Boing Boing Editor Cory Doctorow has written an excellent piece for the Guardian about how well a system works is merely half the picture- the other half being how badly it fails. In this context he pits Apple’s iOS versus Google’s Android. Android comes out the winner, albeit only backhandedly, but the winner nonetheless:

So why use Android? Because it requires less trust in Google than using iOS requires that you trust Apple. iOS has one official store, and it’s illegal in most places to buy and install apps except through this store. If you and Apple differ about which apps you need, you have to break the law to get your iPhone or iPad to run the app that Apple rejected.

Jailbroken iOS devices have sometimes been targeted by Apple security updates that render them inoperable, and jailbreakers have a reputation for not keeping their devices up-to-date.

By contrast, Android allows you to run apps from any store you choose. Google still rejects plenty of apps submitted to its store, but if you don’t like Google’s choices, you can decide to make some of your own.

That’s failing well.

He elaborates on why he uses Android on a daily basis:

I prefer Android because it’s relative openness means more people can and do inspect its workings to ensure it is doing what Google claims it is doing. I prefer Android because when Google decides to leave out a feature that users might want – such as tethering – the people making alternative OSes for the platform stick that feature in, and shame Google into adding it in subsequent versions.

Doctorow is not wrong. Apple’s heavy-handed control is what pushed me into giving my first generation iPhone away. I became bored with the device simply because there was a limit to what I could do with it. And a constant cycle of jailbreaking, waiting on jailbreak versions to meet iOS versions just became too cumbersome. Android is not perfect by any means, but it works well enough to curb my disgust. And it’s certainly more customizable than any Apple device. It may not be as easy to use or intuitive to the technologically challenged, but Google doesn’t smugly deign always to know best.

If you sneak away to the shitter at work to listen to some jams or Howard Stern or sports talk or whatever’s your fancy, then you have more likely than not fallen victim to the blast your ears take when you’ve left your phone volume up too loud for headphone levels. Usually, I try to make a habit of frantically pressing volume down as soon as whatever app I’m launching begins playing, while bracing for the inevitable blast. There are many ways to skin this cat, however. You could go the Tasker or Locale route and program your phone’s behavior in myriad ways, but if that’s too much work or bloat or battery drain, then Hearing Saver might be worth your time. This free Android app allows you to set volume levels that are triggered when the headphone jack is plugged in. You can automatically mute notifications and ringtones so that whatever you actually want to be listening to is not interrupted. Then, when you unplug your headset, Hearing Saver returns your volume back to normal levels. Fully customizable, low battery drain, and very highly recommended.

Hearing Saver on the Android Market. QR code:

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Running a nightly Cyanagen Mod 7 on my blazing fast Nexus S, I don’t find myself envious of any proprietary software overlays like Motorola’s Motoblur or HTC’s Sense. But one feature that I’ve often found lacking in stock Android and its customized ROM base is a homescreen shortcut to favorites or widget for quick calling or texting. HTC’s Sense has a “People” widget that serves the same purpose, but hell if I want all that other bloat just to run it. I finally came across a slick little app that fits the bill: Contapps. Of course, since this is Android and not iOS, it’s free. Contapps is a full-featured contact manager and dialer that replaces your stock option (but doesn’t interfere with it). It allows for the usual syncing across social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google Talk, and, God forbid, Foursquare, just in case you want every piece of floating minutiae about your friends all aggregated in one spot. I don’t have much need for all the bells and whistles. I just wanted a fast way to access the contacts I’ve starred in Android. Contapps is fully customizable with various filters and views depending on what you want to see and how you want to see it. The widget comes in three sizes depending on how many peeps you need fast access to. I chose the 4X4 monster, which looks to take up only four rows, but something in its coding won’t allow for any other shortcuts to share a screen with it. So far, that’s the only downside and a pretty small price to pay for one-flick/one-click access to my VIP list.

Contapps in the Android Market.

The fight for streaming music from the cloud seems like a no-brainer win for Google, yet the behemoth’s Music Beta service hasn’t received as much attention as it should have by now. The sheep will likely flock to iCloud just out of simplicity’s sake and fear of the unknown, despite the fact that Apple is only offering 5 gigs of storage for free. Google on the other hand is *giving away storage for up to 20,000 songs (*while in Beta). In layman’s terms, that’s a boatload, and roughly approximates to 100 gigs (based on what I’ve uploaded from my collection thus far). The web interface is very simple and user-intuitive. All of the expected features are included: customizable artwork, keyboard controls, rating system, and playlists. For those who utilize the “Genius” feature in iTunes, Google Music Beta offers “Instant Mixes,” which creates an on-the-fly, algorithm-gathered mix based on the current track streaming. Further sweetening the deal is Music Plus, a Chrome extension by Adam Pash, which enhances Google Music’s web experience significantly, offering Last.fm integration, instant lyric retrieval, as well as pop-up notifications. It is an essential plug-in for Google Music Beta and utterly streamlines the experience. The accompanying Android app is Google Music Beta’s secret weapon. It offers real-time streaming access to my 100 gigs of music. I was positive the app would crash instantly when I opened it, considering the amount of data it has to be able to access, but after an initial pause to load all of the artists and songs, the app flows as smoothly as anything else integrated by Google into Android. Being able to call up any album or song in my collection is an indispensable facet to mobile computing. Even with 100 gigs of music storage, I still require two apps to fulfill my streaming music needs. I use Rdio as my primary music source, which is hands-down the sleekest of the streaming services (despite all the PR hoopla about Spotify), and I use Google Music Beta to supplement what Rdio has yet to license (which tends to be the more obscure artists). I’ve experimented with much of the competition (Amazon Cloud, Spotify, Mog, Rhapsody, etc.), and for the ultimate Android experience, Rdio and Google Music Beta offer the most comprehensive solution.

My commute to work would be unbearable were it not for the Howard Stern show. It’s just about the only thing that keeps my head from exploding, as I sit in pointless traffic every morning. So, the news of Stern’s much-ballyhooed contract renewal more than justifies my keeping my subscription current with Sirius XM. Details of the new five-year extension are pretty scarce, as Stern was tight-lipped about specifics when he made the announcement on his show this morning, but one clincher is that the Stern show will now be available on mobile devices. Up until now, Sirius XM’s mobile app has been a neutered, borderline useless marketing ploy. Not having mobile access to the premium content that I pay for has been more than a little frustrating. So, not only will I have five more years of radio debauchery to help me cope with my morning dread, I will also be able to sneak in segments of the Stern show that I always missed once I got to work.

A friend of mine sent me an invitation to preview Rdio back in July before it was released to the public. I reluctantly signed up and gave it a perfunctory once-over, thinking yeah, yeah another subscription-based streaming project with social media aspirations to languish in obscurity. Then, just a few days ago I noticed that Rdio had released an Android app. Intrigued, I downloaded it just to see what it could do. Now, I still don’t know how I feel about stream-based music sites and their requisite monthly fees. It’s like paying for vapor. I’m old school when it comes to music. I buy everything on vinyl because I like the physical product, something to show for my money, but I must admit the Rdio Android app combined with the website functionality and its desktop dock are pretty slick. I am in the midst of an extended 10-day trial. The well-designed Adobe Air-fueled desktop controller can “match” your iTunes collection. By “matching” Rdio denotes that it will scan your music collection and check that against what they offer. Out of the 22,468 songs I have on my hard drive at work, Rdio could match almost 50%, which is pretty damn good considering a lot of my music is on the obscure side. The way the Android app works is that it can “see” your collection and once you decide on something to listen to it will then sync the data to your mobile. If you’re a planner, you can queue up several albums worth of songs to be sync’d to your device. There is an “offline mode” as well, so that you can listen to your tunes even when you don’t have 3G or Wi-Fi available. It is impressive to be able to have that much music available at your fingertips that can easily sync up to your phone on a whim. I’ve found myself listening to a lot more music than I normally would at work. Rdio integrates with Twitter, Facebook, and Last.FM, so that all your listening habits can be scrobbled. Now, whether I will actually pony up for the $9.99 per month subscription remains to be seen, but I do know that I will miss Rdio if I don’t.

Rdio QR code:

I signed up for a Gmail account as fast as I could track down an invitation back in 2004, and I have never looked back. Gone were the days of having a desktop client and downloading my messages locally. What a colossal and inefficient waste of time that was. Gmail’s “Conversation View” revolutionized the way I approached email, making me much more efficient and strategic about how I communicated online. I’ve never had to look in a “Sent” folder since. The threaded conversation view just clicked for me, and I could not fathom going back to the standard, maddening inbox clutter of individual messages for every reply and forward sent or received. As with any technological advancement or new idea, there will be luddites who bitch and moan about wishing everything always be the same no matter what. My attitude has always been, if you don’t like the conversation view in Gmail, don’t use Gmail. And I respected Google’s balls in backing up its philosophical approach to email by not appeasing the whiners with an alternative. Well, that age has ended, as Google has announced it is finally making its “Conversation View” optional. Ugh. At first I assumed it was some sort of Google prank, thinking surely Google wouldn’t cave on such a principled front. The “Conversation View” is what gives Gmail its Gmail-ness, what makes it stand out. Giving users the option to turn Gmail into a generic web-client makes Gmail’s uniqueness obsolete. But the dumbing down has begun. Congratulations, troglodytes.

I decided to try my first after-market keyboard for my Nexus One. I’ve been reasonably pleased with the built-in Android Keyboard, since the upgrade to Froyo, but after reading about Swiftkey I figured it was worth a test run. Swiftkey uses Artificial Intelligence to predict your text. It’s the first keyboard of its kind. Yeah, yeah, predictive text is old news, right? Well, not only does Swiftkey analyze the way words are put together, but it can scan your text message history to “learn” how you write in order to custom-tailor your experience. Immediately, I loved the feel of Swiftkey. The default haptic feedback setting gives you more confidence in your typing, as it feels weighted, almost as though it’s using the built-in G-Sensor. The layout is pretty standard with a few more bells and whistles than Android’s default offering. The quick predictive functionality is easy to integrate into your typing habits. The suggestions show up in a row above the digital keys, while the middle choice serves as the app’s “best guess” for what you are about to say. To select the prediction you can simply press the space bar. Swiftkey analyzes your progress over time, keeping track of how many keystrokes you have saved by using its AI technology. Within 24 hours I upgraded from the Beta to the paid version, which is less than one dollar until the special promotional period expires on September 30^th. If you’re looking for a keyboard that considerably ups the ante from Android’s base model, then I can highly recommend Swiftkey.

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Google has just released another update to its Gmail client for Android, finally freeing Gmail updates from Android version revisions, which is to say, you don’t have to wait for a complete operating system overhaul just to get new Gmail goodies. So, as a stand-alone application available in the Market, users will receive faster and presumably more frequent updates without having to wait for the latest version of Android to push out (slowly) over the air. The latest iteration focuses on overall quickness, replies, and access to quoted text. It also implements limited support for Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature set. However, when I tried to load the “Important” messages label, the fine people over at Google locked me out of my Gmail account for “suspicious activity.” That is the absolute last message you want to get from Google. I was locked out of my Gmail account about three years ago due to some similarly inexplicable glitch for three of the longest days of my life. Thankfully, last night’s lock out only lasted a few hours. Those are the risks you take when you are married to an all-eggs-in-one-basket Mothership like Google. The only downside to this Gmail update is that you have to be running Froyo (Android 2.2) in order to use it. So, the waiting continues for some.

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A Facebook phone is currently “secretly” in development, according reports emanating from Techcrunch. Fearing the grip that the iPhone and Android platforms have on consumers, Facebook has allegedly put together a superstar team to design an operating system to try to get its tentacles to reach even deeper because knowing every minute detail about 400 million people is clearly not enough. Google proved it could arrive late to the party and still get a respectable foothold in the mobile market, so Facebook probably sees its chances optimistically. However, the last Social Media-based phone to try to lure the teen market was a giant flop. Looking at you, Helio. Granted it was based on the dying on the vine MySpace, and, well, for some reason Facebook has yet to plateau significantly. The Facebook phone’s design team consists of two “rock stars” in the developer world, namely Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos, who were responsible for the Firefox browser and Chrome OS, respectively. I could not fathom buying a phone based on a Social Media application, but then again I’m not 14. Perhaps, the tweens will eat this up? I have to assume the target demographic will be 16 and under. No self-respecting businessman would be caught dead using a Facebook phone, right? I just don’t know anymore.

UPDATE: According to Reuters, Facebook has “denied” plans to build a phone, but CNET News has confirmed that Facebook did reach out to hardware manufacturers about a Facebook branded device. I remember rumors of Google’s denial about developing a phone a few years ago too…

(Thanks to David for the tip).