6 ms·

"Most of all, I love that neither Apple nor any other company can tell me what I can and cannot install on my phone." though on the other hand, I hate, no. HAT

by pilif 16y ago

"Most of all, I love that neither Apple nor any other company can tell me what I can and cannot install on my phone." though on the other hand, I hate, no. HATE, the fact that $CARRIER$ can tell me what application I have to have installed on my phone without any ability of uninstalling them. Android is not all sunshine. I might post more comments as I continue reading the article.

generalk 16y ago
People that felt this way should have purchased the Nexus One from Google while they were generally available. If more folks had, it might have validated the carrier-less model of selling phones.
- sfennell 16y ago
  My biggest issue with buying an unsubsidized phone is that I would still be paying the carrier a premium for subsidizing a phone purchase (to my understanding) without actually getting that benefit. (I guess there are other carriers, I have not actually bothered to look) In the end I just seem to be loosing about $400 or so since my phone bill remains the same, but I have to spend more to buy the phone.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    Actually, as another poster already pointed out, with TMobile you don't have to pay the carrier a premium. They have a set of plans (called "Even More Plus") that are unsubsidized and are cheaper monthly. Since the initial N1 model used the Tmobile 3G bands, it made a perfect match, and a great deal for anyone willing to do the math.
- pilif 16y ago
  I did buy a N1 (gray import even). Too bad it has its hardware flaws: The touchscreen is really bad (choppy, inaccurate) and the button on my wired headset started working only rarely after two weeks of usage (sometimes the press isn't recognized, sometimes as "jump back" - and sometimes it even recognizes button presses even if there's no button on the headset).
  - generalk 16y ago
    Yeah. I've also got an N1, and the hardware flaws suck. The touchscreen is my biggest complaint, having previously used an iPhone. That said, I'm extremely pleased with it overall, and the lack of a carrier telling me what I can and can't do with it is surprisingly awesome.
- liscio 16y ago
  It's hard for any company to try and work against the carrier-subsidized pricing of handsets. As long as carriers are supplying the access, this will continue to be the case. To pay $500 for a phone, versus the $100 subsidized price, is a silly move—especially if you're planning to upgrade every 2-3 years. I say this because the service from the carriers still costs the same regardless of how you obtained the handset, and in some cases you may be paying even _more_ for service if you don't have a contract. (Of course, I'm speaking with the US/Canadian carriers in mind. I know things are better outside of North America.)
  - orangecat 16y ago
    I say this because the service from the carriers still costs the same regardless of how you obtained the handset T-Mobile's non-contract plans are $20 less per month, so over 2 years you save $480.
    - liscio 16y ago
      Are all the features accessible in non-contract plans? I've got a few contract-only perks here in Canada on Rogers, such as the 6GB data plan add-on for $30/mo, and an "Employee Purchase Program" discounted voice service at $17/mo. I don't think you can get non-contract data plans for under $30, and that only buys you 250MB/month, and voice plans start at around $25-30/month. I may be able to set up a similarly-priced plan up here, but I would lose out on many of the important features (tethering, visual voice mail, larger data caps, free evening/weekend calling, etc.)
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
bobbyi 16y ago
That's only true if you use the distribution provided by your carrier. If you don't like the OS the way they provide it, then wipe it and use Cyanogen or some other ROM that is set up exactly how you like it. Cyanogen may not work on every Android phones, but there are still a lot more phones out there that can run Cyanogen than can run iOS.
- pilif 16y ago
  This isn't that much different from jailbreaking your iphone and using Cydia though. Both techniques rely on exploiting flaws of the security framework put in place by $VENDOR. Don't get me wrong: I do like the slightly increased openness of Android, but that just stems from the fact that the OS provides more hooks to hook your app into - it's not more open in the sense that there's less control inflicted upon you on what you may or may not do with the device you legally own.
  - sl956 16y ago
    That is not totally true: there is a fundamental difference between a closed source OS purposefully locked by its maker, and an open source OS tentatively locked by a mere distributor. On almost every Android phone, you can just flash the entire OS and replace it with a plain vanilla one or your own custom build. Try that with an iPhone...
    - pilif 16y ago
      well. On older iPhones with known issues in the bootloader, you could in theory also replace the apple OS with something completely different (remember the Android on iPhone 3G videos earlier this year?). The fact that HTC and other vendors are sloppier in securing their phones (remember the discussions about Motorola's e-fuse?) doesn't make these phones more "open" in the "freedom" sense. It just means that it's easier to exploit them to install a different OS. Now the Android OS of course is open source, but what good is that if there's no device available that actually allows you to officially install your own build? This also means that my earlier comments are about the phones, not the OS itself.
brownleej 16y ago
Apparently the author agrees with you, because he complains about "how sluggish some manufacturers are to release critical operating system updates for their devices." I'm curious to know how he reconciles that with the comment that you have quoted.

by pilif 16y ago

generalk 16y ago

People that felt this way should have purchased the Nexus One from Google while they were generally available. If more folks had, it might have validated the carrier-less model of selling phones.

sfennell 16y ago
My biggest issue with buying an unsubsidized phone is that I would still be paying the carrier a premium for subsidizing a phone purchase (to my understanding) without actually getting that benefit. (I guess there are other carriers, I have not actually bothered to look) In the end I just seem to be loosing about $400 or so since my phone bill remains the same, but I have to spend more to buy the phone.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Actually, as another poster already pointed out, with TMobile you don't have to pay the carrier a premium. They have a set of plans (called "Even More Plus") that are unsubsidized and are cheaper monthly. Since the initial N1 model used the Tmobile 3G bands, it made a perfect match, and a great deal for anyone willing to do the math.
pilif 16y ago
I did buy a N1 (gray import even). Too bad it has its hardware flaws: The touchscreen is really bad (choppy, inaccurate) and the button on my wired headset started working only rarely after two weeks of usage (sometimes the press isn't recognized, sometimes as "jump back" - and sometimes it even recognizes button presses even if there's no button on the headset).
- generalk 16y ago
  Yeah. I've also got an N1, and the hardware flaws suck. The touchscreen is my biggest complaint, having previously used an iPhone. That said, I'm extremely pleased with it overall, and the lack of a carrier telling me what I can and can't do with it is surprisingly awesome.
liscio 16y ago
It's hard for any company to try and work against the carrier-subsidized pricing of handsets. As long as carriers are supplying the access, this will continue to be the case. To pay $500 for a phone, versus the $100 subsidized price, is a silly move—especially if you're planning to upgrade every 2-3 years. I say this because the service from the carriers still costs the same regardless of how you obtained the handset, and in some cases you may be paying even _more_ for service if you don't have a contract. (Of course, I'm speaking with the US/Canadian carriers in mind. I know things are better outside of North America.)
- orangecat 16y ago
  I say this because the service from the carriers still costs the same regardless of how you obtained the handset T-Mobile's non-contract plans are $20 less per month, so over 2 years you save $480.
  - liscio 16y ago
    Are all the features accessible in non-contract plans? I've got a few contract-only perks here in Canada on Rogers, such as the 6GB data plan add-on for $30/mo, and an "Employee Purchase Program" discounted voice service at $17/mo. I don't think you can get non-contract data plans for under $30, and that only buys you 250MB/month, and voice plans start at around $25-30/month. I may be able to set up a similarly-priced plan up here, but I would lose out on many of the important features (tethering, visual voice mail, larger data caps, free evening/weekend calling, etc.)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

bobbyi 16y ago

That's only true if you use the distribution provided by your carrier. If you don't like the OS the way they provide it, then wipe it and use Cyanogen or some other ROM that is set up exactly how you like it. Cyanogen may not work on every Android phones, but there are still a lot more phones out there that can run Cyanogen than can run iOS.

pilif 16y ago
This isn't that much different from jailbreaking your iphone and using Cydia though. Both techniques rely on exploiting flaws of the security framework put in place by $VENDOR. Don't get me wrong: I do like the slightly increased openness of Android, but that just stems from the fact that the OS provides more hooks to hook your app into - it's not more open in the sense that there's less control inflicted upon you on what you may or may not do with the device you legally own.
- sl956 16y ago
  That is not totally true: there is a fundamental difference between a closed source OS purposefully locked by its maker, and an open source OS tentatively locked by a mere distributor. On almost every Android phone, you can just flash the entire OS and replace it with a plain vanilla one or your own custom build. Try that with an iPhone...
  - pilif 16y ago
    well. On older iPhones with known issues in the bootloader, you could in theory also replace the apple OS with something completely different (remember the Android on iPhone 3G videos earlier this year?). The fact that HTC and other vendors are sloppier in securing their phones (remember the discussions about Motorola's e-fuse?) doesn't make these phones more "open" in the "freedom" sense. It just means that it's easier to exploit them to install a different OS. Now the Android OS of course is open source, but what good is that if there's no device available that actually allows you to officially install your own build? This also means that my earlier comments are about the phones, not the OS itself.

brownleej 16y ago

Apparently the author agrees with you, because he complains about "how sluggish some manufacturers are to release critical operating system updates for their devices." I'm curious to know how he reconciles that with the comment that you have quoted.