[Q] Would you still buy an Android phone? - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Because I am quite disappointed with Samsung Galaxy S, I will sell it and buy another phone soon.
I am very fond of HTC Desire HD but is it worth to buy another Android phone or is better to give a try to iOS, Symbian ^3 or maybe Windows Mobile 7.
What are your suggestions?

From personal experience, I doubt the iOS beats android in any way. Symbian is too simple and plain for my taste. However, I don't know much about the latest symbian, but the N8 works on a much slower CPU than the SGS. As for windows mobile 7, since it's new, it might be worth a try but we can never really know till reviews start flooding the net... Personally, I think you're being a bit hasty with throwing away the SGS. With froyo just around the corner, it would really improve the phone overall, and would certainly be comparable with the Desire HD. After having done my own research, I concluded and opted for an android phone by choice, for IMHO it IS currently the best upcoming mobile phone OS. Ultimately, you just have to be patient with new technology, so irrespective of the OS or the manufacturer, there's really no point rushing. You will NEVER find 'The Perfect Phone'.... Just my two cents.

Hold out for Meego if Symbian ends up on top of your list, but that'll be 2011. If you want something with everything laid out for you and a good app store, iOS is a fine option, but it definitely depends on what your problem is with SGS and how much of that is Android/Samsung based. iOS has high satisfaction rates, but most people who get in there have stuck along, knew what they were getting into or don't know any better. Android, some people who aren't technical enough or like tinkering and having options just bought in because it's popular and they hear enough about it, but they didn't know what they were getting into. Still, as far as I know, Android has the second highest customer satisfaction, so if you need a decision for the here and now, go with Android or iOS. If you can wait until WP7, read up after the devices launch, it's not ready to compete with all things either platform can offer, but it does have long-term potential, particularly with gaming/MS integrations, but thus far from what I know I wouldn't buy it in the first 12 months of it's launch even if they start with the best hardware.

My advice is wait until Froyo.. The reason why you are disappointed is probably because it feels sometimes like Samsung aren't doing anything. This is because there aren't many leaks.
You may also be disappointed because many people here at XDA are jumping to incredibly uninformed conclusions. We have morons running around saying that Samsung will never release updates, people saying the lag can't be fixed in RFS (whilst Samsung might not have integrated a few performance patches) and newbies saying "the GPS problem is hardware" without ANY proof whatsobloodyever.
Also, whilst those who defend this phone regularly get called fanboy's, there are certainly a lot of HTC fanboys here too (which seems to be finally getting revealed now that many ex-HTC users are calling some of their ex-products worse).
Froyo might be a completely different ballgame (I wouldn't underestimate Samsung). But either way, a lot of people coming from other platforms are saying their SGS is better than their other phones anyway.
I wouldn't touch WM7 because:
1) Windows Mobile seems to be a dying platform. Unfortunately, Microsoft took too long to release it.
2) So this means they wont get many developers and users on-board.
3) Windows Mobile is closed source, and development isn't easy (You probably require Windows).
Why I wouldn't touch the iPhone:
1) For starters, Steve Jobs stood on stage and lied about the antenna. Rather than fix the problem, he called other mobiles rubbish (despite their antenna problems often being VERY difficult to replicate in real life). I have very little respect for that.
2) Development is difficult, you really need OSX. The OS is closed source too.
3) Many users NEED to jailbreak, because of restrictions in the store.
4) Apple products often have weird design issues, which people seem to ignore, but which exists.
5) Huge app store
6) iTunes.. Enough said..
Symbian
1) Symbian is open source, which is great...
2) But these days, only Nokia sells them. Symbian's marketshare will likely only decrease.
WebOS/Palm
1) Forget about WebOS. In most countries you can't find ANY webOS phones, so audience is VERY limited
Meego/Maemo
1) The Nokia N900 is the only phone that uses it.
2) But it probably runs faster than Android because it's compiled code.
3) But limited exposure. I'd consider it, if the hardware wasn't so sucky...
Android.
1) Apps might run slower, because it's bytecode
2) But, HUGE range of mobiles
3) Huge range of apps (Not as much as iPhone though)
4) Open source OS.
5) Evolving quickly, reliable vendor (Google know what they are doing)
6) The SGS seems to be the only laggy Android phone out there (probably due to a few bugs that need fixing in RFS, which might already be fixed in head/trunk).
I'd say hold off until Froyo. I have the feeling Samsung will surprise us. Remember, the leaks only show SOME integrated code, and even JPK could have been missing a whole lot of patches. A lot of claims made by users isn't true either.
The reason why some things haven't been fixed yet may also be because they are integrating the fixes directly into Froyo.
There is a VERY good reason why Android is quickly growing though. In fact, I'd be surprised if Android isn't #1 by next year. But I'd honestly have no problems buying another Android handset

Related

Nexus Regrets?

I just read two similar postings to this, but I felt like I needed to give my opinions anyways. It's not exactly the same anyways.
Nexus One was Google's grand experiment. Some have considered it a failure due to sales numbers, some a success due to lack of marketing, some have lots to say about changing distribution channels, and the plusses and negatives.
But we are the test subjects here. And I'll tell you, coming from WinMo and a TP2, I was at first surprised and happy with my decision to impulse buy an experiment on a new OS. Speed, just-worksness, etc. My only negative was missing Sense. And then Modaco ported the Desire ROM, which I have to say isn't perfect but is 10x more stable than my old TP2 roms. I loved my phone.
However... being a test subject has worn on me. One: the first loved then panned screen, which I've heard everything from inferior coloring to last generation hardware on multitouch, none of which has bothered me, to the infuriating reception, which I have definitely been party to. Worst of all is the world class hardware HTC made to match the Iphone's style... matches it's weakness. I'm on my third N1. One broken digitizer, one broken LCD. Third one no problems so far. The LCD ridiculously while in my pocket.
And finally, the development community. One guy posted about the lack of comparitive stuff he could add from rooting. Any smartphone can add tethering. Porting Sense completed the phone for me, as I missed my smart dialing and weather clock. He got flamed for being demanding of devs, which I can understand on a dev community board... but I agree. The N1 was supposed to be the XDA's dream phone. Fastest updates, superior hardware... you could do anything with this phone. So we have a modified stock rom with additional features and RAM, Apps2SD, and ported Sense. Modaco is off for two weeks, and actually was hammering releases out daily for a while. But on my inferior TP2 they ported HD2 Roms, non HTC Roms, every new feature on any winmo phone... xda did that. They ported Android and convinced me to buy the n1! I am in no way complain about devs. Especially Cyanogen, Modaco, and that guy who has ported both Motoblur and Espresso and is now working on X10 Rom. I patiently await what they do. But all in all, developer response to N1 has been slow coming it would seem.
So to end my giant book post: how do you feel as an n1 user about your experience? The first legit google experience? I am not won over like an iphone fanboy. I am very dissappointed in customer service, and some hardware stuff. But overall I'm happy I made the Android jump. My only conclusion is that my next phone will not be from google dot come slash phone. It will be carrier branded. Rooting means I'll get updates fast anyways, and sales will be so much higher I expect that development will be more active. How do you all feel?
What exactly do you want to be developed? Do you want us Android users to port the lackluster Windows Mobile over to our devices? Is this what you expect?
MOTO Blur can't be correctly ported because of key mapping, and even so the resolution would be off without any current Android devices having MOTO Blur on a big screen, same goes for Espresso. X10 is in the making, as it also has button matching issues. Which are now being figured out.
You seem to be an intelligent person, someone who is smart enough to notice that this phone has been out for less that 4 months - which obviously means there is much to be left discovered. Your post, and this thread, are both pathetic. You act as if developing takes a small flick of the wrist, and as if the developers are not actually "trying" or pushing out more things that tickle your fancy fast enough - exactly what are you expecting? Also, please note that Windows has the ability to boot both Linux and itself, which im sure is a little relevant.
Why don't you wait a little while and see how things play out before making these little rant threads that are not needed..
What else do u want to do that hasn't been done or worked on?
Sent from my Nexus One using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
I love my Nexus one.
If you buy a phone for what MIGHT come, you've bought the wrong phone.
[QUOTE=trevorwhopkins;6187241 I am very dissappointed in customer service, and some hardware stuffl?[/QUOTE
You had to know you'd be flamed for your thoughts (although all valid opinions), but I can't see how you point out customer service as an issue when you're on your third (I assume free replacement) N1.
Regarding the community and development: I think this time around the community and devs knew what was needed based on prior android custom roms. Things like tethering, multitouch, rotating homescreen, launncher with an extra column, A2SD etc. were all released within a very reasonable timeframe. Then there were things like custom notification colors which didn't take much time to come out, either.
The phone is not perfect, and 99% of my frustrations seem to he simply a design flaw (aka hardware issue) where the normal/comfortable position to hold it creates a false/unintended pressz of the touchscreen resulting in random presses - which many blame software on while never realizing they simply need to adjust how they hold the phone. I learned to adjust, which I think everyone has to do for every phone (learn its quirks and adjust accordingly).
Disappointed? Not at all...overpriced? Maybe...glad I'm still the only one I know who has it? Hell yeah!
Fair post but good luck suggesting to many people at xda that their phone isn't the be-all end-all of mobile device development, its like telling a parent their kid is ugly, there's no reason or objectivity involved so youll be made to look soulless. : )
I personally couldn't care less about xda participation. However I am a little disappointed every time a new bug comes up and it turns out its regarding outdated hardware, in that department I did expect a little more. It's disappointing that we have an old screen and what not, surely Google didn't think users wouldn't discover and discuss the copious problems with the phone...
And I do feel like a beta tester. It does feel like the phone was rushed to the public. But this software is still awesome and ultimately we do have some solid hardware to work with and if Google wants to they can make this phone as stable and pleasurable as they advertised it to be. I am so incredibly curious to know what android has been doing lately, the folks there are historically bad at keeping secrets (thankfully) so they have either tightened security or they have been staring at the wall. I'm guessing the former and I can't wait. For a while after the bugs and shortcomings for this phone began to mount I turned my attention to the iPhone, lucky for android the iPhone OS 4.0 is not impressive. As long as the hardware isn't either, android can string me along for a good while.
I really don't know what to think. Google is making no effort to advertise the phone (for good reason at this point), and they are silent to all of the problems that have come up. I'm starting to think Google wishes the nexus would go away so they could try again...
about nexous one
Let me tell you after owning every phone out there the nexous one is the best and fastest phone i have ever owned period
8525
curve
tour
storm 1
storm 2 both on tmobile
g1
mytouch 3g
iphone 3g
iphone 3gs
HD2
after owning all of those phone i will never go back i love my n1
Look at the g1 its the first android phone and there is hella roms for it just wait and there will be more roms and google will give out more updated witch will make the phone better and better
If you like sinse just get the HD2
YAWN...
You didn't add anything new to what was posted before. It's just a bunch of empty thoughts.
What is it that you want????
As I said before, we have the most up-to-date version of Android already, we can't anything new if we don't fully understand the changes.
This is just about as open a platform as we will ever see, learn to fix/add what you want.
Here is what I ask? At the time the Nexus came out, what phone was better? Iphone... uhm no. Touchpro2... not a chance. Moto Droid? Inferior hardware. The bottom line is, even with a few problems the Nexus has, it is still a top 5 phone, if not the best phone there is. I can honestly say, for T-Mobile, there is not a single phone offered that I would rather have. I can think of ONE other phone I'd consider getting outside T-Mobile and thats a phone that isn't out yet (Evo 4g). Come on man, do you want the phone to mow your lawn for you? It's an incredible device.
Oh and judging the quality of a phone based on sales figures is retarded. I don't care if it only sold one phone, if its a great phone its a great phone.
evilkorn said:
What is it that you want????
As I said before, we have the most up-to-date version of Android already, we can't anything new if we don't fully understand the changes.
This is just about as open a platform as we will ever see, learn to fix/add what you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you. Unlike the G1, we aren't trying to backport 2.1 features or build ROMs with as many things working in 2.1 as we can.
People like Sense, good for them. Personally, I don't care for it in the least. I like a few of the visuals of the status bar from it, which is why I kanged them, but I don't really care at all for the rest of it.
I'm running stock right know.. you know why? Because 2.1 is already the best Android experience! Like Eclair said, I don't get what you want right now.. Yes, the G1 and Magic have alot more ROMS out there but most of them are just 2.1 port attempts! They're trying to get what we already have on our phones. Just to further echo some common sentiments, the phone has only been out for a few months whereas the G1 has been out for a year and a half.. Don't worry, the development will come.. You should feel assured in the fact that many of the top G1/Magic devs switched over to the N1, it was one of the reasons I chose the Nexus over waiting for phones like the Desire.
All that said, I definitely am disappointed with a few things: The various hardware issues that have been popping up amongst different users (I personally have the purple tint issue), and the lagginess of the homescreen swiping. While the 2.1 is very fast in terms of app to app switching or web browsing, it lacks the polish that I hoped 2.1 would have (ie. like the iPhone). Yea, I know things like smooth scrolling on the iPhone are just eye candy, but it matters. It's what appeals to the masses.
An example, I have a non-techie friend who has played around with my Magic before (The Magic was running CursorSense). When he first played around with the N1 his first response was "How come this phone is slower than your Magic, I thought you payed $600 for it?".. He was referring to the scrolling. Of course after I showed him a few neat things (live walls, 3d launcher and gallery etc) he changed his mind but the point remains, the N1 doesn't leave the best first impression.
Overall I am happy with it although I feel it is definitely over priced. But the hardware is built for the future so I'm know that the software updates and future xda development will make it an investment that was worth taking!
Obviously the marketing (lack of) cant have helped sales. Putting it out first on Tmo was a mistake because it severly limited its market even among those who knew about it due to the lack of coverage. I think a traditional carrier launch on either AT&T or Verizon would have moved a lot of handsets. I think Google isnt stupid and they knew these things going in so they had their reasons.
Im not getting the slow development complaints. Its been 4 months. None of the other devices I had saw development that was faster in their intial months of release. At least not as I could notice, I freely admit I wasnt counting roms/apps and logging them in a database.
Personally I dont feel qualified to comment in great detail on a phone I picked up yesterday but I can say I dont regret it at all now that I have hardware in hand. It pretty much rocks as is and I for one am confident that good things are coming and its going to get better.
I will be returning my Nexus One to HTC for repair/replacement due to a faulty power button.
My only real gripe with the phone itself is that the power button is used to sleep & wake the device by default. There is no single button more important than the power button, imho, and it was a poor choice for HTC to design it so.
I take that back, the other huge gripe I have about the phone is HTC's decision to embed the radio antenna at the base of the phone where it is covered by the meaty part of the hand while holding the phone to your ear. Maybe they just assumed everyone would use the headset or bluetooth, but I don't. It is annoying to see it drop a bar of signal because I'm holding the phone naturally in the palm of my hand.
Once I get my replacement phone, I will not be unlocking or rooting it. I will be keeping it intact (and possibly sealed) until this summer, when I can see the next gen iPhone in action, and possibly as late as November, as Windows Phone 7 is already shaping up to be pretty slick.
Here are the things I want in my phone:
1. Just works. Most important thing. Dialer, Contacts, Bluetooth, etc. These things should just be a flick of the finger away.
2. Feature-rich. Integrated search, multi-touch browsing and maps, GPS nav, Native Internet Tethering (bugs the **** out of me that Android doesn't offer this OOB still).
3. Business AND pleasure - don't make me choose between personal email and contacts and enterprise features. HTC has saved Google's ass on this one with their amazing Sense framework from the Desire ROM. Exchange with ActiveSync is a MUST. Also where's the love for Blackberry mail server?? I guess Android is not for law firms? /shrug
4. When something says "Full web browsing", if it doesn't include Flash, HTML5, or Silverlight support, that's false advertising.
Other stuff:
I'm starting to write my apps for Windows Phone 7 SDK, I have been writing apps for the iPhone OS (now looking at iPhone OS 4 beta SDK), and I have written a few for Android.
The Windows Phone 7 SDK using Visual Studio 2010 is bread and butter for me -- its perfect. Working with Xcode on the iPhone SDK always felt clunky, and inefficient. Working with Eclipse on the Android SDK has come a *long* way since I started two years ago, and is much easier now than then.
But VS 2010 makes writing apps for WinPhone7 dead simple. I've already ported across my apps from the iPhone and Android platforms without any 3rd party cross-compilers, and it took a very short period of time.
These days it is the ecosystem that drives the market for handheld devices. iTunes made iPod what it is. The iPhone App store with 180,000+ apps made the iPhone platform what it is (we all know it certainly was nice hardware when it was released, but is definitely dated now). The Android Market has been a blessing and a curse for Android. Many solid apps, but no unified Android platform to develop for (to be addressed in Froyo -- or so they say). No single set of hardware to develop for. It's literally like shooting at a moving target. And developing with open source tools is fun for a while, but gets tiresome when there is so much more effort involved in some of the simplest things.
So that's basically where I am personally at. I love my N1. I will be getting it replaced due to hardware failure. I may not use the replacement, and may sell it instead to finance a Windows Phone 7, or possibly (but not likely) an iPhone over the course of the summer.
And before anyone calls me a hater on any grounds: I have used WinMo in the past, I am using Android now, I have good friends who use iPhones and I hold nothing against them for that. I develop my code on a Windows 7 machine, and I am typing this message on my Mac, which boots Win7, OSX, and Ubuntu.
Lastly, I will say this. There is a sad saying in business that "good enough beats best." This means that despite the technology or ability out there to produce unquestionably excellent goods and services, those which are "good enough" and produce a higher profit margin will win. We will likely always feel like we are being forced to accept mediocrity, but fortunately, the devices we have today will still be outshined, outclassed, and outdone by nearly everything to come in the future.
I would say the negative responses I got here are unappreciated and pointless, but then again they were expected and matter as much as my opinion does.
As for customer service... no. I didn't get anything free. My first n1's lcd broke inside my pocket in a restauraunt. The glass and case was perfect. There were tiny cracks in the lcd. I didn't drop it or anything. I really liked the phone, so I bought another. Google and HTC both gave me a runaround about covering it. Twenty minutes into a conversation, 3 steps up the corporate ladder, and and they finally said send it in, charge 500 dollars, and if your lucky we will give it back. The second time, my wife dropped it, which was her fault. As opposed to my TP2, Palm Pre, my sister's G1, which carriers were glad to replace free immediately if they even looked funny.
My point wasnt to repeat the other guys, only to explain my point about us being beta testers and ask how others felt. I expected some of you to defend it all, and some to complain. I was only explaining the things that made me think about it. And I feel that it is pointless for people to jump all over any person that posts a opinionated comment. If your not trolling or begging or complaining to devs, there's nothing wrong with having an opinion.
I didn't want to end up defending WM at all, only pointing out that their community is insanely creative. I have plenty of respect for how hard devs work. It's not the devs work I questioned, but the amount and interest of the dev community in this phone. If I wanted a WM phone I'ld have gotten the HD2. I like Android just fine, although I'ld be happy to jump on a GSM Droid with 1ghz, as I like my keyboards and hate the glare under the sun of OLED.
Also, all I meant to say about the sales numbers was that is just statistics. Chances are the phone with the most users has the most development, as theaudience is the biggest.
I see all of your points, and didnt mean to complain. The point of my post was this:
How do YOU ALL feel about your experience so far?
Thats why I explained overall how I felt with all the stuff we all have seen positive and negative.
love the phone.. but the touchscreen issues are really pissing me off. and the power button is starting to ***** out on me.
I don't regret at all the $$ I paid for Nexus One. It's an amazing phone with a great OS, it has some negatives like any other phone in the universe (battery,ringtones volume and sunlight visibility) but it has so many positives
My ex-SE phones (that I totally loved) look like an old nintendo NES compared to an XboX360
Other than the **** battery, I'm perfectly happy with my N1.
plain and simple... give me a multi-touch screen that actually works the way it should and I would be 100% satisfied with my phone...
I was hoping that the gaming experience on the phone would be much more pleasurable but with how quirky the touch screen is its nearly impossible to have a great experience...
I would say I am about 80% pleased with the experience so far and I came from a t-mobile dash so the tech on the N1 was leaps and bounds ahead of my old phone but given that I had to shell out all that money for the phone means I should have a 100% sexy piece of hardware instead of 80% of one... with a phone that has no physical keyboard, the touch screen should be much higher quality than it is....
my 2 cents...
Trevor, I agree with you.
Face it people, the phone is a disappointment.
Battery= sucks
touchscreen= sucks
can't save apps to sd= sucks
sloppy slow interface = sucks
3g = sucks
2g = sucks
trackball = sucks
hotmail = sucks
still no flash/html5 = sucks
pink blob im my photos = sucks
no gdocs app = sucks
force closing = sucks
no native profile choice = sucks
silent mode still allows sounds = sucks
slow googles response to the above issues = sucks
bunch of N1 fanboys who can't admit that thier N1 sucks = sucks

[Q] Does Google not continuing the Nexus One line threaten the future of Android?

So I have been giving a lot of thought to this subject ever since reading a few articles a couple of weeks back about the CEO of Google Eric Schmidt saying that they have no plans on making a "Nexus Two." Not only this, but Google stating that they will no longer sell the Nexus One direct and unlocked from the www.google.com/phone store. My question is, does this threaten the Android platform in the future. I personally think it won't because Android will continue to live on, but the open Android that we have come to know and love today will be jeopardized. This is why I decided to start this thread to see how others feel about this subject and ask some important questions about the fate of Android.
To start off we really have to see what Google's Nexus One brought to the world of Android to be able to see what we will be missing if there is no "Google phone" in the future. On January 5, 2010 Google threw a press conference where it called it's new baby the Nexus One a "superphone" and ever since then the i has been in the news having every flaw dissected and blown out of proportion by tech blogs all around the web. Yes, the Nexus One had some big flaws like the multitouch screen, early T-Mobile 3G problems, No multitouch pinch to zoom (now changed), and even the pentile arrangement of pixels on the AMOLED screen, but it also was the first in the smartphone world (unless you count the HD2, but we are talking about Android not WM in this discussion) to have a lot of huge features that now started this Android revolution. It had a powerful Snapdragon 1 Ghz processor (up to this point the biggest we had was the Droid with an Arm Cortex A8 550 mhz processor), 3.7 inch AMOLED screen (WVGA 800x480 pixels) , 512 mb of RAM (most had 256mb RAM), 5mp camera (with LED flash and 720x480 video capture), and one of the lightest (130 grams with battery), sleekest 119mm heidth by 59.8mm depth), and thinnest (11.5mm) phones on the market. The Droid paved the road and the Nexus One showed OEM's what the top of the line Android phone must have to compete in specs. The Nexus One launched with Eclair 2.1 and was the first to bring it to the world. A couple months after launch Google gave pinch to zoom multitouch to the Nexus One and this allowed other phones like the Droid and now most of the Android phones available to get this much desired feature. Perhaps one of the best features of the phone was that it launched with an unlocked bootloader and introduced the world to the adb command "fastboot oem unlock." I know that are beloved developers have been unlocking the full potential of phones since the Windows Mobile days, but Android has brought that even further. Since then the Nexus One has quickly become the dev phone of the Android world. If you don't like a feature simply change it or flash a different ROM. This wonderful world that the great developers in the Android community work so hard to bring to us is really the "killer feature" of the Android OS and this is being threatened by not having anymore "Google phones." Lately we are seeing companies like Motorola and Verizon using eFuse to lock down their phones and keeping people that spend their hard earned money from flashing ROM's. I am sure the whole eFuse thing has been blown out of proportion and I am sure the next Android superstar (or one of the many we already have here on XDA) will unlock the Droid X to it's full potential, but the mere fact that these companies are locking down phones using the FREE Android OS is very disheartening. We don't want the same cat and mouse game that Apple and their iPhone customers have to play to unlock and use their phones and this is one of the many reasons people flock to the open Android OS.
Not only do we risk "locking down" the platform, but by not having any further Nexus phones we will more than likely never see another Vanilla Android phone. Instead we are seeing what the OEMs and wireless providers want us to see and this is evident in the losing of WiFi tethering in the latest build of Android 2.2, or known as Froyo. If a wireless provider doesn't want a feature (like tethering) the OEM's are then pressured into leaving it out to make them happy. This is not a good thing in my opinion as it again puts the power and fate of Android in the wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T where we are quickly losing the openness of Android and the ability to even side load applications. This is exactly why we need a phone like the Nexus One. A phone that will push the boundaries of innovation and keep the wireless companies honest by simple competition. They won't leave an important feature out if the Google phone already has a version of it out and available unlocked. Without Google making a phone we are left with whatever skin the OEMs have minus the features the wireless companies don't want included. If the Nexus One would not of been released we would be stuck with minimal upgrades and even worse what would make the OEMs and providers hurry with the newest release (Froyo in this case and soon to be Gingerbread)? If Google wouldn't of pushed Android 2.2 to the Nexus One then would all the companies like HTC, Samsung, and Motorola even be racing to get Froyo out? In my opinion the Nexus One is the only reason that these companies are trying to get 2.2 out in a timely basis. I mean I may be wrong as I am not a developer, but what would really make the OEMs and providers want to hurry with their releases if they didn't have the competition? I think it would be the opposite and these companies would make us buy their newest and top of the line Android phone just to get the newest and best Android release. This has been proven in the past and if it wasn't for the iPhone and Google's Android the smartphone world would be a very different place filled with Bada OSs, Windows Mobile phones, no app stores, and worse of all mediocre upgrades. This is the real reason we need Google to release a phone so they can take the fate of Android (and the power, in my opinion) away from greedy wireless companies and OEM's that only look to sell us a phone multiple times a year.
I have really given a lot of thought to this because ever since I purchased my Nexus One back in March (without AT&Ts permission, I should add) I had planned on buying a "Google phone" every year. I was aware that Google would work closely with different OEMs and we would get a great dev phone every year with the latest and greatest Vanilla Android, free from the clutches of wireless contracts, and most of all "OPEN." This was a great idea and I can see why Google's idea of selling a phone didn't catch on here in the states, but they accomplished a lot more than selling millions of devices like Apple does. They accomplished (along with the Droid, which I might add Google had a big hand in creating and bringing to life, and also was free of a locked bootloader) bringing Android to the masses and making the statement to companies that a top of the line Android phone needs to have these specs to compete in the Android world.
I just went out and bought me a Samsung Captivate and to be honest the first thing I thought I would get rid of was TouchWiz, but it has kind of grown on me. I think HTC Sense is nice as well, but I will always be a Vanilla Android fan and there is something about the Nexus One that always brings me back. This will be a phone that I will not ever get rid of and is still the best phone I have ever owned. I am sure many others feel the same way and the Nexus One will continue to be a niche kind of product, but I think I have made the argument that Google needs a phone to further Android and keep the fate of it's Android in it's hands. This could get out of control quick and it could turn bad. We are just nearing the top and Android is here to stay and will be the OS that everyone else attempts to mimic. Come on Google I know I am not the only one that feels this way and this is why I started this thread to get the feel of others in the Android community as I am sure there are others that are worried as well. The open Android that we know and love today is in jeopardy if Google doesn't maintain a little control over their Android OS. The OEM's and wireless companies are going to ruin the openness of Android if they don't have a constant pressure keeping them honest. One of the main reasons that Android has grown so rapidly is that a company like Google has created it to be free, open, and common to many phones so we don't have to worry about dozens of companies with mediocre platforms. Weigh in and let me know how you feel and maybe just maybe we can get someones attention. Feel free to copy this on other forums as I feel we need to save the idea of an open Android. One without the boundaries of no side loading of apps, eFuses, locked bootloaders, and most of all innovation and the advancement of the Android platform.
Google's own line of phones phone has zero influence on the android os.
JCopernicus said:
Google's own line of phones phone has zero influence on the android os.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you are right, but without a Google phone what will Android be like? We won't see another Vanilla Android phone that is for sure.
Not being able to see into the future makes this a hard statement to take as fact.
There were vanilla phones before nexus one and there will continue to be more
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
If you want a true vanilla android phone grabe one of HTC's china phones, not even google apps are on it. =D
I agree with the basic premise that the Nexus One did provide leverage to potentially (and I think that is a key qualifier) keep the competition honest, but it isn't clear that it would do so without significantly more marketing. And, to market the Nexus One more could have annoyed some of the vendors that Google wants to keep happy - lots of happy vendors means lots of seats for Android means lots of seats off of which Google makes a lot of money. In particular, if every Android phone is locked, then Google still makes a mint, though they stand to make more of a mint if the platform is more widely adopted. And, an open phone does have an impact on platform adoption, but I don't think it is that critical since the public is used to buying fixed feature-set phones and upgrading for new features so this isn't an issue of taking away something that they demand as it is failing to give them something that they would come to know and love (as we already do).
But, I also want to counter some of the supporting arguments you present.
First, the current wave of smartphones was headed here one way or another. Google didn't create the wave, they simply reacted and targeted Android at the capabilities that were coming down the pike. To do that most effectively they needed a new developer phone and the Nexus One was going to be released in January one way or another as the ADP3 until they had this idea to sell direct. It was simply them needing to get out a testbed for the new Android capabilities that were targeted at the new baseline smartphone hardware and they chose to do it in an experimental new way this time. If they hadn't released the Nexus One direct to consumers then you would have seen the same phones come out and you would have seen the same OS releases, you just wouldn't have had a large installed base of end users previewing it on a non-developer handset.
Second, I think the main factor spurring the vendors to get 2.2 out quickly is that it offers so much, not that they have to keep up with the Nexus One. It is, in my opinion, the biggest release so far (and I've been with Android since 1.0) primarily because of the JIT. Also, all the manufacturers came out with what would become the new standard amount of RAM (512MB) and the existing release available for them to ship on did not support it, so they need to get on 2.2 in order to simply unlock the hardware they originally designed. In some sense, these phones were really designed for 2.2 - 2.1 was simply a stepping stone to get them shipped on their hardware schedule until 2.2 was ready on its software schedule. So, there are really 2 factors that would encourage them to get 2.2 out on their 2010-class phones that have nothing to do with the Nexus One being here.
As far as vanilla phones... The G1 was vanilla. The original Droid was vanilla (is it still vanilla with the latest releases?). The Nexus One was vanilla. But, where there any others? I love my vanilla phones (first G1 then N1), but I don't mind value added by the vendors, I just wish they would make it easier to customize things away and that they would learn to design their add-ons so that they can be easily dropped on to a new Android release with little fuss...
Short answer: No. It does not.
Simply put, there will always be a phone that will have Vanilla Android. If for nothing more than using that as a sale point. Especially with Andy 3.0 in the horizon which focus is on the UI. No worries.
Of course it doesn't.
Simple answer, no. There have always been vanilla Android phones, the developer phones at least, and there will always be developer phones. In fact, the Nexus is still for sale now as the latest developer phone.
Eventually there will be another vanilla Android phone that Google is behind, unless they get their own hardware built by someone and don't sell it publicly... but that wouldn't make much sense, just like it wouldn't make any sense for them to not ever have another phone.
Soon enough, the 2ghz and dual-core phones will be out, and eventually mobile devices will catch up to computers in terms of power. They're gonna have to.
I'm sure they will come out with a different dev phone in the future.
I agree with the op, up to a point. While it may be true that there'll always be a phone Google gets behind -a 'dev' phone, if you will- I think it still limits choice for people who want the vanilla experience. Is it really ok to just have one phone that's vanilla?
To the op: "If the Nexus One would not of been released...."
I think you mean "had not been released..."
and: "If Google wouldn't of pushed Android 2.2 to the Nexus One then...."
It's "If Google hadn't pushed Android..."
Sorry for the pedantry. Bad grammar just spoilt a good, well-thought out post.
Consumer are what they are a android is one of the greatest os I have experience.all those problems was soft ware issue and minor only something a child would complain about.i have a nexus almost went with a nokia n900 glad I didn't .proud of google.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

[Q] Is Captivate/Android Experience for Me?

All,
I am new here and to SmartPhones. I like Captivate because it has low radiation.
I am impressed with the activities I see here and on CyanogenMod. However, these give me cause for concern regarding the energy level required to accomplish them. Linux is good but I am returning to graduate school in the fall so I am concerned regarding the requirement of these phones and OS's. I would appreciate it if some of you could explain why so much work occurs with Android. Is much of this activity born out of the decision of carriers to control OS releases to specific phones? I see this as a major factor presently.
With that said, it does appear Samsung blew it with regard to v2.2 and the Galaxy S phones. I am nearly embarrassed to inform you that I own two Samsung LCD monitors after learning of this negative experience.
Clearly, I void the warranty if I embrace the activities here but this just rationalizes the choice of a refurbished phone!
Please attempt to characterize the time requirement for becoming involved with these Samsung Galaxy phones and Android. I know I am not the type of person to be interested in continually working with my phone to make it better. However, I also know my limited perspective can be biasing reality with this OS and these SmartPhones unnecessarily negative.
Oddly, my wife is considering the Focus because it would give her the MS support she needs with work. Regardless, it does appear we have found a few excellent Internet resources for these choices...I just want to ensure I am not getting in over my head.
Thanks,
Rick
by radiation I assume you mean the head tumors
RAVC1 said:
All,
I am new here and to SmartPhones. I like Captivate because it has low radiation.
I am impressed with the activities I see here and on CyanogenMod. However, these give me cause for concern regarding the energy level required to accomplish them. Linux is good but I am returning to graduate school in the fall so I am concerned regarding the requirement of these phones and OS's. I would appreciate it if some of you could explain why so much work occurs with Android. Is much of this activity born out of the decision of carriers to control OS releases to specific phones? I see this as a major factor presently.
With that said, it does appear Samsung blew it with regard to v2.2 and the Galaxy S phones. I am nearly embarrassed to inform you that I own two Samsung LCD monitors after learning of this negative experience.
Clearly, I void the warranty if I embrace the activities here but this just rationalizes the choice of a refurbished phone!
Please attempt to characterize the time requirement for becoming involved with these Samsung Galaxy phones and Android. I know I am not the type of person to be interested in continually working with my phone to make it better. However, I also know my limited perspective can be biasing reality with this OS and these SmartPhones unnecessarily negative.
Oddly, my wife is considering the Focus because it would give her the MS support she needs with work. Regardless, it does appear we have found a few excellent Internet resources for these choices...I just want to ensure I am not getting in over my head.
Thanks,
Rick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Rick,
To answer your question - why so much work occurs with Android, I would like to take the liberty of rephrasing the question - why so much work occurs with Android phones? There isnt one correct answer for this.
You are correct in saying that carriers and service providers like to cripple the phone before they hand it over to the consumer. So when you buy the phone you really are not using these wonderful pieces of technology to their fullest extent. Thanks to our developers here at XDA because of whom we can in reality free the phones that we paid much moolah for, so that we maybe able to use all of the fones features that have been designed to work in conjunction with the wonderful Android OS.
Secondly, the reason why so much work goes into the phones and development to improve the functionality of the phone is because that is what Android has been designed for. Consumer can customize the phone to their liking and does not have to get stuck with the proprietary, grid like systems like the ones iphone has. Phone manufacturers, and not just Samsung, obviously design the phones software in such a way so that there is always room for improvement. They bet their dollar on the fact that an average consumer will eventually buy a newer product when its released and marketed in the future. There is always something lacking in the product that is in the market right now and that is where all this work comes into play.
Now, whether you shud buy a samsung captivate or not and what the time requirement is, is totally dependent on what you want to use the phone for and what kind of functionality you would like to get out of it.
From what you said that ur not a person who wud like to spend a lot of time modifying or playing around with your phone, you wud still like the captivate. Samsung Captivate is a very nice phone overall. Its got almost everything that you cud want in a phone. In regards to apps included with the phone, you've got a decent selection along with loads of bloatware.... If there is anything missing you can easily find it on the android market.
If you're expecting that your GPS would work right out of the box, then the answer is, maybe - maybe not. and its not android's fault, its a samsung issue. There are multiple fixes for the GPS that you can find on the forum, that being said, if you plan on utilizing those fixes, like you said not only will you void your warranty but you alone will be venturing into that experiment on your phone and dev will not be responsible for any damage that may or may not happen to your phone. But then again no guts, no glory.
So all in all, if you do end up getting the captivate, i dont think you'll be utterly disappointed, but at the same time i dont think you'll be able to sit back either when you see all these new developments posted here.
Hopefully i helped you a little and if i said too much then i apologize.
I welcome any senior member of the forum to correct me if im wrong and/or make any additions to what ive said above..
happy forumming....
My brother has a Samsung focus. It's buggy as hell, completely counter intuitive, and incomplete. Theres also no apps at all. He has like 3 different crappy youtube apps and sound boards.
And there's no CM7 to one day fix it.
Sent from my Captivate.
anandsamuel,
An excellent response; truly what I was looking for to understand the issues involved regarding Android and SmartPhones. You did not say too much.
I guess I need to start reading so I understand how to root a Captivate!
Rick
Also, that font is irritating to read.
RAVC1 said:
All,
I am new here and to SmartPhones. I like Captivate because it has low radiation.
I am impressed with the activities I see here and on CyanogenMod. However, these give me cause for concern regarding the energy level required to accomplish them. Linux is good but I am returning to graduate school in the fall so I am concerned regarding the requirement of these phones and OS's. I would appreciate it if some of you could explain why so much work occurs with Android. Is much of this activity born out of the decision of carriers to control OS releases to specific phones? I see this as a major factor presently.
With that said, it does appear Samsung blew it with regard to v2.2 and the Galaxy S phones. I am nearly embarrassed to inform you that I own two Samsung LCD monitors after learning of this negative experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok lets slow you down there. first android is linux BASED not linux. there is no need to worry about OS/ device compatibility. the most interaction between the phone and PC are just file copying like through a usb thumb drive.
the next part regarding carriers/updates/samsung. you answered yourself, kinda, and backwards. Samsung didnt blow it.
Google android updates as much as any software does - to make things better.
they release to manufacturers so they can make it work with their hardware.
Samsung released on time, BUT TO THE CARRIERS.
the carriers then take what samsung gave them and add their carrier specific settings (APN ect) and applications (bloatware).
ATT blew the update timeline.
Sometimes manufacturers release their finished product as "source code" untouched by carriers.
the long process is necessary in each step to (attempt) to make a perfect software package that will work with each phone/carrier out of the box for the end user. so it is unfair to say "born out of the decision of carriers to control OS releases to specific phones"
XDA works off of source codes and carrier releases to make our custom updates.
Clearly, I void the warranty if I embrace the activities here but this just rationalizes the choice of a refurbished phone!
Please attempt to characterize the time requirement for becoming involved with these Samsung Galaxy phones and Android. I know I am not the type of person to be interested in continually working with my phone to make it better. However, I also know my limited perspective can be biasing reality with this OS and these SmartPhones unnecessarily negative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are ways to return your phone without them knowing what you did. dont worry too much about your "voided" warranty.
before i felt comfortable flashing I took about 3 days reading my A$$ off! and currently im off on workers comp. so that was 3 FULL days. even then i had issues and mistakes and my phone was out of service a few nights! but that is part of the fun.
you do not need to be the type of person to constantly update your phone to buy it. tens of thousands of people have this phone on stock firmware and it fully works. the extra effort and time that we here at XDA and cyanogenMOD do is more out of fun, and customization. Many would argue function as well, as we do sometimes fix things *better* than google/samsung/carriers. but things willl *usually* still function on stock even if on a basic level.
you only need to put in as much as you want to get out of it
so timeline,
flashing custom roms/themes PROPERLY - under a week
cutting and pasting roms frankenROMS - under a month or 2
creating - vast back knowlege of programming, ect YEAR(S)
regarding wanting to update often, not every update on XDA to your rom is necessary unles it fixes something you didnt have.
Each Android/Carrier update, would be recomended (or the XDA counterpart) as each new android version (not rom) contains the most updates/fixes. so if you were running a 2.2 (custom or stock) rom it WOULD be worth upgrading to 2.3 when available (custom or stock). but you dont NEED to update your custom rom every couple weeks when they put out their minor update on the same base rom (2.2 for eg.)
Oddly, my wife is considering the Focus because it would give her the MS support she needs with work. Regardless, it does appear we have found a few excellent Internet resources for these choices...I just want to ensure I am not getting in over my head.
Thanks,
Rick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no comment. best regards
Trusselo,
Excellent, thoughtful response; it helped characterize this activity further for me. My concern is now recognized (and conveyed to others...) as not wanting to be required to become a developer to make my involvement with a SmartPhone constructive. Samsung, Android, XDA looks very good to me. As you mentioned, my reading has begun.
Yes, something is not right with my traditional Comic Sans Serif font here; it seems to compress it horizontally, but my aging eyes typically need this font.

Android/WP7/iOS strengths and weaknesses.

Ok, well I figured instead of a thread where everyone just comes in and posts their favorite OS it would be nice to put a little bit more thought into our posts. So, what are your opinion on these 3 OSes and what would you say their strengths and weaknesses are? My opinions are as follows;
Android:
Strengths- Completely open source and all APIs readily available, huge market of apps, best hardware selection.
Weaknesses- Ugly and laggy user interface due to no hardware accelerated UI, OEM's additions to the UI generally suck, able to get viruses, terrible fragmentation, worst update process ever.
General opinion- It was fun but flashing roms at least once a week was getting annoying and the fact that the update process is generally non-existent is an annoyance. It's terrible knowing that if I went out and bought the latest 2.2-2.3 phone today it's highly unlikely that it would ever see 2.4 or whatever the next iteration might be.
___________________________________________________________________
iOS:
Strengths- Best supported OS and devices on the market to date, fluid UI, best market, always nice devices, best update process imaginable, Netflix.
Weaknesses- Hideous UI, severe hardware limitations, not as open as android.
General opinion- Apple is scared to change a tried and true formula and though the minuscule 3.5 inch screen may be fine for some for me and many others it's just dated. The UI is just as cluttered as your average android UI though to their credit it is smooth.
___________________________________________________________________
Windows Phone 7:
Strengths- The hardware selection paired with Xbox live and new titles like Ilomilo and Fable Coin Golf make it the best mobile gaming platform in my opinion (iOS would take the cake but I cant game on a screen that tiny), the UI is refreshingly new and intuitive and does not lag, great update process, Netflix, great hardware selection.
Weaknesses- very few APIs open to developers, limited app market by comparison to the other two, "very locked down" in most peoples opinions, not much room for customization.
A lot of people are scared of Windows Phone either because they had a terrible experience with Windows Mobile or they were one of the few who had a great experience with WinMo and didn't want it to change. If you want an OS that is great out of the box that you don't have to build on then in my opinion this is your guy. I've used about every mobile OS out there and this is the only one that has really stuck to me. The uniformity across the OS and the way everything is so well integrated could not have been done better. I admit it has a ways to go before it can keep up with some of the bigger fish in the sea but for the time being the overall user experience is so good that I don't mind at all. Not once on android did I find a game I enjoyed half as much as Ilomilo or Fable Coin Golf. It really is better than most give it credit for.
well, i wanna add something to the iOS section. After the last update, the iPhone 3g has become laggy. All i wanna say is that apple doesn't care much about how its old devices "act" with its new iOS.
I have an android phone (gs3) but i can't say much about that OS, because I have had it for 1 month.
I don't have any experience with win phone 7 OS. But I have heard good things.
Android​
Strengths: Open source which leads to several choices to software (ROMs) and hardware. Based on Linux. As an open system it's available for experimenting and learning.
Weaknesses: Market haven't reached it's potential yet. Google needs to control the fragmentation.
General Opinion: I prefer Android due to the strenghs I just mentioned.
iPhone​
Strengths: Best market in the phone industry, smoother interface than the rest.
Weaknesses: Apple is the worst company in terms of options. It want everything to be done by it's means. iPhone is the most expensive phone (not only terms of apps) as sometimes you must pay for an update.
General Opinion: iPhone -as a device- is a great device. But I realy dislike the policy of Apple in almost everything. Apple treats its customers as robots by not giving them option ands sometimes by -almost- comanding them what they should like. Famous Jobs phrase says it all: "People don't know what they want until you show it to them"
Windows Phone 7​
Strengths: Not a major one.
Weaknesses: To many to write down...
General Opinion: Indifferent.
z33dev33l well done for opening this post. It should be intresting.
z33dev33l said:
Android:
Strengths- Completely open source and all APIs readily available, huge market of apps, best hardware selection.
Weaknesses- Ugly and laggy user interface due to no hardware accelerated UI, OEM's additions to the UI generally suck, able to get viruses, terrible fragmentation, worst update process ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using the Android OS since dec 08 and never had one virus. Hell on my evo I download torrents on it all the time and not once have I ever had a virus.
Android and iOS scale rather well from phone to tablet. WM really doesn't. Also WM doesn't even begin to have the ecosystem (users, developers, apps, etc.) that Android and iOS do.
Android's biggest issue right now is a lack of some of the kind of commercial apps that iOS does, like the iWork suite. I am seriously considering getting an iPad 2 depending on how much it's going to cost to get my MBP serviced.
Ultimately, it's about the tools you need. I love my EVO 4G which I wouldn't trade for the world. But I also need to be productive and "get stuff done" and so whether that's Mac OS X or Windows 7 on a laptop, or iOS on a tablet, I'm going to use the best tool(s) I can find.
I use an Android on my private phone (HTC Legend) and don't want to miss it again.
In comparison to that i have an company phone (HTC HD7) with Windows Phone7 and it is frustrating to see a good hardware phone with such a bad software -> to many things are not working.
Two examples:
Downloading some pictures from the windows phone only works with one software ... on an other operating system you really have a problem to get the pictures without syncing them over the cloud
Or synchronizing mails and calendar with an Exchange-Server without an official SSL certificate ...
I never had such problems on Android or Symbian ...
If I worked for a company which required me to wear a phone, then I would accept (not necessarily gladly, to be sure) whatever phone they issued, and I would ensure it was THEIR problem to resolve any difficulties, limitations, or whatever else regarding operational capabilities.
My attitude in such matters is a rather unsympathetic "Hey, you people made the bed, so now you can sleep in it".
well, i wanna add something to the iOS section. After the last update, the iPhone 3g has become laggy. All i wanna say is that apple doesn't care much about how its old devices "act" with its new iOS.
I have an android phone (gs3) but i can't say much about that OS, because I have had it for 1 month.
I don't have any experience with win phone 7 OS. But I have heard good things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the addition, my first iphone was the iphone 4 so I don't know about all of the old stuff.
Android
Strengths: Open source which leads to several choices to software (ROMs) and hardware. Based on Linux. As an open system it's available for experimenting and learning.
Weaknesses: Market haven't reached it's potential yet. Google needs to control the fragmentation.
General Opinion: I prefer Android due to the strenghs I just mentioned.
iPhone
Strengths: Best market in the phone industry, smoother interface than the rest.
Weaknesses: Apple is the worst company in terms of options. It want everything to be done by it's means. iPhone is the most expensive phone (not only terms of apps) as sometimes you must pay for an update.
General Opinion: iPhone -as a device- is a great device. But I realy dislike the policy of Apple in almost everything. Apple treats its customers as robots by not giving them option ands sometimes by -almost- comanding them what they should like. Famous Jobs phrase says it all: "People don't know what they want until you show it to them"
Windows Phone 7
Strengths: Not a major one.
Weaknesses: To many to write down...
General Opinion: Indifferent.
z33dev33l well done for opening this post. It should be intresting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might I ask, have you yet to partake in a WP7 device?
Been using the Android OS since dec 08 and never had one virus. Hell on my evo I download torrents on it all the time and not once have I ever had a virus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because you've yet to recieve one doesn't mean they're not out there.
Android and iOS scale rather well from phone to tablet. WM really doesn't. Also WM doesn't even begin to have the ecosystem (users, developers, apps, etc.) that Android and iOS do.
Android's biggest issue right now is a lack of some of the kind of commercial apps that iOS does, like the iWork suite. I am seriously considering getting an iPad 2 depending on how much it's going to cost to get my MBP serviced.
Ultimately, it's about the tools you need. I love my EVO 4G which I wouldn't trade for the world. But I also need to be productive and "get stuff done" and so whether that's Mac OS X or Windows 7 on a laptop, or iOS on a tablet, I'm going to use the best tool(s) I can find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows Phone 7 is growing faster in terms of apps than either android or iOS did when it started and both of those are much more open. It also holds the strongest percentile increase in developer interest month after month.
iOS destroys in battery life. But I'm still Android after switching back. Too much pros then cons with Android.

[Discussion/Rant] Disappointments in Current technology

Hey Guys Kyuubi10 here again.
I had a thought on my head and couldn't help but share to see if people have the same views as me.
I am currently disappointed with phones, tablets and computers...both on a hardware level and on a software level.
While I do see technology getting better each year I have a feeling that we are currently stuck in a cycle which the major companies are unwilling to break.
Let me go deeper into detail. But to make this thought comprehensive to most people I'll try to organise it by topic.
Software:
Most developers nowadays have a huge disregard for code efficiency, and as such the advancement into making code more efficient has slowed almost to a halt. Because our devices are becoming each day more powerful, developers don't care anymore about creating applications which don't consume RAM, nor applications which are bug-free on release.
Instead buggy applications are released, which consume loads of RAM, because a future update will fix bugs, and devices will get better and have more RAM.
Thus new and inexperienced developers are not being taught the value in making an efficient program.
And this annoys me.
This brings me to Java, and Android. While I love android and what it stands for, the fact that it still runs mostly on Java annoys me. Java being hated by most developers, and being seen as a backward step in the development world is one of the major programming languages in today's world.
Google, being a great company should set up an institution made to further programming standards, and through such institution it should begin laying the foundations for a new programming language to be used with Android.and it's focus should be efficiency.
Also, highly disappointed in the progress of Windows 10. Mentioned to be a revolutionary step for Windows....yet it is simply a reworked GUI for Windows 8. It still even has the charms!!! All that was done was to make Windows store apps open within windows rather than fullscreen, and fixed a couple bugs. Oh yeh, and Cortana...which seems more like a spy than a virtual assistant. It actually refuses to work unless you let it monitor your location. Why does it need so much info?
Microsoft Edge feels like a beta testing version. I thought that they would at least incorporate some Internet Explorer functionality to Edge. But it is not even recognized as a browser by certain websites. At this moment in time IE is still better than the "revolutionary" Edge.
You are still better off with Firefox or Chrome.
On the Linux side of things...it still annoys me that there is very little support for Linux. But that has enough complaints on the internet to make its own case, I'll avoid repeating everything all over again.
Instead I'll make a complaint about Android. Why is almost no-one building an android port which works well as a desktop OS?
Why are we still limited between OSX, Windows and Linux (which has little support)?
Android has been around long enough...but very few people are making an effort in creating a fully functional version of android for desktop.
The way I see it is that Android is based on Linux...it should contribute back to the Linux community. Someone should use a well established Linux distro and mix it with Android. If their runtimes are incompatible then a technology such as CoLinux or UML could be used to run both at the same time. While also using KSM to keep RAM consumption to a minimum.
This could be well supported by Google (Now Alphabet), and the community.
Hardware:
While the development of CPUs is going strong, with Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and MediaTek trying to best each other...Other things aren't doing quite as well. Especially RAM. This mostly being the fault of OEMs, trying to keep costs as low as possible while squeezing every cent from their customers.
This is highly noticeable when you get Tablets which are up to 4x bigger than a phone and have the same amount of RAM as a phone. This kills multitasking abilities in our modern day devices.
We already have 64-bit CPU chips...why isn't it yet common for our devices to have 4GB+ of RAM? Asus showed that it's possible with its Zenfone 2.
How long will it take other OEMs to follow suit? The progress in this area has been too slow over the years.
Again, especially for tablets. Those things should have been reaching 6GB or more within 2014 and 2015. We definitely have the technology to do it.
While for desktop and laptops I'd love to see qualcomm and Nvidia to step up into this market with their ARM based chips.
It would be interesting to see a mix of Dedicated graphics interacting with an ARM CPU...I wonder if that is possible.
But the advantages of ARM chips are undeniable...They have even started to appear into the server market, and yet nothing for personal PCs. This is sad. The battery reduction, heat reduction achieved by such chips would make computers so much more powerful. But advances in this area are also moving foward too slowly even though we already have the technology to do it.
Security
But this annoys me most of all. The lack of focus about security.
While technology increases, it seems that no one is worrying about the security of new devices etc...
I mean, if someone stole my smartwatch all they would have to do is reset it and they could connect it to their smartphone as if I had never owned it.
That breaks my heart.
How hard is it to create a pair of symmetrical encryption keys, or 2 pairs of asymmetrical ones (if you want to be paranoid), in order to make sure that the smartwatch works only with that specific smartphone which has the correct keys.
This would also mean that if the owner wanted to use a second device to connect to their smartwatch it would be fine and safe as long as they have the correct keys. Thus improve functionality and safety with one blow.
With a whole load of smart devices being offered currently and very few of them have any security whatsoever! It annoys me deeply.
Obviously there are other security issues all of which have already been extensively discussed, such as encryption while surfing the web as default, efficiency of current standards etc...
As a solution I believe that the major tech companies in the world should get together and make a consortium with the purpose of advancing technology.
The idea is that once a new technology/protocol/standard is introduced by one of these companies then the others test it extensively, and if it is found to improve current technology they all adopt it. Because the main issue is that while many solutions exist, they are not wide spread because most companies don't use these solutions.
But if the most significant companies in the tech industry lead the way by using the new technologies, then by default the other smaller companies will follow.
But such a consortium needs to exist in order to avoid useless competition.
Competition is good when it is a force to improve current standards, not when it isolates another company's improvements by rejecting their solutions.
I agree with most of your points but I have to disagree in regards to Windows 10. As Microsoft explained it will be continuously improved. I think with Win 10 they finally listen to its customers (more than 90% satisfied). In my opinion 10 is far, faaar better then 8 and I think its developing is going into the right direction.
As this is about more than smartphones... And not about anything in specific... I'm moving this to the off topic section. :good:
Thanks,
Darth
Forum Moderator
Darth said:
As this is about more than smartphones... And not about anything in specific... I'm moving this to the off topic section. :good:
Thanks,
Darth
Forum Moderator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe, I found no thanks button. So I'll reply instead! Thank you! )
markdc said:
I agree with most of your points but I have to disagree in regards to Windows 10. As Microsoft explained it will be continuously improved. I think with Win 10 they finally listen to its customers (more than 90% satisfied). In my opinion 10 is far, faaar better then 8 and I think its developing is going into the right direction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, you bring a good point. But this comes back to what I said that developers now are not worried about bringing a great product into the market, they bring an unfinished project which will then be updated as time goes on.
In fact what people are happy about Windows 10 is more due to the GUI changes. (No full screen apps, start button is back where it belongs.)
While my complaint comes more from the fact that they took a really long time to build Windows 10, and it still is Windows 8 with a different GUI. Which makes me think, what did they do with the huge time they took developing it?
Personally, I liked Windows 8... Yes it had its flaws, but it was revolutionary. It was magnitudes faster than Windows 7, albeit it had many glitches. But those were ironed out with 8.1.
It was Microsoft's first attempt at merging their mobile OS to their Desktop one. And to me this was a great idea, and improvement.
Windows 10 on the other hand doesn't feel as revolutionary as they claimed, from a technical perspective. Yes from a business perspective, it is something new, but not the software itself.
Can you see my argument?
But you are right, and I agree with you in the fact that it is moving in the right direction. I hope that Microsoft's push to mix a mobile OS and a desktop OS will inspire Google to do the same to its Android OS.
Chrome OS just doesn't truly feel like a proper OS.

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