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Why I am disappointed in my new Nexus
So I posted a tweet about this, but upon further review with my colleague Drew, I’ve got a pretty decent handle on what bugs me about my new Samsung Nexus Droid. Everyone has congratulated me on getting the next top of the line phone but for me, while that’s all great, the convenience factor of this phone is dramatically limited. It’s almost as if someone decided convenience wasn’t necessary on the ultimate device of convenience…your phone.
Let’s start with silencing your phone. On my old Droid 2, on my home screen, even before the unlock screen, I had a slider I could use to instantly go into vibrate mode. Very handy when I got texts or phone calls during meetings…immediate ignore and then I could put the phone back into standard mode without worrying about settings. In order to put my phone into vibrate mode, I have to unlock the phone and go do three or four clicks deep. That’s unacceptable in my opinion. And yes, I get that there’s a volume control on the phone, but I don’t want volume control; I want instant vibrate mode. Maybe there’s an app for that?
Speaking of apps, I had to download the beta version of Swipe to get my swipe on; it doesn’t come native on the Nexus. Took me a while to figure out why I couldn’t find it and I eventually put the app on the phone. Smart move, yep, taking away one of the input methods.
The systemic screens are unintuitive as well…my first phone call only showed me the phone icon, with no indication as to what I should do to ignore or accept the call. I had to do some experimentation to figure out the slide techniques to do so, but there was certainly no hint on the UI that I had actions available to me.
With that, I can admit to you that the screen on the Nexus is gorgeous, and I like some of the new features such as the foldering on the homepage, I feel like my convenience has been snatched from me like an ice cream cone in a hurricane, and I’ve been left all wet and hungry. Maybe next time I’ll ask a few more questions and not take so much for granted, eh?
Welcome To WordPress!
Hi folks!
I’ve decided to move from Blogger to WordPress, primarily as a public place to house my resume and some other information about that I want to be public. Feel free to follow or friend me as you wish; you can find social media links on my About Me page.
If you are an employer seeking to speak to me, please refer to my resume for information about me, or connect with me via LinkedIn.
Thanks!
User Groups Attract Visitors…and how technology saved my shoulder…
So in past blogs I’ve mentioned the possibilities of creating your own special interest groups, or user groups. I’ve done so with the San Luis Obispo .NET User Group. One of the byproducts of that is an ability to use your group’s contacts for a chance to do some good for the community. I had this opportunity recently when the Code Trip, Microsoft’s bus trip featuring its new technologies, tried to come to town. When a visit to CalPoly fell through due to scheduling issues, Woody Pewitt from Microsoft contacted me seeking help with a place to park the bus. I put him in touch with Randy Scovial and Cuesta College, and the Code Trip stopped in for a successful visit this past Monday, with two sessions for students and a general session that night that attracted over 40 local technology professionals. You can read more about the trip, including its visit to SLO, at its website.
The picture of the bus is from outside the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where I went this week for VSLive, a technology conference. I caught up with the Code Trippers there, and they interviewed me along with a bunch of other technology people, asking if they knew about the Code Trip.
They also asked me about my ultra mobile PC, my new toy that I got for just this reason. I spend a bit of time at conferences, and I am sick to death of carrying around the 40 lb deadweight that is my Laptop and its accompanying bag. So I picked up one of these:
An Ultra Mobile PC. It is hand held, has a 7″ screen, runs Windows XP Tablet, and has built in wireless capabilities. And most importantly, it weights only a couple of lbs. It was heaven! I picked up some accessories so that when I had table space I could set it up almost like a regular PC:
including a folding keyboard like you would use for a PDA. But it works perfectly fine on its own, with a stylus for its touchpad and a fairly easy to use thumb keyboard split on either side of the unit. I got a lot of inquiries about this neat little toy. I even held a meeting in my car, over the phone, using this on my Verizon Broadband connection!
If you do a lot of traveling this is the toy for you.
Robert Hope, founder
San Luis Obispo .NET User Group
Be welcome and true.
Rob Hope 