Tek Nation Ep 4: Android Madness

Join Alex (ace4vikings) as he presents you with episode 4 of Tek Nation. We're 4 episodes in already! It's crazy and I appreciate all of the support and exposure it has gained. I hope it continues. This week's episode is not in full screen, I was messing around in screenflow and it's a long story. But I hope you still like the episode. Enough rambling. My YouTube channel.

Today's topics are the Motorola Droid 2, the Blackberry Torch, the jailbreakme.com jailbreak for i OS 4, and Blu-Rays are coming to a Redbox kiosk near you. 

The Motorola Droid has an amazing keyboard. It's a huge improvement over the first Droid. The device also features a 3.7 WVGA multi touch display. Verizon is charging $199 on a 2 year contract. 

The Blackberry Torch was announced on August 11, 2010. I have to say, RIM did an amazing job with this phone. Blackberry OS 6 is great. I wouldn't say it's as great as Apple's i OS platform but it's up there. The web browser is much improved and the operating system specializes in social media. The form factor for the phone is also very nice and the keyboard looks awesome. 

Jailbreakme.com is a website that has a very simple concept. To let users jailbreak their device without downloading potentially dangerous software onto you're computer. So, all you have to do is go to jailbreakme.com and swipe to jailbreak. Please note you must have an iPod touch 2nd generation or iPhone 3G (or later) running iOS 4 to jailbreak you're device. 

Redbox is a very awesome DVD rental service. It's convenient, it's cheap, and overall a very great experience. Well, you may have noticed they don't have Blu-Ray discs available for rental. Redbox has made an announcement that BLu-Ray discs will be coming to a kiosk near you soon for only $1.50 per night. Standard DVDs will still be $1.00 per night.

Jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2 Now Available

It's incredible! You can now jailbreak the new version of iOS. Let's remember that Apple released an update for iOS a few hours ago. This was because by simply going to jailbreakme.com on your iPhone, you could install Cydia and Apple doesn't like this, even if the jailbreak is now legal on the U.S.

We can all remember that we used to wait over one month for a jailbreak for iPhone OS (iOS). It's now clear, we are in the future. But this jailbreak only works on the iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch 2G.

It is still in its first version, so it's normal to see updates to the system, although the current version is quite usable, and it already has a tutorial.

My Top 5 Safari Extensions

Recently at WWDC, Apple updated their web browser Safari with some new features. The best new feature in my opinion was the addition of extensions. Extensions provide a better user experience. Before the addition of extensions in Safari, I used Google Chrome as my primary browser. 

Extensions used to be why people used Firefox. Overall, I don't really like Firefox anymore since Safari has extensions. I think the addition of extensions now makes Safari the best web browser out there. 

What do you think about the extensions I spoke about today? Would you consider downloading them? Do you think you will like them? Please leave a text response below. For more content, please be sure to visit my YouTube channel. 

Thoughts on Apple [Antennagate]

Editor's Note: This post was originally published on alexleiphart.com. View the original here: http://alexleiphart.com/blog/2010/08/thoughts-on-apple-antennagate/

As many know, I love technology and how it can help us. I especially embrace Apple products and how we can use them to make our day to day lives easier. In the past few weeks, I have come across a few occasions where I hear negative remarks towards Apple and their mistakes they’ve made lately with iPhone 4. Everyone has the right to an opinion, once the facts are fully understood.

I, like many others am an iPhone 4 user, Apple’s latest flagship smartphone. With every new phone, especially smartphones, comes many challenges. One of those many challenges is the antenna. On iPhone 4, the antenna is wrapped around the perimeter of the phone, and when touched can possibly interefere with the signal. Many media sources picked up on the potential issue, and literally made it sound ten times worse than the problem actually was. This was soon dubbed, “Antennagate”.

Let’s take a look at the facts. It’s true that when the black bar (part of the antenna) in the lower left-hand corner of iPhone 4 is touched, your signal can drop from 5 to 0 bars within seconds. It’s also true that when any other smartphone’s antenna is touched in the same way, the signal will drop as well. This issue is a common problem with iPhone 3GS, many BlackBerry models, Droid Eris, Droid X and most other smarthphones on the market today. It’s not unique to iPhone 4.

Phones aren’t perfect.

Apple has made plenty of mistakes in the past. I’m not doubting that. Antennagate is just one of them. Even after hearing about this problem, I still purchased myself an iPhone 4. In terms of daily usage, I’ve yet to drop a call. Unless you intentionally hold your iPhone that way, you won’t have a problem.

In terms of other smartphones, many antennas are placed on the top or lower back of the phone. I’ve tried holding a Blackberry Curve in the way I usually would, and the signal dropped drastically. This is a problem that every smartphone has, and until one finds a solution, we’re stuck with it.

Apple held a press conference a few weeks ago to apologize for this issue publicly. They shouldn’t be the only ones apologizing. Every smartphone company should be holding a press conference publicly confessing the problem. Apple loves their users and want to make them happy more than anything. They’re rated number one in customer service anywhere you go. At the time of this writing, they are the only ones that are attempting to at least temporarly fix this problem. Apple is spending $175 million dollars to provide every iPhone 4 customer with a free case or Bumper. My iPhone 4 currently sports a black bumper and I think it’s great! Like I said above, I haven’t had one signal issue even with the Bumper removed.

This isn’t the only problem we’ve had lately. The other problem is people. Since my purchase of iPhone 4, I get asked almost daily if I’ve suffered “Antennagate”. Whenever I say no, I get a negative remark back more times than not. I’m not offended by it, so keep on doin’ it! This is where opinions get tied in with facts. If you don’t know the correct facts, you can’t go out saying negative remarks about the particular issue. I think it’s just a result of some close minded person that has no insight on Apple and for whatever reason is against Apple. That’s what really pisses me off and puts me over the edge.

This is just another example of a small problem being blown out of porportion by the media, and then followed by negative remarks by people that have little or no insight on the actual problem at stake here. Hope this essay finds you well and gives you a little more insight on what really happened.

Thoughts: FaceTime on the New Apple TV?

As far as Apple products are concerned, it would seem that FaceTime and the Apple TV have nothing to do with one another, and that's true, at least for now. However with some imagination, and parsing of both words and rumors, FaceTime on the Apple TV may not be so far fetched.

Let us first look at the rumor of the new Apple TV. For quite a few months now, it has been rumored the new Apple TV will be a lower cost device that runs a version of iOS. While this is merely a rumor at this point, it seems logical that Apple would like to incorporate yet another device into their App Store ecosystem and provide a unified experience between devices. Assuming the information I just mentioned is correct, it's possible that FaceTime on the Apple TV is not far off.

When FaceTime was introduced along side the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs made a point to say there will be 10 million FaceTime devices by the end of 2010. As great as the iPhone 4 is, there is no way Apple is expecting to move 10 million iPhone 4's in 6 months. That fact aside, it would make sense for Apple to bring FaceTime to as many devices as possible.

From a technological perspective bringing FaceTime to the Apple TV would not be a difficult process. Operating under the assumption that iOS will be the new UI for the Apple TV, it then becomes a matter of the new hardware having enough power to run FaceTime and a camera to enable video calls. It would not be atypical for Apple to build a camera accessory that is optimized for your television. In fact, this concept is already in practice. Earlier this year Skype partnered  with both Samsung and Panasonic to bring Skype to your TV. Both hardware manufacturers have proprietary  camera accessories to enable Skype calls.

If Apple chose to implement FaceTime into the Apple TV, they have the potential to appeal to users who have no interest in the iPhone, and provide a unique way of communicating with friends and love ones from your TV. Not only would this expand the install base of FaceTime, it would also serve as a form of competition for Skype, who clearly feels large screen video interaction is the way of the future.

Do you think we could see FaceTime come to the Apple TV?

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