Not having owned any Samsung Android hardware myself (the flip-phone my girlfriend has is fine - build quality is decent and the software is too simple to be a problem), I can't really say anything to that - but the keyboard on the Epic 4G looks fantastic...
Hmmm, you could, of course, just sell the Droid 2 and use the cash to buy a new bootloader-unlocked phone, such as the Epic 4G... or a used Droid and pocket the rest for a new set of headphones to use with that headphone jack;)
Then again, that would send the wrong message to Verizon and Motorola, making them think you actually like the locked-down, Motoblurred Droid 2...
For your sake I hope that Milamber is right in that someone will find a way around the locked bootloader on the Droid X/2... but going on my experiences with the Milestone, that could be more difficult than anticipated. Basically Droid X development is now stuck at the same spot the Milestone devs have been stuck in for months now.
Switching out large parts of the system is great and all (you should be able to switch to stock versions of the apps that are bothering you - camera, gallery, alarm clock etc.), but without a full custom kernel ROMs as full-featured and tweaked as CyanogenMod are going to be difficult...
I implore you: Please inform yourself about the situation with the Desire before telling me I just don't know what I'm talking about. Try these links (just the first two Google results for "read write system desire"):
After reading just a few of the posts in each thread, you should get an idea of the situation. There is a solution that has been proposed, and does work, in theory, but IIRC it involves an overlay file system that caches writes until the device is rebooted... or something like that.
About this AOSP ROM on the Droid X: How was the kernel modified? Since you can't boot a completely different kernel, you would have to modify the existing one at runtime... do you have any more information about this? I would love to see a link for it...
As for your point about full NAND access and custom kernels not going away: I wish I could share your optimism. As a former Milestone owner I've seen what manufacturers can do on a whim, and contrary to the headlines circulating in blogs lately, we've seen that it's definitely possible to lock down devices to a level that makes them uninteresting for modders. I would advise you to take a closer look at the Milestone situation, as it should give you a very good idea about the challenges that will be faced by users of subsequent Motorola devices like the Droid X.
You seem to be misinterpreting some of my posts, as well as adding things that I myself never actually wrote.
1. About the Desire, please try to understand what I'm saying: Cyanogenmod runs perfectly well on the Desire. I'm using a ROM that's mostly based on CyanogenMod, custom kernel and all. The lockdown that has been implemented by HTC on the Desire ONLY limits writing to the system partition at runtime (i.e. with Android fully booted). It's still possible to write to the system partition via ADB through a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or AmonRA. I NEVER said that the Desire was locked in a way that would prevent custom ROMs or custom kernels.
And I quote, from my first post: "Even my HTC Desire has some (so far uncrackable) form of protection that prevents users from writing to the system partition when the phone is running...". I never said anything about being unable to flash custom ROMs or custom kernels...
2. As for the quote: In my opinion, your interpretation is overly optimistic. I am surely not a Linux expert (more of a n00b, really, as my Linux experience is largely limited to Android), but it's my understanding that without switching out the kernel, it won't be possible to change certain things. If you have information to the contrary, I'd love to learn something from you, if you were inclined to share your apparent knowledge.
3. I didn't attempt to defend the statement that Cyanogenmod-supported handsets are dwindling, because quite simply, you are right in that aspect. My wording is completely incorrect, and the dwindling support was actually supposed to be referring to the general availability of fully unlocked (i.e. bootloader unlocked, no weird system partition read-only access at runtime...) Android phones. Thank you for making me aware of my error.
I cannot, however, thank you for resorting to the (unfortunately, typical these days) "You have no idea what you're talking about" argument... it makes it impossible to have a conversation, so please refrain from telling everyone they don't know squat when you disagree with them.
I would, by the way, like to invite you to take apart my arguments about past experiences on the Milestone, which was bootloader-encrypted just like the Droid X/2 is now. What makes you think that the Droid X bootloader will be easier to crack/circumvent?
"So can we now install custom ROMs? Yes, but you can't replace the kernel or boot image. But really, once you have access to/system, anything is possible. It will just take a little hackery. "
Wow. You should really inform yourself better before telling other people they're spreading FUD - and I'd recommend looking for information in places OTHER than blogs.
The Droid X and Droid 2 bootloaders have NOT been cracked, they're still encrypted, keeping you from booting a kernel such as the one included in Cyanogenmod. While read/write access to the system partition and a working recovery are a good step in the right direction, Droid X/2 development is stuck at exactly the same spot where Milestone modders have been stuck for the better part of a year now.
True custom ROMs like Cyanogenmod are NOT possible without bootloader access!
The FUD about the Droid X having been cracked wide open is pretty much what blogs like Droid Life have been spreading all over the internet, and it's just wrong. No custom kernel, no custom ROM. You can heavily modify the existing ROMs, but you MUST keep the kernel that Motorola signed for your device. Note that the developers who made Clockworkmod on the Droid X possible state explicitly that ROMs with custom kernels aren't possible with their recovery...
Remember the Milestone alarm-clock fiasco? The phone would just not wake up properly when it was time to sound an alarm, resulting in the phone being completely useless as an alarm clock. This was a kernel bug that was left unfixed for MONTHs, until the.36 bugfix release of Android 2.1 was pushed just weeks ago... the only way to fix it was by flashing a different kernel. Luckily it was discovered that the Telus version of 2.1 didn't have this bug, and that the kernel from that version could be flashed onto any Milestone due to them all using the same signature. With full bootloader access, custom kernels without this bug (like they've been available for the bootloader-unlocked Droid all along) would have been usable right away, and the problem would have been fixed by the community more or less right away.
And that's just one example of why it's important to have full bootloader access for flashing custom kernels. There are many more... like being able to create a ROM like CyanogenMod for the device. Many of the tweaks built into Cyanogenmod are kernel-level changes, and while you may be able to get somewhere by loading kernel modules at runtime (like the overclocking module for the Milestone), you'll have a tough time replicating all the functions of a full custom kernel that way.
Like I probably mentioned in my earlier post, even HTC is moving in this direction (albeit slowly), with some sort of runtime-protection of the system partition that's apparently uncrackable so far on the Desire and IIRC some other phones too (Legend?).
I and many other people have been shouting about the Motorola situation for weeks, and nobody seems to care. They're still buying Motorola phones like there's no tomorrow (no doubt fueled by the memory of the fully open Droid 1 and the false hope that the bootloaders on the Droid X and Droid 2 will be cracked soon), without heeding the consequences. If Motorola doesn't realize that its update polices and lockdown are costing it sales, they'll keep going in this direction and other manufacturers will follow.:(
You'll need to buy a phone that is supported by CyanogenMod (or the modding community in general), and unfortunately, this number is not only small, it's dwindling.
It seems like manufacturers are moving more in the direction of Motorola (encrypting bootloaders to make booting a kernel like CyanogenMod's impossible) and locking down their devices completely. Even my HTC Desire has some (so far uncrackable) form of protection that prevents users from writing to the system partition when the phone is running - even though the phone is rooted. I don't know about you, but I'm interpreting that as a pretty bad omen:(
I guess the next round of HTC devices should give us some idea of what to expect in the future. If the Desire Z/Desire HD/T-Mobile G2 are all locked in the same way or even worse, bootloader-encrypted, Cyanogen and the rest of the modding community might be in for a rough time - not to mention the poor users.
As a user of a Desire ROM that's based largely on CyanogenMod (and there are many of these), I'd like to thank the team for the work they've done. The enhancements they've added are truly enchanting (hrhr), and add a lot of value to an already pretty great product.
There are issues, of course, but largely it's just a vanilla Android version with all the enhancements Google should have built into Android from the beginning. And that's awesome:)
Have you seen how buggy vendor-firmware is these days? I'd wager that Cyanogenmod actually has less bugs than the original firmware on most of these devices. While I don't use CyanogenMod myself, I'm using a ROM which is nearly entirely based on it, just with some junk ripped out and tweaked for better performance, and I must say, the stuff they've baked into the kernel is fantastic (things like full Bluetooth HID keyboard support)... And while it does introduce some bugs, there are none known that could cause security issues.
The main problem right now is that with the CyanogenMod6 kernel on the Desire, the optical trackpad sometimes just stops working and then keeps the phone from sleeping properly, resulting in high power draw during standby - this can drain the entire battery in abut 10-15 hours, causing people to go to bed with 50% battery remaining and wake up with a dead phone. As soon as this fixed, well, there won't really be any real (as in, completely broken and not just annoying) bugs left on the Desire version...
I'm assuming the main (Dream & N1) versions are even more bug-free as they receive a bit more attention.
I dunno about you, but I like being able to sit down in a restaurant or bar, and just order half a liter of the beer they have on tap without worrying that it could taste crappy or watered down.
Doing that here in Germany, you'll get a lot of different flavors depending on which region you're in, but you'll never get anything that tastes like it's been watered down or high in urine content:P. Even Kölsch, which is very watery by German standards, is quite nice compared to something like Bud Light...
Scotch, on the other hand, is a problem here... Johnnie Walker, Ballantines... not much else available in most regular (read, not pricy) places. And you can pretty much forget about decent bourbon...
Hmmm... precisely the "sitting on the couch" part is what bothers me about some of those points.
1. You can put a netbook on the coffee table to watch a video without any accessories such as an overpriced dock or stand... I don't know about you, but I don't like holding my HTC Desire while watching a video, because my hand cramps up or just gets tired - and the Desire hardly weighs anything at all. The keyboard/base is a bonus that doesn't get in the way, but rather functions as a built-in stand.
2. Battery life? You're aware of the netbooks that hit 10 hours of (useful) battery life without problems, right? Hell, even older netbooks like the EeePC 1000HE got like 6... Okay, there are also a lot of netbooks that have awful battery life. So point for you;)
3. And the HDD? Do you know how rugged 2.5" hard drives are these days? If you're rough enough on a device that it would kill a laptop hard drive, how quickly do you think you're going to kill that 10" glass iPad screen?
It's not just WYSIWYG editors, but a lot of heavily scripted dynamic content in general. It just doesn't work on mobile Webkit, which is frankly pretty sad. I can live with that on a smartphone (although it pisses me off to no end), but on a device that's being billed as a netbook replacement? Meh...
"Have you tried sitting around on the couch browsing the web, watching video, and looking through your pictures on an iPad and on your netbook? Because the iPad is just way better at those things."
I'm sorry but... wha?
Really? Picture browsing? Watching video? Browsing the web? BETTER on a iPad?
Sorry, but WTF have you been smoking?
1. Picture browsing: Irfanview, ACDSee (both the consumer an prosumer versions) and even Picasa all offer an experience far superior to that of the iPad. Each of these pieces of software is more functional by far, not to mention enabling a far faster, more efficient workflow (try batch processing all those holiday photos you just took on that iPad), whether you're cataloguing, editing or just flipping through your albums. Just because the iPad is intuitive to non-computer-users doesn't make it better, it just means that anyone is able to use it... a good thing, of course, but not the primary aspect when deciding on a picture browsing device.
2. Browsing the web. Let's see... full Flash? I've used the iPad for browsing a few times, and more often than not, I was annoyed to notice things like Engadget article headlines including the words "With video", then scrolling down to the bottom of the article and seeing - that's right, nothing! There's not that much content that's available exclusively in Flash these days, but when you come across it, it's annoying as hell. That's actually one of the few reasons that actually makes me prefer to browse on Android as opposed to iOS.
Of course, there's other things as well. Some Javascript and other fancy UI stuff (especially things with semitransparent overlays) that works fine on desktop browsers just doesn't seem to translate well to the mobile Webkit engine - same problem on Android.
On a netbook, these problems are nonexistent. There's other problems there, of course, like poor input methods (cramped trackpads and horribly crappy keyboards), but these can be attributed to poor hardware choices.
3. Video. Sure... if you want to reencode everything via iTunes or Handbrake. If you just want to drag over your videos, you're pretty much SOL. Even the N270 decodes most 720p files without problems if you use a decent decoder (CoreAVC Pro baby!). Once again, same problem on Android, it's not just an iOS thing.
Obviously some (even many) people will prefer the iOS way of doing these things, but generalizing that the iPad is "way better" at video, picture and internet browsing than a regular Windows or Linux equipped x86 machine is just... well, wrong.
"They didn't "make 3G into a brand"; it has always BEEN a marketing label. There is no such thing as a "3G" wireless signal, rather there are various (existing and emerging) modulation techniques which collectively exist under the 3G label. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Overview"
That may be the case with your weird CDMA carriers, but over here in Europe 3G has always been UMTS. Just as 2.5G is EDGE, and 3.5G is HSPDA/HSUPA and all that crap.
I am, however, wondering what HSPA+ will be classified as (Looks like T-Mobile in the US has already started marketing it as equivalent to 4G - see the T-Mobile G2 adverts)...
Once the GPS on Android devices (at least on the phones I've used... mainly Milestone and Desire in this respect) has a fix, it's never "slow" when in use. Lagging GPS causing you to miss turns sounds more like a broken phone, to be honest... or maybe it was just too slow for the navigation app?
They do mostly have a compass and accelerometers, but I'm not entirely sure they're used in most navigation programs - most seem to simply use the direction the device is moving in as a directional indicator, similar to older GPS units before the advent of cheap accelerometers... Google's services seem to work the compass in there, though, and Maps works solely with the compass (hold the phone the wrong way and it'll show you walking backwards).
And you're right, of course - there are no decent offline navigation apps that don't cost a lot of money (a fortune as Android apps go).:(
Dunno about Nokia, but my old Milestone and my Desire work fine without a data connection. Fixes take a little longer, of course, but nothing unbearable, and nowhere near as bad as many dashboard GPS units...
So your power usage is pretty much in line with what the Desire Compiled-From-Source ROMs are saying. I smell funny business in HTC's Desire Sense-ROMs.
The big question here being: How accurate is that display? How easy is it to tamper with?
Prime example: I'm using an HTC Desire right now. More or less the same phone as the Nexus One...
On the original HTC ROM, heavy display usage (high brightness, display on for over 70% of the entire discharge time), the display power usage is about 5-20%.
On Android Open Source Project ROMs (compiled directly from Android source - CyanogenMod, AFAIK, and OpenDesire up until 3.0.5), the display power usage is listed as being between 50% and 80%. On OpenDesire, this was flagged as a supposed bug, and since version 3.1.0 it displays the same minimal power usage as the HTC Sense ROMs.
Now for my conspiracy theory: The Desire and Nexus One were the first HTC smartphones with AMOLED displays. One of the marketing features was lower power consumption (complete bollocks, though - in real-world use you need to keep the display relatively dark to even match LCD power consumption: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/08/this-september-oled-no-longer-three-to-five-years-away.ars... The article is a few years old, but I doubt they've improved/reduced the power consumption by 60-80% in this time), so they screwed with the display statistics to make it seem like the AMOLED display uses less power.
Of course, it's possible that it really was just a bug in the straight-from-source ROMs, but hey... my battery life with the screen running is far worse than on my old Milestone. I vote for conspiracy!:P
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Not having owned any Samsung Android hardware myself (the flip-phone my girlfriend has is fine - build quality is decent and the software is too simple to be a problem), I can't really say anything to that - but the keyboard on the Epic 4G looks fantastic...
Congrats, welcome to the big boys' playground ;)
Custom firmware IIRC. Why too late?
Hmmm, you could, of course, just sell the Droid 2 and use the cash to buy a new bootloader-unlocked phone, such as the Epic 4G... or a used Droid and pocket the rest for a new set of headphones to use with that headphone jack ;)
Then again, that would send the wrong message to Verizon and Motorola, making them think you actually like the locked-down, Motoblurred Droid 2...
For your sake I hope that Milamber is right in that someone will find a way around the locked bootloader on the Droid X/2... but going on my experiences with the Milestone, that could be more difficult than anticipated. Basically Droid X development is now stuck at the same spot the Milestone devs have been stuck in for months now.
Switching out large parts of the system is great and all (you should be able to switch to stock versions of the apps that are bothering you - camera, gallery, alarm clock etc.), but without a full custom kernel ROMs as full-featured and tweaked as CyanogenMod are going to be difficult...
IIRC there's now a way to root without the bootloader-unlock, just FYI. No warranty loss :)
Hi Milamber,
I implore you: Please inform yourself about the situation with the Desire before telling me I just don't know what I'm talking about. Try these links (just the first two Google results for "read write system desire"):
http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-desire-desire-modaco-com/315002/htc-desire-system-partition-write-access-in-progress/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=690744
After reading just a few of the posts in each thread, you should get an idea of the situation. There is a solution that has been proposed, and does work, in theory, but IIRC it involves an overlay file system that caches writes until the device is rebooted... or something like that.
About this AOSP ROM on the Droid X: How was the kernel modified? Since you can't boot a completely different kernel, you would have to modify the existing one at runtime... do you have any more information about this? I would love to see a link for it...
As for your point about full NAND access and custom kernels not going away: I wish I could share your optimism. As a former Milestone owner I've seen what manufacturers can do on a whim, and contrary to the headlines circulating in blogs lately, we've seen that it's definitely possible to lock down devices to a level that makes them uninteresting for modders. I would advise you to take a closer look at the Milestone situation, as it should give you a very good idea about the challenges that will be faced by users of subsequent Motorola devices like the Droid X.
Dear Milamber,
You seem to be misinterpreting some of my posts, as well as adding things that I myself never actually wrote.
1. About the Desire, please try to understand what I'm saying: Cyanogenmod runs perfectly well on the Desire. I'm using a ROM that's mostly based on CyanogenMod, custom kernel and all. The lockdown that has been implemented by HTC on the Desire ONLY limits writing to the system partition at runtime (i.e. with Android fully booted). It's still possible to write to the system partition via ADB through a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or AmonRA. I NEVER said that the Desire was locked in a way that would prevent custom ROMs or custom kernels.
And I quote, from my first post: "Even my HTC Desire has some (so far uncrackable) form of protection that prevents users from writing to the system partition when the phone is running...". I never said anything about being unable to flash custom ROMs or custom kernels...
2. As for the quote: In my opinion, your interpretation is overly optimistic. I am surely not a Linux expert (more of a n00b, really, as my Linux experience is largely limited to Android), but it's my understanding that without switching out the kernel, it won't be possible to change certain things. If you have information to the contrary, I'd love to learn something from you, if you were inclined to share your apparent knowledge.
3. I didn't attempt to defend the statement that Cyanogenmod-supported handsets are dwindling, because quite simply, you are right in that aspect. My wording is completely incorrect, and the dwindling support was actually supposed to be referring to the general availability of fully unlocked (i.e. bootloader unlocked, no weird system partition read-only access at runtime...) Android phones. Thank you for making me aware of my error.
I cannot, however, thank you for resorting to the (unfortunately, typical these days) "You have no idea what you're talking about" argument... it makes it impossible to have a conversation, so please refrain from telling everyone they don't know squat when you disagree with them.
I would, by the way, like to invite you to take apart my arguments about past experiences on the Milestone, which was bootloader-encrypted just like the Droid X/2 is now. What makes you think that the Droid X bootloader will be easier to crack/circumvent?
Correct, I was being stupid. Should have proofread :(
More info here: http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/08/droid-x-recovery.html
Note the following:
"So can we now install custom ROMs? /system, anything is possible. It will just take a little hackery. "
Yes, but you can't replace the kernel or boot image. But really, once you have access to
Wow. You should really inform yourself better before telling other people they're spreading FUD - and I'd recommend looking for information in places OTHER than blogs.
The Droid X and Droid 2 bootloaders have NOT been cracked, they're still encrypted, keeping you from booting a kernel such as the one included in Cyanogenmod. While read/write access to the system partition and a working recovery are a good step in the right direction, Droid X/2 development is stuck at exactly the same spot where Milestone modders have been stuck for the better part of a year now.
True custom ROMs like Cyanogenmod are NOT possible without bootloader access!
The FUD about the Droid X having been cracked wide open is pretty much what blogs like Droid Life have been spreading all over the internet, and it's just wrong. No custom kernel, no custom ROM. You can heavily modify the existing ROMs, but you MUST keep the kernel that Motorola signed for your device. Note that the developers who made Clockworkmod on the Droid X possible state explicitly that ROMs with custom kernels aren't possible with their recovery...
Remember the Milestone alarm-clock fiasco? The phone would just not wake up properly when it was time to sound an alarm, resulting in the phone being completely useless as an alarm clock. This was a kernel bug that was left unfixed for MONTHs, until the .36 bugfix release of Android 2.1 was pushed just weeks ago... the only way to fix it was by flashing a different kernel. Luckily it was discovered that the Telus version of 2.1 didn't have this bug, and that the kernel from that version could be flashed onto any Milestone due to them all using the same signature. With full bootloader access, custom kernels without this bug (like they've been available for the bootloader-unlocked Droid all along) would have been usable right away, and the problem would have been fixed by the community more or less right away.
And that's just one example of why it's important to have full bootloader access for flashing custom kernels. There are many more... like being able to create a ROM like CyanogenMod for the device. Many of the tweaks built into Cyanogenmod are kernel-level changes, and while you may be able to get somewhere by loading kernel modules at runtime (like the overclocking module for the Milestone), you'll have a tough time replicating all the functions of a full custom kernel that way.
Like I probably mentioned in my earlier post, even HTC is moving in this direction (albeit slowly), with some sort of runtime-protection of the system partition that's apparently uncrackable so far on the Desire and IIRC some other phones too (Legend?).
I and many other people have been shouting about the Motorola situation for weeks, and nobody seems to care. They're still buying Motorola phones like there's no tomorrow (no doubt fueled by the memory of the fully open Droid 1 and the false hope that the bootloaders on the Droid X and Droid 2 will be cracked soon), without heeding the consequences. If Motorola doesn't realize that its update polices and lockdown are costing it sales, they'll keep going in this direction and other manufacturers will follow. :(
Don't buy "An Android Phone".
You'll need to buy a phone that is supported by CyanogenMod (or the modding community in general), and unfortunately, this number is not only small, it's dwindling.
It seems like manufacturers are moving more in the direction of Motorola (encrypting bootloaders to make booting a kernel like CyanogenMod's impossible) and locking down their devices completely. Even my HTC Desire has some (so far uncrackable) form of protection that prevents users from writing to the system partition when the phone is running - even though the phone is rooted. I don't know about you, but I'm interpreting that as a pretty bad omen :(
I guess the next round of HTC devices should give us some idea of what to expect in the future. If the Desire Z/Desire HD/T-Mobile G2 are all locked in the same way or even worse, bootloader-encrypted, Cyanogen and the rest of the modding community might be in for a rough time - not to mention the poor users.
As a user of a Desire ROM that's based largely on CyanogenMod (and there are many of these), I'd like to thank the team for the work they've done. The enhancements they've added are truly enchanting (hrhr), and add a lot of value to an already pretty great product.
There are issues, of course, but largely it's just a vanilla Android version with all the enhancements Google should have built into Android from the beginning. And that's awesome :)
Have you seen how buggy vendor-firmware is these days? I'd wager that Cyanogenmod actually has less bugs than the original firmware on most of these devices. While I don't use CyanogenMod myself, I'm using a ROM which is nearly entirely based on it, just with some junk ripped out and tweaked for better performance, and I must say, the stuff they've baked into the kernel is fantastic (things like full Bluetooth HID keyboard support)... And while it does introduce some bugs, there are none known that could cause security issues.
The main problem right now is that with the CyanogenMod6 kernel on the Desire, the optical trackpad sometimes just stops working and then keeps the phone from sleeping properly, resulting in high power draw during standby - this can drain the entire battery in abut 10-15 hours, causing people to go to bed with 50% battery remaining and wake up with a dead phone. As soon as this fixed, well, there won't really be any real (as in, completely broken and not just annoying) bugs left on the Desire version...
I'm assuming the main (Dream & N1) versions are even more bug-free as they receive a bit more attention.
I dunno about you, but I like being able to sit down in a restaurant or bar, and just order half a liter of the beer they have on tap without worrying that it could taste crappy or watered down.
Doing that here in Germany, you'll get a lot of different flavors depending on which region you're in, but you'll never get anything that tastes like it's been watered down or high in urine content :P. Even Kölsch, which is very watery by German standards, is quite nice compared to something like Bud Light...
Scotch, on the other hand, is a problem here... Johnnie Walker, Ballantines... not much else available in most regular (read, not pricy) places. And you can pretty much forget about decent bourbon...
I've had exactly the same experience. Used to work with music or TV shows running, now I can't concentrate with the slightest bit of noise.
Hmmm... precisely the "sitting on the couch" part is what bothers me about some of those points.
1. You can put a netbook on the coffee table to watch a video without any accessories such as an overpriced dock or stand... I don't know about you, but I don't like holding my HTC Desire while watching a video, because my hand cramps up or just gets tired - and the Desire hardly weighs anything at all. The keyboard/base is a bonus that doesn't get in the way, but rather functions as a built-in stand.
2. Battery life? You're aware of the netbooks that hit 10 hours of (useful) battery life without problems, right? Hell, even older netbooks like the EeePC 1000HE got like 6... Okay, there are also a lot of netbooks that have awful battery life. So point for you ;)
3. And the HDD? Do you know how rugged 2.5" hard drives are these days? If you're rough enough on a device that it would kill a laptop hard drive, how quickly do you think you're going to kill that 10" glass iPad screen?
It's not just WYSIWYG editors, but a lot of heavily scripted dynamic content in general. It just doesn't work on mobile Webkit, which is frankly pretty sad. I can live with that on a smartphone (although it pisses me off to no end), but on a device that's being billed as a netbook replacement? Meh...
"Have you tried sitting around on the couch browsing the web, watching video, and looking through your pictures on an iPad and on your netbook? Because the iPad is just way better at those things."
I'm sorry but... wha?
Really? Picture browsing? Watching video? Browsing the web? BETTER on a iPad?
Sorry, but WTF have you been smoking?
1. Picture browsing: Irfanview, ACDSee (both the consumer an prosumer versions) and even Picasa all offer an experience far superior to that of the iPad. Each of these pieces of software is more functional by far, not to mention enabling a far faster, more efficient workflow (try batch processing all those holiday photos you just took on that iPad), whether you're cataloguing, editing or just flipping through your albums. Just because the iPad is intuitive to non-computer-users doesn't make it better, it just means that anyone is able to use it... a good thing, of course, but not the primary aspect when deciding on a picture browsing device.
2. Browsing the web. Let's see... full Flash? I've used the iPad for browsing a few times, and more often than not, I was annoyed to notice things like Engadget article headlines including the words "With video", then scrolling down to the bottom of the article and seeing - that's right, nothing! There's not that much content that's available exclusively in Flash these days, but when you come across it, it's annoying as hell. That's actually one of the few reasons that actually makes me prefer to browse on Android as opposed to iOS.
Of course, there's other things as well. Some Javascript and other fancy UI stuff (especially things with semitransparent overlays) that works fine on desktop browsers just doesn't seem to translate well to the mobile Webkit engine - same problem on Android.
On a netbook, these problems are nonexistent. There's other problems there, of course, like poor input methods (cramped trackpads and horribly crappy keyboards), but these can be attributed to poor hardware choices.
3. Video. Sure... if you want to reencode everything via iTunes or Handbrake. If you just want to drag over your videos, you're pretty much SOL. Even the N270 decodes most 720p files without problems if you use a decent decoder (CoreAVC Pro baby!). Once again, same problem on Android, it's not just an iOS thing.
Obviously some (even many) people will prefer the iOS way of doing these things, but generalizing that the iPad is "way better" at video, picture and internet browsing than a regular Windows or Linux equipped x86 machine is just... well, wrong.
"They didn't "make 3G into a brand"; it has always BEEN a marketing label. There is no such thing as a "3G" wireless signal, rather there are various (existing and emerging) modulation techniques which collectively exist under the 3G label. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Overview"
That may be the case with your weird CDMA carriers, but over here in Europe 3G has always been UMTS. Just as 2.5G is EDGE, and 3.5G is HSPDA/HSUPA and all that crap.
I am, however, wondering what HSPA+ will be classified as (Looks like T-Mobile in the US has already started marketing it as equivalent to 4G - see the T-Mobile G2 adverts)...
Once the GPS on Android devices (at least on the phones I've used... mainly Milestone and Desire in this respect) has a fix, it's never "slow" when in use. Lagging GPS causing you to miss turns sounds more like a broken phone, to be honest... or maybe it was just too slow for the navigation app?
They do mostly have a compass and accelerometers, but I'm not entirely sure they're used in most navigation programs - most seem to simply use the direction the device is moving in as a directional indicator, similar to older GPS units before the advent of cheap accelerometers... Google's services seem to work the compass in there, though, and Maps works solely with the compass (hold the phone the wrong way and it'll show you walking backwards).
And you're right, of course - there are no decent offline navigation apps that don't cost a lot of money (a fortune as Android apps go). :(
Dunno about Nokia, but my old Milestone and my Desire work fine without a data connection. Fixes take a little longer, of course, but nothing unbearable, and nowhere near as bad as many dashboard GPS units...
So your power usage is pretty much in line with what the Desire Compiled-From-Source ROMs are saying. I smell funny business in HTC's Desire Sense-ROMs.
The big question here being: How accurate is that display? How easy is it to tamper with?
Prime example: I'm using an HTC Desire right now. More or less the same phone as the Nexus One...
On the original HTC ROM, heavy display usage (high brightness, display on for over 70% of the entire discharge time), the display power usage is about 5-20%.
On Android Open Source Project ROMs (compiled directly from Android source - CyanogenMod, AFAIK, and OpenDesire up until 3.0.5), the display power usage is listed as being between 50% and 80%. On OpenDesire, this was flagged as a supposed bug, and since version 3.1.0 it displays the same minimal power usage as the HTC Sense ROMs.
Now for my conspiracy theory: The Desire and Nexus One were the first HTC smartphones with AMOLED displays. One of the marketing features was lower power consumption (complete bollocks, though - in real-world use you need to keep the display relatively dark to even match LCD power consumption: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/08/this-september-oled-no-longer-three-to-five-years-away.ars ... The article is a few years old, but I doubt they've improved/reduced the power consumption by 60-80% in this time), so they screwed with the display statistics to make it seem like the AMOLED display uses less power.
Of course, it's possible that it really was just a bug in the straight-from-source ROMs, but hey... my battery life with the screen running is far worse than on my old Milestone. I vote for conspiracy! :P