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Free software works on local content and the world seem to move toward contents hosted on the cloud.What good does it do you if you access facebook content with free software? Your content on facebook is out of your hands and on theirs and free software wont help you one bit.

First of all, what are saying is irrevelant to my post. I expressed my joy about the fact that mobile phone market is dominated by free software. Thats it.

However, i dont like the current status of cloud-based tooservices. I hope it will be fixed sooner than later with identica-like approaches.

Because Android is an OS released by Google, and your handset is a device made by someone else. Google doesn't dictate the terms of use of Android to the handset manufacturers; if they did, you'd no doubt be bitching about that and saying it shows how not-open Android is.

Obviously you have never tried to troubleshoot Exchange problems, and if you've managed an Exchange server it's been a very simple setup.

Most Exchange server installs are not simple setups.

Beta demos often miss stuff, as long as people don't go out of their way of reading meaning into the details I think it is better than companies being all secretive. Relax and wait, you will have plenty of opportunity to complain about Flash on Android once released if it turns out bad

I'm just concerned about how annoying the flash ads will be. Thank god Fennec is coming to Android so I can hopefully block them.

Well, I have some bad news for you about HTML5... Ads will become far more annoying and much harder to block. It is really one of those vaguely comical things that people seem to miss, they talk about poor performance and annoyance of flash overuse, but seem to somehow miss that once we get animated HTML5 sites with all the bells and whistles they will be just as annoying for much the same reasons. It is not like the HTML5 stuff has really ímpressed with high performance or anything, quite the opposite.

And I have some news for you. HTML5 is easy to block and there’s much more flexibility. Try the Element Hiding Helper add-on for AdBlock Plus.

And presumably that is ignoring iPod touches and iPads. iPads alone are already approaching the sales numbers of the iPhone.

And according to a story on the register the iPad is outselling the Mac 2-1

Indeed and as Apple has proven, you can make awfully good money on even single digit market share if it's the right demographic.

You're plagiarising.

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100520/qotd-but-were-just-fine...

But that's not what we have with Android. It's free software - *any* company can use it to build a phone*. If you try to build another product with Apple's OS/X, even if you pay for a retail license, you get a thundering herd of lawyers. Ask Psystar.


(* But if you want to use Google *trademarks*, that's different - you'll need a license, as well you should.)

It’s absolutely frustrating that the SDK doesn’t come with any emulator templates. I just want to test stuff, I just want to select a handset model and know that it is equivalent to the real hardware, including H.264 limits—which I cannot test! Absolutely maddening.

HTML5 video playback is currently as good as useless in Android and I’ll be damned if I can test as the Emulator bares absolutely no relation to actual hardware. At least the iPhone emulator is simple and largely accurate.

head => desk.

I believe that's frustrating to a geek, but I doubt it's frustrating to a normal person.

My wife (a normal person) has a Cliq (Android 1.5), and she's never mentioned it. I doubt she even knows what version of the OS her phone runs.

What she *does* know is that (for example) the Kindle for Android page on Amazon says "works with Motorola Cliq". THAT's significant!

So? If new phones are being introduced that run 1.5 or 1.6, and those phones are selling well, it's because non-geek people *don't care* about operating system version. They like the physical features, or the color, or a specific capability, or the "feel".

Look, just as a test, I asked a few of my iPhone using friends what version of the OS they were running. All of them looked at me like I was an alien; one said "They have OS versions?" and another said, "George, you're such a geek!"

You and I know that phone updates can break apps, and that apps can be written to specific OS versions or to require certain phone features. Maybe it's the triumph of Microsoft, but user's just don't *care*. If the phone does what they want, and has a nice slew of apps plus the mainstream ones they care about (like Kindle with my wife), it's all a non-issue.

Have you noticed how many Symbian phones are sold nowadays? 44.5% of all smartphones? Something like 35% of all phones? When was the last time an existing Symbian phone received a brand new OS version? Still selling, and still predicted by both Gartner and IDC to be the best selling smartphone in *2012*.

Normal people just don't care.

And it's not that much of an issue with a lot of geeks, including me. Android has 50,000 apps. If only 40,000 work with my OS upgrade (pretending I use Android for the moment), even *I* don't care. We'll get 10,000 new ones next week, and they *will* work with the new OS. Plus I get all the shiny new features. Win!

And I've had computers all my *life* that couldn't be upgraded to the latest version of the OS; do you think most computers are going to 7? Do you think my Nokia 770 went to Maemo 5? Heck, it didn't even go to 4! These devices use the OS that came with them, and only update if I believe it's a *big* win (because upgrading always carries both risk and a bit of hassle), and that's ok - they run what I bought, and do what I bought them to do.

Some iPhones can't be updated to 4, and some can but don't get all the new features like the pseudo-multi-tasking, and some apps will certainly break. I haven't condemned Apple for that. It's par for the course. And they're true to their customer base - you get the one model of iPhone, and the one OS upgrade per year (until they drop support for your year), and if that's what you want, Apple's got it. Limited choice, limited change, Steve's patented "great experience". I'm happy for you. But not everybody wants that. Given recent sales figures, quite a *lot* of people don't.

It's just a non-issue. If it weren't, why would Android be outselling the iPhone now?

"Can you consider BOGO as sales?"

Of *course*. Every single analyst counts them as sales, because they were paid for on contract, activated, and generate revenue. Only myopic Apple fans desperate to believe that Android hasn't surpassed their beloved iPhone in market momentum keep inventing ways to creatively deny reality.

"Just wait..."

OK.

Until iPhone's Phoenix-like resurgence, though, you might want to take a deep breath, accept the shocking truth, and let it go. It's just a phone.

Perhaps you should content yourself with the iPad's success. It's selling like gangbusters, probably playing no small role in depressing iPhone sales growth, and none of those nasty old Android tablets are shipping yet to spoil the fun.

My HTC Hero came with 1.5, then I put 2.1 on there myself. I'm sure once 2.2 comes out there will be ROMS for 2.2 as well.

Moving quickly is Androids biggest bonus for me. Phone companies will never be quick to update once they've released a phone. (official hero 2.1 anyone?) This way i can have the latest without having to wait.

Then after a few years when my phone can't handle the newest android i'll just buy another one.

I've had it for 3 months and fully expect a solid 2 years out of it seeing as my phone is getting FASTER with every update.

You missed the point.

The issue is that the vast majority of Android devices are 1.5/1.6 and most users do not update so most developers (like us for example) cannot really make use of 2.x features.

In fairness, iPhone OS 4 will introduce some issues for us too (because it's not compatible with the devices before iPhone 3GS).

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It will be available for the 3G / 2nd Gen. iPod Touch as well.

Yep, A MILLION.
Google does more for open software in one summer of code then Apple has in its entire existence.

How does Apple get a free pass for their exploding Ipods from the legion of iTards? Sure Google makes money, but every day they make my life easier by placing information a couple keystrokes away. The only thing Apple ever gave me was a good laugh at Stevie's ridiculous attempts at looking hip.

Also, why do you always bring Thom into your ridiculous arguments? How does that support anything? Face it, Apple has made some dumb calls and Google called them on it. Its just business champ, keep your chin up.

No bias there.

It's not a unique phenomenon; for a time, anything Apple, or Canonical-related was considered a free-pass as well whereas Microsoft were the Big Bad(tm) of the time. While a bit before OSN's time, Microsoft and IBM were darlings of the tech-enthusiast communities as well.

I'm willing to bet that in five years time, saying anything good about Google will also be an instant -1: Troll.

I've recently become sick and tired of Google. I guess it started after that Google Buzz nightmare. I've kept a MobileMe account for while and decided to move to it. I managed to get all my email, calendars and contacts moved over to Apple. Apple isn't trying to use my personal information for profit (yet).

I used to be a huge fan of the Google stuff. That went away. Often with this tech stuff I'm slightly ahead of the curve so I wonder if many more are about to leave Google. I've even been using Bing lately.