10. Illusion Of Being Open

Ten things hated about Android
10. Illusion Of Being Open

One of the bigger things don’t liked about Android is the illusion of being open. Android is free and open-source. The phone carriers and manufacturers lock down the OS. This isn't exactly a new thing. RIM and Apple do it too but it's not a secret. When they install preloaded apps like SprintNav, VZ Navigator, and other bloatware, its not a surprise. With Android, I can't remove this bloatware unless I root my phone. Rooting is Android's equivalent to jailbreaking an iPhone. In Linux talk, getting “root” access means getting administrative access. Think sudo. For example, I can't install software unless I am root. This requires me to type in a password. Back to Android. They market themselves as being free and open but that is only half the story. In order to get root access, you'll need to perform risky ROM flashing that may brick your phone if not done properly. I had to root my Android in order to get a flashlight app to work because it needed root access to control the LED flash. The procedure was easy to follow but it can be intimidating for newbies. Because Android is so “open”, cell phone carriers are capable of modifying and locking it down. Don't believe me? Look at AT&T's first Android device, the Motorola Backflip. They modified Android's default Google search and replaced it with Yahoo! search. I'm sure you can think of other examples. The point is, if Android is so open, why do I have to Flash a different ROM in order to get administrative access? Last time I checked, I purchased an “opened” phone. That's their illusion. Their marketing. Sure the platform is inherently open but the carriers lock it down. By the time it gets into your pocket(literally), it's closed. Don't like having a Vcast app? Too bad.

9. Shady App Opt-ins

Ten things hated about Android

9. Shady App Opt-ins

Most third-party Android apps have a weird opt-in that requires you to give up your privacy. These apps often get access to your data and location. Why does a third-party app need to know where I'm located? The problem is you cannot install these apps without giving them access. After a while, it becomes so common, you don't even think about it anymore. Click next, next, accept, install. You want access to my GPS location? Sure! Why not...........................................

8. Feels Sluggish On Good Hardware

Ten things hated about Android

8. Feels Sluggish On Good Hardware

Speaking of GHz speed processors, I still feel new Android phones aren't living up to their spec sheets. Back when 528MHz processors were the standard, we should be thankful we have 1 GHz processors. The problem is things still feel sluggish with 1GHz Snapdragons, Hummingbirds, OMAP's, and whatever the new Arm A1000 architect they've released. I love watching countless 'iPhone 4 vs Latest Android” videos. The iPhone often holds its own with weaker hardware. I'm not an iDrone by any means. I don't even own an Apple product. However, I can appreciate Apple optimizing their software with their hardware. This means many Android phones feel sluggish with good hardware. Yes, the new breed of GHz speed processors are fast but I always detect a hint of stutter here and there that bothers me like a hangnail.

7. Poor Battery Life

Ten things hated about Android

7. Poor Battery Life

Probably my biggest complaint with Android is its terrible battery life. It's pretty consistent across all manufacturers. When I had an Android phone, I would be lucky to get a full day's use out of it. I had to buy extra chargers for work and the car just to trickle in a few watt hours into these little lithiums. 8 hours of use is common. I would pull my phone hot off the charge at 10AM and it would be red by 6pm. What good is a huge touch screen and all these smartphone luxuries when I have to turn off WiFi every time I leave my home? Why do I have to turn my brightness down just to squeeze in an extra hour? Why do I have to get a task killer and babysit these background apps? Probably the biggest question that comes to mind is why do companies make these awesome smartphones and put tiny batteries in them? All touch screen smartphones should have at least a 2Ah(2000mAh) battery. At LEAST! Most smartphones have at the most, a 1500 mAh battery which is pitiful considering they're powering GHz speed smartphones. Those that say their Android's battery life is fine is kidding themselves. No one should expect 8 hour of real-world usage. A smartphone should last at least a full business day. Each person has their own requirements but suffices to say, 8 hours was not good enough for me.

6. Memory Hogging Widgets

Ten things hated about Android

6. Memory Hogging Widgets

Part of the reason I think Android has poor UI is widgets. Widgets are like micro apps that run on the “desktop” of Android. These widgets are memory hogs and they add to Android's messy interface. Lots of apps comes with widgets that you can put on your home screens. Android has some preloaded and HTC has many SenseUI widgets. These widgets are like early HTML pages. When the web was in its infancy, many people thought it was cool to build webpages with flashing text and neon colors. That's how I describe Android widgets. Some are plain, some are functional, some are ugly and some are just stupid. All of these widgets look out of place unless you follow a strict color scheme. Even then, consistency is still hard to achieve unless you have a theme. I used to have tons of widgets on my home screen until I found out they bogged my phone down, it was almost unusable. Widgets may be cool for computers but for now, they suck for phones.

5. Poor UI

Ten things hated about Android

5. Poor UI

The next problem I have with Android is its user interface. At first, I thought it was great. It felt like having a little computer in your hand. After using it for a while, I had a chance to objectively look at it. I found it to be very counter intuitive. After a while, it did become like a computer. I would often times have icons littered across my home screens. It reminded me of saving all your files to the desktop and quickly seeing lots of “trash” that needed to be cleaned. After I cleaned it, they were still unorganized in the huge menu. One could say that's my own fault and it may be so. Lets move on. Lots of Android apps function differently. When you hit the “back” button, you would expect to go to the previous screen. Keep hitting back and each app acts differently. Did the application close? Some apps will close when you hit back all the way but not all. Now you have to open up a task killer to see if this app is closed or not. Each app behaves differently from the back button and also the menu button. Each settings for each app is different so there is nothing intuitive or uniform about the UI.

4. Accept/Reject Meetings

10 things hated about Android

4. Accept/Reject Meetings

Accepting meeting requests on BlackBerry is simple. After you get an invitation, you can either accept or reject it. This is a problem on some Android phones but not all. I don't want to dwell on #3 but this is another example of fragmentation. For me, the problem was specific.

3. Fragmentation

10 things hated about Android

3. Fragmentation

One of the more serious problems with Android is their fragmented platform. Most apps depend on a newer version of Android which means you either have to upgrade your OS or buy a newer phone. Since most carriers take their time to release an upgrade, you are left behind while newer phones enjoy these cool apps. I suspect most carriers delay their upgrades in order to provoke people to buy newer phones. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised. Besides the different versions of Android, you also have manufacturer specific skins on top of Android. HTC has SenseUI, Samsung has TouchWiz, and Motorola has MotoBlur. Each manufacturer takes Android and turns it into their own unique version. This makes the experience on each device different. The result? Fragmentation.

2. Freezing & Force Closing

Ten things I hated about Android:

2. Freezing/Force Close

Android is the constant freezing and “Force Close”. Whenever an app freezes up or doesn't respond, you are prompted to force close the app. It experiences an isolated incident but it's not. Just by browsing some Android forums, you will read of many annoying incidents of force close. Even though Android is based on Linux, it feels more like a smartphone version of Windows Vista. Always crashing and freezing.

1. Terrible Touch-pad

Ten things hated about Android:

1. Terrible Touch-pad
The stock Android touch pad is terrible. There are plenty of better soft touch pads out there. One of my favorites is Swipe. Why can't the standard touch pad be good? The soft touch pad on Apple's iPhone is much better than Android's. The predictive text on the stock Android touch pad is terrible. The point of using a soft touch pad with predictive text is so you don't have to go back and fix all the jumbled words.

Lσst iPhσne Lσst Passwσrd

Lost iPhone means your passowrds can be owned in 6minutes.  Researcher from Fraunhofer Institute
of Secure Information Technology have relased a video showing how easy this is in three steps.

1.They jailbreak the device.
2.Get access to keychain file.
3. Decrypt it.

Any passwords you’ve stored will be accessible – your e-mail account, web sites, banking information, etc. There’s not much can be said now, other than to hope that Apple fixes this pretty quickly.

Multi-Touch tech & long battery

iPhone users know how to use iPhone touch pad, its a most natural act.  Using finger as your pointing device makes it joy to use. Apple has most advanced Multi-Touch system better than anyother brands.

It has really long battery life. The power-efficient A5 chip and iOS 5 deliver outstanding battery life to the phone. So you can doing your stuff in phone, keep making calls, watching videos, playing games, checking email, and browsing the web.

Picture Stream in iCloud

Picture streaming........... in iCloud, recently taken pictures are automatically sent to all your devices.  Take a picture in iPhone and it appears on your iPad and Computer.  Amazing synchronization that allows you to see whatever picture you upload to your computer it shows to our iPhone and iPad.

You dont have to do manual synchronization to transfer anything.  For viewing pleasure your pictures are there when you want to share.

Geotags & iPhoto

Geotags are the data tags that iphone stores where ever you taken them.  So you can browse them from where you've taken them.  If you want to see photos in some place for example Bangkok tap the places button, then tap the pin of Bangkok.  You can even zoom in on the map to see places with in Bangkok and the pictures you have took pictures of landmarks.

iPhone functions to iPhoto for the Mac, means you can view organize photos event or places.  If you want to see pictures of your daughter.

Tap her pictures in faces view to open an album containing photos of her. Isn't this intresting?

iPhone Picture Capability

Picture capapbility of iPhone is just great. You can do touch up photos on your iPhone like crop, enhance, red eye removal, rotate.  Keep your photos arranged in the albums.  Where you can mark favourites aswell.  Presentation of photos are in such a way your friends wont just looks at one photo they will just flick around on to another and takes enjoyment of your vacation, friends, hangouts pictures.  This joy comes to you only if you pass your photos to your friends on iPhone.  The high resolution retina display gives your photos a polished look.  No matter if you zoom in or out to see details and you get the pictures sharp, vibrant and rich in colors.

iTunes in the Cloud

Get to see your music and TV shows. No need to miss them.

You suddenly be turning in to a mood to listen to songs or watch hilarious sitcom episode repeatedly.  With iCloud, you can download iTunes automatically and new music purchases to your devices.  Have access to past music and TV show from any of your devices, that is too wirelessly and without syncing.

iCloud

iCloud stores your music, photos, documents and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Automatic, effortless, and seamless — it just works.
Whatever is on you iPhone is also available in iPod touch, iPad, Mac and PC.  Reminders synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or iCal. You can edit you to-dos on you computer.  And iCloud pushes them to all you devices.

iMessage

Messages with iMessage are unlimited.1 And secure, too. Now you can text it up with fellow iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users running iOS 5.  Talk to all your friends or family at once with group messaging. See who’s reading with delivery and get read receipts. If words not enough to express use send photos, videos, locations, and contacts.

If you are love to do text, you’ll love Messages on iPhone that comes with iMessage, a new service that’s better than texting. Because it’s between you and anyone using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5. Express as much as you want. And say way more & more & more.

Notification Center

It’s the one status displaying place where you’ll see whats going on. iPhone works with your apps to let you know about missed messages, calendar invitations, friend requests, and more. New notifications appear discreetly at the top of your screen. And you can see a summary of recent notifications when you swipe down from the top of any screen.
You could be in the middle of anything: chapter 10, an email to your client, a FaceTime chat. With Notification Center, alerts pop up discreetly at the top of your screen, without interrupting what you’re doing. If it’s important, tap to respond. If not, ignore it and it will disappear from the screen as quickly as it came. And it will be ready and waiting in Notification Center.
Notification Center keeps track of all your recent alerts in one convenient place.

Most Adv. Operating System Phone

Most of you know how to use "iPhone" interface the first time you pick it up from store.  You can say its a finger friendly multi-touch human interface.  This is why its a joy to use iPhone.  Its always simple to start your phone task by the smart looking Home screen is always the easiest place to get started.  More than 500,000 are available from the App Store till now.  Its easy to make a Face Time call  and editing a video using iMovie.  Everythin you do is easy fun and most natural.