Ryan's Epic Android Evolution

So, thanks for tuning into our tiny little blog.

I really like Android, and I love the community it fosters, as such I like to give back in some way by writing about it.  I'm a terrible writer, but I subject you to reading it anyways.

But I'd like to take a moment here to capture who is Ryan, and what's been his journey through Android.

If anything I want this blog to be about the community, about a bunch of regular Joes (we need a writer named Joe for that to be true, however) who use Android and helping others use it too.  And the best way I can think of to 'personalize' and 'humanize' this website is just to write about ourselves.

There's too many blogs out there recapitulating or 'curating' (as the term is now) the latest news and rumours.  Sure there's something to be said about writing those stories, but as I've found, the majority of readers don't want that, they want to use what they have better.

And that's basically been my journey.

Pre Android


My journey TO Android started well before I bought my new device.  I was once known as 'the gadget guy', as I liked my technology toys.  Hell, I worked at Radio Shack of all places.

Early on I took to PDAs and got hooked on Palm Pilots.  I had several, the Palm Pro, III, m505, T3, TX and a couple of Treos in the mix.


So I was used to working with a system that allowed me to have tweaks.  Palm was quite 'forgiving' in that manner.

Then one day my TX started to show its age, and my phone was due for a renewal/upgrade, and I figured it was time to make the jump.  I was ready to jump on board the next generation, the webOS, but unfortunately Bell wasn't available in my area, and there was no simple way to get the phone to work on my network, so I had to think of other plans.  Continue with a phone AND a PDA, or merge like I was hoping and get either Android, BlackBerry or iOS.  I knew iOS was out, and I figured BB was starting a decline.  Android looked cool, but I hadn't started to use any Google products at that point.

But I might as well give it a try.  Haven't looked back since.  It's been cool that this article haas me looking back at my old personal blog posts to see when I bought my HTC Magic and my history thus far.  Ah, nostalgia.

Devices


I posted above the evolution of my devices in the picture.  I've had the following:

  • HTC Magic
    • ran 1.5 to start, upgraded eventually to 2.1 (I remember vividly the whole discussion/scandal about getting Rogers to update and the iwantmyonepointsix.com website set up)
    • I could never get this thing to run Cyanogenmod or any other ROMs ... I could get it to root, but never got it to flash other recoverys.
    • My friend still has this and uses it daily - it's a beast of a phone
  • Samsung Captivate
    • ran 2.1 to start, upgraded to 2.2 and then to 2.3
    • I rooted this, but didn't flash anything to it (except the odd tweak here or there)
    • when I bought the next phone I eventually rooted and flashed when I sold it
  • Samsung Galaxy Nexus
    • ran 4.0 to start, then rooted/flashed to cyanogenmod (because it started rebooting weirdly, so thanks to +Renaud Lepage for his help on that).
  • Asus Transformer (TF101)
    • My first tablet, was really cool to get one.  Never got the dock tho', and lately it just sits there.
  • Asus Nexus 7
    • A great little tablet with NFC
    • returned 2 because of screen quality issues (not resolution, but build quality)
  • Logitech Revue
    • I couldn't not get this at the fire sale price of $99, even though the services aren't technically compatible with Canadian content, but it's served me well as a nice Netflix/Youtube service for my TV upstairs.
  • Samsung Galaxy S3
    • my wife broke her GNexus, so I gave her mine and used that excuse to purchase the S3 (I was switching plans over to Bell, so I was offered a subsidey).
    • didn't root it as I knew I was selling it when the Nexus 4 came out - but I did carrier unlock it (still haven't sold it)
  • LG Nexus 4
    • rooted this one all on my own!  Not putting a new ROM on as it's doing quite well... but I do miss some of the features of CM that my wife shows me on her GNexus

And aside from all those, in the past year I've reviewed almost 20 devices:

  • HTC 8X
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (my dad has this too)
  • Sony Xperia ion
  • LG Optimus G
  • LG Optimus 4X HD LTE
  • Motorola RAZR V
  • Motorola Defy Pro
  • Blu Studio 5.3
  • Hipstreet Equinox
  • Motorola Atrix HD LTE
  • HTC Desire C
  • HTC One X
  • Motorola Motoluxe
  • HTC One S
  • Toshiba Excite
  • Motorola RAZR
  • Sony Xperia S
  • Samsung Galaxy Note
  • Sony Xperia Pro

So, I'd like to say I'm familiar with nearly all sides of Android

Blogging


When I had my first Android, I tried to read as much about it as possible.  I discovered the wonders of Google Reader and started subscribing to as many blogs as it would let me.  I read lots.  Because I started to learn early on that there was a huge difference between using Android, and using Android in Canada.  So it was natural I found the AiC site.  I started writing for them in March of 2011 I think, and then took a break from May - July to write for another Canadian Android blog before coming back and writing with AiC until up to last November.

At that time it was decided we should try to put together our own little site and talk about issues that matter to us, and we hope that they matter to you too!

So that's me... who are you?  What's your path in Android?  Let's get this conversation going!

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