A while ago I asked for recommendations for Android Podcast apps. From all over the Internet I got a great number of recommendations, and looked into all of them.
A while ago I asked for recommendations for Android Podcast apps. From all over the Internet I got a great number of recommendations, and looked into all of them.
While diving deeper into my openHAB installation, the need for notifications on mobile phones came up. After some research, I settled with Pushover, which provides Android and iOS apps, as well as Desktop notifications. openHAB Rules have support for Pushover, and everything works well together.
Except when Android decides to kill apps, because they sit idle and do nothing. It so happens on my Huawei phone that notifications are delivered to the device, but no popup shows up. Only when I open the up, suddenly all the messages are there. The Pushover FAQ has an entry for this, even for Huawei phones, but it is outdated.
After another research it turns out, that the battery management in Android is at fault - but it can be disabled.
Vacation time ahead, and the iPad in the house (who ever had the idea of buying one?) needs a proper VPN connection, in order to be able to access Netflix in Germany.
On Android it’s fairly easy: install the app, drop CA cert, private cert, and key on the device, add everything - done. Three devices ready in less than 10 minutes.
And then I tried the iPad …
It was time to pick a new mobile phone for myself. Not being very happy with the Samsung I have from my employer, I compiled a list of decent Android phones, and looked into each of them. In the end, I settled with the Huawei P10.
At home I have two different Wi-Fi networks, both known to all my mobile devices. One is our internal network, password protected. The other one is an open Freifunk network. It’s nice to walk around in the village and automatically connect to other Freifunk Wi-Fi routers, instead of using expensive mobile data.
But when at home I really want my devices connected to our internal network. Makes it easy to copy files between devices, or access services only available in our internal network. Plus the native Wi-Fi connection is much faster than the Freifunk connection, which is limited by the speed of the VPN.
About two years ago, I wrote about a long list of annoying features in my then Samsung S5 device (company issued). A while ago I got a Samsung S6 - so it’s time to see if Samsung came around and fixed items on the list.
The good news is that some of the really annoying “features” are gone. No more unnerving sounds when the device is fully charged, no more mandatory warning about sealing the USB port cover when unplugging from the charger (this might have to do with the fact that the S6 is no longer waterproof). Lock screen timeout slightly increased, but you also have to slide up to unlock the device - it no longer presents the keyboard by default. S Finder is gone - who did ever use this one anyway?
Up until recently I was using an App to clean the the Android cache once in a while. If you don’t, the device over time get’s sluggish, because too many apps store too much data in the cache. Over time this cache can grow to GBs in size.
On the other hand, every single “clean cache App”, over time, started showing more and more aggresive advertising. I get that the developer wants to make some money, that’s fine. But maybe the money is not enough, so more advertising it is.
OpenStreetMap is an awesome project. Contributors constantly improve a online map and add new data, fix items in the map which did change in the real world, or improve the data for a number of projects (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, List) building on top of the map. Being outside a lot, I figured that I can contribute as well. It’s just a question of how to transport the data from “out there” back to the laptop in my office. After probing around and trying a few tools, I came up with 3 different ways, depending on the situation and amount of changes.
SimCity BuildIt is a remake of SimCity 2013 for Android and iOS, however with many differences in the game play. After seing it in the Android Play Store, I’ve downloaded it and played it for a few days - and then deleted it, because the game is an attention whore.
You will buy your copy of SimCity 2013, but the iOS and Android versions are for free. Or so you think. But make no mistake, you won’t get very far if you do not spend real money on the game, even if you play it all the time.
Android is a very nice operating system, people like it because it’s highly configurable. One of the major players in this game - Samsung Mobile - annoys it’s users with certain “features”, which you mostly can’t switch off or get rid off.
Even more annoying - for me - that’s the only Android option I get offered by my employer. The alternatives are iPhone, or Blackberry. So not really an option. Two years ago I switched to a Samsung S3, and a few weeks ago it was time to renew the contract, so shortly before Christmas there was a box with a shiny new S5 waiting for me in the office. Using the new mobile for two weeks now, I realized that Samsung remains true to themself and added more annoying functionality over the past two years.
Samsung is churning out dozens of different mobile devices every year. Maybe they should hire a few User Interface designers, or simply start using their own stuff, and see how annoying it is to use.