“I have issues with Android and Google’s approach to it. I think it’s an amazing concept — people holding hands, skipping down sugar-encrusted roads with pink ponies and colorful rainbows — but the execution falls flat in many ways if you’re a hardcore phone user, and Google has constantly missed the mark in almost every area,” The Boy Genius writes, appropriately enough, for The Boy Genius Report.
“Part of my main issue with Android, and this applies slightly less to HTC Sense UI handsets, is that there’s practically no human emotion with Google when it comes to technology. Everything is statistical and analytical. While you could argue that being this way is way superior to ‘feeling’ and ’emotion’ — it might be 95% of the time — you still will almost always lose that charm and that amazing feeling of connecting to something. People would die for their iPhones… [but] Android continues to feel systematic and clinical,” Boy Genius writes.
“Android still feels half-baked even after two years. And you can’t prance around smiling without raising the bar. You can take your non-multi-touch device and shove it — it’s inexcusable,” Boy Genius writes. “There are so many fundamental issues with Android’s OS that still haven’t been addressed and it really makes my head spin. Uniformity is not a word you’ll find in Android’s dictionary… How do I copy text from non-editable field like an email, webpage, or SMS, or even a 3rd party application? Oh, I can’t. Say what you want about the iPhone not having copy and paste for two years — a joke — it’s the single best implementation on the planet for a smartphone and Google’s approach is almost as bad as RIM’s with the Storm-series.”
Boy Genius writes, “Android doesn’t make sense as a whole. It’s fragmented, poorly executed, the Android Market for apps is a mess, and developers still don’t care about it… For a company that’s so smart, and makes so much sense, it’s unbelievable how little sense Android makes in most places. I just can’t see why you’d want to run Android over the iPhone OS?”
“I apologize for comparing this to the iPhone so much, I really didn’t set out to. But I’ve used an iPhone every day of my life since it first came out in addition to every BlackBerry ever available simultaneously, and I actually had an open mind about the Nexus One possibly replacing my iPhone,” Boy Genius writes. “But in the end, I found that the lack of any meaningful applications for Android really made it a no go from the beginning. I’m talking about quality — re-read the word quality — applications, here. The best VNC and RDP applications on Android are a joke. There’s not a single enjoyable Twitter application, and any application that’s on Android that is available on the iPhone pales in comparison. If you can find an application on the Android platform that’s better than the iPhone counterpart, I’ll send you a BGR Ninja hat.”
Boy Genius writes, “Here’s another issue on why for the foreseeable future Android won’t be anything like what Apple or another company can offer: Coders aren’t designers. It’s really as simple as that and anyone in the business will know exactly what I’m talking about. That’s why Apple’s entire developer ecosystem is different, because believe it or not, Apple’s developers are amazing designers that make beautiful things, and they happen to know how to code. That’s entirely different from someone who’s the best coder in the world and trying to create something that looks, works, and feels great. And so, this is my issue with Android and why you won’t see applications of iPhone-quality on Android aside from any SDK and programming hurdles.”
Oh, yes, there’s even more! Read the full article — very highly recommended if only to witness the rarity of unvarnished truth on full display — here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Islandgirl for the heads up.]
@truth
I can run something I built at home without going through the iPhone process. For hobby and r&d;development that is a nice to have. For those buying online banking as yourself, not so much.
All the money in the world cannot buy good taste:
http://unusual-architecture.com/experience-music-project-seattle-wa-usa/
‘There are 1,243 of them’
Small potatoes compared to iPhone’s install base. I did not say they were all developers, but my guess is a lot of them probably are.
I’m pretty sure if you have the iPhone SDK, you write all the apps you want and load em up on your phone or in *GASP* the emulator.
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/
Of course you have to pay for it, so I am sure that is the next complaint. Then again if you are serious about your hobby, $100 shouldn’t stop you. I know I have hobbies that I spend more on.
My point isn’t to say other phones suck, it is to point out that the FUD being spread about the iPhone is BS and most of the “Feature” complaints I am hearing and reading are trivial matters in my opinion. Apple didn’t start running ads with a misleading “iDon’t” campaign.
The only valid complaints I hear are “I want a different carrier” I get and understand it. It’s a non issue for me, I had a smart phone with Verizon and I hated it (TREO) the web sucked, multimedia sucked, reception sucked, it was big, heavy and other than replacing the Palm I used to carry with a phone it really brought nothing to the table. I even hated the fact that I had to pay a third party for sync software that still was slow and buggy. I also didn’t like Verizon nickle and diming me to death and charging a fortune for crappy stripped down web access. I get that some places have no or poor AT&T;coverage. I also get that where I live and most of the places I travel to regularly get a better signal than on the other major carriers I have used in the past. Hands down the iPhone is the best phone I have ever seen, hell it beats computers I’ve owned.
I believe that the iPhone represents the most advanced, best supported, most secure, stable platform for the foreseeable future and am tired of the droid hype and that droid types feel the need to spread fud in order to advance their platform of choice. When I speak of my iPhone to people I don’t sit and say my phone can do this does yours? Instead I put it in their hands and talk them through some of the features and they come to their own natural conclusion: this thing is awesome..
If Android is so damn good STFU about iPhone and let your platform stand on it’s own merits. Lets talk about it as it is. Google/Verizon/Motorola started the fight by bringing the iPhone into their advertising from the get-go, I’m simply not obliged to sit by and listen to and take the crud.
BTW, the one thing I haven’t read about is syncing with a mac – just how is that experience on a droid? What works, what doesn’t?
@truth
I agree with your statements except for one.
“If Android is so damn good STFU about iPhone and let your platform stand on it’s own merits. Lets talk about it as it is. Google/Verizon/Motorola started the fight by bringing the iPhone into their advertising from the get-go, I’m simply not obliged to sit by and listen to and take the crud.”
We all agree that in advertising you go after the bigger competition. This is normal for them because the iPhone is unstoppable. This is by no way different than what I see Apple doing with their Get a Mac campaigns…
I just hope they release it to at least one other carrier. (Hopefully to Sprint since it is what I am on and prefer.) They have outgrown ATT here in the US and like you also said, if more people can just get one and use it then they will truly understand why they are selling so well.
I will just continue to use my iPod touch in the meantime…
Take that Nexus!! You call yourself “superphone”? Well the phone industry changed a long time ago bro. Since 2007 and iPhone came out. And we all want apps on our iPhone, not something that gives you headage when you use it. Way to go Boy Genius!! ^_^
@truth
“I’m pretty sure if you have the iPhone SDK, you write all the apps you want and load em up on your phone or in *GASP* the emulator.”
“Of course you have to pay for it, so I am sure that is the next complaint. “
I have done some development for both platforms and I can tell you testing in the emulator does not match developing on the physical device. And if you are trying to recoup your investment or even trying to have fun with the platform, it is a pain in the butt to pay $100 and then go through a process of setting up certificates. I am sorry, but Android is easier in this respect.
So signing your software to ensure security is too much of a pain? Glad I don’t use software you develop. It’s not hard to setup certificates in my experience.
Pay the hundred bucks and put your apps on your iPhone for testing if you don’t like the emulator.
Like I said, trivial arguments…
Sherman,
The difference is subtle, but there. The Get A Mac ad’s reinforce real experiences people have, in a fun lighthearted way. No one is mislead by this. They work so well because they align to peoples own experiences with windows and talk up the strengths of Apple vs Windows.
The Verizon and Droid ads are intellectually dishonest and mislead uninformed consumers.
I don’t have a “real” keyboard? Seems pretty real to me and works like a champ on my iphone.
i don’t run simultaneous apps, err wrong. I run ipod and safari at the same time, i lookup contacts and use the calander while talking on the phone. Third party apps, yeah not there yet, but they didn’t say that did they, implying it wasn’t possible.
I Don’t have interchangeable batteries. Nope, not by me, can have it replaced by applecare and get a loaner while it is fixed. Doesn’t really matter as it’s never been an issue to me. As a matter of fact in ten+ years of using cellphones I’ve never carried around spare batteries. How many people really do? Whats the battery life of the droid vs the iphone? They do not want to focus on that I guess, must mean it is not good.
i don’t allow open development? WTF does that mean exactly? You mean Apple doesn’t allow phishers to post their malware unchecked and dupe customers into giving away their bank accounts, yep I guess.
i dont customize? Again, in what way? Seems pretty configurable to me. Ohh thats right droid-heads want wallpaper behind their apps..whatever..
You see my point now? misleading, not very accurate.
@truth
“So signing your software to ensure security is too much of a pain?”
Compared to not having to do that, yes. You can keep hammering away, but it does not change the fact.
On signed software..
A good read on the subject:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/18/iphone-20-sdk-how-signing-certificates-work/
Symbian has been doing it since 2005, Rim does it with critical API’s, and Apple does it. Sounds as if it is becoming the industry norm, not the exception. Why do you suppose that is?
Your contention is that it makes it harder and is therefore bad, Brings to mind a phrase my Parents taught me long ago:
“Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
All one has to do is look at the bank app fiasco from this past week with the android store and unsigned “OPEN” software. This begs the question: Open to who? Easy for who? At what price? Customer confidence? Customer data? Loss of business, Loss of money? and on and on..
@ Truth
I’ve played with the Droid. It’s a nice phone, but I don’t think it quite matches the overall ease of use of the iPhone. However…I do detect more than a little fanboy-ism in your dismissal of the Droid ads as misleading.
“I don’t have a “real” keyboard? Seems pretty real to me and works like a champ on my iphone.”
— Physical keyboards (even the crappier ones) are faster and more accurate to type on that virtual keyboards. Sorry, but it’s true. I’ll grant that you can learn to type on a virtual keyboard really fast – almost as fast as the real thing. But it’s just not the same. By now I’m sure we’re all familiar with the ‘iPhone typo’ – when a wrong word gets inserted as a result of the iPhone over-zealously trying to fix a perceived spelling mistake that probably would have been avoided using a physical keyboard.
“i don’t run simultaneous apps, err wrong. I run ipod and safari at the same time, i lookup contacts and use the calander while talking on the phone. Third party apps, yeah not there yet, but they didn’t say that did they, implying it wasn’t possible.”
— Yes, the iPhone can run native apps. But what is considered a native app? Can the iPhone do turn-by-turn navigation, Pandora/iPod/media player, and make calls at the same time? No? Then it’s a limitation. Today, you cannot do that on your iPhone, so how is that misleading?
Saying you can use your calendar and contacts while making a call isn’t exactly something to brag about: Treos could do that 7 years ago. Heck, a lot of dumbphones could do that.
“I Don’t have interchangeable batteries. Nope, not by me, can have it replaced by applecare and get a loaner while it is fixed. Doesn’t really matter as it’s never been an issue to me. As a matter of fact in ten+ years of using cellphones I’ve never carried around spare batteries. How many people really do? Whats the battery life of the droid vs the iphone? They do not want to focus on that I guess, must mean it is not good.”
— The iPhone’s battery life is not great, though it appears to be slightly better than some of its closest competitors. Maybe you haven’t had to carry around spare batteries, and maybe your iPhone always lasts through an entire day without needing a recharge. That’s not the case for a lot of iPhone owners I know.
I do agree with you on one thing: I’m willing to bet the Droid’s battery life blows.
“i don’t allow open development? WTF does that mean exactly? You mean Apple doesn’t allow phishers to post their malware unchecked and dupe customers into giving away their bank accounts, yep I guess.”
— Pointing out that people have been phished with Android malware does not refute the claim that Android allows more open development than Apple does. Nor does the banking scam prove that Apple’s development rules make it completely immune to this type of scam. Hackers and scammers have this annoying habit of breaking into systems that are supposed to be hack-proof.
By the way, people can be phished using e-mail as well. Heck, people can be phished using snail mail. If someone gets phished through their Yahoo Mail, does that mean Yahoo Mail is to blame?
“i dont customize? Again, in what way? Seems pretty configurable to me. Ohh thats right droid-heads want wallpaper behind their apps..whatever..”
–Not being able to set individual/group ringtones/messaging tones or set up contact groups are in fact limitations on information management (I haven’t used an iPhone very recently, so this might have changed). I am pretty anal with how I set up my contacts and notifications…and the iPhone’s notification system is terrible. And I know that is still the case today because a decent number of iPhone users are annoyed by it.
As for the background, why shouldn’t I be able to do something that even dumbphones have done for over a decade?
Look – the iPhone is an amazing, even revolutionary device. It built on (and at times perfected) various features of a variety of predecessors, added some new capabilities, and created a package that is accessible to the masses. It is a pinnacle of electronic accomplishment.
But it is not without its flaws, and people don’t need to get all defensive when someone — or some company — comes along and points them out.
“Coders aren’t designers. It’s really as simple as that and anyone in the business will know exactly what I’m talking about. That’s why Apple’s entire developer ecosystem is different, because believe it or not, Apple’s developers are amazing designers that make beautiful things, and they happen to know how to code.”
This statement is a paradox. The vast majority of popular iPhone apps have been ported to Android by the original developers. So if you’re looking for a scapegoat for poor quality Android app UI experiences, the iPhone coders are just as guilty as everyone else.
At the end of the day this entire argument seems to be about apps. Android doesn’t have xyz app, Android apps look like ass. iPhone apps are made by God and have their UI dipped in gold.
Remember that Apple doesn’t make apps, Google doesn’t make apps, We make apps. So if you can’t find a “fun twitter experience” for iPhone/Android, try getting off your ass and making one. If you can’t find an Android UI that arouses you, try designing one half as good.
Maybe after trying to do what is supposedly “so simple”, you’ll understand what a bunch of whiny little bitches you are being.