Surprising, yet welcome news about my Motorola Photon

In July I finally upgraded to my first superphone – the dual core Motorola Photon 4G. Since my purchase, I have seen the price of this handset nosedive, as the company enjoys much greater success with the RAZR and other models. No matter, I love my Android 2.3 with customized user interface, perfect Google integration, and a host of apps for work and play. The thing is solid and reliable.

But, because of weak sales, I felt certain I would miss out on an ICS upgrade. And that would have been fine. I’d happily hang in there till 2013 and see what upgrades were available then. Now, however, I’m not so sure. Turns out, somehow, I’m on the list for Ice Cream Sandwich. I may have to wait till Fall, but, as I’ve said, this phone is pretty darn good just the way it is, so I don’t that’ll be a problem.

It’s the “Catch-All Social Media Blog” again.

I continue to view WordPress as my go-to HQ, the hub of my online existence.  The fact that it is now the most ungainly blog platform of the services I use is discouraging, but everything has it’s place.

Twitter is like a text message to the world, with little side-chats, important news stories, and a whole lot of people acting really silly.

Google+ is the upstart, unlimited by any character number, capable of handling photos, blogs, plus ones’s, shares, just about anything.  I love it.

And then there is my dear buried treasure of Tumblr, so sweet, so emo, makes me feel like a real hipster (plus about 75 lbs).  My Tumblr is so vain, I just want people to look at it and think I’m so cool, with my pictures of cars, old movies, genius musicians and freaky artwork.  The Tumblr time-line is a lot like Twitter in that you follow who you like and unfollow who you don’t.  You can give hearts just like on Google+ and reblogs instead of retweets.

I’m joyful to have given up Facebook.  My profile still exists for some reason, but I haven’t looked at it for months now, trying to lead by example.  I equate my recent effort to start yoga with giving up Facebook for good.

And then there’s all that other stuff – Picplz until there is Instagram for Android, Instagram for my iPod Touch, Foursquare, Google Reader, Evernote, Last.fm – the list goes on and I’m always looking for more toys!

So this brings me back to my dear old WordPress blog, my hub.  I shouldn’t have to make an effort to post here – it should be instinctive.  Maybe the extra trouble makes it more precious than those other networks and outlets.  But like the fact that I have to change the background on my phone at least once per week, I’ll revamp this website in the coming days – not to improve your user experience, but just to make it fresh and shiny and new for me.  And then I’ll tell you all about it.

Cloud Centric

Is it wrong for to be hedging?  I’ve uploaded over 10,000 songs to Google Music Beta, and now I’m going to do the same thing with Amazon Cloud Player.

I could say I’m hedging my bets, especially since the Google product is just kind of mediocre and the Amazon product is much more ‘official’ looking.

Multi-platform task management

Wunderlist

As my move to a Windows 7 work computer gets closer, I’m looking to tighten up my task management.  I think there may be software implemented by the office that all eight of us will use, but I can’t necessarily count on or wait for that.

Some time ago I switched from the gorgeous native Mac app ‘Things‘ to the equally lovely web-app Flow.  Flow is basically Things in the cloud.  As far as I know, Things still doesn’t have a viable cloud sync, which means that mobile device must be synced over wi-fi.  That’s an embarrassing state of affairs.

Flow is pretty much perfect task management, but its expensive: $10 per month or $100 for the year.  But it’s so nice to look at and the platform is so solid and there’s no worry about switching from Mac to PC.  And when users clamored for repeating tasks, they got right to it.  There is still no native iPad app, but I’m sure this will be remedied in short order.

Flow greatest strength may be it’s collaboration facilities.  This app/service is all about teams of people in different places working together and getting the shit done.  Unfortunately, my use of task management is just for me.  So I never had any opportunity to take advantage of the amazing team features in Flow.

Enter Wunderlist.  This is, to be sure, not nearly as sexy as Flow and doesn’t have any of the collaboration potential, at least not yet.  But it is perfect for my purposes.  Free cloud based service – always synced.  Free native apps for iPhone, iPad AND ANDROID!  I never dreamed I would have viable task management on my Android phone, but now it works perfectly.

If my employer implements/mandates task management software, I will still use Wunderlist as a backup and for my personal GTD.

Finally, @Sprint announces the Photon 4G for July 31. I am so there.

Good timing.  My contract is up right about the same time this phone comes out, and it’s just what I want.  Read the press release at Sprintfeed.  I was an early adopter of Android with the Hero two years ago and no the handset can hardly dial, it’s so bogged down.  I know the HTC Sense user interface is much beloved, but after two years with it, I’m really ready for a different look.  So it will be Motorola Blur for a while.  but in the meantime, bring on that dual core processor, front facing camera, 4.3 inch screen and a bunch of other goodies.  Will it be better than an iPhone 5 (or 4s)?  Probably not, but I’m committed to Android and it looks like the Photon 4G is moving right to the top of the heap.

This is HUGE!! – MIDI clock sync in iOS

I’ve been waiting for this.  it feels like it’s been a long time.  With the simplified protocols and integration, I can start jamming with iPad, use that as master clock, synch a DAW on the MacBook, and play along with guitar.  Check out the video integrating two iOS devices:

I found out about the video and the tech via Synthtopia and the leading aps are being made by Finger, although Synthetic Bits‘ Funkbox is definitely in the mix.

The Facebook issue, once again, but this time with feeling!

Perhaps I had a bit too much caffeine too late in the day, but here at 10:30PM at the end of an otherwise lovely weekend, I feel the need, once again, to address the “Facebook situation”.

But let’s talk about something else, like music.  That should make the conversation a little easier to understand.  There are nearly limitless choices for your listening pleasure out there.  Some of you may even prefer not to listen to any music at all.  And that is ALL good.

Now, it may come to pass that one day, a dear friend, like someone really important to you, might say, “Hey, friend!  Listen to this GREAT music.  I mean you REALLY have to listen to this music, because it is SO good and I love it so much!”  And the hope is that you and your friend will be able to enjoy this great music together and have this as a space where you can share your mutual affection.  The two of you can exist together enjoying this music together and it will be this really nice connection as you share something wonderful.  Sounds great, no?

Except, what happens if you listen to this music, which your good friend REALLY LOVES SO MUCH, and then, after really giving it a chance, you decide, you know what?  I’m afraid I just don’t like this music so much.  Does this mean that you can’t be friends?  Does this mean that you will never get to find out what’s going on in your friend’s life?  Because you don’t listen to the same music?  I mean, that’s REALLY crazy, right?

Except, that’s exactly what happens to people who don’t like Facebook.  It’s not that I don’t like the people on Facebook.  Hell, I’m related to a lot of them, and others are great and dear friends for many years.  But, for fuck’s sake, IT’S NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, ALRIGHT?!?!?

There may not be as many choices for communication as there are choices for music.  A lot of people I know who use Facebook A LOT, don’t like Twitter.  And Tumblr is so wonderful, but no one is making a movie about that any time soon.  But you know what?  Email works pretty good, text messaging, Google Groups, WordPress, Posterous, Last.fm – I mean, this is just to name a few.  Also, there’s this thing called a telephone, if you really want to get technical.

But no – everyone uses Facebook because everyone else uses it.  DO YOU KNOW HOW STUPID THAT IS?!?  DO YOU REALIZE THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE?!?

And it makes me feel like I am trapped in a room with Top 40 radio playing the SAME THREE SONGS over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

Thank you to John @Scalzi and Joseph Perla for their articulate assessments of Facebook

This stuff, from Scalzi’s Whatever is absolutely brilliant.  Make sure you read the whole screed, but here are few choice tidbits:

Facebook has made substandard versions of everything on the Web, bundled it together and somehow found itself being lauded for it, as if AOL, Friendster and MySpace had never managed the same slightly embarrassing trick. Facebook had the advantage of not being saddled with AOL’s last-gen baggage, Friendster’s too-early-for-its-moment-ness, or MySpace’s aggressive ugliness, and it had the largely accidental advantage of being upmarket first — it was originally limited to college students and gaining some cachet therein — before it let in the rabble.

In addition to the elitism, which I hadn’t previously thought of, there is the dumbed-down web aspect:

Facebook is the Web hit with a stupid stick, but that doesn’t mean people are stupid for using it.

And let us not forget what it’s all for – not bringing people together, that’s merely a by-product of the commercial enterprise:

Its grasping attempts to get its hooks into every single thing I do feels like being groped by an overly obnoxious salesman. Its general ethos that I need to get over the concept of privacy makes me want to shove a camera lens up Zuckerberg’s left nostril 24 hours a day and ask him if he’d like for his company to rethink that position.

Again, it is not the people who use Facebook that is the problem, it is the platform itself.  And the real question, which Scalzi presumes to answer, is whether the MASSIVE market penetration will ever let this unfortunate and inadequate advertising device go away.  Here’s a clue to Scalzi’s opinion: He’s a bit more optimistic than I am.

While Scalzi looks at the technological inadequacies of Facebook, which he thinks will be its downfall, I see evidence that the outsized adoption rate, the 500 million members, creates a mythology of profit that goes beyond the reality of substandard technology.

I have no idea who Joseph Perla is, but this article, which may overstate the case a bit, brings up some questions about the value received by Facebook advertisers.

More and more people sign up to Facebook, and more and more businesses hear about how many people are on Facebook. It seems like a huge opportunity. TV shows and award-winning movies are made about Facebook.

Perla suggests that the it’s all sizzle and no steak:

What is clear from everyone I know who has advertised on Facebook is that it was a waste of money. Facebook promises big returns on ad spending, but delivers nothing. Yet, their value and growth continues because they can use that money to grow their user-base more and assert profitability (in this sense it’s not quite entirely a ponzi scheme, but there is no closer idea). It’s possible that they do not even realize that they are like a Ponzi scheme.

Perhaps Facebook is not a Ponzi scheme, but this concept of questionable value to advertisers has been on my mind for a while.  It was refreshing to see someone echo those sentiments.