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So the bottom line is, as a consumer, how much is one willing to tolerate this? If someone like me who is an astute observer of the industry has to do such intense research on which Android device to buy based on the potential for ongoing support and then ends up getting burned in the process, what is the average consumer to do?

John Perlow

… this is my reason now, why I’m hesitant against buying an Android phone before I absolutely need one for a dev project.

The bad

Cheap hardware.

They made the thing feel solid to hold but that’s only because it’s heavy and bulky.

The UI is awful.

This is the worst part, it’s not only confusing but it’s totally cumbersome.

A kid can’t use it

My three year old son can find his way around and start an app but when he needs to control the volume it’s a nightmare experience. I’ll admit his user experience for tablets is based on an iPad but I’m not talking about an icon grid on the homescreen; the kindle fire doesn’t have volume controls on the device or a home button, two things standard on any device like this — not just the iPad. The power switch is tucked away when you want to turn it on but it’s really convenient when resting one something so it can turn itself off.

The control panel thingy is badly designed.

Because the Fire lacks the hardware buttons to easily control the device the Fire puts a strip across every screen with a small arrow, you click on the arrow to get a control panel to manage volume, etc., it’s a good compensation to no hardware controls but the thing isn’t responsive. Maybe it’s the entire system not being responsive enough but clicking the arrow should bring up the control panel immediately, it shouldn’t take a couple taps and/or swipe attempts to make it work. This is also why I can’t force my son to use the Fire — it’s too frustrating.

The entire UX is frustrating

The hardware is cheap it has really bad touch accuracy. Like the Palm Pilots and Pocket PC devices of 15 years ago you can see the little sensor in a grid on the screen and since sensors are spread out so much you can’t just touch the device to use an app or shuffle through the general interface, instead you have to poke and prode your way through.

The good

• Even though it looks and feels cheap I like the texture on the back. It’s has a soft rubberized matte feel.
• Amazon Prime.
• I like Amazon, simple as that.

Review Rating: 2

Review Rating: 4.5

What helped me transition was the release of FavePersonal. I would normally bake my own theme from scratch but FavePersonal uses Carrington which I used it extensively (not so much these days) and FavePersonal fits into direction I want to head. That direction involves short posts with different types of content, including those WordPress post formats provide (plus short reviews).

Review Rating: 3.25

Review Rating: 3.25

Review Rating: 4.25

Review Rating: .5

Review Rating: 3.75

Review Rating: 4.75

As others have pointed out, Apple – and Microsoft and Cisco, for that matter – has many FRAND patents and has honored those commitments on a consistent basis. Whether Apple, Microsoft, and others have non-standards-essential patents is entirely irrelevant to this matter.

(It’s also worth noting that while Motorola and co have been sitting on their years old standards-essential patents, Apple, Microsoft, and others have been vigorously innovating and creating many new technologies that will probably become part of future standards.)

Apple, Microsoft, and others recognize that protecting the standards-setting process is more important than short or long term profits. What Google is doing by endorsing Motorola’s (and Samsung’s) flawed approach to FRAND, is undermining an area of the patent system that was stable, predictable, and necessary for innovation.

Should Google’s approach become the norm, it will have disastrous consequences for future standards adoption, which will hurt everyone including the end consumer.

via Two-Face: Will Google Become The New Patent Villain?

Review Rating: 3.5

On the heels of Apples e-textbook announcement in New York City this week, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced the results of its “HMC Fuse: Algebra I” pilot program at Ameila Earhart Middle School in Californias Riverside Unified School District. The Algebra I digital textbook is touted as the worlds first full-curriculum algebra application developed exclusively for Apples iPad.In its test run, the “HMH Fuse” application helped more than 78 percent of students score “Proficient” or “Advanced” on the spring 2011 California Standards Test. That was significantly higher than the 59 percent of peers who used traditional textbooks.

via Students math scores jumped 20% with iPad textbooks, publisher says.

Review Rating: 2.5

Since the Kindle is for reading…it’s does an excellent job, however it gets very awkward to hold with a single hand because you need to touch the screen to flip the page.

The one major complaint is how it allows for chapter navigation by swiping up or down, it’s too easy to do this accidentally and the result is very very frustrating because you can’t just easily flip through the book and quickly find your page.

We have one of the newer non-touch kindles in the house and I’d still recommend the touch; navigation and typing is extremely slow and gets tiresome without a touch screen.

Review Rating: 4

The story dragged in the beginning but very integrating after 20%…plots started unfolding and rooting for characters started.

Review Rating: 4.75

Book aside – this was a great movie and is highly recommended.

Review Rating: 4.75

Review Rating: .25

Review Rating: 4.5