Abstract: The latest Android mobile phone under Google’s flagship phone line, the Nexus family, currently has a diagonal screen size of 4.65 inches (118.1mm). This follows a trend that Google started with the HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1 — their first Android flagship phone. Released in 2008, it had a diagonal screen size of only 3.2 inches (81.3mm). Since then, screen sizes in Google’s Nexus line have grown at an average rate of 0.48 inches (12.2mm) per year.

I. Introduction
In 2008, HTC released the first Android phone, the HTC Dream on T-Mobile[1]. Known as the G1, this phone kicked off the Android revolution. At the time, it featured a screen size of only 3.2 inches (81.3mm) — which is rather paltry by today’s standards. Since then, subsequent releases of Android phones by Google and its partners have featured larger and larger screen sizes, culminating with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus[2], announced earlier this week in Hong Kong.

II. Methods
For this experiment, we only used specifications data provided by Google and its partners to determine the screen size. We listed each of Google’s flagship phone ordered by release date. Then we divided the total change is screen size by the total number of years.

From there, we’re able to extrapolate the potential screen size of future Android phones.

III. Results
Here is data from all of Google’s stock Android phones.

• T-Mobile G1 (2008) – 3.2 inch
• Nexus One[3] (2010) – 3.7 inch
• Nexus S[4] (2010) – 4.0 inch
• Galaxy Nexus (2011) – 4.65 inch

We see that over the course of 3 years, Google’s phones have gained a total of 1.45 inches (36.8mm). This factors out to an average growth rate of 0.48 inches (12.2mm) per year. With this result, we can now predict the screen size of Android devices over time.

• 2012 – 5.13 inches (130mm)
• 2013 – 5.61 inches (142.5mm)
• 2014 – 6.09 inches (154.7mm)
• 2015 – 6.57 inches (166.9mm)
• 2020 – 8.97 inches (227.8mm)

IV. Conclusion
Over the last few years, it’s clear to see that the market has spoken with regard to its preferences over the size of mobile devices. Google has recognized consumer’s preference for larger devices and has moved toward a “bigger-is-better” strategy for mobile phones. At the current rate of growth for Android phones, by 2022, they will eclipse the 9.7 inch screen (246.4mm) size of Apple’s tablet, the iPad[5].

V. Footnotes

HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Nexus One
Samsung Nexus S
Apple iPad

Seeing this post on Gizmodo earlier today made realize something. Android phones are getting bigger and bigger. So, I decided to write this tongue in cheek “research paper” to highlight the increasing “screen bloat” of Android devices. Bring on the 9.7 inch phones, baby! 2022 can’t come soon enough.

Alright, I meant to post this awhile ago — here are my impressions of the Fuji FinePix X100 after using it for a week.

Pros

• The viewfinder displays all sorts of awesome live data.
  Holy awesome, I don’t know why more camera manufacturers haven’t done this yet, but the X100′s viewfinder has a live histogram. For me, it’s totally key when trying to nail a photo. I absolutely love using histograms to try and get proper exposure. Plus, there’s all the usual information (aperture, exposure, ISO, grid view).
  
  Another cool aspect of the viewfinder is that it shows a rectangle that shows the actual field of view of the image that will be captured. This means you can see outside this area and use it for anticipation, planning, or lining up your shot. I love it.
• The lens is fast! It’s a fixed 35mm lens with an f/2.0 maximum aperture. The bokeh at f/2.0 is nice. It’s super sharp when stopped down to around f/4.
  
  
• Hybrid viewfinder: So, this camera does something kind of interesting. It has a regular old optical viewfinder, but it also comes with an electronic viewfinder as well that can be manually engaged (or automatically engaged when in macro mode) that shows what your camera sees directly from the viewfinder. Sadly, there are cons to this (see down below!).
  
  
• Design: The design is awesome. I love that retro style, and the camera is comparable in size to most micro 4/3′s cameras. Except it has an APS-C sensor inside!
  
  
• The camera sensor: It’s an APS-C sensor — this is the same type of sensor you’d find in most DSLRs. Micro 4/3′s cameras (which are all the rage right now, and roughly the same size at the X100) have a slightly smaller sensor.

Cons

• I wear glasses now, so when I put the viewfinder up to my face, I can’t actually see all the information displayed in the viewfinder. I can see the field of view of the image, but that’s about it.
  
  
• Focus = slow: Oh, man. I lost a number of shots while waiting for the lens to lock focus. It’s actually pretty slow! And this is a problem that I notice happens a lot in low light environments (which the camera should actually be really good at shooting in!).
  
  
• Hybrid viewfinder: This camera does something particularly annoying every single time you take a photo using the optical viewfinder. After you take an image, the electronic viewfinder pops up and shows you the most recent image you took. There’s no way to turn this off. Are you in the middle of trying to capture a series of action shots? Too bad! “Snap — view photos for 1 – 2 seconds — snap! — view next photo for 1 – 2 seconds — snap! — oh, my God, just let me take photos and look at things later!”
  
  The other issue I have with this (and all electronic viewfinders in general) is the general poor quality and low resolution of the image you see.
  
  
• Slow to try and setup for a shot: This might be my limited amount of time with the camera and inability to truly get used to it, but I found it a pain to try and setup the camera properly for shots as I walked around Austin and San Francisco with it. Changing lighting conditions (which normally don’t phase me, even on my DSLR), wrecked havoc on my ability to take photos. There’s not really an automatic mode (for better or for worse) — this camera is for really seasoned professionals who know their stuff (do you know your Sunny 16 rules? If so, you can probably be comfortable using this camera).

Apparently, my computer is going crazy because I have ZERO disk space left. What in the what?! Turns out, my problem stems from iTunes insane backup system. I have multiple redundant multi-gigabyte iOS backup folders eating all my space.

A few minutes ago, I had 0 bytes free out of 120GB SSD. (After deleting the iOS backups, I now have 12.5 GB free).

A number of third party browsers have been developed and released for Apple’s iOS. Despite the requirement that they must use WebKit, most of the browsers have executed some pretty interesting ideas and provided a lot of enhancements over the basic Safari browser found in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Some of the browsers off the top of my head:

• Atomic Browser
• Dolphin Browser
• iCab
• Mercury Browser

What I would love to see is them offer some extra enhancements that would seriously make me switch. What are some of these enhancements?

• TextExpander support: A number of applications (mostly text editors) have been released for iOS that take advantage of TextExpander. I would love to see this added to browsers! I do most of my work in a browser window each day anyway, and on the desktop, TextExpander has been a completely critical feature.
• 1Password: If 1Password could find a way to allow other applications to user their database / keychain for passwords (similar to how other apps can use TextExpander macros), this would be huge! I use it all the time to ensure that I have completely random passwords, and if any one site is compromised, I don’t lose access to everything. The 1Password app on iOS is well done, but I don’t want to use their built-in browser. If there was a way I could access the passwords from another browser, this would be huge!
• Xmarks: Xmarks has been an important tool for me when keeping all my browser bookmarks in sync between Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on the laptop. Why not bring that over a third party browser in iOS? If this was available in any third party browser, it would instantly become my go-to browser.
• Ability to set a default browser in iOS: (Sadly, it will take Apple to build in this feature — there’s no way developers or users can do this short of jailbreaking) I’ll admit, having the option of running third-party browsers in iOS is pretty damn nice. But it still feels like a kludgy hack when you open a URL in any other application in iOS. It always goes to Safari, without fail. If there were a way to set a custom default browser in the system preferences, this would be awesome!

What sorts of other features do you want to see in third party browsers that they don’t currently offer (and aren’t offered in Safari)?

Been using various iOS 5 betas (and now the GM) for awhile now. One of my favorite features (besides proper notifications, of course) is Safari Reader. Basically, it strips away all the cruft from a webpage and simply displays the content you want to read. It works similar to things like Readability.

It’s especially nice, since it presents the content in an eBook like format and you can dynamically resize the text.

Something I find interesting though — I haven’t really been using the “Reading List” feature. Basically, it’s a way to temporarily bookmark articles and websites you want to read late. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t do offline access though (so, I’ll still be sticking to Instapaper for my offline needs).

More info on Apple’s website.

Steve Jobs, September 9th, 2009 by Dave Schumaker

There’s little that I can add or say about Steve Jobs that hasn’t already been covered by more eloquent writers elsewhere.

I feel fortunate that I was able to see him in person on a number of occasions, showing off some of his most beloved inventions.

His enthusiasm was intoxicating and his drive was inspiring.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

We’ll miss you so much, Steve. Thanks for showing us what the future will be like.

Around the web:
- So long, Steve. [gdgt]
- Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011 [Wired]
- Steve Jobs Was Always Kind To Me (Or, Regrets of An Asshole) [The Wirecutter]
- The Steve Jobs I Knew [All Things D]

I put together a story on Storify using tweets from the event. If you’re interested in community management, it might be something worth reading through!

It’s 3:30AM. What are you doing?, originally uploaded by Dave Schumaker.

We’re hard at work, launching the next version of gdgt! (It’s been crazy. We’re at about 19 straight hours of cranking on this right now.)

Taken at Blue Bottle Café

Posted via email from Dave Schumaker’s Posterous

STS-134 NASA Tweetup and the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

On April 28th and April 29th, 2011, I was fortunate enough to participate in the NASA Tweetup for STS-134. It was to be the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the second to last mission in the Space Shuttle program. I traveled to the Space Coast from San Francisco and spent three fantastic days with fellow Twitter users and enthusiastic space geeks at Kennedy Space Center. Things didn’t always go as planned (you’ll see), but it was an experience that I’ll cherish and never forget. Godspeed, Endeavour.

En Route

As I write this, I’m currently en route to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to participate in the STS-134 NASA Tweetup. If all goes as planned, we’ll be watching the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour at 3:47pm on Friday, April 29th, 2011. It’s only a few short days from now.

Watching a space shuttle launch has always been something of a long shot dream for me. Growing up in California, it wasn’t very convenient nor easy for our family to travel across the country for a launch. It turns out that my best chance to see a launch would be canceled before I could even comprehend what the Space Shuttle was — NASA scrubbed plans to launch Space Shuttles from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after the Challenger accident in 1986.

(To be fair, Shuttle launches from Vandenberg were originally intended for Air Force / Department of Defense purposes, so it may have been unlikely the public would have been informed of upcoming launches. Interestingly enough, we’ve been able to observe rocket launches and missile tests from Vandenberg at my parents’ house, located 220 miles away.)

Fortunately, we had something else available to us on the West Coast — the flat, expansive playas of the Mojave Desert and NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. Because of this, we were able to partake in a number of Space Shuttle landings while growing up. We’d often find ourselves venturing out to the dry lake beds around NASA Dryden and Edwards Air Force Base, usually on short notice. Once there, we’d patiently wait under sunny blue skies and rising temperatures until the shuttle announced its arrival with distinctive twin sonic booms.

Ka-Boom! Ka-Boom!

Everyone would crane their necks in all directions, looking for the tiny speck that would eventually grow into a space ship right in front of our eyes. Inevitably, someone would spot it in the distance. It almost appeared to be falling rather than gliding.

Photo courtesy of Randy Walker.

We had front row seats as it silently flew over our parents’ cars, trucks, and motor homes. The silence was periodically broken by the cackle of radios, as amateur radio enthusiasts tuned into NASA’s communications channels. As it approached and landed on a runway, located only a few miles from us, the crowd would start cheering and clapping.

During one landing in the early 1990′s, we raced to Dryden before sunrise to catch an early morning landing. After the shuttle touched down (which specific shuttle it was escapes me), we drove the two hours back to our town, where my parents dropped me off for school. When I entered the classroom, my third grade teacher asked me to explain my tardiness and threatened me with a detention — it would have been my first.

“I was watching the Space Shuttle land!” Coolest kid in class? You bet.

The NASA Tweetup

On March 14th, NASA announced that it would begin accepting applications for a new tweetup event — to watch the final launch of Endeavour. The event was originally scheduled to take place on April 18th and April 19th, culminating with the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (and representing the second to last flight of the Space Shuttle program).

The application process was pretty straight forward and simple. Where are you from? What are your favorite NASA Twitter accounts? And most importantly, what is your Twitter username?

Over 4,100 Twitter users responded to NASA’s call for applications in 24 hours. A week later, they selected 150 lucky people to participate. The event would feature an exclusive behind the scenes tour of NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center that included NASA’s press site near the famous Countdown Clock, the Vehicle Assembly Building, Apollo / Saturn V Center, the Shuttle Landing Facility, an up close look of Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A, and of course, the launch of Endeavour itself.

By some sort of sheer luck and fortunate coincidence, I was one of the 150 people who were lucky enough to be selected to participate in the event. I was in Austin, Texas, attending South by Southwest on behalf of gdgt — the previous night we had thrown one of our gdgt live events. As I was heading back to the venue that next morning to help finish the tear down and clean up, I decided to stop for some coffee and a quick breakfast. While standing in line for coffee, I pulled out my phone and started checking Twitter (as usual). The first tweet in my stream was from NASA, reminding everyone that there was only an hour left to register for the STS-134 tweetup.

What?! I quickly grabbed my coffee, ran outside and sat down on a curb, and frantically filled out the application form on my phone — all while cursing my AT&T connection as the form took forever to load and submit. But it finally went through! It was time to let the waiting games begin.

A week later, I opened up my email client and saw a new message waiting for me. My heart skipped a few beats when I read the subject line: “STS-134 NASA Tweetup CONFIRMATION.” It went on to read, “Congratulations, your registration has been selected to attend the NASA Tweetup at space shuttle Endeavour’s targeted launch April 18-19 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida!”

Yes! I now had my golden ticket and I would finally see a launch! It was impossible to hide how ecstatic I was and judging from fellow NASA Tweetup attendees I began to follow on Twitter, I wasn’t alone.

The Vehicle Assembly Building

The size and scale of the Vehicle Assembly Building (in NASA’s acronym happy world, it’s more commonly known as the VAB) is nearly incomprehensible. It was built in 1966 and stands at a height of over 500 feet. It’s the largest single story building on Earth. In fact, you can even see the VAB when flying out of Orlando International Airport, 40 miles away!

A few minutes after passing through the employee entrance and security checkpoint at Kennedy Space Center, the structure looms large in front you. Incredibly, it’s still 4 miles away. It steadily grows to consume an ever larger percentage of your field of vision.

We entered the VAB on Thursday and tried to take it in. It was huge, giant, gargantuan, and monstrous. There isn’t an appropriate adjective to describe just how immense this building is. You basically walk in, look up and then keep looking up some more. It never seems to end.

As if there wasn’t enough to comprehend, you finally began to realize the amazing history of this building. For one, this is where they put together the powerful machines that took men to the Moon. The Moon! Machines that were in this building brought humans to another heavenly body and back. For a space geek, this is nearly as hallowed ground as it gets. And not many people get to see this.

Nowadays, this building is used to stack the Space Shuttle (e.g., mate it with the solid rocket boosters and the external tank). NASA was already hard at work prepping for STS-135, which will mark the end of the Space Shuttle program with the final flight of Atlantis. We were able to see a small portion of the immense solid rocket boaters and external tank in an adjacent gallery.

Someone from our group pointed up to the SRBs and ET and asked a NASA official who was with us how they got the whole shuttle stack to the launch pad.

“How do you get to it the launch pad?” He asked. “That is the launch pad!”

The Tweetup Tent

One hundred and fifty of us were gathered underneath a white tent at NASA’s press site, located only a few meters away from the world famous Countdown Clock.

We were listening to astronaut Clay Anderson describe his experiences in space, such as acclimating to Earth’s gravity after spending nearly 5 months aboard the International Space Station. Clay is a veteran of 3 previous shuttle missions as well.

When asked what he was thinking the first time he stepped out of an airlock (Clay actually says you don’t step so much as gracefully fall) was that, “I was meant to be right here, doing this.”

Thunderstorms

On Thursday evening, less than 24 hours before Endeavour was set to lift off, we were tentatively scheduled to take a trip to Launch Pad 39A and get up close and personal. We would be only 600 meters away from the Space Shuttle and watch as the rotating service structure retracted to reveal the Space Shuttle.

At least that was the plan. Only 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave, we found out that NASA was postponing the RSS retraction by at least an hour, due to dangerous incoming thunderstorms.

It was a beautiful sight to behold — an ominous, large storm front bearing down on Kennedy Space Center. Every 10 to 15 seconds, the sky would flash and faint sounds of thunder would soon reach us. Suddenly, riding out the storm in a seemingly flimsy tent supported by aluminum poles didn’t sit very well.

Everyone packed up their gear and we ran for cover to a nearby building. There, we rode out the storm in NASA’s John Holliman Auditorium. This is where they hold many of their mission briefings with members of the press.

Eventually, the storm would pass. Unfortunately, it would be too late for us to take a trip out to Launch Pad 39A and get some personal time with Endeavour. The RSS would end up retracting at midnight. But it was good news, because launch was go! We were disappointed to be foiled by Mother Nature, but there was still fun to be had.

Launch Day

Finally, the big day was here. We arrived at Kennedy Space Center early, partly to beat the crowds on the road (750,000 people were expected to descend on Space Coast for this launch) and partly because we wanted to be at KSC for as much time as we could. Many of the other tweetup attendees had the same idea as well. At 9AM, all 150 of us gathered next to the Countdown Clock for a group photo.

The tweetup tent was filled with energy. You could tell many of us didn’t sleep too much that night — and why would we? For the vast majority of us, this would be our first launch! We were ready for this. In fact, someone might say we were born for this moment (though I bet that many of us at the tweetup would trade seats with any of those astronauts inside Endeavour in a heartbeat).

As mid morning approached, some people started whispering rumors.

“NASA is looking into a LOX leak in the ET.”

“Something about a heater not working? Supposedly it’s not launch critical.”

“I hear the wind might kick up later.”

Anytime someone shared news that wasn’t positive, we all shushed and hissed at them. Nothing was going to come between us and the launch. Nothing was going to happen that would compromise the launch of our dear Endeavour. Call it a self fulfilling prophecy, call it denial, or just naive enthusiasm, but every single one of us in the NASA tweetup tent were ready to will that space shuttle into orbit.

The Astrovan

It was nearly time. At 12PM, roughly 3 and a half hours from launch, we disembarked from the tweetup tent and walked a few hundred meters down hill towards the VAB, where we would wait by the roadside to cheer our heroes on. All 6 Endeavour crew members were inside NASA’s Astrovan and set to drive by us on their way to Launch Pad 39A.

While waiting, we could see a helicopter approaching. The deep, distinctive “whomp-whomp-whomp-whomp” sound signaled the arrival of NASA’s UH-1 Heuy helicopter. It was tasked with clearing the route and providing aerial protection for the astronauts’ trip to the launch pad. Inside the helicopter sat a sharp shooter, keeping watch.

After a brief wait, the NASA motorcade approached, lead by the Astrovan and followed by a fleet of vehicles that included suburbans, armored cars, buses, and unmarked police cars. As the Astrovan slowly made its way past us, we cheered, clapped, and waved.

That’s when the Astrovan turned left into the parking lot of the Launch Control Center. Most of the tweetup guests couldn’t know anything at the time, but that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Stephanie Schierholz, NASA’s incredible Social Media Manager (and the person responsible for much of the work putting the NASA tweetups together), turned to a friend and said, “huh, that hasn’t happened before.”

Something was amiss. The Astrovan turned around in the parking lot and faced us. We all waited. Some people checked Twitter and saw tweets from various NASA personnel. There was a problem with Endeavour. There wasn’t much info to go on, and we didn’t know what to believe.

The Astrovan and its entourage began to move and approached us. They got to the intersection in front of us. If they went to our right, they were going to Launch Pad 39A. If they turned toward our left, they were headed back to crew quarters and the launch was scrubbed.

They turned left. One hundred and fifty hearts broke at once. We all cried out. There was a collective gasp from everyone watching. Some people yelled out, “You’re going the wrong way!” Others pointed in the direction of the launch pad. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me and was shocked. We were a mere 3 hours from liftoff, and only 3 miles from the launch pad. Something I’ve been dreaming about seeing my whole life, something that was so close, it was knocked away.

Now, to be fair, this account might paint us all as a selfish bunch, but I don’t think that is the case at all. First and foremost, we want the crew and the Endeavour to be safe. There was just so much emotion, hope, and anticipation for the launch that it really affected all of us.

As the Astrovan made its way past us to head back to the crew quarters, a stream of people walked away from the road and back toward the tweetup tent. More solid info began to emerge — there was an issue with one of Endeavour’s APUs. It would take 48 hours minimum to fix. That means the earliest Endeavour could launch would have been Sunday. The day I fly back to California. A press conference was scheduled for later that afternoon. Stephanie Schierholz, Beth Beck, and the rest of NASA’s social media and public outreach team hoped to know more by then.

A lot of us in the tweetup tent sat in shocked silence. Some people were quietly talking to family and friends on their phones, or were busy rebooking plane tickets. Others were standing outside, looking at Endeavour in the distance. I did the same. I wanted to tell Endeavour that she was my favorite Space Shuttle, but with an emphasis on was. It was a stupid thought. More than anything, I was disappointed that this happened.

Nearly all of us were disappointed though. But we were going to try to make the best of it and wait for more news. I mean, we were at Kennedy Space Center after all. How many of our friends and family members were jealous that we could actually even see the Space Shuttle at that moment?

The Aftermath

NASA’s press conference on Friday afternoon confirmed many of our worst fears. The launch was now postponed until Monday at the earliest. It would be at least a day before engineers could get inside Endeavour and take a look. The ET has to be drained and the rotating service structure moved back into a protective position. NASA wouldn’t have more definitive information to share until a briefing scheduled for Sunday morning.

It didn’t look good. I wound up changing my flight back home and moved it up a day. There was no way I would be able to make a Monday launch due to work commitments. It left me in a melancholy mood. I actually felt depressed!

Many of my fellow tweetup attendees and temporary housemates also changed their flights to leave earlier. Others were going to stay behind, intent to see the launch through. I admire and envy them.

Stephanie Schierholz sent out an email survey to the group to find out how many people would be able to stay behind for a Monday launch. Only around 60 people would be able to make it!

Final thoughts

In hindsight, feeling melancholy or depressed about the situation was ridiculous. We knew exactly what risks we were taking by coming to Florida, and we were all familiar with the sometimes unpredictable nature of a launch.

We participated in an amazing event, seeing things and meeting people that most could only dream of. Just being at Kennedy Space Center and talking to veteran astronauts, or important scientists, or even volunteers was an inspiring experience. I even felt like I could quit everything and try out my hand at being an astronaut.

It really was a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The aura of KSC and the entire Space Coast is intoxicating. It’s hard to see how someone could come to KSC and leave without wanting to be an astronaut, scientist, or engineer.

As I left Kennedy Space Center yesterday, I took a final look at Endeavour sitting at 39A and wished her well. I couldn’t say goodbye though, because it wouldn’t be true. After STS-134 is over, she’ll be processed and eventually sent to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. There would be a Space Shuttle in my neck of the woods after all!

I may not get to see Endeavour launch, but I’ll still get to spend some time with her one day.

Godspeed, Endeavour.

Update: As this post went live, NASA announced that Monday’s launch was also scrubbed.