Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-25 Thread Grant Holland

Owen,

Here's my $2 worth on this subject...

Technologists have known how to solve and re-solve the fragmentation 
problem for users for centuries. Essentially, the same solution has been 
reinvented under different monikers and different vocabularies since, at 
least in the western world, the ancient Greeks - who had to invent 
standardized interfaces for the broad adoption of musical instrument 
design. During the industrial revolution,  the discipline and trade of 
engineering had to be invented to solve the same kinds of problems anew. 
After all, engines of any kind had to be commonly understood by the 
masses in order to gain broad usage and adoption. The same kind of thing 
recurred with the invention of the electrical grid and the creation of 
mass markets for electrical appliances that use it. And, NIST (nee, NBS) 
was established about that time to help things along.


In our time, one of the more recent and successful technologies to 
answer this call to combat fragmentation was in the software 
engineering, and went under the general heading of object oriented 
technology. You know the names of some of its enabling mechanisms: 
separation of concerns, encapsulation, interfaces and polymorphism.


But there are other interests at work than those of end users. Vendors 
want to divide and conquer. Programmers (er, web developers) want to 
invent novelty for its own sake and to have it dominate existing 
technologies.


My point is...I don't believe we have to treat the fragmentation of the 
Android market as some kind of inevitability that is out of our hands. 
Fragmentation has always been a wasteful propensity in technology. But 
the solution has been known since ancient times. If we aren't solving 
it, then probably we either have vested interests in not solving it 
(like some vendors), or we don't remember our history (like some 
programmers).


Cheers, Grant

On 8/24/14, 11:43 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.  So I'm 
looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available next 
month the various android devices.  My ecology is basically google, so 
android would be preferred from that standpoint.


So, this popped up in a newsletter:
http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/

Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to 
manage, especially developers.  But what is interesting is just how 
rich the android ecology is, but also how diverse.


And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and 
consider some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.


It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding 
between various devices and form factors.


I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone. 
 He couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in 
annoyances.  Anyone know how?


 -- Owen




FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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[FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Owen Densmore
My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.  So I'm
looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available next month
the various android devices.  My ecology is basically google, so android
would be preferred from that standpoint.

So, this popped up in a newsletter:
​​
http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/

​Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to manage,
especially developers.  But what is interesting is just how rich the
android ecology is, but also how diverse.

And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and consider
some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.

It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding
between various devices and form factors.​

I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone.  He
couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in annoyances.
 Anyone know how?

   -- Owen

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Steve Smith

Owen sed:

My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.
And here I feel like my iPhone 4 is downright brandy new!  I've only 
immersed it and tore it down twice so far... It's got at least one more 
good dunking in it!  And despite my most fierce attempts, the gorilla 
glass *is* tough!


That said, I'm amazed at how far all of these devices (and ecology, and 
market) have come in a short 7? years, pretty much since the first 
iPhone was released (07?).


Next upgrade, I'm likely to try a phablet such as the upcoming Galaxy 
Note 4 with a  1080p 5 screen, planned to go into the Oculus Rift as 
well...  so... just drop it into Google Cardboard and wheee!


I rarely put my phone to my ear anymore, using either headphones or 
speaker phone and as I more and more need reading glasses for 
smart-phone sized text, I will appreciate all the real-estate I can get, 
as long as it still fits in a pocket!  Eventually they will get big 
enough to be harder to misplace!


- Steve

So I'm looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available 
next month the various android devices.  My ecology is basically 
google, so android would be preferred from that standpoint.


So, this popped up in a newsletter:
​​
http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/

​ Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to 
manage, especially developers.  But what is interesting is just how 
rich the android ecology is, but also how diverse.


And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and 
consider some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.


It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding 
between various devices and form factors.​


I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone. 
 He couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in 
annoyances.  Anyone know how?


 -- Owen




FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com



FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Owen Densmore
Good observations.  I'm also interested in the phablets so am hoping the
(presumed) larger iPhone6 at 5.5 inches might be interesting. Had a long
chat at Friam with a Note 3 in hand, and it sure is a different experience
than the large phones.  Let us know what you find out.

   -- Owen


On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 1:25 PM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote:

  Owen sed:

  My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.

 And here I feel like my iPhone 4 is downright brandy new!  I've only
 immersed it and tore it down twice so far... It's got at least one more
 good dunking in it!  And despite my most fierce attempts, the gorilla glass
 *is* tough!

 That said, I'm amazed at how far all of these devices (and ecology, and
 market) have come in a short 7? years, pretty much since the first iPhone
 was released (07?).

 Next upgrade, I'm likely to try a phablet such as the upcoming Galaxy
 Note 4 with a  1080p 5 screen, planned to go into the Oculus Rift as
 well...  so... just drop it into Google Cardboard and wheee!

 I rarely put my phone to my ear anymore, using either headphones or
 speaker phone and as I more and more need reading glasses for smart-phone
 sized text, I will appreciate all the real-estate I can get, as long as it
 still fits in a pocket!  Eventually they will get big enough to be harder
 to misplace!

 - Steve

  So I'm looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available
 next month the various android devices.  My ecology is basically google, so
 android would be preferred from that standpoint.

  So, this popped up in a newsletter:
 ​​
 http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/

  ​ Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to
 manage, especially developers.  But what is interesting is just how rich
 the android ecology is, but also how diverse.

  And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and
 consider some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.

  It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding
 between various devices and form factors.​

  I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone.
  He couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in
 annoyances.  Anyone know how?

 -- Owen



 
 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com



 
 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com


FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Owen Densmore
On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Robert Holmes rob...@robertholmes.org
wrote:


 On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Owen Densmore o...@backspaces.net
 wrote:

 My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.


 That's the iphone 4s that came out in Octiober 2011? i.e. less than 3
 years ago?

 I'm curious, what are the features that you really, really need and don't
 have in your 'ancient' phone? ;)


​It's a bit slow, for one thing. And in my experience, phones start failing
at this age.  It's way out of contract too, so a new phone would be pretty
cheap

I'm also interested in the larger screens.  I find the tiny screen makes
browser use pretty bad. Oh, and I also need better performance, especially
with webgl development.

   -- Owen ​

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Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Robert Holmes
On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 4:24 PM, Tom Johnson t...@jtjohnson.com wrote:

 Given your Italian travel, be sure to check out the deals at T-mobile.


I can talk to that. I got a Note 3 on T-mobile precisely because of the
international data for when I travel to the UK. I learned the hard way that
you really have to read the fine print. The unlimited service is limited
internationally to 128k (OK for email, no good for Google maps) and you
can't use your phone to tether. If you want 3G speeds and you want to
tether you need to buy an international pass, which was $50 for 500MB.

Having said that, I'm still very happy with my Note 3. (Love the camera)

—R

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Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Tom Johnson
I am able to scale up my international data service to something like 25g
p/month for US$10.  Or at least I was last January/February.

-tj



Tom Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism   -- Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c)505.473.9646(h)
Twitter: jtjohnson
slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations
http://www.jtjohnson.com   t...@jtjohnson.com



On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Robert Holmes rob...@robertholmes.org
wrote:


 On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 4:24 PM, Tom Johnson t...@jtjohnson.com wrote:

 Given your Italian travel, be sure to check out the deals at T-mobile.


 I can talk to that. I got a Note 3 on T-mobile precisely because of the
 international data for when I travel to the UK. I learned the hard way that
 you really have to read the fine print. The unlimited service is limited
 internationally to 128k (OK for email, no good for Google maps) and you
 can't use your phone to tether. If you want 3G speeds and you want to
 tether you need to buy an international pass, which was $50 for 500MB.

 Having said that, I'm still very happy with my Note 3. (Love the camera)

 —R

 
 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com


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Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread Russell Standish
On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 11:43:31AM -0600, Owen Densmore wrote:
 
 I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone.  He
 couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in annoyances.
  Anyone know how?
 
-- Owen

I recently went through this exercise. Those apps, I assume, are
stored in ROM, and so you won't be able to delete them without also
flashing the ROM (which I gather is possible, though not for the
faint-hearted). The best you can do is revert to the factory version,
which at least frees up any space occupied on your flash memory. Not
sure how you can prevent the buggers from auto-updating the next time
the phone phones home though.

Other apps that you downloaded you can simply delete them from the
phone, and they're gone.

Cheers

-- 


Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales  http://www.hpcoders.com.au

 Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret 
 (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html)



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Re: [FRIAM] Android Fragmentation Report August 2014 - OpenSignal

2014-08-24 Thread James Steiner
re deleting apps.

apps you install and some pre installed apps uninstall easily, using the
app manager or google play.

some bundled apps are cooked into the OS when it is compiled. so  to the OS
they look like system apps, which can not be removed by your user-level
access.

to remove these one must get root access. if your phone is designed to make
rooting the phone impossible, you may need to replace the vendor supplied
version of Android with a root friendly version.

many Samsung phones are relatively easy to root, without replacing the OS
.there are websites dedicated to providing root instructions for various
brands and models of phone.

once you have root, you can get and use a so-called root uninstaller, that
will list all apps, even system apps, and remove them by request.

danger, don't remove system apps on a whim.what is this?I don't need/trust
that feature, I'll remove it is what people about to own bricks say.

rooting has other benefits. macro programs like macroDroid let you add
custom behaviors to your phone.rooting gives them/you more control.

I use a rooted Samsung galaxy exhibit II.
On Aug 24, 2014 1:44 PM, Owen Densmore o...@backspaces.net wrote:

 My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs.  So I'm
 looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available next month
 the various android devices.  My ecology is basically google, so android
 would be preferred from that standpoint.

 So, this popped up in a newsletter:
 ​​
 http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/

 ​Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to manage,
 especially developers.  But what is interesting is just how rich the
 android ecology is, but also how diverse.

 And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and
 consider some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.

 It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding
 between various devices and form factors.​

 I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone.  He
 couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in annoyances.
  Anyone know how?

-- Owen


 
 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com


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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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