Android and Me |
- HTC wants to show you why the Flyer is unlike any other tablet
- A Nerf ball with 9-axis inertial sensing motion processing with integrated Bluetooth? There’s an app for that.
- What’s with the mobile exec level smack talk?
| HTC wants to show you why the Flyer is unlike any other tablet Posted: 31 Mar 2011 02:06 PM PDT If you were ready to dismiss the HTC Flyer as HTCs spin on the Samsung Galaxy Tab then HTC would like just six minutes of your time to try to convince you otherwise. It’s a well made video and worth checking out if you are mulling over a tablet purchase this Spring. We’ve been over the specs before and they are solid but not world-beating; 1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16/32 GB Storage and a 7″ screen with 1024 x 600 resolution. But the specs aren’t really the story of the Flyer. The work that HTC has done with Sense and the addition of a pen with a legitimate digitizer steer it in a completely different direction than the other tablets burning up the charts at the moment. The fact that it isn’t launching with Honeycomb seems to be a sticking point for some and if you are a developer (or a user for that matter) that just wants the Android tablet reference design obviously you are not the target for the Flyer. However, if you are assuming that because it isn’t Honeycomb it isn’t optimized for tablets then I think you need to take a second look at what HTC has done with Sense and Scribe on the Flyer. In my opinion it looks potentially more like a tablet optimized experience than anything I’ve seen short of the Courier mock-ups. While the emphasis on the pen might make this feel like a bit of a niche device HTC does have you covered if you are interested in videos or gaming on your tablet. The HTC Watch service looks competitive with the other offerings out there presently and the OnLive gaming integration is potentially quite interesting. Before you rush to hit that pre-order button, I’m sure you take my advice that seriously, I want to be clear that I haven’t used one personally yet so I can’t attest to whether HTC has delivered on what they are promising. Two basic concerns I have with the pen are that it is an optional accessory which considering its deep integration with the device seems bizarre and as the former owner of a pen-enabled tablet I can assure you that the inability to store the pen in the tablet will be frustrating. With that said I have heard good things from a number of individuals that I trust who have had hands-on time with the Flyer so I’m not just being blindly optimistic. Based on the video its safe to assume that HTC is focusing mainly on the student and/or enterprise user, which are the same demographics that manufacturers have failed to capture with Windows tablets for the last decade. If you fall into either of those categories I’m particularly interested in your opinions on the Flyer, but feel free to sound off even if you are just looking for a tablet for personal use.
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| Posted: 31 Mar 2011 10:30 AM PDT File this under things you didn’t know existed but now that you do you totally want one. We were just emailed a video of someone demonstrating Perfect Spiral Trainer, an app powered by what the guy is calling his Replay Football system, which tracks a modified Nerf ball in-flight and reports back all sorts of interesting data via Bluetooth. Uhhh, what? Just watch video below: From the YouTube page and original creator: It employs a Nerf football with a 9-axis motion sensing pack and a visualization / throw analysis application on an Android platform. The football transmits real-time motion data via Bluetooth. A Motorola Droid 2 was used for the Android platform. The sensor pack is by InvenSense. Once a throw/catch pair have been detected, the football graphic turns red and the program enters replay mode. To replay the throw, the user performs a tap motion on the screen to start playback. The throw release speed, time in flight, RPM of spiral and spiral wobble (precession) are all displayed during playback. The 3 graphs ( from top to bottom) display the raw data from the Accelerometer, Gyro, and Magnetometer respectively. A long-press on the screen resets the state back to ‘green’ to accept a new throw for analysis. We ran into the team from InvenSense back at CES in January and were impressed with a bunch of the stuff they were working on. They’re working on a whole range of sensors and middleware for tracking movement in the real world and this football application is a solid demo of that- even if it is just for fun. What other crazy real-world motion tracking applications do you guys think we’ll see in the future? It’s quite a shift to start imagining for things that don’t particularly involve my phone itself moving but it’s a shift I think I could get used to.
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| What’s with the mobile exec level smack talk? Posted: 31 Mar 2011 09:49 AM PDT The fanboy groups, forum nazis, and various other online community groups of every persuasion have essentially the same thing going for them, the internet is their battleground for violently bashing the other guy. Sure, I’ve been known to drop the occasional iHate, or shake my head knowingly at the guy all excited about how he’s going to mod his Droid X, but I’m a fan. We’re users, our fanatical drive is what motivates other people to make the leap to Android in the first place. With Android, we’ve even enjoyed some Google developers taking the leap into slamming the competition. So, where’s the line with the smack talk? Fan? Developer? Storefront Sales reps? What about corporate level business professionals, who work for major telephone carriers? Since the announced purchase of T-Mobile by AT&T, there’s been an increasing amount of downright insults coming from executive level employees at various carriers, oddly unrelated to the purchase. For instance, at CTIA there were two equally egregious examples of smack talk. The first day of CTIA started with a Round Table including CEO Ralph De La Vega of AT&T Mobility, during which he responded to a failing demo phone with “Oh, that must be a Verizon Phone” leaving the crowd roaring. A relatively tasteless jab, but one that got the fans of either side of that coin chattering all day long, especially considering Verizon was not officially in attendance at CTIA:Mobile Focus. Later that very same day, during Sprint’s unveiling of the Evo 3D and The Evo View 4G, CEO Dan Hesse made sure to get a dig in on the competition when he explained that these devices were “4G, not Faux G”. The result of said comment being the entire room moan in a way that can only be contextualized by adding “Sick burn, dude” after it. The carriers aren’t alone in this fight, either. During Samsung’s press event at CTIA, the air on stage was nothing short of aggressive in the speeches delivered by both J.K Shin and Omar Kahn about how Samsung “would not be beaten”. Are these companies under the impression that this is what you need in order to continue the fanatic appreciation of their products and services? Are we as consumers merely argumentative adrenaline junkies waiting to find the next person who is wrong on the internet, or are these companies going to0 far? Editor’s Note: We’d like to take this chance to welcome Russell to the Android and Me team. If you’ve spent some time in the Android community or at the events, you’ve probably run across this guy. He’s good people. And now he’ll be writing for us on a regular basis. You can follow him on Twitter at @russellholly or keep reading Android and Me for more.
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