Then I installed Titanium so I could restore all my apps from the SD card back up rather than having to download and reconfigure them all. Of course I had forgotten that Titanium needs root. So 10 minutes after unboxing this thing I was downloading the latest Unrevoked rooting tool. Then I got hit with shock number 2. Unrevoked is only for HTC phones. Crap! I never noticed that.

So I immediately began the hunt for a more general root tool. I found the wonderful Super1click on xda-developers. It rooted my phone like a pro. It is so polished that I just *had* to donate 5 bucks to the developer.

After the quick root, Titanium made quick work of restoring all my apps in the same state as their last run time on the old phone. That is especially convenient since I don’t have to reconfigure them or re-authenticate. My games even retain the high scores.

I considered slapping the latest CyanogenMod on there but I mainly needed Cyanogenmod for my old HTC Desire because of its relatively low internal memory, which made it hard to find room for apps.  Also, I want to get used to the Samsung apps and interface tweaks. One of their tweaks that already irritates me is the Samsung voice recognition. It works quite well but has hijacked the home button double tap, which I use for Quickdesk Pro.

Quickdesk is a home button add on. It lets you get to a quick app screen when you double tap the home button. Unlike the normal home button, it lets you select one of your goto apps without losing your place since you can dismiss it and go back where you were without using the task manager.  For now, I’m using the single home button press to call up Quickdesk, which 9 times out of 10 will provide access to the app I need.  When that’s not the case, a second press will call up the normal home screen.  It actually works pretty well.

I must say, this phone is beautiful and really fast. It is loaded with the best hardware options I’ve seen. I’d post a picture but taking a pic of itself seems to be the 1 thing it can’t do.

They were obviously counting on what I call the “mindless sheep effect.” [yes I'm just that cynical on public sentiment] It is true that people are loathe to let their dollars do the talking so I am always shocked when more than a handful of people will cancel their accounts over anything. I mean look at Bank of America. They rape people with the worst fees and highest interest rates in the country and are still able to grow because no one wants to simply find another bank even though there must be a few thousand of them.

Netflix seriously miscalculated just how bad a deal they were offering people. When you manage to motivate this many of the laziest consumers on the planet to walk, you know you have outdone yourself.

So here is the problem: I canceled my Netflix account before their deadline for the new price structure. Since then, I’ve been using Amazon video on demand. I am an Amazon Prime member so all but premium movies is free. I pay the $3.99 per movie via 1-click for first-run stuff. My first month’s 1-click total: $12. I’ve watched all that I want and I’ve spent less than I would have with Netflix. Plus, I get everything immediately. No DVDs–no waiting.

Netflix may find the same trend that Hollywood found after the last big strike they had. People got used to reality TV and networks got used to cheap productions and higher profits. Now, the demand for actors, writers, and directors is lower than pre-strike levels. Likewise Netflix has foolishly showed me and about a million other people that there are other ways to get content and that we actually don’t need them. They clearly overestimated the extent to which they were in the driver’s seat.

There are no doubt still people for whom Netflix’s offerings are most advantageous and it will make sense for these people to stay. Everyone else however, is up for grabs by Amazon, Blockbuster, and others.

Egyptian Standoff (HuffPost photo)

Mubarak is reacting with admirable restraint for someone so desperate to hold on to power. He sacked his entire government rather than own up to the discontentment that has been building in Egypt. Americans watch the events there with great interest and a great deal of inner conflict. After all, it is always desirable to see a democratic movement succeed but the region in which this revolution is taking place is unstable. Nevertheless, Egypt has stood out as one of the most stable countries in this often volatile part of the world. Therefore, while we would hope that the Egyptian desire for a self-selected government is realized, we can not say with confidence that whatever might replace the current regime would improve the stability in the region nor that such a change would be in the interest of the United States.

What seems to be a sobering fact is that the democracy many Egyptians seek is so often taken for granted in the United States. In the 2010 midterm elections, just over 40% of eligible voters participated. Such an abysmally low turnout is tragic when you observe the pains that the people of Egypt must go through for the same opportunity.

Still, we must face the hypocrisy of people who now express hope that democracy will flourish in Egypt but who cynically supported candidates like Sharon Angle, who claimed that only election results which turn out favorably to one’s position should be respected and that barring that, “second amendment remedies” should be sought in order to ensure that one gets one’s way. This means, as I’m sure you’ve heard ad nauseam, that you should try to use the electoral process first and if that doesn’t work, start shooting people.

In any case, we can only stand back and see how this situation turns out. At the same time, we can reflect on how fortunate we are to have had our ancestors fight this battle for us. So the next time you hear someone mouthing off about how angry they are because the people they elected kowtowed to big business and special interests and let them ruin the national economy, remind them that the fix is easy for us because the hard part has been done already. All they have to do is vote for people who respect democracy whether they win or lose. Since leaders who value duty and honor above their own self interest tend to make decisions that don’t lead to international financial meltdowns, the rest will pretty much take care of itself. Don’t you think?

From the LA Times

One of the typical traits of third world politics is the rise of charismatic leaders who eschew recognition of political contests that they do not or cannot win. For these people, it’s okay to wave the flag and proclaim their patriotism when they believe they are in a majority but when faced with defeat, they quickly resort to deception, demagoguery, or destruction as a means of achieving their political objectives. What does it say about their commitment to democracy when they behave as if they are entitled to rule and will do anything necessary to impose their ideals on a nation?

One basic flaw of conservative ideology is the belief in its inherent rightness. This contributes to the current nonconstructive state of left to right and right to left dialog. Without the belief in the inherent rightness of conservative politics, it would not be possible for any rational person to vote for someone like Angle or New York’s Paladino. It would also not be possible for anyone with an average or better IQ to watch a channel like Fox News, which as I’m sure you know is the most biased news source since the Soviet era Pravda—legendary source of pro-communist, cold war propaganda.

During my time as a committed conservative who promoted Judeo-Christian values where ever possible, I watched Fox News (as do many traditional conservatives) so as to avoid the taint of liberal media bias. When they became an order of magnitude more right-biased than the most liberal of news papers was left-biased, I found that it violated my own ethical standards of fairness and objectivity and accordingly, I stopped watching them. This is why I know that it is not a matter of simply being jaded or duped. Anyone with a healthy sense of fair play and a healthy respect for the truth, would be concerned by the extremist political rhetoric spewing forth from Fox on a daily basis. Are we to understand that Islamic extremism is a threat but Christian or conservative extremism is perfectly okay?

This is why the coming mid-term elections worry me. Apparently, Americans are angry at incumbents and plan to vote Democrats out of office. Okay. Walk me through the logic here. Republicans spend 8 years destroying our economy, helping companies ship jobs overseas, are apathetic to global warming and the environment, and spend borrowed money like drunken sailors while expanding our national debt by more than a trillion dollars and the average voter wants to hand the country’s driver’s seat back to them? It would not be so bad if there was a viable third party that could give it a go. At least that would make sense. But to give the reigns back to the people who got us in trouble to begin with and who said “no” to every initiative that might have successfully dealt with the problem, makes sense in what way? It makes me wonder if Sharon Angle would endorse second amendment remedies to remove right-wing radicals as well. But then, they often forget that we have guns too…don’t they? Be careful what you wish for.

So that brings me back to the original question. Assuming that actions speak louder than words, what message are Americans sending the world when they vote emotionally without regard to the national political consequences or the long term affects on our democracy? What message does it send when the Roberts Supreme Court allows hundreds of million dollars by billionaires and corporations to pour into Karl Rove’s Republican funding initiatives in order to create a legislative climate where they can do whatever they want and answer to no one—but no one on the Republican side cares about the ethics of coming to power through corporate sponsorships? Who will these Republicans be loyal to, the people or the corporations?

Everyone who cares about our democracy needs to help keep it clean and honest (in as much as that is possible). Everyone should vote, no matter their political leaning. After this election season is done, we need to reverse the damaging Roberts court ruling on campaign finance and then reign-in the unwieldy Senate. Without both of these, we may end up remembering fondly the United States as a modern democracy.

In any case, the coolness of Android and the interesting things an adventurous individual can do with this phone OS continues to amaze me.  First I had to decide if I would wait for HTC to push a Froyo update (v2.2) or to download a custom ROM.  Since HTC was offering this update as I returned, I opted for the former.  This is a stark contrast with Apple which rarely if ever pushes new features to its devices.  Apple customers get security updates (most of which are designed to thwart jail-breaking) but when they make improvements, they want you to buy them by purchasing a new device the following year.  Google’s approach is 1000 times better even if they get short-sighted and inexplicable comments about version-based confusion caused by frequent updates.  I can’t imagine Google holding new features until some far-off keynote at a convention next summer.  Shockingly, Apple fans claim that they prefer Apple’s method of holding advancements for a year to avoid “confusing its customers.”  If I had an iPhone, I wouldn’t say that loud enough for anyone else to hear it.

The 2.2 update failed several times because I had too many programs installed.  The update requires 25MB free space of phone storage in order to complete and I had a mere 23.7 MB.  This means I had to delete 1.3MB worth of apps in order to proceed.  I chose 2 apps I have used very little and deleted them, freeing up just over 2 additional megs.  This was worth doing in either case because one of the issues that Froyo addresses is the need to store installed apps on your SD card rather than in phone memory.  It is silly to run out of space when you have a 16GB card that is mostly empty.  This was a terrible oversight by Google’s Android team in the beginning but at least it’s been remedied.

Next, I downloaded the latest rooting tool from Unrevoked.  Since I already had the HBOOT drivers installed from rooting Android 2.1, all I had to do was connect my phone to my desktop USB port and then download and run the latest ClockworkMod Recovery program.  The program detected my phone immediately and asked if I was sure that I wanted to proceed.  After confirming, it rebooted the phone 3 or 4 times while giving progress updates in the program window.  When it finally said “Done,” the phone was already booting into it’s rooted 2.2 config.  It’s that simple. ["Simple" being a relative term. I've pointed out before that rooting is not for the average grandma.  It's for danger seekers. ]

Note:  If you installed the keyboard mod for the mic mentioned in my Android Primer and then later update to Froyo, remember you have to uninstall the keyboard mod HTC_IME mod or you will get errors.

On top of Froyo I’ve found some great new Android tools that I think you should try.  First up, Drop Box.

I mentioned how I hate Google’s lack of native support for their own productivity software Google Docs.  Even if you use the app GDoc, you have more limitations than anything else, not the least of which is that it functions as little more than a text editor.  Drop Box can help you get around this in conjunction with another productivity app like Documents to Go (for example).  The version of Documents to Go that can write files (the free version is crippled) costs $14.99 which is outrageous considering they were too lazy to implement .rtf support.  I didn’t buy it for that reason alone.  But if you need it…nuff said.  You can place all your needed documents into a Dropbox storage area that you share with your desktop or any number of other devices (get an extra 250MB storage by using this link to register). Any file placed into the dropbox (not to be confused with Al Gore’s lock-box) is automatically synchronized between all linked devices.  If you edit and save a Word doc for example, in the dropbox on your computer, you will automatically see the same updates on the phone copy and vice versa.  If only someone would make a productivity app that understands .rtf format, all would be golden.

Dropbox

Documents to Go

Another killer app is Awesome Drop.  Awesome Drop is similar to Drop Box in that you can get files to your phone through the cloud.  What it’s really useful for is pushing files to your phone without needing a cable.  I found this one day after accidentally leaving my USB cable at work.  I needed a file on my phone so I searched for more efficient ways to do that rather than emailing them to myself.  With Awesome Drop, you drop the file on a green box in your desktop browser window and like magic, the file starts downloading to your phone.  You can watch the progress on either device.  This works great for photos, mp3′s, videos, etc.  The only limits are your available space and how much bandwidth you are willing to use.  Usually, the bandwidth only matters when using your 3G network or phone data plan.  If you are using Wifi, then send till your heart’s content.

To use Awesome Drop, first install it on your phone and then go to the website on your desktop.  On the website you will get a 4 digit code that you need to type into the app on your phone.  This is how the two are associated with one another.  After the link is joined, you get a green box in the browser window.  Just drop 1 or more files on that box.  Multiple files will queue one after another.  You can find them in the “drop” folder on your sd card.  This is probably the most useful app I’ve installed in quite some time.

Awesome Drop

Here are a few other apps that are immensely useful to me.  YMMV.  Just take a look.  You may need to take a half hour or so to experiment so you can see how these can be useful.  I think it will be well worth your while.

Bubble

Use your Android phone as a level. Great for the handyman on the go.

LookOut Security

Security and Anti-Virus. Locate your phone if lost with GPS or emit a burst of sound. Backup your data.

Currency Converter

Fantastic 2-way currency converter. See latest exchange rates on 1 screen.

Star Translate

Ever wanted a Universal Translator like on Star Trek? Well here it is. Translates spoken AND written words.

Here is another inconvenient truth.  Sometimes you want to buy from a company that you feel you can trust.  Companies spend millions upon millions building a relationship with their customers and trying to foster such a trust. Marketers have become so good at it that one can easily forget that it’s all smoke and mirrors.

I have a Dell Studio 17 that is just over 1 year old.   Unfortunately for me, the LCD screen failed 3 months after the warranty expired.   I was typing away one day and the bottom 2/3 of the screen just twisted horribly and became unusable.  Having this happen when a product is still in its prime is always the worst case scenario for any product and is the thing we all dread.  I have often counseled friends and colleagues to stick with larger, more robust companies when selecting a product, especially when buying a computer.  So I got a shock when I called Dell Out of Warranty support and was told they cannot help me.

A Dell Studio 17 after 1 year normal use. Note the blurry screen. This effect is from the still photo. It's actually flickering rapidly if you watch it live. Hurts my eyes. It's a high res pic BTW. The clear strip at the top is all there is left. Did I mention it's only a year old?

I said essentially that there must be some mistake.  I have bought many Dell products and when I had to have one repaired previously, it went off without a hitch.  I was actually quite pleased.  My problem is that I work on a military base in Europe.  The US Postal Service operates Post Offices on nearly every U.S. base.  U.S. companies can send to them without customs charges and the costs are about what you’d expect to ship a package to New York.  It’s meant to let servicemen and women enjoy the same privileges they enjoy at home.  Dell happens to be one of the businesses that support this system along with Walmart, Kmart, Amazon, and most other retailers.  With Dell, you can order your computer to your military APO right from Dell’s website.  But that’s where the convenience ends.

Dell Sales and Dell Warranty Support have both gleefully shipped to me in the past.  Now that I have a useless laptop which should still be in the prime of its life, Mr. Kumar who manages the Out of Warranty Department said, “Sorry, we can’t ship to you.  You must have a normal U.S. street address.”  I asked, “What do you mean can’t?  Don’t you have a Post Office in your town?”  His response, “Yes we do Sir but we can’t help you.”

“So what do I do with a broken laptop?” I asked.

“Ship it to a friend in the States and let them send it to us.  We’ll send it back to them and then they can forward it to you.” he said.

“So you shipped it to me to get a sale but now that the money has changed hands I’m on my own is that it?” I asked.

“Sorry.” he responded.

This is the kind of thing that bureaucrats do to make things easier on themselves without any concern for whatever hardship it might place on their customer.  I can’t get over the gall of the guy to say CAN’T ship—as if it will bring about the apocalypse.  If every other agency in your company CAN ship to my address, then so can you.  You simply choose not to.  This is not a physical limitation.  It is nothing more than a policy that some “manager” inked for his own convenience.  And now everyone at your location uses the word can’t when it does not accurately describe the situation.  Here is what does:

You have abandoned a loyal customer and refused to stand by your product.  You should not have a policy of selling where you won’t service.  So the situation is, won’t ship.  Not can’t.  Won’t.  Every military person needs to know two things: 1. That they are rolling the dice when they buy a Dell.  2. That Dell might try to make them cry.

BTW: Make sure you read the first few comments below to get the full story.

Previously (I’ve visited at least once a year for the last 8 years), I used Nokias with their Symbian operating systems and various Windows Mobile devices.  This past July, I finally gave in to my craving for  an Android phone.  As a person making heavy uses of Google products including Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Talk, yada yada, switching to Android was for me somewhat of a no-brainer.  I fell head over heels for the Android OS.

In my field of IT, which mostly deals with satellites, fiber, and various other digital technologies, I rely heavily on electronic schematics and other technical documentation.  Long ago, I discovered the convenience of carrying my documentation in electronic form.  I remember the day when I had to carry around books the size of telephone books.  That may not sound too daunting but for those of you who travel often, I’m sure you can appreciate being able to leave 30 or 40 pounds of books behind when you have to travel across continents, through customs, and through several changes of plane especially when you often have to claim your bags and lug them through an airport in order to switch airlines or to meet your next transport.

I eventually managed to fit all of the relevant documentation on a tiny SD card, which was easily swappable to the device du jour.  Last year, I was using a Sony Xperia with Winmo 6.5.  When I needed specifications for a satellite MODEM or amplifier, I simply pulled out my device and bingo presto, there it was conveniently laid out before me.  I could view all of the relevant documentation on every previous device I’ve had for the last 5 years, including my old Nokia N-95.  This time however, I had my HTC Desire with Android 2.1. 

I have become a huge fan of Google Docs.  I have cut the most relevant portions of the docs and procedures I need and put them on the card in my phone.  Many streamlined procedures—which I’ve written myself—I’ve uploaded to my Google Docs account so I can access them from anywhere. You can imagine my shock when I tried to access those docs while performing delicate procedures at 1:00 in the morning in the middle of Kabul a couple of weeks ago and found that,

1. I could not read most of the docs on my SD card with any program on my phone because they are in .rtf format.
2. The Word .doc formatted backups I made on Google Docs after finding out how Google has ignored .rtf support could not be accessed because GDocs—the Android app for accessing Google Docs—requires Internet access to work.    This was far more than a mere inconvenience.

The next day when I went to a Wifi hot spot located in a coffee shop, I noticed that GDocs has an option to download a local copy of your files.  “Great,” I thought.  It’s inconvenient but at least I can still use my documents.  I just need to know which ones I will need and download them in advance.  So I did that.

The following day when I tried to access one of the documents I downloaded, I ran into the next problem.  Although there is a cached copy on the phone, that does not necessarily solve the problem.  Here’s why.  I have documents organized by folder so that I don’t get unnecessary files scrolling off the screen.  When I left the Wifi hot spot, I was viewing a personal folder.  Later, when I wanted to locate a file for an amplifier, which is in the folder—you guessed it—Amplifiers, GDocs tells me it cannot access the folder because it has no Internet connection.  WHAT???  The program shows me the folder on my screen, but I can’t enter it?  What good does it do me to cache a local copy if I can’t access the folder it’s in?  What the heck do you do when you need information that is literally at your finger tips when that information is as useful as a paperweight on the moon?  It’s not like I could run home and get my books!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Google’s lack of support for its own productivity suite on Android is baffling.  I used my Winmo phone to work on a book I’m writing while traveling and have written many useful documents on it for years.  I just took it for granted that I would be able to do that on Android…but I can’t.  It is very frustrating.

Google Maps and Google Calendar were also frustratingly non-functional.  I came to understand that many of Google’s signature programs are completely useless without a solid and reliable Internet connection.  I’m sure Google’s response to this would be that the phone was meant to be used in areas where the infrastructure provides the connectivity that Android requires.  That’s fine but I’m sure there are people buying Android phones today that travel like I do or who might go hiking or visit grandma, who lives off in the boonies somewhere where they don’t have 3G support or even worse—where they only have AT&T.  Yikes!

It is worth noting before you rush out and buy an Android phone that whenever the Internet is unreachable, there are stark limitations in its functionality that you might not have accounted for.  Do not find yourself about to go into a meeting thinking you have your numbers in a spreadsheet on your device and you’ll rattle them off like a pro (by surreptitiously glancing at your phone) only to find that you are in a cell coverage blind spot or an RF shielded building, which are common in secretive tech firms.  You may find that Sarah Palin was smarter than you for writing her notes on her hand.

Google, you need to get it in gear and fix this.  Many of us are counting on you.

After my second disappointment, I downloaded Documents to Go for Android.  At the very least, it let me use the Word documents on my SD card but still no love for .rtf files.  Google has helped the situation slightly by adding .rtf support for documents uploaded to Google Docs.  It will convert them to Google Docs format and you can view and modify them on your device that way.  They remain in Google Docs format until you export them again.

Google needs to do a couple of things to fix this problem once and for all.

1. Make .rtf a native format for Google Docs.  As I’ve said before .rtf is a universal file format and you never have to worry what word processor anyone you might send that document to is using.  Every office suite in the world can read and write it natively except Google’s.  It was after all, designed to be an international standard and is virtually impervious to viruses.  Google, don’t get into the distinctly Microsoft business of driving sales through file formats and their obsolescence.
2. Release a native, robust, Google-sanctioned productivity product for Android—a no-brainer if you market a productivity suite.  It should work with or without Internet connectivity.  If I’m hiking the Appalachian trail, I should be able to jot down some interesting thoughts I have for my book, even if I’m supposed to be in Argentina (or vise versa).
3. Make sure that Google’s staple products have at least basic functionality.  I can’t fault Google when I have no connectivity, if I can’t access information I’ve knowingly chosen to leave in the cloud but—Android should at all times be able to do—without Internet access—all of the things that other phone OSes can typically do without Internet access.  This should be the starting point for any phone OS.  As it stands now, Android falls short of this mark and EVERYONE USING ONE NEEDS TO KNOW THAT! As much as it pains a Google fan-boy like me to say it, this OS ain’t for everyone.

If you have an Android phone and need to travel, do yourself a favor and test what functionality you will have without Internet access.  Turn off your Wifi and network data connections and then make sure that everything you depend on works.  You never know when you will be handling 15 kilo-volt wires in the wee hours of Kabul.

John C. Dvorak, you go right ahead with your cloud skepticism.  I’m right there with ya pal…now.

Love the easy installation of plugins like the tweet button with WP out of the way.  But dammit, seeing all the tweet counts reset to zero is annoying.

When I heard that Apple was planning to make one I thought that they would make a beautiful, elegant device that would be limited in what it could do or more importantly, would be limited in terms of what Apple would let customers do with it.  I expressed that opinion long before the original iPhone was released.  When it finally arrived, I was actually surprised at how much they allowed it to do.  It’s features were quite liberal…for Apple.  When compared to phones available outside the U.S. however, the multi-touch features and large button interface were really the only things that were new—and even then, only new with phones.  Nevertheless, it sounded interesting until I heard the restrictions Apple placed on it.  They made you pledge everything but your first-born child for the privilege of being allowed to buy one.

Obviously, the iPhone was a closed door to anyone who thinks like I do.  I’m convinced that when I buy a device, I should treat it like it’s mine.  Call me crazy.  So I stuck with my Nokia 3870, then my Nokia N-95, followed by my Sony-Ericsson Xperia.  Now that I have outgrown both Symbian and Windows Mobile, I wanted to go with a top of the line smart phone.  Since I am unable to even consider an iPhone for obvious reasons, an Android phone was the obvious choice.  This was a no-brainer especially because I make heavy use of Google and its most popular products every single day.

I watched the Google phones enter the market starting with the G-1, slightly more than a year ago.  The Nexus One was the first one that made me drool.  I really had a soft spot for that one.  It was the one I planned to buy but others have also looked good from a feature standpoint, like the Droid, the EVO, and the Droid X.  Eventually I decided to go to a local store to hold the devices in my hand to see how my ideas, which are based on articles I’ve read, matched the reality of the actual devices.  When I got around to the HTC Desire, which is essentially the Nexus One without a front-facing camera, it seemed to call my name.  I could not bear to put the phone down, so I bought it.

I got the phone home.  I followed the simple instruction sheet, which involved essentially opening the rear cover, inserting my Sim card, swapping-in my 16GB micro-SD card for the 4GB card that came with the phone, inserting the battery, closing the cover, plugging in the power cord to charge the battery, and turning it on.  This all took about 3 minutes since I had to be careful the first time so as not to damage the fragile cover.  The phone takes longer to boot than Symbian or WinMo.  Then again, it is a full-fledged Linux operating system.

On the first start, a wizard starts that gives you a couple of tips to help you navigate, followed by a prompt for your Google account credentials.  If you do not have an account you can create one during this step.  I put in my credentials and then it asked if I would like to sign into Twitter as well.  I typed in my Twitter credentials and off I went.  After I got to the home screen, I was quite impressed.  The resolution was great and the graphics were beautiful and very fast.  What was even more impressive was how quickly Android pulled in all my contacts and other info.

I had previously synchronized my outlook contacts list with my phone contacts from an older Nokia.  Then probably a couple of years ago, I imported those contacts to my Gmail account.  Previously, I had to manually import those contacts on every phone that I had prior to this one.  Not this time.  Just by signing into my Google account all of my contacts, calendar events, and tasks (integrated into my calendar) were there.  When the phone rang, I saw the caller id immediately without having to import anything.  That was awesome.  One of my 7 home desktops had my Twitter feed running already.  The interface of the Twitter client is nice and has the functionality you need.

[Side note: For anyone unfamiliar, a home desktop---and I'm not certain that's the proper term---is the main interface where icons, widgets, and shortcuts can be placed. It is what you see when people are scrolling left and right past rows of icons. There are essentially 7 desktop screens placed side by side and you navigate them by scrolling right or left. Except for the first, default screen they are empty until you place your frequently used items there. Each desktop can have 4x4 rows of icons or 16 per screen. Widgets, like a live weather app or the Google search box usually take several spaces, which of course decreases the number of icons that can be displayed on that particular screen.]

I continue to be surprised about the Google account integration.  Some of it may actually be unsettling if you are not aware of how well Google knows you.  When I used the Google Maps app the first time, it remembered the last destinations I had searched for on my last phone and my laptop.  Since I was going somewhere near one of these points, I just selected the nearest one with the intention of modifying the address if needed when I got near the destination.  Also, when using the “mini-Chrome” included with the system, it knows my browsing history already.  Even without importing bookmarks, after I type the first few characters of a URL, it correctly fills in the rest most of the time.  Auto-fill has been around a while but what is different about this is that while you are typing, a drop down list with matching URLs opens under the address bar.  Listed for me were not just matching URLs—but only URLs that I had visited before.  An interesting trick on a device I’ve only had for 20 minutes.  Later on, I configured my Google Apps domain and 2 other non-Google, IMAP email accounts.  I can customize each account individually so that each downloads as often or as seldom as required.

I love this phone.  I’ve even slept with the phone (ok, ok, for listening to media, you know what I mean).  But how enlightening are the pros without any of the cons?  I immediately ran into some brick walls that made me pull my hair out.  The most frustrating were the things I’ve seen demonstrated on other phones, so I know Android has the capability but which have been removed by the provider—in this case HTC.  I will give a quick run through of the problems and missing things I had to tackle and tell you how I overcame them.  That way, if you get an Android-based phone you can consider using the same solutions.  No sense in re-inventing the wheel.

The first thing I did on my trek to configuring my new Android phone was to learn how to use the Android Market.  While this was not at all difficult, it was also not quite as intuitive as I had hoped.  This would be a nice addition to the default icons on the desktop but on this particular phone, HTC lets you dig through the menu to find it.  Since it’s how you will install most of the other apps you will need, I recommend adding the icon to the home screen immediately.  Getting to know it is a top priority.  Finding it is the easy part.  Knowing what apps to install with it is where the research will come in.  After you’ve located it, hold your finger down on an empty area of the home screen for 2 seconds (a long press).  Choose Program from the resulting dialog and select Market.  Done.

The second thing that will be helpful is a bar code scanner app. Most Android friendly websites will put bar code links called QR codes on their sites for things you should visit from your phone.  You will definitely want an app that can read these QR codes as well as the normal product bar codes.  I read many articles about Android’s adroitness (try saying that 3 times) with bar codes. It is spoken of so matter-of-factly that I was surprised to find the phone missing this capability out of the box.  In order to use it, one must first download a bar code app. The most popular apps for that are Barcode Scanner and ShopSavvy.  Both work well.  One difference is that Bar code Scanner goes directly to scan mode and ShopSavvy goes to a menu first (press Search for a Product, the top button).  I like ShopSavvy because it seems to know what to do with each code and just does it whereas BC waits for you to choose an action.  Try them both.  Search the Android Market for one of these by tapping the search button in the upper right hand corner of the Market app, then install the app and  use it to scan the other for practice.

Barcode Scanner

ShopSavvy

After learning that bar code reading had to be added manually, the other deficiencies began to add up.  Here is a list of gripes:

1. Cannot reverse tether.  In other words, I can tether my laptop to the phone’s Internet but not the phone to the laptop’s for example, to avoid roaming charges while staying in a hotel that provides a connection.  Microsoft’s Active-sync provides this functionality but not Android.  Bummer.
2. No Ad Hoc networking at all, neither secure nor otherwise.  There are supposedly some hacks but I haven’t gotten any of them to work yet.
3. No built-in management of to do lists.  I’d like to see and manage tasks on my desktop.  My task list was imported into my Calendar but aside from that, there is nothing included to manage my tasks.
4. Power options allow you to specify a sleep mode and can lock the phone.  I see no way to separate the two.  Once locking is enabled, sleep mode always requires the phone to be unlocked.  Very often I press the power button to shut off the screen, then remember something I needed to do.  I have to unlock the screen again even though I have not reached the timeout I set for locking.  This is an annoyance.
5. No integrated Google Docs support.  At all!  This flabbergasted me. This was one of the main things I hoped to use a “Google phone” for.  I have all these documents imported on my micro-SD card but can do nothing with them.
6. Can’t read .rtf (rich text) files.  Before I said goodbye to MS Word 5 or 6 years ago,  I started using .rtf format instead of .doc because in addition to being virus-proof, every word processor in the universe can read this format…except Google’s.  There isn’t a single app on this phone that can read .rtf files and I can’t find one in the Android Market.  That sucks big time because I have tons of these which will need to be converted.
7. Cannot create documents on the phone.  At all!  The included QuickOffice is worthless.  It renders MS Office documents horribly and can’t create so much as a simple text file.
8. No built-in file manager.
9. No way to attach files to emails except for photos.
10. No way to pause audio after shutting off  the screen.  Would be nice if you could pause or skip songs without having to unlock the phone.  If you shut off the screen to save power, you’ve lost control.  See number 4 for explanation.
11. The much touted voice input and speech recognition functionality is notably absent.  Why on Earth would HTC remove this???
12. No Amazon apps installed and won’t appear in Market (because I’m outside the U.S.).  This is annoying since I do have a U.S.-based account I’d like to use.  If you research this problem you find this to be a hot issue abroad.  In some markets like parts of India, the Android Market has been blocked entirely.  This must infuriate lots of people who don’t understand why their phones are crippled.
13. I noticed that a visible streak revealing the unlock pattern can be obvious when viewed at an angle in the sunlight, unless you wipe down your screen every time you use it.  An obvious security issue.
14. The built-in location awareness can be used by websites to provide you more detailed service.  It can also be used to deny you service, particularly if you are outside the United States.  Even if you use a proxy, the phone “narcs” on you by giving the website your location directly.  This makes it harder to specify language preferences.  Even my Google pages keep switching me to Dutch though I specify English over and over.  If I cross into Germany, the language of my pages changes.  How does that make sense?  I still have the same brain no matter which border I cross and I’m still signed in.  I know what you are thinking—but this problem is far worse than IP-based location awareness because the problem took on new life after switching to this phone.

Wow.  Looking at the list above, you can see that my gripes are more extensive than I thought.  I overcame most of the problems.  I will go through the status/solution one at a time in the order of the previous list.  For any of the apps that are not in the Market, you will have to enable “Unknown Sources” by selecting Menu->Settings->Applications->Unknown Sources, otherwise you will get an error.

1. There is currently no solution for the reverse tethering deficiency.  According to what I have read, it will be addressed in the next version of Android.  This is inconvenient but acceptable considering how young the platform is in its development.
2. There is a website that claims to have a fix for the Ad Hoc networking.  It readily pops up when you search this topic but I find no way view the topic.  It acts like a honey trap.  Makes you sign up to view the page but never delivers the info.  Wait for the next version, which should also address this or search it out yourself if you can’t wait.
3. To address my to do list issue. I installed gtasx.  It has all the functionality I need but is a bit bloated for managing tasks.  It seems to want to manage all your Google tools including Buzz and others.  For a more streamlined app, try GTasks by Dato.  It has become necessary to be very specific on which app you mean because variants of the name GTask is being thrown around by several developers.  Try as many as you like but these 2 will give you an idea what to expect.  I recommend GTasks.  It’s simpler and has widgets that you can pin to your desktop.


GTasx



GTasks

4. Haven’t found a solution for the sleep mode hassles yet.  Maybe a developer will fill that niche at some point.
5. The lack of Google Docs support is unacceptable.  There is a tool that makes using Google Docs bearable for the time being.  It’s called GDocs.  It has 2 massive Achilles heels.  First, it’s allows little more than basic text editing.  You can edit and sync with your cloud docs, but you will lose ALL of your formatting!


GDocs

This is acceptable for editing lists and notes.  Actual word processing is out of the question.  The second irritant is that it gives you no way to upload a document that isn’t already in the cloud.  Want to create a new document and upload it to your Google Docs?  Or maybe to upload some of those imported docs from your transferred SD card?  FORGET IT!  (Update:  A recent update has remedied this situation. Through a menu option you can now create and upload documents. However, you will still lose your formatting.)  Anything more than simple text operations and you will need a laptop (or heaven forbid, go back to WinMo because it can do word processing).

6. Obviously Google has something against the .rtf format.  I don’t know what.  But they won’t support it on Docs or Android.  There is a tool that claims to support it that I won’t mention.  It requires you to upload the file to a remote server where it is rendered and sent back to your browser.  The very thought of doing that makes my skin crawl.  If you are interested you can search for rtf and you will probably find it but I prefer to wait for a real program rather than a gimmick that wants me to send my documents to their server.  Who do they think they are?  Google?
7. In addition to #6, you can’t create any documents at all on this thing without 3rd party apps.  I sincerely hope Google will address this.  You should never ship a product that can’t do “hello world” at least to itself.  Unless you count email, you can’t write any documents.
8. The file manager is not only important for familiarizing oneself with the file system but is also solves #9 as well.  After installing the file manager Astro, it became a browse target that I can choose after I select Attachment in Gmail.  I can now select and attach any file after browsing with Astro.  There are limitations to Astro.  It will not show you hidden files or folders and cannot modify permissions like Root Explorer can on a rooted phone.


Astro File Manager

9. Install Astro File Manager:
10. The only workaround that I know of is to not lock your screen.  Hopefully I will find another way to resolve this.
11. Voice input and speech recognition are some of the coolest features of Android.  Someone at HTC was on some serious drugs when they removed it from the Desire.  The good news is, you can reinstall it.  If you have 2.1, you will need the voice search package and the microphone keyboard if want a mic button on your keyboard.  It will work with your original keyboard however.  Here I will list the QR codes for the Desire/Legend.  Scan and install the Voice Search code on the left for the basic apparatus.  Get the mic-enabled keyboard with the code on the right or follow this guide for other configs or more detailed info about switching keyboards after install.  After this step, your phone is now officially cool! [WARNING: If you later update to Froyo, remember you have to uninstall the keyboard mod HTC_IME mod or you will get errors.]



Add Voice Search



‘Voice Search’ enabled keyboard

12. Some Amazon links seem to only appear in US versions of Android.  The Market is observing location to choose results for app searches.  Thatworks in most cases.  But what about servicemen and DoD civilians overseas who are entitled to use U.S. accounts?  You can get results tailored to a region by installing the miraculous Market Enabler.  It lets you emulate a carrier in the desired region.  This will let you list the apps but they may still refuse to work (like Amazon MP3 did) because of an incorrect system region setting.  You can change this setting with LocaleSwitch(QR code below).  Using these 2 apps I was able to download and configure Amazon MP3.  Of course Amazon’s policy states that you must use an account that bills to a U.S. address to download mp3′s so if you don’t have one, don’t be surprised if this doesn’t work.


Market Enabler

13. What’s the fix for streaks that reveal your lock code?  Kleenex.  Not actually a defect but it’s worth pointing out lest one feel too confident.
14. After installing the apps mentioned in #12 and disabling the location settings, this problem went away.  If you are U.S. bound, you should not encounter the language issues in any case.  Just be aware that your IP address is not the only method a website has of establishing your location.  They can get a pretty accurate position by interrogating the browser.  You do not even need the gps enabled.

LocaleSwitch

Amazon MP3

Now what?

Now that the problems that can be solved have been solved, it’s time for some more advanced things, which will only become available once you root your phone.  Why would you want to do that?  If you are not the kind of person who knows what all the Windows Control Panel items do and don’t know a few of the shortcuts to get to them without having to navigate the menu, then you probably won’t want to go any farther.  A rooted phone is for geeks.  Not normal geeks though.  Rooting your phone is for the kind of geek who is prepared to buy a new phone tomorrow if anything goes wrong.  I used a simple, 1-click tool to root my phone.  You  can do the same.  But before starting, I resolved in my mind that I was prepared to buy a new phone and that the possibility of having to do so was worth the risk.  I cannot over emphasize this.  The authors of this tool have said very clearly that they do not want any frantic emails or pleas for help because such pleas will fall on deaf ears.  If that does not deter you, then proceed.  No shortcut.  Read it first.  I found it to be pretty straight forward.

Busybox

Audible Player

After you are rooted, check this page out.  It lists some tools that will make any geek happy.  You definitely need Root Explorer if you want full access to your file system.  It’s well worth the cash.  Busybox is great for anyone who is familiar with the Unix command line (The market app says Busybox does not work with the Desire yet but the version that comes with Titanium Backup does.  Sit tight for an update.).  If you shell into the phone you won’t have most basic commands like ‘ls’ unless you install Busybox.  I also included a link for the Audible Player for those who like audio-books.  This player was actually the last thing I had been waiting for before diving into Android.  They’ve done a great job with it.

If you have any questions about my adventures with the things on this page, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments or on Twitter.  Enjoy.

If you look at the case presented in this CNN piece, Jennifer Keeton seems to reasonably want to protect her religious and speaking freedoms. It is hard to argue with her assertion that the university has no right to force her to change her beliefs. However on just a cursory glance, it is obvious that no university wants to graduate a person with a psychology credential who lacks the professional discipline to shelve their personal beliefs in order to give a patient the full benefit of their academic training, without bias against the individual due to the psychologists religious beliefs. If the university allows such a person to graduate and thus represent its alumni, it could irreparably damage the institution’s reputation. A damaged reputation could have all kinds of negative ripple effects such as decreased desirability by businesses to employ its graduates, reduced funding, or fewer high quality applicants.

The university curriculum requires a student to receive training designed to provide exposure to walks of life that many of its students will never have encountered. However it does not require them to feel any particular way about gays as a condition of completing the class. For this reason, Ms. Keeton’s objections are baseless. If she could demonstrate that she was being forced to change her beliefs prior to being allowed to graduate, I would agree with her but as of now, I’d say she’s probably just trying to unseat 2009′s Fox News favorite Carrie Prejean as the new evangelical paragon of virtue. Can’t we just skip to the inevitable nude pictures and sex tapes, which should appear right about the time she runs out of bleach and her roots begin to show? Come on. You know that will happen right?