Android App Spotlight #4: Hypnotoad to Go

Price: Free
AppBrain Link

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

Android App Spotlight #3: Aldiko

Price: Free
Webstie
AppBrain Link

Despite music downloads being popular for the past ten years and movie downloads for the past five, ebooks are only now starting to become popular, not because of the need for bandwidth, as determined when than old e former two arrived for popular consumption, but for lack of standards and an old industry not willing to change their ways. Though ebook readers are nothing new, it was the Amazon Kindle that really kickstarted the business (of course the iPad has certainly helped), and today almost every new release is available for download.  Android users can't read books from the Amazon market place yet (though they will soon), but honestly, I have plenty of stockpiled books on my computer that I've collected over the years that I would like to read first. Because many of them were PDFs, I first tried PDF readers. While this proved documents to be perfectly readable, I couldn't save my place, making it difficult to put down a book and come back to it later. The presentation was pretty lacking, too - I'm not saying I need something as pretty as what Kindle of iBooks brings to the table, but it certainly adds some legitimacy to the product.

Enter Aldiko, an excellent and free ebook reader specifically made for Android. Not only does it provide all of the basic functionality that you might need to read books - automatic placeholders, multiple bookmarks, text resizing, and a night and day mode - but it also serves as an excellent way to show off your book collection. There's even a store interface that offers free and buyable books from FeedBooks, O'Reilly, Smashwords, and All Romance ebooks, if you're into that sort of thing. If you can't find what you're looking for through the store, there is an import function that, while easy, can become a bit cumbersome to manage if you begin to accumulate a large amount of books. It's not any worse than manually managing any other form of media on an Android device (by far the worst aspect of the OS), so if you can add your music or video, you can deal with the books, too.

Aldiko only reads books in the epub format, which was originally a limiting factory considering many of my books were PDFs (even sometimes txt or html files). In solving this problem, I stumbled upon another great piece of software, Calibre, which not only serves as an easy and imaged-based way of managing your desktop ebook collection, but it can convert a book in literally any format (DRM excluded, of course) to any other format. It was a simple thing to convert my HTML copy of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, to epub, adding metadata and coverart to the file in the process.

Perhaps, once Amazon's Kindle app is released, there might be a worthy contender for Android's best ebook reader (though I don't really want to reconvert everything to .mobi anyway, and that's if I can even import my books at all), but for now Aldiko is far and away the best ebook reader app for Android. I'm always looking for new ways to read books, and after spending a plane ride easily paging through The Accidental Billionaires, I think I'm going to be using Aldiko a lot more often. At least until Audible releases their Android app.

End of Season Review: The Ricky Gervais Show

Before Steve Carrell and team brought it to America, The Office was a two-season series in the UK created by and starring Ricky Gervais. Though I would argue that the dark wit, and genuineness, and the ending of the original outshines the American version (though both versions have their strengths), the show, followed by his other successful show “Extras,” propelled Gervais into stardom. Before and after the success of his TV shows and movies, Gervais, along with his writing partner Stephen Merchant, hosted a netcast* that eventually evolved into featuring the oddball opinions of their produce, Karl Pilkington. As the comedy duo moved into films and hosting awards shows, the broadcasts aren’t as regular as they used to be, but with several “seasons” of material in the can, there’s a wealth of information available for the producers of The Ricky Gervais Show, HBO’s other new Friday night show that animates the previously-recorded netcasts.

*Also known as “podcasts,” though I’m with Leo Laporte’s contention that the term “podcast,” applied to all online broadcasts, can be misleading.

The format is one that should be familiar to those who used to watch Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist on Comedy Central. Whereas the squiggly TV show was mostly just a sounding board for comedians to come and perform a few jokes from their act, RGS shows the three guys sitting at a radio station console, talking to the words originally spoke by Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington, and animating a scene when something interesting is talked about. Dr. Katz wasn’t completely rehashed material, though – there was a storyline and improve conversations that permeated the episode, and while it usually wasn’t as funny as the jokes of the comedians, it kept things interesting, especially if you were already a fan of the comedian of the day. The Ricky Gervais Show is nothing but a straight 25 minutes from the podcast.

Like Funny or Die Presents, HBO’s other new Friday night show, I can’t really understand why this show needs to exist – it serves as a sampler of the podcast, and the animations can be chuckle-worthy at times, but it doesn’t really justify viewing again if you’re already familiar with the material. I can understand why HBO wants to keep it around, though – it’s dirt-cheap to produce, it only needs a small amount of viewers to keep it profitable, and all the writing was accomplished several years ago. It’s been renewed for a second season, and with the three boys still putting out regular podcasts today (at a rate of about one a month), the show has the potential to be around for quite a while.

Android App Spotlight #2 - Last.fm

Price: Free
Website
AppBrain Link

iPhone and Android users love their free streaming music, and of the many options available for both platforms, Pandora Radio's offering remains the top choice. The radio service utilizes the Music Genome Project, an algorithm that takes a user-entered artist and plays music similar to that artist, with refinements in the resulting songs coming from users "liking" or "not liking" a track. Free music that you like before you know you like it? Sounds good to me.

While I'm not going to fault anyone if Pandora's their app of choice, I prefer the companion app for website Last.fm. When you're on your desktop, phone, or any other devices, and you listen to a song, that information gets uploaded to the site in a process called "scrobbling." Using the information, the website provides recommendations to other artists that you may enjoy, and suggests friends who share the same musical tastes as you. They offer free radio stations like Pandora, too, and since you are constantly giving them new music information, regardless of device, I think their algorithm is more accurate than what's provided by Pandora.

The Android app is very similar to Pandora's - you're presented with a list of channels of artists that you've previously entered into the program, plus you get the ability to stream music specifically from your own library. If you're playing a song in the app, you have the ability to look up the artist's Last.fm profile, see similar artists, check out events with the artist, and take a look at other users who were fans of the song. You can also buy the track on Amazon if you really enjoy it.

If you're playing a song in your stock Android music player, the last.fm scrobbler automatically loads in the background and maintains a presence in the notification bar, allowing you to access the same sort of information from the website as if you were still using the app.

After many months of using the service your profile can be pretty indicative of what music you like, and the theory is that the more you use the service the more accurate your results will be. Even if you're happy with the service Pandora provides, Last.fm offers some great and more in-depth features than Pandora, and is definitely worth checking out. It's Android-only, too, so you can flaunt it in your smug iPhone friend's faces.

Updated Nexus One Impressions

You never expected me to update my Nexus One impressions as I claimed in my original review, did you? I wanted to wait until after I received the car dock attachment, which was coincidentally released about a week after I bought the phone.

I was originally just looking for a piece of plastic to hold up my phone while I was driving, so I was dismayed to find this dock cost $55 as opposed to the $10 many of the generic solutions were selling for. It's not just a phone holder-upper, though - it features a similar functionality to that of the car dock, in which the phone automatically enters Car Mode when it senses it's connected, providing you access to the apps you are most likely to use while on the road. My complaints of the loudness of the phone's maximum volume setting were also mitigated by a built-in speakerphone, which transmits via Bluetooth and can be set to automatically turn on when connected. A car adapter power connection is provided out of sight in the base of the device, making the setup look as slick as possible to match the pretty, pretty phone.

The added functionality warrants the higher pricetag, but what impressed me the most about the car dock was how easily I could use my phone while driving. I still don't have the ability to text long messages like on my Blackjack II, but it's easy to perform single presses on the phone while it's suspended on my windshield right below the rear view mirror, and still maintain situational awareness as to how the driving's going. It's still dangerous, sure, but more like "dicking around with your GPS" dangerous, not "British texting and driving" dangerous.

The other great thing about the car dock is the quick recharging dramatically helps the battery life of the device. I've pretty firmly rested on my claims that my shockingly short battery life only occurs in places of poor reception (though forcing the phone to stay in 2G helps this, too), but sometimes - like when the poor reception is at your place of employment - you can't avoid it. A 15-minute stint in this baby can regain a good 10% when not using any demanding apps, and even when sucking down GPS and 3G data, you can keep the battery going up.

While I was ordering the car dock, I grabbed a spare battery while I was in the online store. So far I have yet to use it, and I expect this to continue to be the case until I get stuck in a situation where I am away from my charging adapters for a long period of time. This car dock is an essential part of the Nexus One experience and critical to its use. I can only imagine HTC's brethren Incredible and EVO are in the same camp, though I'm not sure how long it will be before they have their corresponding accessories.

...And speaking of the newer superphones, it was a sad day last Friday that they would stop selling the Nexus One online, claiming the online sales disappointing and a clear indication that customers prefer to use a phone before buying it. They said they would continue to offer it through retail channels, but with Verizon passing on the phone to focus on the Droid Incredible and Sprint following suit with its EVO 4G, that only leaves original partner T-Mobile currently offering subsidized Nexus Ones, and a minute possibility of AT&T joining in on the fun, seeing as how the online store already offers a version of the phone compatible with their 3G frequencies.

I don't blame neither Sprint nor Verizon for their decisions, as their respective phones are so similar in design to the Nexus One that it would be pretty redundant to offer both, but I am frustrated that I will not be able to buy an unlocked phone out of contract anymore. The only way I could get my Nexus One was through the online store, and I still have a month and a half left on an old two year AT&T contract, so I didn't have a too many options. Google offering phones directly would also ensure that the latest Android updates would always be on my phone, without waiting for the carrier to release it months after the fact.

One of Google's strengths is their willingness to try new things, but they don't always work out. While the online distribution model was a failure, the Nexus One was anything but. While the Motorola Droid was the first Android phone to really bring the operating system into the public consciousness as a serious contender to the iPhone, the Nexus One set the standard as a true iPhone killer, and the template from which three major carriers - T-Mobile with the Nexus One, Verizon with the Droid Incredible, and Sprint's EVO 4G - are promoting their flagship Android offerings. It's a good time to be an Android user, both in terms of marketshare and functionality - and I wouldn't have any other phone.

Android App Spotlight #1: AppBrain

Price: Free
AppBrain Link

Unless you know what you’re searching for, it’s pretty difficult to navigate through the Android Market, especially if you’re just looking for new and interesting apps to try. Even the official online interface only highlights a select few downloads. AppBrain, amongst others, presents the Android Marketplace in an easy-to-navigate format, categorizing downloads by popularity, top rated, etc. There is a corresponding AppBrain app which, when downloaded, presents the same more powerful search presentation on your phone. More uniquely, the app also allows you to sync a list of your apps between the mobile and web interface, giving you the ability to browse for apps on your computer, mark them for installation, and launch your phone’s app to download them through the marketplace. Given the limited functionality of the official Android Marketplace, you have to manually press the install and permission-granting buttons, but AppBrain links you to each app for quick installation.

The other notable feature of AppBrain is the ability to share your installed apps with other people via your profile page. This isn’t meant to be a social networking feature, per se - the links are pretty much hidden unless you know the user’s username, but it works as an easy way to see what other users have installed and quickly mark them for installation later. The design might not be as slick as the OEM Marketplace, but with the improved search and functionality, I’ve removed the standard Market shortcut from my home screen.

(Nearly) End of Season Review: Funny or Die Presents

Funny or Die is a website started by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay back in 2003. It was a collection of funny videos that users voted on (“funny” or “die”) and the cream rose to the top. It became popular quickly, not only because of the star power of the initial investors, but the videos often featured celebrity star power – the notable first example of this was “The Landlord,” where Will Ferrell gets told off by his smarmy baby landlord.

With the popularity of the non-traditional distribution model that has undoubetdly earned FoD fistfulls of cash, I don’t understand why they would join up with HBO and produce a half hour program “Funny or Die Presents.”  The small viewer base of the pay network, combined with the even smaller part of that userbase that’s sitting at home watching the show in its Friday night timeslot, FoD doesn’t have much to gain.

The show is set up as a mock 1960s television network, from which airs these skits as their programming. The format is not new – SCTV and The Kentucky Fried Movie did this long ago, and it’s a good way to wrap up a series of unrelated material into a cohesive package. With FoDP, the wrapper isn’t really used to any extent – the skits are introduced using the theme, and there are quick little 10-second interstitials with the logo, but it’s difference for the sake of being different, a recurring theme.

The first half of the show usually features a longer skit or a series of skits from a single comedy team, and miscellaneous material to finish the show. The success of FoD the website is due to the rating system, which allows the unfunny material to quickly fall into oblivion. With FoD Presents, however, we’re stuck with whatever they decided to air that week.  Most of the time, however, the skits aren’t particularly clever nor even funny – it many times consists of ordinary people doing weird things for no reason other than being weird. It’s a formula that Ferrell himself has used in many of his films, but it’s not something that can or should be the main idea for a 5-minute skit.

For example: a recent episode featured two guys sitting on the couch, chatting, one guy then mentions that today was Tuesday, and the two start off on a three-minute orgy of chaos, ripping off their clothes, drinking drain cleaner, stealing and driving a car over the side of a cliff, killing a man and eating his corpse, before ending their outrageous series of events at midnight, because it was no longer Tuesday. Absurd comedy can be funny when it’s unexpected, short-lived, and not the entire focus of the act (Tim and Eric are examples of comedians who do this well, and also contributed a solid amount of material to the show), but as the main focus it tires quickly, if it even connects at all.

And because FoD doesn’t want to canabalize themselves by airing the FoDP skits on the FoD website, there’s no overlap in material between the site and the show: you’re seeing all new material when you tune in (unless someone uploads it to Youtube). It makes the skits on the show feel like the rejects that weren’t good enough to be part of the site.

The show does have some highlights:

• Tim and Eric try their hand at a short film that lasts literally the entire duration of the show. They also tread more familiar territory with a mock sitcom “Just 3 Boyz,” featuring Zack Galifinakis and Reginald VelJohnson, best known as Carl Winslow from “Family Matters”
• A couple of episodic skits are told through “The Holdup” and “Designated Driver” Not coincidentally, these skits also provide the largest number of recognizable faces in the series.
• The first episode featured a new episode of the popular and funny “Drunk History,” featuring Will Ferrel, Don Cheadle, and Zooey Deschanel

Before beginning each night’s skits, the show’s host, Ed Halligan – an older man dressed to look from the 1960’s – makes jokes about his drinking and stepping out on his wife before introducing the night’s material as crap that the FoD Network just kinda cobbled together. The joke is that no network would actually admit to the viewers that the show is crappy, but after watching eleven episodes of Funny or Die Presents, Ed’s introductions are more to the truth than the show would like you to believe.