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"thus limits its audience" I must disagree on this. Android's adoption is both in high-end smartphones like the Nexus, as well as a lot of low-end, with-the-pl

by sudont 15y ago

"thus limits its audience" I must disagree on this. Android's adoption is both in high-end smartphones like the Nexus, as well as a lot of low-end, with-the-plan phones. What limits it's use is the geeky feeling you talk about. I know a large segment of users who use Android, and only the technical ones are those who use features: everybody else basically has a dumb phone with a big screen and extra 20/month plan. The monopoly preventing the same gold rush on app development in Android that iOS has is that: paying users. They may be coming soon, though. I know plenty of iOS users about to jump ship to Android. My mom will buy an app (iOS), my friends who develop software for a living won't (Gingerbread).

slouch 15y ago
i disagree with both of you. my non-nerd friends have taught me how to use my android device way better than i was able to teach myself. i never thought to look for a text pop-up app, i just figured that functionality was on my old phone and not my new one. i didn't consider the advanced task killer widget would put a button on one of my home screens and take care of the work i put into the manage applications menu force killing things i don't want anymore. i have two girlfriends that use android way smarter than me, the one who is reading an android development book.
- theBobMcCormick 15y ago
  If your friends are teaching you to use advanced task killer, they're teaching you wrong. That shit is snake oil. See these links for more info: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-wi... http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-...
  - slouch 15y ago
    i'm not trying to defend a task killer so much as the act of terminating applications. i used to "force stop" apps from the applications menu before i got the killer. that said, low memory situations exist. task killing reduces their load on the system. your links are informative, but i'm not going to let my phone crawl next time it starts to because i shouldn't have to kill apps in a perfect scenario. i used to reboot my phone to reclaim performance, now i use a task killer. from your first link: "can be killed by the system in extreme low memory situations." "and it will often be killed by the system when memory is needed elsewhere." so task killers just accelerate the system's own ability to close applications that aren't being used anymore. also, only two apps that i have offer the ability to close themselves. if i know i am done with the app for the next few hours, my task killer gives me the ability to close the app.
  - slouch 15y ago
    i'm reading the second link now, and it almost seems to contradict the first: "Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations."
    - theBobMcCormick 15y ago
      The first link quotes the Android documentation. The second link is written by a core Android OS developer. They do not contradict.
bergie 15y ago
Here in Finland you can get an Android phone without a contract for about 130€. That means it is suddenly competitive with the Nokia feature phones. Last weekend I spent some time traveling by train. Saw more of those cheap ZTE Androids than Symbian or iOS smartphones. Of course the question is whether those people are able (having credit card) or willing to buy an app.

by sudont 15y ago

slouch 15y ago

i disagree with both of you. my non-nerd friends have taught me how to use my android device way better than i was able to teach myself. i never thought to look for a text pop-up app, i just figured that functionality was on my old phone and not my new one. i didn't consider the advanced task killer widget would put a button on one of my home screens and take care of the work i put into the manage applications menu force killing things i don't want anymore. i have two girlfriends that use android way smarter than me, the one who is reading an android development book.

theBobMcCormick 15y ago
If your friends are teaching you to use advanced task killer, they're teaching you wrong. That shit is snake oil. See these links for more info: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-wi... http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-...
- slouch 15y ago
  i'm not trying to defend a task killer so much as the act of terminating applications. i used to "force stop" apps from the applications menu before i got the killer. that said, low memory situations exist. task killing reduces their load on the system. your links are informative, but i'm not going to let my phone crawl next time it starts to because i shouldn't have to kill apps in a perfect scenario. i used to reboot my phone to reclaim performance, now i use a task killer. from your first link: "can be killed by the system in extreme low memory situations." "and it will often be killed by the system when memory is needed elsewhere." so task killers just accelerate the system's own ability to close applications that aren't being used anymore. also, only two apps that i have offer the ability to close themselves. if i know i am done with the app for the next few hours, my task killer gives me the ability to close the app.
- slouch 15y ago
  i'm reading the second link now, and it almost seems to contradict the first: "Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations."
  - theBobMcCormick 15y ago
    The first link quotes the Android documentation. The second link is written by a core Android OS developer. They do not contradict.

bergie 15y ago

Here in Finland you can get an Android phone without a contract for about 130€. That means it is suddenly competitive with the Nokia feature phones. Last weekend I spent some time traveling by train. Saw more of those cheap ZTE Androids than Symbian or iOS smartphones. Of course the question is whether those people are able (having credit card) or willing to buy an app.