Year: 2010
Android App Of The Week: City Caller ID
Yes, I know it’s Thursday and I should be doing this Wednesdays. I wrote this at work so I couldn’t get a screenshot off my phone, then I came home and fell asleep. Anyway…
Today’s Android app of the week: City Caller ID. An oldie, but goodie. It’s relatively simple. City Caller ID places the city and state on your incoming call screen sothat you can recognize where a call is originating from.
Not only does it look up area codes, it also looks up the next three digits to narrow it down to a town. This may not be accurate for cell phones, but you get the general idea.
So what stinks about this app? The database isn’t stored on the SD card, so it uses about 3MB even though the app is 100kb or so. I contacted the developer and he said he was going to try to implement it, but got shut down. Still worth the download and install.
This is no longer available on the Android Market because some moron with a software patent threatened legal action against the developer. But I’m awesome and have the APK file for you, so grab it here. (You’ll have to put that on your SD card, go to settings–>applications and check unknown sources, then browse to the file using something like AndroZip or APK Installer and install. Little tricky for the newbies, leave me a comment if you’re confused.
Random News Story Commentary (7/13/2010)
Here are some random tech (and non tech) stories that have been interesting overt the past few days. Hey, wouldn’t this make a good daily segment to this blog? Yes it would, and I’m not doing it. 1) I only have 3 readers and 2) it takes up too much time. I could be sleeping or something like that. It was actually really fun to gather, so maybe I’ll do it when I feel like it. We’ll see. The stories:
Steinbrenner Dies at 80 – Jeez. First Bob Sheppard, now him? We better be winning the World Series this year in their honor. George was a generous man, a leader, wonderful businessman and truly cared about winning and his fans. R.I.P Georgie.
Consumer Reports Slams the iPhone 4 – Good. It’s a piece of shit. If you haven’t heard the news, Consumer Reports did it’s official review on the iPhone 4 and could not recommend it because its antenna issues are a real problem. According to lab tests, holding the phone in the wrong spot (AKA holding it normally) degrades the signal enough to drop a call, which explains why the jokeface Apple fanboy over at The Other Mac Blog hangs up on me 5 times whenever we have a 10 minute phone conversation. Jobs is now on suicide watch. I bet some engineer is really an Apple hater and did it on purpose. This is what happens when you only let one dude test the prototype and he loses it at a bar. Oh, and threads about the Consumer Reports review keep disappearing off of Apple’s user forums. Sweet censorship, Apple. What the hell is this, China?
Moron Wants to Send Android Phone into Space – This joker raised $2,000 from 65 people for supplies that will launch his EVO4G into space. The dude wants to launch it in a balloon, use it to take pictures and track it with GPS. First off, GPS loses signal after a certain elevation. Secondly, someone already did this on a $150 budget. I just don’t get it. The battery won’t last past 8,000 feet on that thing. I can think of 487 other uses of that money, such as alcohol, strippers, top hats or the Portfolioso is currently unemployed fund.
Nick Swisher Lost the Shit out of the Home Run Derby – Congrats to David ‘Roids Ortiz. Doesn’t matter, the derby is by far the most boring sporting event on television, I fell asleep right after the third batter in round 1. It’s almost as bad as soccer. Nick Swisher is still my boy. The real news is that Bobby Valentine predicted that Jose Ortiz would win it. Typical grandpa thing to do – take a dude with a hispanic name and randomly generate a hispanic first name (Juan Ortiz, Luiz Ortiz, Ramon Ortiz, Miguel Ortiz, whatever – same person.) And to think, I wanted that senile man to manage my team after Torre left.
Dear Google, Please Invite me to the Android AppInventor beta – If you haven’t heard of AppInventor in the news recently, it’s all the rage. Google is developing a tool to create Android Apps in your browser without knowing the java programming. It will be a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool that will allow anyone to develop an app. This is good and bad. The good is that it’s designed for educators and that supposedly, this tool can be used to access almost anything that Android can do. The bad: the marketplace is already cluttered with junk apps and this will most certainly add more. Just look at WYSIWYG web editors – they work, but they make 1995 looking junk pages. I am counting on Google to do this right though. It won’t make the most pretty or efficient apps, but it’s something to play with. I can finally get working on that Portfolioso quotes app.
Shut Up About the iPhone 4’s Antenna Issues Already
July 15, 2010
Computer/ Tech Related, Rants
No Comments
Portfolioso
ATTENTION TV, NEWS and INTERNET: STOP COVERING THIS STORY ALREADY
If you haven’t heard that this phone is a fuckin shitpile by now, you are either Hellen Keller, dead or living here. There have been 300 articles per minute on my newsreader since June 24th about how the antenna is shitty. We get the point.
Now Steve Jobs felt the need to call an emergency press conference today at 10AM PST with less than a day notice so he can address these issues. Anything other than “I fucked up” or “We are not as amazing as everyone thinks because we have obsessed, blind followers” is a downright lie.
Here’s my problem with Apple. No matter how good or bad they are, people are obsessed. And any time there is news, it’s all the rage.
Ok people? Got it? It has an antenna problem, Jobs was warned, and he was a dick with PR about it. What more is there to analyze? So with that, no one cover this any more, I’m tired of reading it.
ApplePhones