I was 100% certain this day would never come, but, as they say, "Never say never." As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I've purchased an Android phone. As it might happen, for various reasons (read: $$$) I jumped ship from Verizon over to T-Mobile with an unlocked iPhone 4. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4 is getting a bit long in the tooth, and while I wanted something newer, spending $650 for an unsubsidized iPhone 5 wasn't looking too appealing. I wasn't having much luck finding a used iPhone 4S, either.
So, my thoughts turned to Android. Since I was running on prepaid GSM, my previous problems with Android phones (specifically the Nexus line) were somewhat mitigated. Plus, having a taste of Android 4.1 with my Nexus 7 was somewhat encouraging. The HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus at $350 new looked good, but I wasn't keen on buying a year-old phone. As luck would have it, Google and LG partnered together to release an update to the Nexus line, the Nexus 4, sold unlocked for $350 ($300 for the 8 GB version).
I've always been a fan of the iPhone, but the Nexus 4 seemed to hit enough of the sweet spots for me to give it a shot. First of all, it's an inexpensive, unlocked phone, perfect for prepaid service. Second of all, it supports the AWS frequencies that T-Mobile use for 3G, as opposed to the glacial EDGE speeds you get with an iPhone. Another plus is the larger screen... I've been feeling that the 3.5 inches of the iPhone is just a bit tiny for really doing any sort of web browsing or reading.
So, having owned the phone for about a week, what are my thoughts?
First of all, the Nexus 4 is noticeably larger than an iPhone. In fact, it's about the maximum size I'd ever want in a phone. It's not quite as thin as an iPhone 5, but feels thin since the screen is so much larger. It fits in a pocket without too much trouble, but don't try to pocket it while wearing skinny jeans. The screen is suitably high resolution; I've actually been reading on it using the Kindle Android app, and it's not bad.
The design of the phone is quite appealing. It's two glass pieces sandwiched together with rubberized plastic. It's very grippy, and feels good the way the back of the Nexus 7 feels good (i.e. even though it's plastic). Underneath the back of the phone there's a pseudo-holographic pattern of dots that appears when light hits it at just the right angle. It adds a touch of personality to what would otherwise be a black slab. Unfortunately, the back also contains the most annoying hardware elements as well. The phone's speaker is flush on the back of the phone, which means that if it's lying flat (which it will be 99% of the time) the speaker will be incredibly muffled. I can't hear SMS alerts, even when the phone is right in front of me, when the volume is set at 50%. So be sure to turn vibration on, or else jack the volume way up. The other annoying element on the back of the phone is simply aesthetic, but annoying nonetheless. The LED camera flash is ringed with plastic, and is slightly recessed from the rest of the glass back. It is incredibly ugly; seriously it bugs me just to look at it. I'm not sure why LG decided to do this, but it mars the design of the phone.
There's a little LED that sits in the bezel below the screen that lights up whenever you have a notification pending. Apparently BlackBerry phones have something similar (never owned a BlackBerry), but now I can see the appeal: it's super easy to just glance at your phone to see if anything has happened since you put it down. Of course, that might be a downside in your book if you're addicted to checking your phone.
The HSPA+ network connection on T-Mobile is killer. One of the first things I did was download the SpeetTest.net app to test the data connection. I get about 2.5 MBps/second on my Time-Warner cable connection (sad, I know), while the Nexus 4 was able to pull down 20 MBps/second. That being said, I'm still not sure in what situations you'd need such a fast connection, aside from using your phone as a mobile hotspot (which requires an additional fee). I guess if you really need that 200 MB app while out and about, you'll be able to snag it relatively quickly.
Battery life is an area that the Nexus 4 falls a bit short, in my opinion. It charges slowly, and discharges quickly. You'll have to get used to plugging it in for at least a few minutes every day. The Nexus 4 does support wireless charging, however, and I could definitely see myself plunking down some cash for the Nexus-branded charging orb... whenever it eventually is released.
As I mentioned in my Nexus 7 review, I feel that the Android 4 OS is basically on par with iOS in terms of functionality, and even ahead in some areas. For example, even though iOS took inspiration from Android's notification pulldown, the Android version is clearly superior. App updates are also much less annoying in Android; you'll never have to see the alert badge that always hovers over the App Store icon in iOS. Speaking of badges, they don't exist in Android, which is totally awesome. Although some people hate Android's "back," "home," and "apps" buttons, I actually really like them. While the "back" button doesn't always work consistently, many times it saves you from having to scan the UI of a particular app in order to return to the preview screen (although that may be saying something about Android UI design). The Android app switcher is also a bit nicer than its' iOS counterpart (and more discoverable). All that being said, there are a few things I'll definitely miss about iOS. iMessage is simply great as an SMS replacement that "just works," and unfortunately there isn't a ubiquitous game-centered (see what I did there) social network on Android.
After having used the Nexus 4 for a while, I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied. It's not perfect, but for half the price of competing smartphones, I'm willing to overlook a few quibbles.
While it’s true that this site is for the most part an iOS development blog, I
branch out from time to time when I feel like writing about a particular topic.
Today’s topic is cell phone service providers. I have to imagine that most of
the readers of this blog own a cell phone (hopefully an iPhone), so hopefully
I’ll stay somewhat relevant.
I’ve been a Verizon Wireless customer for the past three years, mostly because
my wife had a 20% discount there. The coverage was great. However, I was never
really satisfied with their prices. You’ll never really get any sort of a “deal”
from service companies. For example, with Verizon, you can pay $5/month for 250
text messages (which you’re guaranteed to exceed, to the sound of $0.25 a pop),
or $20/month for unlimited. There’s no middle ground, where the average customer
would actually land. For smartphones, Verizon’s “shared data” plans start (for
two lines) at $130/month. That’s with 1GB of data. What. The. $@#%? So even
though I had an iPhone, it was pretty unlikely that my wife would ever want one,
due to the added expense on the monthly bill.
Being generally disgruntled, I kept my eye open for better deals. Recently,
there’s been a lot more noise about prepaid cell phone service, especially from
T-Mobile. In particular, they have a killer “web-only” plan:
$30/month for unlimited text/data and 100 voice minutes.
Since I hardly use my phone for voice (irony, eh?), this seemed perfect. I even
convinced my wife to go for it, even though she was worried about going over the
voice allotment. At $0.10/minute, an extra two hours is only $12, and still
cheaper than the basic “unlimited everything” plan T-Mobile offers, which starts
at $50/month.
$30/month (for any device!) seems too good to be true, especially after being
used to paying $30/month just for data. There are a few caveats, however. The
first is that you can’t buy an iPhone (the discerning customer’s smartphone of choice) from T-Mobile, you have to either buy one unlocked at full price or scrounge a used one on the cheap. Fortunately, there’s a glut of iPhone 4’s floating around at the moment, since people who bought a subsidized iPhone 4 at launch now have the option to upgrade to a 5. I bought two unlocked, used ones for less than $400.
The second problem isn’t quite as easy to solve. While T-Mobile does offer 3G service, it does so on the 1700 MHz frequency. The GSM iPhone only supports 3G at 1900 MHz (which is what AT&T uses). This means that an unlocked iPhone will only get data at EDGE speeds (aka the data speed of the original iPhone). Nowadays when LTE is starting to become a viable option, EDGE seems positively glacial.
There are two mitigating factors, however. The first is that for the average customer, a faster data connection isn’t super important (to a point, of course). When you consider your regular daily routine, how often do you really use your phone for data? My main use case is for GPS and mapping, and that’s basically it. Fortunately, with iOS 6, Apple’s new Maps application uses vectors instead of bitmap tiles to display map data, which drastically reduces the data requirement. This means that for my primary use case, a slower data connection isn’t as much of a concern. Your milage may vary, of course.
The second point to consider with the slower data connection is that T-Mobile has recently started upgrading their network to offer 3G/4G service on the 1900 MHz band (basically because AT&T was forced to pay $4 billion and give up wireless spectrum after the failed merger). This means your iPhone will start getting much, much faster speeds in the near future, especially if you live in a larger city. There’s an unofficial map of 1900 MHz coverage at airportal.de (I haven’t yet verified the one reported sighting in Columbus). But I feel relatively confident that Columbus will be getting that new coverage. I’m putting down a vote of confidence in T-Mob’s future.
If you’re fed up with paying a crapload for cell phone service, now could be the right time to try something new. And hey, if you decide it’s not for you, don’t worry. It’s a no-contract service, so you can quit and go back to 2-year contract slavery whenever you want.
So, here’s how to easily create your own prototype-based classes in JavaScript.
Seems confusing to lots of folks, and there are multiple ways to do it. If you
use CoffeeScript, you can write your classes in a
more traditional OO style. However, it’s really not too complicated in plain
JavaScript.
Step One: Write Your Constructor
A common convention is to capitalize variables that refer to classes that need
to be instantiated with the “new” keyword.
var MyClass,
instance;
MyClass = function () {
// This is the constructor - do any initialization here!
// "this" refers to the current instance of the class
this.instanceVariable = 42;
};
instance = new MyClass();
console.log(instance.instanceVariable); // 42
Step Two: Write Instance Methods
Available to all instances of the class, even ones created before the method was
written!
MyClass.prototype.instanceMethod = function (argument) {
// "this" refers to the class instance
this.instanceVariable = argument;
};
instance.instanceMethod("Wut?");
console.log(instance.instanceVariable); // "Wut?"
Step Two ½: Wrong Way to Write Instance Methods
It can be tempting to write instance methods inside your constructor function,
perhaps for style/organizational purposes. However, it’s inefficient to do so,
because each method is created every time you create an instance of your class.
// Wrong!
var MyClass = function () {
this.instanceMethod = function (argument) {
// "this" refers to the class instance
this.instanceVariable = argument;
};
};
Step Three: Write Static Class Methods
These methods can be used without creating an instance of the class. For
example, if you’ve ever used the Math object, you’ve used a static
method (for example, Math.cos(Math.PI)).
MyClass.staticMethod = function (argument) {
var results = "Hello " + argument;
console.log(results);
};
MyClass.staticMethod("World"); // "Hello World"
Step Four: Inheritance
Say I want to create a subclass of the MyClass class. This part is
a bit awkward, but doable.
var otherInstance,
MyOtherClass;
MyOtherClass = function (argument) {
MyClass.call(this); // Invokes MyClass's constructor
this.otherInstanceVariable = argument;
};
// Set up prototype (inheritance) chain
MyOtherClass.prototype = new MyClass();
// Instantiate new object
otherInstance = new MyOtherClass("What?");
console.log(otherInstance.instanceVariable); // 42 (inherited from MyClass)
console.log(otherInstance.otherInstanceVariable); // "What?"
otherInstance.instanceMethod("Wut?"); // (inherited from MyClass)
console.log(otherInstance.instanceVariable); // "Wut?"
// Extend the "instanceMethod" method
MyOtherClass.prototype.instanceMethod = function (argument) {
MyClass.prototype.instanceMethod.call(this, argument); // Equivalent of calling "super"
};
Hope that helps get you started. JavaScript is really not a bad little language
once you get the hang of it. The fact that it can be run in any browser and
accessed with interactive developer consoles makes it an easy language to learn
and play around with. It’s also by far the language du jour on the internets,
so learning it could have a beneficial effect for your job opportunities!
So I finally got around to creating a repository on GitHub. I thought it might
be useful for others to see the project structure I used to build Shikaku
Madness, so I ripped out most of the guts and uploaded it. It uses Backbone for
structure, and loads dependencies using RequireJS. I also used James Burke’s
CoffeeScript plugin for RequireJS, which means you can write CoffeeScript and
it’ll be interpreted on page load, without having a separate compilation step.
It’s pretty bare bones at the moment, with just two “views” and buttons to
transition between them. I haven’t decided how much additional code I’ll put in,
but it’s definitely a work in progress. If you have any interest in what a
simple “modern” Javascript project might look like, you should definitely
check it out on GitHub.
Whatever your opinion about Google, they are among the companies leading the way forward in computer & internet technology. With that in mind, this year I watched the Google I/O keynote livestream, not really sure of what to expect. While there were some interesting announcements and demos, what I was really interested in was the tablet that was supposed to be announced. Details had been leaked pretty heavily beforehand, but of course there's nothing like an actual product demo to fill in the gaps. Long story short: I was seduced by Hugo Barra's swarthy accent into pre-ordering a Nexus 7. The form factor looked interesting, and at $200, it seemed like a low-risk way to try out the Android OS and ecosystem. So, a week or so into owning the device, I thought I'd write up my impressions.
When comparing the Nexus 7 and the iPad, the first obvious difference is the size. While 7" vs. 9.7" doesn't seem like a big difference on paper, when you lay both devices together, the Nexus 7 is about 1/3 of the size of the iPad. The smaller size makes the device seem a bit more personal. There are instances where a larger screen might be more desirable, but after using the Nexus, I feel that the iPad is too large to use as comfortably. The Nexus can be easily gripped with one hand, and typing using the on-screen keyboard while in portrait mode is just about the same as using your phone. The only advantage I can see with the iPad in terms of screen size is for watching video and using content-creation apps. For example, my wife and I watch Netflix almost exclusively on our iPad, using the Smart Cover as a stand to prop it up on the bed or coffee table. You couldn't really do that with the Nexus' smaller screen. Another example is using a writing or music-making app; in those cases, more screen real estate means a more usable interface.
The Nexus 7 screen, while not quite Retina-caliber, is still very nice. It's bright and has a decently high resolution. The back of the device is a textured plastic, which (somehow) feels like leather. It's pleasant to touch, and makes it easier to hold the Nexus 7 for long periods of time. The only hardware buttons on the device are on the right side, and include a sleep/wake button and volume rocker. I find the buttons awkwardly placed. Since both buttons on the Nexus 7 are placed close together, there have been a few times where I accidentally put the device to sleep instead of adjusting the volume. In addition, the buttons are difficult to press unless you hold the Nexus with your left hand and press the buttons with your right. I guess if you're left handed, no big deal. I think iPhone has its' volume rocker on the left side because its' easier for right handed people to use. The Nexus is built very solidly, but there were a few times when I could feel the case creak a bit when applying any sort of pressure to the screen.
The last part of the puzzle is Android 4.1, Jellybean. Even though the UI paradigms of Android and iOS are mostly similar, there were a few unfamiliar things that took me some time to get used to, mostly relating to app management. Basically, I don't really have anything to say about Android. It seems to just work. There are a few differences, like the ability to add "widgets" to your home screen, but it's seriously not the big deal that the frothing fanboys seem to think it is. Both platforms really work in a similar manner, each having access to more or less the same apps. Strangely, the one thing that I missed the most when using Android is a hardware "home" button. I'm so used to waking my iOS devices with the home button, it's like a muscle memory.
In conclusion, the Nexus 7 is a nice device. If you're an Android user, it's probably a no-brainer to pick one up. It's for sure the first tablet that can compete at all with the iPad on any level. That being said, it's hard to recommend over the iPad, unless "not Apple" is your primary consideration for buying new hardware. If Apple releases a smaller iPad, any sort of advantage that the Nexus has will be eliminated. But for now, the Nexus seems to be the best "small tablet" you can buy.