After a few months of Android, I'm about ready to try an iPhone -- or return to Blackberry.
My biggest gripe with Android is how intrusive, bloated and inefficient it is.
I want a lean device that lets me read & reply to email, make the occasional phone call, and browse the 'net a bit.
The Android OS seems hell-bent on either selling me stuff or loading (and keeping loaded) stuff that I never (or rarely) use.
For example, Task Killer tells me that I currently have loaded Weather, My Account, Play Store, Appstore, Maps, Music & Dragon Dictation.
WHY!?!
If I need to know the weather, there's wunderground. I don't look up my bill with my handheld. Purchased apps shouldn't need to validate via a separate high overhead third-party app (e.g.Tapatalk). I usually use my mp3 player for tunes, but do play music OCCASIONALLY. And if I need to talk to my computer or need a map, then let ME invoke that functionality. Too often, simple operations are sluggish because there's only ~50k of free RAM. AND I'M NOT USING ANYTHING. There are simply too many undesired, unneeded apps loaded.
But I don't want to delete them, because I occasionally want them. But only occasionaly.
(And yes, I DID root and removed what I believe I safely could.)
Thoughts?
<stepping off of soapbox, breathing heavily & sweating profusely>
Some of us like the always-on mini-laptop in a pocket that is today's superphone - while just as many, like you, completely hate that.
What phone are you using? I'd be glad to check and see if there might an alternative rom that's more to your liking - many exist that are really pared down.
My son's tastes are exactly like yours, for example. He put Bloodawn's CTMod rom on his Samsung Prevail and it totally rocks. It's so minimal it's almost glacial in its beauty. And yet, does 100% of what he needs when he wants to, never otherwise.
Themed with an absolutely minimal single homescreen in use, zero clutter, and a clean notifications bar.
I have to admit, every time I look at his phone, I wonder if I'm not doing it all completely wrong!
OBTW - one thing about Android - it does automatic app management. Many of the things you see as "loaded" aren't running at all. A simple construct, think of it as a bookmark for an app, is left in memory allowing a quick re-start of things recently used.
There's likely to be things running that you don't need so much - but perhaps fewer than the Applications Manager is suggesting to you.
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PS to ardchoille - I think we need to remember what sparked the Nexus before tossing Google under the "they don't set standards" bus.
Roll back a few years ago, handsets were all over the map, updates weren't happening, makers were blaming Google that it was too hard to build good handsets.
So, Google contracts with HTC to make a developer phone - the Nexus - to show that it can be done, and basically how.
Next, we saw all of the makers step up their game.
After, Google backed down from the Nexus being a one-time-only thing and has repeated it.
And Google - like Microsoft - does set minimum standards, the ones don't meet it don't get things like the Play Store, for example.
And just like with Windows, Google can no more enforce platform standards than Microsoft can with laptop vendors. And not all Windows programs properly on all Windows PCs.
That's a fact of hardware diversity.
The place where the Microsoft analogy ends is that when OS updates do come for Android - they're free.
I feel that would alleviate a lot of the fragmentation and frustration. It would also take a ton of work off the manufacturers.
And you'd have handset makers and carriers rushing back to their own private operating systems in droves.
You just gave the formula to turn Android into iOS, my friend.
The solution to that problem is simple, you've taken it - switch to iOS if you want that (along with day 1 updates).
No offense, but it is what it is.
