Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 13th Dec 2012 00:23 UTC
"What are the chances that we'll see something with the finesse of the One X with stock software down the road? 'The Nexus devices are Google’s lineup,' explains Kodera, 'but in general, we're very proud of HTC Sense, and we'd like to continue shipping it on every device.' Not exactly encouraging." Big letdown. Not unexpected, but a letdown still. I will never again buy a non-Nexus device.
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Member since:2011-02-09
Member since:2011-04-11
The whole point is to not buy the phone from a carrier but from the producer.
Unfortunately, the bad habit that is carrier subsidizes is not going away. If a contract offers you a certain amount of data per month, in a price that is cheaper compared to not having the contract and paying list price (which is the norm), and you know are going to consume those data anyway, it makes sense to sign the contract and get the subsidized phone. With smartphones being real data hogs and needing data to do the most interesting stuff, subsidizing is not going away.
A good solution would be to have a law that says carriers are required to subsidize devices from all interested manufacturers. This is already happening in certain countries like the one I live in (even without such law), where there is a government-owned mobile carrier subsidizing everything. You name the phone, they subsidize it. Of course the downside is that the subsidizes are not as high as in the USA.
Edited 2012-12-13 10:00 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
I also have the One V, and detest Sense. I've looked at the custom ROM solutions, but noted what you report - the flakiness. It is a shame. I believe this is the #1 problem with Android - the custom UI's that OEMs feel they must put on Android. I have even tried Go Launcher EX, a replacement Home app. It still uses too much ram. This is a great phone, but is somewhat crippled with the 512MB of RAM. However, I also love the $35 plan, so I live with it. I'm hoping "Santa" brings me the Galaxy SII for Virgin Mobile. Even though it has a custom UI added, it has enough RAM to handle it.
Member since:2005-07-11
Member since:2005-11-13
Not all carriers offer Nexus devices, and of the ones that do offer such, not all of those come with a card slot for user loadable storage via microSD Card.
That's the quandary that all Android users must face - either buy a phone with limited storage options and no LTE, or buy one with a locked bootloader and/or shitty bloatware all over it, that takes 6 months or longer to get new OS updates.
This is not a choice that end users should have to make. And before you blame the carriers, please tell me where are all the wifi-only, non-Nexus tablets running stock Android and with unlocked bootloaders
Member since:2005-07-11
Thom Holwerda editorialized...
" I will never again buy a non-Nexus device.
" I will never again buy a non-Nexus device.
Not all carriers offer Nexus devices, and of the ones that do offer such, not all of those come with a card slot for user loadable storage via microSD Card. "
And there's only been 1 Nexus device with a hardware keyboard, making it extremely hard to buy Nexus devices.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2009-05-19
Well maybe you should force a free market, not a free market of "chose you slave-driver"... You know, standards ant that kind of s**t.
The fact that you can't buy a device and then chose your carrier, is an issue in US. Irony is, the champions of free market are against reforming this oligopoly.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.More Features »
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Member since:
2005-08-07
Thom Holwerda editorialized...
Not all carriers offer Nexus devices, and of the ones that do offer such, not all of those come with a card slot for user loadable storage via microSD Card.
Personally I have an HTC One V, from Virgin Mobile USA* which came with Sense which I have come to detest and loathe. Fortunately there are roms available--everything from CM10 to MIUI to hybrids like PACMAN. Unfortunately thanks to both HTC and the carrier using nonstandard proprietary configurations (Virgin Mobile with SMS\MMS; HTC with the camera) I'm about to give up and revert back to Sense again. I need my phone to work and right now despite the enormous performance boost I can get from community roms and the fantastic efforts they've made at fixing things...the phone still doesn't work 100% on community roms.
So what can I do but revert back to stock and endure the constant freezes? Well that and never buying an HTC phone again...
--bornagainpenguin
* My choices locally are AT&T and suffer through their edge network while paying premium monthly, Verizon which has the network in my area but wants to make me pay twice as much as AT&T or Sprint--which did not have any local stores despite being one of the best options locally. The fact their MVO Virgin Mobile USA allows me to get service for only $35 a month and unlimited web, texting, ect made it a no-brainer.