kwc blog

Man Hands: Galaxy Nexus vs. iPhone 4S

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:49:50 -0800

Any review of the Galaxy Nexus will note that it's huge. I like it. I'm 6'2" and this phone is great: it's much easier to type on and I can see much more content.

In the photo above I'm holding the Galaxy Nexus and my wife is holding her iPhone 4S. My phone is smaller relative to my hand, which leads me to conclude either:

a. The iPhone is too small for me
b. The iPhone is too big for her

She says (b), as she can't fully use the phone one-handed. I can use my Galaxy Nexus just fine, so it seems (a) and (b) are both true. Regardless, anyone who argues that the 3.5" is ideal must have ideal hands.

I was going to write a Galaxy Nexus review, but got distracted by the previous post. I fear that two posts in one month is all I can manage right now

Why Android is Better Off

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:41:20 -0800

I think this John Gruber quote on Siri explains why I use Android:

"...the whole thing still isn't up to Apple's usual level of fit and finish, not by a long shot. But I'm still glad it's there. I think the iPhone 4S is better off with Siri in its current state than it would be if Apple had waited until Siri was further along to release it."

If I had to distinguish between Google/Android and Apple/iOS, it's that each company decides differently whether or not a new feature is "ready" to put in.

Apple typically denies a new feature/product is necessary, secretly works on it for a very long time until it's polished, and then claims their solution is better than everything else out there. Sometimes this is very true (original iPhone), other times its marketing.

Google will see a need for a feature and put it in as soon as it is useful, even if it's not fully baked yet. They will then iterate on that feature again and again to make it right.

Google's approach means that people can take advantage of features sooner. It can be more difficult to discover these features because they can start so small and they get better and better in small and frequent chunks. On the downside, Google makes more missteps (Wave, Buzz, Google TV), and the ground shifts more rapidly (Android 3, 4).

Apple's approach means that new features are usually more polished and the additional fanfare helps users discover that they exist. But you have to wait a lot longer for them to arrive (notifications, Siri, cloud sync) and there are still mistakes (Apple TV, iTunes Ping, Spaces/Launchpad/Widgets/Expose mess).

It goes almost without saying that Google's approach is the web company style, and Apple's is the desktop software style: incremental, frequent updates versus major releases.

This is all just a spectrum, and Siri is one example of Apple straying a little more towards Google's side: releasing something when it is useful, but not fully polished.

So, I find Android has many more useful features *, and that's why I'm better off. YMMV.

* cloud syncing, turn-by-turn navigation, notification, desktop widgets, voice transcription, Face Unlock, Google Voice, customizable keyboards, Android Intents (apps plugging into other apps), NFC, etc...

Cloud Robotics

Fri, 13 May 2011 10:23:52 -0800

Video from a talk I gave with some Googlers at Google I/O 2011.

Links for 2010-11-23 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

google-refine - Project Hosting on Google Code

Links for 2010-11-12 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

Links for 2010-11-10 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

Home - AffixMusic

Links for 2010-10-19 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 PDT

On Set: Empire Strikes Back | Vanity Fair

Links for 2010-10-17 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 PDT

GNU Parallel - build and execute command lines from standard input in parallel - Summary [Savannah]

Hacks with ROS: rosproxy

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:15:32 -0800

I've resurrected rosproxy, which is a hack I wrote several months ago to enable access to services and topics within a protected network. It's written in Python, so it's not super efficient, but it's useful when interfacing your robot with an external website or the like.

For example,

Internal network:

rosrun test_ros talker.py & 
rosparam set proxy/topics [chatter]
rosparam set proxy/xmlrpc_port 11313
rosrun rosproxy proxy.py

External network:

rosrun rosproxy register.py pub /chatter std_msgs/String http://externalname:11313
rostopic echo chatter
---
data: hello world 1286321252.19

Another related hack I did awhile back is ronin, which is a "masterless node". This is useful if you need to keep a node attached to a graph that is going up and down, e.g. if you want to pull data from a robot whenever it is up.

Both of these are "experimental" and will likely never be fully stabilized, but they are fun starting points and show some of the hackability of ROS.

Links for 2010-09-29 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Python script for Hudson API

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:10:18 -0800

Update: please use python-jenkins instead, which is the new-and-improved version below (and available via PyPI and in Ubuntu Oneiric).

We use Hudson to do our continuous integration -- anything from building and tests to creating documentation. It's been a fairly versatile tool for us and I highly recommend it.

I was a bit surprised to find that there were no Python scripts on the web for using Hudson's programmatic API. I ended up writing one and I'm posting it here for others to use to save themselves time. As good as Hudson is, the programmatic API is not well-documented, and there are also some annoyances like non-HTTP-compliant authentication that require minor workarounds.

We're now using this script heavily to make Hudson even more versatile: programatically creating jobs, chaining jobs, etc... We're now able to test at a much finer grain, which has led to better testing.

All the code I do for work is BSD, so enjoy:

https://code.ros.org/svn/ros/stacks/ros_release/trunk/hudson/src/hudson.py

Links for 2010-08-02 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Our robot fetches beer!

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:02:29 -0800

More info

Party!

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:56:42 -0800

iRon Man 2 Summary

Wed, 12 May 2010 09:47:26 -0800

**spoilers**

~~Steve Jobs~~ Tony Stark creates the ~~iPhone~~ arc reactor, which brings about world peace. He triumphantly greets his fans at ~~WWDC~~ Stark Expo.

His competitors desperately try to clone this new device, while secretly the CEO is stricken ill with a life-threatening condition. ~~Gizmodo~~ The US Air Force steals a prototype of a new ~~iPhone 4G~~ Iron Man suit from a drunken employee, and ~~Apple~~ Stark Industries uses legal threats to attempt to get the device back.

~~Steve Jobs~~ Tony Stark creates a magical new ~~iPad~~ element, is miraculously cured from his life-threatening disease, and is able to use his new invention to fight off his enemies (for now).

Dinner at work

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:26:20 -0800

We get three meals a day at work, which is a great thing in itself as our chef is awesome, but I like the photo above because it shows another fun thing about our work place. You'll notice at the end of the table is one of my co-workers (in Indiana) joining us for dinner via our telepresence robot. I love the idea that someday I'll sit down to dinner with someone far away, like my parents or my sister. We may not share the same meal, but we can sit around the same table.

Nexus One vs. iPhone, and why no iPad for me

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:10:32 -0800

I switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One and haven't regretted it since. So many reviews seem to miss the point, in my opinion, because they focus too much on "X has faster processor" or "Y has better touchscreen." The Nexus One is nothing like the iPhone. They are very different devices. .

I could talk about the Nexus One hardware vs. the iPhone hardware, e.g. the Nexus One has a better camera, the iPhone has a better touchscreen -- but it's not really about that. It's about Android 2.0 vs. the iPhone OS.

There's two main differences:

Data model: Computer-Centric vs. Cloud-Centric
App model: Separate Apps vs. App Ecosystem

Data Model

Android and the iPhone OS have entirely different models for your data. The iPhone follows the Apple model -- your iPhone is a mirror of your (Apple) computer, just like your Apple TV is a mirror of your computer, etc... Even the iPad, which is supposed to be a netbook alternative subscribes to this model and, to me, is its glaring weakness. Even reviews with lavishing praise point out this same issue. How self-sufficient can an iPad be if it is meant to be regularly synced to another computer?

In the Apple model, if I want to sync a Google contact, you sync your computer with your Google contact, then you plug in your phone, and it syncs. I hate this model -- I only plug in my phone once a month (at most). If you look at Pages on the iPad, review after review complains about the 7-step process it takes to 'sync' a document with your computer.

Android follows the cloud model. When you get your phone, you enter in your Google accounts (and even Facebook), and everything starts syncing against that. My Picasa photos immediately appeared in my Gallery app. The same goes for starred location in Google Maps, contacts, and my even my search history -- great for auto-complete! The best is Google Voice, which you can have take over your phone. When someone leaves me a voicemail, I can get a text message with a transcription, listen to the voicemail in a Web browser, or read it in my e-mail. With the cloud, access is everywhere.

App Model

The other difference is the app model. Android Apps can do more, like replace your keyboard, customize your homescreen, or change your phone dialer. They can also hook into one another (and often do). I've downloaded a widget that puts my calendar agenda directly on my home screen (very useful). When I play music in the music layer, Last.fm can listen in as well and update my recommended channel. Similarly, apps can plug-in to the main Gallery app, so I can now upload directly from the Photo app to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc...

The Apple experience is more siloed. If I want to upload to Flickr, I switch to the Flickr app. If I want to upload a photo to Facebook, I have to switch to the Facebook app. It's cleaner, but it's more time-consuming.

Each app runs in its own sandbox, never to interact with another. It's also inherently single-tasking -- the "multi-tasking" in iPhone 4.0 pre-specifies what can be multi-tasked. This preserves certain performance guarantees for each app, but its a limitation that expresses Apple's approach to apps: apps can do what Apple says they can do, and nothing more.

No iPad for me

There are several reasons for me not wanting an iPad: the Apple App Store offends my software development principles, I don't see it being that useful with what I already own, it's terrible for real writing tasks, etc... But ultimately it's that I grew tired of Apple's approach to devices. I have an Apple TV, I had an iPhone from the first day they were released, and I have a MacBook Pro. But I've grown sick of Apple's ecosystem. It's all consumptive.

Each device assumes another Apple device that you must own, hooked into an Apple-run online store, because the only way Apple knows how to share data is with Apple. Apple simply doesn't understand the cloud, or doesn't want to, because the cloud is bigger than they can control. When they do support the "cloud", it's only their MobileMe cloud, which you have to pay for, and offers less than Google's free cloud.

Android Ain't Perfect

There's definitely room for Android to improve. The back button is a mess, there are some bugs here and there, and it needs a little more spit polish. It terms of stability, it's a bit better than the iPhone 2.0 OS, a bit worse than the current iPhone OS. I have plenty of memories of having to hard reboot my iPhone on a daily basis, and I've had to pull the battery out of the Nexus One from time to time. It's clear Google had to play catchup, but the iPhone 4.0 announcement puts Apple in the position of trying to reach parity. When Apple gets there, they may do it with more polish, but my Android phone already does it, which is why I switched.

Telepresence for Robots

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:55:30 -0800

I've been hard at work on this

Natural Language

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:12:56 -0800

NOTE: the voice recognition was correct in these examples, kudos to Nuance

After all the hyperbole on the latest natural language app to be released to the iPhone, I gave it a quick test. As my quick test above seems to confirm, it's doing exactly what I thought it would. It's just looking for nouns (places, things) it understands and mapping them appropriately. If it doesn't recognize the noun, it assumes that it's a restaurant or a hotel. It pretty much throws everything else away.

I'm pretty adamant against "natural language" apps, mainly because once people understand the "magic", they realize that they were wasting their breath.

Firefox Minefield

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:17:24 -0800

I did a user test with Firefox Minefield while I was out getting my daily coffee (it helps living in Mountain View, home of Mozilla). The user test was trying out a new streamlined/combined location and search bar for Firefox. Before I get into that, I want to mention that I was impressed by the discussions I had with the people running the study.

One of the employees made the point that Mozilla isn't about making Firefox "win". It was pushing the Web towards standards, in other words, it's about not letting IE win. From their perspective, Chrome and Safari are fantastic -- as long as there's someone out there with 30% of the market share, we will not return to the days of "This site is built for Internet Explorer". It reminds me of John Nack's recent post, Adobe isn't in the Flash business. Actions are more important that mission statements, but it's a good start.

I also mentioned that I was excited by all the developer-focused technologies appearing in Chrome, only to have pointed out to me that technologies like WebGL were actually invented by Mozilla; they're just doing a bad job at promoting/pushing these technologies.

As for the user test, there was a little search engine selector in the bar you could click on to select different search engines on the fly (e.g. Google/Bing/Wikipedia/eBay). What was different was that this would appear when it detected you were doing a search task (e.g. visiting Google.com), but otherwise not be visible. The coolest addition was a little preview window that opened below the location bar, i.e. where you normally might see autocomplete suggestions. For example, if you were doing a Google Image search, it would show you images immediately below the location bar, instead of having to wait until you loaded the actual Web page. If you were doing a Wikipedia search, it would list the matching articles. It reminds me a bit of Yahoo's cool Instant Search, which Yahoo! has of course killed.

There were some rough edges as it is a prototype, but what I thought was novel was you could "detach" this little preview into its own window. You could then click on each search result and see it appear in the main window. What's often annoying is you do your search, then you go back and forth between the results page and each search result to find what you're looking for. Or you ctrl-click the results into a bunch of tabs and create a bunch of litter. This was a new tool for temporarily "saving" the search result and maintaining context.

In our post-user-test interview, I mentioned how I had switched to Chrome, partly because I prefer it's location bar, and even more specifically, how it integrates with my keyword bookmarks. If I type "goto ", the location bar immediately inserts a box that says "Search I'm Feeling Lucky..." to the left, which gives me confidence that I'm using my keyword. The little widget I was testing today is activated in the same manner, i.e. typing "g " activates the Google icon.

And yes, I downloaded Firefox 3.6 today (I've been using Chrome the past 2 months). They convinced me that they've started focusing on some of their performance issues (threading issues in the location bar, performance testing the top 100 plugins, changing the plugin API to get rid of common performance hits). It starts faster, we'll see if it can win me back.

Today's iPad announcement spurred my switch to a Google Nexus One phone

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:39:26 -0800

To be fair, I've been planning on switching to Android since Android 2.0 came out -- first it was going to be the Droid, but seeing the issues with the camera on that, plus the subsequent announcement of the Nexus One, gave pause to that earlier switch.

So what did today's iPad announcement have to do with it?

I was mainly waiting to see if:

The iPad was a device I was interested in
If it was, did the 3G options with it impact my decision to switch to Nexus One? e.g. should I wait until Nexus One is on Verizon?

I was expecting #1 to be true, especially given how poorly Apple managed the secrecy around this one. I was surprised to find myself completely disappointed.

I want my phone to be more like a computer, not my computer to be more like my phone. I'm switching to the Nexus One because it is a better computer than the iPhone. The iPad takes everything cool about a computer -- general-purpose freedom, multitasking -- and replaces it with a bill from the iTunes store. I love some of the new UI flair and experience of the iPad, but not at that cost.

Psychologically I could convince myself that this was okay on the iPhone. When it first came out, there really was no possibility of freedom on that platform, and Apple really did change that landscape. Their motivation, however, was just to supplant the cellphone company as mediator and tollbooth. It was really Android that really set things free. Unfortunately, the first release of Android was an inferior product, and I couldn't bring myself to switch. Android 2.0 is worth switching to, so at last I can say goodbye to my first-generation iPhone.

Who knows. The iPod was initially booed, but it eventually succeeded. I didn't buy one until the third generation, and I'd say it wasn't until the fourth that they really had a great product. I'm sure Apple will improve on this initial iPad offering and make it more compelling. What I don't see happening is Apple reversing their trend towards increasingly closed systems that make them tons of money. There are many wonderful ideas that you can bring from the iPhone experience to the computer, but forcing me to buy all my media and applications through Apple is not one of them.

ROS 1.0!

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:29:59 -0800

I've been working on ROS for two years and change now. I don't think that we thought back then, when it was just three of us, that we would be where we are today -- the community is awesome. So, thank you.