[OT?] Android phones

[Christopher Browne]

On 2010-03-27, at 16:10, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Tyler Aviss wrote:
>>
>> though I find that the iphone app store seemed a bit more "polished"
>>
>
> Well, what do you expect from Apple? ;-)
>

There's more apps, but many are a wasteland of worthlessness.

Apple keeps frying more apps due to not fitting "policy" which  
regularly gets more self-serving.

The Android "Marketplace" is not nearly so controlling, and, except  
when carriers interfere (cough, cough, AT&T), leaves an express "out"  
for users to get at third party apps without need for any central  
control.

Sipdroid, for instance, allows data-based telephony which Apple  
*strongly* rules out.

I have played with Apple apps on my iPod - some are quite slick, but  
lame apps are not rare.  One of the Apple "culls" is of the cast of  
thousands of "menu UIs" of pictures of bikini girls.  Not heinous  
stuff, but it does add to thousands of pretty worthless downloads.   
(And if you *want* that, the Safari browser can find plenty of such of  
whatever level of raciness may be desired out on the web.)

> I find the Nexus One looks interesting too.  I had been considering  
> the HTC Magic, but Rogers seems to have dropped it.

I'm also looking at this with interest.  My Palm died (cracked screen,  
sob!) the other day, so I will likely be on something new soon.

The HTC Android phones have quite a lot of third party support for  
custom firmware - look for CyanogenMod, which is only one example.

I worry that Android may be diverging from Linux, but it doesn't much  
affect application space, and kernel devs are worrying about it, and  
the problem does not seem intractable.
-- 
Christopher Browne
Cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org
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