HTC Hero arrives in Alaska

The HTC Hero finally arrived in Alaska this past week. On Thursday night, ACS held a launch party at their midtown Anchorage store, selling the device for the first time in Alaska.

What about the other carriers?

GCI has announced on their Facebook page that they will be selling the Hero as well starting next week.

MTA has no firm date on the Android section of their website yet so it's unclear when they are launching. They are stating a launch by the end of January, which in reality is next week.

24 Season 8 Premiere Review

Jack Bauer is finally back with another much anticipated season of 24 (at least for me) and the big question on everyone's mind is without a doubt if it's going to be any good.

Season 8 begins with a Jack Bauer we're not used to seeing. Jack is relaxing on the couch, watching his granddaughter and seems to be settling into the role of being a grandfather. For those that have followed Jack since season 1, we know he has had a very traumatic life and seeing him relax is almost strange but also very well deserved. Having finally worked things out in his relationship with his daughter, it seems like he's got a nice family that loves him.

As I sit there and watch the reborn Jack, I know that the next 24 hours won't be there if Jack somehow doesn't get pulled into some sort of national emergency and as the first hour goes on, it becomes a little bit more clear what is going to happen.

With the President of the USA discussing a nuclear treaty with the President of Kamistan (nicely disguised Iran), there appear to be those not too happy with the peace that is being discussed. A plot to assassinate President Hassan is in the works and Jack Bauer ends up in the middle of it.

When an informant from a previous bust shows up at Jack's place, he has no choice but to get in touch with CTU and bring the informant in. A series of unfortunate events lead to the death of the informant and a couple of CTU agents. The informant has enough time to point to someone close to the Kamistanian president as being involved but not who. CTU, headed by director Hastings, finds a reporter that allegedly has hacked the UN databases and with special access to the president, he suspects that she is involved.

Chloe is back as an analyst and she's quick to point out that they find the involved a little too quickly. Hastings won't have any of it and clearly seems to be on a one-track mind. He seems to be headed for disaster.

The plot is typical of 24 I suppose. We know from spending seven years with Jack that unexpected things must happen and we must be left hanging at the end of the hour. That's all the same. However, in the first couple of hours, we've been introduced to a number of new characters and they all have the potential to make things interesting in the next few hours.

Take Director Hastings, for example. It appears he believes he can do the job while others are not so sure. He's quick to make decisions without analyzing all information available and once he makes that decision, he completely ignores additional input. Although he works for CTU and tries to protect the target, he could very well be the one that contributes to one disaster or another.

Analyst Dana Walsh is clearly hiding something, something her fiance doesn't even know about. A past life of some sort is intruding in her new life and there is a lot of potential her for plot twists. Is she a bad person with bad intentions or is she just someone that had a rough life and is trying to leave that all behind?

Cole Ortiz, the man Dana Walsh is to marry, seems to be one of the few brilliant guys at CTU. He confronts Hastings after an operation doesn't go according to plan and seems to be the one that knows how things should be done correctly operationally. As a result he clashes with Hastings and I can easily see him turn into someone that ignores Hastings just to get things done. He reminds me a bit of Jack.

President Hassan is obviously not surrounded by people that wish him all well and it will be curious to see what those around him actually do.

Overall, the first two hours were pretty good and has set the stage for what can turn into an exciting season. With two more hours tonight, I can barely wait.

The big question in my mind is this: is season 8 it? From what I've read, it seems like Kiefer wouldn't mind going forward with another season but that may also depend on how this season goes. I can definitely see Jack Bauer retire for good after this season, in one way or another. Time will tell. Until then, I plan to enjoy every minute of the new season.

Avatar Still Sold Out?

This past weekend the time had come to go see Avatar. Or so I thought. With movie that has been out over a month, I figured arriving not too far before the movie started would be sufficient. But no. Avatar was sold out for the next showing and so was the 3D version. I would have to wait three hours for either version.

I don't have a need to see Avatar so badly that I'll wait three hours just to see it so at the moment, I'm still one of those that have not seen Avatar.

It was quite an interesting experience either way though. I didn't get to see one of the best movies of the year but at the same time I witnessed an phenomenon I have not seen before, at least not since Titanic.

I remember with Titanic, I had many friends that went to see it not just one but two and three times. There was so much hype around that movie and it paid off in a great way. Avatar I haven't heard much about from friends but looking at how much money it is making and how popular it still is a month later, Avatar has become a cinematic phenomenon, just like Titanic.

Android and HTC Hero Heading to Alaska!

Since late November, the HTC Hero has been featured on the airwaves up here in Alaska. GCI, one of the local phone companies, has been advertising the imminent arrival of Alaska's first Android-based phone. It didn't take long for ACS to follow and now both companies are advertising the arrival of Android to Alaska.

The big question is when. ACS hasn't put a date on their release and GCI is saying on the Alaska Digitel website that they expect to have the phone mid-January. So, potentially, we could be as close as two weeks away from Android in Alaska.

Being the tinkerer that I am, I couldn't quite wait that long so I started looking around for ways to run Android on other things...anything!

It didn't take long to find that Android can be run on a regular PC using a Live CD, much in the same way Ubuntu can. Of course, I wasted no time trying that and quickly had a VirtualBox setup with Android running.

Going further, I realized that an even better way to experience Android is through the Android SDK. Using the emulator included here, I can run the different OS versions and tinker around with apps and various other things. Very cool.

Then I found that there's more. Creative geniuses have managed to get Android to run on older pocketpc devices, such as the PPC6900 and also some newer ones. In theory, this seems to mean that if you're looking at running Android and even HTC's Sense on an existing phone, you can, although much slower in most cases.

So, while I'm waiting for the Hero to come and while I contemplate whether I want to give up my Blackberry or not, I tinker with Android on my own. If you're interested in the same, below are a few links that may be of interest:

Alaska Carriers advertising the Hero:
ACS - http://www.acsalaska.com
GCI - http://www.gci.com

Android SDK - http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Android ISO - http://code.google.com/p/live-android/


http://www.androidonhtc.com

Android on HTC Google Wave Discussion
Android on HTC Files on Google Wave

Google's Nexus One Spotted

Google's Nexus One Android phone has been in the news for some time now and there has been a lot of hype about it. Is it the iPhone killer we've been looking for?

Engadget already has one in their hands and a review is coming. A quick Google search reveals several other articles about the Nexus One but no real hands-on experience. That will most likely be saved for January 5th, the day of the Google press conference.

However, after reading the Engadget preview, I can't help but being a little disappointed. Google set out to release their own phone who knows when yet what it seems to be is not anything revolutionary, just another smartphone loaded with good hardware and a good OS. Don't get me wrong, Android is exciting to me and the HTC Hero is a great phone in my book but partially it is a great phone because HTC took the time to make it their own. Their Sense GUI makes the Hero the phone it is to a large extent. It shows a commitment by HTC to not just use a OS to make a phone but it shows that HTC is willing to go beyond that, make their own apps, widgets etc. to give the end user an Android experience that's really worth talking about.

Yes, I haven't actually held a Nexus One in my hand and I suspect the closest I will ever get to one is by running Android 2.1 in the SDK emulator but it does seem like Google could have done more and done it better.

I sure hope I'm wrong.

2010 and a Happy New Tech Year!

2010 has arrived with the usual noise of fireworks and celebration. Here at 2Tall Tales, I can't help but already look forward to some of the things that 2010 has in store for us on the tech front.

Ubuntu will of course continue to be released and there seems to be much to look forward to in the next release, out in a few months. Apple is preparing some sort of big announcement at the end of the January, widely speculated to have something to do with a tablet PC. Android continues to march into the wireless market as well as elsewhere, spreading out a large amount of impressive handsets destined to challenge the iPhone and all it stands for. Let's not forget that Google has their own phone coming out real soon as well and Barnes and Noble with the ebook reader based on Android, the Nook.

Those are just a few things that come to mind. 2009 was a good year for tech and such and 2010 is looking to become an exciting one as well. Expect to see more about Android in particular on this blog in the next days and weeks as Google's OS makes it's inroads in Alaska.