*Android OS – It’s Linux. ‘Nuff said

It’s been about a week since I started using the HTC Hero as my primary phone/PDA/media device. Here are some observations I have made during that time.

The Good:

• Android OS – It’s Linux. ‘Nuff said
• The device – Build quality seems good and it’s a beautifully designed device. The teflon coating is a nice touch.
• The trackball – I never would have guessed it but I really appreciate the trackball. I don’t find myself poking at the screen like a mad man nearly as often as I used to with my iPod Touch.
• Python support – Python runs on the phone (sort of) thanks to the Android Scripting Environment (http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/)
• Linux syncing – Banshee recognizes the phone right away and copying media is as simple as dragging and dropping from your music library. Files can also be copied to the SD card manually.
• Android Market – Has all the free apps I need: FBReader for reading ebooks, NewsRob for syncing with Google Reader, Astrid for managing tasks and imeem for streaming music.
• Phone quality – Excellent call quality, pretty good reception and a decent speakerphone.
• The keyboard – It’s a step up from the standard Cupcake (Android 1.5) keyboard. I would even say that it’s almost on par with the iPhone’s software keyboard.
• Software development – Unlike the iPhone, I can use Ubuntu to write applications or scripts and I don’t have to pay $100 to install and test them on my device.
• 3.5 mm audio jack – Unlike other HTC Android phones, the Hero doesn’t need a proprietary adapter for headphones.

The Bad:

• Lack of an app for audiobooks – This is something I really miss. The built-in player is good enough for music but it’s not really suitable for audiobooks. It doesn’t remember where you left off listening and scrubbing is slow and inaccurate.
• No paid apps in Estonia – The Android Market doesn’t show paid applications here in Estonia. Google has promised to expand the list of supported countries, though, so I remain hopeful.
• Media playback – Music sometimes (rarely, but still) stutters for a second or two at the beginning of a song. Otherwise the music player looks slick and is really easy to use.
• Touchscreen responsiveness – Sometimes the screen does not register touches when your hand is not making contact with the metal frame around the screen. It doesn’t happen much, though, and most people won’t even notice it.
• Slight lag – The Sense UI is great but it might lag in time to time. You probably won’t even notice it unless you are used to an iPhone or an iPod Touch. The lag is definitely not as bad as some reviews make it seem.

The Ugly:

• The bundled headset – After a while the complete lack of bass will make you want to hack the HTC headset into little pieces and set them on fire. I am by no means an audiophile but even I hate these headphones. I actually miss the pair that came with my iPod (yes, the ones from HTC they are that bad).
• Video playback – Nothing like the silky smooth playback of an iPod. Even at low resolutions and bitrates I couldn’t get consistent playback speed. Video slows down for a second or two and then plays faster than it should be to catch up again.

The Hero has it’s issues, the least of which are problems with performance/responsiveness. This can be fixed with a software update, though, and as far as I know, an update is due in the next few weeks. Hopefully HTC has fixed the media playback and lag issues with the update. But despite a few shortcomings, HTC Hero is in my opinion the best Android phone out there and certainly a viable alternative to the iPhone.

The problem is that because the World Wide Web is so different from what the industry has so far been accustomed to, existing methods are simply not working. Physical mediums, such as DVDs and CDs, have their limits. You can only play them back in one computer or one DVD-player at a time and there is no easy way of making physical copies. Digital media files do not have these limitations. They can be played on any number of devices at a time, anyone can make unlimited copies with relative ease and those copies can be shared with anyone else in the world. That brings up the problem of piracy. Piracy is nothing new to the industry. It has existed for as long as there have been physical mediums but unique to online file-sharing is the fact that copies are distributed for free and practically anyone can share their media with the rest of the world. These essential differences between physical and digital media call for a total renewal of the business methods of music and movie industries. Companies, however, refuse to change their ways.

In order to combat illegal downloads and make digital media more like physical mediums, record labels and film studios have developed Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems to add those restrictions to digital media files they sell, effectively limiting their customers’ ability to use legally purchased media. That does not make sense, does it? The sad fact is that DRM is defective by design. It only affects those individuals who buy their music and videos legally since pirated copies have no such limitations. So for the consumer, options for acquiring digital music and videos are either: a) buy crippled, restricted songs or movies legally or: b) download an illegal copy that you can do anything with. While I agree that it is perfectly OK to use DRM with songs or movies that are given away for free, selling digitally protected files is not a viable option.

Every year the industry spends millions of dollars on the war against file-sharing. The Internet was created to make sharing of data and information faster and simpler. By fighting file-sharers, the industry is also fighting the Internet and that is a war they will ultimately lose. Some experts even suggest that the music industry is shooting itself in the foot by going after the file-sharers. Roger Wallis, a media professor, composer and Chairman of the Swedish Composers of Popular Music, testified during the trial over the Swedish filesharing site the Pirate Bay and claimed that on the whole, file-sharing is beneficial to the music and movie industries. That may very well be true because although file-sharing was on the rise, box offices in Canada and the US broke multiple records in 2008. Despite the rise in file-sharing, it was an extremely successful year for the movie business. In addition, Wallis claimed that while some people download, they are also tend to buy more CDs and are likely to attend live events more often.

By now, some of you might have the misconception that I am advocating piracy or stealing. I can assure you that is not the case. I strongly believe that authors should get paid for their hard work but I also think that record labels and film studios should stop their war on file-sharing and concentrate on renewing their business practices and finding new ways to sell and distribute content. The fact is that people like to download content from the Web. Instead of fighting them, companies should come up with ideas to profit from this. I believe the piracy problem will disappear on it’s own when consumers are given alternatives that are both appealing to them as well as profitable for the companies.

Here’s a simple Python script for converting videos for iPods or iPhones. You’ll need ffmpeg with libfaac enabled (I recommend Medibuntu packages) and python-notify for this script to work. You can customize default encoding options (video: 1000kb MPEG4, audio: 128kb AAC, no picture scaling) in the script. Copy it to ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts and it’ll be accessible through Nautilus’ Scripts submenu.

Download

If you think you might have a use for Revisioner you can install the package from my PPA at http://launchpad.net/~hkaju/+archive or check out the current source code from trunk and submit bug reports to the Launchpad bug tracker. Keep in mind that it is currently in pre-pre-alpha stage and I can guarantee you things will break regularly.

Revisioner discussion thread at Ubuntu Forums: Revisioner source code manager

The subtitle track is actually a 3gpp timed text track with the subtype atom set to ’sbtl’. It will work with all current-generation video-capable iPods (Classic, Nano, Touch and iPhone) as well as iTunes, Quicktime and even AppleTV (Take 2). Creating subtitled videos might be a bit complicated but it is tremendously easier than trying to create Closed Captions. This tutorial will help you to add any subtitles (as long as they are in SRT format) to your MP4 movies. It is tested with Quicktime 7.4.1, iTunes 7.6.1 and on an iPod Touch with firmware 1.1.4.

Note: I did not discover any of these features. All credits must go to entropic from the Handbrake forum and audiovizual from Doom9. This tutorial is written based on the following materials:

• http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=136170
• http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5520&p=31577
• http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=31698

You will need:

• MP4Box (’sudo apt-get install gpac’ for Ubuntu or http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mp4box for Windows)
• Dumpster (http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/quicktimeintro/tools/)

First off, convert your .srt file to a .ttext file.
MP4Box -ttxt path_to_srt_file
You can edit the resulting ttext file to fit your needs. When you are done, add the track to your movie.
MP4Box -add path_to_converted_text_track:lang=language_code path_to_movie_file
Now your movie contains the 3gpp timed text track. Next step is to use Dumpster to set the correct atoms in the movie so that iPods and Quicktime will recognize it as a subtitle track.
Drag your movie file over the dumpster.exe to open it. Navigate to ‘moov -> trak -> mdia -> hdlr’ (make sure you choose the last ‘trak’ in the list). Click on ‘Component subtype’ and replace everything after the last $ sign in the text box in the bottom of the window with ‘7362746c’ (minus the quotes).
The result should look something like this:

Now Quicktime and iTunes will be able to display your newly-created subtitles. To be able to select the track on an iPod, an extra step is necessary.
Open the movie file in Dumpster again. Go to ‘moov -> trak -> tkhd’ and replace the ‘Alternate Group’ atom’s last zero with a 2 (see the screenshot below), apply th changes and close Dumpster.

Congratulations! Your subtitled movie is now ready. All you have to do now is enjoy
If you have any questions or problems, post them in the comments section, I’ll try to reply as soon as possible.

Screenshot: