I’ve been away from my blog for a while. The reason is mostly time. Starting a new family was a huge time hit to my blog as well as the convenience of quick updates available through social media (Twitter, Google+).
As a follow up to an old article I wrote here: https://kv4s.com/2010/06/22/why-i-passed-on-the-iphone-again-and-got-the-htc-aria-android
I wanted to give an update into the tech I’m using.
After my Aria phone, I upgraded to the HTC Vivid which didn’t last long because I managed to get it wet in a pool and had to pay an enormous amount of money to get a Samsung Galaxy S3 which i kept for a few years.
In September 2014, I upgraded to the Moto X (2014) and also got a smart watch the Moto 360. A few months earlier Google announced smart watches and i was hooked but i did wait for the Moto 360 before jumping in. Even a year later I still think it’s the best looking watch on the market. However, the biggest drawback is the LCD display as it doesn’t take advantage of the Always on because of how it activates all the pixels vs how an LED display does. It’s not a huge issue for me. I have grown very accustomed to getting text and select notification on my wrist can’t wait to see how the product matures as smart phones have. I’m still on the Android side of the fence. While battery life and platform fragmentation are still my biggest gripes I still love the platform as a whole and am still more excited with anything Google does that what Apple does.
I had a brief time with an iPad at work. While I was blown away at how great the battery life was and how much more convenient Cisco Anyconnect is that’s about all the praise I could give it. I sorely missed all the customization I’m use to with Android. I was surprised how many Google Apps could be installed over there but it was missing Keep. Couldn’t stand the keyboard even though I installed SwiftKey it’s just not what I like on Android. Wasn’t sad to give it back.
In 2014, I also dropped my AT&T grandfathered unlimited plan due to the throttling reasons than anything for which they got slammed for from the FCC (ha ha ha). I got a promotion program where the 15GB plan was upgraded to 30GB for the same price. Plus a few months after I signed up they started roll over data too. I’m on a shared plan with another family member but they are not heavy data user. At least no throttling for the same amount of data I’ve always used.
I also got the Nexus 7 for a tablet. Very nice to be on Google’s update schedule vs the carriers. The tablet is basically my phone when I’m at home. Thanks to Google voice and last year’s hangouts update you can take and place calls and text from hangouts essentially making any device on Hangouts an IP phone. They can also MMS now even though I’m not a big MMS person.
I’ve been bouncing around twitter clients again. Plume is by far the best client for Android and feature rich but I’ve had to leave for the Official twitter client because for some reason after they did the material design update the program became very unstable and crashes often. I’ll keep an eye on it in hopes they fix it.
I really enjoy Google+, in my opinion it’s the best social platform however user adoption and perception is not great. I sure hope it survives. I love the notification control and threaded conversations. Communities are great little social gatherings. I use it for games I play and tech devices. I think if they had a write API it would help.
I cut cable about 3 maybe 4 years ago. While I pay for a few streaming services, I’m well under my old charter and dish bills. Internet providers are slowly raising rates so that’s cutting into the savings as well.
I cut land line about 3 years ago. I use gvmate to hook up my cordless phones to Google voice.
Since Google Listen shut down I went over to Pocketcast which is a far superior podcast app.
Home automation and smart devices are my next projects. I’ve got my eyes on ring.com for a way to watch the front door even while away, Smart thermostats probably the nest, and/or maybe a full home camera system?
Anyway, exciting times for technology changes.
Until next time!
-Russell
KV4S 