Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Very Own Protocol Droid

37signals.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 205 posts

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#61

Post by myko »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #26
myko wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I thought was awesome recently, had a business trip, Google Now knew about my flight information and popped up a notification telling me when to leave to be at the airport an hour early - even offered to navigate!

Any idea on how it knew? An entry you'd made in your calendar? Scanning your e-mail?

I'm pretty positive this came from Gmail.

It also regularly updates me when my flights status changes (delays, gates changed, that sort of thing).

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#62

Post by nicholassmith »

Irregardless wrote: post #46
jrajav wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's no file manager Is there one on Android?

Default will depend on which phone you get, but there's no shortage of great free ones in the market (Astro and ES File Explorer, for example). Also, Android phones work just like a USB drive if you want to drag and drop files then access them from another computer later. You can store anything you want and create your own folders, unlike the iPhone where you can only sync certain media types through iTunes. That's w…

Which everyone wants of course. Except me. Or my girlfriend. Or my parents. Or my sister. Or in fact, everyone I know with one.

A feature that you think is critical is a feature that is critical for you. The refrain that iOS suffers from a lack of file exploration or drag and drop of any kind of content is based around the assumption that everyone wants that. Most people don't.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#63

Post by bluedino »

whichdan wrote: post #21

"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk" Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though). I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPho…

The data isn't unlimited with T-Mobile, at least not usable speeds.

You can run your AT&T iPhone on StraightTalk for $45/month and get unlimited calling. I don't use many minutes, butT-Mobile service is basically non-existent where I live.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#64

Post by masonhensley »

whichdan wrote: post #21

"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk" Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though). I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPho…

I use the $30/mo T-mobile plan with my Galaxy Nexus in conjunction with porting my original number to google voice.

I use grooveIP to make VOIP calls with my google voice number (unlimited minutes) but will usually use ~70 of my 100 minutes a month when I feel the need to turn grooveIP off to save battery or if my data connection is spotty.

I highly recommend the whole setup. The only downside I have seen is that group text messages/ MMS dont work with google voice. I just give my close friends my direct t-mobile number for that stuff.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#65

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

neya wrote: post #47

At first I thought this guy really built his own protocol or something. But upon reading, it seems like it's just a rant about his experience with Android. Disclosure: I'm an Android fanboy (4 HTC phones! 1 iPhone) The sad part is, this is a heavily opinionated article fully about his own experience and it doesn't actually explain why Android is better than iOS yet. For example, he talks about integration issues with…

This is a real personal thing though. He's listed what made a difference to him.

For me most of what you list doesn't bother me one way or another and there are things on there (for instance better inter app communications) that I do really miss on iOS.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#66

Post by akmiller »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #15
parfe wrote: post #7

> Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device. Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka W…

Can you give examples of good stuff you've seen from Google Now that have been a real help to you? Stuff that's genuinely useful rather than just "look at that" cool. EDIT: So far I'm seeing a lot of reasons why Apple wanted to get into maps. A lot of the value add here seems to be navigation related.

I work from home and go into the office 1 day a week (on Thursday). Google Now has picked up on this and every Thursday morning I'll have card on my home screen showing me estimated time to the office.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#67

Post by nicholassmith »

Irregardless wrote: post #28

There's no doubt Apple is playing catch-up with Android these days. Siri was their only real innovation in the last 3 iPhones, and Google leapfrogged it within months. Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to implement a decent notification system, their auto-correct is garbage, there's no file manager, you can't set a default browser (or default anything, for that matter), there are no widgets, no app shortcuts, no custo…

I'd have been more tempted to get behind your argument and take it on it's merits until the final line. If you're still hammering on the "it's cool" line to put the device down, you're completely ignoring the fact that there's plenty of people who own an iPhone and think it's the right choice for them. Whilst being completely and utterly uncool.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#68

Post by maxerickson »

mberning wrote: post #27

They are still in the honeymoon phase. I've been through it twice before with Android phones. Also, in regards to point #1, I never have this problem with my car. Sounds like more of an integration issue with the headunit in the car rather than the phone.

Still, having good integration with a wider variety of vehicles/head units seems like the sort of thing that could reasonably be described as an advantage.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#69

Post by xauronx »

warrenmiller wrote: post #60
xauronx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "their auto-correct is garbage" The last three people who switched from iPhone to Android asked me what was wrong with Androids auto-correct and why it didn't "work". They ended up having to install a third party keyboard to get anything they could stand to interact with.

yes, but they could install a 3rd party keyboard.

Yes, but that they needed to was my comment. Personally, even as a mobile developer, customizing my phone is not my hobby. I'd prefer a new foreign car that has certain limitations to a used Jeep that I can extend in any way I want.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#70

Post by justinph »

I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.
Post reply on HN