Category: Technology

I know you are dying to try the Qik Video chat – but you can’t figure out how to add a friend to Qik so that you can chat.  I tried the gmail import option but it gave me a non helpful error message for the first few days – it worked today – kind of.  It gave me three options from the 1700 contacts I have in gmail – and I didn’t know any of them enough to actually video chat with them.  The weird part here is that I actually have three friends in my gmail that have the HTC Evo and Qik – none of them showed up in my list.

So – you met someone in line waiting on your Evo – or your wife got one with you – or whatever.  You know someone on Qik and you want to video chat with them – but how?!?!?!?!  Maybe I’m the idiot, but it took me a while to figure out how to add a person.  Its much too simple for all of the hassle – just go to their Qik page using your favorite browser

and click “add as friend”:

Now – you want to video chat with them, right?  Well, first you have to install the new version of Qik – the one that came with your phone doesn’t do video chat.

You can open your Evo’s amazing browser and go to http://d.qik.com or just or just scan this bar code from the Evo using Barcode Scanner (an app you MUST have – download it from the Market):

From here – it should be pretty easy – open the app, pick your new friend from the address book and start a call.

*Update – they have removed the app from the Market due to issues with video chat.  Forget ’em – go here: http://m.fring.com – download Fring and use skype!

Do you remember the 1999 movie Pirates of Silicon Valley?  I only vaguely remember it, but there was a scene where Bill Gates is being introduced by Steve Jobs at some conference and someone off stage has come across the revelation that IBM isn’t Apples competition, Microsoft is.  He is trying to get Steve’s attention, waving his arms from the side of the stage and points to Bill saying – “IBM’s not the enemy – He is the enemy!”  But its too late.

I think its getting lost in the translation here – but there was a real sense of evil and treachery.  I sometimes wonder if Google deserves that same guy waving his arms trying to get our attention to say – “They are the enemy”.  Yesterday there was a lot of talk about Facebook’s new privacy policy (which I am convinced is a timeless phrase – 3 years from now you could read this post and be like, yeah I just read about Facebook’s new privacy policy on engadget.)  The part that I find ironic about all of this privacy chatter is how inconsistent the public seems to be regarding who they fire back at concerning privacy and who they give a free pass to.  Facebook resets (although they are denying it) your privacy settings and we all scream “NO!” and start Facebook groups called “Tell Facebook, We’re not going to take it anymore!”

But Google knows more about you than any government or other company already.  You may think, “Not me, I don’t use gmail or google” but if you have a facebook page – Google has crawled it.  If you have a twitter account, Google has indexed it.  If you have ever received any email from any gmail account, most any college email account (most are google hosted), and many more than you realize business accounts (like dale@sackrider.org, also google hosted) – then Google has your emails (At least the ones that traveled through their servers).  Check out Google Maps street view and you can most likely see the front of your house, which car you parked in the drive way, and if your TV was on in the front room when they came by.

Recently it was discovered that Google has sniffed network packets through neighborhoods while recording for “street view”.  Explained in non-technical terms – they grabbed personal data going over your wireless network in your house when they drove by.  In the press release it was stated that Google was working with the governments in all of the countries where data was taken in order to “dispose of the data”.  My personal belief – data is NEVER disposed of.

In the recent Batman movie, all the cell phones in the city were turned into listening devices for the government without the permission of the owners or a warrant.  Google entered the phone market less than two years ago and have already outsold Apple iPhones in the US.  I’m getting my Android powered HTC Evo tomorrow in fact.  They *could* tap into the OS on the phone to know where you are, where you have been, how fast you drive, which routes you take to work and church, and which fast food chains you like.

We get all of these wonderful Google services (email, navigation, search, online docs, picture services, etc) for the grand monetary price of “free”… but don’t be fooled, we pay for it with 1’s and 0’s; personal information given freely in exchange for great services from Google.

Still, I find myself to be a Google fanboy… what about you?  Is the once “Do no Evil” company the next big evil giant?  Are you a fanboy?  Can you believe they are evil and be a fanboy?

A friend recently asked me what apps I plan to download on day one with my Sprint HTC Evo (which I’m picking up in 25 hours from the time I started writing this post!)  I thought I would share my top 5 must have apps and ask you about yours.  There are several core functionality apps that come on the phone already, such as the phone app (duh), a messaging app, a contacts app, and a browser.  You will also see Sprint apps like NFL and NASCAR (don’t hate on my NASCAR app – I love it and there are more NASCAR fans than you realize – it outsells Football in merchandising, so zip it!)

Additionally, Google application integration is built in for core Google products such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and YouTube.  These are essential for any phone I own.  My current Palm Pre did these apps very well, and I have come to expect great integration with Google’s core applications based on my Palm Pre experience.

Sprint Navigation will be on the phone, but with Android 2.1, we now have access to Google’s turn by turn directions in google maps – so I doubt I will be using Sprint Navigation much any more (on a sidenote for Verizon users – did you actually have to pay for gps navigation? Sprint includes it with the Everything plans).

The Evo will also come preinstalled with Qik, a video sharing application that allows you to stream video live as well as share video with Facebook and YouTube.  There has been a lot of chatter on the web about the video conference functionality that Qik will also enable you to do; there were  rumors of a $5 up charge (imposed by Qik, not Sprint) and Sprint’s site has this statement:

Video chat service available as an upgrade to the pre-loaded Qik app to enable conversational, interactive, real-time sharing between mobile devices or from mobile-to-desktop (link)

I do not believe the video chat will cost the extra $5 Qik will charge for “premium features” based on a post by our friends at Engadget.  With the front facing camera on the HTC Evo, I’ve expected the ability to video chat to be available without a nickel and dime situation; maybe that’s naive on my part.

So – what apps do I plan to download on day one (24 hours 30 mins and counting)?  Here are my top 5:

1. Google Picasa. – CORRECTION, Picasa integration is built in the OS – yeah!

I don’t know why this application isn’t included by default on a Google phone.  I plan to take a lot of pictures with the massive 8 mega-pixel camera the Evo offers and I want those pictures on my Picasa page (http://picasaweb.google.com/Dale.Sackrider)

2. Google Voice.

I get why this wouldn’t be included – its still an invitation only service that not everyone has access to.  But I do and I want to use it.  There are a few pitfalls to using Google Voice – for starters, if you call someone using it, your anytime minutes are being used even if they are on a mobile phone (which is normally a free on the Everything plans).  You also can’t receive or sent MMS messages through it (no picture mail).  But I use it for businesses so I don’t have to give out my cell phone number directly.  We don’t have a land line phone so this is the next best thing.  I can setup rules to automatically send certain numbers to voice mail and all of my voice mail is transcribed to email and sent to me.  I rarely have to listen to my voice messages since I setup Google Voice because of that feature!

3. Google Goggles.

This app allows me to take pictures of business cards and add them to my contacts without having to manually add the data.  It has other features but this is the one I care about most.  Have you noticed a Google theme here?  Yes, I am a Google fanboy despite my personal belief that they are trying to take over the world and very likely going to succeed.  One day we will find out they got into the phone market so they can record every conversation you have and make them searchable over the internet!

4. mSpot (http://www.mspot.com).

You can keep iTunes – I’ll use mSpot.  I can upload my music to the cloud and sync it to my phone wirelessly.  Not to mention the Video-On-Demand feature with mSpot Movies.  Even with the 4.3 inch screen, I don’t think I will spend a lot of time watching movies on my phone – but I don’t have to with the HDMI output port on the Evo!  I can stream movies directly to a TV.

5. Fring (http://www.fring.com).

I know the phone comes with Qik – and I believe video chat will be part of the free offering – However… No one I know is using Qik.  I had never even heard of it before the Evo.  Additionally, Qik is only available on cell phones and the Evo is the only phone available to the public today (while actually tomorrow) – what that means is Qik will only allow me to video conference with other Evo owners.  Not that I don’t want to chat with Evo owners – I’m certain I would actually enjoy that alot, but since I only personally know two other people buying the phone on opening day – I need Fring if I want to actually USE the feature.  Fring allows me to use Skype to chat with my Skype based friends and family – since Skype isn’t natively allowed on the Sprint network YET.

Well – that’s my list although I’m sure it will change several times over the next few days!  What apps are must haves for you on Day One of the HTC Evo?