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Ever since there were Android devices on the market, there has always been a push by the open source community to put Linux on them. Arguably the most successful up to this point was when Canonacle -famous for their Ubuntu OS- turned their flagship operating system into a mobile OS they called Ubuntu Touch. When Canonacle green lit the production of phones designed specifically to use it, the best phone to come out of it was the Meizu Pro 5.

The Meizu Pro 5: Ubuntu Edition (above) didn't do so well.

Never heard of it? well, neither has anyone else. Not only was the Ubuntu Touch OS slower than a bottle of molasses dripping down the S.A.T. scores of a BuzzFeed News writer, It was marketed so poorly, you’d think it was being developed by SNK.

The Librem 5

So a full GNU/Linux phone got off to a bad start already, but Purism -a San Francisco based hardware manufacturer- is seeking to keep the dream alive with their successfully crowd-funded project called the Librem 5.

Concept image of the Librem 5 (stolen from the crowdfunding campaign courtesy of me)

Purism describes the Librem 5 smartphone as “the phone that focuses on privacy by design, and security by default.” It runs a in-house developed version of Linux called PureOS, which it says is completely open source, unlike the walled gardens of the Android smartphone market.

Why Linux is better than Android

Some of you might be saying: “Hey, isn’t Android based on linux?” and to be honest, it kind of is, but not really. Android has like two thirds of the Linux Kernel in it, but all the little shell scripts and daemons that make up an entire linux distro are replaced by Google-based stuff like a graphical environment, and kernel extensions made specifically for the system-on-a-chip (SOC) the Android OS needs to have control over your phone.

Unlike real linux, Android is an OS that seems to be hell bent on preventing its users from doing things like gaining root access, or anything involving Administrative privileges. Unlike regular Linux, where all you need to gain root access (Administrator privileges) is type SU or ‘sudo’ in a terminal, then type in a password, Android doesn't even have the SU (super user) command installed by default. You have to download it from some third-party developer onto a computer, boot the phone in fastboot mode, (It’s basically the BIOS of smartphones,) connect it to a real computer via a USB cable, then proceed to basically hack your device in a command line like a Mr. Robot episode, which could easily destroy your phone at the software level if you screw something up.

PureOS is just running Linux. Period. We’re talking about a desktop OS with a GUI designed for a phone. The reason this is a big deal is because, for the longest time, ARM based devices like Android smartphones and tablets have been absolutely abysmal when it comes to productivity software. Most of the ‘mobile’ versions of software have been nothing more than versions of desktop programs more watered down than the ballroom of the Titanic. Some much needed software still doesn’t even exist on mobile devices such as a Digital Audio workstations that don't sound like a children's Yamaha keyboard from the 1980s, or a version of Photoshop that wasn’t designed for someone’s three-year-old. This is exciting -particularly for me- because I might be able to use software like Gimp and Qtractor while at work -or on the road- without having to put up with Google Play Services, in its never-ending quest to beat me over the head with Facebook and Google+ notifications.

Privacy by design, security by default

Although the potential capabilities of the device remains to be seen, one can only hope that a real Linux phone is what the Librem 5 represents. That being said, it clearly isn’t the selling point that Purism is going for here. The company describes the Librem 5 as a “fully standards-based freedom-oriented operating system based on Debian and many other upstream projects”, but Purism is really pushing the privacy and security thing more than anything else. On the product description, Purism describes their phone as a “IP-native mobile handset, using end-to-end encrypted decentralized communication.”

Unlike every other phone on the market, the Librem 5 gives users administrative control over all the hardware in the device. Most other phones don’t allow you to do things like turn off carrier-level GPS tracking or even the front and back-facing camera. Phones sometimes give you the illusion that you’re able to turn things like this off, but you really can’t. Even if you could, you’d be surprised what your own carrier is able to achieve with your phone without your consent. The Libre 5 distinguishes itself by giving you the ability to use switches to cut the power to everything from the cameras to the microphones. Even if your carrier wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to turn these things on without you.

If NSA wiretapping and government deep learning computers mulling over your viewing habits freaks you out, this really is the best possible phone to get at the moment, if the legends hold true.

Librem 5 is supported by Gnome and KDE

The two biggest integrated desktop environments for the Linux ecosystem have both pledged to port their software to the platform. KDE is working with Purism developers to port a version of their experimental Plasma Mobile desktop to the Librem 5.

Gnome Foundation is looking to enlist help from the open-source community to port their Gnome/GTK desktop to the Librem 5, as well as spread the word about the project. In a statement by executive director of GNOME foundation Neil McGovern,

Having a Free/Libre and Open Source software stack on a mobile device is a dream-come-true for so many people, and Purism has the proven team to make this happen

Purism is no stranger to this game

One significant advantage Purism's foray into a Linux smartphone has over Canonacle is it's background. Purism is best known for its privacy and security-focused x86 laptops like the Librem 15, which cater to the Linux power users of the world. Unlike Canonacle, which is primarily a software developer, Purism is no stranger to the hardware scene, meaning they are far less likely to screw this up.

How to get one

Back in September, Purism’s crowd-funding campaign for the Librem 5 reached 144% of its $1,500,000 funding goal, leaving the project $2,174,045 of money to get this project going. Though the phone isn’t available yet, there are plans to release the phone for sale some time in January of 2018. Obviously backers of the crowd-funding campaign will receive the phone before anyone else, but you can pre-order the device from the Purism website by contributing the $599 to the campaign. (yes, they are still taking donations.)

Librem 5: A Privacy-focused Smartphone that Actually Runs Linux?

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If you’re one of those people who hear the words “Cloud Gaming” and roll your eyes like a priest is casting a demon out of you, (I know I do,) then this Sydney-based cloud computing company wants to convince you that their platform is ‘totally not going to suck, you guys!’ so before your eyes start tunneling through the back of your head and making a right turn three blocks up the road, you should probably know about this ambitious project designed to be the one-stop shop for all your videogames.

Wonder OS wants to put a controller on the market. Everything else Wonder has is just software, as far as we know.

This company called Wonder wants to take on Cloud gaming and aims to be the only platform you will ever need for every title out there.

For the past couple of years, a cloud computing company called Wonder has been promising a platform that can play just about any game released. During that period, this mysterious company promised a smartphone that would revolve around the cloud gaming platform, Wonder OS.

The Wonder OS website boasts a platform in which users can play all their games on one mobile device. The company even goes on to allege partnerships with smartphone makers, and even game developers.

No word on who exactly these developers are, and its still unclear how Wonder will manage to support multiple platforms in any licensed capacity.

What is Wonder OS?

This is what the "OS" portion of Wonder OS looks like.

Wonder OS is a custom operating system based on the open-source Android OS project. The company claims that its OS will emphasize entertainment and gaming features, such as integration with custom hardware, and the ability to dock a smartphone with its own custom device to seamlessly sync with a TV.

If any of this sounds familiar, that’s because what Wonder is setting out to achieve is similar to what Nintendo already does with the Switch. Custom controllers and docking with a television are nothing new, and the Wonder Project shares other similarities as well. Both platforms revolve around the low-voltage ARM architecture found in tablets and smartphones, and both Nintendo and Wonder’s software employs a subscription service for its multiplayer.

In an interview with The Verge last year, Wonder CEO emphasized their hardware-based projects like their Android-based "Wonder Phone". It didn't have a finalized design, but what it did have was the promise of a platform where all your games can be played on their mobile device somehow.

The Switch did a really good job starting with the idea of portability, but there’s a lot of limitations on the Switch, [...] think about building a portable gaming and entertainment type platform that can deliver any type of game.

Recently, however, the Wonder company website relaunched – making no mention of the Wonder Phone they've been talking about for over a year. Instead, Wonder is putting their weight behind their WonderOS project, allowing its platform to be installed on a wide variety of mobile devices. The idea seems to be to have a platform that can be installed on any device, and play games from other platforms like consoles and windows PCs.

Sound familiar?

No word on what the WonderDock is yet, but here's the WonderPad.

If any of this sounds familiar, that's because it's... It's the Google Stadia. That's basically exactly what this is. It may not have "Google" in the name, but the only seemingly 'different' approach the Wonder project is taking is its dedicated operating system. Sure, you have its universal controller, just like the Stadia, but the difference between the two seems to be that Wonder shifted its approach to being more hardware-focused.

Wonder dropped plans for the Wonder Phone. What now?

Wonder –despite not having a phone anymore– hasn’t given up on dedicated hardware just yet.

According to the Wonder website’s FAQ, plans for their own dedicated hardware, —like the WonderPad and WonderDock— are still a big part of the this company’s vision.

No word yet on when the wonder brand of hardware is set to be released, but Wonder seems to be making clear progress with its Wonder OS. They are currently accepting a select number of testers for its upcoming Wonder OS beta, which still doesn’t have any official release date yet.

Gamers interested in testing the Wonder OS project on their own mobile devices can sign up for the

Beta through Wonder’s website.

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Wonder OS to Stream Games on your Android Smartphone and Tablet

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Ever since man dreamed up the first laptop (The Epson HX-20) in 1980, man has been trying to find new and innovative ways to make it more convenient, —and less embarrassing to use— in public. It was a long and sometimes cringe-worthy journey to what would eventually become the modern smartphone and tablet, but there was a period where we had devices somewhere in between. It had a keyboard, and even pointing device built in, and only snobby wall street executives and Mercedes Benz owners used it. It was called the PDA.

Whether you consider yourself an Android enthusiast, or you’re a casual lucky enough not to have read this one really cringe CNET article, chances are you've never heard of the Gemini PDA by Planet Computers. Though the product is as rare and obscure as a Sony VAIO laptop that isn’t a piece of shit, the device was popular enough to meet and even exceed its IndieGoGo funding campaign, and be covered by websites run by irrelevant self-righteous lunatics like The Verge.

This is what the Gemini PDA looks like. It's a phone with a keyboard on it.

The Gemini PDA stands out as being one of the few Android devices that doesn’t qualify as either a tablet or a smartphone. Sure, you can take calls with it, and there is a version of the PDA that has a SIM card slot, but it’s more of a laptop the size of a phone than anything else. There is a built-in hardware keyboard, so you can’t even call it a tablet, either. It’s something in between.

What’s a PDA?

Better view of the Gemini

For those of you who weren't born in the early ‘90s, a PDA, —or Personal Data Assistant— was a tiny computer that connected to the internet, and ran apps for business people who did business things for business-ish reasons. They were the true predecessor to the modern smartphone; able to run apps, and even connect wireless to the internet using an early version of the 2G network from cellphone towers. Even though the PDA was generally marketed toward middle-aged business men with wallets the size of their mid-life crisis, there was one PDA that managed to appeal to everyone —regardless of its company’s marketing strategy— in both its price, and its appealing design. This tablet is the Psion Series 5.

British computer company Psion used to make PDAs back in the early 90’s, with its built-in keyboards. By this period, most PDAs had screens you had to stab into with a stylus shaped like a harpoon, with each individual letter on the on-screen keyboard having to be murdered with the precision of a Navy SEAL sniper at 300 yards. Psion’s innovative series 3 PDAs changed the entire PDA landscape by adding a physical keyboard with real keys on it; allowing you to just type on it like a normal person. The series 5, however, is what really gave the Psion Computer company its notoriety. It had the biggest screen, and —by extension— its biggest keyboard yet.

The Series 5’s most notable public appearance was in the film Executive Decision, starring Kurt Russel and Halle Berry. Aside from being the only movie blessed to have Steven Seagal killed off within the first 15 minutes, the inclusion of the PDA as a plot device in the film meant that pretty much everyone wanted one in 1997.

The Gemini PDA next to the Psion Series 5 PDA it was based on.

Now, if the Psion 5 and the Gemini share an uncanny similarity in their design, it isn’t a coincidence. Some of the Psion series designers are the same people who developed the Gemini PDA we’re talking about today. Martin Ridford —a former engineer at Psion computing— was the Series 3 and 5’s lead designer. He enlisted the help of several other industry pros to create a new and improved version of the old design, built to modern mobile computing standards.

System Specs:

CPU: 10 core Mediatek SOC (ARM Cortex A72) clocked at 2.4GHz

RAM: 4GB LPDDR3

Space: 64GB NAND Flash, SD Card Expansion

Screen: LCD 2160x1080 (2:1 aspect ratio)

Camera: 5MP rear camera only

Since this thing is functionally a modern cell phone, it comes with all the modern cell phone basebands, and WiFi compatibility you would expect it to. It is compatible with most MicroSim and eSIM cards, has Accelerometer, light sensor, gyro, and even a magnetic sensor.

This phone comes with Android 7.1, like most Android phones, but Planet Computers is doing something no other ARM phone maker has done yet: They’re shipping this device with dual-booting functionality. That means you get to choose between booting Android, or its pre-packaged Debian Linux build. Yes, this phone comes with a REAL desktop operating system.

Who would want this?

This is how weird you would look if you used this in a coffee shop.

This is a device mainly aimed at people who need to bring a fully functional laptop anywhere. In a coffee shop, on a train, in a taxi, or in the Taco Bell restroom while squeezing out most of your organs like everyone else who eats there.

Need to bring a computer on the go, but don’t want to drag around what is essentially a full-sized monitor with a keyboard glued at the bottom? Yeah, me either. I’d rather have a laptop I can put in my pocket, and the Planet Computers Gemini PDA would allow you and I to get some actual work done, using real programs.

Where to get it

Planet Computers had an IndieGoGo campaign completed back in 2017, and since then, has been shipping its flagship PDA to its backers. They still get backers, and they seem to still be shipping. You can buy the mini laptop for $599 for the wifi-only model, and $1000 for the Wifi+4G model. But, if you don’t want to pay a mortgage payment or sell a kidney on the dark web for the 4G model, you can always buy it on Amazon for $599.

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The PDA is making a Comeback with the Gemini

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Back in March 2019, Google announced something related to gaming that people can buy, and I'm having a hard time explaining what that is.. I was going to say that it announced a console, but the console doesn't exist. It showed some triple A games being played on a pixel Chromebook, but it wasn't any store copies of said games, so it's not like you can pop a disk into the Chromebook, and it could play it from the disk or anything.

The announcement was proceeded by a leak of the controller's design, and let's be honest here, the controller is just about the only thing you could actually buy. Everything else either doesn't physically exist, or can only be played if you share the same internet as CERN.

You see, Google Stadia is a cloud gaming platform. That footage you see of Red Dead Redemption is being played on one of the monoliths from 2001: A Space Odessy, and Google is claiming that you can play games at 4K with a consistent 60FPS, on just about anything with a Google Chrome browser installed.

This is the point in the article where I tell you why that's bullshit. For anyone who has ever tried to use Google cast within the comfort of their own home, you would struggle to get anywhere near a less than 1 second delay at 720P, let alone 4K. So, just imagine trying to do that over a north American "High Speed" connection for a moment. Seriously, between AT&T's hard 50GB monthly bandwidth limit, and Spectrum's connection reliability being about as consistent as peppy the pig's speech patterns, Google is going to have a really hard time selling this to people who frequented online gaming. In fact, the only people they could manage to sell something like this to are people who don't know shit from Shyamalan about multiplayer, latency issues, dropped frames, ping, or response time in videogames. The only way this experience will even come close to true 4K HDR is if it ran on the same bandwidth latency as the fucking Matrix, and had more jpeg compression and a lower frame rate than found footage of someone being abducted by aliens.

In other words, this is a marketing gimmick. There is no way in blue hell on a green fire 4K HDR would even be playable in north or south America, let alone countries like Australia. Maybe the South Koreans, or Japanese can pull this off, but compared to our internet access, their whole network mine as well be the halodeck from Star Trek by comparison.

Lease your gaming experience.

This brings me to my primary argument, which is that just like the music industry, and even the software industry as a whole, what is marketed on the basis of "convenience" is really an excuse to sell you something you don't even own after you buy it. You're not being sold games on this platform, but the permission to play Google's games on Google's console. and I guess we're supposed to look at a console we're never actually going to see like "oh, look at how edgy and revolutionary that is!"

If you need a prime example of everything that could go wrong with the very concept of leasing something on the cloud for a monthly fee, look no further than every single streaming-based platform that has ever gone out of business. OnLive, Microsoft Books, Vidium, and every single spottify competitor ever made.

Hell, even Netflix -the industry monolith of movie streaming- has repeatedly failed to successfully re-negotiate it's licenses with directors and film studios, causing many to lose their lease and their so-called "purchase" outright, in the blink of an eye.

"Oh, but it's Google!" you say behind the comfort of your 2020 Apple product that you paid a $900 premium for. "They have so-much money! It's not like they can go out of business or anything!" Well, see, that's the thing. Google is never going out of business for several reasons; Chief among those reasons is how often they will kill a project if it doesn't turn a profit. Google Plus, Google Jobs, AngularJS, App maker, Cloud Messaging, and YouTube Gaming were all killed over a year ago alone, with most projects only being in Alpha for less than 6 months! Don't even get me started on how many times Google Hangouts has been cannibalized into something else. Hangouts has more names than a DeviantArt user has gender identities! Make no mistake; Google is the emperor of jettisoning branches of their company, so don't be surprised if this mega-corporation cuts the Stadia brand loose in two years.

Let's take OnLive or Microsoft Books for example: Do you think after these companies went under, and customers lost their 10 to 50+ games or books, they were able to get a refund? You think these people got their money back? No, they didn't.

If you don't actually buy a physical copy of the game, you don't own it. With physical copies of a game, you don't have any way to preserve the game if Google ever decides to Google+ the platform out of existence, which -at this point- is almost a mathematical certainty.

At least with ROMs, we have a real library of games that are actually as good as they were designed to be from decades ago. You don't get that from cloud-based games. All you get is a license to run something over the internet. A fickle internet, that sometimes gets in moods and is randomly tired of your shit, just as you need to send that important email to a client.

Google Stadia, and the death of software ownership.

Look, I understand "cloud services" are the future, but whether or not that's a 'bright' future -in my opinion- depends on whether or not you're the mega-corporation earning a steady stream of income, or you're the sucker shelling out a monthly premium for something you don't even get a copy of.

If you've ever worked in graphic design, business administration, or video production, you'll notice there's been a trend of software you used to be able to buy a working -permanent- license for, being turned into "live services". Instead of having bought one working copy for life, you're paying either a monthly or yearly licensing fee for every month -or year- you use the thing. Didn't use Adobe Photoshop that month? Well, too bad, because you still gotta pay for it. Want Maya Unlimited for 3D graphic design? You better use it every day to justify the almost $1000 you'll be paying every year.

And, just like "live services" like spotify, we consumers are being marketed this blatant rip-off as a convenience. Big software has paid billions to marketing executives to come up with words like "live services" and "stream from the comfort of your own home[/]office" as a way of softening the impact of the theft. And make no mistake about it: This is theft. The marketing department tells you you're getting "full software", but what you're really getting is a complex lease of software hosted at someone else's house. You don't own sh*t, and the license agreements of most of these software companies make that abundantly clear. At any time, they can reject the license you're paying money for at any time, for any reason, and don't even have to give you an explanation. You could "buy" adobe illustrator in new york city, get home, and find out your license key is rejected because they though you were a Baltimore Raiders fan.

And so, I reject Google Stadia. I reject the very idea of google Stadia. Even if the platform had zero lag and perfect latency, it's the principle of the thing that I don't care for. Selling me games I can BUY on any store shelf for other platforms, offering no exclusives, then telling me I don't even own the copy I just bought is just stupid - not on the part of Google Stadia, but on the part of the consumer who bought the thing in the first place. It would be like if I were a stock broker from the future who traveled back in time to invest all his life savings into the making of the Titanic.

Why I will never buy a Stadia

It's not the fact that nobody gives a shit about property rights that bothers me here. What bothers me is WHY people don't give a shit anymore. That's what worries me.

We are always being told by mainstream tech journalism that this is just the way people want it, and that if it wasn't, people wouldn't use it. This is definitely not true.

When you updated your computer's hard drive from windows 7 to Windows 10 after 7's support ended last year, did you feel like you had a choice? When Apple ended support for snow leopard when Yosemite came out, and you had to buy a whole new freakin' Mac just to run the new OS, did that feel like you were making a "personal choice"? No, it didn't. because it wasn't.

Gen-X and millennial types whine about this all the time, but the Zoomers don't know that yet. They didn't grow up in an era where they could just buy their own software; we did. Zoomers don't complain about it because they don't know what they've lost.

It sets a dangerous precedent for the future. We make little concessions to this predatory practice until one day, we're paying a shit ton of money for absolutely nothing. You already see it happening with crowd-funding projects like Mighty No.9 and Star Citizen.

First, Diablo III -an offline single-player game- could only be played with an internet connection. Everyone complained, but the controversy went away.
Playstation decided to turn their once FREE multiplayer platform into a paid service, the way Microsoft did with Xbox live. Everyone complained, but the controversy died, and we moved on.
Then Sims 3 was only playable online, despite being a single-player game. Everyone complained, but the controversy went away, and we moved on.
Street Fighter 4 and Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 had "downloadable content" (DLC) that you had to pay for, despite the fact that you didn't download it, because that "content" was already on the disk you installed the game with! Once again, everyone complained, but the controversy went away, and we moved on.
Battlefront II remake sells the game at full price, only to continually force you to pay hundreds of dollars in micro-transactions just to barely stay competitive online. The controversy practically set the world on fire, with mass boycotts and even lawmakers from dozens of countries around the world calling for this practice to be illegal, or at least make it subject to gambling laws. Once again, the controversy dies, and we move on.

Every time we ignore something like this when its a problem, it becomes the new standard a few months later. Why? because we are buying the shit we complain about. We support the streamer who buys these games and these platforms we complain about. It's like going to a strip club, and throwing your whole paycheck at the stripper while complaining about promiscuity. You're practically piping the prostitute while you complain about the sinful nature of fornication.

Gamers are the type of consumers who would buy a bad game for clout. We feel like owning a popularly bad game gives us the right to talk about it. We want to be one of the few people who were an authority on the matter, and this is the whole problem. The problem isn't even the bad games, or the shady platforms: It's US. GAMERS. We did this. Every time we kowtow to an "live service" with our money, we aren't telling them that the practice is bad; we're sending a message that what they're doing is good. Paying these companies for bad practices is like giving your dog a treat every time he shits on the carpet. You can yell at and scold your dog all freken' day; the dog still got the treat, didn't it? What happens when that dog wants a treat again? It's going to shit on the carpet.

I won't ever buy a Stadia because I'm sick of rewarding companies for shitting on the carpet, and you should be as well.

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Why I Won't Buy a Google Stadia | The Takedown

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I wanted to buy a tablet as a viable alternative to a full sized laptop. I went through about 3 or 4 of them before I finally gave in and realized that Android just plain sucks when it comes to productivity. It may do very well in streamlining gaming right now, but trying to do anything serious with the OS, like using a full version of a photo editor, code making, (even for basic Markup languages like HTML,) and MIDI production all suck balls on this platform.

A large portion of the problem is the OS, (which seems to be designed around phones and not Tablets in the slightest,) but an equally large portion of the problem has to do with the hardware most tablets have, and the fact that they are just plain shit. I don't mean to say they are shit like they don't work well, even though that is the case for most android tablets, I'm saying that the way a lot of the hardware is designed isn't good enough to accommodate what most people would use them for.

This leads me to question the purpose of an android tablet entirely. What is its niche? What are they for? who are they designed to appeal to?

They suck for photo editing

Photoshop sucks ass on the Android platform right now, and the only way to get GIMP to work properly on Android is by downloading an APK bigger than most triple-A game titles on Android, and hacking a version of XFCE into the OS like an episode of Mr. Robot. Pretty much every other photo editor for android tablets is one step below Photoshop Express, which is like losing a 100 Yard dash to a 100 year-old turtle.

They suck for video editing.

I have tried like you wouldn't believe to find a decent video editor on this platform, and paid a shit ton of money unlocking them all, yet, every single one of them is complete garbage. Either you can't edit video properly, or you can edit it properly, but you can't add more than one audio track, defeating the entire purpose of video production software entirely.

All of the DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) suck huge penis.

I think the worst example of software for tablets and Smartphones is the DAWs, and how they all seem to be tailor made for only one kind of music style, and that music style is almost always Dubstep, with a hint of closet-homosexual techno music from the mid 90s. Try to make Metal, R&B, or Orchestral scrapes, and you're shit out of luck, because these programs don't support real VSTi or DXi effects & layers, and all of the effects these programs DO have are proprietary.

I almost forgot to mention the baffling lack of user friendliness of these programs that have me pulling my fucking hair out every time I try to use them. The visual literacy of most of these programs are so retarded, they make photobucket.com look absolutely flawless in comparison.

Android tablets suck for painting and drawing.

Android has some of the best apps for graphic artist of any platform outside of Adobe Photoshop. The problem is, 99% of all Android tablets lack the two most important features an artist like me would need to have to draw effectively on Android: Pressure sensitivity and palm rejection.

Pressure sensitivity is when the size of your brush gets bigger or smaller depending on how hard or soft you press on the screen. Palm rejection is when the android touch screen doesn't detect your hand or wrist leaning on the screen, yet only detects the stylus you're using to draw with. The Samsung Galaxy Note series phones have this, as well as the Samsung Note 6, and many ASUS tablets, but they all require you to use whatever proprietary stylus came with the device. iOS and Windows allow you to buy whatever Bluetooth stylus you want.

This is one of those unique cases where the only thing holding Android tablets back from being the great art platform for aspiring artists is the hardware not being universal across all Android tablets.

What android tablets are good at.

Surprisingly enough, the one thing that Android excels at seems to be gaming. Gaming just plain works across the vast majority of Android tablets, but with smartphones being able to play all the same games, tablets hardly stand out as being a good enough reason to get one, if only for a bigger screen.

To me, this is why Tablets that run Android have been steadily dropping in sales numbers the past couple of years. When you get right down to it, tablets are just one half of a laptop, so butchering the software to be more like a phone and butchering the hardware to make it less appealing to pretty much anyone is a recipe for disaster.

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Do Android Tablets Suck for Productivity?

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What I want to try and do here is convince any aspiring blogger who might be reading this to start vlogging instead. Those of us who have worked in print media have seen the downward trend in articles, and the depth-defying increase in traffic involving video that has made the old primitive blogging experience obsolete. If you like blogging, I would suggest you keep doing it, but for those of you who want the maximum amount of exposure you can possibly have online, you're probably better off adapting to this new platform with a focus on video presentation.

Blogging limits exposure

I'm sure there are a bunch of successful bloggers out there who are so popular, they could publish a New York times best selling book on how awesome they are at it, but let me ask you this: can we name any of them off the top of our heads? No we can not.

Contrast that with the amount of YouTube personalities -who basically do the same thing- who are not only wildly successful, but are easily recognizable? I could name over a dozen YouTube bloggers with well over a million subscribers right of the top of my head right now. How many big names are on Blogger.com or WordPress right now? If you have to look them up, Chances are, they aren't as prolific a figure as is necessary to gain a meaningful following online.

Bloggers were the shit back in 2006, when the platform was really coming into its own, because the concept was relatively new. A blogger could pay their rent with the ad revenue they gained from their own website in those days. Nowadays, this is definitely no longer the case. Unless you work for a popular blog that had already been established back in 2006, bloggers have little to no real chance of getting a large following anymore.

Believe it or not, Vlogging does maximize your overall traffic when you upload and host your videos on websites like Vimeo or YouTube. According to YouTube's very own press statistics, YouTube alone comprises over one billion users, (nearly a third of all internet users watch YouTube videos,) and represents hundreds of millions of hours of views a day. People only need to go on one website to find your videos all in one place, compared to bloggers who have their websites scattered across the internet, with verying SEO errors that all play a role in limiting their exposure. Not only that, but about 90% of all blog traffic is non-organic, meaning that you will end up spending more time advertising your articles than actually writing them.

Technology is leaving blogging behind

In a world where people are constantly on the move, you can't really expect much of anyone to sit back and read any articles in an age where full 1080p video can be streamed on your phone over a 4G LTE connection. Innovation favors efficiency, and sadly, reading an article online is no longer efficient when you compare it to the technology of today. Reading is becoming less appealing in a world where you don't even have to read a book to read a book anymore.

To sum everything up, I see blogging is going the way of the personal message board. Much the same way Facebook, Twitter and G+ have made Forums look like a dinosaur, The same thing can be said is happening to Blogging. Technology is always changing, and those who succeed are those who stay ahead of the curve.

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2 Reasons Why Blogging is Dead (and Why Vlogging is Better)

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I know I'm going to get a lot of shit for this, so let me start off by saying that this is entirely my subjective point of view.

Considering both Apple and Samsung are easily the two biggest smartphone providers in the world right now, saying that Samsung phones suck is like kicking a hornet's nest using only your flaccid penis. Going into production of this article, I could already expect the like to dislike ratio to look like the general consensus of The Fine Brothers at this point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the phones suck. They don't. Kyocera phones suck. I'm just saying that they aren't that fucking good. People are buying this shit like it's a fucking cure for the Ebola virus.

Here is a list of things that suck about Samsung phones.

Design.

I can honestly say that Samsung designs phones the way God designed fucking raindrops. These phones support some of the most baffling design decisions I have ever seen. Whoever decided that someones entire phone needed to be covered on all sides with smoother-than-jizz-on-a-watermelon Gorilla Glass was either higher than the Voyager 2 satellite, or wanted to design a phone that they could safely shove up their own ass, because the galaxy S5 and 6 are harder to grip without a specialized case than a bar of soap in a maximum security prison.

If that wasn't bad enough, some level 42 intellect at Samsung's design committee decided that the S6 edge, as well as both Galaxy S7s needed to round both edges of the screen, and extend the display area all the way to the very side of the phone, so that only Mutant telekinesis-experts like Gean Grey from the X-Men can use the phone without pressing shit by accident, because got forbid some fucking caveman wanted to use his own hands to hold the very phone that requires his hands to operate, am I right?

If you thought Samsung's phones being about as easy to grip as a hard boiled egg covered in duck feces was bad, just wait till you drop the thing on the ground, because for a phone covered in gorilla glass, this phone is easier to shatter than a saltine cracker if it were taking lessons in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. These glass panels are about as strong as the teeth of the average heroine addict.

I work at a company that employ's 250 people, about 90% of whom use a Samsung Galaxy S6, and guess what? I have not seen one -not even one- screen that wasn't cracked along the edge. You know, the same edge that Samsung's brilliant superior minds felt the whole God damn screen should be, covered from top to bottom in the glass that could be shattered by peaceful thoughts, or perhaps even a slight breeze on a partly cloudy Tuesday afternoon?

Touchwiz.

I know this is going to sound like bullshit coming from the grand wizard of the#StockAndroidMasterRace, but Touchwiz; Samsung's completely unnecessary custom ROM for the galaxy series; is a glitchy, bloated, and impractical pile of shit in my opinion. I know that this is a subjective opinion and everything, but consider this: Touchwiz -in the new galaxy S7- is nearly eight fucking gigabytes all by itself. Stock android builds like what you have in the Nexus are less than half of that, yet are capable of the exact same shit. To put this in perspective, the entire internal storage capacity of my 3rd Gen Moto G is 8 gigabytes by itself, and that's running Android 6! Now I know the fanboys are going to tear me a new asshole in the comments section, but let's be honest here: Touchwiz is a custom ROM built on Android source code, so what exactly is Samsung putting in this build that justifies an 8gb build? Bloatware, redundant bullshit apps, and the morbidly obese Touchwiz OS itself.

Just so we're clear, when I talk about redundant apps, I'm talking about the fact that instead of just having a Samsung keyboard, it also has the AOSP keyboard running at the same time. Instead of just having a Samsung calendar, there is also the Stock AOSP calendar, and so on. Samsung's 300+ apps hogging a shit ton of storage, coupled with Samsung cloud services hogging system RAM as it sends usage statistics back to Samsung, which is also checking your location, and everything else a cloud service does, right along side all the Google AOSP cloud services while it does the same shit, meaning that it's using twice as much memory to do even the most basic tasks, means that its wasting resources for no good reason at all. Don't even get me started on system logging, because both the Samsung and AOSP apps log app data at the same time.

What makes this such a pain in the ass is the fact that Samsung's hardware is actually pretty good. The excellent hardware is wasted on a ROM that sucks by any metric one could use to measure it.

Over-saturation.

This may seem entirely subjective, but I feel like the way the Android market has favored Samsung Phones is not entirely Justified. In other words, I think there has been way too much hype built around a rather expensive phone that really isn't that good. There are much -much- better devices out there for the same price getting overlooked, because they are stuck in the shadow of the monster that is the Samsung Marketing machine.

This is why a have not, and WILL not buy another Samsung Galaxy. The drawbacks are just too numerous for me, when the Nexus 6P costs about the same as the Galaxy S7.

Android Technology

3 Reasons Why Samsung Galaxy Smartphones Suck

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Android gaming has come a long way since it was nothing more than a collection of games ported from iOS. Kind of a shame though, that some 5 years after Android gaming has gone mainstream, it still sucks in a lot of ways.

1. Way too many ads.

If you download a game for free, be prepared to be gang-raped in a back alley at 3AM by pop up ads that require a Bluetooth stylus and the precision of a fucking brain surgeon to close without accidentally clicking on the ad. The overwhelming majority of Google Play Games exist for the sole purpose of re-purposing a Unity source code in order to build games around spamming for ad revenue.

Allow me to ask my fellow android gamers a question: How many times have we Android gamers had to sit through -or click out of- a full screen ad after every load screen, menu transition, or even immediately following a death? How many of these games allow you the option of buying your way out of the spam, via some in-game purchases? Not that many, you're probably saying to yourself.

2. Most of the games are clones.

It's believed that at least 99.999999999% of all Google Play games were built using a source code from Unity and ported to the Android platform. This leaves you with 98,765,432.1 of the exact same fucking game, released on Google Play under dozens of different names, and with only slight variations by at least 90 different publishers.

3. Blatant Copyright Infringement.

The vast majority of runners and platformers released by Chinese publishers straight up steal intellectual property from popular North American film studios and video game designers with impunity, while profiting from it via the ad revenue they get by flooding your screen with marketing bullshit. Funny how channels on YouTube can be struck, or deleted via FALSE copyright claims, yet the developers on Google Play can freely engage in flat-out fucking THEFT without management so much as batting an eye.

Of course, this doesn't apply to all Android games, and the ones that don't suck ass usually get the most attention, but it cannot be denied that there is just way too much fucking garbage on Google Play right now.

4. Pay-To-Win Micro-transactions.

This pay-to-win bullshit is when a game developer strategically designs a game with the intent of making it discouraging, or even downright fucking impossible to win without forking over real cash in order to gain a fair, or even mild advantage. Games like Robots and Mobile Strike sometimes make it a requirement to fork over real cash for certain items and weapons, regardless of the progress you make in the game to earn them.

I am not entirely apposed to micro-transactions, but I feel there is a right and WRONG way to go about them. This sort of think should be used as a way to enhance the game play, not become a barrier to it, and the ladder happens WAY too often. This type of bullshit is mirrored in the console and PC mainstream, where pay-to-win DLC is used to patch a partially completed game that you would ordinarily have to pay $60 for anyway.

5. Vast majority of games don't support gamepads.

Point and click gaming may comprise the vast majority of the Android gaming platform, and probably don't need controllers, but games that very OBVIOUSLY DO need gamepad support, such as Racing, Fighting, and even some third-person action games should be fucking REQUIRED to integrate support for a peripheral like that, yet the overwhelming majority don't have that option, leaving you to play games that obviously weren't ideal for touch-screen controls, to be played with nearly %30 of your screen to be covered up by your own thumbs, in a slippery, awkward fucking mess of an experience.

I had recently reviewed The King of Fighters 2015 A for Android on RageFor.com, and I was shocked and baffled to find that It didn't even have basic support for peripherals like game pads or joysticks. KOF was a franchise developed more than 15 years ago by SNK, and they haven't figured out how to get basic Gamepad support for a 15 Year old fighting game? Are you shitting me? SNK is selling the entire NEO*GEO fighting game library for 4.99 a pop already! Are you telling me they couldn't figure this shit out for those games either?!

Android Games gaming Technology

5 Reasons Android Games Suck.

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you're probably wondering why I'm writing about some obscure piece of shit Android tablet that no one has ever heard of, and the reason is because its pissing me off. I bought this thing almost a year ago for around $50 at BestBuy thinking I was going to get a sweet deal, only to run into problem after problem that almost had me German suplexing this thing into the nearest industrial wood chipper.

1. Most of the games and apps crash.

Let's be honest, ladies and gentlemen; most tech savvy people would rather be caught by their parents in an awkward BDSM session than be seen dead with an off-brand tablet. The vast majority of people buying this thing are buying it for their kids, so they can do homework and, more importantly, play games. Too bad most of the games crash harder than the Titanic making out with an Iceberg.

The fact that this thing only has 512 megs of system RAM, Supplemented by a Dalvik Cache emulating the other 512MB of it on an internal memory that only has 8 Gigabytes of space is a recipe for disaster. The vast majority of the games I tested for my Review of the product on RageFor.com crashed less than two minutes into the game, whereas some of them crashed immediately after the loading screen. To makes matters worse, Firefox -Fucking Firefox- crashes regularly on this device, and so does the Swype Keyboard that I paid for, specifically for this device!

2. Its racist against Bluetooth devices

I bought this thing for the sole purpose of using it as a word processor. I needed a tiny laptop to write my articles with, and this was the only thing that made sense at the time. Anyway, I pair the shit, start writing, and 4 minutes later, not only did the keyboard I paired randomly disconnect 18 times in the course of a fucking hour, it would hold down the"P" key and "SPACEBAR" for eternity, then disconnect, leaving me to have to go back to Settings>Bluetooth Devices and pair the fucking thing AGAIN after putting in the pin, and guess what? it didn't pair, so I had to do the shit again!!!!!!!! Then guess what happened?!?!?!!??! IT UNPAIRED THE FUCKING MOUSE I WAS JUST USING!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. Really bad hardware ruins the good hardware.

The graphics processor is nice, The Mediatek CPU isn't slow at all, yet with only 512MB of ram , and a touch sensor that is slightly more accurate than a Storm Trooper playing Lazer Tag, you could hardly call this a decent device. Also, the screen is shit. Sorry to say it, but if you view it from any angle other than sideways, and slightly tilted backward to the ceiling, you get more glare than staring directly into the surface of the sun, and with only thousands of colors, you can easily see patterns of pixels supplementing the lack of full color support that just about every other tablet in the known universe seems to have.

Now I know what You're thinking: Rage, why are you judging this thing by today's standards? don't you know this is a old budget tablet? The answer is no, I'm not judging this by today's standards. I'm judging this as a word processor. Companies like Apple and IBM had this shit on lock-down way back in 1978, and for a device like this to be so bad at it some 45 years later is just mind boggling.

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