Android Design site

Android Developers Blog: Introducing the Android Design site

Android ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) design guidelines .. good step Google :)

About Focus & Change (on my webpresence)

I've started to change a few things related to my (and my projects) online presence. But first a bit of background and what's there right now. Years ago I purchased some webspace and domain names. At the time All-Inkl.com has been my service provider of choice. I've had no problems so far and am not planning on switching anytime soon. The problem is that I have to manage the different websites on this space. Updating things isn't very hard but still takes time I rather spend on something more productive. Nowadays there are enough services offered to replace a few things I used to manage "by hand".

For some time I've been running my own wiki page for projects. This has mostly been "private" information about unreleased projects. Last year I already started to use Google Sites for this as they offer everything I need for that. I can keep them private and let others edit the pages wiki style as well. It's simple and straight forward and I don't need to mess around with background technology. I've used this for most of 2011s projects. A few of these will hopefully be released this year. Furthermore, I use these Google Sites as an Idea dump for future projects. It's just simple, has all needed features and I can access it from everywhere without the need to remember separate credentials. It's just very convenient this way.

Also, I've had a personal webpage for a long time now (started in 1996). This page has always been about my projects. Later it started to become a little more about my person by adding a CV as well as a blog to it. The current iteration runs on Drupal 7 which I'm pleased with. But I still want to remove the burden of keeping it's software and modules up-to-date. In 2011 I've already struggled a lot with that (on most of my sites). I already moved my blog off the site in 2009 (and I'm glad you could find my current blog ;). Blogger has been good enough for me and I especially enjoy the good Google integration. So back then Blogger has been a natural choice. I'm planning to migrate the rest of my site to Google Sites in the coming weeks. Mainly this is the (short) information about my projects as well as my up-to-date CV. I'll keep my old site running for some time but will not update it anymore.

This will hopefully free up some of my time for these low-changing sites. I plan to keep GameDev.at as well as the digitalDreams page on my webhost for now. Hopefully I'm able to get them up-to-date soon. Especially I'm sad that GameDev.at doesn't work anymore. That one will take some time to fix.

More on Google Sites in an other post soon ...

Ubuntu TV for human beings

Ubuntu TV will be an interesting thing to watch. Right platform to start with. Looking forward on how this will turn out at the end of 2012. Maybe we'll really see some first devices with this appear. I hope Ubuntu 12.10 will include some of this work. Would be nice to have an integrated media center in Unity.

Some more on: I Want My Ubuntu TV! (TechCrunch)

Center & LFE Channel silent?

Here is a quick fix that worked fine for me on Ubuntu 11.10:

short version:
Just put your volume to the minimum and to the maximum value (might need to let some sound play). Did the trick for me.

longer version:
It seems that something messed up my audio channel levels. In my case the center and LFE (your bass > subwoofer) channel where set to 0 in Alsa. Pulseaudio didn't increase them as I increased the volume. This resulted in having no bass and one channel less while playing normal music (annoying). Also while watching Movies (Surround Sound ones) I couldn't hear what they where saying as that is played mainly over the center channel. So movie music and effects where normal but the characters voices all very dimmed down. Understandably this makes most movies unwatchable.

I did search for this but couldn't find anything recent. I opened up alsamixer on the terminal and saw the channel problem. The solution then was pretty simple. Put the volume to min and max and Pulseaudio and Alsa are synced again. "To max" not on your keyboard as that doesn't go all the way to 11 ;). Open up the sound settings and change it there. You might need to play some sound for this to work. Just use a music player and decrease the volume there as pulse has individual volumes for each app. So you don't annoy your neighbor with too loud music. After that it hopefully should be back to normal again.

I suspect that some of the great Humble Indie Bundle Games did mess with my sound as I was playing them a lot lately :).

Top Moblie Apps of 2011

As I'm already blogging on my mobile phone I thought that maybe some are interested in what Apps I use on my phones. Also at the end of next year I'm able to compare and see what Apps are still there. So here's my list of important Apps:

• Facebook
• Google+
• Dropbox
• Skype
• Google Maps
• WhatsApp
• Viber
• Blogger
• Google Docs
• YouTube
• Shazam
• Google Reader
• Gmail
• Fancy Widgets
• Barcode Scanner
• Wifi Analyzer
• OkCupid
• Juwels Deluxe
• Geizhals (local price comparison)
• Inside 3 (from my service provider)

Furthermore, I've lots of apps I installed, but don't really use. These are the ones I really like and use. On a new phone I would install these first. Oh and those are all free Apps.

My Mobile Phone Choice

Choosing the right mobile phone is a time consuming task. In the end it all depends on how you plan to use your phone. Here a list of the most important things I care about on my mobile:

• make phone calls and send text messages
• a usable webbrowser
• a good selection of useful Apps
• capable of replacing a mp3 player
• being able to take quick pictures
• a map application (not necessary route planning)
• replace any USB Pendrive (being able to mount it on every device)
• capable of sharing an Internet connection (USB, optionally WiFi)
• use it as a remote for other devices (DLNA and similar things)

Making phone calls and writing text messages is a pretty obvious one. Also a decent webbrowser supporting current standards is an important feature. Useful Apps to add features and customize the phone to ones likening is great. Apps like Shazaam, Grooveshark, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook, aso. are all great to have on your phone. Usually I settle around 40 Apps on my current Android mobile. Especially Dropbox is a very essential App to me as it makes exchanging files between devices very easy.

I like to have a Map around. It has proven to be a handy thing at times. I don't care much about what provider it is of. I usually prefer Google Maps as they have a lot of additional data. But it's not as important to me. I just want it to show my current position and the streetnames to find something. In a big city this is a very useful thing.

I want my phone to replace other devices I used to carry around with me. So replacing an MP3 player is an obvious thing. It doesn't necessarily need to be the best player but it should get the job done in some meaningful way. For example I'm constantly confused by the Windows Phone 7 Player. I need at least double the time to get together a playlist of what I want than on Androids default player. The WP7 player is capable of playing what I want but I find it rather confusing to get there.

An other device my phone needs to replace is a quick shooter for pictures. Usually current generation phones are good enough for my taste. I just like to take pictures of funny things or something I want to remember or post on a social network to share with others. For serious Pictures I rather take a better Camera thats likely more expensive than my phone anyway.

Yet another device I want to replace is a Thumbdrive. My phone should be able to be used as one. This has already proven a very good feature multiple times to me. Every phone that isn't able to do this is out already. I usually don't need much space, a GB or two should be enough for this.

As my phone already has Internet access I want it to be able to share that with my other devices. I usually use it over USB on my Netbook. Most of the time this is enough but it's still nice to be able to also share the Internet over Wifi. I don't want to carry around yet another thing so I have Internet on my Netbook. Like right now I'm sitting in a Train on my Netbook and using the Internet of my mobile phone to write this. And I'm listening to music played by my phone as well. It's great what's already possible and I can't wait for what's next.

As more and more devices support DLNA its really handy to have a remote for them right in your pocket. I'm looking closely at the DLNA features on all my new media devices.

So with these features OS choice is very slim. Windows Phone 7 and iOS aren't capable to deliver the features I want without some great effort like Jailbreaking on iOS. Android is the only bigger choice left. WebOS as well as MeeGo would be nice but just don't have the needed traction and with that support. Hardware wise I'm against taking a device with your contract as these aren't as cheap as they seem. And the lockin you get is even worse. Most of the time you pay more in the end. So Carriers get more money from you and have you locked to them. Great for them, bad for you most of the time.

I think in the future Smartphones will also start to replace other devices we have. Like your computer at home. It just needs a dock where the monitor, mouse and keyboard are connected. On-the-go you just need a cheap Netbook shell to place your phone in. As our phones get more powerful this will be enough for most people. Want to watch a movie? Your DLNA phone will stream it and your DLNA capable projector or TV will make a cinema experience out of it. It's gonna be great :)

Epic Humble Indie Bundle 4

Wohoo! Finally Super Meat Boy =) ... waited for that to appear on the bundle. The rest is awesome as well! A true must buy ...

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Playing a lot of Skyrim lately. Great game in most parts. Shame that its so focused on consoles. The UI and Controls are horrible for a PC game. Especially the UI is very inconsistent and not usable with only Mouse or only Keyboard. But the world is so awesome. Love how the Dragons behave and look. Very well done.

I experience lots of crashes (not just the game, BSOD) and from what I read I'm far from the only one. Looks like they get worse the further I play. The content department seems to be great but the engine writers should really improve QA. They already released 4+ patches for the game and there are still lots of big issues left. Shame that such a great title is brought down by such problems.

Testplayed SWTOR!

So have been part of the recent testing weekend of SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic). Was a lot of fun and I'm considering buying it. Some first impressions:

• very WoW (World of Warcraft) like (most stuff works very much like in WoW). In my opinion this actually is a very good thing. They took the right things out of WoW and improved lots of problematic parts.
• like the different way conversations with NPCs work (especially in a group, except the waiting)
• the graphic engine still seems to have a lots of problems (triangles flickering, lots of things not visible from one angle but there from an other). Maybe it's my ATI card? Newest drivers from Nov. are installed.
• the companion is a great thing to have! really enjoyed that feature especially as I played a healer.
• I enjoyed the Star Wars universe more than expected (originally I planned to rather play Guild Wars 2 instead, not sure anymore)
• I fear that they may made it too simple to be a longtime motivating game (WoW is getting more and more there). Problem is that then only new content counts as skill is not required.
• ship battles are a fun change to the usual gameplay.
• moving around is so time consuming with all the big space stations and cities. Even faster movement in later levels doesn't help much but is a good improvement. Why are most rooms so big and corridors so long! I just wanna get my stuff done, not run around for ages.
• the game is one hell of a long (=big 25+GB) download.
• got stuck a lot on some maps (hat to kill myself to get free from it). And that for no apparent reason on plain surfaces. (especially on Taris, not so much in city like areas).
• if you check a new item if its better than what you have on its well done. But if you want to compare it with your companions stuff its hard. Both should be displayed side by side if the companion is active.

I hope they will fix a few of the problems will launch day. But I think it's already a very good start. Especially the graphical problems where very annoying and sometimes caused headache on my side. Sometimes stuff flickers like crazy.

In three days I managed to reach level 20 with one character and level 8 with an other one. Hope to do that again soon.

And where is the Linux Version!!! .. that would be awesome =)