Why cant Google with all its programming power make some QUALITY apps for us????

[Szadzik]

Truth be told guys, you are comparing Android to BB and WinMo and PalmOS.

There is one issue with this comparison though: Time.

Basically Android has been there for 1.5 yr while BB system is now at v6.0 and it has been around for AGES.

Give Android and Google some time to work on the product and actually make it better. no system is perfect from the very beginning.

 

[(G)]

Ok back to the car comparison which I avoided last post. When you buy a car it does come with standard features. Wheels, steering wheel, ect. It doesn't always come with certain luxury features. Whether you believe it or not, high end race cars actually don't come with several "standard" features. Your phone can make calls, it can send text, and it functions as a basic phone.

Agreed. But it's not being marketed as "a basic phone." It's being marketed as a cutting-edge smartphone. A smartphone, by definition, is a mobile phone that has PDA features (calendar, contacts, web access, etc.) built in.

I'm not saying that it doesn't have these things. What I'm saying is that they weren't thought-through before they were added.

Whoever heard of an appointment calendar where it's possible to have an alarm ring 5/10/15 minutes BEFORE an appointment, but where there's no provision to have the alarm ring AT THE TIME of the appointment? And keep ringing every X minutes until it's dismissed?

Whoever heard of a contact list where it's not possible to (1) change the size of the typeface so it can be read without glasses, and (2) sort the contacts by last name?

I'm not asking for luxury features. I'm just asking that the basic features of a smartphone work the way other smartphones on the market work.

 

[Szadzik]

Agreed. But it's not being marketed as "a basic phone." It's being marketed as a cutting-edge smartphone. A smartphone, by definition, is a mobile phone that has PDA features (calendar, contacts, web access, etc.) built in.

I'm not saying that it doesn't have these things. What I'm saying is that they weren't thought-through before they were added.

Whoever heard of an appointment calendar where it's possible to have an alarm ring 5/10/15 minutes BEFORE an appointment, but where there's no provision to have the alarm ring AT THE TIME of the appointment? And keep ringing every X minutes until it's dismissed?

Whoever heard of a contact list where it's not possible to (1) change the size of the typeface so it can be read without glasses, and (2) sort the contacts by last name?

I'm not asking for luxury features. I'm just asking that the basic features of a smartphone work the way other smartphones on the market work.

I am asking you whether knowing what a smartphone is you have searched for replacement apps that will have the features you require?

This is a smartphone and there are replacements for most system apps. Why not try those?

 

[marcelob]

Since they decided to include calendar and exchange support on all of their phones. Poorly implemented, but they obviously intended for it to have the ability to be a business tool.

The funny thing is, we aren't asking anyone to reinvent the wheel. I just figured if your going to build a smartphone from scratch, you would at least cover the basics.

Instead, Google and its developers are too focused on the "wow" factor, and creating apps that will track how often and what time your dog takes a dump. Nice....

How many commercials focus on that? Heck, how many people who use Android actually use it as a business tool? Not many. It's still in that new, hip phase where it's got plenty of novelty factor. Google has put out some great apps, although I agree not many are focused towards business.

It would definitely be nice to have them push further in that direction. However, it is not a huge priority at this point because it's not the focus of the phone much like it was for Palm, BB and WinMo. Those OSs were released when the idea of a smart phone was to increase work productivity, not as a tiny laptop that does almost everything.

 

[computerpro3]

Lack of bluetooth voice dialing support (among other things) is mind boggling. I don't particularly care if "the OS doesn't support it" - if I was the boss, I'd say, "Well, rewrite the damn thing until it does!"

I am totally in love with Android and the DINC so far, but seriously, there are some MAJOR oversights that need to be fixed. I simply don't buy the time argument either, as it's not little esoteric things that are missing. My 6-7 year old motorola Q had bluetooth voice dial.

 

[Szadzik]

Lack of bluetooth voice dialing support (among other things) is mind boggling. I don't particularly care if "the OS doesn't support it" - if I was the boss, I'd say, "Well, rewrite the damn thing until it does!"

I am totally in love with Android and the DINC so far, but seriously, there are some MAJOR oversights that need to be fixed. I simply don't buy the time argument either, as it's not little esoteric things that are missing. My 6-7 year old motorola Q had bluetooth voice dial.

Have you ever created an OS or worked on creating one? If not; try it and let us know how it goes.

If you think it is that simple, you are wrong. Give them time, they have been releasing one API after another and they need time to create each of them.

 

[Snow_Fox]

Agreed. But it's not being marketed as "a basic phone." It's being marketed as a cutting-edge smartphone. A smartphone, by definition, is a mobile phone that has PDA features (calendar, contacts, web access, etc.) built in.


I'm not asking for luxury features. I'm just asking that the basic features of a smartphone work the way other smartphones on the market work.

Sorry.. one problem with your argument

There is no industry definition for a smart phone.

My Samsung Impression has a calendar which I can add dates to, It has web access and I can store contacts. it is not a "smartphone". :/

You could argue it then becomes an issue of "how well" a phone does those things.. but, "how well" is left up to perspective.

 

[jev]

Have you ever created an OS or worked on creating one? If not; try it and let us know how it goes.

Well, actually, I can say I did create a POSIX compliant OS. It doesn't take more than a manyear to build something basic from scratch and google didn't start from scratch, they started from the existing Linux kernel. Okay, I admit, they changed a lot to make it more suitable for mobile applications and they had to add a lot in the device driver department but it's doable, especially if you have a good team available. It's not rocket-science.

Having said that, programming on the iron can not and should not be compared to creating end-user applications, that's a whole different ballgame. The calendar is low on features, probably because the on-line calendar is rather restricted and the implementers had to interface to that. If there where more features available in the PIM than in the online calendar, people would complain about synchronisation issues for sure.

Let's face it, what google did was create a development platform that builds for the future, they didn't design a single embedded system that should work out of the box and than never change. So yeah, they might have skipped a few features but it's not bad.

 

[isharabash]

Android is pretty awesome, but I am also of the opinion that there were a lot of oversights.

My main gripe is with the contacts application... it's built for people with <100 contacts, which, with facebook and twitter sync, is going to be nobody.

Group functionality is almost a given... and yes, I do have a third party app there, and as soon as the semester is over I will be trying to implement my own...

 

[MisterMixelpix]

My stepfather used to tell me a little story about a boy who's dad took him to an amusement park. After a whole day of rides, swimming, and having a great time, the boy asked for some cotton candy on their way out of the park. The dad said no, it was late and they'd spent enough. The boy said "I hate you! Today SUCKS!!"

That's what this reminds me of.

 

[Szadzik]

My stepfather used to tell me a little story about a boy who's dad took him to an amusement park. After a whole day of rides, swimming, and having a great time, the boy asked for some cotton candy on their way out of the park. The dad said no, it was late and they'd spent enough. The boy said "I hate you! Today SUCKS!!"

That's what this reminds me of.

This

 

[brykins]

@MisterMixelpix - kind of, but that kid doesn't have the words to express his actual emotion, which is disappointment and frustration. That's what I feel when I see a company as forward thinking as Google aiming to design the best mobile operating system out there and then going and missing really basic things.

Your example would be like Google saying "no, you CAN'T do xxxxxx" whereas what's actually happening is Google (not) saying "actually, we haven't thought of that" to things that have been in use and developed by others for ten years and more.

 

[isharabash]

My stepfather used to tell me a little story about a boy who's dad took him to an amusement park. After a whole day of rides, swimming, and having a great time, the boy asked for some cotton candy on their way out of the park. The dad said no, it was late and they'd spent enough. The boy said "I hate you! Today SUCKS!!"

That's what this reminds me of.

And?

Complaints are complaints.

 

[gerryk]

Lack of bluetooth voice dialing support (among other things) is mind boggling. I don't particularly care if "the OS doesn't support it" - if I was the boss, I'd say, "Well, rewrite the damn thing until it does!"

And meanwhile, your company goes bust waiting for the OS to be perfect before releasing?

People need to realise that in order for a product to recoup R&D costs, it needs to be in the market, not on the bench, being tested and polished until it sparkles.

From years as a programmer, I can say that a 75% product is better than 100% vapourware. Sure, there was a time when a was an idealistic youngun who didn't want to release until it was perfect. Well guess where that got me? Getting a hard talking to about the realities of business from the boss is where.

The proper way to approach this is accept that there will be imperfections and aspects about which you are less than happy, then sign up to the bugtracker and post bugs/feature requests.

And for those who think this is solely a Google/Android problem... when I got my first iPhone, it was 6 months before it could properly correlate incoming caller IDs with my phone book. All I ever saw was '+12345678837' instead of the persons name...

 

[blackvyper]

The real question..

Why don't YOU make some quality apps..

Great part about android is it is open source.

Open source means anyone can program for it.... The original intent wasn't for google to make all the great apps, it was for people to have the capability to make apps them self :/

Don't like the selection? Android SDK | Android Developers

Get to work!

I am sorry if I'm being harsh here.. But, honestly the platform is still relatively new.. google/developers are gunna come out with great things.. but, only in the last 6 months have I really found out about android and the user base is getting there but, it has a way to go..

As users increase.. so do developers and quality apps.

But for the Android users who didn't hop on the bandwagon yesterday we've been waiting for quality Google apps. Besides that.. Android is about 2 years old now... just one year younger than crAPPLE. How hard is it to make a Navigation app that stores maps locally? Apparently not that hard since Navigon, CoPilot, iGo MyWay and others have done so.

 

[isharabash]

But for the Android users who didn't hop on the bandwagon yesterday we've been waiting for quality Google apps. Besides that.. Android is about 2 years old now... just one year younger than crAPPLE. How hard is it to make a Navigation app that stores maps locally? Apparently not that hard since Navigon, CoPilot, iGo MyWay and others have done so.

Why don't you buy those apps then? (serious question, what are the flaws?)

I want google to focus on the most basic functionality... contacts, UI, speed optimizations, etc

What google SHOULD focus on is what draws the most users (then it becomes an engineering AND marketing problem...)

Sometimes what we want, and what should happen don't fall in line

 

[takeshi]

How hard is it to make a Navigation app that stores maps locally? Apparently not that hard since Navigon, CoPilot, iGo MyWay and others have done so.

"How hard" is irrelevant. Google will always favor the cloud-based approach. If you want a GPS nav app that stores maps locally then go get one.

 

[MisterMixelpix]

And?

Complaints are complaints.

His point was that after the dad (Google) did all these great things for his kid (users), because at the very end the kid couldn't get ONE thing, suddenly he was angry and said the whole day sucked.

So much is going right with Android, saying that they have no quality apps because some things aren't quite the way you want them is just ignorant. Critique, suggest improvements, sure. But Android is an awesome platform and I -love- most Google apps, don't go acting like they haven't done a kickass job so far.

 

[ChicagoBob]

So much is going right with Android, saying that they have no quality apps because some things aren't quite the way you want them is just ignorant.>>>>>>> Well is the PHONE capable of playing video in sync? Is there a GOOD POP3 Email program that allows for junk email filtering, EMPTY the TRASH option etc. First Half is almost here is Flash going to work? Audio Media browsing is BORING or just plain Dumb. Cant stream any windows audio or video formats far as I can tell. On the good size I can stream some stuff. I can get mediocre email support. I can watch video that play like a bad Japanese Godzilla movie. I can get out a magnifying glass to read my emails because I cant read the tiny font.
etc... The picture quality of the camera is AWFUL. Even in daylight the contrast is pathetic and in darkness the flash is out of control. Need I go on?
A LOT isnt right but who cares the PHONE works.. LOL OH and My ear phone jack has worn out.. You cant output video from the Motorola version.. etc Ho hum.. I thought version 2 would help this.

 

[Szadzik]

So much is going right with Android, saying that they have no quality apps because some things aren't quite the way you want them is just ignorant.>>>>>>> Well is the PHONE capable of playing video in sync? Is there a GOOD POP3 Email program that allows for junk email filtering, EMPTY the TRASH option etc. First Half is almost here is Flash going to work? Audio Media browsing is BORING or just plain Dumb. Cant stream any windows audio or video formats far as I can tell. On the good size I can stream some stuff. I can get mediocre email support. I can watch video that play like a bad Japanese Godzilla movie. I can get out a magnifying glass to read my emails because I cant read the tiny font.
etc... The picture quality of the camera is AWFUL. Even in daylight the contrast is pathetic and in darkness the flash is out of control. Need I go on?
A LOT isnt right but who cares the PHONE works.. LOL OH and My ear phone jack has worn out.. You cant output video from the Motorola version.. etc Ho hum.. I thought version 2 would help this.

That is what happens when you just buy a phone without giving it enough thought.

You simply bought the wrong phone. Look for something that suits your needs and CHECK that it actually does and then buy it. What you did was just dumb.

 

[ChicagoBob]

What you did was just dumb.>>> YES I believed that a large company MOTOROLA that joined forces with a HUGE company GOOGLE could make a decent phone. I see your point. You want to tell those companies that their customers should expect shabby lack luster products from them?

 

[Szadzik]

What you did was just dumb.>>> YES I believed that a large company MOTOROLA that joined forces with a HUGE company GOOGLE could make a decent phone. I see your point. You want to tell those companies that their customers should expect shabby lack luster products from them?

I have the Milestone and am perfectly happy. It is PERFECT for my needs.

Why? Because choosing a phone to buy you need to take into account what you expect from a phone and choose a phone that will do it. If you chose Moto without checking whether it will be good for you you did it the wrong way.

The fact that it does not meet your expectations does not mean the phone is bad. it is bad FOR YOU. It is GREAT for me.

You chose the phone or the phone chose you?

 

[MisterMixelpix]

What you did was just dumb.>>> YES I believed that a large company MOTOROLA that joined forces with a HUGE company GOOGLE could make a decent phone. I see your point. You want to tell those companies that their customers should expect shabby lack luster products from them?

You're an immature troll. Either come up with well articulated USEFUL feedback or just GTFO.

Tip: Saying "omg this is a boring music player" is not helpful. Saying "I'd like it if I could stream Last.FM or Pandora radio while navigating the maps" is. Incidentally, that second thing IS a feature I'd really like to have.

 

[Szadzik]

You're an immature troll. Either come up with well articulated USEFUL feedback or just GTFO.

Tip: Saying "omg this is a boring music player" is not helpful. Saying "I'd like it if I could stream Last.FM or Pandora radio while navigating the maps" is. Incidentally, that second thing IS a feature I'd really like to have.

As I said; next time choose a phone not by its popularity but by its usefulness to you.

This is a smartphone and you can install replacement apps and buy stuff, if you want everything for free you are insane.

 

[ChicagoBob]

This is a smartphone and you can install replacement apps and buy stuff,>>> No Acutually I looked for a good POP3 email replacement. Doesnt exist. I looked for a good video player which will allow for adjustments of audio drift. DOESNT exist. (tried 2 of them) WMV MS streaming? You even know of one?
troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic?? Am I off topic?
Font size STILL an issue with the email program.
Email delete a ton of email and you can an not empty trash. I had over 500 emails in the trash and there is no select all or delete all etc.
Filter NO filter for junk email on the email client.
K9 works poorly so far tried it. GOOGLED POP3 replacement email programs for Android Go ahead you find one thats advanced..
Music player replacement.. Might be able to find a better one I didnt search that hard for one.
This is trolling?
So for a smart phone email support mediocre, web surfing and face book GOOD.
Video audio mediocre. Camera POOR contrast and color. Keyboard not that bad construction solid. Call quality good. Back of the phone gets HOT when streaming audio. I am just not a big Fan BOY.
This phone has good things and a lot of amateur things.
I dont mix words. The new Picture Gallery is much nicer.

My guess is the SDK is not very robust.
For a 500Mhz Processor it sure seems to have some issues doing some basic things like keeping audio in sync with video. VLC offered an audio delay so you could resync your video manually and keep it in sync.
I have the Motorola Android and even though it looks OK and works OK its still very version 0.9.