In the past few days, I've noticed an uptick in articles and comments complaining about the issues with Google's Android OS. Perhaps it's only because Google is finally rolling out Gingerbread to their various handsets -- there's bound to be upgrade problems during such a process.
Here are a few such discussions and issues I've noticed recently:
1. Peter (and others) noticing something seems off about color temperatures on his Nexus S after updating to Gingerbread: gdgt.com/discuss/just-updated-my-nexus-s-android-2...
2. Our own Jon Ursenbach lamented in chat last night that, "selecting text is still awful."
3. Other sites take issue with other things such as the Android Market. "The State of Android Market for Honeycomb: Sloppy": technologizer.com/2011/02/25/android-market-honeyc...
4. gdgt user amh15 asks about European Android phones and notes that they all have some sort of drawback. It's either battery life, skinned UI, or missing features (trackball?): gdgt.com/discuss/there-are-quite-few-desirable-eur...
On a related note, geiko brought up a similar discussion yesterday, talking about the direction of Android. "I feel like there are both a lot of good and a lot of bad headed for the OS in the future, and I'm interested to see where things are headed." Read it here: gdgt.com/discuss/wanted-talk-about-android-directi...
My intention isn't to start a flame war or say other mobile OS's are superior. It just seems like Google is going through a particularly difficult spot at the moment.
What do you think the problem is and how can Google get things back on track?
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Is Android losing its luster?
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dave's pick
All my complaints about Android phones have been hardware related problems. My Samsung Moment would lose all data connectivity every time it switched to a 1X tower and back, which is often in my area. So I got the EVO and it has its own share of wifi and 3G issues. I've been following other phones looking for something to save my sanity, but every Samsung phone seems to have one major problem or another. A lot of the HTC phones had issues. Motorola phones have Blur. LG doesn't have anything out that is very powerful at this point in time. I feel like I'm losing hope that there will ever be an Android handset that runs stock Android without rooting, that is a reliable piece of hardware with a good keyboard and no flaky chipsets for wireless, wifi, or GPS. The few phones I kind of like the hardware of have these ghetto skins that I HATE compared to stock Android.
I guess to fix it for me, someone is going to have to build an unlocked phone that comes in CDMA + GSM versions (or does both) and is built by a company who actually cares about getting every detail of the hardware right.
Yeah, so I've basically resigned myself to continuing to hate every phone I ever own from now until the day I die.
I guess to fix it for me, someone is going to have to build an unlocked phone that comes in CDMA + GSM versions (or does both) and is built by a company who actually cares about getting every detail of the hardware right.
Yeah, so I've basically resigned myself to continuing to hate every phone I ever own from now until the day I die.
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dave's pick
To be fair, selecting text on Android is the only thing I dislike about android.
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i love android and ive only noticed it getting better, takes time but it happens daily
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I'm amazed that the Market is still a problem. Of all things to be sure to get right it seems that the one that makes you money should be fixed first.
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I'll preface this with: my experience is based entirely around my owning of an Eris and from reviews/pictures/in-store handling.
For as much as I enjoy using my Android based phone I would really like to have a phone that required zero user intervention. I feel as if for every step forward Android makes with the OS (core components) they make two steps back with their UI development. The messaging, clock & calendar app are all still pretty horrible to use and look at. I don't care what anyone says their keyboard is still annoying to use even with the new GB version. I wish they would put the same amount of effort they put into OS as they do with the main app components of the phone.
I'm pretty sure we all agree the market is just absolutely atrocious.
I also wish they would step in and do something about the annoying skinning going on right now. Encourage phone manufactures to deliver skin free versions of phones. Further to that point do not let them load the phones with bloat. I know the OS is "free & open" but it's getting out of control now. When the Thunderbolt dump leaked there was a 250mb apk pre-loaded onto the phone that you cannot get rid of without rooting.
I think I'm just approaching Android overload at this point, look at this list is unreal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_devices . I like seeing variety in phone options but it's just getting a bit out of control.
No one respond to me with "just root man" because I already have but that response doesn't work for everyone. It would be nice to have an Android phone that didn't require me installed third party apps to make certain things look/function better.
For as much as I enjoy using my Android based phone I would really like to have a phone that required zero user intervention. I feel as if for every step forward Android makes with the OS (core components) they make two steps back with their UI development. The messaging, clock & calendar app are all still pretty horrible to use and look at. I don't care what anyone says their keyboard is still annoying to use even with the new GB version. I wish they would put the same amount of effort they put into OS as they do with the main app components of the phone.
I'm pretty sure we all agree the market is just absolutely atrocious.
I also wish they would step in and do something about the annoying skinning going on right now. Encourage phone manufactures to deliver skin free versions of phones. Further to that point do not let them load the phones with bloat. I know the OS is "free & open" but it's getting out of control now. When the Thunderbolt dump leaked there was a 250mb apk pre-loaded onto the phone that you cannot get rid of without rooting.
I think I'm just approaching Android overload at this point, look at this list is unreal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_devices . I like seeing variety in phone options but it's just getting a bit out of control.
No one respond to me with "just root man" because I already have but that response doesn't work for everyone. It would be nice to have an Android phone that didn't require me installed third party apps to make certain things look/function better.
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I think this entirely unfair. I could build a round up of people saying what annoys them about Apple but I would get (accurately) accused of blind anti-apple prejudice.
Smartphones are devices that require compromises at this point. It is somewhat frustrating that. Manufacturer refuse to make my ideal device.But that more of me having impossibly high standards rather then any OEMs fault.
As for Honeycomb, the old saying does go don't buy a X.0 product. I'm sure Google is going to fix its market problems in the first update.
I think that Gingerbread and Honeycomb becoming real and exposing their flaws in the same week is poor luck for Google. But is about average for new releases.
Smartphones are devices that require compromises at this point. It is somewhat frustrating that. Manufacturer refuse to make my ideal device.But that more of me having impossibly high standards rather then any OEMs fault.
As for Honeycomb, the old saying does go don't buy a X.0 product. I'm sure Google is going to fix its market problems in the first update.
I think that Gingerbread and Honeycomb becoming real and exposing their flaws in the same week is poor luck for Google. But is about average for new releases.
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Growing pains maybe, but still moving in the right direction. I think the strategy of putting Android on everything that has a cpu and screen might not best thing for it. As a dev I am happy the Google is making it much easier to develop for multiple devices, but that's probably not the issue most people face. They want to know why their friend's phone is running one or two versions of the OS ahead of them, and why there is no update for their's. Why simple things like cut-n-paste can take five tries before you get what you want.
I have always felt Google has a lets throw a program out to the public and fix the bugs as they pop up approach. Look how so many Google products are in beta for years. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With a product like phones, so many people rely on them to ALWAYS work. Google's past approach may not work with Android, they can't release a beta phone OS. While I do love their past rapid development on the OS, a more stable and scheduled release timeline may end up being everyone's best interest.
I have always felt Google has a lets throw a program out to the public and fix the bugs as they pop up approach. Look how so many Google products are in beta for years. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With a product like phones, so many people rely on them to ALWAYS work. Google's past approach may not work with Android, they can't release a beta phone OS. While I do love their past rapid development on the OS, a more stable and scheduled release timeline may end up being everyone's best interest.
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Yeah it is because apple is the best.
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I've had the (European) Magic, Hero and Nexus One and as much as I love the OS for it's deep Google App integration, voice input, mobile hotspot function, customization options there has yet to be a handset on par with the iPhone 4 build quality wise (though the Nexus One comes closest) and the lack of polish and inconsistency in UI can also be a bit tiresome.
The single most frustrating element is how & when the OTA updates are delivered (ie inconsistently)...Nexus One users are still waiting for 2.3...and waiting...one may have to sync iOS devices with iTunes to update them but at least the updates are delivered simultaneously worldwide...
The single most frustrating element is how & when the OTA updates are delivered (ie inconsistently)...Nexus One users are still waiting for 2.3...and waiting...one may have to sync iOS devices with iTunes to update them but at least the updates are delivered simultaneously worldwide...
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