That was my first reaction playing with my tablet with the Android for the first time. I am a Windows user and I could not believe how Microsoft blew this field.
I'm sick to death of Android
131–140 of 147 posts
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also the SE Xperia Pro, and there at least used to be the HTC Desire Z, but I don't know if they've discontinued that phone or not.
There's also the myTouch 4G Slide (T-Mobile US) and the Samsung Captivate Glide (AT&T). Both work internationally though neither are sold outside the US (and Canada for the Captivate Glide), AFAIK. The Desire Z is still sold though it is getting harder to find (e.g. retailers like expansys don't seem to have it any more). On the other hand, T-Mobile also recently had a surprise revival sale (now over, I believe) on i…
SE Xperia Pro, Slide, Captivate Glide, Desire Z? It seems like another problem with the diversity of hardware is coming up with names that don't sound like something you would buy from a vending machine in a truck stop restroom.
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#133The 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…
" Or perhaps I'm being naive and there's something else that's holding up updates other than technical issues with drivers/hardware compatibility. " In the United States at least, mobile firmware updates are subject to the approval of mobile carriers. Most phones that are released in both the United States and Europe are updated in the latter region before the former. American carriers are also a primary reason why m…
I can't find a reference for what firmware covers. Could it be as small as something like the BIOS on a PC that doesn't have to change between OS updates?
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
" Or perhaps I'm being naive and there's something else that's holding up updates other than technical issues with drivers/hardware compatibility. " In the United States at least, mobile firmware updates are subject to the approval of mobile carriers. Most phones that are released in both the United States and Europe are updated in the latter region before the former. American carriers are also a primary reason why m…
I can't find a reference for what firmware covers. Could it be as small as something like the BIOS on a PC that doesn't have to change between OS updates?
I am using firmware to reference the entire mobile operating system, from the kernel and radio interface libraries all the way to the crapware applications installed by mobile carriers.
On Android devices, the best analog to the BIOS would be the bootloader. Since most Android bootloaders are locked to prevent unsigned kernels from running, they are updated during OS updates. See http://www.extremetech.com/computing/120771-what-is-a-bootlo... .
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#135Am 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 :-)...
Droid Bionic. I've looked. :/
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't find a reference for what firmware covers. Could it be as small as something like the BIOS on a PC that doesn't have to change between OS updates?
I am using firmware to reference the entire mobile operating system, from the kernel and radio interface libraries all the way to the crapware applications installed by mobile carriers. On Android devices, the best analog to the BIOS would be the bootloader. Since most Android bootloaders are locked to prevent unsigned kernels from running, they are updated during OS updates. See http://www.extremetech.com/computing/…
I was thinking that "subject to the approval of the carriers" was a legal requirement, along the lines of anything that could alter the operation of the radio would have to be approved. The hope being that a thin layer that deals directly with the hardware could be subject to approval, but the rest of the stack could be updated without approval.
On further reflection, I suspect it's more of a contractual obligation, and that neither party is all that interested in keeping 6 month old phones up to date. It's a shame, because Android developers can't reasonably expect ICS to be widespread for at least a year or longer.
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 :-)...
Droid Bionic. I've looked. :/
Well, the phone can be rooted and there are already half-baked ports of CM floating around - shouldn't be long before the phone (which is still pretty new) is supported officially or a good unofficial CM-based ROM is released. Have patience :-)...
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
What's wrong with your N9?
From the home screen, hitting "Music" -> "Songs" involves about 20 seconds of waiting before you can pick "Shuffle." The ssh app is significantly worse than similar apps for other OSes because it is missing important keys. Putting music on the device took a couple hours because it would repeatedly spend a great deal of time indexing the music before telling me that I did not have any music. The UI is generally less responsive than is tolerable, even when doing extremely simple things like dialing a phone number. I do not enjoy going to the phone app, hitting a few numbers and waiting a few seconds before the phone makes any sound to assure me that it knows I am hitting numbers.
The swipe gesture is really cool until a bunch of apps also want to use swipe within the app. At that point, you get to play the fun game of trying to perform a swipe that is long enough to get the app to acknowledge it without starting at the edge of your screen, because that would cause the OS to switch out of the app.
There is no option to display 24-hour time and YMD other than by setting the locale. My phone now thinks that I am Japanese because I want it to display 24-hour time and YMD, but I do not know any Japanese, so every bit of software that localizes based on my locale is somewhat difficult to read.
It took a couple days to get IMAP IDLE to work, but even once it worked it would often repeatedly attempt to download a huge amount of email, fail midway through, and start again from the beginning rather than keeping whatever portion it had finished.
It is also missing a lot of software that two other OSes have, but I at least knew that would be true before buying it.
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
exactly my point. that requires rooting AND flashing the device
Re: I'm sick to death of Android
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Someone has already covered tethering, so I'll just emphasize there are plenty of other useful things you can get by enabling "Unknown sources" without rooting: other app stores (Amazon [noted upthread], GetJar, MiKandi, ...) often with their own exclusives, software under development (Swype Beta, Mozilla's Aurora and Nightly, ...) and so on. Separately, if you managed to buy a Thunderbolt from AT&T you have much big…
yeah, the thunderbolt wasn't mine :) had no idea which operator locked it. but it was locked beyond hope.
and i wasn't saying 'non-google-store-sources-aka-unkown-sources is a bad thing. i was just saying it's not enough to 'do what you want' with your device.