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Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

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Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#181

Post by sgk284 »

henrikschroder wrote: post #155
sili wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same problem that has plagued Windows on PC for years before this. Buying a PC from Dell or any other large retailers with Windows pre-installed meant a day worth of removing their crap-ware, support software, and back-up suits. Or you could reformat straight out of the box. Only this time the problem is more perwasive. With PC an average user did not get botherd by all this trash, the machine was good en…

I find that the bundling on PCs have gotten much better in recent years. I bought a Packard Bell laptop for my dad, turned it on, chose the windows language and basic setup, waited half an hour for it to do its thing, and then it was good to go. An almost clean Windows 7 Home Premium, the only extra stuff on it was a 30-day Microsoft something trial, a 30-day Norton trial, and... that's it. And it's not even hard to…

Microsoft actively restricts and controls what can be installed by OEMs now. That's why it's gotten so much better with Win7.

The crappy first use experience was ruining Microsoft's image, because people associated the cruft with them.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#182

Post by speleding »

Sthorpe wrote: post #124
speckledjim wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a problem with US carriers. (Other countries have far better carriers and ecosystems than the US) It still absolutely amazes me that you guys usually pay for incoming SMS messages. I mean come on. W T F? If the carriers started charging each time you charge your battery the US public would just bend over and take it.

Paying for SMS is awful. Just out of curiosity how would you suggest we don't, "just bend over and take it?"

Just look at what other countries are doing right and copy that. More concrete: Vote for a politician who will force the FCC to create a real market, not a oligopoly of a few large behemoths.

Contrary to most the promises politicians make, this one costs no money and simply involves signing the right bills into law. It will even be good for the economy. Of course, they would have to withstand the rich and powerful lobby of said behemoths, which is of course why such a politician will be very hard to find.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#183

Post by cageface »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #73

I wrote this up yesterday and didn't publish it because my Facebook friends couldn't care less. CyanogenMod releases faster, has more stable [stable] releases, uses better, more mature, widely embraced software (mtd over bml, ext4, etc), has more (and more consistent) features. Carriers are asking the manufacturers to lock the bootloaders to keep you from flashing CyanogenMod on it and your mom having a stable phone…

This is the problem with Android. You flee the clutches of one unscrupulous and controlling company (Apple) into the clutches of your choice of many other unscrupulous and controlling but also incompetent companies. Android's advantages are strictly hypothetical when the last mile of the user experience is controlled by exploitative bunglers like Verizon.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#184

Post by drivebyacct2 »

cageface wrote: post #183
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #73

I wrote this up yesterday and didn't publish it because my Facebook friends couldn't care less. CyanogenMod releases faster, has more stable [stable] releases, uses better, more mature, widely embraced software (mtd over bml, ext4, etc), has more (and more consistent) features. Carriers are asking the manufacturers to lock the bootloaders to keep you from flashing CyanogenMod on it and your mom having a stable phone…

This is the problem with Android. You flee the clutches of one unscrupulous and controlling company (Apple) into the clutches of your choice of many other unscrupulous and controlling but also incompetent companies. Android's advantages are strictly hypothetical when the last mile of the user experience is controlled by exploitative bunglers like Verizon.

It seems strange to say "This is the problem with Android" and follow up by describing how it's manufacturers and carriers' faults.

Sure, I'd love if Google rolled out their own VoIP based wireless service, but that's a pipe dream and that's not really the point. Google-branded Android phones avoid these problems. They're not hypothetical, there are many devices that are more than capable of running pure AOSP or CM7.

I guess it's just a matter of terminology, but again, I don't know what people want to have done about it. The model for buying phones in the United States is broken and there's no way to control that ecosystem from where Google sits. Period. The cat's out of the bag, and I vastly prefer being able to build and flash CM7 than the more restrictive alternative across the isle.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#185

Post by micampe »

yock wrote: post #6

The real issue here is not the hardware and not Android, but what device manufacturers and network providers cram down the throats of their customers. Custom UI enhancements/replacements, useless bundled apps that can't be removed, and the removal of standard, OS-delivered features. None of this should have been new or a surprise to the writer's mom, who was coming to Android from a feature phone. Feature phones have…

I think this has been one of the major innovations of the iPhone: not allowing carriers to tamper with it.

MS understood this and they are doing the same with WP7. Google knows it is a problem so they release the Google Experience phones, but they can’t disallow it completely.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#186

Post by jm4 »

hn_decay wrote: post #162
hn_decay wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't discount your experiences. There is no doubt that Android in its earlier years was kind of an ugly baby. The OS suffered fundamental faults, lag on user interactivity being a primary one. Is that true with current devices? Absolutely not. Gingerbread suffers from zero of the complaints that you mentioned. "I had a task killer installed. It was my most frequently used app." You should probably remove this from…

And thus has the editability of HN posts been exploited. The GP post originally contained a claim that Android is "garbage", would persist on "feature phones", among other nonse belonging in Engadget comments.

FYI, I edited my comment once to remove an errant comma. The content never changed. I definitely did not have anything in there about feature phones. I was somewhat confused by your reference to that and previous comments I made. Are you sure you were looking at the right comment?

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#187

Post by cageface »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #184
cageface wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the problem with Android. You flee the clutches of one unscrupulous and controlling company (Apple) into the clutches of your choice of many other unscrupulous and controlling but also incompetent companies. Android's advantages are strictly hypothetical when the last mile of the user experience is controlled by exploitative bunglers like Verizon.

It seems strange to say "This is the problem with Android" and follow up by describing how it's manufacturers and carriers' faults. Sure, I'd love if Google rolled out their own VoIP based wireless service, but that's a pipe dream and that's not really the point. Google-branded Android phones avoid these problems. They're not hypothetical, there are many devices that are more than capable of running pure AOSP or CM7.…

This is all true but, for the average user, entirely academic. What counts is their personal experience of the phone. What is a matter of terminology to us is a costly matter of frustration and regret for them.

I'd like to see Google start promoting its own phones a lot more, although it's a tightwire act for them now since they risk alienating the other handset makers if they go too far.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#188

Post by bane »

hollerith wrote: post #66
bane wrote: post #12

I've known a few people who moved from a BB to an Android, returned it, then went with an iPhone. While I love love love my Android phone, it's definitely a geek's phone that offers a much more capable mobile platform, but at the tradeoff of more exposed complexity. And most of the additional capability are things that most people don't care about (yay! I can add more home screens, and I have a tricorder app! and I'v…

>While I love love love my Android phone, it's definitely a geek's phone Some geeks, like the Linux-user who authored the following long personal analysis, prefer iPhone to Android: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2811768 -- "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the iOS," discussed on HN 2 days ago. ADDED. In other words, let us not fall into the trap of rationalizing Android's lack of universal appeal by sayi…

I agree, but I do find it interesting how well the iOS devices have caught on with the geek/nerd crowd...people who are usually comfortable with having to go to great lengths to get just that one extra bit out of their personal technology.

Some of that is echoed in this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823502

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#189

Post by LokiSnake »

garyrichardson wrote: post #112
aw3c2 wrote: post #7

That was pretty misleading. Not Android was the culprit, but the carrier's crapware. I never understood why people would not actually buy their phones and then decide on a contract or prepaid to go with it? I even bought mine off Ebay in excellent condition and almost full warranty (2 years in Germany) so much cheaper that I still have not reached the difference to the "normal full or subsidized price" with my monthl…

It doesn't matter why this person's experience sucked with Android, it still did. An iPhone 'just worked' for this same person. I know exactly what I'm getting when I get an iPhone no matter where in the world I get it. There's no carrier specific crap. All the models have well known limitations and features. I can trust, for the most part, any apps I get from the app store. It's great that you can go onto eBay and g…

Google having more control over Android would make a better UX and platform, but it would not have allowed for Android to take off as it has. One of the key reasons it's selling is because it's not an iPhone. It's open, and comes with all the pros and cons that openness entails.

Re: Why my Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

#190

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

I always find the blame shifting in these sorts of threads interesting. My only comment is, if the user thinks it is Androids fault, then it is Android problem.

More interesting are some of the proposed solutions to tighten controls. So basically you want to introduce enough restrictions such that there is a more consistent UX across Android phones. Which is ... pretty much what Apple does with the iPhone!

I think iOS consistency is directly related to Apples way of doing business. If you want to improve Android and not end up like iOS, you may need a different strategy.

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