January 2012
8 posts
1 tag
Don't call it a tablet: the Kindle Fire reviewed →
“Don’t call it a tablet”, well said.
2 tags
Reply to Richard's reply to "5 Years Later, And...
Richard Borcsik sent me a response (also on Google+) to a recent guest post, 5 Years Later, And Google Still Can’t Get It Right. I contacted the original author, who was willing to respond to Richard’s opinions. So here it is. Richard’s email is quoted. In his email, Richard cited some text from the original post, I put them in bold.
Dear Android Gripes,
I’ve recently read a...
1 tag
Siri for Android hits the market, jokes on Apple →
I bet you $10,000 that Cory has never seen and used Siri. Jokes on Android.
1 tag
Samsung, the most innovative copycat in the world →
cultofmac:
Having apparently run out of new Apple products to rip-off, Samsung has decided to examine Apple’s past portfolio of devices for new designs to flagrantly plagiarize. The latest? Meet the Galaxy Ace Plus, Samsung’s new entry-level Android phone that looks just like the three year old iPhone 3G design!
Who says Samsung does not innovate? If you think that, you’re wrong,...
Android Isn’t About Building a Mobile Platform →
Kyle Baxter:
Google is building Android not so they can make great mobile devices and sell them to consumers. Rather, they are making them for these two simple reasons: (1) to disrupt Apple’s growing dominance of mobile devices, both so Google doesn’t have to rely on Apple for access to their users and to eliminate their paid-for application model; and (2) so Google can control the mobile...
What Makes Android Revolutionary →
Yeah, we get it, Android is cheap. Unfortunately, that’s it.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being cheap. But flooding the market with cheap and low quality products is not revolutionary, not even close.
1 tag
December 2011
14 posts
Not even considering Android or Windows Phone... →
Matt Alexander, owner and editor of ONE37:
My life has just been made easier. There’s that much less in my digital life for me to be considerate of. No longer must I verse myself with codecs and conversion techniques in order to enjoy my media, or with firmware hacks and overclocking to get the best features and performance out of my hardware. My technology just works, and it does so in the...
1 tag
Dear Google: Android's Multitasking Sucks →
Jason Perlow from ZDNet gripes about Android’s multitasking model:
There’s really no such equivalent to this type of task managment in Android. Instead, the Android evangelists at Google will tell you just to trust Ice Cream Sandwich’s automated memory management and everything just sorts itself out.
You know what? I think they’re full of crap, because we don’t live in a perfect world where...
2 tags
5 Years Later, And Google Still Can't Get It Right
This is a guest post from an anonymous writer, who is a loyal user of Apple products and a veteran iOS developer.
I discovered the ICS Paper Cuts blog today and I was looking through some of the screenshots they had of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. As an iOS user since the first iPhone arrived, I don’t have much exposure to Android on a day to day basis. So it was an eye-opening experience...
1 tag
Amazon Kindle Fire (Android) vs. iPad 2 →
Marco Arment made a comparison table of Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2. It covers some factors that really matter, e.g., “Fun” and “Delightful”.
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Motorola explains why Android updates are super... →
If you want to get an idea how slow Motorola phones update to more recent Android versions, check this list out. It is indeed super slow.
3 tags
Samsung: no ICS upgrade for Galaxy S and Galaxy... →
Galaxy S users, that’s bad news. But don’t worry, the bright side is that Android is “open”. It’s really the time for you to learn “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make” from Andy Rubin (if you see a broken link, that’s because Andy Rubin deleted his famous...
1 tag
App Developers Bet on iOS over Android this... →
Flurry tracked 135,000 apps that use their analytics tools, and they “revisited” Android “momentum”:
New apps on iOS vs. Android: 63% vs. 37% (Q1, 2011) down to 73% vs. 27% (Q4, 2011)
In-app purchase revenue of the same app on iOS vs. Android: $1.00 vs. $0.24.
The numbers are self-explanatory. It doesn’t matter what Eric Schmidt says, what matters is what...
Muggers Demand iPhone, Turn Down Android →
This is not a gripe.
1 tag
This is why Android is incompetent
Android is incompetent because 1/4 of the users need to install apps to do what the system is supposed to do - killing apps.
Neilsen’s latest research shows that Facebook and Google’s stock apps are the most popular apps. If you look at the data carefully, you will find an app called “Advanced Task Killer (ATK) Free” is also among the most popular 3rd-party apps...
2 tags
A community full of haters?
I happened to find Steve Jobs’ bio in the Android Market. Not surprisingly, its rate is not good, 3 stars from 2,410 reviews. In Apple’s App Store, it’s rated as 4.5 stars from 10,098 reviews. Why is the same book about a person rated so differently in two communities just because they use different products? So I read some reviews from Android Market. To my surprise, I saw no...
2 tags
Android hates me, and it doesn’t like you much,... →
Dylan from VentureBeat:
Android phones aren’t exactly Edsels (they don’t have a big front grille that looks like, well, lady parts). But they are similar in a couple ways: Packed with features but also saddled with a dismaying lack of reliability and a lot of stray details that reveal just how little its designers care about you. It’s the ultimate triumph of the lame “good enough” philosophy.
...
1 tag
Gripe about Android and get free Windows phone
Ben Rudolph, Microsoft’s Windows Phone evangelist, announced the contest on Twitter using the hashtag #droidrage. This is hilarious. The contest seems to be over. Stay tuned for the next round, hopefully.
I’m sorry that Android Gripes cannot reward you anything for your gripes. :-) But if I could afford, Windows phone wouldn’t be my choice.
1 tag
More Android malware is coming next year, so be...
Lookout Mobile Security predicted mobile threat in 2012. Simply put, it is pretty scary if you use Android devices. When the device fails to protect users from malicious attacks, users should be more cautious by themselves. Here are advices from Lookout Mobile Security - use extra caution when you do these:
Visiting third party app stores. Lookout found that malware writers often test malware in...
1 tag
July 2011
7 posts
2 tags
Moving from Android to iPhone for better apps →
Marin Perez from Intomobile recently moved from Android to iPhone and he said:
The main reason I switched to the iPhone is the better app ecosystem and I haven’t been disappointed, really. The breadth and selection in the App Store continues to outpace Android Market and I’m not sure if we’ll see that change soon. I have become an Instagram whore and as we saw from CNN this morning, the iOS...
2 tags
800 out of 10,000 Android apps leak private... →
Zenobia from Digitizor:
Neil Daswani, who is also the CTO of security firm Dasient, says that they have studied around 10,000 Android apps and have found that 800 of them are leaking private information of the user to an unauthorized server. Neil Daswani is scheduled to present the full findings at the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas which starts on July 30th. The Dasient researchers also...
2 tags
Gripes from a long time Android user
Editor’s notes: this is a guest post from an anonymous writer, including buggy apps (Google Music Beta and Facebook app in particular), inconsistant buttons and icons, ugly looking, and more. Thank you!
I’ve been a long time supporter of Google Android. I’ve been using it since it was first officially released way back on the G1 and since the G1 I’ve moved around to...
1 tag
Big players make bad Android apps, let alone... →
JR Raphael lists five bad apps from five big tech players, including Facebook, Netflix, Skype, Instapaper, and, believe it or not, Google again.
I also wrote about Facebook on Android a while ago for its horrible looking and lack of functionalities. JR mentioned a reasonable alternative - Facebook mobile website.
Talking about Netflix, there was no video streaming for a long time on Android and...
2 tags
Unbelievably shameless rip-off is well defined by...
Congratulations! With this recently released “Smart Case”, Samsung has successfully 100% completed its shameless rip-off of iPad 2.
Being shameless is not just Samsung’s problem, it’s a problem of the Android’s ecosystem. So I’m not surprised. Samsung is just one of those who gave up innovation completely.
[via 9to5 Mac]
3 tags
Developers Prefer Apple's iOS -- Including Google →
If Google prioritizes iOS over Android, why shouldn’t other developers?
June 2011
1 post
1 tag
Why should somebody buy an *Android tablet*... →
Harry McCracken:
It’s been fifteen months since the first iPad shipped. Nearly every sizable company that makes anything that looks even sort of like a computer or a phone has rushed into the market that Apple created…. And yet no Apple competitor has started selling anything that clearly answers a fundamental question: “Why should somebody buy this instead of an iPad?” …. I’ve been...
May 2011
8 posts
Android tablets keep your wife and kids away from...
Citi analyst, Walter Pritchard, told an interesting story in his report on Microsoft today:
Anecdotally, we purchased both an iPad 2 and Xoom recently and spent the last four weeks using the device[s] at home. The iPad has lived up to all the hype with the wife and kids nearly fighting over who gets to play with the device. In this short time, the Xoom acquired the name “Dad’s iPad” and sat...
1 tag
David Karp: Android “Absolutely Sucks To Develop... →
Tumblr Founder, David Karp:
Android “Absolutely Sucks To Develop For”
Instagr.am does not even have an Android app.
If Android absolutely sucks to develop for, then people write apps for Android after they write for iPhone or ignore Android completely, then there will be less great apps on Android, then it makes Android absolutely suck to use.
(via DaringFireball)
1 tag
Why is the Meebo IM app on Android so old?
Ever since I posted this, people keep sending me messages complaining that the choice of Meebo IM is not fair, because its Android version has not been updated since Nov, 2009. I checked and it is indeed true.
I want to clear things up here. Honestly, I didn’t notice this when I picked Meebo IM. I never care about the release time when I pick apps. The reason I chose Meebo IM is that I...
2 tags
Android's hardware buttons explained
A previous engineer in Danger:
The reason there are 4 hardware buttons on Android devices is because there were 4 buttons on the Sidekick/Hiptop. Andy Rubin and a lot of the initial engineers came from Danger, which developed the Sidekick. That’s also why Android is Java based with their own custom JVM - just like Danger did it. In many respects, Android (at least the initial version) is just...
1 tag
400 Percent Increase in Android Malware Found... →
Game developers do not like Android, but malware developers do.
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How Google controls Android: digging deep into the... →
Nilay Patel:
So what does all this mean? At the very least, it’s now extremely clear that Google plays a major role in Android device development, to the point where Andy Rubin himself approves and denies requests from OEMs. It’s also clear that Google places tremendous value on collecting location data, and it acted swiftly when it determined Skyhook’s deal with Motorola might threaten its...
1 tag
An Android fan switched to iPhone 4 because it... →
ap3604, who doesn’t like Android Gripes, explains why he/she switched to iPhone 4 from Android:
As far as the look of the operating system I would have to say that stock Android is nicer than iOS. Main reasons I ended up switching to the iPhone 4 was due to: 1. HID bluetooth keyboard support built into the OS. 2. Netflix app that streams video. 3. Navigon GPS app for iOS that I...
Android fan: stop griping about Android; gripe...
No matter what you say, some people will disagree, even when Newton told people about gravity or Obama said that he was born in the United States. So I try to avoid debating with individual person who does not agree with Android Gripes. I don’t have time. But this post is an exception.
It’s actually kind of ironic. A while ago, I wrote about an Android...
April 2011
20 posts
1 tag
3 tags
Call "Delay" Bug in Gingerbread IGNORED by Google
An anonymous user sent me this message (who is obviously pissed off)
There is a serious call/phone bug in Gingerbread, but unless the media report a bug (e.g. remember the text messaging bug), it gets ignored by ******* (all capital letters) google. A phone that can’t make calls.
*** is wrong with Google? They do this with all issues - really is starting to tick me off.
...
2 tags
id Software: iOS game development is addictive,... →
John Carmack, the lead programmer and co-founder of id software:
You’re just not making money in the Android space as you are in the iOS space.
We made more money than people may expect on the Doom RPG stuff. It’s just fun to develop on iOS. We’d show people what we were working on and they’d go “Oh, when are you going to ship that?” And I’d say “next month” and they’d go...
1 tag
iOS is a better investment than Android →
Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote
If you have one choice to put your development investment there is no question - put it all on iOS
here is why:
Revenue for Evernote - 28% iOS and 10% Android — RIM and WinMo (not WP7 which is not out yet) less than 5%
2 tags
3 tags
Re-think the four hardware buttons on Android
The gripe about Android’s four hardware buttons has come to me on the first day I started using it. They are unnecessary, they are confusing, they are ugly, they take space, they cause users making mistakes… they should be remade.
Previously people have discussed about the button layout varies on different phones. Let’s take one step back here, do we really need four hardware...
2 tags
I'm talking about what Android is right now
Nate sent me this message to show me that Android apps could be as good as their iOS counterparts. He didn’t think I would publish it:
Developers are trying~
The Speedtest.net application for Android was updated to look exactly like it’s iOS counterpart:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest-net-mobile-speed/id300704847?mt=8
...
1 tag
An Android designer: great useful apps with... →
AbsoluteDesignz, a developer/designer on Android:
I love Android…however, one thing I do hate, is that a LOT of Devs seem to lack any sense of style and design in the market…(also if u look at the Post ur Screens thread you see this horrible sense of design permeates throughout the user-base as well)
It’s great that some Android developers/designers also realize this. He/she...
1 tag
Flash on Android: Look but don't touch →
Neil McAllister (InfoWorld):
As far as I could tell, there was one thing and one thing only that the Flash Player for Android 3.0 accomplished successfully. On the stock Android browser, Flash content is invisible, so you don’t notice Flash-based advertising. With the Flash Player installed, however, all those ads suddenly appear where once there were none, their animated graphics leaping...
4 tags
Too many apps "live" in the notification panel
AG’s notes: the following is an anonymous guest post from the same author who wrote “Inconsistent behavior with the ‘back’ button”. Once again, I cannot agree more with him. Apps in the notification panel are really annoying. Exactly like this author said, every app wants to do something there. For example, WeatherBug displays the current temperature in the panel....
4 tags
Inconsistent behavior with the "back" button
AG’s note: The following is an anonymous guest post. I cannot agree more with him. I also found the hardware “back” button confusing and “unnecessary”. In iOS, people usually “go back” via a graphic button, which tells “where” to go back to. That is much clearer.
One thing which bothers me about Android is that sometimes the “back”...
2 tags
Be careful: vulnerability in Skype for Android is... →
It seems that Android users should be cautious even if they use apps from well known companies, such as Skype. Androidpolice just found the Skype app stores private information without encryption and sets wrong permissions on those files, so other apps can easily access these information and do whatever they want to do. Androidpolice actually released a toy app to demonstrate their findings.
...