by admin | Nov 12, 2014 | Android, smartphone
Today I would like to muse on the most amazing consumer product I consider to have been invented in my lifetime – The smartphone.
What a device! A pocket computer fully connected to be able to access the entire sum of human knowledge.
I have just recently changed phones and phone providers.
No big deal. People do that a lot these days.
I changed my phone from a low end smartphone to a high end one. What was I thinking even getting a low end one? Me, a committed techno geek.
OK, well I learnt from my mistake, that’s all I can say. I found that my internet usage was very low on my other phone, simply because it didn’t work very well.
As soon as I got a phone that was half decent, my data requirements immediately went up.
My old phone company was giving me 500MB (per month). It just didn’t cut it any more. Time to get more. So now I’m on a 2.5GB plan. Much more in keeping with my desire to get the most functionality from my phone.
So anyway, this got me thinking. What are the things I use most and like best on my phone?
Well the first thing I really like is the ability to tether my laptop to the phone now and make the phone a personal wireless hotspot.
I wrote last week about free WIFI on the city of Adelaide. I noted that free WIFI is becoming more and more common wherever you go. However there are times when you want an internet fix and there is no WIFI close by. The phone fills that gap.
So tethering is number one on my list.
Next the apps on the phone. I really like Google maps (I’m sure there are competitors to this product out there I just don’t know them). This is fantastic. Never lost again, no matter where in the world you are.
Then, still on the GPS path (maps uses GPS to determine your location) , apps like Nike running that you can turn on when you go for a run/walk/bike ride and they will tell you how far you have gone are fantastic. If you want to get fit it’s good to be able to keeps tabs on how far you are going each time you are active and what progress you are making.
Next instant messaging apps that allow you to call friends and family no matter where in the world they are. We have skype, facebook messenger and viber to name a few. For Apple users there is facetime. Each of these apps let you talk to someone, via the internet, often with video.
Finally, there is of course the camera. The mobile phone has made the recording of life events so much more accessible. For me this is fantastic. I am a late convert to recording every event via photo . I wish I wasn’t. Just looking at photos brings special memories back to life instantly.
Of course there are other things, surfing the web whenever and wherever you want is great. Accessing and editing my important documents from anywhere is good too.. there is so much to choose from. But I said 5 things, so I’ll stuck with my top 5.
Anyway that’s just a bit of fun and my favourite smartphone uses. What are yours?
by admin | Sep 22, 2014 | Android, google, Microsoft
A Friend Asked Me The Other Day, “What is Android?”
Strangely enough I had to answer him with, “I don’t actually know”. OK, of course I knew it was an operating system (an operating system, for those who are not technical at all, is what your computer runs on).
Now, if my friend had not been totally lazy, he could have looked it up on Wikipedia, but he didn’t. If he did, he would have found out that Android is a Linux based operating system.
Back in the olden days (in my grandfather’s time). There was an operating system called Unix. OK, it’s still around, but it’s not generally used for your average office worker or home user. It tends to be used a lot for scientific applications.
Linux is the offshoot of Unix that was supposed to be for PCs and home users.
Unfortunately Linux doesn’t have that much appeal to home users, for two reasons. Firstly people are used to Apple and Microsoft, which are relatively user friendly to non technical people. Secondly, Microsoft had the apps market all sewn up with their office products. Very hard for Linux to compete with that when everybody is sending Word documents that people want to be able to read.
So that is the origin of Android, but where is it now?
Well in 2005 Google (once again this company that has become top dog in the computing world appears to be calling the shots) purchased Android. It was another prescient move by a company that seems to be able to see the future of computing. The question is, does it see the future or does it make the future happen?
In 2005 most computing was still done on the desktop computer (usually running Windows).
There was at this time a bit of a shift happening towards laptops as prices of laptops came down and corporations realised that they could tether more people to work out of hours if they had a laptop, but it wasn’t an overnight shift.
Since then the shift away from desktops has accelerated. One of the main factors in this I think was the sudden availability of wireless. Why be tied to one spot when you can sit anywhere in your house or office and be connected?
Next was the shift from laptops (usually running Windows) to tablets. This has happened mostly since 2010. The iPad started the shift, but lately the Android tablets have taken over.
At the moment 50 per cent of web browsing is done on phones and tablets and that percentage is growing
With remarkable foresight, Google has sewn up the market for the devices that are the future direction for computing. Eighty five percent of phones run Android and 70 per cent of tablets. Windows phones are nowhere. Nor are Windows tablets.
Could Microsoft become extinct?
Yes it could. It sounds outrageous to think of now, but yes. Those who don’t believe this possible probably have never heard of Novell. Novell was the biggest computer networking company in the World in the 90’s before Microsoft took off. It’s now nothing more than a subsidiary of another company. Its decline occurred because Microsoft outflanked it in much the same way Google is now outflanking Microsoft.
Microsoft is not done yet, but unless they evolve, there’s a possibility of decline. Empires rise and fall pretty fast in computing.
By the way, just in case you think I’m some kind of Google loving, Granola munching, vegan hipster who hates Microsoft, this article was written on a laptop running Windows 7.
The surface tablet is dead
