It’s Friday and you know what that means – it’s time to answer our reader-submitted questions! This week, many of you decided to go a more personal route and we would love nothing more than for all of you to get a greater sense of who we are as individuals. We even decided to throw in a few pictures of our “offices.” Thanks for the great questions, everybody. Let’s do this!
What do you guys do on the weekends?
T: On weekends, you can find me at my local dog park with my boys or at home playing Call of Duty. If my girlfriend decides it’s best for me to leave the house I usually like to go see a movie or find somewhere new to eat.
R: Relax with my wife. Lead worship at church. Spend time with family.
E: Well I’m still in college so you can imagine that I study, do homework, and participate in extracurricular activities that in no way affect my school work whatsoever. (Right?)
K: Weekends are time to unplug, for me. Since it’s the summer in Portland, I spend a lot of time at beer festivals, food festivals, and traveling. We only get 3 months of sun up here, so you have to take advantage of it.
Obligatory photo of Loki.
When do you think we’ll see the next round of Nexus devices, and more importantly, do you think Verizon will get any of them?
R: We should be seeing new Nexus devices in the coming months, probably around November. I think Verizon may have more Nexus devices in the future, but they’ll still be limited by Verizon. Hopefully Google will start releasing software updates that power users can manually update instead of having to wait for Verizon to approve them.
K: We’ll see at least 1 or 2 this winter. Google has sort of set the winter as their release time frame for Nexus devices. Will we see one on Verizon? I seriously kind of doubt it. Google has been vocal about carrier interference when it comes to updates, so it would surprise me to see Big Red get that chance again. I don’t want to say they completely screwed it up, but they kind of screwed it up.
What does the office look like?
R: Whatever coffee shop or bench I happen by. Most of my writing is done on the go. I usually write on my phone to avoid the distractions that a desktop offers.
Well, you asked for it. Here is our home office set-ups. Top left is Kellex. Top right is Tato. On bottom is Eric’s porch office. Click to enlarge.
Is Brand Loyalty (hardware) helping or hurting Android development?
R: I don’t think users’ brand loyalty is helping or hurting. The issue in the US is what devices carriers pick up. The GS3 is on every carrier while the One X is only on one. That doesn’t help HTC in the least.
E: Not at all. If anything I think it is spurring more development. Look at HTC. After a few disappointments they went to win back their fans with the One series and certainly did so. Now I think that it’s Motorola’s turn. Having that fan base for a certain manufacturer will help to get their butts into gear in making devices that will make their fans happy.
K: I’m not sure that anything is hurting Android at this point. It’s far and away the most successful smartphone OS in the world and is showing no signs of slowing. The OS also seems to have matured enough that words like “fragmentation” and “incompatible” are going to be in the past.
What have you done with your Nexus Q’s?
T: It just sort of sits on my desk unless I feel like hooking it up downstairs to watch a movie from Google Play. Until Google reinvents it, I think I will continue to neglect it.
K: It sits in my entertainment center…I’ve used it a handful of times, once recently to watch The Raid: Redemption. It’s a novelty item at this point. Definitely looking forward to what Google can do to revamp it.
What’s your guys’ favorite guilty pleasure reality TV show?
T: I don’t know if it’s considered a guilty pleasure, but I enjoy watching True Blood. The character development is just so intriguing. Lolz.
E: I am an unabashed lover of New Girl, and Zooey Deschanel in general.
R: I don’t watch reality TV. My favorite shows are Archer and Community.
K: Wow, there are so many! Pawn Stars seems to be one that I constantly go back to though. My better half gets into some Kardashian trouble from time to time, and of course, I’m always around to watch it. I always end up wanting to broseph up with Bruce. That poor man.
With all of the news about Android viruses, do you think we need to put some antivirus software on our phones?
T: No. Just make sure you’re installing applications from trusted sources and stop looking at pr0n on your device.
R: I don’t run any antivirus program on my Windows machine and I definitely don’t run anything on my Android phones. That said, I’m a computer consultant by day, so I know what I’m doing online. I don’t think there’s a huge threat with viruses on Android phones, but if it gives you peace of mind, go for it.
What is your current favorite beer, whiskey, scotch, or other alcoholic beverage?
T: Kellex did me the favor of turning me on to Hendricks gin. Up and with a twist. Oh, and don’t forget to lift your pinky finger while you sip it.
R: The Knot or Blue Moon.
E: Call me boring but I can’t turn down some Jack Daniels.
K: Whiskey has been Knobb Creek lately. My favorite is Gin though. I usually go with Hendricks or an Oregon local called Organic Nation. As far as beer goes, it varies all of the time. Not a big summer ale guy, as I tend to lean towards the stronger winter ales.
Favorite place to eat out?
T: Well, my favorite fancy place to eat out is a steakhouse back in my hometown of San Francisco. It’s called Alexander’s. As for up here in Portland, there is one BBQ spot I can’t get enough of called Smokehouse 21. Bomb ribs!
R: Monaco’s Pizza.
K: In Portland, it’s Tasty N’ Sons. Such an amazing restaurant.
E: Buffa Louie’s is a great local wing place in Bloomington that has fantastic wings and burgers and there is no reason I would ever be biased in that description. (I run their social media.)
*All previous Q&A sessions can be found here.
**In case you forgot, K is Kellen, T is Tim, E is Eric, and R is Ron.
This post was last modified on January 13, 2020 8:32 am