Posts by Frank Drebin 13 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jul 2011
Doesn't that make it the cheapest high-end handset by a country fucking mile? That's incredible. I'd almost consider trading out my newly-Gingerbreaded & thus slightly borked Desire HD for that, as the hardware gaming keys are an emulator enthusiast's wet dream. Excuse me, need tissues...
If such a simple mod like this actually works, it makes you wonder why this kind of functionality wasn't just built in. I know a few peeps whom have passed on getting Kinnected because of lounge real estate concerns. Seems M$ have been needlessly deterring customers with this kind of oversight. Hopefully any potential K2.0 will include it. :-)
>> tmTM
I'm really pleased to hear you've had a flawless Android experience (as it does give me some hope!), but sadly I don't think you read my post. At least, not beyond "So the big problem is..."
I didn't anywhere assert that the issues I was facing were platform (or even device) wide problems, because I'm well aware that virtually no two Android handsets are configured the same way.
As I'd hoped to make clear, my point was that this insane level of fracturing leads to a buck-passing culture between app, OS and device/UI makers and it is this which leaves users totally shafted when they have a problem that needs sorting out.
And even if you're running a vanilla implementation of Android (which you must admit is exceptionally rare for the vast majority of owners who understandably can't afford a SIM-free handset and don't fancy pissing about flashing a custom ROM onto it) - good luck getting specific and timely support from Google, should something fuck up.
Which it inevitably does every time an app or web service changes. I can post you a link to a thread I've now given up on where hundreds of users are STILL having to manage with terminally broken Google Calendars THREE MONTHS after it was finally picked up by a Google Employee. I even got the story posted on CNET. It's mad.
So this totally support-less situation is *the* biggest drawback of Android and it is only that point which I was drawing attention to. I'm a massive fan of all Android stands for, but as a user myself, that's simply the experience I've had.
Bottom line: The freedom on Android is utterly marvellous. The support customers get when measured against Apple, though, is not. So its simply buyer beware - Android isn't perfect, as of course Apple isn't either. :-)
>> CraigRoberts
I've been a Desire HD user for 6 month now, most of that time running Android 2.2. Despite the inevitable and manifold minor bugs every time an App got updated, it was a small price to pay for iPhone-beating flexibility. I couldn't have been happier, all told.
At the weekend, I accepted the over-the-air update to install Android 2.3.3.
Whilst I've noticed lots of nice speed, stability and power managment improvements, some of the little changes have cokced things up slightly. Of course, UI changes often take some time to get used to, but some things have been changed so that they are far less elegant and bizarrely, more fiddly. Whilst that's disappointing, its not the end of the world.
What is far more frustrating is how some things just don't work properly now. Here are some examples:
The web browser now renders pages just a little bit smaller. Interface text is now a little bit bigger. No settings have changed and no tweaking rectifies this - its just made a load of websites not fit the page and text suggestions obscure what you're typing. Brilliant
The previously flawless Flash plugin now has an odd light stripe down one side of played video content. The predictive text on the QWERTY keypad no longer picks up sensible corrections like it used to. Barely at all, in fact. It's maddening.
So here is the big problem: who do you go to in order to raise those issues?
Google have an eminently unsupported "help" forum. Your mobile provider won't have a clue. And HTC? They like scripted answers. They like them very much.
The moral of this story is that whilst Android is utterly brilliant and definitely able to outperform iDevices on a number of functions, I'm beginning to feel the sting of the support issues that come with such sprawling fragmentation. I want Android to be the most amazing thing ever and its nearly there on so many levels.
Sadly for my aspirations, Apple still provides the best user experience for all of their paranoid lockdowns. They're fiercely protective of their band and that drives them to actively support their customers.
Something to bear in mind before making the jump. :-)
PS: the Sensation does look epic and I believe it is supposed to be the flagship handset that supplants the DHD, on account of its far more current dual core processor.
Call me an old miserablist, but after being a launch-day recipient of the PS2 and the PSP with their rather iffy starting lineups and after what Sony did to Europe over the price, launch date and diminished feature set of the PS3... I'm finally telling Sony to go fuck itself. Add to that the whole PSN fiasco - I'm remaining a Sony boycotter forever more. Feels good man.
It's a real pity all Android gets is shovelware or third-rate three-years old iPorts. Fortunately, you're not totally at the mercy of the Marketplace - other providers deliver some great apps if you're willing to take the risk. I got a ton of emulators for free and I've happily been caining through all the SNES, MegaDrive and Gameboy Advance ROMs I can handle. It's wonderful, of course, but it doesn't change the disappointment I feel that Android doesn't have better bespoke gaming.
I work for a games developer and it frustrates me massively how we - and clearly thousands of other developers of game/banking/video apps - all get blinded by the colossal mindshare iOS has achieved with the poor impressionable masses. Despite Android being more accessible to users of different budgets and thus having a potentially much larger market, as long as iOS is a byword for smartphone (much as PlayStation was for games console in the 90's), developers will give into the temptation to be too lazy to cover Android for fear of not making as big a return as they can on the psychologically entrenched iDevice ecosystem.
You can't blame the developers or the users - but it doesn't make it less tragic either!
I'm feeling the developer community's pain here, even though I'm just a regular end-user pleb.
Google's lacking support infrastructure is perhaps THE biggest issue that counts against them in my book. With Google, so much is free (in exchange for the opportunity to sell everything down to your DNA blueprints for advertising opportunities, granted!), but they use this freeness as an unacknowledged get-out clause for leaving users totally without decent support.
So this story is sadly classic Google. They randomly change something (usually with their infuriating involuntary "opted-you-in" ethic) and lo, they break something horribly. You try to get help using their horribly emaciated help forums, only to find your problem left utterly ignored despite having a good number of other users posting in agreement. And even if you are lucky enough to snag a Google Employee response, it is usually exactly as outlined in the article: "ok, we'll look into it" and then a month later, "engineers still working on it lol, k thx bye!"
And this isn't me being a miserablist-by-proxy: I'm presently one of the thousands who's stock Android calendar app lost all its appointments and cannot keep them even when they randomly come back. It's still unfixed even in its third month. Utterly gobsmacking. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Android far and away over the Third iReich, but it is BECAUSE of my love for and dependence on Google's services that I feel so let down and abandoned when things go wrong.
You know, I'd gladly pay £20 a month for some kind of premium Google service where all the products & services I depend on get dedicated, timely and dependable support, just as iDevice owners can call up and expect a good result. Apple's brand image paranoia is good at least for that - it ensures Apply take ownership of their products. As a devout Google user, though, I live day-to-day praying something else won't horrifically fuck up.
Anyone else feel like this?
Agreed, tnovelli. I often surmise the iPhone vs Everything Else (tm) debate for my non-nerd friends whom are in need of guidance like this -
Go for Apple if you want to:
1) Look like you are winning at life.
2) Have everything from configuration to what you're allowed to access/consume on your device decided for you.
3) Enjoy a generally very stable and well-supported product and ecosystem.
Go for Android if you:
1) Don't shit gold nuggets.
2) Know what you're doing & how YOU want to use YOUR device.
3) Don't mind constant bugs/random cockups that can go unfixed for months - on account of the myriad parties who could be responsible for said cockups, but who all play dumb & summarily ignore your cries for help.
Or more succinctly:
In the Jobstatorship, you sell your soul so that everything just works.
In the Android hippy commune, its smelly disorganised chaos... but you're gloriously free.
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