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I'm sick to death of Android

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Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#91

Post by inoop »

fpgeek wrote: post #74
wladimir wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I doubt it will help you though, because it will most likely cause some function somewhere to throw an exception which will in turn cause the app to crash. That's why I blame the Android platform and not just the apps. If Android made it clear from the start that permissions are optional, and that requests for them can be rejected, applications would be written to cope with that. It would also force developer…

You're absolutely right. Not having a distinction between required permissions (e.g. a music player is pretty useless without the permission to read the SD card) and optional ones (e.g. a Twitter app can attach your location to your tweets if you want it to, but it doesn't have to) is the biggest problem with Android's permissions system. Ironically, it is more of a social problem than a technical one. If people were…

I think a lot of app crashes are due to the fact that app developers simply don't know what to expect. This is a direct result of shoddy documentation.

For example, the Android API has a tendency to return null from functions even when the documentation doesn't say it will (i.e. WifiManager.getScanResults and friends), or simply doesn't document return values at all (i.e. ConnectionManager.getActiveNetworkInfo). The Google guys aren't real stars when it comes to documenting what exceptions may be thrown either.

You can't blame app developers for not gracefully handling exceptions and return values that are not documented.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#92

Post by gcb »

ugh wrote: post #49
jkubicek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

my bet is that they locked themselves in because of some contract with corporation (trying to beat RIM at some time) or government.

And those contracts are still giving them money, otherwise they wouldn't think twice about breaking it. All apple actions can be directly translated to immediate profit goal.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#93

Post by Tomis »

If you're sick of Android usage you should try Android development, that would really make your day. In any case, if you're looking for an open platform try a Symbian or MeeGo. The Nokia N9 is one of the best smartphones ever made and, if you can get it, you will have a real user experience. Also, if you're a mobile developer who is not into BDSM you will be happy to hear that you don't have to write your programs in Java, although if you really want to you probably can.

Symbian and MeeGo are also getting constant OS updates although Nokia's official direction has shifted away to Windows Phone, and will continue like that for several years. As for Android, Google is treating it like an ugly retarded kid that they don't really want but are forced to take care of.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#94

Post by gcb »

gonehome wrote: post #15
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…

I've come to the conclusion that any android phone outside of the nexus line is garbage. The nexus phones however are arguably better than iPhones.

yeah... except a vast majority of users from the nexus one have one or more hardware problems that both google and HTC denies warranty.

- touchscreen ghosting - touchscreen crazy-mode when hot - worse than iphone4 3G reception - battery cells life cut in half after 1st year

i was luck to have 2 and 4 on mine. bought from google using google checkout. they never returned emails or letters regarding this. people on forums that bought at stores had HTC take them in and return the same way.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#95

Post by rogerbinns »

fpgeek wrote: post #39
Osiris wrote: post #7

The main benefit of Android, in my opinion, is the large selection of hardware. I like hardware keyboards, for example, and so I at least have some choice if I want it (unlike Apple). However, that diversity in hardware is also the biggest problem with the platform. Handset manufacturers seem to look at a device as a "sell and forget" sort of item. They make it, sell it, and then move on to the next project. It's too…

I'll strongly second point 2. As far as I can tell, the biggest issue with ICS upgrades seems to be the amount and sheer complexity of the low-level changes (new GPU driver framework, move to 3.x kernel, new memory allocator, ...). I also think Google made this a lot worse by not being more open with ICS development. If Google had been more open with the kernel and drivers along the way, I think ICS upgrades could ha…

It took almost 12 months between the Gingerbread/2.3 release and my phone actually getting updated. It has a vanilla Google interface, manufactured by HTC and a small amount of crap/carrierware. They can't do the simple 2.2 to 2.3 upgrade in a reasonable amount of time where none of your reasons apply.

Put in perspective - it took about 12 minutes after finding out about a new iOS release and having it on my device, and 12 months for the Android device.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#96

Post by gcb »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #51
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…

If anyone's interested, on CyanogenMod 7.2 the relevant setting's in Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application -> Permission management. After that, you can turn permissions on and off from the app manager. (As far as I can tell, this hasn't been implemented in any of the CM9 nightlies.)

and you will have to force close most apps all the time :(

but still, a step in the right direction.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#97

Post by BlackShirt »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #51
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…

If anyone's interested, on CyanogenMod 7.2 the relevant setting's in Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application -> Permission management. After that, you can turn permissions on and off from the app manager. (As far as I can tell, this hasn't been implemented in any of the CM9 nightlies.)

The problem with this approach is that the app expects the permission and will most likely crash if rejected. One alternative which works better is the LBE Privacy Guard app, what it does is, instead of denying the app to read the contacts list for example, it simply gives it an empty one.

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#98

Post by anonymoushn »

Tomis wrote: post #93

If you're sick of Android usage you should try Android development, that would really make your day. In any case, if you're looking for an open platform try a Symbian or MeeGo. The Nokia N9 is one of the best smartphones ever made and, if you can get it, you will have a real user experience. Also, if you're a mobile developer who is not into BDSM you will be happy to hear that you don't have to write your programs in…

The N9 is easily worse than every other phone I have used and every phone anyone I know has used. I feel very silly for paying for it. Can you introduce me to someone who shares your opinion of it and does not have one yet?

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#99

Post by inoop »

bni wrote: post #89
inoop wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik, the way permissions work on Android is that each application is its own user, and each permission is a group. If you have a rooted device, you can simply log in and remove the user from the group to un-grant that permission. I doubt it will help you though, because it will most likely cause some function somewhere to throw an exception which will in turn cause the app to crash.

Is this really how Android app sandboxing works?

Apparently I was only partly right. Each app is its own user, and certain permissions such as sockets and files are enforced using groups.

However, when the functionality that is being protected is implemented in a system service (which runs in a different process), it's the responsibility of the callee to check the permissions of the caller using Android's own 'permissions validation mechanism'.

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~afelt/android_permissions.pdf (Section 2.1)

Re: I'm sick to death of Android

#100

Post by CrazedGeek »

gcb wrote: post #90
CrazedGeek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to root a device to install anything, you just have to enable "Unknown sources" (Android will prompt you to enable it when you try to install an APK). A non-negligible amount of people do this -- it's how the Amazon Appstore works on everything (save for the Kindle Fire): http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&ref=mas_gs...

that's a blatant lie. stop spreading it. to install anything useful to your phone you have to root it. e.g. try installing tethering or VPN apps when your operator image denies it. also, all processes that involve rooting/flashing will involve one step that you remove the firmware locks from the device, allowing a thief to peek at your data at will even if the phone is password protected. *downvoters, also contribute…

ClockworkMod Tether is one of many options: http://www.clockworkmod.com
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