me.

It is somewhat distressing to find that a disturbing number of her messages are not reaching me. I am DROID/Verizon, she is Crackberry/nTelos. I’ve beaten Google about the search box looking for a trend on any one of or combination of those attributes so I know where to start fixing.

I can’t find a trend, and Verizon (predictably) blames nTelos. I’m at least a little distraught, probably more than I’ll admit here, and am begging you fine readers for thoughts.

Navel Gazing, Technology crackberry, droid, ntelos, sms, txt, verizon

Google’s new android based phone is called Nexus 1, a reference recognizable by anyone who has watched Blade Runner or read the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Isa Dick Hackett, daughter od author Phillip K Dick, is not pleased. She has filed a lawsuit against Teh Goog on behalf of the Dick estate because “we were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn’t grant any sort of permissions.”

So what? There is absolutely no need for permission from you for Google to name its product. If they were making a literary adaptation of the novel, you’d have ground for licensing considerations, perhaps, but copyright does not give you the full control over every possible reference as you seem to believe.

The motivation seems to stem from Motorola’s licensing of DROID from Lucas. The important distinction here is that DROID is a Lucas trademark, and the licensing and use falls under trademark law, not copyright. You’d hope her lawyers would try to explain the difference.

Yay, me, made it all the way through without resorting to the line “What a bunch of Dicks!”

Oh. Damn. Almost, anyway.

Social Commentary droid, google, literature, nexus 1

Just because I can.

dAndroid 2.0 – A blog about the phone, from the phone.

Navel Gazing, Technology, droid droid

Droid, Misc:

* uses the Safari browser

* slide-out keyboard much easier to use when the BodyGlove top plastic is on the right way – no thanks to VerizonGuy

* tiny keyboards still aren’t fat-finger friendly

* unified contacts! all contacts from all email accounts in one place.

* support for multiple Gmail accounts, including Gmail for Domains

* it looks like there might be support for multiple exchange accounts, but I only have the one exchange account to test against…

* calling micro-SD “removable media” is very nearly tongue-in-cheek in this case. the card is buried behind the battery, inside the battery hatch, inside the BodyGlove armor… but it’s a 16GB card, upgradable to 32, so I don’t think I’m gonna have much need for frequent swaps.

* it’s a heavy lil’ thing

* the answer to Apple’s App Store is the Google Market, and it’s full of stuff (of all quality levels), both paid and free. Wanna scan a barcode for immediate comparison shopping? There’s an app. Need a compass? There’s dozens of apps. A bejewelled clone or 10? Streaming radio? Sports tickers? Financial advice? To stalk your friends with Latitude? To track the stars and planets with Google Skymap? Comic strip feeds? Scientific calculators? Here’s an app, there’s an app, everywhere’s an app app.

Addendum: What criticism there is about this seems to be largely directed at aesthetics. It is big, square, black, it has an odd jutting-jaw design at the bottom, whatever whatever. Nope, it is not as “sleek and sexy” as an iPhone.

This, as with the PS3 before it, seems to have been inspired by the Tycho Monolith. So to this I also say, It is big. It is black. It is shiny, and it is mine.

Oh, My God, It’s full of AWESOME.
(“pardon me, your fanboy is showing…”
“Oh, my, sorry about that.”)

Technology, droid droid

Call me weak.

I made it a whole weekend before I broke down and made the purchase.

The Moto Droid came out this past Friday. My VZW renew-every-two is up come February. I intended to wait, really I did, but the sales critter said I could cash in early for half credit, and IZ NEW TOY WANT WANT WANT! IZ MINE IZ MINE GIT UR OWNZ!

Sorry – had a moment there. It’s like this, I’ve carried some form of Palm Treo for the better part of a decade now. I know them, I like them, but the design is really, really showing its age. It’s time for an upgrade.

I’ve played with both a Palm Pre and an Apple iPhone. Both have good and bad points. The Pre has some personality quirks (par for Palm) and battery fit problems. The Apple has no changeable battery, no removable media, and totalitarian platform control. And both have exclusive deals with $other_provider.

The Droid is here, now, on my provider, and it is BEAST. Fast, responsive, fully integrated with the whole buffet of Google tools (including Google for Domains), GPS, WiFi, full complement of motion & direction sensors (most immediately demonstrable by the self-leveling nautical compass app available from the Google Market), WeatherBug, Pandora Radio, a real web browser, voice search, and on and on.

And, by happenstance, it shares the same charging architecture as my Kindle. WOO!

The only (minor) complaint I have so far is that the keyboard is a bit cumbersome for larger fingers, but I’m finding it easier to work with it as I go along.

I’d write a better review, but I’m busy playing with the phone instead. More later, y’all!

Navel Gazing, droid android market, droid, kindle

I’ve got this feeling, It’s so appealing…

I currently carry with me a Palm Treo 700p. I am a long-time Palm user. I am familiar with Palm, I like Palm… but the OS is seriously showing its age. My plan’s renewal benefit towards a phone upgrade kicks in February. I know that’s still out there a bit, but I’m already contemplating what my next phone will be.

The world is iPhone crazy, but I’m on Verizon, and it is not worth a provider change just for a phone. Exclusive deals are bad practice and anti-consumer. Fuck Apple and AT&T, they can keep their phone.

I’m also kind of interested in the Palm Pre, but again – exclusive deal, other provider. How the devil is it that Verizon is the biggest honking network but all the crappy bit players get the exclusive digs on the new product?

There have been rumors that either or both might come to Verizon in January… but today Moto has put out the new droid at VZW. I stopped and played. This thing rocks. Big, bright screen, fast and responsive live scrolling in Google Maps, good sound quality, good signal strength, real web browsing, speech-to-text voice searching in Google…

Holy Crap. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a new front runner for Next Phone.

Navel Gazing, Technology, droid android market, droid, iphone, palm, treo