Thoughts (or advice): Mac OS X Lion Part 1

By now, Mac users are praising the newest run of Apple's award winning OS. Lion is the very tablet humoring OS which crosses the ease of iOS and fuses it with the functionality of OS X. As I suspected, Lion grew on me. I was quite weary about the performance drop that I would be encountering, but after installing my hybrid drive, and clean installing Lion, my Macbook has been performing mostly above par. I want to share the experience and give out some pointers that could make your experience a little better.

Hardware
This should be one of the more important aspects of the Lion experience. Lion is designed strictly for 64-bit x86 CPUs, so if you have any Mac that has an Intel Core2Duo and up, you're covered. Lion will install and run. Folks still running first gen Intel CPUs or PowerPC Macs (like a G5 for instance) are out of luck. Apple no longer supports that architecture in the realm of new OS X. Assuming you have an Intel based Mac, the next problem is RAM. The minimum requirement for memory is 2GBs. I'm telling you that you would want at least 4GBs. Macbook Pro users of the 15 - 17inch kind shouldn't have to worry about that since most of them come with 4GBs already. I highly stress that you upgrade if your Mac can only run DDR2 ram and you can find out by doing the following:

Click on the Apple and select "About this Mac"

Once that window opens up, click on "More Info"

This window will show up. Click on the highlighted Memory page, and look under 'Type'. It will tell you whether your computer uses DDR2 or 3.

PEOPLE WITH LION ALREADY INSTALLED: When you click on "More Info" the top screen will pop up and show what you have. Click on the "Memory" tab to see exactly what your computer can accept.

DDR2 RAM is easily available at Best Buy. If you know that your computer can take DDR3 RAM, I recommend that you have at least 4GBs. If you have the means to install more than 4GBs, DO IT! Realize that for most MacBooks (that are not Pro line 15-17's) share the system RAM with the video card, and it uses more if you're doing more graphic intensive work. You can never have enough RAM, so get as much as you can.

Speaking of GPUs, there is no minimum requirement for what kind of video card you have, but that doesn't mean there isn't a difference. Basically, if you have a Macbook Pro (again, 15 or 17in.) or a Mac Pro, you're completely covered in this department. They use dedicated memory, and older Macbook Pro models have 2 GPUs built in. There isn't much you can do about the Video card, but chances are that you will be fine in the first place. If you run a Mac Pro, you should check what kind of card you have (same method as checking RAM), and if possible, replace it with a newer card. Chances are that you probably won't have to do that, but Mac Pro owners have the ability to change their GPUs, so if you have an older build of the Pro tower, now is a good time to replace your GPU.

NEW MAC OWNERS (late 2010 - present): Your chances of having a CPU/GPU/RAM issue is slim to none. Your Macs are already optimized for Lion, especially if you own the new Macbook Air or the brand new version of the Mac Mini. You shouldn't have to worry too much about the hardware (that's what she said!).

Hard Drive Woes..

One thing that a lot of Mac owners should worry about (old and new) is Hard Drive speed. A lot of people tend to buy their Macbooks/iMacs with HDDs that spin at 5400RPMs. Apple does this so they can have an extra option for either a 7200RPM drive or a Solid State Drive and charge you for it. This applies to 15-17in. Macbook Pros. All 13in. and the low end 15in. Macbook Pros will charge extra for upgrading to a 7200RPM drive (up to $100) while the high end 15in. and 17in. Pro come with a 750GB 5400RPM with the option of selecting a 500GB 7200RPM drive for free. Apple also charges extra for a 7200RPM drive for the new Mac Mini's. If you own a newer iMac or Mac Pro, all models come with a 7200RPM drive, and if you own a 2nd / current gen Air, you have a SSD drive, so no worries there.

When you buy online, you can customize your build. Typically, Apple gives you the slowest drive and charges for a faster drive. Prices shown doesn't necessarily reflect prices at retails like Best Buy or sites like Newegg.

Most older Macs most likely have a 5400RPM drive, and it hinders performance in Lion quite a bit. I suggest that you upgrade to at least a 7200RPM drive. If you have the means to get an SSD, do it. Basically, a faster HDD means better performance. 

Minor stuff: Before the techies jump on me saying that I didn't mention anything about cache, lemme tell you that this is something that you shouldn't have to worry about. Cache is like RAM for your hard drive. The concept is that the more you have, the faster you access the data. In reality, the difference between a 32MB cache and a 16MB is slim to none. My rule of thumb with cache is that if you are factoring cache into your purchase,  go with the 32MB. In fact, it's all I see nowadays, but if there are only 16MBs cache drives, just get it. Just as long as that drive spins at 7200RPMs.

My Hard Drive Recommendations

For laptops, I suggest my current HDD: a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid. It's a 7200RPM 500GB+4GB SSD. A hybrid drive is a cheap mans SSD. It uses the SSD memory to store frequently used data. For instance, it uses the SSD portion for my boot up sequence, as well as apps like Chrome, Safari, and iTunes (apps that I use often). Think of it as a large and fast cache. with the Momentus, I have a boot time of 18 seconds. It also gave me a performance boost over my 160Gb 5400RPM stock drive (obviously.) The performance to price ratio ($130) is reason enough to get this drive. Compare that price and size to a 512GB SSD (cheapest being $839.99 @ Newegg). Of course, you won't get the exact performance of an SSD, but you're sure as hell getting something that's faster than a regular 7200RPM drive

Seagate Momentus XT (box misprint. It's a 32MB Cache HDD).

Installation

Whether you're covered in the hardware department, or if you're just going to wing it, the biggest pre-install step that you should do is clean install your Lion installation. This mainly applies to the Mac owners who had their Macs for a couple years now. If your Mac is fairly new, you may be able to pull an upgrade off. Anyway, to start a baseline off, we'll go as far back as my current Mac (Macbook 13in. Aluminum, late 2008). My method was rather tedious, and took about over 4 hours to finish up. This mostly because one, OS X Lion is currently download-only through the App Store, two, I never took advantage of Time Machine, so I had to transfer all of my files to my PC because my only external drive is using a Windows-Only filesystem (NTFS..which is read only on Macs), three, I took the scenic route and formatted my new drive to a filesystem that was windows and mac compatible in order to transfer all my files from one computer to another, and four, I wasn't in a rush. As soon as I installed the new drive to the Macbook, I used my extra copy of Snow Leopard to format the drive to the proper filesystem, reinstalled Snow Leopard, reinstalled iLife (09' and 11' since 11' didn't have iWeb), re-downloaded all updates, re-download Lion on the App Store and finally, installing it. Sounds horrendous, right?

There is a easier way, but it's still a little time consuming. I will say, that it'll be worth it though! Here is how to do it:

Pre-Install - 

If you use Time Machine: back up what you want...simple, right

If you're not using Time Machine: either have an extra drive available to transfer files, or a flash drive, or a DVD-R..whatever (unless you don't have a need to backup).

Time Machine is your best friend.

Installation Time

Use your Recovery disk/Recovery flash/or OS installation disk to wipe and format your current drive (or new drive), and reinstall that OS (real easy stuff btw.).

When your OS is done setting up, click on the Apple icon and "Software Update"

After it checks for software updates the above window will show. Click on the install button, follow the instructions and just let it do it's thing.

After that is done, run the App Store, click on the giant Mufasa on the front page, and cough up the $29.99.

IF YOU ALREADY OWN LION: click on the "Purchases" tab and you'll find the install.

Lion is 3.5GBs and it'll take about an hour to download + an installation time of about 30 minutes.

Now, the reason why it takes this long to do a clean install is because there is currently no physical medium with Lion. Lion doesn't come in a disk, and I can imagine a much more tedious procedure of getting the App Store download on another medium. Tedious enough for a casual user to discourage them from trying. There is hope on the way, but it comes at a price. Apple will release a retail version in the form of a flash drive, but it will sell for $69. The clear advantage to this version is that once you backed up your wanted data (and install your new drive.), all you gotta do is plug in the USB, wipe the drive and install Lion. A process that'll take less than an hour.

Whether you wait and spend more for the flash drive version or not, I stand by the fact that a clean installation is still the way to go. Yeah, there are drive cloning methods, but you're really just taking the problems that you had on your previous OS and placing them into Lion. I know Mac users suffer from some sort of slow down after a couple years of use. Like a Windows installation, a clean slate is the best way to use your new OS installation. If you're proactive in finding other alternates, there is most likely a solution for putting the App Store version on a disk already.

<<<After installation, initial setup, and restoring your data, reset your Mac a couple times. Just do it.>>>

Using Lion

You need get acquainted with some of the features that come out of the box. The main features I do use are the features that were bragged about during the keynote. I will get there but first, an AppleID initial setup.

Syncing your AppleID to your account

First, click on your Name and select "User & Group Preferences"

Under AppleID, enter your credentials so you'll be sync'd with apps using your AppleID.

Setting you AppleID up will set you up for the apps that require it. I also think that this is to set your account up for the upcoming iCloud service. 

Using Launchpad

To some in the Mac community, Launchpad is merely a feature to humor the users who are heavily familiar with iOS products, but are new to OS X. A gimmick that is to be shunned because we already have the Dock. In reality, the Dock and Launchpad switch roles. In order to have apps on your dock, you have to install the app, find the app in your applications folder, and drag it to the Dock. Launchpad brings every program you installed as well as access to Utilities in one gesture. That is one step less, and I welcome that.  The Dock still serves it's purpose as a quick launcher for the apps that I use often, but the fact that you can you can use your index (or middle) finger and gesture swipe to the lower right corner to bring ALL of your apps up shows that Apple is trying to take the littlest details and make it easier to do. To top it off, If you're using a single desktop (not recommended anymore) to run multiple apps, the Dock can act as a task switcher (unless you know cmd+tab) since running apps will still show up on the Dock. 

Launchpad functions just like an iOS device. A single finger swipe to the lower right corner (or clicking on the icon...you lame) will bring Launchpad up and two finger swipes to either the left or right will move the pages. You can jiggle the icons, but click and dragging also works fine. Creating subfolders works the same way as iOS as well. 

Launchpad

Creating a subfolder and naming it.

Full Screen apps.

As part of making Lion iOS user-friendly, they decided to use a full screen feature for most apps. Typically, browsers always had this feature, but Apple wanted to take it to their other apps to give it a iPad app look. 

Certain apps like iTunes and Safari will create it's own separate window in order to keep your active desktops clean.

Safari

Chrome

iTunes

Macs New Best Friend: Mission Control

A 3 finger swipe upward will bring up Mission Control. Mission Control is the spawn of Spaces and Expose. This demon child will bring you Dashboard, all active desktops, full screen apps, and depending on what desktop you're on, all opened apps and folders on that one desktop. You can then move those folders/apps to another available desktop or place it on a new desktop by dragging it to the upper right corner. The purpose is for organizing your would be multi-tasking habits. Switching between desktops is as simple as swiping 3 fingers left or right. Back when Spaces and Expose was around, they were the features that I used the most. Mission Control definitely just made it a lot easier, and I was hoping that Apple combined the latter. I'm glad there were like-minded folk who thought the same.

Mission Control (notice that Safari and iTunes have their own spaces.)

Mission Control will have multiple apps and folders on one desktop organized when you select the desktop.

When you drag a folder/app, you can either drop it in another desktop, or drop it in a new desktop as pictured on the top.

You can also spawn another desktop by simply bringing your mouse to the upper right corner of the screen.

Swiping between desktops.

Wrap Up

This is going to be longer than I thought. Part two will cover the new features for Safari, Mail, Address Book, iCal, as well as the uses of Versions. Of course, if you want to be proactive about it, you can watch the WWDC 2011 Keynote and have Steve and the rest of the creative leads show you these and the other new features of Lion as well as iOS 5. this is the link for the stream: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

You can also search and download it on iTunes keyword: Apple Keynotes.

REVIEW: Mac OS X Lion

If there is one thing Apple loves to do, it's flaunting innovation. I'm not saying that it's good or bad, but they make their point clear when it comes to changing the way people use their products. Jobs and company love to blow up their updates, and their mob (or cult...whatever) will gobble it up. I don't blame the cult though. It's the way Steve sells his crowd. To this day, Apple has been smashing their profits, taking in a revenue of $28.5 billion. That is a 90% increase year-on-year. and profits jumped to $7+ billion or  a 124% increase from last year. I'm sorry, Apple is not leaving the business anytime soon. Their year to year profits is proof that people are buying and loving the products. In fact, the market is being saturated with a force of Android tablets, yet the iPad managed to outsell the entire Android lineup in this quarter alone...and don't expect too much from the Microsoft camp. Yeah, they do have a promising OS coming up and it's geared towards tablets, but at the same time, this isn't the first time Microsoft and the PC manufacturers dabbled in the art of the slate. Suffice to say that it didn't go well. Time will tell with this 2nd attempt (and a promising one at that.), but like I did for the iPad, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Aside from my thoughts on how successful Apple has been over the past quarter, there is one thing that has always drawn me to take a bite out of that apple. That is OS X. How this OS evolved from a decade ago is amazing as a whole. The ease of use. The convenience. How resourceful it is. These are the perks of having a Mac. It does exactly what I want it to do in a laptop. During this past WWDC, Steve Jobs revealed his newest creation: OS X 10.7 Lion. Lion is an evolution of a fairly new Snow Leopard (which released back in August 09'.) however, Jobs pointed out that 250 new features were added 10.7. Now, you have to understand that a number of these new features are features that you may never use, or you are using, and you just don't know it. That number is simply there as a sales pitch. Regardless if you didn't buy into that, Mac users don't have too much of an excuse to not get Lion. For starters, it's $29.99 on the App Store. Compare that to the full retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate ($275.00). Even if you wait to buy the $69.99 flash drive version of Lion, you're still obviously paying less for more content (because there is MORE content that comes out of OS X...face it, fantrolls.).

Now, like Snow Leopard was when it released, I was underwhelmed overall. Not too much features stood out like it descended from the heavens. The interface was not significantly different either. Snow Leopard just made getting around my Macbook a little easier. Lion for me was more or less the same overall. These features makes my Mac sessions a little more easier, and maybe even fun, but I am sure that is going to fade away after the initial "woo! New stuff!" mentality subsides. Like I said, it's still no excuse to not get Lion. It will be better. It's not like when Microsoft released ME or Vista (initially) and took some steps backwards. Lion definitely took the experience forward.

 The Default Lion Desktop

NEW FEATURES:
Before I move to the meat of this review, one thing worth noting is the fact that this version of OS X is iOS-centric. Some of the big features in Lion took a cue from iOS (like Launchpad). One of the big reasons if because the market is so saturated with iOS products, a lot of new customers to the Mac side are expecting to have their experience like their iPad or iPhone. This move started almost a year ago when they revealed iLife '11. All the apps had a feature to full screen the window into a iPad-like interface. The only thing missing was a capacitive screen. With Lion, they took it even further with the ability to full-screen every app. Shit, they even inverted the scroll gesture to mimic the scrolling on a touch screen device (disliked). Be ready to have the impression that your Mac is starting to morph into an iPad. Besides, with rumors like a "pro" version of the iPad, and their success with version 2 of the Air, I have the feeling that Apple is starting to shift their thinking on how to approach mobile computing. Be ready for shocking news when Steve announces that he is gutting the Macbook Pro line in favor of more iPads and Airs.

Mission Control
Mission Control combines Expose and Spaces and it neatly organizes your opened windows (expose feature) according to desktop (spaces feature). This feature is geared towards multi-tasking. A upward swipe of 3 fingers will bring MC up and you can move windows onto other display desktops or place it on a new one. If you swipe left or right with 3 fingers you can switch desktops on the fly or access your Dashboard. The movement is fluid, but more importantly, the combining of the prior two features is a smart move. Like I said, this feature makes an aspect of navigating and multitasking easier. Windows certainly doesn't have that out of the box.

Mission Control

 Mission control with Preview running. When more than one window from programs are up on one Desktop, they're neatly organized and can be moved to another desktop whether there is one present or if you want to place on a new one.

Launchpad
Launchpad is an extremely iOS-centric feature. In fact, it's the same interface. All apps will show up in a very familiar fashion and they can be organized into folders. Again, this is a feature that just makes things easier to access. I kind of questioned the use for the Dock, however, with the actual app switch gesture now being used to switch desktops, the only real app switcher you have without using Mission Control is the Dock itself. Launchpad also nulled the idea of finding your newly installed app and dragging it to the dock. Launchpad is by no means a Dock replacement, but it's use are very welcomed.

Launchpad brings up every app on your Mac into a neat iOS layout and you can drag and create new folders to keep it organized

Resume...
...is a very nice feature! They took the concept of browser restoring and implement it for the entire OS. Basically, resume allows you to close your apps and reopen them right where you left off. You can even restart the computer and the programs you had running prior to restart will restore itself to where you left off. This ties in to the next two features

Auto Save & Versions
Autosave is pretty self explanatory. It auto saves your work much like the blogger app on this website. Not a big deal until you add Versions to the mix. Versions takes snapshots of the saved work you've done, and if there was ever a time where you needed to go back because you deleted something within the document that you needed, it's right there for the taking. This is also good for back to back comparisons of documents you created to see which one you like more. There is no need to manually revert to the previous state if it already saved it in Versions. 

Screenshot of Versions in action (from http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/)

Air Drop
Air Drop a little interesting feature. The concept is file transferring with other Air Drop equipped Macs (pretty much, OS X Lion users) without a wifi network. The interface is extremely simple to use, and it consists of dragging one file to any other Air Drop user within a 30 foot radius. When the other user accepts the file, it encrypts and downloads  to that users Downloads folder. Unfortunately, I couldn't test this feature because there is no other Lion user within 30 feet of me. I also heard that eventually, PCs will get in on the action as well, so look out for that.

Click for larger image.

Other Features Worth Noting
Do you suck at spelling? Moreover, do you not pay attention to the squiggly red lines that show up when you screw up words or names like Mahoghany (to be corrected as Mahogany...if know how to right click.)? Apple is here to save the day! The same autocorrect features you see on iOS and other mobile devices is now being used for Lion. On the flipside, I can see Lion being a little ninja and autocorrecting words that would just render your sentence awkward, or unintentionally naughty, so a friendly reminder  to look what you post before you hit send, or submit.

Watch out! Autocorrect looks nice...until it becomes a ninja and ninji chops your emails.

-Take a look at the new Address Book. You're now able to link social network profiles onto your contacts. You can FaceTime anyone available for it from the Address Book as well as IM.

-Speaking of FaceTime, it now comes standard with OS X. It also supports the HD cams that are starting to show up on newer Macs and the new Thunderbolt Display.

-Another feature is more of a power-user feature, but you should know that it's there. This would be the update to the FileVault option. It now encrypts your entire hardrive with a XTS-AES 128 encryption. The initial process is suppose to be painless and non impacting so you can continue to work as it encrypting files. There is also another option that will make all of your data inaccessible (by encryption key removal) and wipes the data from the disk.


Drawbacks
It's great to have all these features. Who doesn't like features that you actually use? Unfortunately, Lion can bring out the age in a number of Mac's. I have the first unibody aluminum Macbook (late 2008 model). It has a Core2Duo CPU @ 2.0Ghz, 500GB Hybrid SS/HDD @ 7200 RPM, 4Gb DDR 3 RAM @ 1048Mhz, and a Nvidia 9400M GPU. As of yesterday, I am mostly no longer on par with newer Macbooks at the price that I paid for mine. They discontinued the white unibody Macbook and the Macbook Air's run Sandy Bridge i5 CPUs. While loaded moments were not noticeable when using Snow Leopard, It is noticeable for Lion. Especially on the original hard drive it was on (160Gb @ 5400 RPM). Even after a few restarts (as the Mob demands it), switching through desktops, and accessing resource light apps like Chrome were slower than Snow Leopard. Even after I installed this hybrid HDD, some programs were slow to load and were resource heavy (as the fan was spinning really loud). If you have a Mac like mine, or the earlier Intel based Macs, this is your warning. You either upgrade your components with more RAM, and a faster Hard Drive, or suffer with slowdown. Don't get me wrong. It's not excessive, but it is noticeable, and it looks like it can be annoying.


Conclusion
OS X 10.7 is a solid must have, and at $29.99, you really don't have an excuse to buy and download it. Apple didn't hit this out of the park, but rather deep within center-right field with the center and right fielder colliding with each other. This is a good buffer zone before Apple starts rolling out the new iPhone, Late year laptops and/or desktops, and maybe that "pro" line iPad (not iPad 3) that's been making a ruckus in rumor land.

Another view of Mission Control

The new Photobooth layout (and a staircase)

New iCal

New iTunes (in full screen mode)

REVIEW: Rooted HTC Inspire w/Cyanogenmod 7 OS

I have to admit the dilemma I had with myself when it came to deciding whether or not I wanted to root my phone. It's quite natural to have this mindset though because this was my first attempt at unlocking my device. After downloading a pre-packaged kit with all the basic apps & scripts needed to root my particular phone, as well as finding a spare MicroSD card, I said "screw it! I got this!" A couple hours later, my phone was rooted, wiped clean, and was ready to have a Cyanogen(mod) build of Android 2.3 flashed into my little device. No later than 10 minutes, my phone had become a beast.

BEFORE
Before the mod, the stock Inspire was plenty loaded with useful features and widgets. I had a pretty decent newsfeed. Market shares occupied another page. Social media feed in another. It was a typical HTC Sense suite and it was indeed useful. The camera apk (extension for Android app) was far better than the default camera that you would get on a default installation of Android. Overall, the HTC features were very useful. The rest of the phone was occupied by what AT&T put out and all the restrictions that came with it. A lot of pre-installed "bloatware" occupied the memory usage and that ultimately led to a overall lower battery time. Even when I had Advance Task Killer with a kill frequency at highest, it would not prevent those apps from opening up and keep running even while the phone was in sleep. You can say that this is the bad part of any Android device. Open source leaves the opportunity for developers to create programs that constantly push data even when you set it up to not do that. Not only did that drain battery life, it also used data from your monthly data supply, so the potential of some dumbass downloading a program that was a malicious data logger is rather high.

Many of these bloatware were programs that tracked your overall data usage by logging more data and sending it to AT&T (redundancy ftw!). They (along with Verizon and T-Mobile) also lay restrictions that come online should you pass a certain limit in your data usage, or a timeframe of how much data was used within an hour or two. Incoming usage is sent to the nodes and it waters your connection. They can get away with this because data speeds are never constant. Measuring your speed depends on region, time, signal, and strength, and it is always averaged out (You should be averaging it out).

Another thing that AT&T did was restrict the antenna on this device and it's other 4G counterpart, the Moto Atrix 4G. As I stated in my prior rant, AT&T uses a signal standard called HSPA+. It is a pre-4G standard that is suppose to have speeds of up to 84Mbit/s download and 22Mbit/s upload. Both speeds miss the actual 4G standard and as of now, no city in the country can achieve those speeds. No HSPA+ antenna in the world has gone no higher than 30Mbit/s. Currently, AT&T is slowly turning these signals on around the country, and while some phones have that signal, they still cant achieve those speeds. A much bigger issue was that the upload portion of the antenna was extremely limited. You need the upload function so the phone can push information back to the node at a reasonable speed. They're used to send the request for the website you asked for on your browser, or the data used for VOIP (Skype). The slower it is, the lower the response time from the node. This problem was essentially fixed recently, but the network was still hindered by the antennas as well as the bloatware.

Overall, the Inspire was looking rather grim. It was just a matter of time before I had enough of this crap.

The Inspire pre-root. Android 2.2 w/HTC Sense

THE PROCESS
Before you Android owners go crazy about the prospects of taking your phone from The Man, you have to know that I am NOT going to list the instructions down. I am also not going to leave any links as to where I found the required tools. This is not a matter of legal issues. It's principles. I done the research myself. Google is your friend. Another reason is because unlike the uniform iPhone, Android devices come in many different shapes and sizes. The methods can and will be different. Be mindful on what you're searching for.

Legal issues are not your problem unless you're the software savvy and you want to write your own version of the Android app. You have to be aware that while the Android OS is considered open source, the tools that would typically come with an Android installation is not. In particular, the Google apps that come with all Android devices to include the Android Market. You MUST NOT have the Google APK suite pre-installed into the OS that you're making. You have to get that suite separately, and many sites have them properly packaged in a zip file (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). Don't worry, it's free. Other than that, Rooting does not fall under the DCMA or any copyright laws. In other words, IT'S LEGAL!

Rooting takes a little effort. Don't worry too much though. It doesn't require you to type lines upon lines of code, but you're certainly going to do more steps than Jailbreaking an iPhone. The funny part is that both OS's use the same UNIX terminal structure so it should be the same in a way. Long story short: It's just not. Effort is required. Be aware of that. Just know that nowadays, the process gets easier over time because users have the time to compile everything you need to make your root experience as painless as possible. It's just a matter of you actually reading the instructions. You also need to check if the instruction, and apps used is up to date. Afterall, you do risk bricking your phone. Don't be careless. Lastly, I can imagine that Linux, and Mac users would have an overall easier time rooting their devices because they all share the same Terminal system. Regardless, whether you're using Linux, OS X, or Windows, be mindful that depending on your phone, you may need to know some command prompts (i.e. C:/blahblahblah/ or sh blah blah blah).

END RESULT

Rooted Inspire with CyanogenMod 7.

Initial impressions of this rooted device was simply....WOW! haha Not really, but I was surprised. It is much more responsive in every aspect. As soon as I got the Google Suite installed, all the contacts I had prior to the Root was restored, and I got most of the apps that I constantly used back. The biggest improvement was the signal algorithm. One thing that AT&T did originally, was give false signal types on the top bar. Usually, it would say H+, E (for EDGE..2G), or nothing. Now it gives a H, 3G (because a lot of the signal strength in Hawaii is still the older HSUPA/HSDPA 3G signal.), E, or nothing, and it tells me exactly when I have those kinds of signals. The best part of this is that my data rate is no longer hindered and held back by AT&T! My overall speed has improved 10 fold. It is actually functioning more like a high end 3G/Pre-4G device.

New setup...Me gusta!

NOTABLE FEATURES

Cyanogen brought in some cosmetic features present on only certain types of phones. The ADWLauncher controls screen layout, general behavior, User Interface, and overall theme of the device. It comes with a defauly Cyanogen theme, but you can download nearly 2000 other themes on the Android Market. I currently am using an Android 3.0 theme. 

Hardware settings brings out the very best of this phone (and all other rooted phones). Hitting the Wireless Settings, and you have tethering options which are absent on a number of other android devices (but are becoming more available). I won't say the more interesting aspects of their tethering variant, but it's sure to not upset you or your deep pockets. One note about tethering, tethering uses your data plan, and actual computers use a lot of data. Be aware of you limits. Another thing is that your phone sucks the life out of your battery at an elevated rate. I high suggest that you only use tethering only if you have to, or when the carriers stop being homos about it. Other notable settings that weren't on the stock OS is an option to only use 2G networks (which saves batteries), and the ability to actually choose multiple networks (which depends on the type of phone you have and the type of SIM).

Cyanogen also included a set of their own options such as application control to prevent apps of your choosing to force push data out of you phone, display and orientation/gyro control, input behavior, interface tweaks, performance (like overclocking), sound, and system.

Other nice functionality is the fact that the force close option of apps actually work now and there are no signs of any AT&T related bloatware

Battery/speed FIELD TESTING

On the stock OS, if I am heavily using the phone, I drain over 75% of the battery in about 3 hours. Sometimes, it gets to nearly nothing in that amount of time. I field tested the Rooted Inspire without any additional tweeks. In fact, I did much more than the usual amount of time, inputting notes for my VA club and calender dates while pushing that data to my Google account. I was also field testing the functionality of the Google+ app, so I was on the internet and pushing more data than usual. At the end of the day, the phones battery was at 41% (look at above pic. Upper left corner.). While you still need to charge your phone daily, the overall battery life is obviously better however, it's by no means on par with the iPhone 4's battery cycle (which is 14 hours, but been known to achieve 37 hours of active time).

Data speed is a major improvement. I even had consistent speed in areas where I know I lose data signal. The speed to battery life ratio is uncanny for an Android mobile that is in constant use. 

WHAT'S USE ARE PROS WITHOUT CONS?
There are a few, as well as suspicions that a like mind would muster in their brain. A minor con is the lack of ability to reinstall the HTC APKs. Sense is a very powerful tool, and I personally welcomed the features it had. This also included the custom camera APK which made use of touch focus. The standard camera app is nowhere near as powerful as the stock app. Another con is just the simple fact that the Android OS is a natural battery hog. Yeah, my battery life improved quite a bit, and I am happy about it, but it's really the nature of the beast when it comes to Android. It's a drawback in the open-source field because you can't regulate it. On the Apple side, apps are pre-screened before they show up on the App Store. They look for apps that constantly push data, or force-opens without the ability to consent among other things that could circumvent Apples admin rights. While we have multiple alternative Markets to choose from, apps aren't screened for that purpose, and the battery life suffers for it. Like a bittorent file, you have to read the comments people leave before hitting that download button.

I do have a suspicion about the current radio being used. I cannot confirm until we know without a doubt that HSPA+ is in place and  turned on in this state, but I have a suspicion that the radio can only achieve HSDPA and below. Of course, there have been rumors that HSPA+ is functioning in Pearl City, so unless I make my way over there, this will change.

OVERALL

With the data improvement, battery life, and improved functionality, I now feel like I have an actual smartphone that's NOT an iPhone. Don't be a Steve Jobs dickrider. They're usually the loudest too. Besides, I think my iPod Touch and iPad is as far as I'll go in the iOS department...and I definitely don't need a 3G iPad or anything like that anymore since my phone became a router. Oh and these stats speak for themself:

haha O RLY?

RANT: Phone Companies and Unlocking Devices

   So let me be the first in the entire world to say that AT&T sucks ass! haha Of course, I'm only kidding about being the first, but for the longest time, I stuck with the carrier. Since the days of Cingular Wireless. I never had a problem reception and drop call wise. They sure cover a vast amount of land, and the meager pre-2G signals were never a problem even when I was visiting in the distant lands of Puna. I never had a problem with AT&T until a year ago when I bought a Samsung Captivate. The Captivate was a very nice Android device and was my first investment in the smartphone craze that has hit the US markets for quite some time. It was clear, the AMOLED was comparable to Apples Retina Display (and was actually brighter).

 Samsung Captivate.

Sadly, I don't exactly know what I did, by the antenna and the SIM reader broke, so I needed another phone. When I went to the AT&T store at Sears, they started their "4G" advertising campaign, and they were selling the HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix 4G and it's docking laptop station. Since I was still under my insurance plan for the Captivate, I was entitled a replace Captivate or a phone equivilant to the price that I paid at contract. The Inspire was the only phone being sold at the price that I paid to get the Captivate on contract. Of course, the employee's job was to convince me to buy their much more expensive Atrix, but they soon found out that I wasn't going to budge. They gave me the Inspire for free and I thought that the HSPA+ network in place here would be a much welcomed boost in network speed.

HTC Inspire w/ Doom Live Wallpaper

4G IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Not to jump from story to story, but you need to understand the history of the "4G" debacle. Everyone seems to get this confused to the max. 4G is NOT a determination of the Phone companies. It is a cellular standard created by the International Telecommunication Union. Until recently, whatever standard they set is law (and I will elaborate on "until recently"). The 4G standard requires the service to have a data rate of up to 1Gbit/s peak download, and 500Mbit/s upload. And that is at low mobility. The standard for mobiles is 100Mbit/s d/l and 50Mbit/s u/l. The only service who has ever achieved those rates was DoCoMo Japan when they conducted a testbed of the technology. Let me be clear when I say this: NO US CELLULAR CARRIER HAS EVER REACHED THOSE SPEEDS ON  THEIR PHONES! None! 4G is a ploy and a joke over here in the states. Even Verizon, who uses the LTE excuse is still under a 3G system. They use the LTE name to tout their "true" 4G signals and devices. The truth behind that is that the LTE Verizon has been using is the 3GPP LTE. It doesn't comply with either the ITU's standard or the upcoming LTE Advanced (which is a true 4G standard). Verizon is trying to hook consumers with the idea that the 3GPP LTE and LTE Advanced is one in the same when it's not. Sprints WiMax also does not comply and of course, T-Mobile and AT&Ts HSPA+ is at the bottom of the barrel. All of these standards are furiously advertised as 4G networks. The only thing that holds any truth to the ploy is the fact that they are faster than the last generation of phones....yet Apple and their iPhone 4 is a 3G system and can have speeds that rival most 4G phones and coming 2nd to Verizons HTC Thunderbolt LTE (I will get as to why that is when I review the rooted Inspire). 

Now, the reason why I brought this up is because this whole data rate standard, current speed ratio, and corporate hostility are one of the reason why I dislike AT&T. On the flipside, they're not the only one. All other major cell carriers are guilty of this. In fact, it was the cell carriers who demanded that the ITU lower the 4G standard as a result of the many inquiries regarding their use of 4G... while they didn't lower the standard, they did make the current speeds that phones are producing as part of the 4G. Still, 4G is meant to be a major jump and developers here are trying to achieve the original standards. We (the consumer) will just have to play ball.

WHY ROOT/JAILBREAK?

The other reason why I dislike the phone industry is because of their attempts to keep full control of your device away from the consumer. Many of the capabilities of the phones are held back because they see them as something they can charge you with, or lead you to believe that  you need additional products (such as batteries). With this realization in mind, bright minds found ways to free their phones completely from the carrier. In the Android community it is called Rooting. Essentially, rooting the phone unlocks Admin rights, and it sets the user up with the means to load a new OS, and give more control over settings that have been previously been locked. On the Apple side of devices, we know this act as Jailbreaking. Unlike most android devices, iOS products have several countermeasures to prevent Jailbreaking or overall functionality should someone jailbreak their device. The other purpose of Jailbreaking is to allow certain apps and utilities to be installed. 

Rooting an Android device serves the same purpose to an extent. One must understand that the Android OS is an Open-Source system and can be altered to how a user wants it to be (considering they have the knowledge of UNIX terminal commands). Having knowing the circumstances, the phone companies ensured that functions such as downloading apps not from Android Market (or carrier specific market) were disabled as well as other functions like tethering. Like Jailbreaking, Rooting lifts those restrictions and allows the user to install their custom made version of the Android OS. Rooting applies to all Android devices, and it is only limited to the type of hardware. There are many modded OS's to choose from, but if you're skilled enough, you can tailor the OS to do exactly what you want it to do. 

RISK?

Are you afraid of risk? That's what you'll have when you attempt to unlock your devices. You chance "bricking" your phone (not breaking..bricking..the meaning is rather obvious). Don't think for a second that you're safe from that outcome. Doing it is just a matter of how much risk you want to take?

IS IT WORTH IT?
Hell yeah it is! Rooting brings out the investment you made and makes it more worth it. It brings a new lease of life if you're a heavily reliant on your smartphones capabilities. On the flipside, if you don't use the phone like I do, or it's features, you should think twice before committing to such a task....or if you want to feel like a hipster and do it because your friend with fake black rimmed glasses has done it, find someone who has done it in the past or a specialist to do it for you....just don't be a cheap ass, because unlike the iPhone, it's not "one size fits all." There are multiple methods of rooting your phone and it depends on what phone you're doing it to. If you can get passed that point, be patient about it, and READ THE EFFIN' MANUAL, you would be quite surprised of the end result, and I will go more in depth when I review my very recently rooted HTC Inspire.

Rant/Review - Transformers: Dark of the Moon

DISCLAIMER: I do this for me. I take a thought, rant or review and put it here. Like how Dumbledore takes snippets of his memories and puts it in that bowl of other memories. Call it self therapy. Oh, Grammar Nazi's are not allowed. I don't do this for school. I'm not a English major. I don't need General Rommel in my case because I missed something. If you're not my English 257X professor (which is my next class), get off my damn case!

Where do I begin? Rant...

There are multiple approaches to review this movie. On one front, you have the long time fans of the Transformers series. This covers quite a bit of folks who grew up watching the cartoon and seeing the original movie...and loved it. Another front is the group of folks who never seen the original series. The folks who were introduced to the Transformers series with Michael Bay's vision of the franchise. The last group are the people who get paid to impose their opinions to others. I'm talking about paid critics. Their job is publish their opinion so you can make a pre-determination of what the movie is like and if you want to spend the money to go see it. These folks can either swing for the worst or for the best, and they like to hang out at a well known site called Rotten Tomatoes. 

RT collects the reviews of many paid critics as well as reviews from the audience. They take the professional reviews and tally it up in percentage called the Tomatometer. If its above the 50 - 60% range, it is considered "Fresh" (or positive), and below that is called "Rotten" (self explanatory).  RT has the swaying influence of many moviegoers, but is this the right way? IMO NO! You shouldn't base a decision to go watch a movie on this site...or anyone for that matter. Are you a robot? I assume not (That would be kind of cool though.). You really should make your own determination and stick with your convictions. Another reason is because while some of you may lean to look at what the general people are saying, you have to understand that you're either getting completely black or white biased opinions from a never ending supply of fantrolls. Whether if it was positive or not, the general opinion  that you'll see here, or any place else is irrelevant! You have people who either love or hate Michael Bay, any of the actors, the series itself, or they're just posting to troll the board.

 Still, you shouldn't sway yourself to either watch or not watch any movie because of what other people say. You also don't have watch the movie at a theater. You can wait for it to come out on home media. I don't exactly have to watch flicks like Super 8, Bad Teacher, or Green Lantern at the theater because someone told it was good (or not). It's funny though.. I say this, yet when someone asks "should I watch Priest?" I have to say "wait for it to come out on Netflix Instant Stream." The behavior is contagious, but I think I'm getting better at it. I don't think it stops me from reviewing things, but I think it stops me from reviewing stuff out of impulse. To the least, I try. Maybe I should always say that "in the end, you should find out for yourself." /rant

NOW, on to this review!

Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The 3rd and probably last of Michael Bay's franchise seems to be an unstoppable force in the box office. At this point, I don't think Bay, and Paramount don't give a shit about what the pro critics say. This movie made 454+ million dollars worldwide in less than a week. TF3 obliterated the box office and made over double the film budget, so they're in the green with all your money (And they're going to spend it on drugs!). Does this mean that this was a good movie? Um....well...uhh....lets start with the easiest. 

The visuals were top notch! If you were lucky enough to watch this on a Titan XC screen, my guess was that you were blown away by the visuals. Bay knows how to rock the visual effects, and he is a master when it comes to explosions!

Michael Bay...EXPLODES!

In all seriousness, he made a technically beautiful movie. The details were all over the place. This was also one of the most visually correct films of the series (in the military sense)...except for that dual wing, 4 engine MV-22 Osprey. Yeah, those don't exist, but if Mr. Stark can have an altered supersonic 737 in his movie (Iron Man), Bay can definitely have an imagination too.

Why does Jon Favreau have all the cool flying tech?

  One peeve that I had that was absent in this film was the rehashing of military footage that he filmed. The editors did a terrible job at that in TF2. Navy folks know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the scene with the USS Roosevelt (CVN-71) sinking. The footage that they used prior to the TR sinking was that of the USS Stennis (CVN-74). You can clearly see the number at the bow of the ship and The Island. Later on, they ended up using more Stennis footage. The editors tried to mask the bow number for home media release, but it was clearly seen in the theater. Continuity FAIL is you ask me, but it is also understandable because when Hollywood makes a movie with an aircraft carrier, they use the carrier that's available. In this case, it was the Stennis. Bay also used a modern carrier (USS Constellation CV-64) to portray the USS Hornet in Pearl Harbor which was also terribly edited. Anyway, you won't be let down in the visual department because he has it down.

"We suck again!"

Bay's signature camera work is ever present with this film. He loves to focus on character. Take note to all of his movies that he does his signature "360 pan-around's" which is supposed to bring out more drama I guess? This is Bay's style of filming back when he was doing model filming. There is one thing that I noticed right off the bat with one of his scenes. Does anyone remember The Island? There was a car chase scene (which is Bay's other favorite kind of scene to film) which was rather elaborate. I bet you didn't know that he reused some of that for TF3. Well he did, and my interpretation to that scene is one of Bay's signs of fatigue. He originally did not want to film TF3 right away. He wanted to take a year off, but Paramount said nay to that one. As frustrated as he probably was, and being on the clock, using snippets of other work was a viable option. Rehashing in this case doesn't make it right, but it's not like Bay had a choice in the matter, so while folks scrutinize his editing team again, they need to see the whole story.

You thought I was kidding? I shit you not!

Bay rehashed his shit!

 

Moving onto the characters and story:

 For starters, the Leo Spitz character from TF2 is NOT in this movie. That's a step in the right direction because I thought he was annoying and was only in the movie for comedic relief (he wasn't funny..). Sam picked up a new chick named Carly portrayed by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley after being dumped by the Megan Fox's character (In reality, Bay dumped Fox because she compared him to Hitler..or something like that). I'm going to be the one to say that I liked Rosie's character better than Megan's. Yeah, she may not be the macho that Mikaela was, but she still stood up and took a rather meaningful role when the time came (I won't say it. You need to see it for yourself). IMO, I think she looks prettier too, and to joke around, I rather choose her than Sausage Thumb any day of the week. Like her or not, she portrays the love interest, and Bay presented her as a grown adult who made something of herself as opposed to being a high school jock's concubine, which I never really could let go when it came to the Mikaela character. This is also Rosie's first feature film, so if this doesn't work out, she still has Victoria's Secret to model for.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

She replaced Sausage Thumb.. I heard Fox is kind of a bitch too.

sadface is sad :(

Other new notable characters is John Malkovich's character Bruce Brazos. A very eccentric and organized boss of Sam's first job. his character was breath of fresh air, and any Malkovich fans would love his role. another funny guy who found his way into this franchise was Ken Jeong. Yeah, the naked Chinese guy in The Hangover who said "you gonna fuck on meee!?!?" That guy. His role role was somewhat minor, but Bay had the mindset to place him in a role that was critical to the storyline. Surprising, right? Still, Jeong portrayed his role in a very stereotypical fashion that some folks in the Asian community may not appreciate (not me). Just be ready sensitive Asian viewers. Keep a lookout for Patrick Dempsey (aka Dr. Shepherd from Grey's), Alan Tudyk (aka STEVE THE PIRATE!), Frances McDormand (aka Chief Gunderson from Fargo...c'mon folks. KEEP UP!), Lester Speight (aka "Terrible" Terry Tate: Office Linebacker) and of course, most of the human cast from the previous movies reprise their roles in one fashion or another.

"You see the world through John Malkovich's eyes. Then after about 15 minutes, you're spit out into a ditch on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike!" - Craig Scwhartz (John Cusack)

The voice actors reprise their previous roles along with some new editions. Most notably, Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime. Bay couldn't have found a better person to fit that role. Nimoy matched the character, and performed very well. I enjoyed his role in the film.

He is not Spock

He is..

Sentinel Prime! With his gigantic blades and shit.

The story picks up 4 years after the events of TF2, and places Sam as a recent graduate who is frustrated by his search for a job as well as not being able to help out the Autobots and NEST. Once again, the Autobots and NEST are searching the globe for Decepticons when Optimus and his crew finds a piece of a Cybertronian spacecraft in Chernobyl which pisses him off because the government was withholding information on a ship that crash landed on the farside of the Moon back in the 60s (Be aware that this is not spoilers. This is in the trailer.). From here on in, I can't comment on the plot because nobody likes spoilers. It is quite a roller coaster, but you should expect that out of Bay. I will go as far as saying that TF3's storyline is much more streamlined and overall better than TF2 and even TF1. Again, you should make the determination as to what is better because well, everyone has opinions. I did wish that Unicron was somehow tied to the plot, but considering his size and his character (Planet Eater), I can see how hard it would be to do him, so for the sake of Bay's franchise, that's fine I guess.

This movie will certainly not sway the hardcore fans of the original series, but TF3 is better suited to new fans of the franchise...and summer moviegoers who love explosions and near mindless action with comic relief and an okay plot. Unless you're a hardcore fan of the original series, I encourage you to watch the movie in some form or another. Theater is optional. If you live near a theater with an awesome HD screen, HD sound, and you're not prone to sickness when it comes to 3D, you should watch it in the theater. Afterall, it is the peak season for movies, so while you're watching Xavier being put in a wheelchair, Hal summoning a minigun, and Elizabeth dance suggestively on the car she is washing, you can spare the time to see autonomous robots clobber each other, booty shots of a Victoria's Secret model, and Bill O'Reilly be a dick to Simmons (not in any particular order)! If you're a snub, hardcore fanboy, carry on. There is nothing to see here.

I would love for any of you to explain this one..

Rating system: I'm going to base it on a 10 point rating scale. In particular, an old scale that I came up with back in 2006 which was inspired by a co-worker of mine back in my East Coast days. Jonathan Polanco was a quiet Dominican man from West New York, NJ (Yes, New York in New Jersey...who knew?), but he's a good friend, and quite the critic when it comes to film. After a string of movies that he was indeed critical of, Jon, Terry (another good friend. We hold our movie traditions to this day.), and I went to go see The Prestige and he wasn't so critical about it. He enjoyed it. It was then that I came said "So, does this mean that you give The Prestige 7 Flying Polanco's?" Terry burst into laughter, Jon chuckled, and I had the satisfaction of using his name to spice up a 10 point rating skill based solely on his critiquing of movies. Based on the Flying Polanco scale, I (as in just me) give TF3 a 6.5. We're looking above average here, and for my preferences, I am pretty critical about flicks. I think the score suits me because I'm pretty much in the middle. I am a fan of the original, but I'm a fan of Bay's vision of the franchise. I also just enjoy movies for what they are (or vice versa). I mean, if I can enjoy documentaries like The Human Experience , AND horror comedic B-flicks like Dead Alive, I think I'm pretty diverse in my movie viewing. Again, everyone has a "Critique Bug", so the determination is up to you. Don't blame me for taking the Red Pill!