Good post by MG Siegler, which covers why I don’t have an Android phone. With Apple, I have one benevolent dictator saying what I can and can’t do with my phone. With Android, I have Google, a manufacturer and a carrier all clammering to control the experience.
Interesting perspective from Ben Ward on Android.
“I’ve just endured a week of reading Google’s ‘opener than thou’ harping, with ever increasing levels of irritation, and all along Android is locked in to their services? What bullshit.”
As a geek who cares a bit about openness, I live with my iPhone, but wish Android was a real competitor for my affection. It’s clearly getting to a stage where HTC can produce a quality smartphone — fast enough and featured enough to keep most people happy.
But, strangely for Google, I feel that my geeky desires are being ignored. Unless you buy the single “Google phone”, you’re not buying a particularly geek-friendly device. Due to Google’s Apache licensing, the phone makers and cell companies have enough control to ensure an experience where I have *less* control than with my iPhone.
This is a cool prototype — Take a photo of some forrin text, and Google’s servers can OCR and translate it to English. Potentially wicked handy tool for travelling.
According to CNet, three of the top four must-have Android apps are: A file manager, a process killer, and an app uninstaller. Because, as everyone knows, the kids LOVE to kill them processes.
Filed under
:
android
:
cnet
:
download
The smartest thing the Android team ever did
Looking at the screenshots of the forthcoming release of Android, I can’t help but notice one thing.
The typography.
More than anything, what draws my eye and makes it clear that I’m looking at an Android screen, not an iPhone, is the beautifully designed, decidedly not-Helvetica, typeface.
Here’s hoping the Android experience starts to catch up, and surpass, Apple’s. Nothing would make me happier than choosing an Android-based phone next time I want to upgrade.
Filed under
:
android
:
typography
If you’re interested in developing for Google’s new cellphone platform, there’s a developer day in Cambridge in a couple of weeks. Wonder if the iPhone SDK will be out by then too? Would be interesting to compare-and-contrast.
Sadly, this is the most interesting and innovative thing I’ve read about “Android” so far — that they’re getting around Sun’s “J2ME” trademark/patent/licensing beartrap by implementing their own VM.
I'm 