Tag Archives: Android

Hardware Keyboards On Android Have a Long Way To Go

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I love my Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, but the keyboard is not perfect.  It works better than the touchscreen on my netbook, but it’s still very unrefined. I did however manage to use it to write this post.

Mostly, the keyboard problems are the fault of Android app developers who did not anticipate a keyboard being a primary interface to their app.  Here are some apps that don’t quite work how they should:

ConnectBot – Key maps for special characters !@#$%^&*() are broken.  These work fine for password inputs, but once I’m logged in, they’re dead.  The #1 SSH client for Android is useless for all but the most basic commands.
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Gmail and Google Earth – I love using the keyboard shortcuts for these desktop apps, but they have not been ported over to their Android counterparts yet.

Voice Input – When I dock my transformer to its keyboard, I lose all ability to issue voice commands or speech to text. The virtual keyboard has a nice microphone to invoke the speech capture, but no such hardware button is part of the Asus keyboard.

None of these problems are insurmountable.  Hopefully the experience of having a keyboard on a tablet will improve with some basic software updates.

Ring Ring, Brain Cancer Calling! Seven Tips On How To Mitigate Exposure To Cell Phone Microwaves

Cartman AkiraI’m not alarmed by the announcement about cell phone radiation being classified as a Class 2B carcinogen. I’ve been using these techniques to minimize my exposure to radiation long before this announcement was made.

Use Bluetooth

Bluetooth headsets and speakerphones have multiple orders of of magnitude less radiation than a cell phone and allow you to keep the phone away from your body/head.  It’s because their transmissions are only powerful enough to go about 30 feet instead of many miles for a Cell phone tower connection. I absolutely love my Jabra BiAural headset which works for stereo audio in addition to calls.

Use a Wired Headset

This keeps the phone from being put up against your head, avoiding maximum exposure.  You can get a 4-pack of iPhone style knock-off headsets off eBay for about 10 bucks. Continue reading Ring Ring, Brain Cancer Calling! Seven Tips On How To Mitigate Exposure To Cell Phone Microwaves

Nook Color Netflix Hack

Unfortunately, the playback is slightly choppy on my Phiremod 5.1 CM7 Gingerbread OC’d to 975MHz. So maybe this is why it’s not a supported device. I’ll try again after updating to Phiremod Nook 6.2. UPDATE: Playback is smooth after update to Phiremod 6.2.

Start with a rooted Nook Color… If you don’t have one of those buy it here then root it here and optionally get ROMSs here.
Continue reading Nook Color Netflix Hack

Tablet madness has officially arrived

Tablet week is upon us…  Behold the iPod, EVO 4G, Nook Color & iPad.

iPod, EVO 4G, Nook Color, iPad

Why the tablets madness?  I’m going to be starting an interactive children’s e-Book Application publisher called Third Chicken.  Isn’t it a great name?  We’ll be targeting the iPad and Android tablets  It’s going to be a lot of fun.  A huge thanks to Tracy De Cicco and FounderMatch for bringing together the the key players who are founding this new company.  Wish us cluck!