[OT?] Android phones

[Christopher Browne]

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 8:16 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 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.

There's a more significant "ecosystem" surrounding hacking on HTC
devices than pretty well any of the others, which points me in a
somewhat similar direction.  <http://www.xda-developers.com/>

I can't be certain, but suspect that the fact that HTC is based in
Taiwan, with all the odd political milieu that comes from that, makes
them more prepared to accept the relevant kinds of risks than an
American company like Motorola.

>> 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.

I decline to dwell on that terribly much.

There's a giant dose of hypocrisy in the matter, as described nicely here:
<http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/apple-iphone-pornography-ban/>  The
title says it all:  "Apple, There’s Pornography On My iPhone. The App
Is Called Safari. You Made It."

>From a practical perspective, the spat is pretty irrelevant, because
anyone that wants to grab more-or-less racy pictures on their mobile
device can use an application known as a Web Browser to do so.

I don't imagine that "Keeping Android Safe for Dumb Little Porny Apps"
makes an ounce of *real* difference vis-a-vis the (non)availability of
adult content.  Unless some of the apps are doing something more
sophisticated than providing a little "gallery" application pointed at
a web site somewhere.

The hurt, instead, lies in the abusive relationship with Apple
Developers (the folks creating the "dumb little porny apps").  That
won't visibly affect things today, but eventually...
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