HTC Desire Wifi Security Issues

Are you aware of the HTC Desire Wifi security issues? Do you plan to use wifi on the HTC Desire? If so, you may need to pay attention to what I've learned the hard way with this sleek new Android OS phone.

Summary: the HTC Desire will not work correctly with a wifi network that has WEP (or WPA) security enabled.

Like many US Cellular customers, I took advantage of the great bargains they were offering for the holiday season this year, and I decided to upgrade from the Blackberry Curve 8530 to the Android operating system on the popular HTC Desire phone.

The HTC Desire and the new Samsung Mesmerize from US Cellular helped me to overcome my iPhone envy! These two Android-based phones are as beautiful and sleek and fun as any iPhone - and they run on the new Android OS which is an open-source based operating system founded upon the Linux kernel. If you are geeky enough to understand what all that means, then you'd better keep reading to learn about the wifi execution on the HTC Desire phone.

As you may well know, smartphones as well as laptops, netbooks, PC's and all other 'modern' devices are a marriage of both hardware and software. Both parts need to work well separately as well as synergistically. Google's new Android operating system for smart phones has been something I've watched over the years with interest because of how they planned to deploy their operating system to handle all the multitude of hardware choices available. After version 2.1 of their OS was released I began to believe Google had worked out all the bugs in their programming. But have they?

It turns out there is a major issue with how some phones handle wifi. But upon further research I learned it is not a flaw with Google's Android OS. Neither is it US Cellular's issue either. Nope. The culprit is the phone manufacturer. In this case, HTC, the maker of the Desire phone (and several other popular phones - including Google's very own 'Nexus One' phone!), has an issue with how they deployed their wifi capability on the HTC Desire phone.

The bottom line is this: if you have an HTC Desire phone and you plan to use wifi on your phone to connect with a secure wifi network using WEP security, then you are out of luck! The sales rep at my local US Cellular (who is obviously NOT a geek, nor concerned with security) said, "just turn off your security on your wifi - that's what I do." When I called US Cellular tech support, the friendly support person basically said the same, but at least he understood the implications of running an open wifi network and agreed that wasn't a good thing to do.

Next I contacted the manufacturer via email. HTC's tech support had this to say to me...

Unfortunately, when the security is on with your router our HTC devices cannot detect the router. This is what causes the issue with your Desire not connecting like it does when your security is turned off on your router. i apologize for this inconvenience, but at this time this is how the WiFi connection works on the HTC devices.

Did you catch that? Go back and read it again if you need to. HTC says that their devices cannot deter wifi routers with security enabled on them! Huh?! ALL HTC devices cannot detect wifi networks with security enabled? That does not compute.

Back to iPhone envy for me. At least the iPhones can connect to basically any type of network. HTC needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out that wifi security is much more important than they currently think it is.

The future is wireless, whether on 4G networks (which are NOT available for US Cellular customers like me), or on WiFi networks. The devices which will thrive in the future must be able to handle all types of networks, especially secured networks. For HTC to overlook this is a sign of ignorance. C'mon HTC - get with the times will ya?!

Official Google Blog: Google Calendar Sync

Official Google Blog: Google Calendar Sync
Though this application has been out since March 2008, I've only just downloaded and installed this app (its the middle of August 2008).

First Thoughts
My initial reaction was: "Great! Now I can finally have my Outlook calendar events from work show up on my Google calendar on my laptop, and I can manipulate my work calendar from my Google calendar. Woo hoo!"

This is still an early application so its functionality is limited to syncing only your primary Google calendar with your Outlook calendar. If you're like me, you have a few secondary and even tertiary calendars in Google. None of those events will sync - yet. I hope the creators at Google are working on a fix for that. But, even still this application is helpful and welcome!

Install: easy, Options: few
After the initial download and install (quick and painless), then you can select your sync options (2-way, or 1-way), as well as the sync frequencies (1o min. minimum, 120 min. avg.). I thought I'd choose 30 minutes as my sync frequency.

Then I performed the initial sync and waited... and waited... and waited as Google synced all of my Outlook calendar events to my Google calendar. (Note: if you have a lot of Outlook events like I do, then this will take a little while and may drive you crazy! My iPAQ using Active Sync allows me to choose between "all", 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 or 6 months - this would be a welcome upgrade for Google to implement!).

Sync: All events, Every time
Next, I put a test calendar event on my Google calendar and performed another sync. And waited... and waited... again. Here's when I learned that this Google application will sync all your Outlook events every time it syncs. (Note to Google creators: updating only changed or new events would be much better!)

I decided to change my sync frequency option back to the default of 120 minutes since it takes so long to sync (because I have so many Outlook events).

Conclusion
I'm certainly happy that this Google app is now live. I have some suggestions for improvement, but I'm not complaining! Finally, my calendars have a chance to be unified. Thanks Google creators!

Web 2.0 Platforms Keep Growing... and Growing...

I first used web 2.0 technology in 2002 when I setup my very own Mambo server as a school technology coordinator. I wanted to create an online community for my students to interact within as well as to for technology lessons and to communicate with parents and the community. My students took to it like ducks to water. And I realized that something really big was brewing here because I didn't understand one bit of PHP, yet I administered this server and this website and it was easy and powerful!

Since then I've used Joomla and Drupal and enjoy both platforms. I've also deployed WordPress, TWiki and MoinMoin servers at my organization. I administer an internal Moodle server. I dabble with Elgg and Jabber. I do this so I can keep updated on the newest web 2.0 technologies. I still don't know any PHP. (Crazy, right?)

At home, I use Blogger.com because it integrates easily with my Google lifestyle, but I'm seriously considering using WordPress. Blogger just doesn't seem to have the feature set that WP has and it doesn't seem to have the community support that WP has. Plus it seems so much easier to tweak the themes or templates or whatever you wish to call it - in WordPress.

I know Blogger will grow and feature sets will be updated. But I can't wait that long! I need to do some things with a web publishing platform that I believe only WordPress can do. Sorry Blogger. (that doesn't mean I'll quit blogger here - but I will start another blog using WP).

Windows Collapsing says Gartner Analysts?

In response to a colleague's email about this article I decided to write this blog post.

Is Windows Collapsing?
A pair of Gartner analysts this week called the situation "untenable" and described Windows as 'collapsing'. They said Redmond must make radical changes to its OS or risk becoming a has-been. They basically accuse Microsoft not having responded to the market, is overburdened by too much legacy code and faces serious competition of a whole host of fronts.

Many of you responded to my question if Bill Gates' departure might be the cause of Microsoft's sharp brand decline. And what you told me was very similar to the above observations. Microsoft has stopped listening to you, is more interested in what is good for itself than what is good for its customers, and that the current Windows Vista backlash is a good example of the problems. They are riding (temporarily) on just the inertia of their defacto monopoly. I'm not a Microsoft basher and I make my living in their ecosystem, but I'm wondering what the majority of you thinks about this, so please vote in the current SunPoll!
http://www.wservernews.com/080414-SunPoll

CNet article here.

It's Not So Much That Windows is Collapsing As It Is The World Is Changing.
The world is changing. Philosophies are changing. Business models are changing. Software is changing. Microsoft can still ride on their inertia for quite some time however and they probably won't feel any sting. They have such a huge market share in office suites, operating systems and server OS's. People still need Microsoft whether they like it or not. I'm not sure that "Windows is collapsing" as Gartner suggests, but rather "right-sizing" is in order. All big companies face this issue at some time. Microsoft will learn to trim some projects to remain competitive in their core. At this time their core has been: Windows, Office, Internet Explorer. They have succeeded so far. But as I said, the world is changing.

Firefox, OpenOffice and Linux must only feel like a bee sting to Goliath. But Google, the juggernaut that it is, remains to be a force to be reckoned with. If Google and OpenOffice team up somehow, Microsoft may need to start worrying. Many years ago the phrase from the Sun CEO was "the Network is the computer". Google is poised to make that happen with or without Sun's Java or Adobe's Flash. In 10-15 years it won't matter what your OS is, as long as you can browse the Internet and have a standards-compliant browser, you will be able to do business. This scares Microsoft because they'll lose their share in the OS market, and Internet Explorer has not been known as a standards-complaint web browser. Two of the barriers preventing it from happening today are issues about Java and Flash - two of the most ubiquitous web applications (keys to the next phase of "Software As A Service (SaaS)". When these things become open source, or an open source alternative reaches critical mass - watch out!

I suspect this is why Microsoft is now pushing their "Silverlight" web application as an alternative to Flash applications. They did the same with pushing Internet Explorer to force Netscape out of the browser business (but the Mozilla project lives on, which has ties to the Netscape project). They did the same with pushing the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine to force Sun's Java out of business, but Sun opened up some of its source code and Java still lives on! They bad-mouthed Linux, but its still strong; however server deployments of MSFT are increasing in markets where Linux has remained flat or is losing ground. Now they're pushing Silverlight over Adobe's Flash.

Unless they can get enough developers to write applications in Silverlight instead of Flash, I can't see this as succeeding. But they have money to throw at it. However, so does Adobe. Adobe is no slouch. They have PDF files, they have Shockwave and Flash files - all ubiquitous on the Internet. Micrsoft has tried to compete against Adobe's Photoshop and Dreamweaver applications and have largely failed (though FrontPage is certainly a better application than it was years ago). Microsoft would have to throw away some serious cash to be competitive in these areas. I think shareholders would balk at that - I would if I had MSFT stock.

MSFT throws its money at many projects which do not generate revenue: Xbox, Zune, MSN search engine (not sure if this is actually a money loser though), etc. They have their hand in hardware (gaming hardware) and other software (gaming software). MSFT has its hands in everything it seems. Now they want to throw money at Yahoo! in an attempt to be competitive against Google in the search engine market. Good luck!

Bottom line: Microsoft has some house cleaning to do, but don't count them out just yet. They are still key players - like it or not. They still have a lot of muscle. They are still huge! The question is: in these rapidly changing times, can this Titanic navigate these icy waters?"