OpenVibe on Android
Oh nice! OpenVibe on Android now combines Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads! I've been using it for a while now for BlueSky and Mastodon, and today I opened it to see they added Threads.
Doesn't look like I can view just the Threads timeline, though it is merged into my main feed.
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Unknown AirTag
This morning as I walked into the office, my Android phone and watch notified me about an unknown AirTag it had detected around me. This is fantastic information and I'm glad the feature is there. EXCEPT, there is no way for me to tell Android it's cool - it's my airtag. Which, I realize, is an unusual ask as most people don't straddle the mobile technologies of Android and iOS, but I do.
I dismissed the notification, we'll see if it comes back.
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Farewell Sweet Prince
The time has finally come to stop using my Samsung Duo 2 as my daily driver. I'm now using a Samsung Galaxy S24+ with the minimalist Niagara launcher.
Quite the gear shift. I'm still deciding if the Duo is abandoned or if it's relegated to be more of a tablet style device.
We'll see.
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I remain saddened by the state of Android Mastodon apps compared to the offerings on Apple.
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MKBHD on Pixel Fold
I am still unwilling to make the purchase at the current price point. But one thing I'll note with these devices. I'm not saying it should be the same price as other phones. The thing that got me okay with a nearly $1k price for my Duo 2 was the fact it is basically two phones together.
Seeing him use it made me realize the Fold has essentially three screens, with an external one and two internal ones (well, one big one inside.) The Duo 2 just has two inside. And just the screens alone is going to raise the price. So, my line now for where I'm thinking about this phone would be closer to $1200-1400 range. I don't know if I would pull that trigger or not, but I'm just saying - it makes more sense to me now that I have actually seen it.
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SimplyLocal Android App
An app which shows you local farmers who sell different things direct to consumers.
The app's author posted to the Seattle subreddit sharing this project of theirs.
Here's the link for the iPhone version.
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Redditor claims Samsung fakes moon photos with camera zoom
TL:DR Samsung is using AI/ML to slap on a texture of the moon on your moon pictures, and while some think that's your camera's capability, it's actually not. And it's not sharpening, it's not adding detail from multiple frames because in this experiment, all the frames contain the same amount of detail. None of the frames have the craters etc. because they're intentionally blurred, yet the camera somehow miraculously knows that they are there. And don't even get me started on the motion interpolation on their "super slow-mo", maybe that's another post in the future.
The full post delves into the methodology. And it feels on par with the reality of modern phone technology which applies machine learning to image processing and just calls out an especially egregious example of it.
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Android app design sucks
Android enthusiasts don’t want to hear it, but from a design perspective, the apps on Android suck. They may not suck from a feature perspective (but they often do), but they’re aesthetically unpolished and poorly designed even from a “design is how it works” perspective.
He's right. I fully agree and bemoan the state of Android apps rather than iOS.
However, he neglects an important thing. The Android app store is far less lucrative for app developers it seems, and thus the financial incentives for small apps lie with Apple.
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I finally told my Android phone to forget the word 'abs' - Gone are the days of it thinking I am referring to my core strength instead of the most common conjunction in the English language.
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I think I'd like to try doing hand written morning blog posts. I'm experimenting and looking for thr right app for my Duo 2. I tried it this morning in OneNote and apparently what I wrote (which wasn't very long) was too long to export as a PDF.
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Galaxy Watch 5 first official pics
I shouldn't be surprised, considering the discount I got for my Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, but I am somewhat annoyed and amused that 9 days after I got my watch, they drop official images of the Galaxy Watch 5. You're welcome world. I took the bullet so you all may celebrate.
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Surface Duo 2 + Smartwatch = Amazing
[Disclaimer: This post mentions D&D. I work for the makers of Dungeons and Dragons.]
Yesterday was a full week that I've had my Galaxy Watch 4 and I can conclusively say that the combination of a smartwatch and the Surface Duo 2 has been fantastic. They are something I heartily recommend to any power user for their phone.
I love my Surface Duo 2. I love having two screens and I love the overall form factor. Especially for things like reading and making notes, running D&D, or even for this blog, I can have social media on one screen and this blog's admin on the other. In all of these, the device excels.
I have also come to love the response from others when they first see it and watch as I pull it out and unfold it's two screens. My friend Scott, when I first used it in front of him asked, "What is this marvelous device?"
That said, I was frustrated by my Duo 2 because it's design hindered the quick-use needs I have for a phone. Jotting a note, reading a text, checking the time, etc. All of these are no longer a quick one-handed act of pulling out my phone and thumbing my password in, and then doing what I need. Now it required two hands. Add to that, that the phone's closed screen makes notifications much harder to get if you aren't using your device. If my wife texted me, I would often miss it during the day at work. None of these were enough to make me want to switch my phone, but they were annoyances.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy 4 smartwatch.
I had been planning to give smartwatches another go with Google's Pixel watch, slated to arrive sometime this year. But a few weeks ago Woot.com had a deal of getting the Galaxy Watch 4 for less than $200. That seemed like a good deal, and some online research confirmed it. So I pulled the trigger.
I had tried using a smartwatch before, prior to the Surface Duo 2, I think it was 2014ish with a "normal" smartphone. I found the watch to be fun but unneccessary as I often had my phone out on the table or desk in front of me, or even more readily available as I frequently would simply be holding it in my hand whenever I was out and about.
But, with the Duo 2 and it's closed-book form factor, having a means to quickly access notifications and do most of the small things I found myself wanting to do - has been fantastic. Google's Wear OS has come a long way and provides so much extension to the phone's capabilities. When I first had a smartwatch, it just felt like a toy. Sure, I could see messages, etc. But the overall abilities of the early watch just weren't compelling. Now, in addition to solving my ease-of-access issues, it provides more capabilities and health monitoring things, etc.
So, if you're thinking of getting a Surface Duo 2, I encourage you to do so. Maybe you won't find the same issues I did, but if you do, I then encourage you to try adding a smartwatch. I don't think it has to be the Galaxy 4, but I am happy with mine.
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There was an experimental keyboard for Android called 8pen. I can't help if it was ahead of its time, as I feel like it could form a useable keyboard for Wear OS.
It was definitely a weird keyboard concept, but it was an interesting cursive-like experience. As of now, there is no way for me to type on my watch (which makes perfect sense), but I do wonder if this could be a concept that gets rebooted.
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As I play with my watch this morning and consider how I might use it, I found myself wondering about updating this blog with the power levels of my various electronics. But, would that prevent some very opaque attack vector? Could people surmise when I'm not at home based on the battery levels?
I don't think it presents much of a risk, though obviously it isn't zero risk. I'll have to think more about it. The idea tickles me enough that I'm interested in it. The idea I have a page on the site which just gives you my laptop, phone, earbuds, and watch's various battery levels. It's pointless, but fun. Which is my favorite kind.
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As I posted last night, I got a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. There was a sale on Woot last week and I pulled the trigger. We'll see how it goes. It arrived with a completely dead battery that had to be charged. Also I had to do four sequential system updates (and each of those require the battery be at at least 30% to do, which when fighting to charge a dead battery took quite a while.)
It's too early to really judge. I did wear it sleeping last night, so I'll be curious to see how it does in tracking my sleep. I like the idea of wearing it while I sleep to see how I do, but also given the need to keep it charged, I'm not sure exactly how to best balance that.
The answer might be a charger on my desk at work so I can charge it during the day for a while. Not sure. I'll need to see how the battery actually fares once fully charged. I'm at least gratified to see that it won't cost me an arm and a leg to get additional chargers for it if I need them.
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Samsung Galaxy Smart Watch 4 - $180 - Deal on Woot.com
I had been waiting for the Pixel watch, but - well - the deal got me and so we pulled the trigger. This matches the lowest price for the watch on Amazon (back in April.) I love my Surface Duo 2, but the closed screen form factor really inhibits me getting notifications.
I had tried a smartwatch before and found it unnecessary because I lived with my old phones in hand. With the Duo 2, I think it will be a big benefit to allow me some quick actions without having to open the phone up.
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Last night I pushed the second "big" feature for my Pick'em site. It went shockingly smoothly. I expected it to be mostly good but pretty much the only hiccup was an errant curly brace. I was shocked.
The code is the about 70% of the full feature and is mainly the functionality that is needed for the league to continue to function as planned. This weekend I'll work on the remaining 30%, which is largely administrative tools and integrating it further into a few other nooks and crannies on the site.
With the deployment though, I find myself deciding on my next coding project. I think I'll do a bit of work on 'Clerk' which is, right now, just my weight and health tracker. It needs a bit of love and I want to expand it's functionality some. But that isn't too large a project. I think after that I'm going to start work on what I'm calling 'Kontakto' which will be a personal CRM tool. It will be my second foray into making an Android app.
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I'm pleasantly surprised that I didn't lose my Desert Golfing progress when I switched to Volo.
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Remote Desktop 8 for Android
I knew Windows and Android were getting closer in their working together, but it was just today that I discovered there is an official Microsoft app for remote desktoping into a Windows machine on your local network. Very cool.
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As Glowbug continues to be my pet project, last night I coded in functionality to enable easy sharing from my phone. I use an Android device, so the workflow (for now) makes use of Tasker and AutoShare (a plugin for it) to call a custom endpoint on the webserver. It is still not a 100% process, as it turns out Android sharing is a pretty messy thing and is not standardized as nice as I would like. But I've got a working structure for now.
At some point I'll probably code a simple Android app that acts as a sharing bridge, solely existing to take the text and dump it into a webcall to the server. But for now, the Tasker + AutoShare functionality gets the job done.
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Aegis - 2-factor Authentication App
Yesterday I moved my 2-factor authentication from FreeOTP to Aegis. I did this because Aegis can make encrypted backups, so in case something happens to my phone, I can download the backup and have Aegis set up again, rather than using backup codes or going through hopes to recover my accounts.
It's Android only, but is open source, and available on F-Droid as well as the Google App Store.
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