

Android First Impressions - elblanco
http://www.mlindgren.ca/archives/151

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pilif
"Most of all, I love that neither Apple nor any other company can tell me what
I can and cannot install on my phone."

though on the other hand, I hate, no. HATE, the fact that $CARRIER$ can tell
me what application I have to have installed on my phone without any ability
of uninstalling them.

Android is not all sunshine. I might post more comments as I continue reading
the article.

~~~
bobbyi
That's only true if you use the distribution provided by your carrier.

If you don't like the OS the way they provide it, then wipe it and use
Cyanogen or some other ROM that is set up exactly how you like it.

Cyanogen may not work on every Android phones, but there are still a lot more
phones out there that can run Cyanogen than can run iOS.

~~~
jerf
I've been pondering making the switch, but I refuse to buy a smartphone that I
am not in control of. (The current solution has been to not buy a smartphone.)
Can someone who has done this share how practical this solution is? Does your
carrier retaliate in any way? Is this a constant task to keep updated? Do you
lose features? Or is this something so simple any techie should do it without
any pause for thought as it is all upside and no downside?

~~~
harry
I started using Froyo earlier this year by loading it on my Droid. (I really
wanted the chrome to phone!) It took about 30 minutes to do, mostly by reading
guides ahead of time then giving it a whirl. No problem at all.

Functionality overall improved. Verizon releases a version that requires
additional cash for a few simple things (like tethering) that using 2.2
allowed stock.

Some android apps developed problems updating. The cause was some apps were
not appearing as valid/runnable for 2.2 in the market.

~~~
harshpotatoes
Wait, verizon's 2.2 for the droid requires additional cash in order to tether?
I ask because I'm a droid owner using verizon's 2.2 on my droid. I see the
tethering option available, but I haven't tried to use it yet, so I don't know
if it requires extra cash.

~~~
harry
Whenever I signed my contract - it did. It was one of the "upgrade packages"
along with the verizon mobile tv that tacked 10$ a month onto the bill.

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10ren
The RAM/CPU specs are close to my netbook. I'm surprised that JIT compilation
isn't standard for a Java-related language, it's pretty old now.

The fragmentation is a concern, for market size (for apps), though it will
sill be massively larger than for Apple. The appstore deficiency is a greater
concern - google need to buy a startup for this, they suck at UI.

The Oracle suit does scare me though. Why invest sweat equity if it might all
be washed away? That's the idea, I guess.

Regardless of what happens to this particular platform, the hardware is just
about there, so _something_ fantastic will soon be here.

 _reddit thread:_
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dafec/android_first...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dafec/android_first_impressions_from_an_exiphone/)

~~~
mike-cardwell
The latest version of Android (Froyo) supports JIT.

Not sure I agree with the "They suck at UI" comment. Most of the rest of the
Android UI is really well designed. The Market Place app needs improvement
though yes.

~~~
10ren
Thanks, I'm surprised it wasn't in the first version.

I bet that UI came with the the Android acquisition. Though gmail is very
good. All of their other good examples of UI's that I can think of also come
from acquisitions: it's an opportunity. Google is great at engineering.

~~~
mike-cardwell
The UI has improved dramatically since the first Android phone came out, ie
post-aquisition. I'm assuming the people responsible for the Market Place app
are the same people responsible for the general UI but I could be wrong.

~~~
buster
I think the next release will be the big major release android finally needed.
Android 2.2 offered the JIT (which really is a HUGE difference!) and overall i
think that Android is pretty much feature complete. Apart from the UI which
lacks behind the polish of the iPhone. Development of Android 3.0 concentrates
on the UI, Google even aquired some UI designer of WebOS (which is said to
have a really nice UI). Also, i think Android 3.0 focuses on UI scalability in
general, which might mean that we will see this UI in most
phones/tablets/TVs/whatever in the mid-term, fighting the fragmentation :)

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ecuzzillo
I've been pissed off at my HTC incredible not being updated with Froyo, and
being UI-ily inconsistent (why when I hit the Home button when I'm already at
the Home screen does it proceed to give me a zoomed-out view of all my
desktops? Why do I even _have_ multiple desktops on a _phone?_ ), and being
excessively carrier-branded, and Google lost the not-evil designation with the
net neutrality thing.

And, I've been impressed with the iPhone 4's physical and software shininess
(and yes, I'm willing to not hold it that way), so much so I was leaning in
the iPhone direction for the next round of phone, assuming they did a deal
with Verizon (big if), but this now has me reminded of the sucky elements:
namely, no Google Voice, bad notifications, and the potential to get hurt,
rather than helped, by OS updates.

~~~
gierach
Like you, I was eagerly anticipating the Froyo upgrade for my Incredible.
However, after receiving the update, I am actually looking for ways to go back
to 2.1. I haven't noticed any visual improvements, in fact the Sense UI seems
more sluggish. Also, HTC and Verizon jammed in a ton of uninstallable software
with Froyo. I now have Skype Mobile, Amazon MP3, My Verizon Mobile, some
"Stocks" app, City ID (which continues from 2.1) and a bunch more that you
can't remove and it all randomly starts running when I'm not looking. The
battery life (which used to be great, much better than a buddy's Evo) is
terrible as a result. Google really needs to reign it in.

~~~
elblanco
>in fact the Sense UI seems more sluggish

>The battery life (which used to be great, much better than a buddy's Evo) is
terrible as a result. Google really needs to reign it in.

I've actually had the exact opposite experience, it's super snappy now and the
battery seems to last a full 40-50% longer. I've noticed in some forums that
people seem to be having either your experience or mine. Strange that would
happen on a fixed target, unless there's some differences in the guts of
different revs of the Incredibles.

~~~
gierach
Maybe VZW is split testing the rollout with different bundles and settings. My
wife has had the same issues as me with her Incredible after the update. Maybe
our charger is hosed and we only noticed a difference when looking for changes
between versions.

~~~
elblanco
I've heard from a few people that _right_ after the update they had a bad day
or two and then something sorted itself out in the phone.

I'd recommend getting rid of any task management software/killers as well.

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extension
How is iOS's multitasking less legitimate than Android's? As far as I can
tell, they are essentially the same thing.

~~~
starnix17
I believe the fast app switching is more or less the same, but Android lets
developers write services that can do anything in the background, isn't iOS
limited to just audio or VOIP? For example, I can't write an app to download
new tweets every hour or something like that.

It's definitely a double edged sword on Android... some apps that use
background services can turn into real battery hogs.

~~~
generalk
Generally correct: iOS offers a few more services than just audio and VOIP,
but it is a fixed list.

On the other hand, I've _never_ seen an app on Android that sucked down
battery life, and if it did, I'd uninstall it just like any other buggy app.
I've never bought into the whole "background services drain battery life" line
that Apple popularized.

~~~
moe
_I've never bought into the whole "background services drain battery life"
line that Apple popularized._

Yes, that's a red herring.

But there is indeed a real problem with the "real" multitasking that android
implements: Responsiveness. This is one area that they absolutely need to work
on urgently.

On the iPhone everything is near instant, or if you have to wait then there is
_clear_ indication that the phone is doing something.

On Android we get the familiar (but unwelcome) choppyness that we know from
Desktop Operating Systems. Button presses will not always be recognized
immediately (or sometimes not at all). Page transitions are not always smooth,
often they are choppy or do outright freeze in the middle. It is very often
_not_ obvious that you have to wait; i.e. a button press will cause the UI to
freeze momentarily but without giving you any feedback that your press was
actually registered.

And ofcourse the unpredictable delays when opening or switching apps. A multi-
second delay before opening the phonebook or dialer is simply unacceptable for
a _phone_.

This description actually makes it sound worse than it is. Despite these
problems I'm quite happy with my Samsung Galaxy overall. But they need to work
on this stuff if they want the perception of android as "slow" and "choppy" to
change. Because that's the first thing you notice when playing around with an
android device in the store.

~~~
elai
What are you talking about? I get the same choppiness on my iPhone 3G (with
3.1.2 and even worse on 4.0) that you get everywhere else. The iPhone is not
free from choppiness unless your using the iPhone 4 only. Even 3GS users have
choppiness problems on 4.0

~~~
moe
To clarify, I was indeed referring to the iPhone 4.

Perhaps I should just have left the reference out altogether. Imho it's a
serious problem that needs to be addressed regardless of the state on other
platforms.

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White_N_Nerdy
I am so lucky. I work at home surrounded by computers, so I really don't need
a smart-phone because I'm at home most of the time. When I do leave my house,
I take my LG Chocolate with me and we have a Garmin in the car for GPS. Ahhh,
simplicity.

