Exxodium

The “just use the cloud” bullshit

Is it just me, or is it bullshit that phone OEMs are making devices with absolutely abysmal amounts of onboard storage and falling back on the “cloud” to make up for that shortcoming?

You might argue that this is “the futureeeeee”, but this notion depends on a few things:

1. That we have perfect signal everywhere we go, with 100% uptime.

2. That truly unlimited data exists, and we don’t get charged for overages.

3. That streaming data from the cloud does not have a noticeable effect on battery life.

The only way we can even get close to #1 is by being on Verizon, whose network covers a vast amount of America. #2 only exists on Sprint, and even Dan Hesse himself said that nothing is forever. We’re moving toward tiered data, not away from it. #3 is something that we don’t have yet, and likely will never have for a long time to come.

So, essentially, using the cloud as a get-out-of-jail-free card when you skimped on including generous amounts of local storage is bullshit. 

There is, of course, a simple solution: microSD expansion. But of course, Android is moving away from microSD (See: HTC One X, Samsung Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus), so whatever comes on the phone is all we have to deal with.

And Android OEMs don’t seem to want to offer multiple price tiers based on storage, like the iPhone. One solution fits all! Don’t like it? HTC includes 25GB of Dropbox storage!

Like I said, the OEMs are crutching themselves on the cloud. And here in America, they’ve convinced themselves that there will never be demand for a phone with more than 16GB of storage.

You guys keep on believing that line.

‘cause it’s total bullshit.

I got in an interesting argument with someone over phone upgrades, and utilizing the “free” options given out by the carriers. In this case, Verizon. There are some points I’d like to share regarding “free” phones.

First off, the list of free phones I was given were phones like the Droid Charge, the LG Enlighten, the Blackberry Curve, and Xperia Play. You’ll note these devices are pretty old, and likely very close to being sent off into the sunset by the carriers that sell them. This is a problem. Because you’ll be stuck with that phone for 2 years, and once it gets end of life’d, it won’t receive any more support from the manufacturer. Meaning no more updates. Show-stopping bug in the last firmware update ever issued for the device (akin to the enV touch)? Good luck waiting on a fix unless you modify your device and install custom software.

Secondly, these are all smartphones. There is no distinction (right now, at least) in Verizon’s system between the original Droid, and the new Droid 4. You’re paying the same amount of money monthly for this device over a 2 year period. So why cheap out and get some phone that’s very likely to have it’s support ended not long after you buy it? Why not buy something that’s far more future proof, and something that has a lot more developer support (like the RAZR Maxx, or the upcoming Incredible 4G LTE) for you to fall back on in case the manufacturer ends support prematurely?

The only way cheaper is better is when you’re buying off-contract. When you’re buying on-contract, however, your phone becomes an investment because you’re stuck with it for up to two years, and you’ll need it to last. Hence why I believe you should get a good phone from the outset, because you get what you pay for. And if you buy a good phone, it will easily last you well into that two year contract, perhaps even outlasting it.

What’s going on with exxodium.net

(tl;dr: A relaunch of sorts)

I recently announced that I’d be closing down exxodium.net, without much explanation. Now that I’ve got an official closure as to the job I was applying for, I can speak a lot more on the subject and shed some light on what’s going on.

Some time ago, I applied for a certain prestigious consumer electronics company. I didn’t expect to hear anything back from them, but I figured why not try? So try I did. And eventually, it paid off: I was invited to a group interview. 

After kicking some major ass at said group interview, I was called in to meet some higher level staff, as they said I did a good job at the group interview. This is where things started getting dicey. I was asked to talk with three different people, with 15 minute segments each. Fine, I did well in a group session. I’ve got the stage all to myself now, and I should be a-okay now that I can shine.

The first interview was okay. He asked some off the wall questions, mainly one I couldn’t answer, because I didn’t get what he was saying. When asked if he could elaborate a bit more, as I couldn’t comprehend the question, he simply said “No.”

That feeling of “Holy shit I’m fucked” started setting in. And it was the next person I’d be talking with that would seal the deal on that. And caused all of this to happen.

The next guy, who just has this look of straight-up aggression on his face, starts things off on a terrible note—by criticizing my e-mail address. Yes, it might be unprofessional, but it’s also running through my own domain, which I would imagine would convey the feeling that I know my shit when it comes to these things.

After that’s over, he asks what exxodium.net is, and I explain that it’s where I do my writing, because I like to write. He asks what I write about. “Tech. Mobile phones. Mostly mobile phones.” So he whips out his phone, and loads up my site right in front of me, and begins reading through all of my articles.

He asks me if I do or do not think that since I write about the same market that this company competes in, there would be a conflict of interest. Without skipping a beat, I said that if it came down to it, I would shut down everything if I got the job, because no way in HELL am I going to try and get myself in a situation like that. Nosiree.

The rest of that segment didn’t go much better. It was mostly me trying to stand by my work and defend it, while this guy was tearing me apart over it. The subject of my hate for Verizon came up, and he mentioned “we sell Verizon devices.” Once again, conflict of interest came up.

Never mind the fact that I can put aside my personal beliefs on the job (and I already do with my current job).

But he wasn’t taking it. He simply insisted that there would be a conflict of interest. The whole thing felt like shooting fish in a barrel, except I was the fish, and he was the one aiming the gun.

The next segment of the interview was much better, but I was so insanely mindfucked that I lost it completely. I mumbled my way through it and left.

Then, two days later, I got an email saying that I was officially declined for the position.

On the way home from that experience, I began thinking to myself about the whole thing. What should I do? Keep exxodium.net going? Let it shut down? 

Once I got home, my first reaction was to just throw the whole thing out. And I did. But after thinking about it, I’ve decided that a relaunch is probably going to be the best bet. New domain, new beginning. I’ll continue to write about tech, among other things. But I need to keep my business persona and personal persona completely separate. I lost the job because I let the line get blurred, and that’s not going to happen again.

I dunno if anyone shares the same plight as me, but here goes:

I’ve basically determined that there is no way I can ever play multiplayer games with any of my friends. Ever.

But why is this? I’ll tell you. Because they don’t have fun playing the games that they play. They are only concerned with two things: Winning or losing. And to me, it sucks the fun out of the game.

Anything less than gold league in Starcraft 2? You’re a scrub piece of shit.

Your KDA ratio suck in League of Legends? You’re a scrub piece of shit.

Play anything less than HARDCORE EXTREME difficulty in any game? Your’re a scrub piece of shit.

It’s fucking infuriating to have the fun of the game sucked out by all the people you play it with. So my friends wondered when I wandered off to play something I knew I was good at: Rock Band 3. One of them asked why I insisted on playing games that no one else was playing. “Because I feel like playing a game where it isn’t your objective to make those who are less skilled than you feel like shit.”

That’s when one of these said friends came over and promptly wrecked me in Rock Band, stating that he’s “better”. I put down the game and to this day have never picked it up again.

This friend even went so far as trying to make me read this, which only served to infuriate me further.

You know why?

It’s not about fucking winning and losing. Unless you’re an actual progamer, then stop fucking worrying about winning or losing.

It’s about having fun. It’s about progressing with your skills. If you’re not having fun, you’re not going to get anywhere with the games you’re playing. That’s my belief.

Finally, I had tuned into this friend’s stream, where he used to stream starcraft games for fun. Now, he has a pro-grade headset, a webcam focused on himself, with a stream overlay advertising his group. And all he does is ladder endlessly.

With all due respect, fuck that.

Regarding the T-Mo HD7 and SD cards

• If you lack the proper Torx bit to get the plastic framework off, an H1 Allen driver will do in a pinch. Just be sure not to strip out the screws.
• The plastic bit covering the bottom 3rd of the back of the phone is actually easily removed with your fingernails. Trying to do it with anything else will likely bend the antenna contacts, and your phone becomes useless.
• The plastic framework that covers the PCB and components is very flimsy, and I could imagine it can be easily modified to allow access to the SD card without having to remove it.
• If you happened to buy the HD7 on T-Mo USA, it actually comes with 16GB of storage, not 8 as widely reported. And it’s ALL on the SD card. There’s no internal memory on the HD7 like there is on the Samsung Focus.

Take a look at the Android and iPhone subreddits at any given time. Notice something?

In the top 10 of /r/Android, you usually see a post or two about how much Apple sucks, or how Apple is doing something bad, or something generally negative about people who use Apple products or the company itself.

In the top 10 of /r/iPhone, you see people either asking for help, sharing tips, asking for advice, and generally not even talking about Android.

Says a lot about either community.

Bye, Tumblr

After all the reblog/like spam, I’ve decided to just move things over to my own controlled site so I don’t have to deal with it anymore.

This will remain here as an archive.

You can now find me at http://exxodium.net

“Until the end and back again, defiant to the last man. Till there’s nothing left to fight against, no surrender.” -VNV Nation, Defiant

I feel this is a good way to start off this post.

Since my last post on the issue, things haven’t gotten any better with the HTC Arrive. In fact, they’ve gotten worse. Allow me to enumerate the issues thus far:

1. Text messaging still capped at 160 characters. Other WP7 phones have this, even on CDMA networks (look no farther than the HTC Trophy). Only now, we have new information: This affects the 7 Pro variant on US Cellular, which absolves Sprint’s network of any blame over this issue.
2. The zune player will cease to work if you’re listening through the headphone jack, and you open or close the phone’s slider. This started happening with the official Mango update, and wasn’t present in the 7720 RTM build.
3. Battery life has been reduced in some instances. My own Arrive only lasts 8 hours with very light use, when it used to last more than 12.
4. Some of HTC’s apps in the Marketplace can no longer identify the Arrive as an HTC phone, and as such, no longer work.

I reached out to HTC over this, multiple times. I was told it would just be passed along within the company. I finally gave up and emailed them once I found out the official Mango update doesn’t fix the messaging bug, and, nothing. No information regarding any type of fix for this issue. At all. The thing that really set me off is not that the messaging bug was never fixed. It’s the fact that it wasn’t fixed and Mango further crippled the Arrive.

I’m really annoyed.

Annoyed because I bought this phone. And it was perfect. It had the little problem with not being able to send long messages. But so what? The phone got everything else right. But now, multiple issues are coming up, and using the phone is beginning to feel more annoying with each passing day. And HTC seems like it’s not willing to do anything about them.

So, I feel the only thing us Arrive users can do is band together, and collectively pressure Sprint and HTC into doing something or at least giving us a straight answer. If anything, If they’re just going to abandon us, I would like to know that much so that I may never trust them again.