SlingPlayer for Android

I've been waiting for this app to come out since I purchased my Hero last October.  I used in on my Windows Mobile phone for over a year before that.  First thing that is going to hit you is the price tag, $30.  A lot for an app, yes, surprising, no.  When I was using SlingPlayer on my Mogul it cost me $30 for that app as well.

After downloading setup is incredibly simple.  Just log into your Sling account thru the app and all of your Slingboxes are listed.  Select the one you want to watch and away you go. The app runs incredibly smooth and has an incredible picture.  I was even able to watch a baseball game on it while going driving down the interstate. (No I wasn't driving).  I did notice that it appears to be a resource hog.  If you have apps running in the background(mail, twitter, facebook, ect.) they will FC after time.

I have found one thing I don't like about this app, it doesn't work on ROMs with JIT.  I tried several ROMs with no luck.  I even turned off JIT in one of them rebooted and no luck.  SlingMedia has a Twitter account with the name of @MisterSling.  MisterSling was on GDGT.com earlier this week answering questions about the new Android app.  I asked about JIT support and was informed that they only support official ROMs.  I can see that.  Still wish it work because I really like some of the ROMs with JIT built in.

 Hopefully with the source code release of Froyo (Android 2.2) to AOSP SlingMedia will start working on getting the app working with JIT before an official ROM gets released.  I can see more than one angry person that paid $30 for an app then upgrades to an official 2.2 release and the app not work.

The Phone Wars: Google vs Apple

Unless you have been living under a rock lately you know about the fight going on between Google and Apple.  This fight had been escalating for a bit now.  In my opinion here is how the fight is going:

Apple: blocked the Google Voice app from the iPhone. If it was at AT&T request is not the point they still did it and there are jailbroken phones that could of used it off of AT&T.  

Google: Launched the Nexus One even though it obviously was in development for a bit Apple's punch came first

Apple:  Mr Crapple (aka Steve Jobs) trashed Google at the Apple all employee meeting

Google: Turned on mutlitouch in Google apps on the Nexus One

Handicaps:  

        Apple: AT&T's network is being severely strained by data users.  To make matters worse for AT&T, they approved the SlingPlayer app for use over their 3G network.  I see data usage going up even more now.  More dropped calls on the iPhone now.

       Google:  the Android Market & app storage.  The interface is not great and there is no real good way to browse the market on the web. The App store may have more apps but that means more junk as well.  Developers are slowly moving apps to Android from the iPhone.  Google is working on Apps2sd as a default to make more memory for app storage, but currently storage is an issue.

Current state of the fight:  Google ahead.  The Nexus One running it's current enhancements is a stronger phone than the iPhone.  Once Google gets apps2sd running and the market in good shape the iPhone is in serious trouble, but we will just have to wait and see who lands the next punch and what it brings.  

Rogers Fails Android Users AGAIN!!

WOW!!  Rogers (Rogers is a Canadian mobile phone/cable tv provider)  has really been failing their subscribers lately. First they have a  911 GPS issue on BOTH the Magic and the Dream.  Okay, not a big deal just push a fix and go on right?  Wrong!

Rogers tells everyone they  MUST install the patch by 6:00am EST on 1/24/10 or their internet access will be temporarily suspended ( http://bit.ly/7umNGy ).  Well in the biggest fail of them all they pushed out the fix on 1.5 taking anyone who had custom ROMs back to 1.5. With this they disabled the existing root path eliminating the possibility of putting custom ROMs back on the phone.  In a conversation with one Rogers customer he ended up losing at least 3 apps, including Google Goggles.

As a very poor consolation the new 1.5 was pushed with HTC's Sense UI.  As nice as the Sense UI is I would be pissed if my OS was downgraded and I couldn't fix it.

Wonder what Rogers subscriber base is going to look like in the next six months.

Theft of Android Apps

If you know of any developer's or know the support email for any paid apps you have please send them the following information or send them here.

http://www.mediafire.com/thakidtok is hosting HUNDREDS of paid apps for free download.  The email for www.mediafire.com is abuse@mediafire.com.  The site is hosted by DNSMadeeasy.com
 DNS Made Easy 
Tiggee LLC
PO Box 145
Oakton, VA 22124

 The site is registered thru godaddy.com.  Please be sure that the developer's you know see this so they can file a DMCA takedown notice with Mediafire and DNSMadeeasy so they can get paid for their apps they worked so hard on.  

The files are being put up by Twitter user @thatkidtok.


EDIT:  Here is a link to some information on how to submit a DMCA notice:  http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/articles/how-to-file-a-dmca-copyright-violation.html

HTC Hero Gets 2.1 in February

I read an article at www.androidguys.com earlier and they were quoting sources that the HTC Hero in Europe will start receiving the 2.1 upgrade in the middle of February.  I am happy for them.  Now to us Sprint Hero owners, what about us?   This announcement that the Euro Hero getting the 2.1 update next month is very promising.  I read at one point last month that the Sprint Hero was getting an update to the Sprint Navigation app in the middle of February 2010.  Hmm, Europe 2.1 mid Feb, Sprint nav update mid Feb.  Are you seeing what I am?  It's not hard to form an opinion that the Sprint Hero will get the 2.1 update in February as well.

Now granted this takes that we are assuming a few things.  We have to assume that Sprint knew approximately when HTC would have Sense UI ready for 2.1 and they were able to get their developers to have the navigation app ready to put into the ROM when HTC needed it.  Obviously since HTC built the NexusOne they have had their code writing paws on 2.1 for some time now.  Now granted I could be assuming a lot, but hey, isn't it fun to try and guess what's going on?

Smartphones - Cellphones or Computers

I am getting really sick and tired of all this ROM crap in the smartphone world.  Today's smartphones are basically small computers with a phone program running on them.  Manufacturers, carriers and developers need to start treating them like a computer.

For example, you go into a store and buy a computer.  It has a designated OS on it (most likely Windows or Mac).  You can put what ever future OS on it you want as long as it meets the minimum hardware requirements for the new OS.  All of your old programs still work(for the most part) because the new OS is backwards compatible.

Now onto what to do with the smartphones.  Manufactures build a phone with a specific set of hardware.  This hardware may or may not support different OSs.  If it can support multiple OSs they will probably choose to market just one.  They send the phone to the carrier with the carriers apps preinstalled and ready for the end user.  When an upgraded OS comes out the customer will have a couple of choices to get the new OS.  1) purchase a new phone from a carrier or 2) purchase and/or download the new OS (free in terms of Android, paid for WinMo.  The carrier can keep a set of apps on their website hidden behind a customer login for the customer who has upgraded to get the carrier apps to reinstall.

Doing this will stop all of the bullshit going on right now with people waiting to get the latest releases and people hacking phones to get an OS to put on another phone.  This will free up developers to write some more kick ass apps instead of trying to hack the OS.

This will really put the carriers on equal footing in terms of hardware and really make them compete on their network.

Thank you Sprint and HTC

Good news. According to the official Sprint Twitter feed the HTC Hero will be getting Android 2.1 not 2.0.  This is awesome.  Even though the Hero started out behind with 1.5 it should be up to date when the upgrade comes out.  That is if Google isn't preparing yet another upgrade to the OS that will be out before Sprint gets around to upgrading the Hero.  I waiting very impatiently for the upgrade.  Hopefully the HTC feed is more accurate than the Sprint one.  I like early 2010 vs 1H2010.

iPhone Users Suffer From Stockholm Syndrome and Sprint Fails

There are fanboys and then there are iPhone users.  This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard of.  According to Strand Consult iPhone users suffer from Stockholm Syndrome because they constantly defend the problems with both the iPhone and AT&Ts network  (http://www.9to5mac.com).  Speaking of AT&T, their network problems just got worse.  According to reports it looks like most of San Fransisco's AT&T customers were without service today. (The fake) Steve Jobs calls (kind of) Randall Stephenson of AT&T and lets him know what he thinks of how AT&T is handling their network issues for their world ruling iPhone.  You were a little brutal there Steve, but right on point (http://www.fakesteve.net).

In somewhat better news Sprint and HTC officially announced that the Hero was getting upgraded to Android 2.0.  This kind of sucks.  First they don't agree as to when the update is coming out.  HTC says early 2010 and Sprint says roughly the first half of 2010.  Roughly to me means maybe July or August.  And the whole 2.0 thing sucks as well.  2.1 is already out on the Hero in Europe and by the time the Hero gets 2.0 here in the US 2.5 will probably be out already.

Everyone fails today.  Let's try for more tomorrow.