Google Announces Android O Developer Previews

Android O is here! It was about this time last year that Google decided to release developer previews for Android N, now known as Nougat. Obviously Android O doesn't have a delicious name just yet, but they are still mixing the batter before they bake and finish the final product.

I'm sure all of you are wondering what's changing in Android. The answer is...quite a bit. Just to outline a few:

• Background Limits: This will allow better battery life by more strictly limiting what apps and services are allowed to do.

• Notification Channels: Essentially this allows for better notification bundling, compactness, and user control.

•  PIP (Picture In Picture): This was supported in Android TV in Android Nougat, but now its natively going to be supported in all of Android.

• New Settings for the System UI Tuner: The System UI tuner has gotten a lot more useful and powerful. You can control the layout of your navigation keys and even customize shortcuts for the new added buttons- Extra Left and Extra Right buttons.

•  Custom Shortcuts for App Icons: App icon shortcuts were added in Android Nougat and now they are becoming more powerful. With the ability to customize what shortcuts appear when you long press your icons, this becomes a much more powerful way to access app functions much easier.

• Notification Badges: This is something iOS has had for years and if your an iPhone user, you will immediately take notice. When you have a new notification a badge with a number will appear to alert you on the app icon, on the home screen of how many new notifications you have.

There is even rumored to be Theme support natively in Android O! this could also be a huge addition. Being able to create and share themes to your friends, would allow for almost complete customization of your phone.

Since these are developer previews some stuff will break. I do not recommend that you flash it to your Pixel or Nexus phones if you use them as your daily use phones. Also don't get use to everything you see in the developer preview, it could be gone in the next preview.

Follow this link to download the developer previews- Android Developers

The Blogging Journey

Blogging is Fun

Most people think blogging is just an online journal or something techies only do. When I started this journey into the blogosphere, I never imagined the work that went into writing for a blog.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways I have had so far.

·      Research your audience, write for them.

·      Short sentences and paragraphs keep your audience.

·      Use expressive writing.

·      Tell a compelling story.

·      Blogging is fun, so have fun.

Those sum up the big picture of my new knowledge on blogging and hopefully those takeaways can help you get started and excited about blogging.

Change Can Be Good

It’s interesting to look how my blog has evolved both visually and content wise. Visually I went through different variations of how I thought my blog should look. After I went through two or three I realized I needed to stop thinking and be simple. In design, simple and clean wins the audience. Being able to read the content without anything else getting in the way. So focus on content!

Speaking of content, I found that as I learned the takeaways above, my writing was more interesting and more fun to read. Expressing my fondness of technology was not easy to control, but it got there and my last few post have been much better, easier to read, and enjoyable to read.

Blogging and My Career

Interestingly in the Professional Media world, (This includes TV News Broadcasting, Radio, and Traditional Print Journalism) there are multiple uses for bloggers in the industry. Many of the industries I listed have blogs and need people to maintain them with current news. The skills I am learning now will go a long way to being multi-talented, instead of a one dimensional employee.

The Classiness of Blogging

Being in Dr. Clark’s blogging class has been a joy. Overall I feel like I am learning different ways of expressing stories in a shorter form. This is important going forward in other classwork and in the media market. Media people don’t like to drag things out. Get to the point or get out!

Last Takeaways

I summed up my main takeaways at the very beginning, but here are some other observations I’ve had.

I found out very earlier that our class was a cult! We have our own teachings, beliefs, and even our own gospel, “The Gospel of Clark”.

“The Gospel of Clark” isn’t your normal biblical gospel, but a gospel about Dr. Clark’s biggest annoyances in punctuation and how to fix them. Even Clark himself gave us his Sermon in the Classroom. It included six commandments on writing and possibly more.

The last takeaway I will leave you with is the importance of relaxing and focusing on what matters for you and your blog.

Remember to write for yourself and your audience. Write with purpose and fluidity. I always follow a quote that Google personifies to its employees, “Do not think, but think when your not thinking.” Essentially this idea is that we do our best thinking when we are not thinking.

Don’t be afraid to write down what you don’t think.

The Ugly Side of Blogging

In this post I will shift away from my traditional post and focus on something that is a real problem in the technology blogosphere. Biased reviews are littered for personal and promotional gain throughout many of our favorite blog sites. Some blogs push a product so hard on their readers, that they create disinterest in the product and the trust in the blog starts to deteriorate. This post will sum up my feelings on biased blogs in the blogosphere. 

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Blogging has many advantages when it comes to reaching a following. You can be as in depth or concise as you would like. When you establish that trust with your following, your blog can become very powerful and influential. In the technology orientated blogs, we see a lot of loyal blog followers waiting for the next blog post. This is especially true when the followers, who are also consumers, await for product reviews. Product reviews are important to the consumer and following, so that it can help them make an educated choice on purchasing a product. Many blogs use their influence to create biased reviews for companies or for their own personal ideas. This type of blogging has become a virus to the consumer market, due to consumers being misled or trusting their various blogs they follow and trust for reviews. This is the ugly side of blogging.

            According to a Stanford University blog on the ethics and nature of blogging, “Biased blogs are dangerous for the uninitiated. Many readers who are new to blogs may not be aware of the differences between the traditional journalism review process and the unpolished nature of blogs. If these readers approach blogs in the same manner as other media, they could be heavily influenced by authors’ biases (Nol, 2004).” I believe this is especially true in the technology blogosphere. The very nature of most technology blogs is consumer driven. With many of the tech industries biggest names, its not uncommon to see how products are presented in reviews.

            The tech industry as previously stated, is consumer driven. It’s imperative to keep their brand image on the up and up. Look at Samsung and their Galaxy Note 7 debacle, they are still reigning in the damage control on various blogs they support throughout the blogosphere. With their brand image very much in trouble they are currently pushing the blogs they support to make small reminders with videos of an eight point battery test and the creation of a new industry standard. It will be interesting to see how Samsung tries to present themselves through reviews of their next devices after the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

            Blogging has an influence that is unmatched. It takes years of blog evolution to become a trusted name in the blogosphere. I myself even have trusted blogs, but I along with the blog following have to be weary of the continuing biased reviews these trusted sites post. The ugly side of blogging can only get uglier as blogs are trying to hide behind their lost beauty of reviews and trust.
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Reference

Lougger, B., & Nol, J. (2004, June 1). Blogging. Retrieved March 07, 2017, from https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/2003-04/blogging/ethics-bias.html