[OT?] Android phones

Evan Leibovitch evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org
Thu Apr 1 20:16:16 UTC 2010


On 31 March 2010 22:35, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:


> FYI, I picked up a T-Mobile G1 on the weekend, as my Palm Treo's
> screen got cracked up last week.  The G1's running version 1.6, and
> the reason to find it interesting (versus more "domestic" models) is
> that it allows me to be agnostic between (Rogers, Wind, Mobilicity) as
> carriers.


This same fact is what's nudging me towards a Nexus One, even though there
appear to be no telco discounts for unsubsidized phones. The Milestone at
Telus looks mighty appealing, and my instinct says that rooting/unlocking
information for it should be both more accessible and safer than for the
iPhone. Yet I still like the freedom of just buying the phone that way
without the cloak and dagger and "will it get bricked" fears.

The ecosystem is rather more open than Apple's, which seems a good
> thing.  (It's still apparently safe for people whose idea of an
> "application" is a menu for selecting pictures of "bikini babes" :-).
> That is a mighty lame cheap shot to throw at Apple, of course!)
>

I'm not sure if it's foresight or wishful thinking, but IMO the shot is not
lame at all. The porn industry is a chief driver of consumer-facing IT
innovation. There is some documented evidence that limited availability of
adult content played a part in the death of Betamax (
http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v49/no1/johnson.html). Whether that
reduced available content was the decision of Sony or the industry doesn't
matter. In the case of the iPhone, Apple absolutely doesn't want anything
related to adult content on their phones, and I think it will hurt them in
the long run. Maybe not enough to singlehandedly push the iPhone/iPad out of
the market, but certainly enough to open significant opportunities that the
Android ecosystem could easily embrace.


- Evan
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