Tuesday 25 June 2013

UNDERSTANDING ANDROID



"Doh!" 

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT:
UNDERSTANDING ANDROID, REALIZE YOUR POTENTIAL


Good late evening or early morning, Synapse Circuit Readers! Take it as it pleases you! It has just come to my mind that there are a lot of people who do not seem to understand Android and the various devices such as the Samsung Galaxy premium handsets...

CASE No. ONE
SCENARIO: TRANSITIONING FROM BLACKBERRY TO ANDROID, GALAXY S3 TO BLACKBERRY Q10

Here’s what this person says...

“The S3 is a good phone but inefficient for an on the go businessman. Even with the notification pull down I have to go in and out of all my messaging apps. The long press on the home button which displays all the current open apps hardly resolved the in / out inefficiencies. Typing long emails on the virtual keyboard (with Swiftkey) even though I got pretty good at it is just plain inefficient because I have to have my eyes glued to the keyboard as I type or else I will get a whole lot of gobblygook on the screen that has to be edited out...”

That doesn’t make any sense because with the advanced notifications present in Jelly Bean one can reply from the notification pull downs. It even says, “Reply”.

Hasn’t this person heard of widgets? So many email apps have a widget so that it can be placed in the optional 7 home screens! One can easily see and respond to push emails. The app is already open, so to speak.

As for typing... There are so many great keyboards available for Android; some are free and some you have to pay for. I LOVE Kii! I have it and gesture typing with it is more hit than miss! I can type long emails very quickly! Also one can set the haptic feedback on the keys to intensify the feeling of typing on a physical keyboard. Oh, on the Kii one can change the typing sound to suit and customize the way it looks and therefore if the looks are important to you then it determines the feel too!

Then there is Swype; again it is another great keyboard – especially for gesture typing. He continues...

“I got the Q10 a month ago and it is a pure pleasure to work with. Most of the inefficiencies have gone away. The always on HUB has consolidated messaging in one place including a quick view of my upcoming calendar events. The multi-tasking is brilliant.

The keyboard? Well I can type without mistakes again and I don't have to keep looking at the keys. The tactile feel allows me to feel the keys and type while looking away a little. Even the suggestions are non obtrusive like they are on Swiftkey. Integrated Evernote within the reminder system and really handy...”   

Most of the inefficiencies have gone, huh? It comes across that there are inefficiencies that are a part of the BlackBerry interface. I couldn’t hack it (no pun intended). Again, the equivalent of the Hub on Android is the widgets! Did he ever use Google Calendar? I live by Google Calendar; I know I am lousy at remembering appointments and times... I don’t know what I would do without it! And Gmail is the best email invention ever! I hardly bother with any other mail service for business... ...the recent updates to Gmail is nothing short of excellent.

Why is it so important to not look at the screen when typing on a mobile phone? When one is driving? Uh-uh! That’s extremely dangerous! No business is that important whereby one has to run the risk of causing a traffic accident where people could be seriously hurt or killed. Can his business survive without its CEO?

How about Google’s brilliant Voice Typing? I have laugh at myself for being so freaking lazy and can’t be bothered to gesture type that I turn to the Voice Typing facility on the keyboard. Even on the bus when I am trying to gesture type some long word I just dictate into my phone! It works!

But if the gentleman is happy with his newly acquired Q10 then good for him!

CASE No. TWO
SCENARIO: TRANSITIONING FROM BLACKBERRY TO ANDROID, GALAXY S4

Here’s what this person says...

“I can’t get used to typing...”

He’s a friend of mine who wanted to move away from the BlackBerry as he was experiencing so many problems with the last model he had. He has had to take his BlackBerry to repair so many times. I feel responsible for what he is experiencing as I am the one who advised him to go for a Galaxy S4 (like have).

I have given him the same information regarding the many Android keyboards and that most keyboards can easily be customized to suit. He didn’t even realize that he could use the Voice Typing facility! Jeez! Lol! I guess a substantial piece of tech that the Galaxy S4 is takes a bit of getting used to as one can be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of options... But I can sympathize with getting used to typing using a touch screen after using a physical keyboard for so long! I went from a Nokia 95 where I managed wear the keys down to a HTC Hero which got excruciating after a while because the touch screen turned to poop for some reason (this phenomenon can be found via YouTube: HTC Hero malfunctioning touch screen). It took me a while to get used it.

“What does this (S Voice) do?”

I was surprised that he didn’t know – after two weeks of having the S4 – what the S Voice is. The least he could have done was click on the icon to see what it does! Lol! But I do remember having a similar attitude to tech, “Oh my! What does this do? I better not touch it just in case...”

“I am not used to the battery running out so quickly...”

Many, many Android users do not realize that they can turn some options off when not in the home such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, some of the Air and Gesture functions (on the S4), reduce the screen brightness and so on.

One can survive a good day with moderate use i.e. receiving and sending emails, social networking and texting. It is the minute one starts to consume media is when the battery starts to deplete rapidly. However, I do recommend a spare battery to power users. Personally, I can get much more done on my S4 than on my Nokia 95 (which a very, very basically liken to the experience of BlackBerry from having played around with another friend’s BlackBerry). I cannot stand small screens anymore. I think small screens are defunct today! It’s like what I say to my Adorable Friend, “Why on Earth do you bother looking at media on your small (iPhone) screen?” Watching a movie, web surfing, social networking, email, etc is a fantastic experience on my Android handsets: HTC One X, Motorola RAZRi, Samsung Galaxy S2, 4 and Note 2. You can’t really beat the experience with any other handset!

PROGNOSIS
Some new Android users get overwhelmed by the possibilities that they do not see how logical everything is from customizing any of the 5 or 7 home screens to contain the widgets for the most used apps. They don’t seem to understand that notifications can be expanded to read a message in its entirety and a reply can be instigated from the notification.

In other words they aren’t adjusting their mindsets... They are used to thinking in the logic as set by another operating system.

THE CURE
Think of Android as what it is: A computer that can make phone and video calls. Case 2 asked, “Where is the clipboard? I copied something to the clipboard and I can’t find it (the clipboard)...” So, I told him that this function is no different to copying and pasting i.e. copying and pasting a URL from the web browser into any other app. But he is getting there.

Explore and enjoy! Look stuff up on YouTube if you’re not sure! Android is easy!

What do you reckon?

Thank you for reading!

Take good care!


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