Re: How does an ipod connect to the internet?

On 11/28/2011 11:04 AM, Jon Paris wrote:

On Nov 28, 2011, at 10:52 AM, pctech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

My daughter is willing to give up her Blackberry, which we bought used and
has a crappy mike (making us cautious of internet purchases of used
equipment). We will replace that with a cell phone that basically has
calls and good texting capabilities. Dropping that data plan should pay
for the ipod in no less than 5 months.

Don't know how much you are currently paying Rob but we just picked up a pay-as-you-go Virgin mobile Samsung Android phone for $80 (Best Buy) which included the first month of service. After that it is $35 per month. That $35 plan gives unlimited texting and data plus some 2 or 300 prime time minutes. Since it can use the Skype app as long as you're in range of wi-fi you can use Skype for your calls and save the minutes. It also has the GPS and other features that the iPod touch is missing.

I do confess though that compared with the iPhone/iPad interface I do find the Android interface much harder to use.

You do realize there's no one "Android interface", right? There is a base UI for each release of the OS (we're now up to 4.0, including four major releases since 2010 alone) and then typically each manufacturer puts their own little spin on it. On top of that, there's a booming aftermarket for custom UIs (some of which are in a word awesome), although that entails that you get under the hood a little bit. A couple of good articles:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/05/01/custom-roms-for-android-explained-and-why-you-want-them/
http://www.redmondpie.com/best-most-popular-custom-roms-for-android-and-why-you-should-try-them-out/

Yeah, I'm a little biased, since I program Android and write articles about it. But I like the fact that ANY programmer can get started on Android with a couple of downloads and a little friendly guidance - no Mac needed. :)

Oh, the guidance? Why, right here:

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/developer/general/andoid_development/
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/developer/general/andoid_development2/

Those two will get you installed and get you to write a business-level hello world program (a list of orders). Two more coming out shortly: one to create an expandable subfile UI that will make phone calls and do emails, and the other to link to an RPG program on the back end.

I tried to do that for iPhone (iPad actually), I really did. But I couldn't get past "first you need to get an Intel-based Mac and once you do that then you get to pay us an annual fee for the privilege of running your own app on your own device".

Joe