So the problem here appears to be Verizon, not android. Also, the fact that the writer bought the phone in a store without trying it out first. I lost my Nexus one recently* and when I got around to replacing it my wife also decided she wanted a smartphone instead of the Blackberry she had. So now I had to look into family line sharing plans etc. and thought I'd better go to the T-Mobile store, and that I might as we…
Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
151–160 of 211 posts
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last time I checked (a few months ago), every large carrier in Canada charges 15 cents for each incoming SMS. That's Bell, Rogers, Telus...maybe some others. Many people have a plan addon that includes receiving some SMS for free, but the basic stock plans do not.
Only Telus. Bell and Rogers are free incoming texts - or at least were, when I bought my phone (I have unlimited texting, but I like to make sure). However, that's not to say they don't try to jip you at every possibility. For the last few years, texting to the US had always been at the same rate as Canada (and covered by texting plans). Rogers decided to switch that on me when I wasn't paying attention... although I…
I called Bell to have them block all incoming text messages and they said that they could not do it because it was somehow tied to their emergency 911 location determination service. After much prodding they said they could turn off incoming texts (but I should hope that I never have to call 911 with my mobile) but came back with a $3/month plan for like 500 text messages so I just took that instead.
I switched to Rogers and am now on an iPhone plan which has text messaging but I would love to be able to block incoming texts again if iOS 5 and Google+ gets serious traction.
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not the case. I have a Samsung Moment "with Google". The stock Android it ships with comes with unremovable apps (and unremovable game demos), a half-baked navigation app, a terrible voice search replacement, unkillable background services that count how many times you open the keyboard. It's also got a totally broken radio driver that violated FCC 911 regulations for over a year (google it if you care), and…
Certainly the experience is inconsistent and something I'm willing to accept. Considering the amount of experimentation on implementation and the rapidly changing OS, I will tolerate bad eggs to spoil the bunches. The problem is not with the software but with how Google has handled it's branding of Android and the "preferred" experience it associates with it. "with Google" was suppose to solve this problem, but as yo…
If years of market research prowess fails me and I consistently see similar stories crop up every month or two where other technically inclined people regret purchasing some other Android device, it says to me that I didn't simply get a lemon or make a huge mistake in my decision making but the market itself has a problem, whatever issues and loopholes allowed it before have remained unfixed. Since the price difference between iPhones and top end Android phones are basically the same ($100 variance or so on a >$2k total cost...big deal), and that I can mindlessly buy whatever the next iPhone release will be and have pretty good assurance Apple has my back, I'm completely unwilling to waste time researching Android devices and still possibly get bit in the ass for my efforts.
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#154I heard from a few friends at google that there are pretty intense discussions going on right now about what they can demand from their partners. They had to bend over backwards for the carriers and manufacturers at first because they were the new kid on a very crowded block. but now they are the market leader and should use that leverage to demand a certain standard for Android units.
> now they are the market leader and should use that leverage to demand a certain standard for Android units. But there is little preventing a manufacturer or carrier from using the open-source (subset!) of Android to produce their own Android-compatible (but not "Google Experience") phones. The manufacturers and carriers actually have an incentive do so they can tout their "differentiated" phones.
Except the losses from maintaining the stack separate from google, and potentially losing the google market might not be covered by the kickbacks for shovelware. The real competition will be if amazon steps up to provide a distro to phone manufactures.
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#155The 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…
So the PC experience has gotten a lot better in recent years. I don't know why though, perhaps the industry learned? Perhaps it's not worth it to pre-load it with crap anymore?
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I think laptop OEMs got kickbacks for bundling crapware, especially antivirus software. I imagine the same is true of those mobile phones that bundle, say, Amazon.
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#157To be fair, that's pretty much what you need to do with an iPhone, too.
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I find that the bundling on PCs have gotten much better in recent years. I bought a Packard Bell laptop for my dad, turned it on, chose the windows language and basic setup, waited half an hour for it to do its thing, and then it was good to go. An almost clean Windows 7 Home Premium, the only extra stuff on it was a 30-day Microsoft something trial, a 30-day Norton trial, and... that's it. And it's not even hard to…
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#159The 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…
Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone
#160Android will only be relevant when we start to treat phones as PCs.
the mobile operators of today are the IBM of yesterday that rented mainframes time.
the unlocked mobile phones of today are the PCs of yesterday that you could install any OS you pleased. ...even that at the time you only had a bunch of DOS and BASIC shells, now you only have a couple android distros.
dumping your $600 on an iphone is like still be paying for a mainframe to use a slow clipper app over a slow terminal that could run 10x faster on a local PC.
give that up and buy an unlocked android phone, root it in 2 steps (all you need if it's unlocked), give everyone your SIP phone number (or gvoice if you're lazy like me) and keep changing operators every year to the cheaper promotions.