Tried out BlueStacks by @BlueStacksInc

So after all the hype of Beta 1 that I saw in the Nerd stream and Facebook, I decided I needed to go get this amazing app right? Yeah Not so much, there might be potential, but it wasn’t even ready for a beta release; let alone a “Beta 2” that I installed. You know generally in a beta release you have most the kinks worked out and a generally ok working app with maybe a few bugs…. Yeah not these guys, at least not for my experience.. I don’t have an ancient computer either, I can play LoL and WoW as well as PWE games with little to no lag at all… So first thing I see after filling out all the info and registering and setting up sync  is this:

As you can see the my screen apparently isn’t wide enough for this program and I have an annoying “suggestion” bar. Are you effing kidding me, if I have an android phone, hell if I’m even installing this program, you can almost bet I know what programs I like on droid, are you seriously going to suggest apps (and shitty ones at that!?).

So I decided that I can get past the resolution thing (it happens, just not usually on my 1024 x 800 screen, I have an old tube monitor still cause it was free from when my own monitor got broke). So anyways, as I’m watching it install and sync my apps like 80% of them are coming back saying something about my graphic card not being able to support the “high” graphics, seriously bitch? LightBox does not use “high graphics” !!! They took their website, made a fucking mobile app out of the damn thing, I can do all the same shit online as the phone and I do it daily!!

 

I go into use an app first thing after sync finishes, I choose Google Voice, cause they don’t have a desktop app and it’d be cool to have an app for that right. Yeah black screen of fucking death on BlueStack (BS for short), and I do mean death! It fucking annihilated all usability of BS. Every app returned a black screen of go fuck yourself, nothing worked at all. So I did what every other nerd does when a program goes tits up on you…Uninstalled, Reboot and Reinstall. Yeah so that didn’t work the greatest, took forever to reinstall and sync. So it finally finished and I decided perhaps Google apps are a no go because they go off the internal android Gmail user ID that you have to input into a droid before you can even DL apps, I choose Instant Buttons because I love the app and all the nerdy/old/cool sounds it has on it, I click a button for a sound and nothing, not a freaking peep from my speakers. I checked all diagnostics and test (there’s sound coming from the puppies, just not from BS).

So again I’m hit with a problem that makes absolutely no sense! I continue to try the app and the damned RocketDock is ALWAYS up top, even pressing hid it just condenses to a single icon and it is constantly “On Top” of every window with no way to change it, Seriously!!!??? Are you fucking nuts!? You’re blocking every other apps center top bar and that includes my Chrome tabs! The only way to get back the top bar is to close out of BS 100% by going to the tray, right-click, and press quit. Pain in my ass is what that is, where is RocketDock’s famous auto hide feature seriously, I used to use that app in my Fapple desktop (Fake Apple)….  Another huge fucking no brainer flaw….. But lets continue to try and use this damned program with no sound and not 100% resolution and 20% of the apps on my tablet and phone….

So next app I open is one of my fav apps for keeping track of my television shows.. I get stuck on this screen for 20 min:

Ended up having to Ctrl+Shit+Esc and “End Process Tree” on all 3 individual processes BS uses… Yeah this is great fun right here…. I double click the icon to open back up BS and get this:

followed by this:

Had to FC the damned thing again and try again… Got it boot without issue on 3rd try.

Go to select an app (oh yeah, forgot to mention the app drawer dropdown doesn’t have a scroll feature at al)….

A few apps actually worked without crashing it, but that’s because pretty much every app that was ‘”allowed” to be useable were lame shitty apps that it would be 200% more efficient to just open in chrome. Since the web version work way better and has more features. Or they were utility apps that are useless on a PC (I just synced all apps to see how many would work).

Lastly I also ran into a problem with BS, I “quit” from the tray, but the RocketDock is still up there in my fucking way!~

So on top of all these problems I faced and issues with the GUI, BS was slower that molasses in the middle winter making BS nothing but another useless on my PC that I uninstalled right before writing this app

Going Digital in the New Age of School

       We have moved to the age of the digital empire and beyond, technology has grown so much and so fast (even just in the past 10 years). I still remember my old 8.5 in floppy drive PC, and the floppy disks were actually floppy! Technology has grown so much and so fast and reached the hands of just about everyone that’s in school setting; student syllabi in middle schools now say “no cell phones in class or they will be confiscated.” This to me is so crazy, that’s it’s reached even to the youth of our nations, but how is that in colleges I still see 99% of the students reading from a real textbook (an expensive textbook at that). I see 80% of students at colleges with laptops, on tables while they read these books; 75% with some form of smart phone, using it to text as they walk to class; and more and more students with these new tablets (iPad/Android/Windows/etc…).

This is going to be a write up and tutorial or sorts, if you like you can just skip the next few paragraphs to get the information on programs.

So the question I had for myself when I was gearing up to go back to school was simple, how can I save money on books and be as paperless as possible? I Already had a smartphone, it was just  manner of finding out what’s & how’s of accomplishing this. So I sat down at my computer (yeah I don’t got a laptop lol) and started doing a bit of searching. I looked all over the interwebs to find the best of the best programs and setups to use; ideas that I wanted to make a reality.

So after all my research I went online and bought my own little tablet, (the newest and greatest out so far) the ASUS Transformer Prime. So I setup these programs, bought as many of my books for classes online (find a little more than half of them in digital format). I quickly stripped all the Amazon/B&N books of their DRM protection

they’re my books and by golly I’ll read them with any program I damn well please and the courts have upheld the ruling of; You bought, you own it, you can do what you want with it, just no reselling or giving giving it freely to others

You know I have been doing pretty great with being almost all digital! I Just need my keyboard dock for the tablet and I’ll be perfect… So, I have been doing just fine: recording class audio; taking notes (I’ve always taken notes and then rewrote them, it’s a study habit that works great); reading my books (this includes highlighting them, writing notes in them, and even having my computer/table/phone read them to me). I really have only run into 1 real snag with my setup and that’s the fact that the notes/highlights I put inside my digital text doesn’t sync with the rest (this is of course my fault/developers faults). The reason I say this is because I know I can buy an book/textbook through Amazon and have all notes and bookmarks sync to all Kindle devices, but that would limit me:

1. I wouldn’t have a Text-to-speech eReader;
2. If the book wasn’t on Amazon (or if you went the all B&N route) I would be S.O.L.;
3. I don’t want to be stuck with just 1 company, I hate being limited and I am willing to deal with that one problem for the sake of the freedom.

So by this point either you’re still reading and thinking “This sounds like a good idea, I can save some money on school books and be better organized digitally.” OR you’re thinking “Damnit, just tell me what programs are best man!” …. if neither of these 2 cover your current thought, comment/e-mail me or you stopped reading already lol.

 

So now to the grit of the programs, what’s the best and how do I get it?

1.     Free your books that you purchased, go and download Calibre on your computer (PC is best). Then follow this guide to free your books from the corporate chains.  **Note AZW4 files are just PDF locked inside an Amazon format and it’s easy to extract the PDF from it; if enough people comment asking how I’ll write a quick tutorial on how.
2.    PC/Mac Reading: Nook Study on your PC or Mac (This is what I use to sort all my books by class, have TTS, a cool interface, and it just works; though the TTS is the blind TTS, meaning it reads even the menu to you) and just import all your books (PDF/ePUB/mobi) that you unlocked with Calibre. It is also important to point out a new guy called Blio that has a lot of the same features, and does some better, but only supports XPS format which is easy to convert to with a PC. Blio is cross platform as well, meaning you can have it on iOS, Android and PC (Sorry, no Mac version yet). The reason I mention Blio is the fact that it has a great TTS setup and interface, though can be a little laggy on older computers, and has all the features as the Nook Study, but works on more platforms; the downfall is it’s XPS only format, but that is easily overcome with an easy convert and the awesome books you can buy from them (they’re like animated talking story books!), they really should just allow standard ePUB format import and I hope they will.
1. **Note: It is important to mention, that Nook Study has the ability to purchases a lot your books you may need as well from the B&N store, these are mostly just PDF files locked by B&N with different extensions and can be unlocked as well, but there is a different method.
3.     Phone/Tablet Reading: to be honest this more up to the device and owner, but I’ll give my thoughts.
1. Android: Moon+ Reader Pro
1. UPDATE: I have recently stumbled across a better eReader for android called, Mantano and it is far superior to moon+ and supports PDF books/textbooks as well and will still read the PDF to you too. It has in my opinion a better interface and a lot better ebook support & TTS function, it doesn’t quite fully support ICS (android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich), but it does still work and it you don’t want the paid version, the free, ad supported, one still has all the same features as the paid.
2. iAnything: Use iBooks (I’ve been told it’s amazing and has TTS built in like Moon+)
3. BB/Palm/Windows Phones: You guys are kind of on your own here, I have no clue what the best one is anymore, I used to always use MobiPocket, but I heard it died.]  **For PDF’s incase you have any, the best on Android is Repligo Reader.
4.     Phone/Tablet Note Taking: Evernote is the real king, all you have to do is take the notes (or recording OR do both at the same time) and it syncs to the web, PC, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BB, Palm. It has so many different uses beyond notes that it is just an all around great app to always have. As well if you pair it in with the study section, it makes an unbeatable pair.
5.     Phone/Tablet Studying: Now this is a new field here, there hasn’t before been a real good place where students can have there notes digitally, as well as create flash cards, find classmates, or borrow notes & study materials from classmates All online. Now we have the answer, and that’s StudyBlue (With Tablet & Phone Apps too)! They are just awesome, I’ve been working with them (by sending a lot of feedback and talking with the employees) trying to make their platform the absolute best there is around and once it’s good enough (just a few minor bugs need fixing) I actually plan to talk to my campus about using it for their disabilities services area. Going with StudyBlue will be worth it, especially if you have classes with me in them lol.

**Note: StudyBlue will sync up with your Evernote account, making keeping organized and automatically syncing your Evernote notes straight to your study place

So there is a quick overview of the programs that I use daily. And I have all my information on every device I use (I can even print from all my devices at home as well if I want). This is the era of the digital empire, embrace the ease of use, and stop sweating. Get organized, go paperless, and work & study from anywhere without having to hold a big bulky expensive textbook.

 

So as a closing note, I’m not sure how many people out there are as OCD organized as I am, but if so there is an APP for you on Android, iOS, Web/Chrome; it’s called My Home Work. And it is awesome, for organizing. It doesn’t currently sync to Google Calendars yet, but I’m going to pester them about it till they do lol. With this little app ($1.99/year) you can organize your class times, and schedule of when everything is (including study, reading, quizzes, HW, papers, presentations, and more).

 

 

One last thing, I am thinking of doing a specialized in depth post on each subject category and show they work. Would anyone be interested in reading that? I was thinking of maybe not only doing picture tutorials/screen shots, but maybe even working in a video or something.

 

**If there is an App that you think is better out there, especially in the case of Windows/BB Phones, let me know I’ll be glad to look into them and maybe even break out my old windows phone.**

Web Clipping & Article Reading

Which service should i choose? Ok so I’ve seen this question for a while and just recently my buddy @peterwooley was wondering which is best. So I thought I’d write a good long post to share with the world what is best the solution. The only 2 choices people seem to know are “Read it Later” and “Instapaper.” There are others but I won’t discuss any of them except “Evernote” (yep it clips webpages too); not ’cause they’re bad or not good, but because no one seems to care about the others and aren’t as user oriented for ease of use like these. So lets just dive on into a complete talk of these 3 guys.

**Note I have used each of these applications on my devices, but I have never owned iPhone and never will so the talks of iPhone use will be from what I know from others.

Read it Later:

First is Read it Later, probably the best known web clipping system around. Read it Later just knows web clipping and article saving. It has literally one of the easiest user interfaces I’ve seen in a On mobile The free account is great, but for those that want you can upgrade for $2.99 to pro apps and get more features; Android iOS. A big turn off though is the in their app, without buying the Pro app on iOS/Android you can only view a limited number of your saved articles and no tagging/sorting ability of articles. Read it Later has a good ability to change font settings while reading your articles and is good, but could be better. RiL is only offered online via a browser & bookmarklet combo or through mobile app (Droid/iOS). There are 3rd party developers that have used their API to create apps for other devices, but aren’t supported by RiL. Using bookmarklets in your browsers on mobile or internet to save page articles is good, but being only able to view online (unless you have iOS/Android) and no desktop functionality is limiting.

Screen Shots: 

Read it Later

•  Pros:

  
  
   Free, Great UI, Multi browser capatable, Quick, Night mode on mobile, manual add, dynamic font changing

• Cons:

  
  
   Only supported in browser & app only for iOS or Android, No desktop software, limited free app on smartphones

Instapaper:

Most commonly used with iOS platform since it’s focused to the apple user like Instagram. No offense but the person(s) that create this, but anyone who for 1 only codes toward a specific platform (like iOS) and neglects the others (Windows, UNIX, Android) is just no use. Instaper is a Totally Free,

 (there is $1/mo plan that is basically just to support the developer(s)) application. Though if you want their iOS app then it’ll cost you $4.99. So instapaper is the simplest application ever, you create an account, login in and use. The way it works on desktop iOS is bookmarlet within browser (no installing), and on mobile you just share page with app. To read you use the website or the app. To be honest IMO the 2 best things of this choice is the ease of use of the API and the great dynamic font changing ability; you can change font size, spacing, length, and even the font family but is doesn’t have a night mode for reading (at least on the web side). Using bookmarklets in your browsers on mobile or internet to save page articles is good, but being only able to view online (unless you have iOS/Android) and no desktop functionality is limiting.

Screen Shots:

Instapaper

• Pros:

  
  
   Kindle Support, iOS perfected, useful 3rd party apps, great dynamic font changing, manual adding

•  Cons:

  
  
   Have to buy iOS app, Only offered via 3rd Party for other devices, Low budget, not intended for anything but iOS, no night mode (online at least), have to buy the app.

Evernote:

The dog that people didn’t know was in the race. Yes Evernote can clip webpages, organize them along with saving any note you want; from pictures or ringtones to full recipes and even help jot down a quick blog post from your mobile device or tablet (in fact I’m writhing this entire post on the Evernote Desktop & Android Apps, I did have to make a couple blog friendly adjustments). Evernote is  free for basic account, but you can go Premium for $5/mo or $45/yr and let me say this what you get for upgrading is worth every penny! I my self haven’t ever upgraded my Evernote account from basic status (I want to, but just haven’t) it’s extra money I can save toward school books.

On top of what it already can do, It can now clip pages and save them in reader format (using a plug-in) also Evernote can now, on the fly convert pages to article reading format that includes a nght mode (using a plug-in, NOTE:

 This plugin is for Chrome & FireFox only

) . This is just the start with Evernote, it does Oh so much more.  I’ll be sure to make a nice long post about what some of the best practical uses with Evernote are and just more info about it (tonight or tomorrow, depends on what the night holds).

So to discuss it’s web clipping ability only (seeing as that’s what we’re comparing), using the newest “Clearly” plug-in with Chrome/Firefox makes Evernote on desktop brilliant, almost the perfection of Internet news/article reading. The newest extension pairs clipping ability with live transition from article to reading within the browser and not opening any new tabs or anything. Not only does it transition over to article reading with ease, it includes a night mode, 3 font sizes, and it also has the ability to save the article you’re reading right there to Evernote seamlessly. Evernote has made reading and saving notes perfect and now they are in the process of perfecting web clipping. The only problems they have in the web clipping/article reading departments is #1 No Night Mode within your Evernote account after saving an article on any of their apps; #2 No 1st Party Mobile App for Web Clipping (Only Bookmarklets). Evernote is cross browser compatable (IE, Chrome, Safari, FireFox), Evernote works on all operating systems, and also is made for every smart phone (WebOS, iOS, Droid, Win7, BlackBerry).

Now one big difference between Evernote and the other 2 is mobile clipping of pages is a bit different. On iOS it’s as easy as just adding a bookmarklet into Safari (really easy to do and several pages of Google search results to tell you how). On android it’s unfortunately a bit different (bookmarklets don’t work on the default browser, or after market browsers but there are several bookmarklet apps that work perfect on android, though not on MIUI atm). Also in android my fav way is an app called “Everpaper,” it’s an app that uses the instapaper API to clip the page then has a “send to Evernote” button (as long as you fill out the “optional” info for Evernote sending). There’s another method of using Read it Later style app to do the same; now I know it’s a bit messed up to piggy back off the competition, but they are in the process of getting a better mobile clipping method setup (the bookmarklet apps are best ATM, unless you’re like me on an unsupported ROM).

Screen Shots:

Evernote

•  Pros:

  
  
   Free, High Data Cap, does more, Multi platform/browser/phone capable, Great & Helpful Devs, Amazing Support Forums, organization ability is the best around

• Cons:

  
  
   No night mode within apps after save, Mobile Clipping is only third-party available, manual adding webclip = copy/paste

Just A Test:

So I decided that I needed one last trial to perhaps show the differences between these 3 guys. I decided I’d clip an article from the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress-leaves-town-with-an-uneasy-stalemate-and-looming-payroll-tax-hike/2011/12/20/gIQAhDL47O_story.html). So I started with Evernote Clipper (worked almost perfect) {IMG}, next I used Clearly (100% perfect view and clip save) {IMG}. Next I wanted to try and use Instapaper, but the bookmarklet failed on me so I tried to manually add and this is what I got {IMG}. I next tried Read it Later, of course it’s bookmarklet failed on me too (it happens) and so I went to manually add it up as well and this is the result {IMG}(yes a blank black page). I restarted my browser and tried using the bookmarklets again for Instapaper IMG and Read it Later IMG and both did great with the article. It just sort of amazes me that the manual adding (which I did try twice with the same outcome) didn’t realy work, but when I got the bookmarklet to work it did just fine Instapaper try #2 {IMG}  & Read it Later try #2 {IMG}.

Summary:

Each one is completely free to use and 2 of them are upgradeable to pro/premium that increases what you can do with them. All of them for web clipping rely heavily on bookmarklets (Instapaper & Read it Later on iOS/Android you don’t need bookmarklet of course). They each have flaws, but the least flawed is of course Evernote, below is my breakdown of best client per medium used (Based on usage for web clipping).

• Desktop:

  
  
  

  
  
   Evernote takes the cake in my opinion for desktop use on all platforms & Browsers.

• Android:

  
  
   

  
  
  Read it Later is better in terms of a web clipper/article reader if you don’t mind no sorting ability and having a limit on how many articles you can see.

• iOS:

  
  
   If you don’t mind shoveling out $4.99 Instapaper wins in web clipping/Article Reading for iOS, it’s just made for it. (Though Evernote is the best free version)

• Other Mobile Devices:

  
  
  

  
  
   (including Win phones and Blackberry) Evernote wins here, the others don’t support them except through 3rd party & browser only.

So with that summary and the winners listed I have to say though; if you want a the best article reader on your device and that’s all you want take my suggestion, but if you want the ability to do more than just read an article and want the best most extensive free choice of the 3, go with Evernote and you won’t regret it. Evernote is an amazing app that is only getting better with each update and with the help of others that use the API like “Echo Smartpen” for hand written notes or “Study Blue” for studying for school the Trunk just keeps growing.

10GB Free Online Storage & Unlimited Bandwidth

So this day and age everyone from developers to students to Joe, want more digital storage space. The problem has always been cost & bandwidth (for those that share your stuff around the web). Most people tend to boxee or Dropbox, but now there is a better service for free unlimited bandwidth hosting and more space than Dropbox. It’s minus.com if you just create a public folder for say each type of file (images, docs, music, etc) and link the folder page it gives unlimited bandwidth for sharing, if you just hyperlink straight to the 1 file then at a certain point it gets throttled, but never turned off or suspended. There is a limit of items per folder but no folder limits. You can also set folders to public to be found in web searches or for people that follow your uploads to see.

And it’s all free. Also use my link and get instantly 1GB extra and everyone you refer with your link gives you more space, up to 50GB -> http://min.us/rucQ78U

They have both desktop & Droid programs & all URLs are short.

Blogaway Lite Beta

Well I downloaded new program, this post is test it out and see if it actually works for the android.

Complete Google Voice integrated Android Rom?

So I’m currently using MIUI ROM on my Android Incredible and it has VoIP already integrated into the system for calling, i have that paired with PBXES.org and Google Voice for my VoIP setup. I was wondering if there are any other ROMs that possibly have more of complete integrated system with Google Voice and VoIP so that even the ROM’s default messaging app opens up google voice messages without needing service or the Google voice app; I don’t have actual service on my android phone I rely on wi-fi integration with google voice right now.

Resign of a droid app

Their version vs.  My Version

ScanBizCard

WSU Vancouver App

Creating an app for WSU Vancouver. Found a few spelling errors I need to fix and a couple bugs,  but coming along nicely.  Trying to figure out if it needs anything else… What Do you think?