It will be several years before anything Google does could have any bearing on Moto devices- the 2 aren't planned to join for about 6 months, and even then it would have no bearing on anything currently in the pipeline. I can safely say that Google's influence will not be felt in the market for at least 2 years. For comparison, 2 years ago, Eclair had not yet launced. There are a lot of changes that can happen in that time.
As for battery life, I find them to be on par with other smart phones (which is much worse than most dumb phones)
Send an e-mail to your state Attorney General. This can be surprisingly effective- when the Ohio AG (where I live) was suing OfficeMax *AND* BB for not paying mail-in rebates, one of them denied me a (small) rebate, but I kept good records. I filed a complaint online (fairly easy), mostly just so that when they went to trial, there would be one more sheet in the stack of complaints.
3 weeks later, I got my rebate check.
Failing that, contact the local news, and try to get on their "Channel ___ on your side"
Nope, all me. I am not rough on my phones, but I am very demanding, and don't accept regular faults as acceptable.
First one started random (~2/day) reboots after ~3 months. 2nd had a failed touchscreen after ~2 months. 3rd should have failed at QA- no keypad backlight out of the box. 4th started randomly locking up after ~4 months. and now the 5th has a failed WiFi module (only 3G works) after 6 months. It's out of warranty, so I've stuck with it since, and it's been usable for about 9 months now.
The Droid 3 had frequent (~2/hour), random reboots right out of the box. Combined with the shit ton of crapware and lack of available options (e.g. I couldn't change the button for the stock SMS app to Handcent, and it took up a lot of room) there was no question- I was done with Moto. Haven't found a good option yet, but I'm keeping an eye out. The SCH-i405 looks promising, but we'll see when it actually comes out.
It will be interesting to see what Google does with them, but I won't be considering another one until long after they've been revamped.
Are you sure about this? According to this there will be about 90 million iOS devices sold in 2011, and about 180 million Androids. Even if we assume those numbers are strictly for phones, that leaves a gap of 90 million devices.
According to this, Apple's selling fewer than 30 million iPads per year. And that doesn't even account for any of the popular Android tablets out there, such as the Xoom, the Eee Transformer, and the Nook Color.
Yes, iOS rules in tablet space. But it does not bridge the gap in phone space.
I have had 5 defective Moto Droids (and a bad Droid 3). On my last one, when the warranty expired, I flashed CM7, and it was possibly the GREATEST thing that I've experienced on Android. However, if I had done this earlier, I would've had my many hardware warranty claims denied.
Still using it, even though the WiFi is broken. It's a better experience than most of the crap available now.
Additionally, the research may serve a purpose to humans - one easy example is that it may help create better artificial legs/etc, such as for wounded soldiers.
I used to work for them, in repairs. The crap is their hardware- cheap pieces of shit motherboards (used to be Biostar, now mostly MSI. High failure rates all around), usually very shitty RAM (Rendition or worse, which is not the same as Crucial), but the most troubling:
VERY little testing. Seriously, the most ANYTHING gets tested is a ~1 hour automated load process, and 5 minutes checking the very basic functionality, like whether sound works. There is no real stress test, and if it is part of a bulk order (with cloned drives), there isn't even the load process to stress it.
Oh, and, don't ever expect to be able to get replacement parts after the warranty ends- they simply CANNOT get ANYTHING- you will be stuck dealing with 3rd party sources, hoping you can get what you need.
(BTW, Systemax Inc also owns TigerDirect, and acts the same)
Metaphorical duct tape would be very practical- simply remove the connectors, and change the markings on the board to match. I bet that if you look at your motherboard right now, there are solder points for connectors that aren't there, but are available on a similar board (e.g. Firewire- when the chip is included, the ports are attached)
This reduces the number of completely separate product lines, making them more like optional equipment. They can be resold as a version without the features in question.
And right now, it is Verizon, not Google, that controls Android...
Umm, what? Android is readily available on all major carriers, and a few regional carriers. Furthermore, Verizon is contractually forbidden from crippling the original Motorola Droid.
If anything, it's the handset makers that control Android- HTC and Motorola are the ones in a position to exert some real influence. The only way any carrier can really throw their weight around is to not allow devices that don't meet their requirements (e.g. AT&T not allowing sideloading) but it's still on the shoulders of the device makers. Recently, there was a big deal about a Samsung Android phone that went with Bing. In the end, it was a decision by SAMSUNG, not VZW, although I'm sure there was a lot of money changing hands.
Yes, VZW used to be unbelievably bad about all of this stuff (main reason the iPhone went to AT&T- Apple demanded to keep control of it, VZW at the time was absolute in controlling everything on their network) but they have made improvements, at least on smartphones.
To anyone not familiar with that section of snopes, it's called The Repository Of Lost Legends, or TRoLL (they say so themselves). It's also where they "confirm" that Mississippi removed fractions from the curriculum, and that Mister Ed was a zebra.
It depends- I have the Motorola Droid on Verizon. It runs vanilla Android (about to get Froyo) and Verizon is contractually bound (by Google) to not pull any of that shit. Therefore, the subsidy (if you can call it that) is worth it in this case.
Unfortunately, I do not believe any other Android phones in the US have such protection (and all on AT&T are crippled).
Actually, in the US most carriers use SIM cards. The exceptions are Sprint and Verizon which are both CDMA carriers. As far as I know, all the GSM carriers in the US use SIM cards.
Not exactly. Short version is that yes, the GSM carriers use SIM cards, and CDMA carriers do not. (Europe is all GSM, hence all SIM)
However, in the US, there are only a few noteworthy GSM carriers- AT&T, T-Mobile, Cincinnati Bell, and SunCom (now part of T-Mobile). All the rest appear to be CDMA- including Verizon (including Alltel), Sprint, US Cellular, Cricket, Revol, and MetroPCS.
Have you considered ASUS? They seem to be very reliable across the board (only brand of MoBo that I will use myself). I've heard bad things about their software load, but I would hope that you have your own images (Esp. if you're even considering HP's crapola-drenched systems).
Failing that, try and find a local OEM- it shouldn't be impossible to find one that uses good parts (esp. Asus boards and Kingston RAM) but CHECK THEIR QA PROCESS- I used to work for a fairly large OEM (~500 units shipped per day) and their QA was a complete joke- 1-2 hour automated load process, and 5 minutes at QA- no real stress test of any sort, even when their were known issues and high failure rates. As an added bonus, they will most likely be using 100% standard parts, also marketed to the general public, so any issues should be easier to track down.
Typically, the tethering software routes the data through a proxy server. Certain apps (like PDAnet) allow tethering without using the proxy, and are virtually indistinguishable from phone data.
Try reading through some of the disclaimers and EULAs on most computer devices and software. Almost all of them include a phrase that says something like: "This device has not been tested to perform reliably in critical situations, and should not be used where failure could result in injury or death"
IOW, that hypothetical ultrasound machine shouldn't be there in the first place. In fact, most medical devices are completely physically isolated, and the ones that aren't are only marginally connected (e.g. able to connect to a server to store results)
I recently had to (at least partially) clean a virus from a client's laptop. He worked for a major pharmaceutical company, and the (company provided) laptop had all the bells and whistles of locked-down, including no (usable) admin account, full disk encryption, and some restrictive GPOs.
Yet, the infection could've easily stolen every single bit of data he had access to. This was just a rogue AV, and he just needed to backup documents, but if it had been a data miner, or a spambot, he might not have even been aware of its existence.
Full Disk Encryption protects against THEFT, not loss/security breaches.
Supposedly, Fennec was not going to be released on Android, because it would have to be converted to the Java-like language of Android. However, they released another SDK, allowing developers to code in C/C++. This made Android a viable option again. [Source: http://www.intomobile.com/2009/06/30/fennec-coming-to-android.html]
So, for those keeping score, Android apps can be written in Android's Java derivative as well as C/C++ (all 3 are popular among developers), while iPhone apps have to be written in Obj-C, which is really only used in the Apple universe.
If they tried this on the Droid, *GOOGLE* would be suing- Big V is contractually forbidden from doing EXACTLY this type of thing on a device that provides the "Google Experience". (Note that this only applies to the Motorola Droid, not the HTC Droid Eris, which is a "With Google" device)
Although I think Verizon is learning that customers don't like restrictions, the change we're hoping for is not going to come quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
It will be several years before anything Google does could have any bearing on Moto devices- the 2 aren't planned to join for about 6 months, and even then it would have no bearing on anything currently in the pipeline. I can safely say that Google's influence will not be felt in the market for at least 2 years. For comparison, 2 years ago, Eclair had not yet launced. There are a lot of changes that can happen in that time.
As for battery life, I find them to be on par with other smart phones (which is much worse than most dumb phones)
Send an e-mail to your state Attorney General. This can be surprisingly effective- when the Ohio AG (where I live) was suing OfficeMax *AND* BB for not paying mail-in rebates, one of them denied me a (small) rebate, but I kept good records. I filed a complaint online (fairly easy), mostly just so that when they went to trial, there would be one more sheet in the stack of complaints.
3 weeks later, I got my rebate check.
Failing that, contact the local news, and try to get on their "Channel ___ on your side"
Yeah, but then he went and mispronounced GNU.
Still, good effort.
Nope, all me. I am not rough on my phones, but I am very demanding, and don't accept regular faults as acceptable.
First one started random (~2/day) reboots after ~3 months.
2nd had a failed touchscreen after ~2 months.
3rd should have failed at QA- no keypad backlight out of the box.
4th started randomly locking up after ~4 months.
and now the 5th has a failed WiFi module (only 3G works) after 6 months. It's out of warranty, so I've stuck with it since, and it's been usable for about 9 months now.
The Droid 3 had frequent (~2/hour), random reboots right out of the box. Combined with the shit ton of crapware and lack of available options (e.g. I couldn't change the button for the stock SMS app to Handcent, and it took up a lot of room) there was no question- I was done with Moto. Haven't found a good option yet, but I'm keeping an eye out. The SCH-i405 looks promising, but we'll see when it actually comes out.
It will be interesting to see what Google does with them, but I won't be considering another one until long after they've been revamped.
if you count tablets iOS is still on top
Are you sure about this? According to this there will be about 90 million iOS devices sold in 2011, and about 180 million Androids. Even if we assume those numbers are strictly for phones, that leaves a gap of 90 million devices.
According to this, Apple's selling fewer than 30 million iPads per year. And that doesn't even account for any of the popular Android tablets out there, such as the Xoom, the Eee Transformer, and the Nook Color.
Yes, iOS rules in tablet space. But it does not bridge the gap in phone space.
2 more words - voids warranty.
I have had 5 defective Moto Droids (and a bad Droid 3). On my last one, when the warranty expired, I flashed CM7, and it was possibly the GREATEST thing that I've experienced on Android. However, if I had done this earlier, I would've had my many hardware warranty claims denied.
Still using it, even though the WiFi is broken. It's a better experience than most of the crap available now.
It is VERY encouraging that Sprint acknowledges this problem:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/19/sprints-fared-adib-we-made-a-conscious-decision-to-scale-back/
I just wish that Big Red would realize this too.
Additionally, the research may serve a purpose to humans - one easy example is that it may help create better artificial legs/etc, such as for wounded soldiers.
I used to work for them, in repairs. The crap is their hardware- cheap pieces of shit motherboards (used to be Biostar, now mostly MSI. High failure rates all around), usually very shitty RAM (Rendition or worse, which is not the same as Crucial), but the most troubling:
VERY little testing. Seriously, the most ANYTHING gets tested is a ~1 hour automated load process, and 5 minutes checking the very basic functionality, like whether sound works. There is no real stress test, and if it is part of a bulk order (with cloned drives), there isn't even the load process to stress it.
Oh, and, don't ever expect to be able to get replacement parts after the warranty ends- they simply CANNOT get ANYTHING- you will be stuck dealing with 3rd party sources, hoping you can get what you need.
(BTW, Systemax Inc also owns TigerDirect, and acts the same)
Metaphorical duct tape would be very practical- simply remove the connectors, and change the markings on the board to match. I bet that if you look at your motherboard right now, there are solder points for connectors that aren't there, but are available on a similar board (e.g. Firewire- when the chip is included, the ports are attached)
This reduces the number of completely separate product lines, making them more like optional equipment. They can be resold as a version without the features in question.
Umm, what? Android is readily available on all major carriers, and a few regional carriers.
Furthermore, Verizon is contractually forbidden from crippling the original Motorola Droid.
If anything, it's the handset makers that control Android- HTC and Motorola are the ones in a position to exert some real influence. The only way any carrier can really throw their weight around is to not allow devices that don't meet their requirements (e.g. AT&T not allowing sideloading) but it's still on the shoulders of the device makers. Recently, there was a big deal about a Samsung Android phone that went with Bing. In the end, it was a decision by SAMSUNG, not VZW, although I'm sure there was a lot of money changing hands.
Yes, VZW used to be unbelievably bad about all of this stuff (main reason the iPhone went to AT&T- Apple demanded to keep control of it, VZW at the time was absolute in controlling everything on their network) but they have made improvements, at least on smartphones.
To anyone not familiar with that section of snopes, it's called The Repository Of Lost Legends, or TRoLL (they say so themselves).
It's also where they "confirm" that Mississippi removed fractions from the curriculum, and that Mister Ed was a zebra.
i.e. These are fake pages.
A real page on KFC's name can be found at http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.asp
It depends- I have the Motorola Droid on Verizon. It runs vanilla Android (about to get Froyo) and Verizon is contractually bound (by Google) to not pull any of that shit. Therefore, the subsidy (if you can call it that) is worth it in this case.
Unfortunately, I do not believe any other Android phones in the US have such protection (and all on AT&T are crippled).
Not exactly. Short version is that yes, the GSM carriers use SIM cards, and CDMA carriers do not. (Europe is all GSM, hence all SIM)
However, in the US, there are only a few noteworthy GSM carriers- AT&T, T-Mobile, Cincinnati Bell, and SunCom (now part of T-Mobile). All the rest appear to be CDMA- including Verizon (including Alltel), Sprint, US Cellular, Cricket, Revol, and MetroPCS.
No, but it can tell you the fees associated with calling it.
Packard Bell did NOT get purchased by HP.
They were purchased by Acer Group (which now also owns Gateway and eMachines)
They are *ALL* unbelievably shitty brands, and should never be considered, nor recommended to anyone you don't absolutely loathe.
Have you considered ASUS? They seem to be very reliable across the board (only brand of MoBo that I will use myself). I've heard bad things about their software load, but I would hope that you have your own images (Esp. if you're even considering HP's crapola-drenched systems).
Failing that, try and find a local OEM- it shouldn't be impossible to find one that uses good parts (esp. Asus boards and Kingston RAM) but CHECK THEIR QA PROCESS- I used to work for a fairly large OEM (~500 units shipped per day) and their QA was a complete joke- 1-2 hour automated load process, and 5 minutes at QA- no real stress test of any sort, even when their were known issues and high failure rates. As an added bonus, they will most likely be using 100% standard parts, also marketed to the general public, so any issues should be easier to track down.
Typically, the tethering software routes the data through a proxy server. Certain apps (like PDAnet) allow tethering without using the proxy, and are virtually indistinguishable from phone data.
Last time I read my state's book (Ohio, http://publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/hsy7607.pdf), that detail was not there. It is a rule I have learned through the media, not the law.
Can you provide a link on that? The IRS is cracking down on such actions, and the requirements for them to be contractors are going to be more than IBM would want. ( http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html )
Try reading through some of the disclaimers and EULAs on most computer devices and software. Almost all of them include a phrase that says something like:
"This device has not been tested to perform reliably in critical situations, and should not be used where failure could result in injury or death"
IOW, that hypothetical ultrasound machine shouldn't be there in the first place. In fact, most medical devices are completely physically isolated, and the ones that aren't are only marginally connected (e.g. able to connect to a server to store results)
Encryption != Security.
I recently had to (at least partially) clean a virus from a client's laptop. He worked for a major pharmaceutical company, and the (company provided) laptop had all the bells and whistles of locked-down, including no (usable) admin account, full disk encryption, and some restrictive GPOs.
Yet, the infection could've easily stolen every single bit of data he had access to. This was just a rogue AV, and he just needed to backup documents, but if it had been a data miner, or a spambot, he might not have even been aware of its existence.
Full Disk Encryption protects against THEFT, not loss/security breaches.
Supposedly, Fennec was not going to be released on Android, because it would have to be converted to the Java-like language of Android. However, they released another SDK, allowing developers to code in C/C++. This made Android a viable option again. [Source: http://www.intomobile.com/2009/06/30/fennec-coming-to-android.html]
So, for those keeping score, Android apps can be written in Android's Java derivative as well as C/C++ (all 3 are popular among developers), while iPhone apps have to be written in Obj-C, which is really only used in the Apple universe.
Oh, and, the developer tools are cheaper too (http://blog.radioactiveyak.com/2008/03/android-v-iphone-sdk-showdown.html)
Does that include all of the ads that are commonly included in Android apps?
You forgot that the founder of the ACLU proudly proclaimed that they functioned as "a transmission belt" for the communist party.
No, the General Secretary of the Communist Party said that. In the 1930s. (source)
If they tried this on the Droid, *GOOGLE* would be suing- Big V is contractually forbidden from doing EXACTLY this type of thing on a device that provides the "Google Experience".
(Note that this only applies to the Motorola Droid, not the HTC Droid Eris, which is a "With Google" device)
Although I think Verizon is learning that customers don't like restrictions, the change we're hoping for is not going to come quickly.