

The Droid fails as a product when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone - castway
http://scobleizer.com/2009/11/08/droid-palm-pre-iphone-product-comparison/

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StrawberryFrog
Pretty much every reason that he gives against the droid makes me want it
more. Hairdressers have iPhones. I'm a geek, I want a geeky phone. "a phone an
engineer could love" sounds good to me.

So the best (3rd party) twitter app on Android isn't as good as the best (3rd
party) twitter app on iPhone? Well wait a bit, there will be more apps.

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omouse
Don't care. There are multiple phones running Android, unlike the Palm Pre and
iPhone.

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StrawberryFrog
There are multiple models of iPhone too. It's fair to compare the latest, top-
of-the-range flagship model to its counterpart. Right now, Droid is that for
Android.

Sure, the Android ecosystem is probably going to get richer than Apple can
allow for iPhone, but right now, that's the comparison.

~~~
andreyf
I think he's talking about the different manufacturers and brands behind
Android. Think of Android's business model as a loose coupled architecture,
with the creation of hardware and software as separate components. This is the
same strategy Microsoft took with Windows - they didn't make Windows hardware,
and hardware manufacturers didn't succeed in making their own OS to compete
with Windows. Apple, on the other hand, is in business of consumer devices end
to end - responsible for creating both the high-level hardware, the OS, and
some of the software.

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spamizbad
He's wrong about the lack of HD Youtube videos. It's not on by default; you
have to enable it in the menu, but the functionality is there.

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sown
I'm not sure what he means by "AS A PRODUCT." If it had failed in the areas he
praised but succeeded in the areas he slams would it still have failed? Is
this just a list of cons?

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jrockway
I think his problem with websites was a simple matter of screen size. On my
Android phone, the right navigation wraps, because there's no room for it
otherwise. On the much bigger screen of my Archos 5 media player (Android
also), it displays fine -- it looks like it does on my desktop.

Turn the text size down, and things are fine on both.

Also, what does Twidroid Pro not do that anything on the iPhone does? I can
post photoblog entries to Twitter and Posterous right from the home screen and
I can go into the app to see messages from people I follow. I get a background
notification when someone direct messages me or says my name. It also supports
multiple accounts and multiple providers.

I am not sure what more anyone could want.

I think he just like to whine.

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mark_h
I think he does just like to whine, but I remember Gruber linking to this
piece a while ago that mentions twidroid:
<http://notes.torrez.org/2009/08/android-software-day-3.html>

Summary: a bit clunky, options that should be disabled/omitted are enabled,
slightly buggy. Lots of little cuts, rather than missing features. Things may
well have improved since then; I don't use twidroid.

~~~
jrockway
Sounds like his main complaint is that there's no Apple logo on the back.

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bensummers
Read the comment from thomas marban about developing software on Android, who
explains why the Android SDK means apps have worse UI.

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ugh
Why does he have to scream so much?

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oomkiller
Sounds like an Apple fanboy to me, I love my Droid.

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greyman
What's your experience regarding battery life?

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wglb
So far, looks pretty good. Yesterday was heavy with browsing and used about
half the battery, so I would say that it is as advertised.

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Tichy
Most of the gripes seem to be software problems that should be fixable in
short time.

I wonder about the browser: aren't there browsers that are common to all
Android phones? Or does each Android phone need a customized browser?

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jrockway
It's the same browser as the other phones have. It's also the same rendering
engine that the iPhone's browser has. (But there is no Apple logo on it, so
clearly it's inferior!)

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wglb
And another thing (just got back from downtown having my wife drive so i could
"navigate")--he does not mention the turn-by-turn navigation provided by the
android, out of the box, no charge. Or the separate but related functionality
of plotting your route on google maps and have it pinpoint your location
within 6 meters (maybe better).

Oh, and the surprise at the end of the journey when doing the navigation by
home is that it showed a street view of my home as we turned into the
driveway. I did not expect that.

I don't know, but don't think the iPhone has that for free, but I could be
mistaken.

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ruslan
"My first reaction was “boy is the screen beautiful but boy am I overwhelmed
by the complexity.” What do I mean by that? the iPhone has a far simpler UI.
You can only drag it one direction, left and right. On the Droid you can drag
the UI left and right and up and down. This introduces a LOT more complexity."

I laughed my ass out because this guy is stupid idiot posting his idiotic
ideas on idiot's blog! For instance, if I could drag mouse in Windows only
left and right would it make the over all Windows UI better and much easier to
use ? Would it make Microsoft a better company ? Of course not.

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pieter
There's no need to ridicule the writer for his opinion.

There's a big difference between a moving a mouse in 2d space with a device
moving on a 2d surface and navigating in menus. A better comparison is
navigating in a 3D game vs a 2D (platform) game. The latter is easier for most
people.

~~~
ruslan
I will say it again, this Scobler guy is moron and complete idiot! He proves
this with every post he makes. Somehow the idiotism he posts makes his blog
even more popular, so I conclude that ppl who read him are in same coherent
"state of mind".

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jrockway
Looks like you will make -4 on this post, but you are so right. He actually
convinced his staff to work for him for free, all because he has a lot of
Twitter followers. The world is a sad (but amusing) place.

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wglb
Well, I got one Saturday, and tried his techmeme test, and it works fine on my
droid. ESPN works fine, other sites work fine.

I appreciate his input, but to call it a failure is really begging the
headline.

Now I don't have an iPhone, so I can't compare, but the screen is astonishing,
and the verizion service has always been better, so I think it is a great
product.

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haseman
His bit about a lack of pretty applications should be the cue for every
software entrepreneur to start salivating. Miss the iPhone app-craze boat?
Now's your second chance...

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tzury
Says who? Well Mr. Scoble, we already won the server farms, and it just a
matter of several years until Desktops, Mobile Phone and Netbooks would all be
running Open Source Operating Systems.

Signed \-- Open Source Fanboy

~~~
eleitl
I agree that he's completely missing the point. Of course the iPhone is a far
more polished product.

However, it is a far more locked down platform than Android.

This is the reason I bought my Samsung Galaxy, though it is sluggish, and
crashy. That's the current tradeoff you have to make if you operate a more
open platform. In future, I hope the pain will subside.

