just my 2 cents, but my biggest grips are still no universal search, ala spotlight; and privacy controls for each app, for each function. If they fixed those i'd switch.
(and no, i don't want to have to download other apps, tweak this and that to achieve the desired outcome. It should be standard)
Universal search (once a part of Android) has long been stripped out due to patent issues with Apple.
The app permissions system on Android is all or nothing. Which I think would benefit from a more rigorous approval process. All the access is disclosed though before install.
Oh, is that why it's gone? I just recently realized that the search (which I never used, much anyway) didn't actually work any more.
Really scary if that's due to patenting though. Does that mean the patent covers all desktop style search as well? Or is "for a square device that fits in a pocket"-type thing?
[ed: Ok, it's not as gone as I thought, it's just slower than it should be (to get hit in eg: contacts). Still I seem to recall you could get hits in eg: emails from k9 before?]
Unlike Apple, Google isn't so keen on enforcing its patents. Do you really think Google doesn't have hundreds of search related patents that they could use against anything Apple does with search, including Siri?
Personally I prefer them not doing anything like that, though, because I'd like them to stay out of this vicious patent war circle. But it's a shame that means the war has to be one-sided. Apple and others can fire at them, but they can't fire back.
Isn't always on voice search (which is always listening on suitable hardware such as Nexus) and regular search from the Google search bar including results from the supporting apps a universal search?
You definitely get app results in the listings for apps that are installed, a la Spotlight. This is an example of what I get when I use the Google search bar on my phone with a query of 'ch': http://i.imgur.com/UdqXvNm.jpg
What are you expecting to see in the search results?
It'll pop up links to apps if you search for their names, and it can just open them directly if you say something like "open app hacker news." There are also a few that integrate with other magic spells for voice search - mostly it's Google apps, but the Spotify app is registered as a provider of music, so I can say "play Radiohead" and the system will open Spotify and start playing.
(and no, i don't want to have to download other apps, tweak this and that to achieve the desired outcome. It should be standard)