Comment Re:Criticising typos was lame 20 years ago... (Score 1) 72
Heh. Look how high his user number is. He probably wasn't alive 20 years ago. lol.
Heh. Look how high his user number is. He probably wasn't alive 20 years ago. lol.
HIPPA is privacy. I think you mean ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
I've been an Android user for over a year now. I kind of agree. Most of this isn't gaming specific though. Here's the problems as I see it.
The search functionality in the android market stinks. This is Google "king of search", but if you don't have the exact app name, good luck finding anything.
There's only 1 level deep categorization. Big hierarchies are a pain to manage, and some apps fit multiple categories. And it's hard to display a tree on a small screen. But only having 1 level deep makes it very hard to browse. If you don't know the name of the app, have a QR code, the app isn't a top 20, or if it's not updated almost constantly, it's almost impossible to find.
A desktop client for browsing, searching, purchasing, and installing apps, and perhaps other content (movies, music) would be helpful. Basically iTunes for android. DoubleTwist addresses some of this, but the market integration is in it's infancy (and I don't know that purchasing will ever work, unless google buys doubleTwist - hey, there's an idea!)
Not having any kind of review process in the market, there's a lot of shovelware, and a lot of ip infringing crapware. There's even been some malware. It's kind of like the wild wild west. Or the internet. Sometimes, being an "open" system isn't such a good thing from a user perspective.
Outside of the market, I think that divergent hardware is an achilles heel, not a strength. There's what, 3 or 4 iphone versions to deal with? Android runs on what, dozens of models (or will). With so many phones with varying capabilities, and os versions - not to mention bugs and quirks like the nexus one multi-touch swapping, some applications, especially games that like to get as close to the hardware as possible are going to be difficult to make portable.
How'd they know we all have beards?
yeah, who spilled the beans on that one?
Time flies way too fast when you're having fun.
Chrome is coming to the mac soon. I'm running a nightly snapshot of Chromium (http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/), from a couple of days ago. They've got a bit of work to do on it, but it's good enough I'm using it as my every-day browser now. Only major problem I've run into is that the java plugin on snow leopard doesn't seem to work yet.
An ATM is not a military or government facility.
Haven't you read the news lately? Bank bailouts/stimulus? If the government now owns a portion of the bank, then it could be argued that it is a government facility.
OpenFire, as many others have noted, is an open source jabber server, that's highly extensible, and already has support for the logging you require (via the monitoring plugin).
The same group also has a web based client, SparkWeb, that you can lock down to your OpenFire installation. You can also lock down OpenFire, so that it only supports your official client. One of the nice things about a web client is you don't have to deploy to 100 desktops. You just send out a link.
The paid apps setup in the market is a serious mistake.
I think andappstore.com has gotten the security model right. It requires some work on the developer's part, but it provides for strong copy protection, and works on the dev phone.
Actually, there is a video recording app out (in the market), and it works.
Tethering is something that will probably never be permitted without a hack.
Battery Life: The battery life isn't too bad. I get about 3 hours constant use, with gps and screen on (brightness up for daytime use), on 3g, running turn by turn gps (telenav). Standby lasts a long time -- if you're not logged into IM, twitter, and facebook, and exchange mail client, all checking constantly for updates (which I do). My wife has a very light use profile (just voice, email, and calendar), and gets 3-4 days of standby. So I have to plug in at night, and depending on what I'm doing, plug in during the day. BFD.
GUI: I've had no GUI issues. The real downside here compared to say the iPhone, is there's no UI standards. There's conventions to be sure, but no rules. RC33 did introduce an issue with incoming calls (rings for too long before you can actually answer), but I wouldn't classify it as a UI issue.
Notifications: I don't have an issue here, outside of some apps (non-stock ones) not performing notifications as advertised. As much as you don't like it works, there is a logic behind it. You get notified, hear the sound, but don't check your phone. You check your mail and read your message. You remember you have a notification on your phone. You go to check it, but WTF, there's not notification! In my opinion disappearing notifications would be a much worse user experience.
Visual Voicemail: Don't use it, so I can't really say. I have a Grand Central account, and there's an app for that, so I've been thinking about using it. If you have issues with PF Voicemail, you could always write your own (You have a "dev" phone, you must be a developer right?). Or send the developer a friendly email with your suggestions.
Market: I have to admin, Google has REALLY screwed the pooch with the market. I mean, a hidden folder for copy protection? I think andappstore.com has gotten it right, and it will work with dev phones.
Google Apps integration: They're very well integrated, assuming you're a *NORMAL* user, and have only one account. You're not the only person "suffering" from this problem, but you're probably less than 1/10th of 1%. There's a fairly simple solution. Create a meta account. Have that account pull your mails from all your other accounts, and share all your calendars with that account.
SD Card: Music & Photos. Pictorial (by the authors of Maverick & Hello AIM!) is good if you use picasaweb (google's picasa app has some limitations pictorial doesn't). Video's work too, but lack of good encoding instructions is a problem. TuneWiki (also on the iPhone) is a very capable alternative to the built in media player.
Mini USB: The adapter isn't that bad. My phone shipped with one. It has a button to let you answer calls (and a microphone). The "standard" though is just for charging.
Potential: I can see your point. It is by no means a perfect platform. But I also don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be -- the iPhone isn't perfect either. "Cupcake" features have been a long time coming -- I want bluetooth stereo support (bye-bye adapter), and better video support.
"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds
