Android and Linux

[Jerry Feldman]

On 08/03/2010 10:23 PM, Chris O'Connell wrote:
> I'm not looking for anything in particular.  The reason I'm asking is
> becasue my Mac is getting ready to be retired.  Mac's are expensive, an=
d as
> a result I pondering a full blown switch to Linux.  The problem, I've c=
ome
> to realize, is that Apple has really made the integration between my ip=
hone
> and mac seamless (Iphoto, Ical, Itunes).  I'm curious if there
> are comparable type replacements using Android phones and Linux.  if so=
, I
> may consider a conversion at some and even getting rid of my iphone.
While much has been said before. The main issue I had with my previous
smartphones was lack of good integration with Linux. I can access my
gmail account, my Google Calendar on every platform. I have a choice of
web browsers, I have a Windows application that syncs my address book
and calendar with Outlook (not with exchange directly). As previously
said, pictures are stored on the SD card, and you can plug into a USB to
recharge as well as to share files. When you plug in, a dialog box pops
up and lets you chose whether you want to export the Android SD Card as
a USB device or charge only. If you export the SD Card, it is unmounted
in the Android.

While I have never used an iPhone, AFAIK, the iPhone screen is a bit
larger. Some Androids, like the Moto Backflip have a real hardware
QWERTY keyboard as well as the softkeys. There is an app called Swype
you can installl to get a different softkey layout. Installing an app
from the Android Market is simply by using the Market app, but you can
use the builtin barcode reader to swipe the QIC code as in the Astrid
home page: http://weloveastrid.com.

You can also root your Android, but that violates most warranties.

Basically I started with the Palm Pilot back in the 90s, and moved to
the Treo then to the Blacklberry, then to the Moto Backflip the day it
was released. While the Palm did sync well with Linux, the Palm
application was separate from my other tools. One thing I used very
heavily was the memo pad. After searching a while I found that with
Evernote I could migrate my 350+ notes to Evernote, and I can access
them with my Evernote app on Android, the Evernote application on
Windows and Evernote Web on Linux.

The bottom line is to chose what is good for you. David Kramer got an
iPhone. One issue with all the Androids is battery life.I tend to use my
Android much more than the Blackberry or Treo, and I generally need to
charge it every night, but I have my battery settings set to Performance
mode. WiFi and BlueTooth use a lot of battery power, and you can save
power by turning them off when not using those features.  There are some
apps that are always running, such as Advanced Task Killer (I installed
it then removed it).=20

Another excellent app mentioned before is the Astro File Manager that
lets you manage not only all of your files both in local memory as well
as SD Card (actually microSD). There are a number of iTunes apps.



--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846