Monday, December 20, 2010

When Product News Exceeds its Authority.


Do not confuse uncluttered clean design with some template blog. This is a seriously readable front page, without slow video loads or flash coversheet and it is silent.


See how well your article thumbnails in. You should not, Mr.The Android Site, become an art critic.


http://theandroidsite.com/2010/12/20/12500-app-coming-to-android-use-your-smartphone-on-your-private-jet/



http://www.asiq.com/index.html



Design Not From 1996 Clean Note

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Journey into Xfinity Android Land: G2's Log


When I found out Xfinity App for Android was in the Market all I could think of was watching TV shows on the phone when I wished. OK, I admit that was a bit of wishful thinking on my part. I know the whole desktop Xfinity (AKA Fancast.com) would not fit into the structure of my G2.

What was delivered is the myDVR Manager, TV Listings, On Demand trailers and of course SmartZone Email (Digital Voice too, but I don't use it). All in all a nice start to pulling the desktop into the phone environment.

While writing this I am scrolling thru HD channels looking for the basketball game I am missing; may just tell the Number 1 DVR to record it. Maybe not because I am still fussing with search. A search using the words college basketball returns much including football and "The Office". I'll have more on that another day. [Note: It would be nice if TV guide remembered where I was when a miss tap the screen and I am sent Home. A nice thing when such things are done to the User Interface.]

Today I address Settings problems. The T-Mobile G2 has a force quit result when tapping Notification Sound:

December 14, 2010 19:00 EST [00:00 UTC]
Xfinity App for Android v2.0
Bug Tracking (user): 001
Bug Tracking (app devl): n/a

Device: T-Mobile G2 (system version 2.2)

[--- Settings Error ---]
1. Start App
2. Tap Settings
3. Tap Notifications & Sounds
4. Tap Notification Sounds

Result is always a Force Close Message
[EOF]
And for your viewing pleasure a 1st try at shooting the G2's screen.
[
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I would like to thank Blogger/Google for stripping the text track out (next time I will record the vid+text into a single video layer). And that is all I have for today.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Oh-Dark-Thirty and bored: Instant Mobile Mischief

At Oh-Dark-Thirty I drive to store to resupply Dr Pepper and check quality of audio disk made in iT(unes). Nothing makes me more nervous than an AudioCD made from from MP3. It is an affront to nature and sets me off in a way I could power a Saturn V stage. The squished out frequencies & other damage can be "sorta" fixed using DVD2OneX Audio Remaster after converting MP3 to PCM (AIFF or WAV).

It is fortunate that I downloaded from:
Smell that smoke? Feel that flame? Wall Of Voodoo singer Stan Ridgway's electro/experimental noise combo, Drywall - IS BACK. With fellow fire-chiefs Pietra Wexstun & Rick King, a sizzling slab of sonic sedition. 15 choice cuts. Burn baby burn.
Genre: Rock: Modern Rock
Release Date:2008 (Album description is CDbaby's)

So, this cat is supplied with all the necessary tools for mischief and it is -2C outside. What to do at such an early hour? Not freezing fingers off is a plus. Inventory: 1 - audio CD, 1 - G2 mobile (T-Mobile), 1 - automobile with audio system [heated] (Ford Taurus X) and munchies & Dr Pepper. It is obvious to me that I can test something while waiting up for the deer's morning stroll ... 2nd thought ... Screw taking photos of landscape eating rodents I'll broadcast something. Bambuser!

I made one of those SWAG test plans just like a real user; just turn on device and let it tell me how it wishes to setup the broadcast parameters. To summarize: 1) The wifi is off and the phone status told me I am connected HSDPA. 2) Executed Bambuser Android Application and all is fine except, the G2 being a smart phone it had to tell me its connection could handle a higher data rate. Told it to shut up I knew better. What you don't talk to your machines? Your car listens. Anyway before I derail, below are the broadcasts. Top one is the morning run that did not end well, LOS at 7:40 minutes. The bottom run did quite well and the T-Mobile connection bounced near yellow only once during the 1 hour 30 minutes I allocated for testing.


Broadcast at frame size 176x144 This player is scaled to 352x288

Broadcast at frame size 176x144 This player is scaled to 352x288

A little bit more stressful test -- Broadcast frame size 320x240.
G2 and T-Mobile HSDPA Check -Take 3 ( Comcast WiFi )

Player scaled to 640x480 for illustration, the broadcast was 320x240.
G2 and T-Mobile HSDPA Check -Take 3 (HSDPA)

Player scaled to 640x480 for illustration, the broadcast was 320x240.
Lastly, the quickly made gear and a photo of the process.



Conclusion:
T-Mobile HSDPA was better than WiFi at holding a consistent stream health when broadcasting. The fluctuation was +- a percentage point even when I made the field of view busier by taking some of the static area away. WiFi was a little ahead at holding a higher stream health even though it was +- 5 percentage points "bouncy". I would say in this test, this application, there are other limiting factors involved I have no control over that cause WiFi and HSDPA too be pretty much the same. No fear at using T-Mobile or Comcast to broadcast live from my G2. T-Mobile does, however, hold a better QOS bit rate. Partly because of the nature of WiFi; upstream has variable amounts of buffering.
That is all folks.