Android mobile platform

[chinabiker]

Have you heard the argument yet? Interesting.
[IMG]http://www.thechurchofgoogle.org/Ima...google_god.gif[/IMG]

That would have better fitted into this thread - I added one over there

[euphonius]

I'm back in Shanghai after five weeks in San Francisco (Go, Giants!), and catching up on loose ends.

Just wanted to thank ChinaV and Chinabiker for their extremely well-informed responses to my question about the Android platform vs iPhone. Given the intensity of the rivalry, and the rapid rate of innovation on both sides, I'm going to try to squeeze another 6-12 months out of my ancient 2g iPhone before taking the next step. I like so much of what's going on in open-source, especially with GPS and mapping but also other areas like web collaboration (I've just started using google calendar), and would really like to have the best of both worlds -- the reliability and relative simplicity of the closed Apple ecosystem and the giddy, untethered/independent innovation of Android.

The clock is ticking on my prehistoric 2g iPhone: the jailbreak community has all but stopped supporting it with upgrades to keep it jailbroken and unlocked as the iPhone firmware and iTunes platform evolve. sheesh.

thanks to all!

[jape]

The clock is ticking on my prehistoric 2g iPhone: the jailbreak community has all but stopped supporting it with upgrades to keep it jailbroken and unlocked as the iPhone firmware and iTunes platform evolve. sheesh.:

Doesn't this last sentence say it all though Jeff? It is never acceptable for me, unless absolutely no choice i.e. no competition when you got the first one, to be forced into a closed system. It doesn't have to be a closed system it is just their marketing/profit model. I know all about the need to make enough to continue and support innovation but the open source android model also shows how quickly that can flourish in a competitive market. Some of the Huwei phones and Samsung for example surpass the iPhones in reviews.And now the tablet/pad phone/computers are getting to a format and usability I am interested in. That is what I am waiting for, a real full phone/computer hybrid.

[euphonius]

OK, there's snow on the ground here in Shanghai (not a lot, but it's still rare in these parts, and of course it's colder than a well-digger's arsch), and we are still waiting patiently for Milton's XXX and hand job pictures, so I thought I'd run an update on my smartphone dilemma.

I'm gonna opt/wait for the iPhone 4. Two main reasons:

1) There's finally a decent purchase plan here in China, though it's on hold at the moment for not-well-explained reasons. China Unicom has a two-year contract deal where you can pay 5880 RMB (US$882) up front for the 16gig version, then pay 286 RMB ($43) a month for 900 minutes/month of nationwide calling, 1.1gb of 3G data, 280 SMS messages and 30 MMS messages. To reward you for taking a 2-year contract at 286 RMB a month, they then refund you 245 RMB/month over the two years of the contract, so the net monthly cost of the service is just 41 RMB (about $6). Well, 245 RMB x 24 is 5880 RMB, so over the life of the contract Unicom actually refunds you the up-front price of the phone. Hence, the total cost over 2 years is 5880 + (41 x 24) = 6864 ~ US$1030.

Compare that to the US, where I believe the MINIMUM AT&T service plan is $65/month: US$199 + (US$65 x 24) = US$1759.

Yes, I can buy an unlocked 16Gb version in Hong Kong for HK$4988 (US$641) once they are in stock, but my standard plan usage in China is currently about 300 RMB/month (US$45) or more, or about $1080 over two years, so the HK option would still cost me more than US$1700 unless I can find a cheaper service plan here in China.

2) Though the Android OS is getting better all the time (it's up to V2.3 now), the ecosystem remains chaotic, with every manufacturer using the OS differently. Google itself has come out with its own new gphone update, the Nexus S, which is getting good reviews but still has compliance and user-friendliness issues even though it controls the Android platform. I've attached a review from NYTimes columnist David Pogue below. (Disclosure: Pogue is a bit of an Apple/iPhone fanboy, and not everyone likes him, but this review seems to capture the main issues.)

Oh, and there's a third reason, alluded to by ChinaV and Chinabiker back in October: Techno Luddites like me gravitate to closed "walled garden" solutions like iPhone the same way balding middle-aged men with unreliable erections (***no one on THIS board***) gravitate toward Harleys : They don't require a whole lot of thinking/decisionmaking.

It's been trouble enough at age 5x having to learn to unlock and jailbreak my prehistoric -1G iPhone these past four years; I like the idea of having a phone where the manufacturer controls the ecosystem and restricts the universe of applications to those that work. I'll likely still jailbreak my iPhone 4, if it ever becomes available, but it's unlocked out of the box, so at least no more feeling like a criminal every time I put a SIM chip in my phone.

Oh, and yet one more reason: If Unicom's 1000 bucks-for-the-iPhone-AND-two-years-service deal holds up, I think it would be hard to find an Android choice that is even close in price. But I stand ready to be corrected.

cheers!
jkp

NYTimes David Pogue on latest Google phone, Nexus S

December 15, 2010
An Android Phone That Says ‘Google’
By DAVID POGUE
As the year winds down, we’ve all got problems. Economic slump. Wars. Unemployment.

But look at the bright side: there’s never been a better selection of really terrific cellphones. In fact, in the world of Google’s Android phone operating system, new phones seem to fall down the chimney once a week, each leapfrogging the last in desirability.

The one that landed this week is particularly intriguing, because Google designed it. Not just the software this time — the phone itself. Yes, “Google” is painted right on the back, along with “Samsung,” which did the manufacturing. This phone, the Nexus S, bears little resemblance to Google’s first effort at a phone a year ago, the failed Nexus One. (The S has more in common with Samsung’s Galaxy S models.)

That Google is trying again is important for a bunch of reasons. First, it represents the official throwing in of the towel on Google’s radical sales model. It had intended to create an online store where you would buy the phone and the service independently. No more “You want an iPhone? Then you get AT&T.”

That never caught on. This time around, you’ll buy the Nexus S from Best Buy ($530 without a contract, or $200 with a two-year T-Mobile contract).

In general, the new Nexus is much the same as its rivals: it’s a black rectangle (bigger than the iPhone in every dimension) with a multitouch screen, an on-screen keyboard and a superfast chip that makes everything feel responsive.

The back panel camera has an LED flash, but the quality is only average and it can’t take hi-def videos. The low-resolution front-facing camera is intended for video calls or checking for spinach in your teeth. (The software for video calling doesn’t come with the phone, although you can download a couple of somewhat flaky apps for this purpose from the Android app store online.)

The 4-inch screen is bright, sharp and vivid. The case is all plastic, which makes it more of a scratch-and-fingerprint magnet than the glass-and-metal iPhone. It’s sleek but fairly generic-looking; the only design eccentricity is a bulge on the lower back that, you could argue, helps you orient the phone when extracting it from your pocket.

Samsung also claims that the screen is slightly bowed inward — curved — to fit your face better. Really? You’d need a microscope to measure it; the curve is virtually undetectable. If this minute degree of curvature fits your head, well, you must have a cranium the size of a hot-air balloon.

The S lacks a couple of features of the original Nexus, like dual microphones for sound cancellation (doesn’t matter — the S sounds great), the trackball that doubled as a message-indicator light, and the memory card slot. This time around, your storage is capped at 16 gigabytes — only 1 gig of which is available for storing standard downloaded apps.

Technically, the phone is sold “unlocked,” meaning that you don’t have to use T-Mobile; if you like, you can insert the little account card from an AT&T phone or, when you’re traveling, from an overseas cell carrier. Even then, though, technical limitations prevent you from getting onto AT&T’s 3G Internet network, or even T-Mobile’s 4G (fastest) Internet network.

The most exciting hardware news is that the Nexus S can read N.F.C. tags. In case you’re not an engineer, that stands for near-field communications. Supposedly, one day soon, you’ll be able to pass your phone over a special smart tag to pay for something. You’ll be able to wave your phone at someone else’s to exchange e-business cards. You’ll be able to extract information, Web links or videos from special stickers on billboards and bus shelters, just by swiping your phone.

Sure. And then you can hop into your hovercraft and fly home.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any N.F.C. tags in America (except in a Portland test program run by Google), so for now, the feature is worthless. Sure, you could argue that if N.F.C. ever does arrive, the Nexus S will be ready. Unfortunately, by that time, it will look like a kerosene-powered steam pump.

The most attractive aspect of the Nexus S may not be the hardware at all — it’s the software. Here is pure Android, the way Google intended it. No cellphone maker has tweaked, diluted or complicated it with its own redesigns. It doesn’t come with preinstalled junkware apps from Verizon or whomever. And it’s the first phone with Android 2.3.

That’s a big deal. Google updates its software frequently. But if you buy your Android phone from a cellphone carrier, you may not get the update for months, if ever, because the carrier is the gatekeeper. Android 2.2, for example, introduced the ability to watch Flash videos on the Web — but to this day, many Android phones can’t exploit that feature because their carriers haven’t offered the 2.2 update. You won’t have that problem if you buy a phone from Google.

In this case, the changes are minor. The 2.3 update offers a motley assortment of enhancements: a lovely, dark color scheme, threaded call logs (back-and-forths with each person are listed together), a new page that lists all your downloads, a breakdown of what’s been using your battery and memory. (The battery life is much improved. It should easily get you through a day, maybe even two, between charges.)

Some nice visual flourishes liven up the proceedings; when you scroll the master list of programs, the icons seem to scroll downward off the edges, as though printed on a tablecloth. And when you turn off the phone, the screen blinks away to a center dot like an old-fashioned tube TV.

When you want a symbol or a number, the on-screen keyboard now works like the iPhone’s: you can hold down a key for a pop-up menu of accented variations, and you can use two fingers at once (hold down the Shift key while you type a letter, for example).

Meanwhile, you still get all the spectacular core Android features: a GPS app complete with spoken directions, a microphone button on the keyboard that lets you dictate text anywhere you can type, and seamless integration with Google’s own products, like Picasa, Gmail and Google Voice.

Of course, you also still get all the problems of Android: namely, a degree of chaos. This, of course, is the blessing and the curse of Android’s openness.

That’s why, for example, you get one program for Gmail accounts, and another for regular e-mail.

That’s also why the Android 2.3 improvements in Copy and Paste have dubious value. In theory, you select text by holding your finger down on a word, then dragging apart the handles that appear. At that point, you can tap in the highlighted area to copy it.

At least that’s how it’s supposed to work in the Web browser. Unfortunately, the Copy and Paste mechanism is different in each program, and even on each Web page. In some apps, holding down your finger does nothing; you have to tap the Menu button, then More, then Select Text to make the handles appear. In others, like the text-message app, you don’t get selection handles; you can copy only the entire message. And so on.

If you choose an iPhone, you get a totally different philosophy: a gated community, controlled, but 100 percent clean and consistent.

The Android world is more chaotic, less controlled. The phone companies can rewrite the look, feel and features of Android if they like. Programmers can create any apps they like, even those that Apple would reject for being pornographic or anarchic.

If you prefer Android’s approach, then your day just got a lot brighter. No, the Nexus S isn’t perfect. But it’s among the very best Android phones — and it will be for the next couple of weeks at least.

[chinabiker]

... But I stand ready to be corrected.

Pretty much no way - and no need - correcting anyone's personal opinion

I had / have the chance to experience both, the istuff and the Android systems. My wife had the old 1st generation iPhone and since a couple of days the iPhone4 -32-HK (non SIM locked) version, which btw costs RMB 6500.
I am using two Nexus One and will hopefully have a Nexus S after the weekend. The Nexus are trading for about 3500 RMB, with all the openness of Android.

For my wife, the walled system provides the operational security she needs - one may call it idiot-proof as well
For me as the tech-freak, the native Android is the platform I prefer for the main reason that I am a Google boy and love the integrity of their products and systems I even don't like the Galaxy S or the HTCs with OEM versions of Android.

P.S. There is no snow in BJ but bright sunshine at - 5 degrees C

[ChinaV]

After 6 years of bleeding edge Windows Mobile and iPhone use, I just completed my first week with Android (Gingerbread 2.3.2) on my HTC HD2. I've tried Android on my phone a few times, and also have a small tablet, but this was the first time I've used it as my main device OS for everything. I think I'm done with WinMo, as there are finally enough apps to cover my main needs.

Positive
Google Maps is great, and has some nice features that aren't available on other platforms.
Speech recognition is very robust, works well with Skype, SMS texting, E-Mail, etc.
Google translate offers instant translation of incoming text messages. I finally know what all that Chinese SMS spam says.
The amount of available applications continues to grow on a daily basis.

Neutral
As a phone, it doesn't work any better or worse than WinMo or iPhone.
E-Mail, contact management, web browsing etc. is all about the same between each platform.
They all have plenty of applications, how many currency converters and weather widgets do we need?

Negative
Everything in the google-sphere is beta. Almost all their applications lack refinement and are riddled with bugs. Nothing seems intuitive.
Hey google, we don't all live in California with 4G connections and fiber optic networks. Far too many "features" of the OS rely on the internet.
Data exchange of your contact, calendar, bookmarks etc. is abysmal. Why can't I just export my data and import it via text files? If you're not part of the "Google Cloud" you're in for a bit of pain to get up and running.

If you live in China, and are thinking about using your phone for a GPS, Android is pretty tough to beat. The iPhone doesn't allow custom kml files in Google Maps, so it doesn't work for me. WinMo allows for custom kml, but the new version of Google Maps on Android has some nice 3D features and even a bit of vector mapping that sets it above WinMo. If you're a Garmin fan, WinMo is still where it's at, and I will have to come up with another option for GPS if I hit America this year, as I don't have any kind of USA data plan that would make iPhone or Android good choices for travelling there. Yes, there's offline OruxMaps, but try cruising through a developed country with Garmin XT on your phone and everything else seems weak.

Just rambling a bit for those that might be thinking about a new device.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[euphonius]

Thanks for that encouraging update, V.

Apple fanboy that I am, I succumbed to temptation and got the iPhone 4 last month, on the 286 RMB/month Unicom plan. This boils down to an average of less than US$45/month for a rather generous service (900 minutes to/from anywhere in China, 1.2g of data, some large number of SMS, etc, per month) plus the phone itself, or about US$1050 total over the two-year contract. On a US plan, the two-year total is nearly double that.

As for rigging the iPhone as a GPS for riding, I'll let someone else plough that furrow. If someone makes it work in a relatively painless non-geek way, do let me know!

cheers

[chinabiker]

Good analysis ChinaV!

Android
I am into Android on several "native" devices since one year, currently using 2 Nexus One (China Mobile and China Unicom) and a Nexus S (3AT) and I am very happy with these
There is a big difference in operational performance and stability with native Android on Nexus phones, compared with the various mods from other suppliers and freaks.

Everything before Froyo (Android 2.2) is pretty much outdated, which does affect market apps (usability and performance) as well as lacking of basic functions (tethering).


Google Cloud
I started to live my IT live the Google way in 2005 and have now reached Google Cloud Number Nine - Yes, I admit, I am a Google Boy
I learned to deal with and to rely on it and I was never disappointed from the way things work up in the sky. I can't imagine that a more smooth and seamless synchronization of data and apps exists.


Nevertheless, if one goes for a high performance smartphone solution or tab, the bitten fruit and the droid are definitely the ones to go for, leaving it to personal preference for the individual.

It is obvious that these two systems are pushing each other forward for our benefit and I doubt that the other suppliers can keep up with trends set by Apple and the pace laid out by Google.

The above represents my 2 Fen only

[td_ref]

Android has much bright future for Chinese market due to its openness and easy os adoption for every mobile phone maker. Iphone price stays sky high, plus many people who owns one may have no idea it might not suit them well--which local Chinese really want to stick iphone just to one computer to sync? The macintosh ideology just don't work here. Most people here owns them not to see themselves cool, but high status (a Luxury).

Android 2.2 has been serving me well, gps navigation, tracking, and all sorts of pirated app (hm....no intention to discuss copyright, hey, that was how Windows gets popular amount Chinese user."free", easy, practical). The lately released google map 5.0+, featuring map offline cache and vector base map, are nicer than ever. Some mod versions enable navigation worldwide.

I don't know anyone have found a way to navigate a pre-load route in google maps, say I have carefully planed a route from point A to B on my PC, then transfer that route to android phone. Combing 'my maps' and Maps, one can navigate a pre-set route by constantly watching the screen.Hopefully google can make this very useful feature in its navigation app soon.
TD

[Serpentza]

Android is the better choice for GPS here in China, simply because (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but since Google and apple had a bit of a falling out they are not allowed to have a standalone google maps application on an iphone, only a web based one which then gets your position wrong due to that nasty little "china gps drift", so if you want accurate and good gps on your phone with both English and Chinese, searchable in English and Chinese with everything you could think of (yes I can even find little bbq stalls in my local village), then I'd suggest an Android device running the latest Google maps application, the latest one also has offline map storage (I did my whole Taiwan trip using offline maps that I'd just opened and browsed whilst I was here using my 3g data plan) as well as compass support, it's an amazing application with the added bonus of the google latitude plugin which allows you to see in real-time where your friends are (perfect for if you get seperated on a ride, or if someone has to meet up with you somewhere).

Iphones are gay, but incredibly well designed to be user friendly and robust and to look more robust (when an app crashes it doesn't say so, just pops back to the home screen making the user think twice about if it was the phone or himself that made a mistake) Android keeps getting better but still pops up an error message when something crashed making you think it's more buggy, and it is without a doubt more buggy as there are multiple platforms with different hardware specs running the same os... anyway I digress

If you want to look like every other trendy Hong Konger or a semi-rich man's second wife, buy the i-phone 4 and get your manicure, it's a great product, but like the BMW suffers from the stigma attached.. oh and the GPS is crap on the mainland.

Android is a true geek's phone with oodles of potential (even without being rooted).

That's my 2 cents.