Why I use Android

I saw this on a forum somewhere and agree with it.

  • I can set any song as a ringtone, just by selecting it – for free
  • I can control my TV’s, Live
  • I can show photos from my phone on my TV just by flicking them on there – for free
  • I can get turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps – for free
  • I get visual AND transcribed voicemails with Google Voice – for free
  • Those little App icons on the screen, I can put them anywhere I want – top, bottom, right, left – wherever
  • AT&T network – not any more
  • I can load apps from anywhere – without having to hack my phone

Apple gos after the Droid X

Apple Tosses DROID X Into Antennagate, Here is Our Video – Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

Apple posted another video showing another smartphone, this time the Droid X, losing bars when held in the death grip. Problem is other people can’t recreate this, even Engadget can’t do it. The other thing is Apple made a big deal about the media blowing this “Antennagate” thing up. We know Apple, some smartphones lose bars if held just right. Move on.

Stock Android is hard to find

Daring Fireball Linked List: Wired: ‘Bloatware Creeps Into Android Phones’

It seems more clear now why Google made the Nexus One: it’s hard to get a phone with the default Android OS. It also seems clear that Android’s openness is largely about being open to the carriers’ ability to customize the user experience.

This is one thing that I agree with John on. There should be more phones with stock Android. As much as I like my HTC Evo I wish it had, at least, Android 2.1 and I could install 2.2 later. And its not the the Sense UI is bad, it really is pretty good, I just would like to run what Google released or be able to pick what I want on the phone, Sense or stock Android, at the time I get the phone.

Android "Junkware", Just Like The iPhone

The Droid X comes loaded with several nonstandard applications for Google’s Android, most of which cannot be removed. Among the phone’s so-called junkware is a Blockbuster video app and a demo for an Electronic Arts game called Need for Speed: Shift. The software from the struggling movie retail chain includes a store locator and a section to download mobile movies from Blockbuster’s catalog. This app cannot be uninstalled from the phone’s software library using any traditional means. Users can delete it from the home screen, but it lives on — permanently part of the software embedded on the device.

link: ‘Junkware’ comes standard on Verizon, T-Mobile smart phones | Technology | Los Angeles Times

Where to start. There is always a way to uninstall with Android but Mark doesn’t want to point that out so he just says the “app cannot be uninstalled from the phone’s software library using any traditional means“. Also there are apps on the iPhone that you can not uninstall using traditional means or any other way. Are those apps junkware? Later on Mark adds this…

The EA racing game, which provides limited functionality and a large button on the introduction screen urging players to buy the full version, can be removed.

Mark seems to forget that the EA game is a demo so it has, shocker, limited functionality. Just like every demo for every game ever made. Even free versions of games for the iPhone that also have a paid version have limited functionality. And EA must be a evil company for putting a button in there demo app for people to buy the full game because that never happens in iPhone apps.

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