From Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich

Alas, my love affair with the belated Gingerbread update for my Captivate was brief. While the browser and Google+ app were indeed much faster on Gingerbread than they ever were on Froyo after a reboot, I quickly found out that using the phone for two or three days without rebooting slowed things down considerably. More precisely, the apps themselves, including the browser, were still fast: however, going back to the home screen was s-l-o-w. I could often see the Launcher redraw the home screen from scratch. Buttons were non-responsive. Rebooting the phone would fix things, but I don’t think rebooting every couple of days is acceptable in this day and age. I never have to reboot my ’08-vintage Macbook Pro and iMac, except for system updates (sometimes). Even my Windows 7 Samsung Slate does just fine without rebooting in normal day-to-day use—except that a large percentage of Windows software still requires restarting on installation.

In the end, I decided it was time for me to enter the mysterious world of custom ROMs. In fact, while I was at it, I might as well try Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the latest version of the Android OS. This was especially attractive, as Samsung has stated in no uncertain terms that there will be no official version of ICS for the Captivate (or, more generally, for Galaxy S phones). I opted for the Team ICSSGS port, which builds upon Google’s AOSP (Android Open Source Project) release and is thus untainted by Samsung or AT&T “enhancements.”

Your key to the world of custom ROMs is a wonderful piece of software called ClockWorkMod Recovery, or CWM. This is a utility that runs before the full Android OS boots, and allows you to perform a number of low-level maintenance functions, including “flashing” (i.e. installing) custom ROMs. The beauty of it is that, once you have CWM on your phone, you just download a ROM (usually a zip file) to your internal SD card (you can even do this from your phone!), reboot into CWM, and select one of its menu option to flash the newly downloaded ROM. The only difficulty is actually installing CWM. For this, you will need a computer (PC, Linux or Mac) and another wonderful software called Heimdall (long story).

I followed the instructions here. Two caveats: first, you must have already updated to Gingerbread as per the Samsung/AT&T instructions. Second, the link I just gave you takes you to the Cyanogenmod wiki and provides you step-by-step instructions to install the Cyanogenmod ROM onto your Captivate. However, you do not need to follow all the instructions: just the ones in the section titled “Installing the ClockworkMod Recovery”. Do not follow the instructions under “Flashing CyanogenMod”. You want to flash ICS, not CyanogenMod… for now at least! (Long story short: CyanogenMod is an enhanced ROM; its stable version is based on Gingerbread, not ICS, though they also have an ICS version at the alpha stage.)

Once you have CWM Recovery on your phone, follows the instructions in the aforelinked Team ICSSGS post. A clarification: step 1 in the ICSSS instructions says to “Boot into Clockwork Mod Recovery mode using volume buttons”. This means: power down your phone; now press the Power, Volume Up, and Volume Down buttons simultaneously; hold them for 1-2 seconds, then release the Power button but hold down the two Volume buttons until CWM comes up (If I recall correctly, the CWM menu comes up after the AT&T boot animation).

Another caveat: your Captivate will “boot loop” the first time you flash ICSSGS. That is, you will see the AT&T boot animation, then the Google logo, then a bunch of gibberish, after which the phone will go back to the AT&T boot animation, etc. Don’t panic: this is normal, and explained here (look at the very first “Common Issue”). Just pull the battery and enter CWM Recovery using the three-button combination above. Reflash and reboot: this time there will be no boot loop.

My experience so far: ICS is the most significant upgrade to Android yet. The UI and interaction with the device are much more refined: there are many subtle effects and animations that contribute to a significantly improved experience, reminiscent of iOS and Windows Phone 7 (if you have seen the demos of the latter—devices “in the wild” are, er, hard to spot…). This particular ROM is not super-fast, though once again individual apps are fast. But I am so pleased with the overall “feel” of the OS that I’m willing to give up on apps instantly popping up as soon as I click on icons (some actually do, but some don’t).

Most importantly, so far and after rebooting a couple times after installation, I haven’t had the phone slow down like molasses in just two days of continued use, the way Gingerbread did. I have been running ICS for a week now, and if anything the OS feels faster than when I first rebooted after installing it.

Two final notes. First, the ICSSGS ROM is pre-rooted and also comes with CWM, so further flashing will be a breeze. Second, installing a new ROM requires wiping your phone clean, so back up any data you need to retain and be ready to reinstall apps.

Enjoy!

Android: How to deal with a sloooow Kindle app

A quick tip: I really love the Kindle app for my Android phone. As a result, I have accumulated a fair number of books on my device. Unfortunately, the time it takes for the app to be 100% up and running after launching it–that is, for the book I’m currently reading to be open on the last page read–has also been increasing.

Fortunately, this is easy to fix: delete older books from your device. Don’t worry: Amazon will still keep track of what you bought, and indeed, in the latest version of the Kindle app, you can see them listed in the “Archive” section. You can re-download them whenever you wish.

With only a few (4/5)  books on my Captivate, start-up time is back to what it was when I first downloaded the app. I think the root of the problem is that, for every book you have on your device, the Kindle app must sync your bookmarks and furthest location with the Amazon servers. If you have lots of books, this can take a while. The evidence seems consistent with this.

What’s not clear to me is why the app doesn’t instead only sync “on demand”: that is, whenever you open a particular book, it syncs with Amazon, but otherwise it does nothing. So, in particular, if you close the app while reading a book, then reopen it, only your current book will be synced. Perhaps in a future update…

Captivate: More on the Froyo update, and a tip

I just wanted to share my continued delight with the long-awaited Froyo update for my Captivate, and also offer a tip.

Froyo absolutely improved my relationship with my phone In no particular order, I love the many little visual tweaks, teh speedy, the fact that you can now finally turn data traffic on and off without arcane codes (just long-press the power button and choose from the menu), the ability to talk via Skype (voice only, but still), and the subtly improved Gmail app.

The infamous Captivate lag (see my previous post for details) is less pronounced, but after a week of regular use I have to say that it’s definitely not gone. The temptation to root and "lagfix" my phone is still there. On the other hand, with rumors of Samsung regaling us (or at least some Galaxy S phones) with Gingerbread at some point in the not-so-near (sic) future, I’m a bit reluctant to run the risk of getting myself in serious trouble (as in, bricking my phone). On yet another hand (aren’t we economists known to be multi-armed creatures?), even if the rumors are true, it will probably be so long before we get Gingerbread that I will probably qualify for an upgrade at subsidized prices, in which case why not play with my Cappy a bit? Overall, I think I’ll wait a bit longer before I take the plunge.

Now for the tip. After a few days of regular use, I noticed that battery life was a bit worse than before the update. It was not horrible, mind you—I could still easily make it through the day. However, the charge remaining at the end of a typical day was around maybe 20% or 30%, instead of 40% or thereabouts. That made me wonder if something was amiss: I had not installed any new app and/or started any new background processes.

To make a long story short, I checked the Wifi sleep settings, and noticed that the default was for WiFi to never enter sleep mode. I think this may have changed from Eclair, or perhaps I had specifically set the sleep policy soon after getting my Captivate. Anyway, my advice is to go to Settings, Wireless and Networks, WiFi settings; then tap the menu button and select Advanced, then go to Wi-Fi sleep policy and choose "When screen turns off". This surely does not hurt, and based on my observations this afternoon, I think it is helping.

Bottom line: if you have battery issues, check your WiFi sleep settings. I’ll report back if further issues arise.

One more thing: I think I may perhaps have found a way to partially remedy the "USB connected" issue I was having with my Captivate (see my previous post). The bad news is that it’s most likely a hardware issue—a faulty contact in the vicinity of the USB port. The OK news is that I may have found a way to make the notification (and attendant problems) go away in a very "hands-on" way… but, I want to be sure before I post about this, and more importantly, I don’t want to jinx it

Coming up: I am planning a post on the different Android keyboards I have tried; as usual, my intention is to focus on the ones that I have actually used for an extended period of time. I will also report on my ongoing efforts to port the LaTeX plugin to the new, shiny, cross-platform version 2 of Sublime Text. Stay tuned!

Captivate: Froyo bliss, USB woes

Samsung and AT&T finally released the Android 2.2 update (a.k.a. Froyo) for the Captivate. To say that this has been long in coming would be an understatement; even CNN International picked up on this story. Such an embarassment…

Anyway, Froyo is here now, and it’s great. It definitely feels faster (longtime Apple fans would say it has teh snappy [alternative Facebook link]); for example, Launcher Pro‘s Exposé-like effect is buttery, OSXliciously smooth. The Browser app is noticeably faster, and it runs Flash–a big win for my family’s Club Penguin enthusiasts. The notorious lag that afflicted Eclair on the Captivate seems to be much reduced. Perhaps as a consequence, rebooting the phone is much faster (not that I do it that often). Skype finally works (it is Froyo-only). Plus, the UI looks more polished and refined overall. The USB debugging icon, for instance, is much improved, and even cute: a huge step up from the ugly red triangle in the Captivate version of Eclair.

So, all is well. Actually, scratch that: all would be well if it wasn’t for the serious issues I am having with the Micro USB plug, which is used both to recharge the battery and to transfer data. I already blogged about this, but what I thought was an occasional occurrence caused perhaps by a mistake on my part has morphed into an ugly, recurrent, seemingly random but unfortunately fairly frequent problem. I already reported it to XDA Developers, and apparently I’m not the only one having this issue, although it does not seem to be widespread.

Here’s the deal. Every once in a while, after connecting my Captivate to a computer or to the charger and unplugging it, the “USB Connected” notification comes back on (followed by the “USB Debugging On” notification, in case that is turned on in Settings). Sometimes, the battery icon even shows the lightning picture, which means that the Captivate thinks that it is recharging when it’s clearly not. And, if I power off under such circumstances, the phone is seemingly unable to power back on normally: pushing the power button brings up the “spinning circle” cursor, followed by a picture of an empty battery, after which the display goes dark. The only way to bring the phone back to life is to connect it to a power source; again, you see the spinning circle, then the empty battery, then (finally) a battery showing the actual charge level, after which you can push the power button and the phone will start. Actually, even this may require a couple of attempts before it actually works.

Fiddling with the USB settings may or may not help; I think on a couple occasions the “USB Connected” notification went away after changing the settings, but then again, it may have done so of its own volition. I seriously suspect this may be a hardware issue. I am even tempted to open my Captivate to see if something is obviously wrong. I’d rather not return the phone and perhaps get a replacement unit, which I would then have to unlock–a process that is now harder than it was with the original Captivate firmware.

So, besides the annoying fact that the notification drives me insane, and also takes up valuable space in the notification bar, could I simply live with this problem for a while, until I am eligible for a new, fully subsidized phone? The main issue is powering up the phone when the notification is on: I need to be close to a power source. Also, when the “USB Connected” notification is on, I sometimes can’t actually plug in the USB cable and really connect the phone to a computer, which is not just somewhat ironic but also obviously very inconvenient.

Bottom line: this is a very annoying, serious issue. If anybody can suggest a solution, please be my hero . In the meantime, I will post updates on this blog.

Captivate Caveats: connecting via USB

First, the bottom line: every time you connect your Captivate to your computer via USB, always follow the proper procedure to mount it and unmount it as a mass storage device, even if you just want to recharge it and have no need to actually access its contents. Two qualifications: first, I use a Mac; on a PC, things may be different. Second, if you are using the Kies software (on a PC), then obviously you will not be mounting your Captivate in mass storage mode–but if you know about Kies, you probably know about this already!

The details: I am currently on my way back from a quick business trip to Europe. On my flight to Europe, I realized that my Captivate’s battery was running a little low for a transatlantic flight–maybe 50% or so. I really enjoy reading books using the Kindle app, but that does use some juice. Actually, a 50% charge would have been enough for a few hours’ reading (especially while in flight mode), but just to be on the safe side, I decided to recharge the phone by plugging into my Macbook Pro’s USB port for a while. I was experimenting with instant preview (I do have some interesting findings to report, by the way: stay tuned!), so I had my laptop out already; plugging in the Captivate seemed like a no-brainer.

Well, it was a no-brainer, but in a rather different sense Because I had no need to actually access files stored on my phone, I did not bother to mount it as a storage device, like I usually do when e.g. I need to transfer pictures, movies, or songs. I just plugged it in and, after a while, disconnected the USB cord.

Big mistake! Right after disconnecting, the "USB connected" notification came back up on the phone, accompanied by the "USB debugging on" notification (to mount on a Mac, you have to turn on USB debugging, so I always keep it on). Plugging the USB cable back in (and out) did nothing; pulling down the notification menu and trying to mount as mass storage, in the hope that this may reset things, also failed (incidentally, this meant that accessing files on my Captivate via USB was now impossible). I even resorted to trying to kill USB-related processes using the OSMonitor app, but I think you need to be root for that, and I’m not.

When I landed, as soon as I had Internet access, I searched for solutions to this issue. Apparently, some people have encountered a similar problem, which they solved by powering down the phone, removing the battery, and waiting a few minutes before rebooting. Well, I tried that, but the phone just would not boot up. Obviously, panic ensued… I then suspect a battery issue: what if, for some reason, the battery had actually not been charging at all while plugged to my laptop? Thus, I plugged the Captivate to a wall outlet; that did the trick, and the phone came back to life. Luckily, the "USB connected" notification was gone, too!

Driven by some insane desire to once again wreak my Captivate, I experimented some more. For instance, I was able to reproduce the problem by connecting the USB cord to my laptop, then dragging down the notification bar, clicking on the USB Storage notification and selecting the "Unmount from Andriod" option (I’m not sure about the exact wording). Again, only rebooting, leaving the phone without battery for a few minutes, then powering back up while connected to a wall outlet gave me a fully functioning phone. I have since been reluctant to try other combinations, but mounting as USB storage and unmounting from the desktop the usual way does work.

The bottom line is that there seems to be something quite delicate going on in the Samsung USB stack (the set of system drivers and software that interact with the USB interface). There are other indications of this: for instance, there are well-known interactions between non-stock launchers (e.g. the excellent Launcher Pro) and Samsung-specific software such as Kies (to use the Kies software, you must switch back to the default TouchWiz launcher). Be that as it may, whenever I connect my phone to my laptop, I will henceforth always mount it on the desktop, and then cleanly unmount it when I’m done.

One final UI-related note: is there any good reason why Android hides USB configuration options under the "Settings | Applications" menu, of all places?

My Captivate: one more reason (quick)

Somehow I forgot to mention one of the key reasons why I settled on this particular phone: it works on the "world" 3G frequency (2100 Mhz), in addition to the AT&T ones (850/1900 Mhz). Sadly, not many phones support all three frequencies: for instance, the soon-to-be-released and otherwise awesome HTC Inspire 4G seemingly only supports AT&T’s frequencies. Travel outside of North America, and you get GPRS or EDGE speeds

Not very many phones support both US and world frequencies; the Samsung Vibrant (the Captivate’s T-Mobile cousin) does, as do, of course, the iPhone (3, 3GS and 4) and the iPad. If anybody knows of other "world" 3G phones, please let me know by leaving a comment.

My Samsung Captivate: battery life

The iPhone 4′s battery life is legendary, and my wife’s experience certainly bears that out. In any event, I was worried that my Captivate would not fare as well: a few posts on XDA Forums, while helpful as usual, did make me a bit nervous.

Well, all I can say is that my fears were unjustified. For my purposes at least, the Captivate’s battery life is not just adequate, but excellent. However, I have learned a few things about battery management that may be useful to share. First, though, I think no useful discussion of battery life can be had without information on actual usage patterns; so, here’s mine (on work days).

• Unplug the phone around 8am
• On my way to the kids’ school and work, make a few phone calls using Bluetooth, for a total talk time of maybe 15-20 minutes on average
• Sometimes also listen to music, plugging into my car stereo’s AUX input.
• Make perhaps 1 or 2 phone calls during the work day
• One 10-15 min phone call home while on my way back from work
• In the evening, play a couple of games (well, either I or the kids almost always do), read a book using the Kindle app, check the Android market for updates, check email
• Plug in the phone around 11pm

So, overall, I’d say my usage is lightish, but not conservative. Depending on how hard I / we play in the evening and the duration of calls made during the day, I usually have between 20% and 60% battery life left by the time I plug it back in.

In fact, when the battery life is above 50% in the evening, I do not plug the phone in; I disable syncing and put it in flight mode. So, I sometimes manage two days on a single charge. This is often the case on week-ends, when I use the phone more for surfing, email, maps/navigation and games, and less for actually, well, making calls!

With that out of the way, here are my own conclusions about battery life.

First, voice calls and your display are the main source of battery drain. It’s that simple. You can see for yourself: go to Settings, About Phone, Battery Use. This means that, when you are optimizing battery life, you are really nibbling at the edges: the first-order sources of power drain are essentially unavoidable. Then again, in my experience, if I restrict attention to making phone calls, the battery life I get is comparable to what I got out of my trusty old Nokia 3500: not too bad, but rarely beyond one or maybe two days of actual use.

Second, turning GPS and WiFi on only as needed makes very little difference. This was a surprise to me, but I spent a few days recording the battery level at roughly one-hour intervals with GPS and WiFi both off, and with GPS and WiFi both "formally" on (more in a sec). In either case, I lose about 2% charge per hour while idle; the phone may discharge marginally faster (between 2% and 3%) if GPS and WiFi are both on, but the difference is so small that, honestly, you would need much more careful measurement, and more extensive tests, to be really sure. If there is a difference, in my opinion it is more than compensated by the fact that you don’t have to turn on these services as needed

Actually, this makes sense. The GPS radio is only active when location is required, as you can see by checking the notification bar. Similarly, WiFi is placed in an energy-saving "sleep" state when the display is off, so again there is no significant drain, unless you use the phone. In principle, you should get a higher drain with WiFi on than with WiFi off, given equal functionality, if you use the phone, say, for surfing the Web via 3G while in an area with no accessible WiFi; in such circumstances, the phone keeps looking for a WiFi signal (and an access point that has been used in the past), so turning WiFi off would save some power. But, again, in my own actual use, this does not end up mattering much, so I just leave WiFi on at all times.

Third, syncing does make a measurable difference. If I leave syncing on during the work day, the phone discharges at a rate of maybe 3-4% per hour, vs. 2% with syncing off. Basically, this is due to K-9 (my favorite email client by far) polling my employer’s IMAP server every 15 minutes, and GMail’s push service. Again, the difference is not huge, but I also find it a bit annoying to hear the "new mail" sound every 15 minutes while I’m staring at my iMac in any case. But, syncing is the only setting that I found to have an easily noticeable effect on battery life. To turn it on and off, I use the Autosync Toggle widget from Curvefish, which I find aesthetically pleasing.

Fourth, you will have background data traffic even with syncing off. This is especially important, and (in my view) an Android limitation. Only certain services, such as checking email in the background, qualify as "autosyncing"; for instance, GMail checking. You can check what these registered autosync services are by going to Settings, Accounts and Sync. In addition, email software such as K-9 has a setting that enables background polling only if Autosync is enabled. However, not all background data is considered autosyncing; for instance, the Beautiful Widgets weather display is updated even with syncing off, as is the Facebook widget. I am quite sure there are other data services that are active even with syncing off. To kill these, you have to basically stop all data traffic. The Captivate (with stock 2.1 Android) does not really have a fully functioning data on/off widget, but you can dial the "secret code" for testing mode, *#*#4636#*#*, and disable data off from there. Confusing? Yes, it is! But, for now, this is what we have to deal with on Android.

Turning all background data off does reduce power drain, but the real reason why I mention this is that getting into Testing Mode as just described is the only sure-fire way to avoid data charges. Again, turning syncing off won’t do, and of course going to Flight Mode prevents you from making and receiving phone calls. Case in point: before I bought a suitable Vodafone IT SIM card with reasonably priced data service, I had a voice-only plan that happily charged me a 0.50 EUR per 15-minute session (or something outrageous like that). And, since it,too was a Vodafone IT plan and I was in Italy, switching Roaming data off obviously made no difference. So, again, Testing Mode is your friend if you absolutely must avoid data. BTW I understand that HTC phones, as well as the Captivate and other Galaxy S phones with the as-yet unreleased Froyo, do have a data off switch, but there is no such functionality with the stock 2.1 firmware.

Finally, two tips: if you leave your phone in flight mode to save power, do also turn syncing off; it seems to make a difference. Second, to check battery life, I recommend Battery Indicator Pro. It displays the current battery level numerically in the notification bar; you can get additional information if you pull down the notification bar and tap on the Battery Indicator line. There is also a free version, but you do want to support Android developers, don’t you?

My Samsung Captivate: unlocking and living with a faulty GPS

I finally joined the ranks of self-respecting, smartphone-carrying tech enthusiasts. Over three years after the introduction of the iPhone (and untold years into the Blackberry/Palm/WinMo era), in September I capitulated and bought a Samsung Captivate, the ATT version of Samsung’s successful Galaxy S Android phone.

After four months of relatively intensive use, I think I have a pretty good idea about the strengths and weaknesses of this particular phone, and of Android phones more generally. Furthermore, my wife recently bought an iPhone 4, and of course I have been playing with it, too–as have our kids! Finally, since June, our family has been the proud home of an iPad 3G+WiFi. Bottom line: we actively straddle both sides of the Android/iOS divide.

Armed with this wealth of empirical evidence, I was going to write a lengthy post comparing the two phones and platforms. But, as more experienced bloggers probably already know, this violates what I’m going to call Chabon’s Law (thanks Gruber). Posts should be short and timely. Well, the time for that has clearly passed. Instead, I’m going to collect random observations and tips, in the hope they may be useful to others.

Why a Captivate?

I will allow myself only this bit of editorializing. Why did I decide on a Captivate, despite being a long-time Mac fan? The answer is simple: especially with the original firmware (codename JF6), the Captivate was very easy to unlock. You didn’t even need to root. Even with the new firmware, which ATT delivered over the air in November 2010 (codename JH7), it is still possible to unlock the Captivate by running a simple app you can download from the Android Market, although you do need to be rooted. Apparently, leaked Froyo builds make this more complex, but still feasible. The excellent XDA Developers forum is recommended (if not required) reading if you wish to make the most of your phone, and work around its shortcomings; start with this post, which provides a nice, PDF-formatted guide that includes information on unlocking and rooting.

Much as I love the iPhone 4, I spend a considerable time in Europe, and the idea of either paying ridiculous roaming charges, or jailbreaking (rooting) my phone to unlock it, and then engaging in a constant struggle with Apple to keep it unlocked was not especially palatable. Hence, no iPhone 4 for me. Instead, I bought a prepaid Vodafone IT SIM card, which I can simply pop into my Captivate when I land in Italy or Europe; I get very reasonable voice and data rates, and can thus enjoy my phone to the fullest. My wife’s iPhone 4, on the contrary, magically turns into an iPod Touch the moment we land

The GPS issue and Da_G’s partial fix

The main drawback of the Captivate is its non-functioning GPS chip. This is really unfortunate; geolocation is one of those facilities you do not appreciate until you actually try it. When it does work, it is magical. Android gives you a great Maps app (much better than the iOS one), plus turn-by-turn navigation. Yes, your phone doubles as a GPS unit! With the latest iteration of Google’s software, you can even pre-download maps, so you don’t need to have an active 3G connection to use this feature.

However, the Captivate’s GPS chip is notoriously faulty, especially in earlier builds. Basically, it does not pick a clear signal unless conditions are ideal (clear sky, no tall buildings around you). As a consequence, tracking (i.e. showing your position on a map) can be quite imprecise, and navigation can break down.

Additionally, XDA Developers’ hacker extraordinaire Da_G figured out that Samsung misconfigured the GPS software in a way that makes matters even worse. In a nutshell, for a GPS unit to pin down your position, it first has to `lock’ on at least three satellites. To do so quickly, it helps to know where these satellites are at a given time and in a given approximate location. Otherwise, the GPS unit has to wait until it gets a signal from some satellite, and can then download information about the location of other satellites directly `from the sky’. But, this takes time–sometimes a very long time (as in, 5 minutes or more).

`Assisted GPS’ (AGPS) is, essentially, a way to provide satellite information to the GPS unit using the cellular network. But, there are two (maybe three) different AGPS modes of operation. It turns out that only `Control Plane’ mode is properly configured on a stock Captivate. In an epic post, Da_G describes the issue and provides a way to fix this. However, just setting your phone to use Control Plane mode improved things dramatically for me; lock times are now under a minute. This does not resolve the wobbly tracking issue, but it does makes things better, because, if the satellite signal is lost, it can be acquired again pretty quickly.

To configure Control Plane mode, you need to launch the LBSTestMode activity. There are apps in the Market that do so; if you use LauncherPro, you can easily create a shortcut to any registered activity, including LBSTestMode: you don’t need any additional app. Launch the activity, choose SUPL/CP settings, and set the last drop-down menu (AGPS mode) to Control Plane. If you use the phone in the US, you can leave the Server FQDN Type to Auto Config, and it will use the ATT AGPS server; othwerwise, select Custom Config, and use the supl.google.com Server, port 7276, with Secure Socket OFF. This works for me both in the US and in Europe.

To clarify: Da_G’s fix is probably much superior to just using Control Plane; it improves tracking as well. However, you need to be rooted to use it, and also must be willing to do some hacking. I am not yet ready, and using Control Plane is an OKish solution for now. Also, this is, technically, not so much a fix as a partial workaround: the GPS chip in the Captivate is faulty. I will be much more careful to read up on GPS performance when I buy my next phone. For now, this is a livable compromise.

Long time no blog!

Well, it’s been a really long time since I last blogged! All work and no play, etc.

In the meantime, a new beta of Sublime Text came out; the most notable change is that the included Python interpreter was bumped up to ver. 2.6. I quickly checked the LaTeX package, and things still seem to work fine. I’ll get back to it when things are a bit less hectic at work. In the meantime, I am really curious to hear from users, ideally via the Sublime text forum.

Next up: it appears that Android phones have overtaken the iPhone in terms of unit sales. The Mac blogosphere is understandably a bit defensive. Right now, the iPhone is clearly dominant in terms of developer mindshare, but that may well change. Also, Android has some really serious memory limitations which, in particular, pretty much ensure that Android games are pretty lame compared with their iPhone counterparts. This is a big deal for me, as I’d like to get a phone that my kids can play with on long flights. And, in general, Android apps lack the polish of iPhone apps.

But, in time, these issues will likely be resolved; what then? Will two (or more) mobile platforms coexist, or will it be like PCs vs. Macs all over again? Is there something intrinsically different about smartphones that will prevent this scenario from happening?