I'm sick to death of Android • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#41

Post by jiggy2011 » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:37 AM UTC

Radzell wrote: post #23

damian2000 wrote: post #8

If you want an update just root it download the update. People who are wanting the latest greatest incremental release are usually a bit techie anyway, so its not that hard is it?

This is true techy people have this option, but google needs to think ourside this market. Android needs to move beyond the 18-20 year old college or college bound male demographic if it's going to grow. It needs to simple enough for your grandma run it. Your phone should update with the latest features as soon as they are available not a year down the line. It's like playing roulette when buying a phone trying to fi…

If your aiming your phone at grandma you probably want to update it as little as possible.

Very non technical users freak out if they switch something on one day and it's all different.

It's probably the 18-20 demographic who cares about having the latest versions.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#42

Post by jobu » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:40 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #18

Smartphones are a commodity. I hate my Samsung Galaxy. It destroyed the Samsung and Android brands for me. When it's time for me to get a new phone, I'll definitely pick an alternative (probably an iPhone). Doesn't matter if there's a Galaxy 5 running Android 6 by then. Same thing played out with US vs Japanese car manufacturers. People have lasting memories when they feel that they spent money on an inferior product…

Most of the people I know that have trouble with their Android phones barely even correlate the manufacturer with the problems they're having. They only know it's an Android phone, and it sucks, and they're never getting an Android phone again.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#43

Post by nextparadigms » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:44 AM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #5

I had an Android phone for roughly a year, after having a not-smart flip-phone for about 7 years! And even though I found real value in my old phone for 7 years, I tossed the Android for an iPhone 4S almost as soon as the new iPhone came out. When I first bought the Android phone (HTC Hero) I thought it was amazing. It really had some neat features, and there were things the iPhone couldn't do (like totally change th…

It's quite amazing how besides charging carriers the full retail price for an iPhone, which gives them like $350 in profit per phone, they also don't allow them to install any of their apps. If only Google had the same negotiation skills.

There are so many things that Google could do for the benefit of their users, not necessarily for themselves, if only they took a tougher stance with the carriers, or convince them somehow that letting the customer be the #1 priority, and not the carrier itself, is actually a good thing in the long-term for the carrier. And a good example of that is the iPhone, which even though had the customer (and Apple itself) as the priority, the carrier still benefited a lot from all the customers and more expensive plans.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#44

Post by wladimir » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:45 AM UTC

I'm sick of Android's permissions system. As you can't reject individual permissions it suffers from permission creep. In their first versions, applications tended to request only permissions they really need. Then every update they request more and more, usually wildly different from the purpose of the application.

For example, Google Maps requires "Allows the application to call phone numbers without your intervention" since last update. I don't want to grant that (it just needs to show a map ffs), but must, or stay behind.

What would great is to be able to selectively grant permissions to applications. I've read that cyanogenmod can do that, but have been careful with reflashing my phone. Maybe I'll give that a try now...

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#45

Post by CrazedGeek » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:47 AM UTC

LVB wrote: post #30

CrazedGeek wrote: post #20

Do phones really /need/ to be updated to new OS versions? I recently upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus, and while ICS is pretty nice, I honestly think I could have lived with Froyo or Gingerbread for another couple years. (as an aside, as of last month, a good 45% of desktop web users were on Windows XP, an OS version that hasn't received any major updates since 2008: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-sh…

Of course they don't need to be updated, but when I'm paying $50+/month for essentially a luxury (I could live with a prepaid dumb phone), my expectations go up. I'm paying a lot for fun/interesting technology and I want to partake now in the new whizzy things that people are raving about, not 9 months from now.

What "new whizzy things" are people raving about? I haven't seen anyone get even close to excited over a new OS feature since iOS 4's multitasking -- from the people I know, the response to iCloud, FaceTime, iMessages, Notification Center, ICS's Face Unlock, etc. has been a collective "meh". The only thing I've heard anyone seriously happy about recently was Windows Phone 7.5's ringtone manager.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#46

Post by jakeonthemove » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:49 AM UTC

One solution (at least to some of the problems) is to use third party ROMs - there are plenty of them out there for every phone, made by people who know this stuff better than the manufacturers themselves. Support them and use their versions of Android - latest versions, fast, sleek, free to modify however you wish - what's not to love?

I have my old Droid and I won't upgrade until it's dead - it's running CyanogenMod (Gingerbread), has a wicked custom home screen, it's overclocked, undervolted, can run OnLive games, Angry Space Birds :-), One Piece for GameBoy Advance (loved that game on my GB!), Skype on 3G, and a s*it ton more...

I'll get a Droid 3 when I upgrade, as well - I feel crippled without a dedicated keyboard...

I see smartphones (and laptops, tablets) as simple platforms to customize to your liking - obviously, networks would have a problem with that if everyone thought that way, but it's the best way...

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#47

Post by inoop » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:50 AM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #16

iOS (iPod and iPad2) and Android user (Samsung Exhibit II) here. The OP brings up many valid concerns, and asks, as a consumer, how much is one willing to tolerate this? My answer: A very long time, as long as Android phones and plans continue to smoke iPhone on price and provide an "almost iOS" experience. The Exhibit II has Android 2.3.5 installed. T-Mobile charges US$30 per month for 100 minutes of talk, unlimited…

So what about WP7? Both as a user and as a developer I was completely frustrated with Android, so I went out and got myself a Lumia 800.

Here in Europe you pay about $525 for this device (off contract), and the 710 and 610 are about $330 and $260 respectively. An HTC radar goes for $380.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#48

Post by nextparadigms » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:51 AM UTC

wladimir wrote: post #44

I'm sick of Android's permissions system. As you can't reject individual permissions it suffers from permission creep. In their first versions, applications tended to request only permissions they really need. Then every update they request more and more, usually wildly different from the purpose of the application. For example, Google Maps requires "Allows the application to call phone numbers without your intervent…

That's probably so you can call phone numbers for businesses from inside Google Maps, without having to ask for permission at that point each time. I doubt it means it can call on its own.

But even so, I agree that the permission system is so generic and creepy, and sometimes you freak out when you see some (probably harmless) permissions, because you don't really know what to expect, and you don't know what kind of power Google has given to developers through these permissions.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#49

Post by ugh » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:52 AM UTC

jkubicek wrote: post #38

ugh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn‘t have a significant revenue stream from existing devices. Why does everyone think they are making lots of money by selling apps and media? They do not.

Apple makes a significant amount of revenue from apps and media… they make an astronomical amount from hardware. http://allthingsd.com/20110420/the-most-successful-store-no-... $1.4b/quarter as of last year. Their margins are a lot tighter on media sales, but even so, that's probably a good chunk of change.

Doesn’t matter. They don’t care. It’s not the reason why they support old hardware. That’s a bullshit argument.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#50

Post by jakeonthemove » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:53 AM UTC

sukuriant wrote: post #24

Am I the only one that's happy with their Android phone? Sure, I wish I could get cyangen mod on my phone, but oh well that I can't. I prefer the experience far over iOS and others. I like being able to change various aspects of my phone without jail breaking it. I like the user experience vastly more than iPhone's, primarily because of that back button. And, even on my old Motorola Droid, I never saw a "your phone c…

What phone do you have? CM (including custom versions of it) is available for an astounding number of phones, maybe you need to dig deeper into XDA forums :-)...