Tag Archives: android

Snapseed for Android vs Instagram

Snapseed

After Google bought Nik Software, makers of the then iOS-only app Snapseed, today they have released it for Android and for free! Snapseed is a very easy to use photo app to edit and enhance your shots.

Editing photos with Snapseed is very easy and the results are good. But let me compare it with the most popular photo sharing app right now: Instagram.

Filters

They both apply filters to photos. On Instagram you select the desired filter and see the preview instantly. You can’t select more than one filter on a photo. On Snapseed, not only you can apply several filters to a photo, but you can also tweak the settings of each filter.

instagram filters snapseed filters

You have complete control over each effect you apply and that opens the posiblities to produce very interesting things. Snapseed not only applies filters to a photo, it can also straighten it, sharpen it and apply color correction on it.

snapspeed tweaking options snapseed easy to use

Cropping

On Instagram all photos need to be square, and thus, you have to crop your images if you’re using the standard camera app on your device. Unless you use the Instagram camera app that takes only squared pictures, you will need to leave out something on your image when you crop it. Snapseed works with the full image, no matter the size. This includes panoramic and even the new photo sphere in Android 4.2.

instagram cropping snapseed with panoramic photo

Social

The community is what is lacking in Snapseed, since it’s only a photo editing application, not a social network. But that is why Google has integrated it with Google+ and the photography community there is amazing. On Instagram you have a nice huge community but most of the pictures are not high quality material and since you can’t tweak the filters, you get the same feeling across multiple images and users. But even then, I love browsing the photos from my Twitter contacts that have accounts there, and double tapping to love their posts and explore new users to follow from what my peers have “loved” too.

With Snapseed you can stamp your own unique style to your shots and share them with the huge Google+ photography community. Over there, there’s more than just mobile photos of mirror self shots or coffee and food pictures. It’s a community with great professional and amateur photographers and good quality images. Also, it’s hard to browse and explore the Instagram social network from the browser. There’s been some improvements lately but still, it was not designed to be a web experience but a mobile one. Google+ is a very nice web and mobile experience and lets you post more than just your mobile photos.

instagram post Google plus post via snapseed

Quality

One of my biggest rants about using Instagram is the quality of the images it produces. Since it was designed specifically for mobile devices and mobile sharing, the files are very compressed and with a very low quality. Here’s a sample of the same image before and after Instagram. You can see the difference in quality from miles away. For me, Instagram destroys your images and the only place they look good is on a mobile device (try printing your pictures!). Snapseed doesn’t compress the final image that much, so the result is a lot more enjoyable in any media.

Instagram quality

Snapseed quality

Conclusion

I only use Instagram for it’s sharing capabilities. I can multi-post from one app to several social networks with one click. That part I do like. For the rest, I think that Snapseed covers most of my photo editing needs and it’s very good at that. Snapseed will give you all your photo editing needs on a full size image without completely destroying your image quality. They made it easy to share on Google+, naturally, but you can also send it to any other app with the standard “Share” button functionality, but it won’t be one click.

instagram sharing options google plus post via snapseed

With all these competition for mobile photography, I wonder when will Flickr wake up and what will they do if they ever update and improve their poor and slow app.

MobileOrg for Android setup and workflow

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Here’s a quick post on how I setup MobileOrg for Android

First of all, get the MobileOrg app from the Google Play Store. In my case, I set it up to work with my Dropbox account. The setup wizard is very simple and really the confusion or configuration relies on the desktop side with your Emacs setup.

According to the Org mode manual about MobileOrg, you have to setup the following:

You need to tell orgmode where all your org files will be stored. In my case I put them inside a ‘org/’ in my home directory.

;; Org mode
(setq org-directory "~/org")

Then you need to configure this two OrgMobile settings. The first variable “org-mobile-directory” must point to your local dropbox folder, the same path you indicated on your mobile device when configuring the app. The second one is the index file that MobileOrg will use to keep track of changes and other temporary stuff. I put it inside my org-directory for simplicity.

;; MobileOrg
(setq org-mobile-directory "~/Dropbox/MobileOrg")
(setq org-mobile-inbox-for-pull (concat org-directory "/index.org"))

Make sure the index.org file you indicated exists, if not create an empty file in that path.

Workflow

Now comes the simple part on how to work with it. All you have to do to make your org files available to the app is to run:

M-x org-mobile-push

On the app, just push the synchronize button each time you make any changes so they can be pulled on the desktop side with:

M-x org-mobile-pull

And that's it! Very simple and useful. I still think the MobileOrg app needs a lot of UI improvements but it's nice to have you org notes available at anytime and easy to edit without using only a text editor on a mobile device.

Going wireless with Plantronics M155 and Android

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My old Motorola bluetooth headset that I’ve used for more than 6 years has been wearing out. The plastic rubber got ugly and started to break apart. Time to get a new headset.

After a while of browsing through the store shelves, I have to confess that the main reason I got the Plantronics M155 Bluetooth Headset was because it had a “Android compatible” sticker in the box. It’s maddening that you go to a tech store to buy gadgets for your house and all you see everywhere is iPod/iPad compatible stuff with the ugly 30 pin connector and nothing to attract Android users. Hope this gets better with the new iPhone5 connector and manufacturers think more about broader device compatibility.

I like using mobile headsets, first of all, because of security concerns. Driving with one hand while holding the phone with the other, while it is still permitted/tolerated in some states in Mexico, it is not a good idea. Also, it’s way more comfortable to use the headset and answer quiclky with the push of a button. With this device I don’t even need to push a button, it has voice command recognition so it answers when I say “Answer” when a call arrives.

Lately, when taking a walk with my dog or while doing errands, I’ve been listening to music using the wired headphones that came with my Galaxy Nexus. But only used them on one ear, so I wouldn’t isolate all sound from my surroundings. I don’t want to get run by a car I didn’t hear coming.

Many times I had to switch from listening to music on my headphones, to listening to music on my car’s speakers (using a line-in cable) and connecting my bluetooth headset while in the car. Then, getting out of the car and switch back to wired headphones. The Plantronics M155 made the whole thing simpler because it has support for streaming music and when I plug the aux cable for the car speakers it switches automatically to the line out.

At first I thought that the grip wouldn’t hold and that I would need the over the ear loop that comes in the package. I took it to the gym using the default rubber thing that comes with it, and to my surprise, it didn’t fall off at all, even while at the treadmill. So although small and simple by the looks, it is well designed.

Volume levels and sound quality are good. Voices are very clear, and although I haven’t asked about it, I think ambient noise reduction is okay.

It has a manual on/off switch, which I like a lot, since my prevous Motorola model had one button that I had to hold for several seconds to power on or off. This was bad when travelling, I threw it in my backpack and it would turn on by itself if it got pressed against something. Then I took it out with the surprise that it had been on for a while and the battery was drained. The manual on/off switch is a must for such small gadgets. It’s also faster to power up since I don’t have to wait, which can be critical when you forget to turn your headset on and started driving away.

I expected more from the “Android compatible” labeling. I’m not talking about the label itself, but about the app. First, there is no QR code for me to get to the right app. I had to search for it by name on the Google Play Store. Then, after I installed it, all it does is just to report the status and battery of the device. No configuration or custom options for buttons or behaviors.

The battery on the device so far has proven to be great. I streamed music for 2.5 hours and still had 2 more hours of talk time. Plantronics claims that it has a 5 hour talk time, but I’m yet to find out. So far so good anyway. And the nice detail that it tells you how much talking time you have left when you power on the device is great. No more surprise hangups or having a dead device without any hints like with my previous headset.

Another good thing is the carging method. The Motorola model charged with a mini USB cable, and sometimes I couldn’t have that around with me at all times to charge it when needed. The Plantronics M155 charges with a micro USB, same as the phone, so that makes it easier to charge using the same cable, which I usually have one around, or quickly borrow one from another Android phone user.

So far I’m happy with the purchase. Being cables free while driving and now also while listening to music has been a nice experience. Specially when you walk your dog and sometimes the leash entangles with the headphones and she pulls the cable and gets them unplugged either from your phone, or worse, from your ears.

Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich from Telcel

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Galaxy Nexus box

I was lucky to get an online coupon to get the Galaxy Nexus phone on launch in Mexico (Telcel carrier) last thursday.

The software and usability

I wanted to give the phone some use before writing about it so I waited some weeks to post anything about it. I think it’s a very fast and elegant phone and the new operating system is key to its success. The good news is that the Galaxy Nexus was not altered by the carrier, so it has no crapware on it. It’s 100% Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Having used for months the Samsung Galaxy Tab with Honeycomb, moving to ICS was not a big deal to me, but I can imagine that it would be a big leap for Gingerbread users. The interface is very different and they way you interact with apps has also changed. Since there are no “physical” buttons, or touchable buttons like in the Galaxy S and S2, all buttons are on screen. The menu button is gone, so for apps that use it you need to look for a button that has three vertical dots. That can be very confusing at first, but having used the Honeycomb’s Gtalk and Gmail apps, it was easy to figure that out immediately.

One friend once complained about Android taking too long to open the contacts list. On the Galaxy S it took a couple seconds to load. I don’t know if this is Samsung specific or all 2.x versions had this lag. On ICS there is no lag when opening the contacts list, it has a very fast scroll and it has a very nice and clean design.

For the security aware people, ICS now comes with an option to encrypt your phone, a feature that was present in Honeycomb as well for the tablets (but I hadn’t tried until now). The bad news about it is that once you decide to encrypt your phone, you can no longer use swipe, pattern or face unlock screens. Only PIN and passphrase unlock screens are available. I didn’t expect that but I don’t mind, I “ported” my pattern to a PIN and use that. I can’t imagine typing a passphrase everytime you want to unlock your phone.

Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich

The hardware and design

On the hardware design part, I like the fact that the headphone jack is at the bottom and not at the top like in the Galaxy S, this makes it more comfortable and a more natural movement when taking it out of your pocket without having to flip it around. I sometimes miss the front button that you could tap quickly to turn on the screen.

My surprise though, was that when I read the Galaxy Nexus official website, it says it has 32Gb of internal storage and no indication of any alternative options. The version I got, has only 13Gb and since it has no SD card slot to expand your storage, this can get quite limited.

The Galaxy Nexus has a multicolor notification LED that is very practical to see what type of notification you haven’t seen. The downside is that the LED blinks very slowly, so you have to stare at your phone for a couple seconds to see if there’s anything blinking. On the Galaxy S I used BLN notification and when I had a notification, the LEDS were always on. If only I could make the Galaxy Nexus LED blink faster it would be more practical.

Compared to the Galaxy S2, the phone’s camera is “smaller” on the Galaxy Nexus, and by that I mean that it has a 5 megapixel camera vs the Galaxy S2′s 8 megapixel camera. The good news is that it has a zero delay shutter speed so as soon as you hit the button, the picture is taken. Long shutter lags was one of my biggest rants on previous phone cameras, so for me this is a must have on every phone from now on.

Battery lasts longer than my Galaxy S, for which I’ve had to buy an additional battery because it drains so quickly. Still you have to take the normal battery saving considerations of turning off things that you don’t need, but it still lasts longer on idle. It’s a bigger battery as well, so it might be just that.

Conclusion

Having used the phone for a couple weeks now, I noticed that for me there was little difference in speed and usability to use the Galaxy Tab with Honeycomb or the Galaxy Nexus with ICS. But I could feel a difference when using the Galaxy S with Gingerbread. I went on a weekend trip taking only my phone and I didn’t miss my Tab or my laptop to do my causal browsing and information consuming “needs”. But I couldn’t say the same if I just had the Gingerbread phone, the larger screen and the commodities of ICS in the Galaxy Nexus makes it a very fast and comfortable mobile device. ICS is a very well built mobile operating system that is not designed as only a smartphone like the 2.x Android versions. I’m very happy with this new phone and I recommend it greatly.

New media reading habits on tablets and ebook readers

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With the latest releases of ebook readers and tablet devices (iPad, xoom, galaxy tab, etc) reading habits are changing from paper based to digital in a faster pace than before.

I’ve been using my Samsung Galaxy Tab for reading a lot more. I enjoy more reading my social media updates (Twitter, Google+, Facebook) on this device than using my laptop. Sometimes I even prefer to use that device even when having my laptop in front of me. Maybe touch scrolling feels nicer than wheel or trackpad scrolling. I still don’t know what exactly it is that makes it feel better.

I once borrowed a Kindle from work and one day, right before a 6hr long flight, the screen got damaged. On that trip I wanted to try out travelling with only the Kindle and no paper books, so I was left without any reading material. It was a frustrating waste of time. The advantage of travelling light is no longer very attractive to me over the advantage of reliable reading material.

On the other hand, I’m also very concerned about DRM in ebooks and the volatility of digital goods. Being in a “third” world country, I’m not used to buying digital goods, since there hasn’t been much services available and many US based services are blocked or restricted. The good side of it is that with free software like Calibre, I can convert any PDFs I find into Kindle format easily.

I am yet to try out the Google Books app in the tablet. I found a lot of excellent classic reading material for free so I can try before spending any buck like books from Jules Verne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The advantage I see on reading on the Kindle over reading on my Android tablet is that the Kindle is a distractions free gadget. On my tab I’ll get easily distracted with new email notifications, app updates, status updates, etc.

Some friends claim to be reading more now that they have a Kindle than when having paper books. While other friends who own an android tablet or iPad device tend to use their laptops less at home after work is done.

So I still wonder why is ebook reading on these devices more and more attractive lately. Is it because of the novelty of the gadget? Is there a real advantage or commodity over paper books or is it just techie fashion?

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition at Google I/O 2011

I got the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition at Google I/O in May. Its now mid September and I’ve been wanting to give it some use before giving an opinion about it and review it.

The technical aspects

Big display of 10.1 inches.
Its got a fast processor, applications and games run very well.
Honeycomb is a nice operating system.
I couldn’t imagine this device with the Samsung Touchwiz that comes in the Galaxy S phones and the previous tablet. Its horrible! This one came originally with 3.0, which crashed applications frequently and had some bugs like not being able to change the clock’s timezone after setup. Now I understand they come with 3.1 by default. I’ve done the upgrade and its a lot more stable and smooth.
32GB internal memory, but no expansion slots.

One feature that I haven’t heard much talking about is that Honeycomb has a very nice security feature: it allows you to encrypt the whole tablet. I hope this feature makes it into Ice Cream Sandwich because its a lot more needed on the phone. I guess loosing the phone is more common that loosing a tablet.

The uses

So far I’ve used it to watch videos on Youtube, playing Angry Birds and trying out some other games since the screen size is a lot more comfortable for gaming. I’ve been using it a lot for reading links from social networks, blogs and generally all my RSS feeds. It has become my casual browsing and social media device. With its big screen size and low weight its ideal for “couch computing”.

I bought a small generic base for it and some cheap desktop logitech speakers to put it in the kitchen counter to listen to music or watch and hear conferences, videos and South Park episodes while cooking or washing dishes.

Apps

Although there are still many apps that haven’t upgraded their interfaces for tablet display using the latest Android toolkit, the ones that do look great. Here are the apps I’ve been frequently using on my tablet:

Plume for Twitter updates
Pulse for news and RSS feeds
Gmail, this app has been optimized to look beautiful in the tablet
Google+ is not optimized for tablets but its UI layout is okay
Mustard for my Identi.ca microblogging updates is not optimized for tablets
Google Music in combination with external speakers or my home theater its a great music listening device
Google Talk, video chatting from the tablet is very comfortable and handy
Youtube
Google Reader with its recent tablet layout version is now much more enjoyable to use

The downsides

Known factory defect of the corner glue. Haven’t heard of the issue on the new retail models.
Lack of apps optimized for Honeycomb and general tablet layout
Low sound I don’t know if this is true to all android devices or just Samsung ones, but when I use external speakers with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or my Samsung Galaxy S phone, the max volume is still low (even more with Flash videos) compared to when I plug in an iPhone or iPod device (even with Rockbox) on the same speakers.

Final thoughts

I’m glad to have it. I like playing with it and having it around, its a handy device, but it is not a computer. I wouldn’t spend that much money for a gadget like this, but my mexican economy is not the same as the one from a “developed” country. But even then, gadgets here in Mexico cost twice as much (the first galaxy tab is $800 USD plus a two year contract).

I hope in the future prices will drop to netbook level prices (~$300 USD) and more interesting apps emerge optimized or made specifically for tablets on the android platform.

Do you have an android tablet device? I’d like to know how other people are using their tablets and what apps they recommend to get the most out of it.

Robots and Gadgets at Google IO 2011

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There were a lot of robots and gadgets at Google IO 2011.

This machine was a very cool implementation of a 360 degrees view of Google Earth. The sensation of the view was fantastic, you could almost feel like flying in there. Google Earth 360

I got to play a little with the Sony Xperia Play, and it was very nice. The screen size and buttons felt good and the phone has a good size and weight. Graphics are not exactly the best thing ever, but decent enough for a casual game. I’m not an expert gamer, so lets see how others review it now that its out in the market.

Sony Xperia Play

There was also exhibitions of the Google TV platform with some new demo products of companies developing interesting apps for it.

Another cool thing was the giant labyrinth operated with a Motorola Xoom Android tablet using the Arduino Android Development Kit. I was not able to get one of the free Google Android Development Kits but the possibilities of what you can build with it are pretty exiting. That and the Android Open Accessory Platform, which will make it a lot easier for manufacturers and amateur developers to create great accessories compatible with any Android device.

ADK Labrynth

Robots were everywhere! And most were all connected in one way or another to an Android device.

Android Robot

The PR2 Robot is a robotic experiment platform. Its very expensive, but its equipped with a lot of tools (and an Xbox Kinect). On the talk they demonstrated how with the cloud robotic api and a few lines of python code you can manipulate and program this robot.

PR2 robot platform

This little robot was remotely operated and it had a Nexus S as its head. Robot with a t-shirt

There were also automatic gardening implementation demonstrations. robotic farm

These two wheel robots were roaming around everywhere. They look very cool and remind me of Rosie from the Jetsons. Only that Rosie had one wheel instead of two, and did lots more than just roam around. The interesting thing was that none of these robots bumped with the people at any time.

Robots

This is a hydraulic muscle robot, completely inflatable and could walk around and move. hydraulic robot

This robot was improvising music playing the xylophone, or as I like to call it in Spanish: “marimba”. I hope to see someday a demo of this robot playing along with the mexican marimba players from the Veracruz state, where its a popular traditional instrument. Marimba playing robot

This robot from the iRobot company (the guys who make the Roomba) was taking video testimonies about the event and asking attendees to answer polls. Now that’s a cool way to gather marketing material!

Video and poll robot

Soda serving robot

This is a modified roomba with an XBox Kinect and some more powerful processing that you can buy from iRobot as a home robotics platform to build interesting things. Such as a robot that can serve sodas in a party, or better yet, bring you beer.

The following video is of Sphearo, a robotic sphere that you can control like a remote control car using your Android device via Bluetooth. It seems like a very fun and probably pricey little toy.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a video compilation I made of the dancing android that spent the whole night dancing around at the after party, making everyone smile with its moves.

Gabriel Saldaña's blog

Emacs, Web Development, free software, photography & lifestyle

Tag Archives: android

Snapseed for Android vs Instagram

Filters

Cropping

Social

Quality

Conclusion

MobileOrg for Android setup and workflow

Workflow

Going wireless with Plantronics M155 and Android

Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich from Telcel

The software and usability

The hardware and design

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review

The technical aspects

The uses

Apps

The downsides

Final thoughts

Robots and Gadgets at Google IO 2011

Filters

Cropping

Social

Quality

Conclusion

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Workflow

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The software and usability

The hardware and design

Conclusion

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The technical aspects

The uses

Apps

The downsides

Final thoughts

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