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Android Tips: Astro and Dropbox

Aug 15

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

After walking around with a myTouch Android phone for almost a year now, I figured I should share some of my tips.

Email Attachments

The default behavior (at least on Android 1.6) for attachments in the Google Mail app is that you can attach photos to an email but no other type of file. Attaching photos is nice, but sometimes you want to send something other than a photo, like a document or music file. The Astro and Dropbox applictions provide some nice additional capabilities, including email attachments:

Astro

The Astro file manager app provides a full-fledged file explorer for your Android phone. By installing this app you are also provided with an additional email attachment handler so that when you try and attach a file to your email you have the option of using Astro, which allows you to attach any file. You can also “share” files from Astro directly to create an email with the selected file.

Dropbox

Another alternative is to sign up for Dropbox and install the Dropbox app which allows you to “share” any file as a link to your dropbox or as an email attachment.

File Sync-ing

These apps also add some nice file sync features.

Astro

With Astro you can move files around your phone as you would expect from a file explorer; however, you can also install plugins that allow access to FTP servers, or other computers on your network. I was able to connect to my Networked Attached Storage and transfer files to and from my phone while it was connected to my wireless network.

Dropbox

You can use dropbox to sync files between your phone and your dropbox-enabled computers. the nice part is that dropbox will not pull a file onto your phone unless you tell it to… the downside is that currently it has no built-in way that I have found to delete the local copy of a file while still keeping it in dropbox. I did figure out that you can use Astro to delete the file from the dropbox directory and it will still exist on the dropbox server. if you need it back you can just pull it back down. I have used this trick when I purchased Amazon music on my phone so that I could easily add it to my full collection.

The dropbox app is great for keeping files handy when you need them. while I was doing my job search I was able to keep resumes and other relevant documents available as needed and up to date and easily sharable.

Popularity: 5% [?]

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Official Nook For Android

Jul 22

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

After creating apps for every other platform, BN finally decided to create a full-featured Android app for reading their ebooks (ala nook). I came up with a work-around a few months ago (see Android Nook Reader) but I never even used it because it was such a pain in the butt.

The BN Nook App works great. It syncs up nicely with your online account and let’s you download your books and read them with a number of different fonts and font sizes. It does not seem to sync up your “last read” point as advertised, but maybe I am doing something wrong.

This will be great for when I am waiting around in waiting rooms or want to catch a quick read somewhere without needing to carry the nook itself. Bravo BN!

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Java Hosting?

Mar 31

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Programming, Technology | No Comments

I love Java. I love the language. I love the JVM and I love the ever-increasing list of languages that run on the JVM. One thing that I really don’t like is the high cost of hosting Java web applications. Yes, if you search around you can find some that say they provide Java hosting via Tomcat or Jetty, but unless you get a dedicated server you are not really getting much out of it and there tend to be a lot of limitations involved.

I pay about $72 annually for hosting, and with that I get very limited support for hosting Java web applications. Basically I get a shared Tomcat instance that I cannot configure or restart myself, which is pretty useless beyond very simple applications. I don’t even have java command line access to run my own server from my account. In order to get true, useful, Java hosting you need to bump up your monthly cost quite a bit. Real Java hosting generally starts around $300 per year and goes up from there if you really need to get serious with it (adequate RAM, and JVM configurations). Google App Engine is on the right track but it’s limiting; you are limited to JPA or JDO and not even the full power of either of those along with other limitations. Where is the affordable yet functional Java web hosting for the developer or hobbyist with no real budget?

I then decided to look into some of the other web development languages and found that Ruby (on Rails) has a lot of the same issues with good inexpensive hosting. That struck me as odd since I would think RoR would have lower memory and system requirements. I also looked into Python and found that there seems to be very few options available for it. The big winner in the hosting support I guess should come as no surprise… PHP. PHP has come standard with every hosting package I have ever had or have ever really looked into… at no extra cost. I guess this is why it remains to be so popular.

I think I will have to dig deeper into PHP for some of my personal web projects. If not that, I may have to look at setting up my own server outside my firewall, which just brings up all kinds of other problems.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Android Nook Reader

Mar 14

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

Link to eReader App

I have found it a little odd that Barnes & Noble does not have an Android ebook reader considering the fact that the nook itself is an Android device. I would say that maybe they are waiting until they sell a certain number of nooks first, but they already have an iPhone reader app. The whole thing gets even more interesting when you find out that B&N owns eReader.com, who has a reader for Android. Perhaps they are just in the process or re-branding it or there are some other odd licensing issues keeping them from taking the final step.

But, you can take that step yourself! Download the eReader Android app and install it on your phone (it’s not in the Android market). You can then mount your phone via USB to your computer and add your nook ebooks (pdb files) to the ereader directory of your sdcard. The annoying part, well more annoying part, is that when you open the book for the first time you will need to enter the name and credit card information used to purchase it. It’s your default card data at B&N. I wonder how bright an idea that is considering I tend to swap out the cards I use from time to time… could get interesting.

Anyway, once you enter your credentials you have full access to the ebook, just like reading it on your nook. I would not be surprised to find out that the ebooks on the two sites are exactly the same. I will have to look into it in more detail.

Happy e-reading!

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Curl Up With a Good Nook

Jan 9

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

For Christmas this year, my wife got me a Barnes & Noble nook, and I LOVE it.

When I first thought about writing this review, I figured I would include pictures of the nook and its accessories… then I thought that really didn’t make much sense. You can see pictures of it all over the place. It’s not like mine would be any better. What is really important is how it works and how it feels.

My parents are/were both big readers so I have been surrounded by books ever since birth; therefore, I am a reader and have a wall of our office devoted to books. I love browsing around bookstores and finding the hidden treasures of a new author and then kicking back with a good book and a cup of coffee. When I first thought about eBook a few years back, I thought that it wouldn’t really catch on. The eBook readers were PDAs, computers and the odd reader here and there… not very attractive to a devoted reader. Then more recently the Kindle came on the scene and that really put a serious line in the sand for books and readers. Now there was a bit bookseller with a quality eBook reader which was a strong combination. I looked into the Kindle (my Mom actually has had one for quite a while) and found it lacking in some areas, notably the way they handle DRM… so I held onto my books and waited.

Enter the nook (for some reason capitalization has gone out of style). I never really heard many rumors about it until just before it was announced…. and then it was love. The nook has a sensible DRM policy (you can store and backup your books locally while also maintaining a copy on BN’s server), it has the same eInk display as the Kindle, with an additional full color touch screen (for navigation, typing, coverflow, etc), and it’s got full support for PDFs (which the Kindle now has too). A few other niceties are that it has a self-replaceable battery, and a microSD slot for adding more memory. It’s about the same width and height as the Kindle though its a bit thicker and heavier, but not overly so.

The reading experience of the nook is great. The page buttons are on either side of the unit at just the right location for easy access, without being easy to accidentally press. The screen is almost like reading a book page, with the light gray background and nice clean text. One odd thing my mother and I both commented on about both the nook and the Kindle is the lack of some sort of built-in back light; the eInk display does not produce light so you can’t read in the dark without and external light source. There are plenty of book-lights out there so it’s not that big a deal.

One nice bonus about the nook is that it’s based on the Android, which means that they have a good solid platform to develop on and that we may see some additional applications for the nook or even an open SDK for developers to write their own apps. What this also provides is a soon-to-be-released Android phone app for reading your BN eBooks. They already provide a reader for iPhones, Mac and PC.

Purchasing books is simple. You just browse through the online store either on the nook or on your computer and select the book you want. If you are using your nook it will be downloaded right away and you can usually start reading in a minute or two. The nook comes with 3G and Wifi support, though I have not yet set mine up for my home network. The 3G has been fast enough so far.

One thing I recommend is getting a good cover for your nook. I actually bought one of the covers that resembles a book so I still keep things a little bit retro. There are gel covers similar to those you can get for phones and iPods coming out sometime next month.

Lastly, the nook has something the Kindle cannot have… and in-store experience. Supposedly if you take your nook into a Barnes and Noble store you will have free wireless access and the ability to read full copies of any eBook, just like you can when you are in the store looking at normal books. They also said that they will have special nook offers like coupons or free content when you are in the store. I have not yet taking my nook with me so I can’t really comment on that too much.

All in all, I have really enjoyed the nook so far and I am embracing the new digital media revolution… first it was music, then photos, now books. Damn, if I can convert all these books to digital I will have so much extra wall space.

On a side note… something I am hoping will come out of this new rise of the eBooks is that some of the older out of print works will be reborn as eBooks. I would imagine the overhead in digitizing a book is pretty small and then they could start making money on it again.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Coffea Electronica App

Nov 28

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

CoffeaElectronica App

CoffeaElectronica App

Well, I have finished my first “real” Android app, the CoffeaElectronica App for Android! Okay, so, it’s not really all that useful or exciting, but it was a good learning experience and it does provide a nice way to interact with this site (I have a few additional features I want to add in). Since I know you are in a hurry to download and install this little beauty, you can go over to my new Mobile page for more information.

I am not going to try and put this app on the official Android market, since it really has very limited use. Also, for now, the app is closed source. I need to clean it up a bit and get a little better with Android development before I share. ;-)

Basically all it does at this point is provide a nice reading experience for reading my posts on an Android phone. You can also click the menu button which provides a “contact me” button and a “go to site” option, both doing what you would expect.

Currently it works on phones running Android 1.6, I have not tried it under 2.0 yet.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Andreview: Astrid

Nov 16

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Programming, Technology | No Comments

I am going to start off a new series of postings called Andreview by reviewing Astrid. Astrid is a simple task manager with priorities, tags, reminders, and alerts.

Usability (4)

Astrid is very easy to use. It has a simple straight-forward interface based on lists of tasks that can be filtered by tag or other criteria. It also provides calendar integration for scheduling tasks as well as easy task creation options.

Functionality (4)

Astrid is all about task management. It is generally responsive and does what you expect from a task manager. It will also sync up with your Remember The Milk tasks, if you have an account. The only piece of functionality that I think would make Astrid better would be some sort of desktop or web-based client so that Astrid could better integrate with other systems. The RTM integration is nice, but an Astrid-specific application would be better.

Stability (4)

To my recollection after having used Astrid for a couple months now, I have never had it crash. It does currently have an annoying bug that is causing me problems right now, but I may join in with the effort to fix it (basically you can’t get a view of all tasks from the widget).

Overall (4)

Overall I think Astrid is the best task-manager I have seen for the Android OS. It’s clean, fast and simple. Also, baring the one bug I have run into, it’s stable and responsive.

Astrid (free) – U:4, F:4, S:4, O:4

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Andreview

Nov 15

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Programming, Technology | No Comments

I am going to start doing more formal reviews of the Android apps that I use or have tested. I will describe each app and delve into its benefits and drawbacks based on three main criteria: usability, functionality and stability which will each be given a rating of 1 to 5. At the end of the rewiew I will summarize with an average score as well as an overall rating for the app; the overall rating will be based on the average of the other three scores with a bump up or down (+/-1) based on my overall feeling of the app. This overall score gives me a little leeway for times when the average may not really reflect the actual feeling of the app (for better or worse).

Usability
The ease of use and how the user-needs are met in a simple straight-forward manner.
Functionality
Does the app do what you would expect for an app of its type?
Stability
How often does the app crash, if ever? How peppy is it?

At the bottom of each review I will add a simple score card with additional information about the app. It will look basically like this:

Some App (price) – U:3, F:3, S:3, O:3

If you have an app that you would like me to try out and review, please feel free to let me know.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Ubuntu for the Noncomittal

Nov 14

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | No Comments

Some people are reluctant to do a full conversion from the familiarity and comfort of a Windows OS to the unknown environment that is Linux. Fear not, there are a couple ways you can give it a try with very little commitment.

The first thing you will need to do in each option is to download the Ubuntu ISO file for your specific hardware (generally 32-bit desktop version). I choose Ubuntu because it is very easy to use and very well supported, and of course its free.

1. Virtual Machine

Using VirtualBox (free) from Sun Microsystems, you can setup a virtual computer that runs on your current Windows OS. Basically VirtualBox runs as an appliation that “hosts” another operating system.

Once you have VirtualBox installed you can create a virtual machine using the Ubuntu ISO file to “install” the OS.

2. Wubi Dual Boot

Another low-impact means of trying out linux is to use the Wubi Installer which will install Ubuntu on your windows machine, creating a dual boot so that you can select which OS to enter when you start up your computer. The benefit of wubi is that if/when you no longer want ubuntu around (or if you break it) you can just go into windows and uninstall wubi just like uninstalling any other software. (I fibbed a little at the start of this posting, you don’t actually need the ISO for this installation method).

3. Extra Computer

The third option assumes that you have an older (though still somewhat modern) computer laying around unused. You will need to take the ISO file and burn it to a CD, I recommend using using ImgBurn. Once that is done boot up the target computer and be sure that the BIOS is set to boot from the CD. It should start up with some Ubuntu options; you can either take the plunge and install it, or you can play around with the liveCD version for a bit first.

Installing Ubuntu is very friendly and generally better and faster than
installing a windows os.

Disclaimer

I am only providing the top-level pieces of how to do these installations; you should still read any and all relevant documentation before getting into this, especially if you are doing this on your only computer. Generally, these installation methods are very safe, but you can still cause damage if you do something stupid (you do still have full access to your host OS in the first two options, so you could conceivably delete your windows OS files if, for example). I take no ownership or responsability for any harm caused by these installations.

Now go have some fun.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Another Online Storage Option

Sep 25

Posted by Christopher J. Stehno in Technology | 1 Comment

A while back I wrote a post about available Online Storage Options and their benefits and pricing. I have started looking into another option, SpiderOak; odd name, interesting product.

SpiderOak provides 2GB of free storage and then has a volume-based pricing plan from their. They also have a web interface, backup/sync clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux, personal file sharing “rooms”, and all of their storage is by volume not by computer; you can have 20 computers using the same account as long as you are within your storage limit.

Their pricing is simple, either $10/100GB/month, or $100/100GB/year, which for my 40GB calculation in the other posting would put me at either $120 or $100 per year for 40GB of storage across all computers. I dont even have 100GB of stuff to store right now.

Granted $100/year is a bit more than I really want to spend (though only slightly more than what I was looking at through Jungle Disk), but the multi-computer aspect and cross-platform support are very appealing.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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