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Standing Up For Android

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Re: Standing Up For Android

#21

Post by phamilton »

ksetyadi wrote: post #17
phamilton wrote: post #13

As odd as it may seem, I cringe every time I think about developing on Android. It's not the development that gets me. Honestly, I can't stand the emulator. It takes so long to boot up, and is such a resource hog when running. The iPhone emulator is also a resource hog, but I can close it without anticipating a 2 minute bootup when I build my application.

You only need experienced it once for a day, if you want to. Do you restart your emulator every time you compile/build your app? You don't have to. Once the emulator run, you can build and run your application into emulator within no time.

The problem with that is it is still a pretty big resource hog. It's fine when I'm on my iMac, but on my MBA/2GB/1.4Ghz it just brings my system to a crawl.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#22

Post by teja1990 »

baddox wrote: post #4

I'm still curious about the details of his conversations with his users about why they choose Android. Are any of them choosing an Android phone because of the Android OS or app ecosystem? Aside from some hackers that might like the hackability and extensibility of the Android OS, or people that reject Apple because of their business practices or philosophies, I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "be…

I prefer Android because it is not so closed like iOS.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#23

Post by beatle »

Kylekramer wrote: post #3

I am 100% for holding a mirror up to the weird industry of Apple bloggers constantly patting each other on the back for being brave enough to support a giant company while throwing schoolyard insults at any one who dares compete with Apple (though I honestly just file them in the same department as sports writers now: rarely insightful, yet a highly amusing sideshow), but let's have some honesty here. The only reason…

The man doesn't want to develop for Android. leave him alone.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#24

Post by fpgeek »

baddox wrote: post #4

I'm still curious about the details of his conversations with his users about why they choose Android. Are any of them choosing an Android phone because of the Android OS or app ecosystem? Aside from some hackers that might like the hackability and extensibility of the Android OS, or people that reject Apple because of their business practices or philosophies, I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "be…

Perhaps, but as someone else noted, preferring something in the hardware range Android supports is a point for Android (when compared with iOS, WP7 is a more complicated question:

I'll also add that preferring Android hardware isn't one thing it can be one or many of all sorts of features:

- Larger screen (or smaller, though this is less common)

- Hardware keyboard (slider or Blackberry/Treo form factor)

- LTE (and faster HSPA+) support

- Removable / upgradeable battery

- Expandable / removable storage

- More flexible ports (e.g. HDMI, USB host support [control your digital camera!], etc.)

- Other niche options (e.g. NFC, gaming controls, stylus support, etc.)

Not to mention the dimensions that the iPhone only caught up on with the 4S like:

- Faster CPUs / more cores

- Higher-resolution camera

And on and on.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#25

Post by nl »

Kylekramer wrote: post #3

I am 100% for holding a mirror up to the weird industry of Apple bloggers constantly patting each other on the back for being brave enough to support a giant company while throwing schoolyard insults at any one who dares compete with Apple (though I honestly just file them in the same department as sports writers now: rarely insightful, yet a highly amusing sideshow), but let's have some honesty here. The only reason…

This may be true, but most Android devices ship with some kind of weather widget built in (often on the home screen) in a much more visible way than the iOS weather app. You'd think that would mean there would be more demand for the iOS app.

The 51/49% split there is interesting.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#26

Post by angryasian »

baddox wrote: post #4

I'm still curious about the details of his conversations with his users about why they choose Android. Are any of them choosing an Android phone because of the Android OS or app ecosystem? Aside from some hackers that might like the hackability and extensibility of the Android OS, or people that reject Apple because of their business practices or philosophies, I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "be…

I was a 3gs owner that switched to Android and will never go back. I prefer app switching, flash (if you don't know the right sites to go for streaming content you're missing out), i know people will find this hard to believe but my battery life is better and is easier to control when I know I'll have heavy usage and won't be near an outlet, it feels faster running cm rom, and this is on a phone thats actually older than the 3gs (cheaper carrier, but poor selection of phones). Overall just more control of the phone, applications and processes.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#27

Post by aangjie »

Good post.. Though am curious i found a Readingo app for Instapaper on Android. Is your point to make it as good as the app for iOS? - Am new to Instapaper and non-apple user so forgive if there's a obvious huge difference...

Re: Standing Up For Android

#28

Post by codenerdz »

phamilton wrote: post #21
ksetyadi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only need experienced it once for a day, if you want to. Do you restart your emulator every time you compile/build your app? You don't have to. Once the emulator run, you can build and run your application into emulator within no time.

The problem with that is it is still a pretty big resource hog. It's fine when I'm on my iMac, but on my MBA/2GB/1.4Ghz it just brings my system to a crawl.

Forget about the emulator, I wouldnt want to run Eclipse on anything with 2GB of RAM

Re: Standing Up For Android

#29

Post by jsz0 »

This article is obviously written from a developer's perspective but as an end user my problem with Android is simply that I have yet to find any device I enjoy using. I enjoyed WebOS, unfortunately it was limited by subpar hardware, and I've enjoyed my brief encounters with WP7. The two Android devices I've owned just felt seriously half-baked and perpetually in a state of flux. I feel like Google applies their mindset for developing web apps to Android whereas some of the other phone makers are approaching it more like releasing a finished product. In the last year alone I feel like I've had at least 3 different GUIs for the Android Market for example. I went from mostly stock Android to the MOTOBLUR bastardized version with an update for my Droid X. I'm all for improvements when needed but too many of these changes are just completely arbitrary. It reminds me of the old Windows upgrade shuffle where some critical things got moved around for no obvious reason. Going back to developers I can understand why supporting 2-3 major versions, dealing with dramatically different screen sizes, etc just seems like too much trouble. I think some of these iOS-only hold outs would be more inclined to support WP7.

Re: Standing Up For Android

#30

Post by derrida »

There are real reasons people buy Android over iOS. I bought an Android because of great applications like https://guardianproject.info/ and http://whispersys.com The ability to manage the security of Android down to the finest detail, and get software based voice encryption made me choose it. I agree some of the hardware models feel crappy. Any of the Nexus models feel as well designed as an iPhone.
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