10 thoughts for December 10, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. One of the swag items for UCLA Bruins going to the Sun Bowl: Helen of Troy hair dryer.  Ha!
2. Something people are neglecting when asking whether Washington or USC had the better hire: FIT.  Petersen apparently didn't fit with the expectations at USC, while Sark has been in and out of the university for two decades, first as a student then as a grad assistant, then eventually to assistant coach.
3. At nearly the same time, my Nexus 7 2012 and my Nexus 5 got the Android KitKat 4.4.2 updates this afternoon.  The camera app is definitely more sprightly.
4. Also clearly updated in the background today: Chromecast.  If you have Chromecast turned on but nothing streaming to it, there's a plethora of new photos with credits to the photographers.  I'm guessing that they're grabbing Creative Commons licensed content.  Very nice.
5. Speaking of the Chromecast update, Google also announced the release of new apps.  Or rather I should say, Google officially lifted the embargo of apps that were ready from Day 1 of Chromecast's release.  I know this, because Revision3 folks talked about how it was ready, and demonstrated it. 
6. About those Chromecast apps, the video streaming is HD quality and a far better solution than casting a Chrome tab.  The Revision3 and Vevo apps are worth installing and using.  Plex is...well, nice, but it costs money and requires installing their server-side software if you want to seriously use it.  I've got Viki installed but I haven't yet signed up for a free account and therefore I haven't yet tested it.  But undoubtedly, Chromecast is the device you want, this Christmas.  Got a house party?  Just stream Vevo videos in the background.  Avia allows you to stream content from different sources, including a DLNA server, but for now, I'm holding off until it has access to Flickr and Box.  The combination of Chromecast and Android devices is about as perfect as it gets.
7. About Android: Nokia apparently has a project, codenamed Normandy, for an Android phone.  As expected, it's not a full-fledged Android install, but a custom ROM, much like Amazon's Kindle lineup.  Oh that Elop, he is a sneaky one, isn't he?  They were going full steam on the project even as the approval of the sale of Nokia's handset division to Microsoft was being processed. It does tend to show that, had Microsoft not bought Nokia's handset division, Elop was ready to do a 180° flip and do exactly what I suggested they do, over two years ago: build their own UI over Android.
8. A far-right conservative trying to take Senator John Cornyn's seat away from him, accused Cornyn of being liberal.  To which, of course, everyone laughed.  However, I think it best not to intervene and correct the situation, for as we know, the GOP lean to the far-right brings out the Todd Akins and their fringe ideas.  By disposing of the fringe early on, Cornyn's seat is protected from moderate Democrats, but by allowing the fringe to defeat sufficiently conservative Republicans in primaries around the US, moderate Democrats gain a significant advantage in the 2014 general elections.  Just saying, tactics people.
9. There were a lot of dissatisfied people with Microsoft's $99 Dell Venue Pro offer, yesterday.  It appears that stores apparently had different protocols for dealing with their limited inventory, and Microsoft relied on leaked advertising to garner publicity, but left the fine print to its website, after the fact.  All of this points to terrible planning.
10. I might be an early adopter of sorts, for LTE on T-Mobile in Portland, but I gotta say, the speeds are tremendous: Nov.7 - 24.11Mbps; Nov.12 - 35.80 Mbps; Dec.7 - 41.17 Mbps; Dec.10 - 28.18 Mbps.