101–110 of 211 posts
yeah, it's bad to have some of my options crippled by bloatware. but i can still choose to avoid those. and still plenty of choices, with different screen sizes, batteries, prices, keyboards or not, etc.
iphone has lessbloatware, but no choices.
I wrote this up yesterday and didn't publish it because my Facebook friends couldn't care less. CyanogenMod releases faster, has more stable [stable] releases, uses better, more mature, widely embraced software (mtd over bml, ext4, etc), has more (and more consistent) features. Carriers are asking the manufacturers to lock the bootloaders to keep you from flashing CyanogenMod on it and your mom having a stable phone…
Does this work for major updates? As far as I know when you want to move between major versions (the next one is 7->7.1) you have to basically wipe the phone and start from scratch. Because most Android apps use local storage that isn't synced to the cloud, to actually keep your data you'll have to use hacky things like Titanium Backup that may or may not corrupt data, particularly so for system settings.
The biggest shortcoming I see in CM is this, the lack of a good Over The Air upgrade method that keeps your data. Ideally I'd like to see Google offer APIs to apps so that their data is continuously synced to my google account and then upgrading or getting a new phone would just be a matter of logging in and letting it sync for a while, making it closer to a ChromeOS experience.
The real issue here is not the hardware and not Android, but what device manufacturers and network providers cram down the throats of their customers. Custom UI enhancements/replacements, useless bundled apps that can't be removed, and the removal of standard, OS-delivered features. None of this should have been new or a surprise to the writer's mom, who was coming to Android from a feature phone. Feature phones have…
This is the same problem that has plagued Windows on PC for years before this. Buying a PC from Dell or any other large retailers with Windows pre-installed meant a day worth of removing their crap-ware, support software, and back-up suits. Or you could reformat straight out of the box. Only this time the problem is more perwasive. With PC an average user did not get botherd by all this trash, the machine was good en…
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But this what you explained is exactly the problem with Android. With iPhone, carriers, phone manufacturers and such are not allowed to install their crapware/bloatware on the phone. With Android, they can do whatever they want, and the only sane option for an end user is to root the phone.
It's still a problem with US carriers. (Other countries have far better carriers and ecosystems than the US) It still absolutely amazes me that you guys usually pay for incoming SMS messages. I mean come on. W T F? If the carriers started charging each time you charge your battery the US public would just bend over and take it.
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The important thing here is that most of the Android ecosystem is like this. When you buy an iPhone, you're getting exactly what you paid for. No two Androids are sold the same though. Some have tons of crapware, some have an interface you can't change, and for someone who isn't looking to customize the crap out of their phone, hack it, uninstall things, none of that makes any sense. The Nexus S is a great phone beca…
> because the article is primarily about problems with the Android ecosystem. IN THE U.S.A. If you want better cellphones with better carriers who don't do stupidly intrusive things, move to Europe.
That's practical advice, but I still haven't unpacked after moving to Canada to get affordable medical care.
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What he's saying is that all of Linux's problems are with the kernel and surrounding low level code (which is quite stable, performs well, etc.), but with the integration, support and design of the distributions laid on top of them. For example Ubuntu has made great strides in this regard, but some would say the continual, sometimes drastic changes in the shipped apps and modifications of the interface make it hard f…
I actually think he is being facetious. It may be true to say "it's not android", but as far as they end-user is concerned it _is_ android. It's got the logos, came with an android sticker on the box. For that user, when it comes to purchase or recommend another phone, will they make the same distinction or will their previous android experience influence their choice?
The technophiles are right about the point they make about the latter, but it's the former that will make or break it in the marketplace.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/04/how-one-radio-reporter...
I'd need audio in and decent non-destructive editing
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The battery life and "scorching hot" temperature sound like hardware issues, but I doubt they're representative of all Android phones - just this model.
I owned 3 different Android phones over the past 3 years. My wife owned 2 models different from mine over the same span. My experience is based on using 5 different Android models from different manufacturers. Although I'm focusing now on the things I did not like, the fact that I stayed with Android for so long should suggest that there was plenty I did like. Battery life was terrible on every Android phone I used.…
Oh. You probably weren't aware of this, but task killers can cause every problem you list -- app crashing, UI lag, etc.
As soon as I got rid of mine, my phone was much more responsive and had about twice the battery life!