Google and Android are Finally Getting Design

Apple and Google are the two biggest players in mobile tech right now.  Apple with their beautiful,  yet simple ios and Google with the amazing yet let's the user decide Android os. Both companies make amazing products,  but Apple has always had the better design while Google has always knocked Web services out of the park.  From Google now,  to drive,  to basic search,  Google will always in my opinion be king of web, while apple makes undoubtedly the most beautiful hardware on the market.

Both companies have been improving where the other is stronger,  this started with the holo ui in Android 4.0 ics  and with apple's siri program.  I think that Google has made some of the bigger strides recently,  it comes down to the small things.  For example just changing the way the drop down menu works,  with the two finger quick toggles,  to the new all white nav and status bar.  Google has done a lot to clean the look of Android up a lot.  Another thing that I find amazing is the breaking of the apps from the os and putting them into the play store,  this allows Google to update them from within the play store  without sending a massive update to fix everything at once.  This also means that carriers and oems can't screw the customers over because they no longer control when the updates come, forcing in some cases up to a year after a update is available.  Although Motorola and HTC have had great track records recently at updating their devices within 90-120 days of a new OS release. HTC has also said that they will update the One M8 within 90 days of release as well.

Ios is making big strides in Web services as well,  although they still rely on third party for search and siri,  the continuity aspect of ios8 is very appealing and if they do it right will be a big game changer for how we interact with our phones and tablets.

Back to Android now, Google is also focusing on design by starting the Google Now Launcher,  this Launcher gives a unified experience across all devices running 4.1.  It is a simplistic Launcher that starts with Google now and then let's the user decide how to arrange their home screens.  The main thing is that Google now is always present,  this gives the user a single place to get all their information that they will need for the day.  And now with inclusion of Material Design and Android L, Android is poised to create a unified and beautiful UI and can now focus on the User Experience, something that Apple has championed all along.

Lastly the oems,  the oems are finally figuring out how to design the hardware to look good.  For example the HTC one m8 is amazingly beautiful and made out of 90% metal.  This is pushing what a high end flagship should look and feel like.  Another prime example is the Sony Xperia z2,  this phone is slim,  and stunning.  This is also the first time oems are figuring out that people care more about the user experience than they do about gimmicks and adding so much that it slows the phone down (Samsung). HTC,  Sony,  LG,  and Motorola all add a few things that the user wants,  and perfects them.  They make them easy to use,  easy to get to and follows the kiss method (keep it simple stupid).  

I think that Google is fixing it's design problem faster than apple is fixing it's Web services issue,  with that said I still think the best looking phone is the iPhone 5s if it were bigger. That screen size is inexcusable at this point. I know they are coming out with a bigger phone this year and that is great for Apple.  When WWDC happened this year I was very excited about the function that Apple was putting into their devices, and all of a sudden Google struts it’s stuff and I am all gaga for Google again. Google has stepped up design as well have all of OEMs for Android, thus making the later half of 2014 and the early part of 2015 very interesting and exciting for tech nerds.

Google I/O from the Consumer Perspective

Ok so today is the day of days for all things android. Today launched the first day of Google I/O, their yearly developer conference, and with it Google did not disappoint.  First and foremost this is a conference for developers so there was a lot of technical jargon that has to be waded through for the average person, to see anything useful. I will be focusing on the things that I think everybody will enjoy. So lets begin with the overall theme of the day….. Android Everywhere, from a new O/S to wearables, to TV and now in your car. Android is coming to a life near you.

Android L

First on the List is Android L, this is the next iteration of android for phones and tablets. This comes with a hefty 5000 new APIs and a complete UI change to “Material Design”

http://youtu.be/Q8TXgCzxEnw

This is a quick rundown of how the new design layout will look, as you can tell it is very flat, but has beautiful animations that seem to float over the background of the app. In my opinion this gives it a 3Dish effect that makes the cards come to life.

The next thing to talk about in Android L is the new recents shade, it has gone from a simple list of recent apps, now to cards that can be scrolled, it also has the ability to save multiple screens from the same app, for example if you have multiple windows open in chrome each web page will show up in recents as shown here

The next thing to talk about would be the improved notifications, the notifications will now appear in the lockscreen as cards that can be actioned upon.  This is one of the smaller features, but well needed and very welcome to the Android ecosystem.

Android Wear

So this comes as no big shocker to anyone in the tech world, as Google did announce Android wear in April. Now we have a first hand view of what these devices will do, they will have full Google now integration with voice commands. This means that text can be answered, directions given, restaurant ratings looked up and so much more all from the wrist.  The two android wear devices that launched today were the Samsung Gear Live, and the LG G Watch, both with square displays, the famed Moto 360 will be held off for a probable launch alongside the Moto X2 or whatever it is to be called.  http://youtu.be/0xQ3y902DEQ

This was probably the most anticipated release of the day, and I think that Google did not disappoint with Android wear.

Android TV

So this will be Google’s third foray into the TV space as a major OS. The first two, Google TV and Nexus Q were total flops, but google is counting on the success of the Chromecast that it will help propel Android TV as the third times the charm.  This will be a combination of Smart TV O/S and Set top box that continues the Material Design throughout and gives full access to all of Google TV partners and services. I think it is a great Idea I just hope it works, Google as I have said can’t seem to get this right, I hope it will this time.

Android Auto

Google also wants into your car, this is a simple O/S that brings the most important information to the forefront of the car, so that the phone can stay in the pocket.

http://youtu.be/Ht8yzpIV9M0

Most everything that is done on the OS is done from voice commands, such as play playlist Rock, or call mom, or navigate to Stone Mountain. This seems like a great stepping stone into a larger world when app developers are give the SDK to this,  I found that Android Auto was the least exciting for me personally because I won’t be able to buy a new car at least until 2018 or so.

Chromecast

I'm gonna start with chromecast here, Chromecast will get some awesome updates in the coming weeks. First is the ability to screen mirror from any android device, this is something that alot of people have been wanting since day one of the device, it is nice to see Google listening to their customers on this. Second big update is the ability for people to connect to chromecast without being connect to the same wifi network. This is huge for people that want to come over and use the chromecast and you don’t want random people on your wifi. And finally chromecast has the ability to change and personalize the splash screen on the TV.  Up until now it has been a steady stream of beautiful images from all across the web, now Google will allow users to pick themes and categories and even out their own Google Photos on the TV as the splash stream, so you might want to make sure all of your naughty pics are deleted first.

All of this was announced in a three hour Keynote that explains all of it in great detail, I will leave a link to it down below if you want to check it out. I must say that I am quite impressed with what Google has announced this year. I think that this helps bring a new level of maturity to the entire Android Ecosystem. Google is building an ecosystem of products that work perfectly with each other and have a lot of continuity and ease of use, to put it Applely “it just works”. I tip my hat to Google this year, you have won my wallet, and please TAKE MY MONEY!

http://youtu.be/wtLJPvx7-ys?t=26m56s

Dear Samsung,

Dear  Samsung,  

Ok so the Samsung Galaxy tab s just got announced.  While I love the amoled display and the updated specs on the device.  This begs the question.  Are the executives at Samsung money grubbing whores?

What I mean by that is the fact that not even five months ago Samsung released the tab pro line of tablets that were to be the best that Samsung has to offer for the year,  and now the tab s comes around and blows them out of the water.  With these new tablets  Samsung  just said fuck you to everyone who bought the tab pro basically saying, you know that tablet that we made to directly compete with the iPad?  Well we made another one that is even better than the one you just spent your hard earned money to buy.  This is a big mistake on Samsung’s part,  I don't see why they could not have just delayed the tab pro and come out with the tab pro s or something.  Maybe that is why they lead Android in tablet sales,  because they release so many tablets that 9/10 on the shelf are Samsung.

Now it looks like the s5 “prime” is to be announced sometime this month, stop, just stop. Pick one single flagship for the year and go with it, perfect it, make sure it is made of materials that will actually feel good in the hand. Make that one single flagship the best GD phone you have ever made, and stop with the active, the zoom, the prime versions of these phones nobody, and i mean nobody buys that crap. We all know you love to copy whatever apple does. Notice that they only come out with one single phone every year. This is the way to do it, not flooding the market.

With the tab pro line,  the tab s line,  the tab 4  line and the note line of tablets...  Enough is enough Samsung,  I don't care if you make a god tablet I won't buy it because it will be outdated in a week.  Samsung has lost my faith as a consumer,  and this is coming from a guy who has owned the s2,s3,and s4, I will not buy another Samsung Android device again.  Shame on you Samsung I am disappoint.  

Sincerely,

Josh Mcmurdo

P. S. Wtf is with the dimpled back?  The faux leather looked sooooooo good,  if it ain't broke don't fix it as the saying goes.

While Everyone is Going GaGa over IOS 8

While everyone is either raging or going GaGa over IOS 8, Google quietly announced one of the biggest endeavors in human history. Google announced this week that they will be launching a system of satellites that will bring the internet to the underdeveloped countries. This is an extension of Project Loon, which will do the same thing, but with weather balloons. I don’t want to talk about WWDC at all, so I'm gonna focus on this amazing project instead. The Verge was the first report on this that I saw, take a look for yourself.

This endeavor is probably one of the biggest in human history because it will finally allow the most impoverished nations to connect to the internet, and where this is internet economies grow. This is the single biggest piece of humanitarian work that a major Tech Giant has ever taken in my humble opinion.  This will allow the flow of information to reach the darkest corners of the earth, such as Africa, South American Jungles, or the poorest corners of Asia. This could help in many ways, not only in the economic areas, but also in health services as well. For example, in certain African tribes, the spread of aids is quickened by the belief that laying with a virgin will cure the carrier. This of course is the exact opposite of the truth, but with internet access the spread of deadly diseases could be slowed. Just the sharing of information is enough to topple tyrants, rebuild economies, and help the health of humans everywhere.

Now i'm sure Google is expecting a return for their investment, which if I know google it would be from ads or service fees. Im not saying Google is doing this for the good of humanity, but at least they are helping to do something other than fatten their wallets(with features android users have had for years)(had to get that in there ;).

Take a Moment to Smell the Tech

Ok so this is going to be a departure from the usual things that I post here. I had a conversation with a gentleman at work, he refused to see that Apple made any good products. While I do not care for their locked down mobile OS., I do think that they make some of the most user friendly tech around. Apple allows non techies to become users of what would otherwise be a land for nerds.

Lets get the fanboyisms out of the way now. I love android, and everything that it allows the user to do to their device, I would not use IOS myself because on some things it seems backwards to me, but it also is incredibly simple and easy to use. Not to say android is hard or difficult to use. Android is like windows, it does more if you know how to do those certain tasks. IOS is a more simple UI that only allows the user to do a few things, but the user does not have to worry about messing something up with it. I like both but Android is my personal preference.

With that out of the way, lets take a step back and end the name calling, ios users are not isheep, and us android users are not fandroids. We are lovers of tech and will be passionate about the devices we use. I urge everyone to take a step back and think about the phone you are using, you hold in your hand a device that holds the entire library of human knowledge, and we use it to look at cats and get into arguments about which one is better. Newsflash, they are all amazing. Maybe you like the HTC because of the speakers and the ui, or the Iphone for the design and ease of use, or the Samsung GS5 for the features and the screen. To each their own and leave it at that.  With a push of a button, or a simple voice command we have everything that humanity has learned up to this point in a matter of seconds. That is amazing and mind boggling to think that not even ten years ago this was considered science fiction. The fact that we are on the brink of the internet of things is amazing(everyday appliances connected to the interwebs). If you look at where we were and where we are headed it is a good time to be a tech enthusiast, all we need to complete the star trek experience is the actual spaceships.

OK rant over, go back to the cat videos…...

My Thoughts on the One + One

You may or may not have heard of the new craze sweeping Google + and pretty much all of the tech community right now. This craze is a new phone from a brand new company called One Plus One. This phone is designed to be the phone to end all phones, and I will say that spec wise it does just that, it runs the gamut of high end tech. The one + one is running the Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3 ghz, a 1080p 5.5” display, and 3gbs of RAM. This phone on all accounts is a beast, on the software side it is running Cyanogen Mod 11s. This is a custom ROM built specifically for this device. In layman’s terms, it is running a beefed up version of Android 4.4 KitKat. And one might ask well how much will the super phone cost??? Well this is the best part, you can have all this for only $300 OFF contract, for the 16gb or $350 for the 64gb. WHAT!?!?! That is insane, the HTC One m8 is $699 and the Samsung GS5 is $750.

And that my friends is where the good ends for this company, they have had a track record of talking some serious trash about the other OEMs. They have directly called Samsung out with a comparison chart of the GS5 and the 1+1. Stating that the GS5 is not worth the cost of the phone, and that the 1+1 is a better product. This in it of itself is fine, companies trash the competition all the time. The difference is when they do, they have an actual product to back up the smack. The 1+1 was not even released yet, when they pulled this stunt. That would be like me saying the Iphone 6 is better than the HTC One m8, even though Apple has yet to release the product yet, or even announce it for that matter. In my mind there can be no direct comparison without an actual product to compare it to.

That however was not even their greatest offense to date. The Company posted a picture of a Sony Xperia Z1 and stated that their phone would have a smaller chassis than the Z1 while having a much larger screen. After the product was released and the dimensions of the phone were announced, This was obviously a complete and utter lie, as the 1+1 is quite a bit bigger than the Z1.  In fact Phandroid put up a comparison chart proving that the 1+1 is not a normal sized phone, but more in fact along the size of a phablet. They would have been fine with the size if they stated that it would be a phablet all along. I think that for a 5.5” display it is a great size, but had they compared this to the Note 3 or the HTC One Max Or the LG G2 Pro, they would have more credibility in their statement and would not have come off as a lie.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me though was their Smash the Past campaign. They are running a promotion that 100 lucky winners will get the chance to destroy their old phones to receive this super phone for only $1. While I love the idea of giving away 100 of their phones to build a good user base, I do not however agree with the premise of destroying perfectly good technology. I would like to have seen them do a trade in system or a lottery draw that which is a better promotion than killing off 100 working phones. I have even heard that donating the phones to a charity would be a good idea. I hate seeing technology that works just fine destroyed for the sake of a sale or a video on youtube (here’s looking at you drop testers). It makes no sense to me, but maybe that’s because I don’t have disposable income and can’t go out and buy every new flagship phone as it comes out.

At the end of the day this is a nerd’s phone. I would even venture to say that only nerds know about this phone, and that the average consumer has no clue that this phone even exists. One +'s entire customer base is full of people who love technology and follow the industry religiously, so as a good business model it would be a good idea not to piss off their base of consumers. They have done just that with their arrogance, lies and bad PR campaign. I have seen on G+  the android community ride a rollercoaster with this phone. First it was awe and wonder that such a God phone could even exist, then it was shock that they were targeting tech giants like Samsung or LG, then it was disappointment when the actual size of the device was released. Now the community is in an uproar about how this company is willing to lie and destroy great tech just to sell a phone.

I wanted to get behind this phone, but I learned my lesson with the Moto X, NEVER believe the hype, it will never live up to what you want it to be. I am Disappoint with this phone and will gladly stick to my HTC One m8. What do yall think, was the One + One everything you hoped for, or did they leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Nexus 7 2013 Review

What’s up yall, My name is Josh McMurdo and I am a tech nerd just like yall. I work as a Tablet sales associate at Best Buy in my home state of Georgia, so I apologize for  my over use of the word yall.

I love technology and want to share my opinions with the world, so here it goes.I plan on mostly doing tablet reviews and other fun techie/ nerdy things that I find interesting. My reviews will be made into 3 parts:

1. Hardware

2. Display

3. Software

I just recently bought a 2013 Nexus 7 from Best Buy. And have had about 3 months to use and play with this device and I have to say that this is the best tablet That I have used thus far. To give a brief history of the tablets that I have used, I first started on the Acer Iconia a500 (ouch)

Then after my HUGE mastiff stepped on the screen, I moved to the Asus Transformer Prime(loved it). I had that for about a year and a half, and the decided to get something smaller and got my self the N7 2013.

The Hardware:

This tablet packs a beast of a processor in the Snapdragon s4pro quad core processor,this is coupled with the Adreno 320 GPU. These may seem like last year specs, but with vanilla android it is a very fast, fluid and smooth experience. It also features some handy bezels on the top and bottom of the device. This allows the user to have a comfortable grip when using the Nexus 7 in landscape view while playing games and watching movies. There is a soft touch back that is very grippy and easy to hold. Over all this tablet is the best feeling tablet to hold in one hand. There is a 5mp camera on the back of this tablet. That is all i will say on the camera, as I am a firm believer that tablets should never have cameras on the back for two reasons. One, they are too big to hold comfortably while taking shots, two the camera on a smartphone is undoubtedly better than the camera on a tablet. The only thing that I would love to see on this tablet that is missing is an sd card slot. Although I do understand Google’s reason for not including the slot, I do love to put digital copies of my movies on my tablet and 32gbs does go fast when most movies run between 5-6 gbs for full HD. The hardware of this tablet is top notch in the tablet market. I would say that there is not a single 7” tablet that can compete with the processing package. The build quality is bar none the best I have seen in this form factor.

         The Display

The next thing that I want to talk about is the display. The display is a 1900x1200 FHD IPS display. This is great for gaming and watching movies and reading books. The quality is top notch and I give props to Asus for it. The touch screen is very responsive and powered by the snapdragon s4 pro it flies through any touch based tasks that you require. I do however have one complaint about the display and this is the outdoor brightness. My HTC One (m8) is much brighter in direct sunlight than this tablet is. I love to sit in the hammock and read a book and it can be difficult to do so with this tablet.  All in all though this display is very good and will leave you happy with the quality, movies are stunning and text is sharp and crisp.

The Software

Finally onto the software side of things. This tablet is running stock Android 4.4 Kitkat,with no OEM skins on top of it. This is a great software package that is more a blank slate than a final product. What I mean by that is compared to Samsung’s Touchwiz or HTC’s Sense 6.0, this version does not have as many features but performs much faster than the other software packages. This can easily be remedied though through apps like tasker or and complete custom ROMs. The developer support for this tablet is expansive and ever growing. The vanilla version though has a lot to offer the user. Access to the full Google app suite, including the Google Now Launcher, as well as a debloated android. I love using custom launchers to completely customize the user interface, and the software handles all launchers beautifully. The one thing that is actually good about Touchwiz on tablets is the ability to run two apps side by side. I do wish that the Nexus 7 had this capability, it would help with productivity while trying to research something on the go. The other feature that I would add in is a full news aggregator like Blinkfeed, or My Magazine. Google is starting to do this with Google now, but needs to have more sources and the ability to add personal sources.

Conclusion

The Nexus 7(2013) is quite possibly the best 7” tablet on the market right now. This tablet is truly designed for media consumption. The hardware and build quality is unmatched, with the soft touch back and the attention to detail with the bezels. There is no 7” tablet that can match the processing package in this tablet. This tablet has a beautiful 1080p display that is great for watching movies, reading books and playing games. The software on this tablet is a stock experience that is lacking in some features, but allows for a blank slate for the user to pick and choose what they want to do with the device. This is a great buy for the user that wants to watch media, game on it, or use it as a simple browser. Or the uber nerd that loves Roming devices, What do yall think of the tablet?