Thoughts On Convergence and Why Google and Apple Got It Right and Microsoft Got It Wrong

In a brief interview with Macworld to mark the 30th anniversary of the Mac, Apple's executive Phil Schiller (and his cohort Craig Federighi, I keep misreading his name as Ferengi...) affirmed that the Mac still has a bright future "as far as our eye can see." Federighi went on to say “It’s obvious and easy enough to slap a touchscreen on a piece of hardware, but is that a good experience? We believe, no.” Obviously the Mac will stick around as it would hardly be practical to write iOS apps (or lots of other heavy desktop work) on an iOS device.

 

Now I may not be a massive fan of Apple and I particularly get riled up when it comes to their attitude to patents, but as far as the desktop computer is concerned, Apple have got one thing right. Despite the massive success of the iPhone and iPad, they have kept OSX and iOS seperate, with just a little convergence between the two. There is Dashboard, iMessage, trackpad gestures and the admittedly silly "Natural Scrolling" but that's about it. OSX is still a reasonably usable desktop OS, albeit a fixed, non-customizable one.

Microsoft on the other hand, have, in my opinion, got things very wrong! They basically shovelled the Metro (I refuse to call it "Modern") interface onto phone, tablet and, most annoyingly, desktop with Windows 8. Microsoft has confused and annoyed a lot of users with this abomination. Even 8.1 does not really fix things, it merely brings back the Start button rather than what a lot of desktop users actually want which is the Start menu. Windows 9 will supposedly fix things by putting Metro apps in a windowed app on the desktop but we shall see. By then though it may be too late and Windows will be irrelevant, perhaps it already is...

Google have ChromeOS and Android. They have, at least on their own devices, kept them separate. ChromeOS is aimed at laptops and desktops as the browser is the desktop to Google. Chromebooks are great for those who need a second machine for writing, browsing and other light work. Despite Microsoft's FUD, Chromebooks are actually useful offline too. Things have taken a slightly different approach recently with some OEMs like Lenovo and HP putting Android onto all-in-one desktops and laptops, presumably to take advantage of the huge amount of apps in the Play store. I am not quite sure how I feel about this yet, I have yet to see what they are like in the flesh. If, and that's a big if, they have skinned Android to make it more desktop-like, they might be onto something but I don't think Android is quite right in it's stock form for a desktop PC, at least as a work computer, though it would be great as a touchscreen jukebox or media centre.

For things like photo and video editing, music production though I would rather have a full OS such as a 'proper' Linux distro, my personal preference at the moment being Linux Mint with Cinnamon desktop. With Linux, and pretty much any desktop, I like a top panel with the usual indicators, a searchable menu on the left and a dock at the base of the screen on one monitor, the great thing about Linux is it is so customizable!

Again I am not really keen on Ubuntu's Unity or Gnome Shell as I think it gets in the way of what I want to do, I don't like massive fullscreen menus covering almost a whole screen, which is one reason I hate Metro on Windows 8. And one day Ubuntu Touch might work well on phones and tablets but I just cannot get on with it on the desktop and I really have tried to like it. One thing I would (or would have liked) from Canonical is Ubuntu for Android, it would be great to take my phone, dock it to a HDMI monitor, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and have Ubuntu instantly load up on the monitor and still be able to use Android apps in a window on the desktop. This would be cool for travelling light for cubicle people.

I love having a (reasonably) powerful, multi-monitor desktop for AV stuff, Steam games etc, then switching over to a laptop for late night blogging and browsing. My Nexus 7 is great for light browsing and casual gaming and my Galaxy S3 is my camera, on-the-go browser, info-finder and above all, phone! Firefox syncs browser history and tabs between all three devices and my files are never far away with Dropbox or Copy or Linux home server on the LAN.

I have also been using PushBullet to receive Android Notifications on the desktop from phone and tablet. It's also good for quickly sending links between devices. It works OK but I wish there was a proper, fully formed desktop app on Linux that would do it better. Something like KDE Connect, but not so tied to KDE, would be great. Overall, I like having different devices and form factors for different purposes but with some synchronicity between them.

Mint 16 Cinnamon on a HP nc6320

 

I have just bought a HP nc6320 very cheaply, and it came with 1GB RAM and Windows XP Pro, which of course I immediately wiped out and installed Mint 16, Cinnamon version, (MATE desktop is also available) after upgrading the RAM to 3GB by adding a 2GB stick. It will take 2x 2GB sticks but I don't have another spare at the moment. I chose Mint 16 because Cinnamon desktop stopped working properly on Ubuntu on my old desktop, and I also bought a Dell Precision 390 workstation and Mint 16 installed and works very well on that, so I decided to give it a go on this, especially since I already had it ready to go on a USB stick.

Installation took around 10 minutes and almost everything seems to work nicely out the box. The only thing I cannot get working at the moment is the fingerprint reader, though I'm not trying too hard, it's not exactly that important to have for me. Wireless works out the box, as does Bluetooth, just make sure to press the Wireless button on the top row above the keyboard to turn it on. Suspend/Resume works perfectly and the 15" screen gives a 1400 x 1050 pixel resolution. Not surprising it all works I suppose since HP originally certified it to run Suse Enterprise Linux Desktop 10. The nc6320 feels fairly sturdy and has a reasonable keyboard and screen. I also appreciate the internal DVD writer it comes with. I do hope it lasts longer than the nc6120 I had awhile back though, which developed a motherboard fault. I've not tested the battery but since it's probably had a hard life the 1hr 37mins estimated is probably correct.

Mint 16 has a great out-of-the-box experience overall, the login screen looks swish and of course various codecs are already installed and the main theme is sensible. Well, except I don't really like green that much! I have installed Humanities-Zukitwo icons and Radiance gtk theme (from the repos), which I think look good with Adwaita Classic Cinnamon theme. I have also set it up in a similar fashion to my main desktop with inverted panel at the top and Cairo Dock at the bottom of the screen. Here's some more screenshots (click to enlarge):

Mini sd card reader by Meenova for Android

One of the great things about Android is OTG support. The fact that you can attach a mouse and keyboard or an external hard drive and they work is just wonderful. OTG is short for "On The Go" and a lot of modern Android devices support this. Nexus devices, the Samsung Galaxy S2/S3/S4, the HTC One, the newer Sony Xperia devices along with the Moto X/G. To get it working you attach a little cable and off you go. 

When it comes to reading micro sd cards, especially on the go (pun intended), things become a little more difficult. You end up having to lug around not only a cable but a card reader also. 

This is where Meenova come in. They created  small simple sd card reader that plugs straight into your device without the need of any extra cables. 

There is no doubt that these look cool and at only $12, and a choice of 4 different clours, means this is the sort of thing that you just throw on your keyring, or pocket and off you go. Meenova started off as one of those strange quirky things on Kickstarter and after being fully funded the opened their door to the public on September of this year. 

Personally I think this so cool, it is something I know I would get a lot of use out of. And I think I am going to have to order one. I just felt that there was no need to wait before letting you all see them.

If you want to know more info, or want to place an order head on over to the Meenova website and choose your colour.

Android 4.4 Kit Kat and Low End Devices

Google claim that the recently released version of Android, 4.4 aka Kit Kat, will run on devices with only 512MB of RAM, which means older devices could run it. The problem is, unless it's a Nexus, or Google Experience device (and not the old Galaxy Nexus), it's up to the carriers and manufacturers to modify and release it for their devices. For those devices that will not get Kit Kat there is the option of rooting and installing a ROM such as Paranoid Android or Cyanogen Mod, but that is not really ideal for newbies or a casual user.

However since Google seem to be releasing parts of the stock OS as apps on Play that may not matter. Within hours of hearing of the announcement of Kit Kat there were blogposts appearing with download links to various parts of Kit Kat. I have installed the Google Experience Launcher, Google Search, Play Services and stock keyboard  ripped from the Nexus 5, on my Samsung GS3 which only has 4.1.2, and should be getting 4.3 in November, and may or may not get Kit Kat in the future.  So far it is running really smoothly, just as quick as Nova launcher that I was using before. I've not tried the latest Hangouts yet, though I think I may wait until that gets an official update. And I have installed everything without having root access. As you can see from my video, it's pretty smooth. Sorry about the quality of the recording, had to use my old LG Optimus 2X.

Since Hangouts and the stock Google Keyboard are already in Play, If Google released the Google Experience Launcher and other bits onto Play it would reduce the perceived fragmentation a little and it would make it easier for average Jo or Jill user to get the up to date look and some of the features of the latest OS version like those in Nexus/GE devices. It would also give those features to the highly modified manufacturer/carrier versions of Kit Kat that have their own bastardized launcher installed by default. In the meantime I'm quite happy with using my SGS3 with the apks I have installed until I get to try Kit Kat for real on my 2012 Nexus 7.

When is free not free? When Apple says so

Last week, in case you were living under a rock, announced their new range of iPads, Mac Books and their new OS X 10.9 Mavericks. (Note: I was kinda living under a rock during the announcement and only catching up on it now.) 

During the announcement they flashed the above image. OS X 10.9 is now free. This has been hailed by the mainstream media and Apple centred sites as the best thing since sliced bread. I was only told about it to begin with, and even though I have never been an Apple user I got a little excited. This was my train of thought.

So now OS X is being given away we can all pop over to the Apple site and give it a go. At least that was the first thing that came to my mind when I was told. I was in a lot of shock to be honest. I never saw this coming. Perhaps Apple are not as evil as I thought. Then I started to wonder would my laptop cut it. I expected it not to. However I had a small glimmer of hope. We all need that little bit of hope to get through some days. This was mine.

About now is when the reality kicked in -
                                                       

                                       FREE. With any purchase of any Mac or iOS device.


Back up a moment here. How is this free? The MacBook, their entry level machine, starts at $1000. Right, I get you now. It is free if you buy an over priced piece of hardware and the reason it is free is to stop us catching on to the fact that you (Apple) continue to rip off your customers.

But I understand why you want to make your customers think like that. Nobody wants Windows 8, sales of PC's and by extension Windows 8 is dropping at an alarming rate for Microsoft. That is even before you get into Windows Surface, Surface RT and Surface Whatever we are calling it this week. Then, there is the rise of tablet based users another factor in the why Apple may have gone down this path.

Then again perhaps there is another reason why Apple is taking this clever marketing - Linux.

Linux has from day one been free. Anyone can choose from one of the hundreds of different versions out there, download it onto a USB stick and be up and running in no time. So what is different today? For a start Linux is.

Gone are the days when Linux was for geeks, or those who know what they were doing. Linux is now becoming easier to access for first timers with the likes of Ubuntu and Mint. It no longer looks awful thanks to Pear or many, many others. Don't believe me, check out this great list that TechRadar put together of the 50 best Linux Distros.

Free can be free, not just when it comes to actual money. Check back in a couple of days for part two of this when we take a closer look at what freedom with Linux brings you from a non-geek point of view. 

Tech Thoughts welcomes a new contributor, Robert Best to the site, who I'm sure will be bringing his ample Android knowledge and experience to this site.

Carl Draper.

REVIEW: Elementary OS "Luna"

I decided to try out the recently released latest version of Elementary OS, Luna, just out of beta, which is based on Ubuntu 12.04. I used unetbootin to image the 64 bit ISO onto a 1GB USB stick I use for testing. Running the OS from the USB I found it quite snappy, so I installed it on my Dell Latitude D430 laptop. The installer is pretty much the same as Ubuntu and within 10 minutes I had it installed and rebooted into a fresh desktop. There's a panel at the top of the screen with Applications menu and tray etc, and a dock at the base of the screen which I think is called Plank, it's nice as it's similar to Cairo Dock which I usually use. The Applications menu is nice and simple, and searchable.

The default web browser is super-lightweight Midori, but you can easily install Firefox or Chrome. I found when installing software it's best to open Software Sources in Software Centre first, (rather than trying to install them in the terminal straight off like I tried to do) and enable the extra sources so you can get VLC and other useful packages.

One thing that strikes me about the desktop is it's not immediately obvious how to view virtual desktops, but with a quick Googling I found this handy list of shortcuts for Luna. You can minimize apps by right clicking and selecting Minimize as there's only the Close X on the left of the Titlebar and an Unmaximize button on the right side. I've also discovered that you can create Hot Corners to make things easier by going to System Settings - Desktop - Hot Corners. I have the bottom right corner set to Workspace Overview and the left corner as Window Overview. You could also set one corner to Minimize the current app. Update: You can change the button arrangement and bring back a Show Desktop button on Plank, amongst lots of other useful tweaks, with the very useful Elementary Tweaks plug-in.

For some reason, no resource monitor is installed by default, I usually use top or htop but for newbies there needs to be a user-friendly graphical app installed. Also there does not seem to be a way to make bookmarks in the sidebar in the file manager nor apparently a way to make a shortcut elsewhere either. BTW, if you need to open a root file manager it's sudo pantheon-files. Update: Right click on the Files icon on the dock and select "New Window As Administrator."

The default music app is called "Music" in the dock but I think is actually called Noise. My new favourite music player however is Sayonara, which is a nice lightweight music player, which I've installed via the 64bit deb package. Also there does not seem to be a CD/DVD burner installed by default, easily fixed though.

Music

Sayonara

There's a text editor called Scratch, a mail app called Geary (I mostly use Gmail so I'll probably never use it) and the default video player is Movie Player, but I've changed that to VLC, and Shotwell is the default photo viewer/manager. I have also installed a few extras such as Guake, a drop-down terminal.

Installing WINE means a lot of packages to install!

Overall I really like Elementary Luna, it's pretty smooth, the Applications menu works well once I discovered and got used to the keyboard shortcuts, virtual desktops work really well. It's also nice and lightweight, it feels and looks smoother than Xubuntu and is much lighter on this laptop (Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, Intel graphics) than KDE or Gnome. I've even started liking Empathy messenger, I like the way it notifies me in the dock. The file manager needs a few tweaks, especially a way to make shortcuts in the sidebar and there needs to be a GUI system monitor installed by default, something more lightweight than Gnome's would be great. The login screen is beautiful but I wish the boot splash was more animated to show it's working. Other than those minor points I'm quite impressed with it and I am happy with my Luna install on my D430.

Update 01/09/2013: Only one minor problem I have been having, every time I boot into Elementary the dictionary is stuck on Cuban, and I change it to English but it only lasts for that one session. Also Empathy won't sign into Facebook chat anymore so i've switched to Pidgin.