I have an argue with my friend who can't accept that multitasking is something which people need. He has an iPhone and I have a HTC TD2, I told him there are 100 reasons why multitasking is better and that iPhone is far behind because it can only run 1 process at the time.
Could you guys provide me with some reason WHY multitasking is good or better than just running 1 process at the time?
Enjoying music when navigating.
Push mail
Apps running in background open faster
online sync while playing games for example.
That sort of thing.
[ElCondor] said:
Enjoying music when navigating.
Push mail
Apps running in background open faster
online sync while playing games for example.
That sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually took up most of these things and also the fact that you can talk to someone on the phone and go OUTSIDE the dialer and navigate to like email, messages and notes (very important for me) but what he says is this:
You can run music in background and use other programs at the same time.
Who the **** needs to go out of the dialer? Are you retarded? You can just say to the guy you're talking to that you will call him in 2 secs.
But that's exactly what you don't wanna do..
ArtieQ said:
I actually took up most of these things and also the fact that you can talk to someone on the phone and go OUTSIDE the dialer and navigate to like email, messages and notes (very important for me) but what he says is this:
You can run music in background and use other programs at the same time.
Who the **** needs to go out of the dialer? Are you retarded? You can just say to the guy you're talking to that you will call him in 2 secs.
But that's exactly what you don't wanna do..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
holy...
is that déjà-vu? exactly led this kind of kind of discussion with a collegue (quite bright otherwise) and listened to it between him and another of my colleagues
believe me, it's absolutely useless to discuss: any argument you lead will be smashed irrelevant of how reasonable it is
my personal opinion changed after that: it's got to be something like a general attitude in certain people who are at the same time (or for this reason?) mysteriously attracted to the iphone
spare your energy and leave them alone in their tiny little linear world, it's self inflicted imprisonment anyway; if they don't want to see the light, leave them in the dark
DrakenKorin said:
holy...
is that déjà-vu? exactly led this kind of kind of discussion with a collegue (quite bright otherwise) and listened to it between him and another of my colleagues
believe me, it's absolutely useless to discuss: any argument you lead will be smashed irrelevant of how reasonable it is
my personal opinion changed after that: it's got to be something like a general attitude in certain people who are at the same time (or for this reason?) mysteriously attracted to the iphone
spare your energy and leave them alone in their tiny little linear world, it's self inflicted imprisonment anyway; if they don't want to see the light, leave them in the dark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, that's amazing But you're right, it's useless to argue because it could go on forever and they will never realise the truth.
Ask him to listen to Internet radio and surf the Internet at the same time.
Ask him to listen to the Internet and use a music identifier program to find out the name and singer if that nice song.
Ask him to download a movie then while waiting for it to complete listen to his iPod music.
BTW iPod can and does multitasking the stock programs. It also run the stock program in the background and one third party program in the foreground. It just does not allow third party program to run in the background. Unless he jailbreaks or use OS 4.0.
eaglesteve said:
Ask him to listen to Internet radio and surf the Internet at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's not impossible with a lot of radio stations on the iPhone w/o jailbreaking - see section "1.2.1 Playing in the background" in my dedicated article at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/e...need-know-about-listening-radio-iphone-part-i .
Note that both ooTunes and Pocket Tunes have received background playback capabilities in the meantime.
Tell him that multitasking is good because Steve Job's has added it to iPhone OS 4 (don't bother trying to explain the limits and conditions that come with it, you might give me a brain tumor).
That ought to change his world view real quick.
Menneisyys; said:
it's not impossible with a lot of radio stations on the iPhone w/o jailbreaking - see section "1.2.1 Playing in the background" in my dedicated article at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/e...need-know-about-listening-radio-iphone-part-i .
Note that both ooTunes and Pocket Tunes have received background playback capabilities in the meantime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strictly speaking you're right. I was just saying that in general it is the case. My own Internet radio has this feature too without jailbreak, but most of them can't do it without jailbreak.
Great article you've written there.
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Instant Messenger Programs
some program just end the connections when switch to other apps, causing you to log off from the server.
chikoo said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say that the human brain can only really focus on one task at a time. We are terrible at multitasking despite protests to the contrary by some.
If I am reading a web page while listening to music, it is very unlikely that I am actually paying attention to the song or its lyrics. The same goes vice versa.
There is what we are currently focused on, and then there is background noise. If we try to split our attention, we usually end up doing both tasks less well.
Thus multitasking on computers is not usually about allowing us to do two things at once, it is about not shutting down or halting one task when we briefly switch our attention to another.
For many situations, simply suspending the operation of of a program until it regains focus is sufficient. But there are always, always exceptions where having the option of true multitasking will save a lot of headaches and frustrations. Usually this involves cases where the computer needs to maintain a persistent connection to a server such as for IM, SSH, etc.
The scenarios you mentioned all involve background apps interfering with the in-call speaker. This is easily solved by simply giving the phone "app" exclusive use of the external audio while a call is in session.
chikoo said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I'd find that very useful.
If I'm going for a long journey to somewhere new, I'll have my blackstone bluetoothed to my radio, giving directions from tomtom while either playing music from the storage card or internet radio. It's also recieving emails in the background. Reading out texts would be a boon as it would mean I'd not have to hit the home button, then read the text, then drop back to tomtom (which was merrily running in the background).
Similarly if I need to pull over and take a call, look up information in one of the notes and send an email after cutting and pasting that information, then drop back to tomtom without having to wait for it to find the gps signal again.
Today I had to phone the tax office, so switched from the dialer to notes to give them the reference number and take down any info they gave me. If I couldn't do that, I'd have to write the information on my hand or carry around a notebook and pen all the time.
chikoo; said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not disputing that at all. Users can't watch a video and use TomTom at the same time.
It makes sense that VOIP could continue to receive call in the background. Or download to continue in the background. Or GPS position tracking to continue if you havev to receive that call and when the call is finished your gps should be showing you at where you are without having to start it all over again. Or music, radio, podcast must be allowed to continue while reading an ebook or surf the net. These activities could go together for most users without distractions.
ArtieQ said:
I have an argue with my friend who can't accept that multitasking is something which people need. He has an iPhone and I have a HTC TD2, I told him there are 100 reasons why multitasking is better and that iPhone is far behind because it can only run 1 process at the time.
Could you guys provide me with some reason WHY multitasking is good or better than just running 1 process at the time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a good one, tell him to tell his boss that multitasking is bad...
Let the boss enlighten him... LoLz..
I have been talking to iphone users n have given up a loooooong time ago.. To them iphone is "God", so when u threaten or question their God... U know what happens next,haha...
Hi guys,
Just released my app called The Typist: Quick Typing Tests! It's fairly straightforward, it measures how fast you can type on a phone or tablet and can chart your typing speed results over time. Also supports Google Play leaderboards. I couldn't find a good typing test app so I ended up just making my own.
Features:
Test your typing speed with different speed tests based on popular books
1, 2, and 3 minute tests for the ultimate in typing test flexibility
Detailed results page: see your words per minute score, total number of errors, and most frequently mistyped letters
Track your progress with a chart of your past typing test results
Compete against your friends with a local high score list and Google Play Game Services leaderboards support
Compatible with different keyboard layouts - try them out with The Typist and see which ones actually help you type faster
Works well on both phones and tablets
Free updates and support for life
Straightforward permissions: The Typist requires internet, network state, and Google Play billing to serve ads and the ability to purchase the ad-free version. We don't need access to your contacts, location, or your Facebook account! (but if you want to upload your score, you will need to use your Google Plus account)
Want to support The Typist's development? Please rate it and/or unlock the full version of The Typist (removes ads) within the app. Thank you!
Available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thetypist.typingtests
Compatible with 4.0+/ICS and above. Free/ad-supported and in-app billing for the paid version (removes ads).
Please check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Nice little app, needs some ironing out to do
Hey bloggert,
Frist of all, it's a sweet app and since there seems to be a famine of good typing test app on touch screen devices, it's a really good one.
I came upon this thread because I was going to embark on the same road to develop myself a typing speed tester.
The UI of your app is "A" grade and I just loved it.
That said, there are also a few shortcomings of your app. You seem to have designed a typing speed analyser for a full machine at it's core, just like the others. Your app tries to keep track of each character the user types, and that actually defeats the purpose of the app on a touch screen device. Also your app seems to disable the predictive auto-completion of many of the keyboards which actually is the biggest selling point of such ones like "swype", afterall typing in a touch screen device is completely different from the keyboard, so why apply the same methodologies?
What I think the app must do?
1. Let the user type-in a whole text and provied a button that says "submit" and the app should just time it all. This is essentially to let the user correct all the words which went wrong with the auto-correct and auto-complete and all other shinanigins. Maybe your app can also keep track of the time taken by the user to enter the last word and hit the submit button, may be help user to clock the time it takes to fix the stupideties( I am not sure though if this is such a great idea) and provide feedback of somekind on the same.
2. Once the user has submitted the text, now your app does what it already does, check for the characters, are all good, what was the accuracy (most probably it would be hundred, if the user is not dumb), and now you can give the speed.
How will this help?
I think this will help user do justice on the various keyboards out there who rely on various methodologies to input text and probably help the creators of various kinds of input methods to judge the usefulness of there methods when speed is the question.
Am I stupid?
Maybe....:silly:
Hope to hear your comments on it all.
flide
Not stupid at all. This is good stuff and I appreciate the feedback.
You are correct in that The Typist tracks every character. However, the app actually only cares about certain characters (namely spaces, since these determine where words start and end, and I need these to know where to highlight the current word and the last incorrect word). So it's okay if a keyboard uses auto-completion (or any other feature that inserts words), as long as it or the user inserts a space to indicate that the word has ended.
With that said, I'm not actually sure why auto-completion doesn't work. It's definitely not disabled on purpose, and I never noticed this before. I've tried a number of keyboards and typing in partial words and then selecting it from a list above the keyboard works fine, as well as swyping methods, but auto-correct never seems to kick in. I'm going to look into this later today but it should be fixable.
As for the going back and correcting words - I'm a little hesitant about this, and the app does prevent the user from going back or selecting old text (beyond using backspace) on purpose, mostly because in testing the potential to mess up the word tracking and cause errors was too great. In the end I figured that possibility of things screwing up was more important than the need to go back and change a word, and so the cursor selection block was put into place. I don't know if this is the right decision, as I still don't have enough feedback really to really judge. This is why I didn't originally go with the option 1 suggestion.
For option 2, The Typist actually does do this already - the real error checking is done after the test has completed (checking all of the words constantly during the test is pretty time-consuming, and so the app only shows you the last mistyped word) as well as the speed counts.
flide said:
Hey bloggert,
Frist of all, it's a sweet app and since there seems to be a famine of good typing test app on touch screen devices, it's a really good one.
I came upon this thread because I was going to embark on the same road to develop myself a typing speed tester.
The UI of your app is "A" grade and I just loved it.
That said, there are also a few shortcomings of your app. You seem to have designed a typing speed analyser for a full machine at it's core, just like the others. Your app tries to keep track of each character the user types, and that actually defeats the purpose of the app on a touch screen device. Also your app seems to disable the predictive auto-completion of many of the keyboards which actually is the biggest selling point of such ones like "swype", afterall typing in a touch screen device is completely different from the keyboard, so why apply the same methodologies?
What I think the app must do?
1. Let the user type-in a whole text and provied a button that says "submit" and the app should just time it all. This is essentially to let the user correct all the words which went wrong with the auto-correct and auto-complete and all other shinanigins. Maybe your app can also keep track of the time taken by the user to enter the last word and hit the submit button, may be help user to clock the time it takes to fix the stupideties( I am not sure though if this is such a great idea) and provide feedback of somekind on the same.
2. Once the user has submitted the text, now your app does what it already does, check for the characters, are all good, what was the accuracy (most probably it would be hundred, if the user is not dumb), and now you can give the speed.
How will this help?
I think this will help user do justice on the various keyboards out there who rely on various methodologies to input text and probably help the creators of various kinds of input methods to judge the usefulness of there methods when speed is the question.
Am I stupid?
Maybe....:silly:
Hope to hear your comments on it all.
flide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More thoughts
well thinking about it again, I will say that the idea of allowing the user to correct all the text after it's done is... well not so brilliant, and I will let it go at that.
And about the predictive text feature, for my keyboard the top bar which is suppose to show the possible pridicted words is not visible, so I am not able to use them... don't know if that is a problem with your app or it is a problem with my keyboard (8pen) because it does not show up also when i am trying to use VIM. May be you can check on that if something in particular triggers that kind of behaviour.
Also, you should look up for klavaro. It has 3 criterions for typing : Accuracy, velocity and fluideness, and to tell you the truth I like the concept very much, specially fluidity. Here's the link : "klavaro[dot]sourceforge[dot]net[slash]en[slash]manual-en[dot]pdf"
Will be appriciated if you can think of something to accomodate the fluidity angle, might be difficult but let's try. If something comes to my mind compatible with the touch input, I will share.
Let me know your thoughts.
flide
---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------
I more request.
Can you include a few texts in plain english, I mean all small case, minimal punctuation, no symbols or numbers... something message like. just to test how good you can hold for every day tasks.
Just a thought.
flide
Ergonomics
One more quick idea.
It's a pain to keep looking at three different places while typing using most keyboards (not 8pen though ), namely :
1. What is supposed to be typed
2. The Keyboard
3. What am I typing
I think the 3rd point can be eliminated if app is somewhat modified. Rather than a text box to enter the displayed text, the user can actually override the displayed text... let me try and explain a bit more clearly.
The text, that needs to be typed, is initially displayed in BLACK. Now, rather than highlighting the next word to be typed, the already typed characters should be in BLUE, and all the wrong ones in RED. This mechanism essentially solves the 3rd problem, the user has just 2 places on the screen to strain his/her/it's neck, there is an inherent highlighting as to what needs to be typed (the first BLACK character), what has been typed correctly previously, in BLUE, and what was typed wrong, in RED.
THINK ERGONOMICS!! :cyclops:
Thanks for the updates
Since you never replied again, I thought you forgot all about your app... But you were hard at work and YES, now my predictive options are visible again. :victory:
+1 for the update and you should not bother to appologise for adding a ad in the app. It's your hard work and you have the right to earn over it.
flide
Hi, I was wondering how about like Antutu you could add a leader board to this which mentioned a username(like it already does) and his device and the scores.
I think it'll make the app much more popular and probably turn it into a benchmarking app for one handed usability of Android cell phones. While individuals will battle it out for the top spot, the addition of their device in the table will show which device feels best for typing.
TLDR; Add a 4 column leaderboard
Position -> Name -> Device -> Score
its multilanguage?
I thought the auto complete was disabled on purpose because then it would not be accurate on how we are typing, because technically we would be letting the device type for us. I rather like the fact we have to actually type every letter ourselves, because then I think its more challenging and more honest. So I would actually be bummed if you did allow auto correct or auto complete to work in this app.
I found nothing wrong with it aside from the fact you have to manually allow your score to be added to the leader board. The first time I did it, I got my best score since trying it a few more times but cannot add it to the leader board because I did not press the "add to leader board" on the top left, I had not even noticed it, until the 2nd go around.
Possible addition
KyleSforza said:
TLDR; Add a 4 column leaderboard
Position -> Name -> Device -> Score
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the leaderboard should also have the "input method" column stating the keyboard used for the test.
BUG Found!!
Hi bloggert,
I think the a bug/error has been introduced with the update 1.2. I have attached a screen shot for reference.
As you explained in one of your post that "spaces" are monitored to highlight the current word.
You are correct in that The Typist tracks every character. However, the app actually only cares about certain characters (namely spaces, since these determine where words start and end, and I need these to know where to highlight the current word and the last incorrect word). So it's okay if a keyboard uses auto-completion (or any other feature that inserts words), as long as it or the user inserts a space to indicate that the word has ended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the input method I am using, there are 3 predictive options available to type when I am not in the middle of typing a word namely : , . ?
After I type a word a space is automatically inserted as soon as my finger up, but if i select any one of these then that automatic space is removed the character is inserted and space is set again in the wait of the next word.
What your app seems to be doing is, whenever i utilize any of the three the current word shifts one step ahead and there is a mismatch between the "actual" correct word and the one being highlighted in BLUE.
Please look into the issue. It's very distracting.
flide
Hey!
This is a cool app; I've been missing a typing test for some time. Some additional feature requests:
Dark theme (for amoled users)
Practice mode: an additional untimed mode where we can import our own texts
The latter, in particular, could be very nice in training for the usual tests!
Thanks again for the app!
Hi,
I'm using a Samsung tablet with a floating thumb keyboard.
The Text does not recognise that and still says in the middle of the screen, behind the keyboard. (See added Screenshot)
Also would it be possible to highlight the wrong words red in the existing text and not in the written text?
IMHO that would be better....
Your app got hacked
A good app
Hello,
I am looking for an app that i've only found on iOS. This is not an app easily found. If there is not something like this for Android, then I would like to be directed to developers than may be able to create something like this. What the app does is overclocks the device while questing in reign of dragons. Once the app is installed and activated with ROD, there is a "settings" wheel that hovers over the screen, while in game. once you tap on that botton, a function appears at the bottom of the screen that allows for manipulation of speed. Once the setting is set, (40) on my iPod, then the screen sort of flashes quickly. once the quest starts, it kills the little monsters in hyperdrive. Thank your for any replies regarding this request.
V
Hello everybody
Small intro:
I'm building a startup to create the first HumaneTech smartphone experience. For you.
Our project is to create a smartphone experience that is: Excellent. But not addictive.
A smartphone experience that respects your brain. And doesn't mess with your neurotransmitters. To allow you to use your phone without getting hooked, If you want.
To do that, we want to remove/redesign features that are addictive (believe me ! ) :
Glowing colors on screens
Notifications (the pings, the red numbered icons)
Thumb scrolling down (twitter/fb/etc news feed scrolling)
(and many other things)
We understand the psychology of it but we don't have tech skills (yet).
Let's say you have a smartphone/internet/p*rn addiction. And you want your own phone to help you.
Can you imagine android with :
AI based image recognition & filtering
One unique browser (designed to filter p*rn)
DNS/ HOSTS file based p*rn site filtering
Forced Google/Bing/etc SafeSearch
Phone use analytics (amount of time spend on X website/app etc)
Customisable "self parental controls" (limit the amount of time you can use an app, access a website,etc to keep you more productive) that you cant easily remove once set, to protect you
Customisable internet filters (hard to remove)
And in a moment of weakness, no easy way for you to remove it?
We thought of an app but all it takes is to boot in safe mode to bypass it (or not?)
Can we develop a customised Android that flashes like a ROM on a users phone and makes these changes?
We realise anybody motivated enough could do most of the above on his phone himself. By installing 4-5 third party apps, for example. But it wouldn't be perfect.
It could be easily removed. And the average user wants it easy to install.
Any ideas? I have very little technical skills and I'm still looking for answers on how to do this.
Thank you !
P.S.
First post so I'm not allowed to post links
Please go to HumaneTech dot com to understand what this is about.
There is a already a Chrome extension that filters nude images using AI. Its called vRate and works through a server
P.P.S.
I apologise in advance if I posted this in the wrong area.
This is in no way intended to promote a product. Nothing has been coded yet. I'm even willing to pay for a short conversation with someone who can answer these questions.