Newsletter Information Technology Department v2.0 - dbit moodle ...

Reason 2: New and exciting security holes
Now, admittedly, the whole authorization-token-inthe-clear
security issue was nothing major and Google
patched it quickly. But, on top of the whole malware
problem, this sort of security issue is troubling.
Old Ben Franklin famously said, “Any people that would
give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves
neither liberty nor safety.” I do agree with him, except
that when it comes to the phone in my pocket, I guess I’m
willing to give up a little hackety freedom in return for a
safer, less infested phone.
Reason 3: Complete lack of version number logic
Between the folks at Mozilla, who are trying to hide
Firefox versions in an effort to make us all insane, and the
folks at Google, who name and number Android versions
all willy-nilly, I’m getting slightly annoyed.
Is the current version Froyo or Gingerbread or
Honeycomb? Do I want an Ice Cream Sandwich or a
Cupcake or a Donut? Is it possible to run a low-cal version
of Android? What if I’m cutting carbs and mostly doing
protein? Then what?
Seriously, Gingerbread is version 2.3 of Android, but
Honeycomb is version 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2. Seriously? And
if I’m buying an Android phone, I’m going to need to
buy one running version 2.3, even though Android 3.1 is
current, but only for tablets. Seriously?
Okay, and some phones only run Froyo and others only
run Gingerbread, and you can’t upgrade from one to the
other without a hack. Seriously?
I know Android is gaining market share because of the
wide diversity of offerings, but there’s got to be some
compromise between the der fuhrer approach of Steve
Jobs’ Apple and the herding cats approach of Android.
Oh, yeah, that was webOS. Sigh.
Reason 4: Very different user experience on different
handsets
Love it or hate it, when you pick up an iPhone, it feels like
an iPhone. It feels and works like a phone designed for
use by a five year old, but at least it’s a consistent feeling.
This is not the case with Android phones.
Phones from different manufacturers are wildly different,
with different home screens, UIs, and feature sets. It’s so
that you could buy two Android phones, put them sideby-side,
and unless you knew they were both Androids,
you’d think they were completely different devices.
14 - Tech-IT Newsletter v2.0
I don’t want a phone that’s got a funky user experience.
I want one that I’m used to and can describe to someone
else, and they have the same experience. I want to be able
to tell someone what I’m doing with my phone and have
them know exactly how that’d work for them.
With Android, you can’t have that happen, even with
phones from the same maker.
Reason 5: Probably can’t upgrade without
jailbreaking, rooting, modding, whatevah
The history of Android phone upgrades is not a good
one. Most manufacturers essentially design a model for
a given OS, and if there’s an upgrade, your phone might
not be able to run it.
The next version of the Android OS is the quixotically
named Ice Cream Sandwich. If I were to buy an Android
phone now, it’s highly unlikely I’d be able to upgrade it
to ICS without a jailbreak.
And, like I said before, I don’t really have time to hack
my phone.
Reason 6: App incompatibility
Okay, this is a huge, huge deal-breaker. Apps built for
one handset often don’t work on another. It’s almost
impossible to be sure that you can run a given application
without trying. And when you look at the apps, the poor
developers are often saddled with building a compatibility
matrix for every phone model.
This lack of consistency is not good. Even Windows has
better application compatibility across machines and you
never know what’ll be inside your friendly neighborhood
Windows PC
Reason 7: Too much tweaking required
While it annoys me to no end that I can’t make minor
tweaks and add utilities to my iPhone, the necessity of
tweaking most Android phones to make them usable
is unacceptable. First, I just don’t want to spend the
time adjusting everything, adding programs, removing
programs, and otherwise tuning, just so I can overcome
the software design decisions of hardware engineers at
the handset makers. Or, worse, so I can overcome the
marketing deals put together by product managers at the
handset makers.
Then, there’s the temptation. I’m a tech-geek, so the
temptation might be to spend hours or days futzing with
the phone interface. This is not something I should be
spending much time on.
Even though self-control is an issue, an even bigger one
is the simple crapware nature of the delivered software on
most Android phone handsets.
Reason 8: Poor tablet compatibility
Once again, compatibility is an issue. Many iPhone
applications (actually nearly all of them) will run on the
iPad. They may not be iPad-optimized, but they’ll run.
Not so much with Android. Even the SDKs between the
two classes of device are different. Developers are coding
2.x software for phones and 3.x software for tablets.
They might as well have completely different names for all
the native compatibility they have.
Reason 9: Little ongoing manufacturer support
The problem with Android tablets - Manufacturers see
them as disposable.
Reason 10: Google
Let me be clear in how much I like and respect most of
the people at Google. The individuals there are very cool.
But the company sometimes seems like part Borg and part
Borgia. If you need personal help, the company is virtually
impenetrable.
To be fair, the company has softened up a bit, but when
you rely completely on Google, you never know if baaaad
things are going to happen.
This is also an issue with other Google services. I described
my frustration a few weeks ago, when I tried setting up a
YouTube account and discovered once again that there’s
no account maintenance functionality throughout the
Google ecosphere.
On the other hand, there are some advantages
I know that when I go with the iPhone 5, I’ll be giving
up some freedom and some self-respect. I’ll be selling my
soul for the promise of the safety and warmth of the Apple
mothership. This disturbs me to a level you probably can’t
understand.
There are some good aspects to the Android experience
I’ll be giving up. I’ll be giving up the ability to tune my
V2.0
launcher, which I could easily do back in the Palm/Treo
days, but Apple doesn’t think we’re adult enough to
manage now in era of iOS finger painting.
Beyond having tweaking control (without jailbreaking), I
do miss the choice of models (you can have any color as
long as it’s black), access to a built-in physical keyboard,
and oh, what I would give for a replaceable battery!
Unfortunately, these few boons of Androidum don’t
make up for the disadvantages. And, holding my nose,
this is why I’m not going to buy an Android and why I’m
waiting for the iPhone 5.
But thats me and i am NOT God, but only human!
The decision is yours,so is the money!
Go ahead. Have your say. I’ve got enough
food in the bunker to last me two weeks.
Don Bosco Institute Of Technology- 15