So I gotta start with this homeless issue which has plagued much of Honolulu. The plan that the governor proposed in regards to the homeless population was a 90 day improvement initiative to either place much of the homeless into shelters, and overall reduce the number of the homeless folks in the city. Of course, this means tax money, and like the rail, the whole state is paying for it. For starters, I would rather see my tax money go into the homeless, but I don't agree that the state should pay unless this initiative covered the whole state. Regardless to my opinion, it happened.
Today is day 91. How did the state do? Well they brought more food in to pass out. That's good. There are more shelters set up. Excellent. It looks nice on paper, but they're really overshadowing another agenda. Something that is going down towards the end of the year. For those who don't know, we're having APEC over here, and the world will converge on poor Hawai'i to get their conference skills on. Knowing this, Governor Abercrombie had 90 days to set these facilities up and get as many homeless folks in them. It's still a good thing, but as far as overall improvement, no. Nothing was improved. The tent city that was lined up at Kaka'ako was driven out, and instead of seeking these shelters, they moved inland... in particular, where North Beretania meets North King St. and along Dillingham Blvd just before the back entrance to Costco. The same tent community that was driven out resides along these streets. This is not to include the communities at Ala Moana Beach Park, Iwilei Rd (by K-Mart and Dole Cannery.), and I'm sure many more areas in Waikiki. That's not an improvement. The state just relocated the homeless to areas where they think APEC dignitaries wouldn't venture to.
Now, this isn't all just the state. You have to realize that a number of these homeless folks are homeless because of mental disabilities, and they refuse to enter shelters. Case in point: a woman lived at a bus stop on the corner of Kapiolani and Keaaumoku (right next to KFC). Because of her ungodly funk, city transit authorities moved the bus stop 60 feet away from the woman. Her funk was due to not having a shower....for 10 years. She was mentally unstable and refuse to seek shelter. She may have been forced into one since I no longer see her at her bus stop home, and it's a prime visual area for these APEC dignitaries considering places like Nordstrom (and the largest open-air mall in the world) is across the street.
Despite missing the meat of the objective, the city is still making the effort to bring in the goods for the homeless and underprivileged folks. The means are good, but knowing why they escalated their efforts to get them off the streets is not. This should have been an ongoing effort. Of course, that's wishful thinking and worse, our current efforts are being hindered by another issue in our state.
Compact of Free Association Act
In 2003, the federal government renewed the above act which basically enables the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau to be considered an associated state of the United States. The COFA was a result of the nuclear testing we did in the area during the Cold War. It wasn't until recently that a large number of Micronesians started to arrive in Hawai'i to live, work and make use of the medical facilities that places like the FSM don't have. Them being here is suppose to be at the cost of federal taxes being that this was a federal act signed into law at D.C. Instead, Hawai'i tax payers are paying immensly for them to be here. Keep in mind, that they're provided with housing, and a large number of immigrants are up for free medical as some would really need it for post radiation issues (among other things). The COFA also allows Micronesians to come in without a Visa and without a prior health screening. According to the latest census, Hawai'i is housing 12,000 Micronesians.
In my eyes, this is fine. They're entitled to this right. I have no problem with them being here... as a person. A human, and someone who just wants to live their lives. I'm fine with it. Despite this, there are a number of issues that I do have a problem with. The first thing is sustainability. This goes in multiple directions. One direction is the fact that the state tax payers are paying a large sum of cash to sustain their living. This is one thing that I can agree with Governor Abercrombie: the federal government needs to step in and pay up....big time. The federal governement needs to account for bills that we never asked to pay alone. This can be even easier if the feds instilled a immigration cap for Micronesians so they can spread the population to other states. Like I said, this is a federal act. The way I see it, these issues shouldn't be placed under the burden of just one state. The 2nd thing really grinds my gears. I have witnessed on multiple occassions, harassment of others, red-handed stealing of petty items such as hedge clippers, to hose nozzles, and shovels from someones backyard. The worse...THE worse is the occasional stack of furniture (intact or broken) and matresses on the sidewalk on Keaaumoku (and actually, all around the city). Even after addressing and placing laws to prevent or minimize the time of dumping said furniture (or you can call it what I call it: my $$$) for the bulk rubbish trucks, I see piles on the sidewalk. Many see this as them showing the US a "you owe us" mentality for the nuke tests that we done over the Cold War era. It's fine to have that mentality. It's understandable yet, when they cry that they're being discriminated by the locals, it's just as easy to pin everything that I just said to justify it.
We may be a state that prides on our diversity, but because of the strife that the COFA brings to this state, some use it to justify racism against the associated states. Like the few Micronesians who have the potential of making their entire population look bad, the same can be applied to the local resident population. This is bad... for us. This is class action status right here. If people think that using the "you owe us" defense for the little stuff was bad, wait until some dumbass local decides to escalate a racial situation with them. Even if that were to happen, it wouldn't be the first time that the Micronesians taken an entity to court for some class-action... action. The Lingle administration also committed discrimination under the momentum that we agreed that this whole situation was an "unfair burden." Basically, the state took away a hefty Medicaid program and placed an inadequate program called Basic Health Hawaii. Equal justice lawyers and other law firms sued the state and won using the Equal Protection clause within the 14th Amendment. The prior medicaid program was reinstated shortly after the ruling. History has shown what discrimination does. It has no place in such a diverse state.
Regardless, we're still paying. In fact, last years bill topped at $100,000,000.00 (yes, I laid it out like that), and the annual reimbursment that we're suppose to receive from the feds is only $10 million dollars. In terms of money, I don't like the fact that these immigrants throw our money on the sidewalk, or when they have to either face trial or jail time for petty crimes. Yeah, one can easily say that the piles of crap on the sidewalk can easily be someone elses filth, but for all the years that I lived in Honolulu and all the changes I seen, I have never seen a bulk trash issue until after the COFA was renewed and immigrants started flooding the state (oh, and seeing it firsthand..). Shit, the bulk trash law was a result of the excessive bulk that remained on the streets for weeks. The Federal government needs to step up and help with the mess that they created. The population per state cap should go into effect considering the terms of the COFA. That's a start, and it's completely fair.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
RANT: More Mobile Trash & Gross Misinterpretation of "4G" Continues!
So the phone industry continues to amaze me in very creative ways. One of my expertise is getting into heated discussions with the "experts" in the phone industry. It's quite an oxymoron to call them "experts" considering that their main job is to sell their products to the consumer. Similar to a crooked salesman at a used car lot in Virginia Beach (up to 37% interest!), the purpose is to entrap the customer into a plan and convince them that their network is the best. Of course, we can pin this premise with most sales-people, but unlike that used car salesman, little to nothing is being done to keep the phone companies in check. It all comes down to the honesty of the salesman, and there are quite a few who are aware of the malicious tactics that are used to hook in Johnny/Jane E. Dumbass to getting their "4G" iPhone 4 (which is NOT 4G....at all), and ridiculously priced plan. Take those salesmen away and you're left with the rest of the circus. The ones who keep prodding your back until you produce some plastic (or some Federal Reserve Notes). One of the main staples to this campaign is their network. Sprint took the upper hand early and introduced their WiMax network as the first functioning 4G network in the country. This was followed by T-Mobile using HSPA+, AT&T also releasing HSPA+, and Verizon releasing LTE. All services releasing 4G networks.. all services false advertising! As I stated here, none of these networks are actual 4G networks. They're all precursors to the standard, but they ALL fall short of the projected target of 100MBits download / 50MBits upload speed (which is indeed faster than most broadband internet speed) that is suppose to be the standard. At first impression, it's not a big deal. These current speeds are still faster than their labeled 3G counterparts. Looking further into the matter reveals a gross misinterpretation scheme design to trick the people into thinking that these networks are actually 4G.
Ryan... This Again?
Hey, the way I see it, this is your money. You're buying into what they say regardless if you think otherwise. Having that mindset, would you be thinking about what you bought yourself into? I sure as hell did. A couple days later, I had to blog my findings. To briefly summarize, HSPA+, WiMax, and LTE are considered anywhere between 3.5 - 3.9G. In reality, .5 and .9 are just loose terms to describe that they're above the standard 3G specs. All networks fall under what is called the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). These networks all have ties to the much older GSM and CDMA (think Moto RAZR days) networks, but the point is that in order for the network to be qualified as an actual 4G network, the standard needed to be submitted to the International Telecommunications Union and it needed to meet the IMT-Advanced (fancier way of saying 4G) standard. For mobiles, the target is 100Mbits d/l and 50Mbits u/l. In a nutshell, the best that this nation can do is 37Mbits (Verizon LTE), therefore, the fastest network in the US doesn't meet the 4G standard. The only country on Earth that has exceeded the target is Japan with their LTE-Advanced standard. Regardless to this, the companies see their networks as 4G and markets them under a false flag.
This may not seem to be a big deal considering that we do have considerably faster data speeds than the last standard, but because of their marketing campaign, they used the premise of "4G speeds" as an excuse to do things like take away unlimited plans (AT&T, Verizon unless you're using an iPhone), limit connectivity speeds, and even data caps for dedicated internet services (like AT&T's U-Verse). None of these catches were present in the past, and people overlook the fact that this is being done in the name of that false flag. Another thing that they love to do is limit the capabilities of their phones. No, i'm not talking locked phones. Rooting and jailbreaking are completely legal (as per federal ruling), but you do risk a void of warranty on your current device. I'm talking about limitations within certain component software and device drivers...and I have the evidence to prove it.
RADIO Y U NO WORK!?!?
There is one major advantage to Rooting a phone: the ability to flash your radio antenna and the driver controller (RIL). Some Radios work better in different regions and different phones. Of course, there are limitations, and there are risks (being that you can brick the phone.), but if you do it right, you may have your device work much better. I have a HTC Inspire 4G using HSPA+ w/enhanced backhaul (fancy term for "faster"). On the status bar, it has always said "H+" above my reception gauge. Over the summer, I rooted my Inspire and installed the very useful Cyanogenmod 7 OS into the device. After the installation, I noticed that my status bar was only indicated with just "H" and I wondered if this was a result of the OS being meant for the HTC Desire HD (a near identical version of the Inspire). When I figured out why changing the Radio and RIL could be beneficial to me, I decided to change the radio back to the stock ATT OTA radio provided with an official update released back in April. After installing it, I set it up for a series of Speedtest benchmarks and this was the result:
Ryan... This Again?
Hey, the way I see it, this is your money. You're buying into what they say regardless if you think otherwise. Having that mindset, would you be thinking about what you bought yourself into? I sure as hell did. A couple days later, I had to blog my findings. To briefly summarize, HSPA+, WiMax, and LTE are considered anywhere between 3.5 - 3.9G. In reality, .5 and .9 are just loose terms to describe that they're above the standard 3G specs. All networks fall under what is called the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). These networks all have ties to the much older GSM and CDMA (think Moto RAZR days) networks, but the point is that in order for the network to be qualified as an actual 4G network, the standard needed to be submitted to the International Telecommunications Union and it needed to meet the IMT-Advanced (fancier way of saying 4G) standard. For mobiles, the target is 100Mbits d/l and 50Mbits u/l. In a nutshell, the best that this nation can do is 37Mbits (Verizon LTE), therefore, the fastest network in the US doesn't meet the 4G standard. The only country on Earth that has exceeded the target is Japan with their LTE-Advanced standard. Regardless to this, the companies see their networks as 4G and markets them under a false flag.
This may not seem to be a big deal considering that we do have considerably faster data speeds than the last standard, but because of their marketing campaign, they used the premise of "4G speeds" as an excuse to do things like take away unlimited plans (AT&T, Verizon unless you're using an iPhone), limit connectivity speeds, and even data caps for dedicated internet services (like AT&T's U-Verse). None of these catches were present in the past, and people overlook the fact that this is being done in the name of that false flag. Another thing that they love to do is limit the capabilities of their phones. No, i'm not talking locked phones. Rooting and jailbreaking are completely legal (as per federal ruling), but you do risk a void of warranty on your current device. I'm talking about limitations within certain component software and device drivers...and I have the evidence to prove it.
RADIO Y U NO WORK!?!?
There is one major advantage to Rooting a phone: the ability to flash your radio antenna and the driver controller (RIL). Some Radios work better in different regions and different phones. Of course, there are limitations, and there are risks (being that you can brick the phone.), but if you do it right, you may have your device work much better. I have a HTC Inspire 4G using HSPA+ w/enhanced backhaul (fancy term for "faster"). On the status bar, it has always said "H+" above my reception gauge. Over the summer, I rooted my Inspire and installed the very useful Cyanogenmod 7 OS into the device. After the installation, I noticed that my status bar was only indicated with just "H" and I wondered if this was a result of the OS being meant for the HTC Desire HD (a near identical version of the Inspire). When I figured out why changing the Radio and RIL could be beneficial to me, I decided to change the radio back to the stock ATT OTA radio provided with an official update released back in April. After installing it, I set it up for a series of Speedtest benchmarks and this was the result:
Note: The bottom 3 benchmarks are from the radio/RIL provided with the Cyanogenmod7 OS. The top 3 is the ATT OTA stock combo 4/29/2011.
As you can see, the speed difference is considerably noticeable. Also note, that the ATT OTA stock release was meant to unlock the HSUPA that was not present when the Inspire was released. The considerably large upload speed is present.
After seeing these speeds, I knew there was something fishy about AT&T's handling of their network. The CM7 radio wasn't even meant for AT&T's network (T-Mobile), and it was [mostly] dunking on this radio. In fact, AT&T recently updated the Inspire to have the new version of Android (2.3...already had it :P) and a new radio/RIL. Guess what? Word on the street is that the radio is worse and both the operating system and Radio/RIL is consuming more battery power. Anyway, the other major thing that I noticed was that the "H" did not turn back to "H+"after I installed the stock radio in. Basically this told me that AT&T altered the code (since Android is open-source) in order for the connection to show "H+." Of course, I changed the radio again and I upgraded it to 26.08.03.07_M, and this was the result:
Top 3 is the new Radio, and bottom 3 is the ATT OTA stock.
These results are much better (obviously). Later results indicated that speeds were constantly between 1.1MBits - 3.9MBits d/l and 900Kbps - 1Mbits u/l which is still not fast (as opposed to the 8 - 11MBits+ you get on the west coast), but for Hawai'i, it'll do.
Now I'm even wondering how much of difference it would make when an actual HSPA+ network is in place on the island because these speeds are no different to the very 3G iPhone 4.
Thoughts/Advice: Mac OS X Lion Part II
I'll get straight to the point. I'm going to cover the versions of the stock OS X software. This is beside the point of whether you use these apps or not. They are actually more useful this time around, so I encourage users to try them out.
Safari
Religiously praised by the Mob but notoriously hated by the die-hard Windows community, Safari is a mix bag by all measure. The truth is that Safari just works on the Mac. The translation to Windows is (and continues to be IMO) not optimized. Regardless, Safari is back once again, and it has a several new features. Safari also runs much better than it's predecessor. Keep in mind, as I tell about these features, if there are any that are from the last version, I apologize. I am a Google Chrome user, and I'm only now starting to embrace this browser...at least in the Mac side of computing.
The dreaded autocorrecting feature that screws up mobile texts now exist in Safari Land (as well as all Apple based apps). you can either choose a word, or you can let autocorrect do it for you. The previous red underlined option is also available.
Downloads are now shown on the upper right corner. You can also drag and drop those downloads from the list to whatever folder you wish.
A nicer feature makes use of the gestures. Instead of being mediocre, be a hipster and two finger swipe to the left and go back to the previous page.
Safari
Religiously praised by the Mob but notoriously hated by the die-hard Windows community, Safari is a mix bag by all measure. The truth is that Safari just works on the Mac. The translation to Windows is (and continues to be IMO) not optimized. Regardless, Safari is back once again, and it has a several new features. Safari also runs much better than it's predecessor. Keep in mind, as I tell about these features, if there are any that are from the last version, I apologize. I am a Google Chrome user, and I'm only now starting to embrace this browser...at least in the Mac side of computing.
Safari 5.1...looks no different, right?
..but no! There are a couple new tricks. First being the Reading List. Basically, it's a fancy RSS feed for articles that you either want to save for reading later, or if you really liked said article. I could have used this last semester when I was doing my psych paper..
By holding shift while clicking an article, Safari will save the article to the list for later enjoyment (or gawk at...yes, I know what "gawk" is..I'll show you in a bit.).
Another..
Dumb? Of course you're not! There are times when you stumble on a word that makes no sense, right? Never fear! New Oxford is here to save your post from being forever trolled. Right clicking and selecting "Look up.." will now bring up the definition. I believe that this feature was shown previously, but it usually launched the Dictionary app. Obviously this new feature is the easier compromise.
Other Technical features:
-Auto resume from your last page (a now standard function of all Apple made apps)
-Tap and pinch zooming
-Private Autofill
-Auto setup for email providers.
-built-in sandboxing (to prevent malicious tracking)
-GPU support via html5
-Web Open Font Format (which allows designers to use a lot more fonts for their sites
-CSS3 auto-hyphenation, vertical text (for Japanese, Chinese and Korean), & Emphasis (again, for eastern asian text).
-website data view & purge
-MathML (which shows math notations)
-dual processing (one for web-content and the other for the interface. in case the browser interface becomes unresponsive, web page will continue to load)
-Media cache (temp stores audio/video using html5 for offline playback. This mainly benefits slower connections.)
*Tech specs provided at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html#safari
Mail
Mail for Lion took a cue from the Mail app for the iPad and added a number of features.
The overall layout that you will be seeing looks just like the mail app on the iPad.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
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:
Hard Drive Woes..
My Hard Drive Recommendations
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.
Friday, July 22, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
-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.
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)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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 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
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.
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).
HTC Inspire w/ Doom Live Wallpaper
WHY ROOT/JAILBREAK?
RISK?
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.
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.
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