New Blogger?

Well it looks like Blogger Dashboard has gone and got itself a Plus style update - didn't see that coming. Looks tidy. I've always felt the Blogger dashboard looked like a bolt on to the rest. Now it has some of the panache of the Plus and the rest of the updated interfaces. Not sure it's completely on the button but certainly headed towards the unified look and feel of the 'new' Google. So far so good and I like it...

Plus Or Minus

The news has been awash - or should that be aBuzz - with Google Plus, the new social ecosystem from Google and I'm looking forward to seeing how it hooks in with all the other Google services. I do have one fear that all my eggs are finding there way into one super large basket. It's not a big concern but it does need consideration.

I like the idea of a simplified interface verses the bloat of Facebook. The recent updates that Big G has been effecting across it's services look clean, uncluttered and uniform. Google Plus promises that same uncluttered look. Facebook, on the other hand, has too much bloatware going on. What is it with all the 'apps' ? Is it me or is all theat bloat just total crud? I want to use my social network to connect to friends, chat, message, post up the odd photo from an event and arrange the odd night out. End of. To that effect the Google experiment, from what I've manage to glimpse - and admittedly, that ain't much - ticks the boxes.

The big problem as I see it is, can we all really tempt our friends, our networks of interlinked social streams off Facebook into Google+ quickly enough? To be effective you need to be able to interact with your social groups in a single interaction. It's no good having to post once to Google+ and then again to Facebook. That just won't work. I'm sure someone will come up with some way to link the networks but I'm doubting it'll be easy.

Having said all that, if Facebook simplified their offering, stripped out the chaff and left the wheat there'd be no market for Google to try and break into. As it is, there is and I for one hope it works. The main question - will enough of us move across quickly enough to make the whole thing work? - once plus comes out of beta, of course, for those of us still waiting for an invite...

I Love My Transformer

Quite simply, after spending a few more days with the ASUS Transformer, I'm loving it. The keyboard is the key. I can go off piste with the pad but to be able to dock it and type at near full speed is glorious. Total tops.

Couldn't Hold Off Honeycomb Any Longer

For the most part I've been happy with my Archos 101. I knew it was never going to be the ultimate tablet - you don't expect that for the price I paid - and after the initial couple of firmware upgrades the responsiveness and usability of the device was sufficient for simple browsing from the sofa. There were always a few instances, when I wanted something done where I knew the Archos just wouldn't cut it and I'd fire up the netbook to get the job done. Primarily this related to areas involving typing - or rather the requirements for lots of it. The other area where I found myself reaching for the netbook was major browsing sessions. Sometimes when I needed to fire up lots of pages and multiple searches I just found it plain quicker - and therefore easier - to get the job done on the netbook. Now I like my gadgets but I just didn't feel I could justify an upgrade to one of the new bread of Honeycomb tablets. I didn't feel they offered enough advances over what I could do with my current Archos to warrant spending so much. Then one day all that changed. The Transformer had caught my eye and I couldn't resist its charm...

Now this isn't going to be a big review. Barely a review at all really. More a statement that the usability of the ASUS Transformer - packaged with the keyboard dock - is a logarithmical improvement over my 101. For the last two days I've not needed to reach for the netbook. Ive not even been close to needing to. The usability in its pure tablet form is great. I don't think Honeycomb has huge changes as compared to Froyo but the sum of all the little things add to give a massive improvement in usability - and it all works silky smooth. Yes, there's the odd force close and there aren't a huge number of Honeycombed apps just yet but that will no doubt improve rapidly. Video performance is cracking - and I'm not comparing this to other Honeycomb tabs just my old 101. Just to say Youtube stuff plays jerk free.

Then, of course, we come to the keyboard dock and this is where things step up a notch. Attaching the tablet into the dock is painless and then cue netbook style typing. It's not a full size keyboard but you can get a decent enough type rate going. Once docked, the browsing experience is truly laptop like and there in lies the reason why I've not needed to reach for the netbook. A word on the stock browser, it's good. The ASUS mod to allow setting the user string thing to 'Desktop' without requiring the about:debug effort is a real boon. I almost can't tell the difference between browsing on the Transformer and using Chrome Browser on my netbook. (Although to be fair I have installed Dolphin HD for the tabbed interface - my mistake, the stock browser does indeed have tabbed browsing - but not when you turn on the 'quick control' options from the labs menu - but I still somehow prefer Dolphin).

All in all I give it 10 out of 10 and flushes away all my guilt from spending the money when I already had a Android tablet. The Transformer is light years ahead of the Froyo experience. It'll get an 11 once there are a few more Honeycomb purposed apps out there in the market...

Still A Long Waze To Go

I decided to give the Android navigation app, Waze, another go. I came away sadly disappointed. It has improved little - at least here in the UK. The map, which is pretty much key to the product, is massively lacking. Yes, I can see improvement in the large urban areas and yes, it does now manage to route me close to point to point, however, due to the poor map, unconnected roads still lead to '10 mile trips' to drive half a mile down the road. That means you just can't use it for navigation and thus the main feature of the product is a big fat fail.

It is a such a shame the developer didn't use OpenStreetMaps. So blinkered on getting their own map. At the rate it's going they will never have a sufficiently complete map of the UK for it to work. It's classic chicken and egg. You need users to build the map but if the navigation doesn't work people will just use Google Navigator instead, and the map won't improve. It's been over a year since I last tried Waze and it hasn't really got any more usable.

It really is a crying shame. The concept and way traffic data is crowd source is genius. Real time traffic is just what you need to optimise the commute. Sadly it just doesn't cut it as a navigation solution. If only they'd used OpenStreetMap.

Uninstalled....

Looks Like Ordnance Survey Is On The Microsoft Payroll

It's a shame government bodies opt for the dark side and join the Galactic Empire. Just once I wish they would join the Rebel Alliance. Alas Ordnance Survey have sided with the Sith as their new - and initially very exciting looking - Getamap online service relies on the niche MS Silverlight plugin. A low cost subscription based service that allows you plan routes and print them, including itinerary etc.

What's wrong with open web standards. Hello, HTML5? Have you not heard about it? Silverlight is so last decade. I guess the men at the top are on a finders fee direct from King Bill - nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more. Why else would you close down your product and exclude non-microsoft operating systems....

Sadly, another opportunity missed, and I find it a crying shame. For a few moments I was really excited, it looked a great tool - they even had the cheek to send me an email telling me all about it. As an Ubuntu user I'm basically f*&ked. The token gesture of Moonlight won't cut it.

So it looks like a rename might be in order - 'GetAMap But Only If You're A Microsoft User, The Rest Of You Are Screwed' - guess that's not quite so catchy.

On the brightside I suppose I'll be saving myself the £30 subscription fee - so it's not all bad...

Joli OS

Haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd give a brief review of my experience with Joli OS. And before we begin, the one thing I don't really like is the new name but I'll let that slide.

Joli OS's new Google Docs connection in the File Browser is quite simply brilliant. OK, so it doesn't provide anything that viewing Google Docs in the browser doesn't but the interface is great. The unified way you access cloud storage in the form of Dropbox and now Google Docs really refines Joli OS into what I consider is the best Cloud OS of them all. The ability to run native apps if required together with a simple install, single login and bam, there it is, all your apps synchronised, access to cloud storage and all with no configuration required. One account. One cloud OS to rule them all. And since the last update to version 1.2 even the access through the browser (and I can only speak for Chrome) is seamless.

Prior to finding Joli OS 1.2 I used to go through a bit of a long winded process to configure DropBox using a series of soft-links to my SD card on my netbook just in case I needed a re-install the operating system, which has been known once or twice. Now I don't need to bother. I don't download and sync to my disk at all since it's been integrated into the Joli OS file browser. It works great. And now with Google Docs added to the mix the process of access to files and docs is becoming evermore seamless.

When I need to setup a new machine - or reconfigure/install my current one - I just install Joli OS. Login and bam, there it is. All my links are just there. Google Docs, DropBox... ready to type and go. Simples.

Can't wait for the next step - drag and drop between DropBox and Google Docs. Joli OS will be awesome when that happens. As it is I find it pretty bloody good. I reckon they should rename it JoliGOOD.

Joli-well Failed

I've been really pleased how responsive Jolicloud has been on my Acer AspireOne but the last month has been FAIL. I upgraded to version 1.1 without issue but a month or so ago I released I'd had no updates. Normally ever week or so there would be the odd small update but for over a month, nothing, nada, zip.

So I decided to click the 'update' button manually and there in lines the problem - or part of it. None of the top bar icons did anything except pop up the 'Waiting for my.jolicloud.com' message in the bottom left corner and then nothing would work. Doing a refresh - pressing F5 - would get me the apps back operational but each time I clicked on any of the top icons - including the 'shutdown' icon - up would come the 'waiting...' where up on the only option to recover would be an F5 refresh.

The browsing works OK and the speed is probably as good as it ever was but it is annoying that I can't keep the thing up to date. I'm sure there have been updates. Using apt-get shows no updates either. Can't believe there's been no updates. So in an attempt to cure I am re-installing. Fingers crossed...

Android Tablet Pricing - Are They Mental?

Blimey, I've just seen some early rss, blog and news feeds suggesting the prices for some upcoming Android Tablets from the likes of HTC and Motorola. Are they stark raving mad? Who the balls will pay 600 notes for an Android Tablet? Oh my god, a tablet is meant to be an easy to use device you use to read the news, read a book, go on your social networks... It won't replace a laptop or desktop, become your main machine. Unbelievable. Think what 600 notes get you as a laptop? They need to be low(ish) cost. A quick bit of browsing, news and move one. With six hundred notes you'd be mad not to get an iPad and go out partying with the change. I can't believe the big boys are so stupid.

And HTC, what is with 2.4? Why not wait a month and give it Honeycombe? Mental, truly mental. And don't get me started on HP and Web OS - what the hell is the point of that? FAIL...

Froyo'd Up

Well my 101 is upgraded to Froyo and I've re-installed Gapps4archos2 to get the market and installed Flash. Have to admit she's not running as smooth as I hoped. That is until I installed z4root and SetCPU. It's a bit of a pain to have to run each reboot but the performance improvement is well worth it. Flash is actually smooth! YouTube plays without jerkiness. All I have to say is - Why the hell do I have to run a frig to get this thing to run full speed, ie 1Ghz? The specs don't mention 800Mhz? Archos you should fix this. YOU CLAIM 1GHZ SO BLOODY WELL GIVE US 1GHZ STANDARD, NO FRIG REQUIRED.

Archos 101 The Story So Far

Well I've owned the Archos for less than a week but so far things are looking promising. Initially I had a fairly major issue with the screen - no, not the viewing angle, which, as has been highlighted by many, is poor but I only look at it straight on so it's not a problem to me. No, the problem I had was with the actual touch recognition. It didn't seem to register touch properly. I couldn't drag icons around the entire home screen. Some parts of the screen just didn't seem to allow dragging and parts of the virtual keypad where unresponsive. Happily there was a simple cure. I just ran the calibration commands from the 'repair & formatting' settings page. After that it's been well behaved. It's nice and responsive and all my presses register at the right points.

Probably the biggest disappointment is the low RAM. I couldn't find any detail before purchase as to how much it had and now I own one I can report it ain't a lot. My Desire on bootup has 240Mb free. The Archos, with even fewer startup programs, has just over 100Mb. That said, it doesn't seem to be causing me too much problem. The apps seem to run smoothly. Browsing is responsive - I use Xscope 1.5. The lack of flash is annoying but hopefully, as stated in a previous post, that'll be resolved in a week or two and for now I can just about cope.

The first thing I installed was GApps4Archos to get the real deal market. No problems encountered, GMail etc are installed and running happily.

The second problem I have encountered is WiFi sleeping on screen blank. This is a tad annoying and there doesn't seem to be the sleep policy from the WiFi Advanced options settings page. I've tried a couple of the market apps to try and keep it active to no avail. Again, I'm hoping the Froyo upgrade will resolve this one too. Fingers crossed.

Those issues aside, in use, the 101 is working well. I'm still working my way through the market to find the best apps for the things I want to use it for - namely; browsing, facebook, twitter, rss, newspapers and the odd blog post - the large keyboard is surprisingly accurate to use and I can actually get a reasonable typing speed going.

All in all I'm pleased with the purchase. I'm not going to claim it's as finished as the iPad and the wide screen aspect ratio, in my opinion, is not the ideal format for this type of device but it works surprisingly well in both portrait and landscape. I really thought that portrait would be too narrow for book reading and rss but it's actually fine and as yet I haven't come across any issues that I can put down to the larger size screen. For me the much cheaper price and the promise of Flash outweigh the polish of the iPad.

As to the battery life, I've been giving it a hammering today and used 35% in six hours fairly continuous use and I don't think that's bad at all. At the moment I give it the Mad Tech Report thumbs up. Mind you, if Froyo isn't just around the corner that's going to change...

Archos 101 Froyo Upgrade

I've finally stumped up the cash and got myself an Android tablet. The last few months have seen me edge closer and closer to buying the Satan Device that is the iPad. Fortunately sense prevailed. The lack of Flash is too much to bare.

Instead I opted for the Archos 101. This ain't a review - that might follow shortly - but it's really light weight and it's size makes it easy to use while sat on the sofa watching the TV. It's not quite as responsive as I thought it would be - and then I realised it's not got Flash. Disaster! Although it mentions 'Android 2.2' throughout the product spec' it actually runs 2.1 out of the box - noooooooo! Feeling more than a little cheated I re-read product spec' to see how I was duped. And then it all becomes clear, '2.2 Technology enabled' - ie, it's got the capability to run 2.2 but Archos chose to give set it free before it really should have in its mad rush to market - and that meant 2.1.

Now I'd read that the early version ran 2.1 but I'd also read that the release version in November would run 2.2. As it's now late November I just assumed, I guess. I'm a little disappointed but the device itself is nice to use. Eager for 2.2 I emailed Archos in the Uk and this is the response I got:-

Head Office have advised that this week be available as a firmware update on our website from the end of next week [that's the 5th Dec]

Although a bit garbled - OK, a lot garbled - it does sound like the upgrade will be out by the end of next week. Whether this materialises I have my doubts - I'm a pessimistic bastard these days - but I hope it does because then the device will be a little cracker. If not? Well, I don't want to think about that, but a turkey springs to mind...

The Dawning Of A New Tablet Age

Is it really happening? Are we facing a wave of Android Tablets. Proper tablets. Not the under powered, out of date units currently available but real, proper tablets - like the iPad only better.

Why has it taken so long? Heaven only knows. Is it all true? Only time will tell. The IFA Trade Show should reveal some if not all. OK, lets not get ahead of the game, it'll reveal some. But when the show is over how much will be hot air? How much pure vapour? At least we have the big players finally starting show signs of life - LG, Samsung, Acer, Asus - and then of course, there's the mavericks - Notion Ink, Viewsonic. There's almost going to be too much choice, right? Who am I kidding?

I have to say my current favourite is the Notion Ink Adam with its pixelQ screen - but then am I really going to be wandering the streets with it - probably not. Mind you, might be nice to use out on the patio with a mug of black coffee watching the clouds roll away...

Do I need a more powerful Tegra 2 based device or do I stick with the lesser Arm. What do I want to use it for? Is it an all singing netbook replacement? Will it mainly be browsing and reading? Will I watch much video? Flash? But of course - else I'd already be using the iPad. Before I commit the cash I need to sort out what I want it for.

Right now Archos' new 101, a ten incher - ooh er misses - looks nice. I could browse and read with that and only splash $300 (that's £235 in proper money). A nice proposition.

For now I guess it's a game of wait and see, read the reviews when these devices finally do hit the street - and here in blighty that'll no doubt be the late Spring with its new increased VAT rate.

Me? I'm counting the days (and hoping it's not years)...

If Flash Is So Rubbish

Why do so many websites use it?

Sure, everyone is saying HTML5 this, HTML5 that, HTML5 it's the future but at the end of the day Flash is out there now, running on millions of sites. Mr Jobs says Flash is buggy, subject to attack and going to be replaced by HTML5 so there's no point in putting it on the iPad, iPhone or iPod. That maybe so but that isn't going to happen in a one or two year period so why spoil the web experience on the iPad now. I'm sure over time HTML5 will replace Flash on many sites but Flash is still going to be with us for many years to come. Giving users both Flash ans HTML5 allows developers the time and choice to use which is best for there particular application. No, for me, the only reason to not provide Flash support - and Adobe have even got it ready to rumble on the iPad - is that Apple would lose revenue. I've no problem with the iPad not supporting Flash and limiting the device - it puts it off the menu for me personally, but that's my choice - but I'd like to see the honesty from Apple to come out and give the real reason, 'We don't support Flash so you have to buy the Apps from us'.