Summer with a Nest Thermostat

A Colorado winter with the Nest thermostat was nothing short of wonderful. Check out my Living with Nest post from just a few weeks with Nest as the weather began to turn cold. Now, we're several months into a hot summer in the sunniest state in the U.S. and the Nest continues to impress.

There are two features that stand out to me - Airwave and Leafs - both serving as great complements to Auto Away, smartphone/tablet apps, informative monthly usage reports, and reliable intelligence.

Airwave

Nest's Airwave feature is one of their eco-friendly, yet user experience friendly, features. Simply put, Airwave saves energy by shutting off the air conditioning before the desired temperature is reached, but leaves the fan running to run air over the ice cold coils in the air conditioner and deliver the cold air into the house as if the AC was still running.

The cost of running the fan is nearly nonexistent compared to running the compressor, so the savings during this time is tremendous. AC is not an inexpensive way to stay comfortable, saving 10 minutes of running the compressor every time the AC runs on a hot day adds up very quickly.

Leafs

It has been repeatedly proven that using games, or Gamification, to motivate and inspire is extremely effective. The theory is simple - create a game-like scoring or reward system to show users a quantifiable result of their efforts. It works with weight loss, it works with achieving goals, and it works with making eco-friendly (perhaps more importantly, wallet-friendly) decisions about how to heat or cool your home.

Nest uses "Leafs" to do just this. Leafs show you when your Nest is set in such a way that it is using less and saving you more. Here is my Leaf summary from my last monthly report and the first time I was in the top 5%!

It is addicting. I enjoy seeing the tangible results of my decisions, and it is very inspiring to see that this is possible without sacrificing comfort. We like to keep the house comfortable, so achieving this didn't require putting ourselves out in any way.

It has been a lot of fun to have such an exciting piece of technology to play with. The apps are well written, stable, and intuitive. After almost a full year with the Nest, including both summer and winter, I can say with high confidence that this has been a great investment that I continue to recommend highly to family and friends.

An iPhone User's Trial Switch to Android

I have been intensely interested in trying out an Android phone ever since the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the operating system was released. It was at this point that Google started to hone in their user experience, a major iOS-ism that many reviews agreed was lacking from Android previously.

I'll pause here to state that this isn't bashing either mobile OS. This is nothing more than my experience, as a long (ish) time iPhone/iPad user, living with the Android operating system on a non-Google "flagship" phone. I also understand that my starting point for expectations was largely based on iOS, no matter how much I tried to avoid it. Consider this and understand that my stumbling outlined below isn't an anti-Android rant, rather it is simply a documentation of my hardships. I welcome any feedback on how I could avoid these types of issues.

I was presented with the unique opportunity to try out an LG Optimus G on the Sprint network here in the U.S., for free. This device is running Android ICS v4.1.2.

Key Features and Specs:

• Quad-Core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor
• 4G LTE connectivity
• 13MP rear camera (AT&T version has 8MP)
• Dimensions: 5.15" (H) x 2.82" (W) x 0.33" (D)
• Weight: 5.19 oz.
• Screen: 4.7" 768x1280 IPS+
• Battery: 2100 mAh
• Capacity: 32GB

My Experience

My experience was a mixed bag. I hoped to come away from this experience genuinely struggling to say what my next phone I purchase will be. I planned on capitalizing on the inter-app data sharing, tweaks/customizations, and widgets that Android had to offer. Most of all, I wanted to dispel any notion that fragmentation is an issue with high end devices. I wasn't entirely successful.

Quick disclaimer: I should mention that any speed issues I (appropriately) attribute to the Sprint network, not the device. This phone was very fast and responsive and was always as fast as the given network connectivity would allow me to be. After suffering with AT&T in the early iPhone days I have practice at separating the phone experience from the carrier's shortcomings.

Powerful, Useful, and Generally Awesome Things

There are some features that were extremely welcome, Apple would be wise to take some cues.

• Snoozing reminders and calendar events. No brainer here, it can be implemented cleanly and makes multitasking on the device (and in life) much more powerful.
• Faster dictation, types as you talk. The dictation didn't seem to be any more accurate (though, maybe a bit), but the fact that it types out as you speak makes the experience smooth and fast, much faster than iOS.
• More useful status bar. I don't think Apple should adopt this, but there are certainly times it is handy. I'd pay money for an icon in the status bar to show me when I'm muted on a call though. Alas neither OS fills that need (unless Android can and I missed it?).
• Closing a tab in a browser that was opened from clicking a link in another app closes the browser and returns me to where I clicked the link. This is a great feature, but wouldn't be needed if they solved the problem like iOS and uses web views within that app with the link. 
• Share menu. Powerful, but cluttered. I liked sharing more easily to Google+, my social network of choice. For the average user this menu is filled with a TON of apps, scrolling through them wasn't terribly pleasant. Again, not something I'd suspect or want Apple to borrow.
• Browsing and installing apps from the web. You can do this with iTunes, but that requires iTunes.
• All of your calendars sync for Google Calendar. If you've got pro sports teams, they sync. In iOS, those calendars do not sync, but most do. Really iOS is just missing pro sports team calendar syncing as far as I can tell.
• Although the stock (LG, not the stock Android) keyboard was fantastically miserable, I remedied this by installing SwiftKey. Both the Flow and standard input with SwiftKey were fast and fluid. SwiftKey's autocorrect was better than iOS by quite a bit, and I like the iOS autocorrect for the most part.
• Clear all notifications in a single tap. Astonishing iOS doesn't have this.
• Kill all open apps in a tap. Again, astonishing that iOS doesn't have this.
• Quick and responsive operating system. It was very clear I was using a phone with great hardware specs.
• Good camera. I didn't do thorough camera testing, but in the handful of indoor shots with the Optimus G and my iPhone 5 the LG fared very well, often better than the iPhone.

Pressure Points

• My biggest complaint, hands down, is that headset controls don't work in a system wide fashion, or hardly at all for that matter. Per my understanding, you can buy headsets from a company, then use their music player app, and the headset works (play, pause, volume, issuing voice commands) within that particular app. This NEEDS to be a system wide thing. To pause music I have to press the lock button, enter a PIN, find the music app that's playing, open it, tap pause. Some offer play/pause functionality in the notification pull down, but that's not much better. Now consider how frustrating that is while walking the dog in the cold all bundled up with the phone tucked away. Not ok, I might have to seek therapy for how upsetting this is.
• Size... the phone was far too big. Single handed usage is entirely out of the question other than scrolling down a feed/website that is already open. Back button? Not going to happen. More on this later.
• Stock keyboard was terrible, so very terrible. (LG-ism, Android is not to blame here.)
• Non-fluid UI. Though improved, it is still far from iOS. Here's a nice breakdown of why. This wasn't as big of an issue as I thought it might be. It didn't feel like iOS, but it isn't iOS. Overall the system was very speedy and responsive, just not always fluid.
• When you're momentum scrolling, you tap to stop, right? Wrong. This selects whatever you tapped on to stop, very frustrating. You can work around this by tapping and dragging ever so slightly, but it is illogical to select whatever you tapped as you scrolled by at lightning speed.
• Error messaging isn't always informative. One error told me to update the profile, no indication of where or how this could be done. Not really a big deal 99% of the time though.
• Stock messaging/SMS app is unimpressive. Tap back once to hide the keyboard, tap back again to view all threads. This is frustrating. 3rd party SMS apps provide good work arounds, I used Chomp.
• Messages get marked as read when they shouldn't be (LG-ism). If the messaging app is open when the device is locked, unlocking the phone returns you to the home screen, this appears to be the same for any app (but I didn't test it in depth). This little nuance has the byproduct of marking any new SMS you got while the phone was locked as read when you unlock the device.
• Auto-brightness seemed more like front row tickets the backlight having a seizure. This was during indoor use in an office with overhead lighting, but I experienced this whether moving or not.
• Subtle visual indicators were something I didn't realize I was so accustom to. For instance, in the Gmail app I couldn't find the notification settings. When I learned I just had to tap my email address in settings, all was well, but it surprised me there was no visual indication that it was tappable. I found I was frequently tapping things that were labels and not tapping things that were tappable. I also missed the rubber band effect.
• Icon notification counts. The info is in the status bar, but those numbers are tiny. Not a big deal, but I missed them. 
• Gmail app crashed, a lot. Likely an LG-ism, but not okay.
• Full screen YouTube videos in the Chrome browser didn't trigger whatever the phone needs to understand it should leave the screen on. Let that sink in. On an Android device. With the Chrome browser. YouTube didn't work. If only a single company owned all of those....
• Notification settings aren't centralized. Some are in the OS settings, some in the apps. The stock apps weren't nearly as configurable as 3rd party, and in some cases not even as configurable as iOS.

Larger Screen Size - Good or Bad?

Not long ago I upgraded from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5, to this point that has been my large screen experience. I know, Galaxy Note owners are trying to catch a breath between laughs...

I'm an average sized guy. 5'11'. Hands aren't oddly large or oddly small. There was no question that I cannot use this phone entirely with one hand. I could sort of wiggle my hand and make it work at the expense of securely holding the device, but as I'm walking or on the go I use my devices one handed a ton. I also want to have a decent grip on the phone; I define a decent grip as the ability to invert my hand and overpower gravity's attempt to claim the device from my grip.

Most of the time I'd just bring in the second hand briefly to tap the back button or to click the URL bar up top, or to reach that "other" ~30% of the device that was otherwise off limits. It made me feel better about stretching to reach the back button in the top left of every iPhone 5 app, but made me realize it was doable. This 4.7" LG, for me, is just too big.

I expected to be frustrated with the extra size while it was in my pocket, but love it when I was using the device. I found the opposite. I had no qualm with the device size in my pocket, but when I was using it, I rarely found that I could do, see, or enjoy anything more with the extra screen real estate. The inability to one-hand the phone was too large of an issue for me to brush off, it was a real problem for me.

Here's an example of what I mean. Now I'm the first to admit that this example is sort of bias - the screen IS bigger despite the Gmail app on the LG (above) making poor use of the extra space as shown here. Watching a video is much bigger, and some content is just bigger, but not always. Not to mention seeing 8 tweets instead of 6 at once isn't a "feature" when I can only read one at a time.

Demonstration of my feeling that the screen size didn't really gain me anything.

Android-Only Features

There were things like inter-app data sharing, widgets, and customizability that are, at the core, against everything iOS is designed for. These are the things I expected to knock my socks off, to really show me the light that is the explosion of Android popularity, and to ultimately seal the deal that Android might just be for me.

Inter-app data sharing wasn't terribly useful. The best part was sharing to Google+, my social network of choice. I could see the same being true for any social network. Beyond that, there didn't seem to be anything iOS didn't offer, besides an extremely cluttered list of apps to chose from. In iOS, you can chose to process the file with any installed app that has alerted the OS that it can process said file type, so only the relevant apps are in the list. For Android, they're all there, all the time. What are some common use cases where this feature kicks some serious ass? I'm all ears!

Widgets were interesting. Weather was useful, though only a swipe closer to me than iOS has it. Email widgets were pretty helpful since the notifications show less of a preview of the message than iOS does. Twitter seemed to randomly update and show a couple of tweets from the semi-recent history randomly in your timeline. System usage is interesting, but more of a parlor trick. I found myself adding several, then removing most of them a few days later. I certainly haven't missed them since I've been back on iOS. Edit: I take this back, the antenna/feature toggles such as wifi and bluetooth were amazing, I can't believe iOS has these so buried in menus! What other widgets was I missing? What are the favorites?

Customizability was certainly available. It wasn't always straight forward, but I could change an awful lot of things. Had my corporate email not required a PIN (I later removed it for flexibility) the lock screen was capable of being more functional that most home screens, but what's the point of a lock screen at that point? The home screen could be anything, not just apps. Themes aren't of interest to me, or most anyone over 15. Changing default services was pretty cool, though I expected more of a system level way to do this. For instance, with messaging you just disable alerts for the system messaging app when using 3rd party, like Chomp. The Chomp app told me to do this, it wasn't automatic when I installed Chomp, nor was I even presented with the question if I'd like the system to do it for me.

I'm not calling these things duds. Quite the opposite, they gave me some very new and interesting toys to play with. The big difference is that I only found myself using them when I was playing, not when I was using my smartphone as a smartphone.

Google Play

I was a little bit surprised how daunting Google Play was at times. The names of apps and plugins are cryptic at times. Usually the app you're looking to download is straightforward, and at (or near) the top of the search results. However, there are a surprising number of search results that are named so similarly you second guess yourself about which to install. It gets better as you get used to it, but it is odd. Seeing a version of an app for certain phones, then a different version for other phones was something I didn't expect to see. I liked the explicit outline of the app's access to your phone, though the amount of access some apps unnecessarily had was troublesome.

Not Calling this Section Fragmentation

"Fragmentation" is over used, and usually when the term is mentioned, half the audience stops reading. So this section isn't called "Fragmentation".

I've spoken with users of true-Google devices about some of my pressure points, crashes, and things that bugged me about my Android experience. I was reassured on several of the frustrations that they weren't Android-isms, but were LG-isms. Point taken.

The iOS perspective here is that these LG-isms that greatly detract from the user experience simply shouldn't be allowed to exist. They're so fundamental and frustrating for anyone used to iOS stability (and trust me, I wasn't expecting iOS stability) these things are pain points. If the point of Android is to be open so nearly any hardware/software configuration is an option for customers, why is it that a flagship phone is allowed to exist with such a flawed user experience?

To me, this seems damning. Where does that put the non-flagship phones that account for the majority of Android activations? I'm almost scared to know.

My inner-nerd can't entirely agree with that position though. It wasn't Google that detracted from the experience, even if they enabled it. Blaming Google for LG's poor execution isn't fair, I just wish it weren't an issue to begin with.

What's Next?

I plan to root the device so that I can install Jelly Bean and attempt to get the most current and most pure-Google experience. I expect this will help with several of the software complaints I had, I hope it will anyway.

I welcome any input, too. Please leave comments about your switch or how you took advantage of Android awesomeness that just isn't possible on iOS. I'd love to hear about it!

Closing Thoughts

Andy Inhatko's recent piece on why he switched from iPhone to Android was inspiring, I suggest reading it. One huge difference from his experience is that this is my first hands-on (longer than 2 minutes) with the OS. To attempt to compare Android to iOS, where I'm extremely familiar, after anything less than a few months is probably painting myself as ignorant. What I hope to do here is document my initial experience and seek feedback on how to speed through the rest of the learning curve.

There's no getting around the fact that everyone uses their phone in their own unique way. These experiences are my own and, more than likely, these experiences only slightly overlap with your usage. Apple has chosen a one-size-fits-all approach where they (attempt to?) base their design and functionality on common ground. Android takes the opposite approach.

It is an interesting dichotomy, and I can't help but wonder how much (more than I'm aware) my current usage and expectations are biased due to the fact that I've been using iOS for so long and formed my habits on iOS, so that is how I expect a device to work. 

Choosing Sides in the iOS/Android Discussion... Don't

If you have read comments from a technology review or article in the last five years, or really just about any article, you'll see that most people think there is a war going on in tech - Apple vs. Google, iOS vs. Android, Closed vs. Open - call it what you want. There are people, myself included, who disagree.

Andy Ihnatko hit the nail on the head this week, several times in fact. He started on Tuesday when he published the first piece to his story 'Why I switched from iPhone to Android'. He continued on Wednesday when he published part two about customization and collaboration. To close, he cemented his place in tech journalism history (if you ask me) as intelligent and genuinely here for the technology with his conclusion published Thursday detailing the pros and the cons of the switch.

Andy, I want to thank you. I want to thank you as an iPhone owner, one who is very happy with my device. Your agnostic analysis of why Android became the right choice for you renewed my faith in technology journalism. It was a refreshing piece that focuses on how magnificent the technology of our time is and how it is the most exciting time in history to be alive (if you like tech that is).

For those who haven't read it, here's one of the several "disclaimers" (that are entirely necessary as demonstrated by the fact that even with them the comments went off into troll-land) that explain why both iOS and Android can be awesome and it isn't a black and white debate:

As I said at the very beginning, this isn’t the story of why Android is Way Totally So Much Better Than iOS. This is the story of this one dude who switched phones. Andy Ihnatko moving to Android isn’t a pivotal moment in the history of mobile computing. I just thought that a detailed piece of my observations, concerns, and experiences would be of interest to anybody who’s curious about Android. And given the revolutionary improvements in the platform over the past year, I thought it was timely.

When I assert the position that both mobile operating systems are incredible most responses I get are passive aggressive. "Well yeah, iOS is great for old people." or "Android is cool, but I just don't want to risk getting viruses." My favorite is when someone uses open or closed-ness as their argument for iOS or Android but isn't able to explain what open/closed means or how the respective OSes embody it. I'm not suggesting everyone needs to understand the intricacies of their mobile OS's philosophy; rather I'm highlighting how ridiculous the "war" has gotten and how entrenched so many people are in their opinions, often blindly.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and not everyone will give credit to the "other" OS for one reason or another. Unfortunately, if your opinion is such that only one OS can "win", you are wrong (hint: italics are sarcasm font.) Like Andy said, it isn't Apple OR Google, it is Apple AND Google.

I won't rehash the platform agnostic, pro-awesome-tech, stance because it has been done already. I cannot recommend highly enough that you read Andy's work - part one, part two, and part three.

If you agree that both companies are awesome, this guide to making Gmail on your iPhone/iPad work how you want it to work might help.

Determine the Ship Date of Your Pebble Kickstarter Order [Outdated]

UDPATE - This post is quite outdated due to some updates from the folks at Pebble. My attempt to re-estimate was lost in the Blogger auto-save world and I don't have time to redo it.

If you haven't heard, they announced at CES yesterday that Pebbles will start shipping on January 23, 2012. This is very welcome news for my fellow backers and I who have been following their story and updates closely since early April 2012.

Image from Pebble

Thanks to Kicktraq we can use the funding progress graph to determine an approximate ship date for your Pebble smart watch.

Image from Kicktraq

First you'll need to find the date that you backed the project, personally I did on 4/14/12. As far as I can tell, the only way to get this information is from the confirmation email they sent you. If you log into Amazon Payments, you get the 5/18/12 date since that is when the project finished the Kickstarter campaign and credit cards got charged - this isn't the date you backed the project.

[UPDATE] - Thank you to Brian Phillips for pointing out this tip on how to determine your backer date if you cannot find your email from Amazon Payments: "...sign into Kickstarter then go to My Backer History (drop down the menu under Me in the upper right corner), it will tell you what day you backed the project."

Now you'll need to figure out how much money was raised at the time you funded the project. There were 85,000 watches ordered with $10,266,844 raised. Naturally there are various factors we cannot account for - some people only backed a few dollars rather than buying watches, and some watches cost more than others, so this is an approximation.

It is crude math, but let's say the average watch cost $120.79 ($10,266,844/85,000) - a reasonable assumption if you ask me. They said they will be making 15,000 watches per week, and shipping starts on 1/23/13. It is safe to assume at least 30,000 watches will have been made at that point since they entered mass production around 1/9/12 or before - meaning at least 2 full weeks of full production before they start shipping.

This means that 35% of watches will be made when orders start to ship. So looking at the math, we see that if you ordered by 4/16/12, you are likely to be in the first batch of shipments. However, looking at this chart of backers by day, you see that backing as late as the 18th might still mean you're in the first shipment since that was the day they hit ~30,000 backers.

Image from Kicktraq

If you backed after the 16th (or 18th, depending how optimistic you are), you can assume that 15,000 new watches being made every week, resulting in these approximate shipping dates:

I used data from Kicktraq, and as you can see not all $10.2M or 85,000 are accounted for exactly, so there is an error margin here. However, this should give you a pretty good idea of when your order will ship. I will say that these dates seem a bit optimistic compared to the "6 to 8 weeks" Pebble stated would be required to fulfill all Kickstarter orders. I have absolutely no affiliation with Pebble, nor do I have any inside information. This is just an attempt to use publicly available information and numbers (huge thanks to Kicktraq) to put this together.

They will be shipping via USPS and will be contacting you approximately a week before your order ships.

I hope this help since I'm sure all of you fellow backers are as excited as I am about this!

Phone Buying Advice for the Non-Tech Inclined

Phone buying advice is not hard to find, rather it is hard to avoid. More than that, it is one of the more polarizing topics outside of religion and politics with the tech geek world. There's a fundamental problem with that though, and I've got some basic tips that can help to guide you to picking the right phone for you rather than the Verizon/AT&T/other employee who is selling it to you.

Employees of cell network carriers tend to be pretty familiar with smartphones, but not necessarily all phones. This leads to extremely biased dialog as they suggest their phone to everyone who walks in the door. The problem is that smartphones aren't a one-size-fits-all type of purchase. The people in the greatest need of tech advice get told to purchase a phone that may not be right for them. I have seen it happen several times, and once a person is convinced to buy a phone they will defend that purchase to the death to avoid feeling mislead.

This results in discomfort or malcontent for the phone, and then the user doesn't get to enjoy the phone as they rightfully should after spending that kind of money (monthly and/or up front). It is insulting to the customer, but if they don't know other phones that could more closely meet their needs exist, they'll never see how they've been wronged. Ok, enough of the rant, onto advice.

This article would be extraordinarily long if it were complete, but there are some key points that I'd like to mention.

Don't Get Blinded by "Features"

This point is the most important, and hands down the one that most people fall for - especially when you've got a salesperson telling you that you need phone X because it has the biggest screen, fastest processor, most apps, near-field communications (NFC), or any other feature they point to. This isn't to say these are to be avoided, these features are fantastic, but they aren't all fantastic for every consumer, a fact often overlooked.

The critical piece for the customer is to focus on what they need from their phone, how they plan to use it, and focus on how they can achieve this by prioritizing features. This takes a custom approach for the salesman to understand the user and guide them toward the right purchase for them. It is more time consuming and I have never seen a carrier store employee take the time to do this.

Considerations to make before committing to a purchase...

Screen Size - Things to consider here are what you'll do on the phone (movies, reading, games might warrant more screen space), but also how it affects the size of the phone. How big are your hands, can you reach the far corner when you're holding it with one hand?

Camera Quality - For many, the camera on smartphones has replaced the point and shoot we used to carry around. Do you have kids or puppies that move quickly? Make sure to check review on how quickly the camera snaps shots, how quickly the app opens, and how the quality compares. The built in sharing supporting your favorite social network (or Shared Photo Streams for iOS users) is a plus.

Battery Life - This is important, but more for some than others. Those with desk jobs and 10 chargers laying around might not consider this as critical as those on job sites for 2 days at a time.

Apps - As far as phones go, Android and iOS both have more than you'll ever need for apps. Windows Phone and BlackBerry might not.

"Open" vs. "Closed" - Don't get fooled... I cannot tell you the number of people that I've heard rag on iOS for being "closed" or praising Android for being "open" and NOT be able to back it up with an example of how this was actually a problem for them. There ARE pros and cons for each, but the guy at the Verizon store telling you an iPhone is "closed" (and they all do in my experience) means nothing to the vast majority of people. Before you commit, talk to someone with each platform you're interested in and ask them how they do X or solve problem Y. The odds are very good you'll find satisfactory (or even enjoyable) solutions on every single platform. Note: This is in reference to "normal" tasks from non-tech savvy users. There are examples where this simply doesn't hold true.

Extended Screens - Your smartphone isn't just a smartphone anymore. It is a hub for your life and can be used to broadcast to your TV, stream music to wireless speakers, print (haha, who the hell prints anymore?!), or seamlessly share content. For $99 any iOS device can stream video/audio to an Apple TV. Google is reportedly working on an "open" alternative to that. iOS devices have Shared Photo Streams that shares photos seamlessly via iCloud. These are just a few examples, it is worth considering how well your new phone will integrate with the technology you already have or want to get soon.

Price - Price is a factor to almost everyone, but will you kick yourself for saving $30 and being miserable (or even inconvenienced) for the next 2 years? Sure a toy today has a great deal of appeal, but what if you save up for 4 more weeks and get your dream phone?

Understanding 4G - Not all 4G is the same, and carriers are anything but straightforward with you (unless you meticulously read the fine print). Here's a guide to understanding 4G - Understanding when "4G" isn't 4G.

Accessory Market - How good is the accessory market, and do you need many? People who drop their phones a lot will need a good rugged case, some phones have very few (if any) rugged case options available. Do you need a charging cable everywhere you turn? Are they easily (and cheaply) available? How about a dock for your alarm clock?

Understanding When "4G" isn't 4G

Not All "4G" is Equal

Most carriers are lying to you. I find it a bit insulting, here is what you need to know to make informed decisions about 4G.

The term "4G" is overused, abused, and throughly misleading... thanks to the carriers. Real 4G networks are Long Term Evolution (commonly referred to as LTE) and WiMax (which Sprint is repurposing for prepaid 4G service only). Fake 4G, referred to by most geeks as 3.5G, is HSPA+ and is almost entirely what AT&T and entirely what T-Mobile rely on and call "4G".

You probably recognize "LTE" from Verizon commercials, that is because they're the only carrier that isn't lying to you about their 4G coverage. Here's what I mean... (iPhone 4S users, there's a section specially for you below.)

AT&T

AT&T claims to have the "largest 4G network." This conveniently avoids defining what they mean by "4G" because their coverage isn't actually 4G, it is 3.5G or HSPA+. Here are the coverage maps to compare AT&T vs. Verizon on their 4G LTE coverage.

AT&T 4G LTE Coverage

Verizon 4G LTE Coverage

It is worth mentioning that the places where AT&T has LTE coverage, it is very fast and reportedly satisfactory, same as Verizon.

T-Mobile

The lies don't stop there, T-Mobile has no 4G LTE coverage to speak of, they plan to start building it in 2013.

T-Mobile tries to sell their "4G" network (actually 3.5G) by comparing to other carriers. There's just one problem, they aren't comparing apples to apples. In this head-to-head with Verizon, they compare the Samsung Galaxy SII (T-Mobile) to the iPhone 4S (Verizon). They cover themselves legally by noting this in the fine print, but who reads that? The iPhone 4S on Verizon is a 3G device ONLY. There is no LTE support on the iPhone 4S, and Verizon doesn't have an HSPA+ network (which the iPhone 4S does support if the network does). They compare 3.5G HSPA+ to 3G CDMA, there is no relevant comparison to be made. I call bullshit.

iPhone 4S Users, What You Need to Know

I get the confused questions quite frequently with the iPhone 4S regarding 3G/4G support. The iPhone 4S supports HSPA+, which AT&T has and calls 4G. Verizon doesn't have an HSPA+ network, so Verizon iPhone 4S owners never see "4G" in their status bar. However, AT&T iPhone 4S owners do frequently see "4G" in their status bar. I hope the above article helps to clarify why that is. The iPhone 4S does not support 4G LTE, so when your iPhone 4S reads "4G" it is really 3.5G.

Closing Comments

HSPA+ isn't a bad technology and it doesn't result in slow crummy internet connections. It is quite the opposite in fact. I have no qualm with HSPA+ and I like that AT&T customers have that to fall back on before falling back yet again onto 3G. I just dislike the lack of clarity and false inflation of terms to try to sell you things that aren't accurate.

The argument on the flip side of the coin is that HSPA+ speeds are closer to 4G than to 3G, this is true. I saw HSPA+ called "3.75G" rather than 3.5G, and that might be a more accurate term.

What it all comes down to is understanding the network you rely on all day every day. This can save you money and will hopefully save you from the dreaded (biased as hell) salesmen at the carrier's stores.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/counter-arguments in the comments.

Understanding When "4G" isn't 4G

Not All "4G" is Equal

Most carriers are lying to you. I find it a bit insulting, here is what you need to know to make informed decisions about 4G.

The term "4G" is overused, abused, and throughly misleading... thanks to the carriers. Real 4G networks are Long Term Evolution (commonly referred to as LTE) and WiMax (which Sprint is repurposing for prepaid 4G service only). Fake 4G, referred to by most geeks as 3.5G, is HSPA+ and is almost entirely what AT&T and entirely what T-Mobile rely on and call "4G".

You probably recognize "LTE" from Verizon commercials, that is because they're the only carrier that isn't lying to you about their 4G coverage. Here's what I mean... (iPhone 4S users, there's a section specially for you below.)

AT&T

AT&T claims to have the "largest 4G network." This conveniently avoids defining what they mean by "4G" because their coverage isn't actually 4G, it is 3.5G or HSPA+. Here are the coverage maps to compare AT&T vs. Verizon on their 4G LTE coverage.

AT&T 4G LTE Coverage

Verizon 4G LTE Coverage

It is worth mentioning that the places where AT&T has LTE coverage, it is very fast and reportedly satisfactory, same as Verizon.

T-Mobile

The lies don't stop there, T-Mobile has no 4G LTE coverage to speak of, they plan to start building it in 2013.

T-Mobile tries to sell their "4G" network (actually 3.5G) by comparing to other carriers. There's just one problem, they aren't comparing apples to apples. In this head-to-head with Verizon, they compare the Samsung Galaxy SII (T-Mobile) to the iPhone 4S (Verizon). They cover themselves legally by noting this in the fine print, but who reads that? The iPhone 4S on Verizon is a 3G device ONLY. There is no LTE support on the iPhone 4S, and Verizon doesn't have an HSPA+ network (which the iPhone 4S does support if the network does). They compare 3.5G HSPA+ to 3G CDMA, there is no relevant comparison to be made. I call bullshit.

iPhone 4S Users, What You Need to Know

I get the confused questions quite frequently with the iPhone 4S regarding 3G/4G support. The iPhone 4S supports HSPA+, which AT&T has and calls 4G. Verizon doesn't have an HSPA+ network, so Verizon iPhone 4S owners never see "4G" in their status bar. However, AT&T iPhone 4S owners do frequently see "4G" in their status bar. I hope the above article helps to clarify why that is. The iPhone 4S does not support 4G LTE, so when your iPhone 4S reads "4G" it is really 3.5G.

Closing Comments

HSPA+ isn't a bad technology and it doesn't result in slow crummy internet connections. It is quite the opposite in fact. I have no qualm with HSPA+ and I like that AT&T customers have that to fall back on before falling back yet again onto 3G. I just dislike the lack of clarity and false inflation of terms to try to sell you things that aren't accurate.

The argument on the flip side of the coin is that HSPA+ speeds are closer to 4G than to 3G, this is true. I saw HSPA+ called "3.75G" rather than 3.5G, and that might be a more accurate term.

What it all comes down to is understanding the network you rely on all day every day. This can save you money and will hopefully save you from the dreaded (biased as hell) salesmen at the carrier's stores.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/counter-arguments in the comments.

Verizon to Sell Personal Data, Opt-Out Available

Verizon has just put a price on the respect they have for their customers. I am talking about the recent decision to share your personal information such as location, age, browser history, dining habits, and more. This information will be used by Verizon and by third parties, but details are scarce beyond that.

The worst part? This is an opt-out change. This means by default you opt-in whether you like it or not.

Yes Verizon, we, your financiers, get that you have a duty to shareholders to maximize profits and increase your margins. We aren't privy to exactly how much this arguably immoral change will boost your profit, but whatever that delta may be is certainly more valuable than the respect you have for your customers' trust.

Maybe Verizon will learn from the great stir this has caused. Maybe they will not. After all, this "only" affects smartphone users. Yes, all smartphone users. Most authors use "iPhone" in the title or body since that will get them more hits on searches, but rest assured, this mistreatment is platform agnostic.

Personally, I'm not much for worrying about a company's privacy policy usually. I submit the anonymous usage statistics on my devices. I have all my location services enabled. I have no reason to think I am an interesting enough person that tracking me is worth anyone's time. Even if I'm wrong I don't do many things (wait, Grandma are you reading this? I meant ANY things...) outside of my moral bounds that I'm ashamed of that are worth hiding from service and/or content providers.

So why my discontent over Verizon's choice? It boils down to this being a shady move. There is solid evidence to show that opt-out is vastly more successful than opt-in systems if you're trying to get people to opt-in. Selling your information to third parties is almost certainly not something a significant number of people would opt in for; so if they're going to sell your information, I supposed this is the way to do it.

Who knows, maybe Verizon will start offering us in Colorado volcano insurance next! That seems like the slippery slope their integrity is on with a move like this.

Let me know what you think of the changes in the comments. Are people blowing this out of proportion?

Size Matters, for Smartphones...

Bear with me, this isn't an ode to the new 4" iPhone 5 screen.

The number of use cases of our beloved pocket computers is immeasurable for all intensive purposes. The myriad of interactions gives way to the need for many permutations of phone. There are 2 approaches to solving this, shocking I know (<-- sarcasm font).

1. Pick an "average" acceptable size, aim at the center of the distribution curve, and stick to it. I can think of a fruit company who did alright with this approach ;).
2. Make a wide selection of screen sizes and let the consumer choose. An approach that works for some (Samsung) and not for others (the rest of the market struggling to make any money). 

I've enjoyed the 3.5" screen for several years now. Sometimes I wish I had more, like when I see a coworker composing an email and he can see more than the last 1.5 sentences he types. The flip side of this is that the phones I've chosen just so happen to be artistically beautiful, so without a case I love being able to easily and safely cradle my phone while I'm out and about. Never mind the merits of being able to rather easily reach every corner with 1 thumb while safely cradling said device.

I don't have huge hands, and I'm stubborn about cases, meaning 1 drop ends it all. That's my excuse anyway. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish I could see more than 2 lines of text in landscape mode though. The Samsung Galaxy SIII has been calling to me. If I was on AT&T and had the option to swap SIMs to pick my phone-of-the-day each morning, I think I'd be in nerd heaven. Of course the down side to that is being on AT&T... 

Side note, Apple has famously stated they don't use or listen to polls because often users don't know what they want until they have it. This has been true for them in many ways, no one predicted the success of the iPod, iPhone, or iPad. However, there are plenty of annoyances (or "quirks" if you prefer) that people would like to see resolved. Did Apple make the screen size choice to respond to their customers? That would be a rare move...

Anyone make the switch from a little screen to a big one? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Still No Simultaneous Voice & Data on iPhone 5

In a wildly disappointing turn of events, it has been confirmed that the iPhone 5 running on the Verizon network still won't support simultaneous voice and data. The decision was made due to the need for a 3rd antenna that would be needed to support the feature.

Android phones with LTE compatibility have long since offered simultaneous voice and data on the Verizon network, it was widely expected that Apple will do the same. For the time being, iPhone 5 users will have to rely on data through WiFi while on a voice call like all previous generations of Verizon iPhones.

Sprint has not yet commented what to expect with an iPhone 5 running on their network. AT&T iPhone 5 owners will enjoy simultaneous voice and data as this restriction doesn't affect GSM networks.

Study Finds Half of Android Devices are Vulnerable to Hacks

Recently, a study has found that half of Android devices have "unpatched vulnerabilities" that could leave the phone exposed to hacks, viruses, or other unfriendly results.

This doesn't mean half of Android devices are infected. There is an explicit distinction that clarifies the study scanned how vulnerable a phone is to attacks rather than whether or not an attack had taken place. Still, this is a scary number.

It is too easy to think of a phone as just a phone, and not a full computer as it (nearly) is today. We're rather complacent, we have banking apps that automatically log in for us when they're opened. We routinely check stocks or finances, and our address book is filled with personal and contact information for everyone we know.

Of course this convenience is why we love our phones, but just think if a hacker had full remote access of your phone. Set aside the case where you're unable to use your phone or recover your data, which is probably a nightmare for most. What about the hacker that has full control without you ever knowing it? The hacker that quietly collects your passwords and banking information by way of key-logging, or watches your calendar for when you're out of town and your home is unguarded, or any other wildly malicious situation.

The odds of this happening to you? Low. Very low. That doesn't mean it isn't valuable to be cognisant of these issues and proactive in protecting yourself.