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My only problem with Android.

I used to be an Apple fanboy to the fullest. If it wasn't an iPhone, it wasn't a phone. After Antenna-gate, and getting pretty bored with iOS, I jumped ship and went to the Captivate. Needless to say, I fell in love. It's a great OS, it's my favorite OS, and it's something I would hate to leave.


However, as I've mentioned in recent posts, Android allows more of a "walled garden" (hate this term) than iOS does. After taking your Android out of it's box, you're bombarded with not only manufacturers tampering, but also your cellular providers tampering. And why not? It's open-source, they can do as they please to it. And then you do a little digging around, and learn that Android phones have a hard time remaining relevant for longer than 3-4 months because manufacturers have a new phone they need to sell, leaving the phone you just bought unsupported.


I don't know about other phones, but what I'm hearing from other Samsung owners is that it is impossible to be able to run new updates unless a leaked version is first released. How likely is it that they will attempt to port Gingerbread on the Galaxy S phones, when they probably have a new phone to sell come Christmas time.


I've been hearing that Gingerbread takes more control of this, but how much does it really? Is this a non-issue that can be cleared up by Google in the future?
 
However, as I've mentioned in recent posts, Android allows more of a "walled garden" (hate this term) than iOS does. After taking your Android out of it's box, you're bombarded with not only manufacturers tampering, but also your cellular providers tampering. And why not? It's open-source, they can do as they please to it.

My Nexus One came with no silly commercial/revenue apps apart from Amazon MP3. Same with any unlocked Android phones you buy in Asia, be it HTC, Moto, Samsung, Sony Ericsson. Updating firmware is either OTA or a matter of taking your phone to the HTC (or whatever) store, no carrier shit involved. Being a smartphone user in the Land of the Free really sucks, doesn't it?

And then you do a little digging around, and learn that Android phones have a hard time remaining relevant for longer than 3-4 months because manufacturers have a new phone they need to sell, leaving the phone you just bought unsupported.

Bought my Nexus in Jan. Got Froyo before anyone else, including phones that were released, oh... last week. Six months relevant and counting! Gingerbread's slated for October and since there's no newer developer phone, the N1 will be the first to have that too. Good times.

I've been hearing that Gingerbread takes more control of this, but how much does it really? Is this a non-issue that can be cleared up by Google in the future?

Google plans to update system apps via the marketplace and, possibly, reengineers Gingerbread so that any skinning that goes on top of it from now on will not tamper with framework-res.apk but only acts as an alternative launcher. At least, that's what should happen.

Remember: Apple lets the 3G and 3GS upgrade to iOS4... except the 3G doesn't get multi-tasking or wallpapers and once upgraded, becomes a crippled, sluggish brick because the hardware can't handle folders or something. Even the 3GS slows down/experiences weird signal problems with iOS4. The iPad still doesn't have iOS4. Irrelevant after 3-4 months, right?
 
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My Nexus One came with no silly commercial/revenue apps apart from Amazon MP3. Same with any unlocked Android phones you buy in Asia, be it HTC, Moto, Samsung, Sony Ericsson. Updating firmware is either OTA or a matter of taking your phone to the HTC (or whatever) store, no carrier shit involved. Being a smartphone user in the Land of the Free really sucks, doesn't it?



Bought my Nexus in Jan. Got Froyo before anyone else, including phones that were released, oh... last week. Six months relevant and counting! Gingerbread's slated for October and since there's no newer developer phone, the N1 will be the first to have that too. Good times.



Google plans to update system apps via the marketplace and, possibly, reengineers Gingerbread so that any skinning that goes on top of it from now on will not tamper with framework-res.apk but only acts as an alternative launcher. At least, that's what should happen.

Remember: Apple lets the 3G and 3GS upgrade to iOS4... except the 3G doesn't get multi-tasking or wallpapers and once upgraded, becomes a crippled, sluggish brick because the hardware can't handle folders or something. Even the 3GS slows down/experiences weird signal problems with iOS4. The iPad still doesn't have iOS4. Irrelevant after 3-4 months, right?



Well the Nexus is one is a special case considering it was the flagship Google phone. It will get everything first, and every other Android phone will has to wait.


The bold sounds like a good thing. Could you go more in depth?
 
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My HTC Hero came with some (quite nice) HTC stuff but as I didn't and never will buy a phone through a providers contract I didn't get any of the crap that providers like to install.

The great thing about Android is you can very easily install a customROM and often use a kitchen to build your own ROM.

It's already possible to root the Captivate and won't be long until some custom ROMs come along.
 
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My Nexus One came with no silly commercial/revenue apps apart from Amazon MP3. Same with any unlocked Android phones you buy in Asia [or most of continental europe], be it HTC, Moto, Samsung, Sony Ericsson. Updating firmware is either OTA or a matter of taking your phone to the HTC (or whatever) store, no carrier shit involved. Being a smartphone user in the Land of the Free really sucks, doesn't it?
this

don't hate the player, hate the game - no bloatware here in finland :D
 
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And then you do a little digging around, and learn that Android phones have a hard time remaining relevant for longer than 3-4 months because manufacturers have a new phone they need to sell, leaving the phone you just bought unsupported.
Interesting generalization. The Droid is certainly still relevant even though it's an older model. It's certainly not unsupported either. The ability to root and load custom ROM's makes a big difference IMO (currently running Froyo even though it hasn't been officially released for the Droid).
 
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The bold sounds like a good thing. Could you go more in depth?

Right now, Blur/Sense/TouchWiz modifies the OS extensively: it changes libraries, framework files, and most likely build.prop that complicate updating it for the next version of Android. I'm guessing (though it's not been stated or confirmed or anything) that in Gingerbread, Google will tell manufacturers to only keep their launchers skin-deep--a standalone app that doesn't touch anything in /system much like Launcher Pro, ADW Launcher, OpenHome et al. Manufacturers can still retain a unique look and even have exclusive widgets only usable with their launchers, but their UI will become just another home replacement instead of a /system mod.

I don't see any other way the "we'll update core Android apps through the market" promise will work.
 
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I have a Captivate as well and so far other than some minor issues I have no complaints about the phone it self. But I cannot STAND all the crap that AT&T decided to put on the phone. It REALLY pisses me off that they did this. Plus there are some things that won't run on Wi-Fi but will on a 3G connection. This doesn't make any sense to me. They make you get a data plan that isn't unlimited and then not let you use Wi-Fi for certain applications. And AT&T also took out features that actually came with the phone, like the front facing VGA camera. And I honestly think they did that because either Apple asked them to or they did just to make Apple happy so that Apple won't leave them once their contract expires.
 
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?

Bug fixes are specific to each device/firmware rather than the OS version. You'll have to put the blame on the manufacturer for that one. Mind you, even then HTC does put out pretty good OTA updates that fix issues and so does Motorola.


That's exactly what I'm blaming it on. Android allows the manufacturers and cellular providers to have a stranglehold on these updates, unlike Apple and Windows Phone 7.
 
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Intervienient brings up a point I worry about. I am between a Samsung Vibrant with T Mobile and the Iphone 4. I lean to the Vibrant, because of no cost tethering and unlimited data, but I worry about getting a glitchy phone. If the Iphone has a significant issue, Apple is going to fix it (e.g. recent free case drill). Will Samsung? I hear there is a GPS issue with the Vibrant. Not terribly important to me, but Apple would have been on top of it early.
 
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I'm not talking just Froyo, Gingerbread. I mean simple bug fixes.

They will release bug fixes though. Check previous android phones. most have had bug fixes sent out.

That's exactly what I'm blaming it on. Android allows the manufacturers and cellular providers to have a stranglehold on these updates, unlike Apple and Windows Phone 7.

So, they will release updates to bugs they introduce, no issue here for me.

If the Iphone has a significant issue, Apple is going to fix it (e.g. recent free case drill). Will Samsung? I hear there is a GPS issue with the Vibrant. Not terribly important to me, but Apple would have been on top of it early.

Yes. If there is a significant issue with the phone, samsung will issue a bug fix.
 
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Intervienient brings up a point I worry about. I am between a Samsung Vibrant with T Mobile and the Iphone 4. I lean to the Vibrant, because of no cost tethering and unlimited data, but I worry about getting a glitchy phone. If the Iphone has a significant issue, Apple is going to fix it (e.g. recent free case drill). Will Samsung? I hear there is a GPS issue with the Vibrant. Not terribly important to me, but Apple would have been on top of it early.

What, like they have been "on top" of the horrid slow-down, wifi signal issues and the like on the 3G/3GS after iOS4? Like they've been on top of the antenna issue and bluetooth problems on the iPhone 4? I boggle at you.
 
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Intervienient brings up a point I worry about. I am between a Samsung Vibrant with T Mobile and the Iphone 4. I lean to the Vibrant, because of no cost tethering and unlimited data, but I worry about getting a glitchy phone. If the Iphone has a significant issue, Apple is going to fix it (e.g. recent free case drill). Will Samsung? I hear there is a GPS issue with the Vibrant. Not terribly important to me, but Apple would have been on top of it early.


the bumpers for iphone 4 doesn't actually fix the problem, you must remember....

I'm pretty sure if you bring your Vibrant back to whichever carrier store you bought it from, and tell them about your glitch/bug/problem, they will send it to Samsung to fix.

This probably doens't account for every carrier/company, but I must remind you the main reason the iPhone sells so well is partly due to its amazing build quality. (build quality doesn't mean build design lol)
 
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That's exactly what I'm blaming it on. Android allows the manufacturers and cellular providers to have a stranglehold on these updates, unlike Apple and Windows Phone 7.
i'm interested, how do you figure winmo7 handles this?

different hardware needs different drivers and whatnot, which are bound to have different bugs - microsoft can't just apply an os level update for a bug in a specific device

apple is of course in the unique position of being the only hardware manufacturer to officially support their software
 
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i'm interested, how do you figure winmo7 handles this?

From reading his/her posts they are assuming that everything Android does is wrong so therefore WP7 must do it "correctly", while forgetting the OS has nothing to do with this. The phone manufactures set up these terms with the mobile providers, thats why the Nexus One and iPhone avoid the issue. It all comes down to the OP not understanding how the cellphone industry works.
 
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This isn't really a problem. The good thing about Android is that there is about 20-30 phones available at any given time, all of which have different manufacturer and carrier relates software on it.

I have a Droid, and it has no crapware on it and have had no issues. It is all about the customer doing their research. If you don't like HTC Sense, Moto Blur, or what ever Samsung uses, then don't buy their phone and wait for one to come out without that stuff on it. My droid came with none of it, the Nexus one came with none of it, and the Droid 2 is reportedly getting none of it. Take your time at the store and playing with the phone so you know what you do or what you don't like about each OS.

My sister has an Incredible, and she loves it, but I hate it. I want stock android, but she doesn't know the difference, so she loves it.

It all comes down to you doing your own research and taking advantage of the 30 day return policy if you don't like what is on the phone
 
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