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Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

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Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#121

Post by sophacles »

Retric wrote: post #105
apu wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're wrong about the write-once run-anywhere software ecosystem that Windows had to deal with. There was an incredible proliferation of different hardware -- including drivers etc. -- and it was mostly up to Microsoft to make sure that the OS continued to work flawlessly (or at least at whatever level of semi-stability it managed to attain) across all of these different configurations. This is an enormous r…

I think you over estimate the number of types of harware each platform had to deal with. PS: Orders of magnitude 3 = 1,000, 4 = 10,000, 5 = 100,000. Now if you ment 3-5x the number of platforms but 1000x is way to high.

That depends on how platform gets defined. At the OS layer, a reasonable argument could be made for (cpu, northbridge, southbridge). Of course the whole northbridge thing can actually not include usb support, or disk io support, which can then throw more multipliers in there based on chip...

Sure there are standards to describe hardware interactions, but any reasonably experience sysadmin will tell you horror stories of when they found a weird issue with chipset X not following the standard just right, and needing a special case driver that no longer worked with the OS of choice. This means there are combinatorial multipliers on a per device basis (or some percentage thereof...)

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#122

Post by blasdel »

mrkurt wrote: post #16
tptacek wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never, ever do business with Sprint again, after I cancelled my phone service (twice!), threw out my phone, and they mysteriously re-activated the account a few months later, silently accrued an account balance with late fees, and then reported me to collections.

I don't doubt it. Their billing system used to be a nightmare. Fortunately, after 10 years of using them I'm finally happy with more than just their price/network.

I'm pretty sure that all four major US cellular carriers use billing/CRM software from the same vendor.

There's really only one nightmare billing system!

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#123

Post by kenjackson »

ynniv wrote: post #110

Why is Lyons so bitter? His arguments revolve around Android having more "features" and otherwise being an iPhone knockoff. The features debate is old and boring - maybe he cares, but I don't and I suspect that most iPhone buyers don't either. And as developers, why should we be excited at a knockoff? Do we need to punish Apple for being successful? Unlike Microsoft, Apple has not tried to force people to run its OS.…

How can the features debate be old and boring when Froyo was just officially unveiled yesterday? It's a very relevant debate.

And lets not give Apple too much credit. While the iPhone was best of breed it wasn't nearly the innovation that the GUI was or even WSIWYG word processing. It really felt like an evolution of the smart phone. A very well engineered product, but not the revolution that a lot of people seem think it was.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#124

Post by m0nty »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #45
edw519 wrote: post #10

1980: CPM on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 1990: DOS on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2000: Windows on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2010: Android on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price.

What higher price? IPhones cost $100 to $300 new with contracts. The Android phones I've seen cost $100 to $300 with contracts. Most of the cost is in the service plans, which are very similarly priced. I suppose there may be a bunch of crappy Android phones, floating around under my personal radar, available for even less than $100. That sounds like false economy to me. If you're gonna get soaked for $2400 in cellul…

I have an HTC Hero on T-Mobile at UKP20 per month, which compares very well to the iPhone offering which is UKP35 per month, slightly less if you accept a lower offering in terms of calls and texts. So for a little more than the price of an iPhone, I can get two Android devices, one for me and one for my wife.

The experience is STUNNING with excellent performance and more features than I've yet had a chance to grok fully. It's definitely the most exciting computer I've used for a long time.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#125

Post by jsolson »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #89
confuzatron wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm. I got my unlocked HTC Desire for £350, and googling for 'sim free iphone 3gs' shows me prices in the £600 range.

How else was Apple going to maintain their 55%+ profit margins on the things? It sure does make you wonder why Verizon is charging as much as AT&T for their Android plans when the device is almost half the cost. I guess the answer is because they can, because they have a better network. I also wonder if Android handset vendors will try to get a cheaper plan out of Verizon when the Verizon iPhone supposedly lands this…

> How else was Apple going to maintain their 55%+ profit margins on the things?

Gross margin on Apple products has consistently been around 33%, at least for as long as I've been listening to their quarterly conference calls.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#126

Post by butterfi »

earcar wrote: post #109
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because you are trying to use your Mac like it's a Linux box. Use the OS X keyboard shortcuts (which happen to be the same as Emacs, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-E respectively) and grab MAMP and you are good to go.

You don't even have to grab MAMP or Xcode, since Apache, PHP, Ruby, Python, emacs and vim come preinstalled with OS X. So you just have to get the database server. Until you have to compile something.

Honestly, do yourself a favor and check out MAMP. It works great and won't gack the next time apple updates php, mysql, etc. I even kicked in and bought MAMP Pro and its arguably the biggest time saver on my laptop.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#127

Post by tptacek »

jrockway wrote: post #106
tptacek wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crap. We have CLEAR modems, and Sprint owns CLEAR. I'm doing business with them again. Well, I'll never run my phone service through them.

Are you sure about that? I thought Sprint was only a partial investor and lessee. Clear 4G is a lot more expensive than Sprint 4G, so it would be strange if they had a subsidary that offered worse service for more money. (I went with Sprint 4G over Clear 4G because Sprint 4G is free with a 3G data plan. 4G coverage can be spotty, but 3G coverage is exceptional. So I am never without data. Now if only I left my house…

We are really happy with Clear. I use it less than everyone else, but we've got people all around Chicagoland using it. What don't you like about it, besides the price?

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#128

Post by joubert »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #75
ethan wrote: post #54

>Froyo also will let you buy songs over the air and download them directly to your phone. Nice, now if only Android could make a decent music player...

Part of the beauty of Android is that you're not stuck using the music play that comes with your phone. There are many, many music players to choose from in the Android Market. I'm currently fond of MixZing ( http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.mixzing.basic ), but Cubed ( http://www.appbrain.com/app/org.abrantix.rockon.rockonnggl ) seems to be rising rapidly in popularity. There's even btunes ( http://www.appbrain.com/a…

With what do all these apps sync with on your laptop?

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#129

Post by jrockway »

kscaldef wrote: post #120
earcar wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even have to grab MAMP or Xcode, since Apache, PHP, Ruby, Python, emacs and vim come preinstalled with OS X. So you just have to get the database server. Until you have to compile something.

I don't see the difficulty with compiling. Just get out your install disk, open up the optional installs, install XCode. You now have all the standard Unix developer tools (in addition to the XCode app, which you don't have to use).

Discs still exist? I haven't installed an OS from a disc in years. And I haven't installed a compiler from one ... ever.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#130

Post by jrockway »

redrobot5050 wrote: post #101
apu wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're wrong about the write-once run-anywhere software ecosystem that Windows had to deal with. There was an incredible proliferation of different hardware -- including drivers etc. -- and it was mostly up to Microsoft to make sure that the OS continued to work flawlessly (or at least at whatever level of semi-stability it managed to attain) across all of these different configurations. This is an enormous r…

>This is an enormous responsibility that Apple has never had to deal with -- there's a difference of at least 3 if not 4-5 orders of magnitude in the number of different types of hardware platforms that each company had to deal with. Apple is supporting two gens of hardware. The iPhone OS will support the iPhone 3GS, the latest iPod Touch, the next-gen iPhone (as of now, unreleased) and the iPad. Android has 19+ phon…

Also, people hate to hear this, but a jailbroken iPhone provides a much better experience and much more competitive than Androids.

And according to Jobs, the jailbroken iPhone even includes free room and board for a few years.

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