Three Things that Soil my Nexus S Shine

Living Large in the Face of Three Bling-killing Irritations

Don't get me wrong, if you were to call me an Android fanboy - you wouldn't be far off base. Being able to freely tether my phone to my laptop for Internet access anywhere I can get 3G data is AWESOME! Not having to deal with TouchWhiz or HTC Sense UI or MotoBlur is AWESOME! Not having to live in the iPhone nanny-state is AWESOME!

I am living the big life (smartphone-wise) and have very little to complain about. But, as one cyborg to another, if I were to complain, there would be 3 items worth putting into words.

Of the three biggest irritations keeping me from complete Android bliss, the T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto is the most ire-rattling, nerve splitting of the three. I have learned to live with the battery slaying nature of the Nexus S and I am coping with not having a microSD slot or the option for a 32 GB Nexus S.

So yes, life with the Nexus S is almost 100% wonderful. Almost.

One: The T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto

In the T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto, conditional call forwarding (or any call forwarding except to T-Mo's voicemail) is not allowed. Without this feature, there is no seamless Google Voice voicemail on my premiere Google phone and is a severe irritation that might lead to me selling my Nexus S and quitting my T-mo service.

Two: The Nexus S is a slayer of batteries.

If I am listening/watching a netcast, it drains the battery faster than it can be recharged. I did find some suggestions in the xda forums. For under $30, I purchased 2 additional batteries and a charger. Not a perfect fix, but workable. I've tried Tasker and other software approaches - ultimately, to me, more hassle than physically swapping batteries.

Three: The One with the Bigger GeeBees

I had the white iPhone 3Gs 16GB model. After a year of swapping music in and out and being tied to one instance of iTunes (for me, installed on my desktop), I realized I needed a phone with more storage.

When I purchased the Nexus S, I had some how talked myself into believing that I didn't need it. I think the logic went something like this: With apps like AudioGalaxy or Rdio, I don't need to store music files on my phone. All I need to do is stream music from the cloud to my phone.

Well, in theory, my logic was sound. In reality, the economics of Rdio are inflated in my opinion. $10 a month for music when I get so much more streaming content for less than $10 a month from both Hulu.com & Netflix.com. If Rdio were $4.95 a month, I doubt I've think twice about signing up.

As far as AudioGalaxy is concerned, if I ran it on a server in a data center, it would be rock solid. In reality, things happen that leaves me without access to my music just when I need a fix of Renegades of Funk or the entire Indigo Girls discography or some old-school Outkast.

So, what kind of things rained on my cloud logic parade - things like the power going out longer than my UPS could keep my NAS drive running. Another streaming fail: Windows Update rebooted the PC that hosts the little AudioGalaxy server agent and the PC wouldn't reboot back into Windows because I left a thumb drive in the USB port. What else? Well, there were a few times that I got paranoid that the AG server agent was slowing down gaming performance so I shut it down telling myself that I will definitely remember to fire it back up after my virtual slaughter of animated agents of evil. Repeatedly, I forget to relaunch the AG server.

Quick Thoughts on Nexus S, Swype, T-Mobile and leaving iPhone/AT&T

Battery Life
As a Nexus S owner coming from an iPhone 3Gs on AT&T, my biggest disappointment with the Nexus S has been battery life. I could list a 100 things that irritate me about how Apple controls use of the iPhone but the one thing they impress me with more than anything else is how they seem to defy the laws of physics with amazing battery management.

Swype: Input Interface Innovation
I have heard people complain about the stock virtual keyboard in Android but I've never used it for any length of time except to do what it takes to get Swype installed. Swype is the most innovative touch screen interface I've ever seen and I've tried them all (as far back as Palm OS on Handspring.)

If it weren't for Swype, I could easily go back to iPhone. The only other better input method I can imagine on a touch screen is a direct telepathic interface with one's brain.

The Flex Pay Ghetto of T-Mobile
My T-Mobile 3G experience has been as good as my AT&T 3G experience. I am not happy with how T-Mobile seems to be railroading customers into the "Flex Pay" ghetto. Flex Pay accounts comes with restrictions that essentially break the Google Voice app as a voice mail app. I have a credit score of nearly 800 and I am not eligible for what they are calling a "Post-paid" account.

My primary question - will the Nexus S support 3G functionality on AT&T

It would be excellent if this phone worked on AT&T's 3G network. But for the time being, it appears as if it won't.

Some other things that don't seem to be on the list of features:
a.) MicroSD card expansion.
b.) Front facing camera
in reference to: Android 2.3 - Google Mobile Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Android dominating the smart phone space

This is pretty much what I've been predicting in the smart phone space for about 2 yrs.

The only wild card that nobody - and I mean NOBODY (but maybe Steve Ballmer) - saw coming: Microsoft coming out w/ a strong smartphone that even my mom could use... The Windows Phone is still an infant and could take a year or so to gain traction if it ever does. Android is the real disruptor - quite possibly killing Apple's gadget dominance (phones, tablets & MP3 players) over the next 3 years. 

Demand for Android Skills Up 710% from Last Year

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/11/demand-for-android-skills-up-710-percent.php

[D]emand for developers with Android skills is up 710% in October 2010 versus October 2009. The increased demand is not surprising, given the mobile operating system's rapid climb over the past 12+ months, now reaching its new status as the number one mobile OS in the United States and number two worldwide, as of Q3 2010.

CNET's Top 5 Reasons Android is Better than iPhone

http://cnettv.cnet.com/reasons-android-better-than-iphone/9742-1_53-50095696.html

Android market share gain coming at the expense of BlackBerry

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/11/android-market-share-gains-come-at-the-expense-of-blackberry.ars

Android's market share has continued its rise in the third quarter of the year and Apple's iOS and RIM are struggling to keep up. According to NPD's Mobile Phone Track, Android was installed on 44 percent of all smartphones sold during the third quarter, up from 33 percent in the second quarter, while iOS saw a slight bump from 22 to 23 percent and RIM dropped into third place at 22 percent.

How Windows 7 handles Bluetooth - Not My Idea.

I have a few bluetooth headsets as well as a couple of bluetooth stereo headphones that double as telephony headsets. My experience on Windows 7 has been way south of awesome, and I have a screen cast to prove it :)

 Until I put Windows 7 on my netbook and laptop, I could enjoy the same switch from enjoying Netflix audio in bluetooth stereo to making a Skype call with ease. Today - I'm lucky if I can close bluetooth device configuration window in Windows 7 without losing audio altogether in the bluetooth headset - only to find it blaring loudly through my laptop speakers.

Since I use noise reduction headphones, when this happens, it isn't immediately obvious to me that my family or my co-workers are suffering from an auditory onslaught of whatever form of audio might have my attention at the moment.

Bluetooth in general has been a failure of implementation in a number of dual use cases, but connecting to a single device at a time, say a laptop, netbook running Windows XP or Ubuntu (or even an iOS device) led to, if not an enjoyable experience, at least a convenient, functional, reliable experience whilst switching from media mode to telephony mode and back again.

I wish the same were true for Windows 7. I did a quick screen cast of just one of the many ways in which Windows 7 completely flakes out on bluetooth. [One day I'll get the pro version of Jing so that I can upload to YouTube and embed videos directly into my blog posts. The link to my screen cast: http://screencast.com/t/3Z9QZkfgKQ ]

Super shame too - because all in all, I have been digging Windows 7 as an end user.

As an IT support professional, I have some use cases that illustrate how Windows 7 makes everyday routine support tasks a for more clicks than is necessary in XP - but I'll save those for another blog post. It maybe that I just haven't spent enough time RTFM.

Thom on POP Mail

I think of POP like an old screwdriver - it served its purpose for a time - and for a while, it was the best screwdriver in the toolbox, but these days, it's just lost its edge and ends up causing people grief as much as anything else. RIP POP. 

Today Only - Kodak EasyShare 12MP Digital Camera for $39.99 + $5 shipping

I've had a few ppl ask me about cameras recently so I thought I'd pass this along.

Anyone needing a decent inexpensive camera, http://woot.com/ has a refurbished Kodak EasyShare 12MP Digital Camera for $39.99 + $5 shipping - comes w/ a 90 day warranty.

For those of you not familiar w/ Woot.com, they have 1 deal for 1 day. By 11:59pm CDT tonight, or sooner if they sell out, this product will not be available.

Pretty good deal if you are in the market for a really inexpensive digital camera that takes great color photos in a small point & click form factor and don't mind buying refurbished product (at $39.99, not much risk, especially w/ 90 day warranty.)