Tech Talk at ShieldsGroup

November 20, 1985 Microsoft release (unleashed) Windows 1 upon the world. I remember it, it was useless. Well with it and a $1000 computer you had all the functionality of a $2 pack of cards. You could play solitaire.

It wasn’t until Windows 3 that it was stable enough to really “use”. The quotes are because it crashed a lot, but work could be done.  At that time at work I had windows 3, for a while. But later we got IBM’s OS/2 which hardly ever crashed. At home I ran Desqview a windows like system, but was much better at running regular DOS programs inside “windows” than the real windows was.

But change of jobs and improvement in the number of programs written to run in windows and the system at work and at home was windows 95. Number of crashes dropped to average of about 1 a day.  That is I didn’t have a crash every day, some days had none, others had 3 or 4. It was the price paid to use windows 95.

I skipped windows 98, Windows 2000, windows ME, then both home and at work got Windows XP.  It was/is very stable, only crashs once every few months.  The system at work is still running it. I have no experience with Vista, but I don’t know anyone that was pleased with it. In the name of security and stablity it apparently continuely asks for verification of any change any program makes.

Now the home system has Win 7. I just got it this week an so I don’t know how stable it is. But based on the past history each version being more stable than the last I have high hopes for it.

Yesterday I got a droid 2. Today, Ken, the RootKing, told me to put antivirus on it.

I put Lookout Mobile Security on it at Ken’s suggestion.

As my Apple buddy, Chris, often tells me, open systems have their problems, not the least of which is susceptibility to viruses.

Lookout is more than an antivirus app. It helps you locate your droid if it’s lost. It makes your droid make a loud noise. And it backs up your data.

Here’s the Lookout dashboard.

Click the image for a larger rendering.

I have had my Clie (a Sony PDA with Palm OS) since Oct 2004. So it is now somewhat out of date. My Motorola Razr phone battery was getting weak. Due to the way American cell phone companies work it is cheaper to get a battery with a phone wrapped around it, than just a battery once your contact is up (I have AT&T). So I decided to check out smartphones. That way instead of having to carry a cell phone and a PDA, I could just carry the smartphone. I have liked most of the features of the iPhone, but didn’t like the “locks” put on it by Apple.

The company I work (Humana) for has a perk of getting discounts from various companies including AT&T cell phones. I could get the new Samsung Captivate for half price. This phone runs Android; it comes with version 2.1 and promise of upgrade to 2.2.

I got it. Then one of nice things about Android is the large number of “apps” available for it. I found free apps to recover the “important” data I had in Palm format

A note app, Note Everything that could import my Palm notes.

A password app, OI Safe which read all my passwords out of the Palm “App” STRIP.

Then all kinds of fun apps, like Comics which gathers up the newspaper comics I like to read.

Google Shopper which will look through the camera and read UPC barcodes then tell you where you can find that product online or local stores so you can comparison shop. I got several other free apps.

What is impressive is how much electronics has shrunk in the 6 years since I got the Clie. The captivate is about the same height and width of my Clie but 1/3 the thickness. The Clie has 16Megs and I added a 128Meg memory card that largest it will take. The Captivate has 512Megs of Ram and a built in 16Gig memory card. I took the 2 Gig card out of my Razor and added it. But it will take 32 Gig cards. Then it has digital camera, cellular radio, speakers and microphone of course, and wifi radio built in. All of this in a package 1/3 the size of the clie.

But why did I get an Android phone instead of iPhone? I would like to say it is because it is more open. But is it really, I mean is really more open to the customer? With an iPhone, Apple has pretty much complete control over what is allowed and what isn’t allowed. Google has “released” Android in open format so anything thing can be added, right. But in reality the result is because it is “open”, the cell phone companies can alter it to do or not do whatever they want. They can preload “apps” and even prevent the owner from uninstalling them. They can prevent various models from getting the latest version of Android, and tell them to get it they have to purchase a new phone. I have heard that has come to pass on some Verizon phones. AT&T even “prevents*” the owner from loading apps that do not come from the official App Market. So Android phones instead of being controlled by android’s creator (Google), they are controlled by cell phone companies. They can only do this because Android is “Open”.

So why I did I get an Android phone? I guess I just like Google better than Apple!

* Note AT&T tries to prevent owners from loading non App Market apps, but there is a windows program that will load any app to an AT&T Android phone, and it doesn’t require rooting (Android equivalent of jail breaking an iPhone).