I love my Android phone

The new iPhone is out and looks like an awesome piece of kit but I won’t be getting one.  Putting the ethical and political considerations aside (and there are many to be aware of with Apple’s closed technology too) I still think Android is the way to go.  For me at least.

I waited sometime for Android to mature before taking the leap and when I saw the reviews for the HTC Desire thought it was time to dive in.  And am I impressed!

One of the painful aspects of setting up a new phone can be transferring data but if you already do much of your work and play in the cloud, as I do, Android is built to import contact lists and calendars.  I have to confess at this point that I’m something of a Google pimp, I LOVE Google.  And in case you hadn’t heard Android is built by Google so it’s a natural fit.  The first time I connected to my Gmail account all of my contacts were automatically imported to my phone.  Impressive enough as that is I was even more impressed the first time that I connected to my facebook account.  The mobile numbers of all of my contacts who had set up Facebook mobile were imported too.

One quick word of warning though – all of you facebook connected people out there try to remember to keep your mobile numbers up to date.  Didn’t take me long to spot that one hehe!

Like any modern smart phone, social networking is a big part of it’s reason to exist.  Facebook integration is good but why no inbox/messaging from the default app?  I can still use the web browser to do that as the mobile site is excellent but I can’t message with the built in facebook application.  My other gripe is with Peep the built in twitter application.  In the first 48 hours that I used my phone I was appalled at how quickly the battery drained.  Then I did a quick search and found out that Peep was blamed by other users so I’ve since installed the official Twitter app, which is a much better solution all round.  Unfortunately it’s not possible to uninstall Peep but I’m much happier with the official Twitter app.  Battery life is so much better without Peep running.  Don’t forget that Android is already multi-tasking so apps will run in the background.  I’m presuming that Peep was the best application available at the time my phones Android 2.1 OS was finalised?

Web browsing is a breeze and most sites get converted to suit the mobile format and aspect (it’ll detect shifts from landscape to portrait automatically) very quickly.  A quick tap or pinch will zoom in or out and swipes scroll around.

The camera isn’t bad either, it’s 5 megapixels, has a flash and is reasonably quick too.  The latter is all important if you have kids.  A tap on the screen changes the focus zone and it’s really simple to post your photos to social networks such as facebook, twitter, flickr etc.  That’s with the default photo application although there are plenty of alternatives for people who’d like to experiment more with on phone processing, time lapse, effects etc.  Personally I like to have a reasonable camera on my phone and have had 5 megpixels and a flash for a few years now.  Let’s face it though however many megapixels are available via the image sensor, the optics crammed into a tiny phone device will still be a limiting factor.

Considering the explosive growth of Android and the vast collection of applications already available I’m really happy with my choice.  Android market place is the official home for “approved” apps although you can change the settings for your phone and take a chance on third party apps from anywhere you like if you find something that’s not in Android market yet.

Some of the highlights that I’ve found so far include Google Skymaps.  Just point it at the sky and see a realtime view of the stars (including constellation names) and planets.  Google maps is integrated brilliantly (as you’d expect) including street view.  Google calendar works a treat too.  Wherever I update my calendars they show on my phone too including alarms and email notifications.  Racing game Asphalt runs a treat on the Desire and tilt and touch screen controls are pretty easy to use.  Unfortunately the same can’t be said for some of the other games I’ve found where touch screen controls replace console style D-pads.  Which is a shame as I’d have loved to use the nintendo and sega emulators that I’ve found.  If you have kids DON’T let them see Mole hunt, an incredibly more’ish whack a mole style game.  Not if you want to see your phone again.

More great stuff to come from Google too.  Apparently the US version of Google Talk takes care of voice mail and provides a transcoded (speech to text) summary of messages too.  I’ve not tried it yet but Google Translate, translates speech to text and text to speech.  Sounds like the future to me that.

June 8th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: tech | One comment

Mouse free week

I’ve always been a bit disappointed by the mouse, no matter how many buttons are added or how you move your fingers to scroll.  It still feels like just having one finger to wave around and select items within a scrolling window.

I’m also prone to RSI and had to learn to use my left hand too about 14 years ago.  That way I can use my right hand until the RSI pain in the wrist kicks in and then rest my right hand by switching to my left, until the RSI kicks in on the left.  Not ideal but workable.  I even tried an evoluent vertical mouse for sometime (probably at least 12 months) until I ended up with an even more painful RSI from constant use of that (all the buttons are on one side so it’s not possible to switch hands).

This week I’ve switched to a Wacom bamboo pen and touch so can use either hand to use it as a large desktop track pad.

It took two or three days of imaginary mouse grabbing as despite using a laptop away from the desk I’ve always had a mouse at the desk.  It’s become second nature now though so who knows, maybe the RSI’s have gone for a while?  Here’s hoping ;-)

May 14th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: tech | Leave a comment

Taking the myth out of Dexys Midnight Runners (part two) - the really difficult third album

When we visited studios to choose where to record the third album we rated them according to the biscuits they gave us.

I can’t remember what biscuits we were given at Mountain studios in Montreux, Switzerland but I’m assuming they were pretty good as that’s where we went.  The biscuits and the live room were pretty good actually.  We were looking for a large live room for a large band to perform and record live in and that had become difficult to find by the mid-eighties.  Musicians tended to record separately, rather than as a band as technical audio separation was considered more important than live music feel.  So live recording was quite rare.  Mountain studios was built next to an enormous room that was used for the Montreux Jazz festival and it was perfect.  Also alongside beautiful Lake Geneva and far from UK distractions so that’s where we were booked into for a month, I think it was almost the whole of May 1984.

We’d spent over twelve months promoting the second album so it’d been a huge relief to stop and take time out then get back to writing new material.  At the time it seemed like record companies expected artists to churn out a new album every year and then spend the time between promoting the last one.  Tours, TV, radio, press then “hey when’s the new album going to be ready?”  Often schedules, artwork, distribution, all of it planned before the material was even written.

So we took sometime out.  A few months writing and then demoing new songs at Outlaw Studios in Birmingham.  Followed by weeks of auditions looking for the right band to realise those songs in the studio and then weeks of rehearsal in preparation.  Things were looking great though, we had the legendary Tom Dowd producing (although I don’t think this would be his favourite session somehow) and had put together an incredible band including Crusher Green (ex James Brown session man) on drums, Vincent Crane on piano, Trevor Burton on bass (who was uncredited on the first release of the album) and plenty of other great players, Nick Gatfield, Jimmy Paterson, Bob Noble and John Edwards. Plus of course Kevin Rowland, Helen O’Hara (Bevington) and myself who had become the nucleus of the band by late ‘83- early ‘84 after drummer Seb Shelton had left.  We’d taken no shortcuts putting the band together and had literally spent weeks auditioning new players until we found a band that we were totally comfortable with.  We’d block booked Phil Savages, Outlaw Studios in Birmingham for the auditions, then rehearsals and had always demoed material at Phil’s studio too.

What could go wrong?

It was a disaster.  A fraught and frustrating month and nothing that we recorded was right, nowhere near as good as it had sounded in the small Birmingham studio during auditions and later rehearsals.  Just one track worked out.  At the end of the month we only had ONE finished studio track that we were happy with.  “Listen to this”.  It’s probably my favourite track off the album and possesses a raw power and energy that could only have been captured live.  Following our month in Montreux we headed back to the UK where we began auditioning once more to find a band that could record the rest of the album.  Weeks of auditions back in Birmingham followed by weeks of rehearsals and hunting for a new studio.  Another awesome band then managed to record another (yes just the one) track for the album.  Originally titled “The Waltz”.  But that’s another story.

Hell of an album though when it was eventually finished.  I’m rightly proud for the small part I played in it’s production.  It took three full line ups with a few great players falling by the wayside in between too.  I wouldn’t like to guess how many studios we visited either and by the time it was being finished I left Kevin & Helen to it.  I thought I had limitless patience and dedication but it was too much for me and by the end it had left a huge dent in my enthusiasm for music.  Final mixing and later changes were taken care of by Kevin and Pete Schwier in the U.S.

Listen to some of Don’t Stand me Down at Last.fm

May 12th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: music, personal | Leave a comment
 
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