

Why I became an Android fanboy - edw519
http://news.cnet.com/deep-tech/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead

======
heresy
I like Android's openness and the freedom to hack it.

I'm just concerned that Google may be too accepting of poor moves from
hardware and network partners just to gain market share and penetration.

HTC's Sense UI is a mild example of this, but I've seen what Vodafone does to
phones in the name of branding and it sucks. Disabling half of the phone's
hardware capabilities for arbitrary PHB reasons, polluting the phone unboxing
experience with their crapware apps all over the place.

Apple didn't stand for that, and I'm glad they didn't. I hope Google will have
the balls not to, either, because Android is starting to grow on me and may be
on my next phone, even though I'm still in the Apple camp.

~~~
buro9
This only relates to this one device, but I have a Nexus One on Vodafone and
was pleasantly surprised to find Vodafone didn't mess with it in any way...
it's virgin android. Lovely.

Of course, they may revert to their old tricks on future models. Just don't
let it hold you up getting one now.

~~~
smokinn
That's because it's a "Google experience" phone. Any phone that has the Google
logo on it can't be messed with in any way. Vodafone couldn't mess with it if
they wanted to since Google wouldn't let them sell it if they did.

~~~
stcredzero
Then Google needs to back up "Google experience" with some customer service.
Otherwise, that term will mean "nifty device, bad service" forever.

~~~
Tichy
I don't see why another company couldn't do the service part, and it could
still be the "Google Experience".

~~~
stcredzero
There's chicken & egg problems here that Google is in a better position to
overcome. If no one buys a "Google experience" phone because the customer
service is bad, then there isn't going to be a big enough market to make a 3rd
party company profitable.

~~~
Tichy
Usually when I buy something I speculate on there being no customer service
experience at all. My N1 works fine, no need to get in touch with Google.

------
stcredzero
_First, the browser. Web pages load fast. Even with a Wi-Fi connection, the
Ion and iPhone 3G just didn't have the processing horsepower to fetch the bits
and parse HTML well. The Desire was the first mobile phone I've used that felt
like a member of the broadband era, not the dial-up era._

Not a fair comparison. The iPhone 3GS would be a better comparison in this
case. He's essentially giving the iPhone a 1 generation handicap.

~~~
dabeeeenster
I've got a Desire and it renders pages about 30/40% faster than a 3GS.

And that's before the Froyo update which is alleged to have 2 to 3x speed
increase due to JIT goodness...

~~~
Daishiman
I doubt JIT will do anything to speed it up, since it's likely that the
browser component is 100% native code.

------
jokermatt999
One nit to pick: some Android phones do have the pinch-to-zoom enabled in the
default browser. I know for a fact that my Droid does, and I believe the Nexus
One has it as well.

~~~
anigbrowl
'strue (N1 here) but it does not work all that well. you can also zoom by
double-tap or by using a pair of +/- buttons at the bottom of the screen, and
I often find myself zooming accidentally by hitting the latter.

As a matter of fact I'd say the browser is one of the weaker aspects of the
phone. I hope they improve this soon; I'm not sure what impact Android 2.2
will have, but my understanding is that it's only out to developers this week,
rather than the general public for a while yet.

~~~
warfangle
I really, really like the double-tap functionality in the browser. It's great
for reading articles and HN. I don't know why he griped about the animation
for it - I find it one of the key features of the browser, and would miss it
desperately if I used any other phone.

I do wish there was an option to disable the +/- buttons from appearing,
though - with pinch and double-tap, I never need them..

~~~
technomancy
> I do wish there was an option to disable the +/- buttons from appearing,
> though - with pinch and double-tap, I never need them.

Agreed. CyanogenMod makes this easy, but it should be added to the stock OS.

------
jcl
A link to the article itself (instead of the blog):
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20005011-264.html?tag=mnco...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20005011-264.html?tag=mncol;title)

------
timcederman
I'll tell you why I'm not an Android fanboy - the confusing UI and
inconsistent hardware.

Nothing made this more clear when I was trying to use my wife's Nexus One for
turn-by-turn navigation in LA on the weekend. Hidden menus were very
frustrating, and the clunky keyboard implementation meant I tried for voice
recognition. Firstly, it sends voice recognition to Google (what! Voice
recognition on the iPhone blows the Android experience out of the water due to
this alone), but we need the navigation immediately (as we realised en-route
we needed to stop somewhere else). Then the Android just hangs and gets stuck
on some "please wait" screen.

I have never seen an iPhone get stuck randomly unless it's a hard crash. Then
I needed to figure out how to 'reset' the map app -- another exercise in
frustration. Ultimately it proved easier to use my iPhone and read the
directions out myself. It basically sums up every experience I've had with
Android - frought with frustration and unnecessary problems.

~~~
timcederman
The downvoting in this thread is interesting - it's not like the frustrations
being aired are overly harsh or unfair. I think it's fine to air contrary
viewpoints, surely.

~~~
anatta
You are most likely being downvoted for muddling the object(s) of your
criticism. The Google navigation app runs on Android but so do other
navigation apps. You've made a set error in your logic confusing the subset
for the superset.

A fair criticism would be to try different apps, weigh them out and present a
measured response based on that analysis or specify that you're criticizing
Google's app specifically and constraining the boundaries to that app and not
the platform it runs on.

------
gcb
one more to the "what's bad"

multitasking is arcane and weird.

you never know when you app will be on the back, runing on it's own state. or
when it will be killed for memory and the previous state restored. this is
mainly a pain with the Aldiko ebook reader he mentions on the article and
Opera.

put both of those applications on the background, and go do stuff.

if you didn't used much memory, you get the last book open on Aldiko and opera
with the tabs.

if you did used more memory, the OS still show those apps as open (if you hold
the home key) but changing to them will give you initial states. no more open
tabs in opera. no more the current book open on aldiko. you even get the
loading screen again of opera mini.

And since i installed a process killer, that shows what _really_ is running
--hint, it's not what the long-press-on-home-button tells you, i keep seeing
(and killing) the mp3 store. I have NEVER clicked the mp3 store icon. it does
not show up as a battery user on the battery use list. but it's always
running... what gives?

but all and all, i like it. android is the PC revolution happening on the
mobile market. Just like the mainframe lease is done today, the mobile abusive
billing will be soon.

~~~
natrius
The Aldiko and Opera issues you mention are bugs in those programs, not in
Android. They aren't properly saving their states.

~~~
gcb
Let's try another one then.

1\. open gtalk. (this one should be coded correctly, right?) and type
anything. do not send.

2\. long press home.

3\. go to another app. let's say, browser.

4\. long press home.

5 select gtalk.

awesome! your text is there. awaiting you to send it.

now, repeat step 1 to 3. but this time also open google maps, and google
earth... and let's say google navigator (you are tring to confirm where
something is)

now proceed with steps 4 and 5.

oh no! your text is not there anymore! did the guys that coded google talk do
not know how to use their own OS? or you just took your information out of
nowhere?

~~~
natrius
I consider that a bug. From what I've heard, Android makes handling app
switching straightforward to handle from the programmer's perspective.

