Google rewarms Android Market, still half baked next to iPhone App Store - Page 3

Thank you for the balanced opinion. No need to apologize, your post solely justified the existence of this thread.

I'm with you. REAL competition won't hurt anyone.

Nop. I'm just getting started. Trolling trolls is a great sport. The Teckstud used to ran away from me! Let's see how well you can do.

Now mister trollckkets, see if you can provide a link to DED referring to Kinect as being a "complete and utter flop," Or will you just avoid answering that using a different strategy? Attack my English, perhaps? Let's see your true colours then.

Android gives you both. I mean this in a couple of ways; if you want an iTunes-like functionality, there's DoubleTwist which takes care of that for you and has both wired and wireless syncing, but if you're like me, I do all my app updates and the like OTA, but when I want to put music or video or really anything that will take a lot of space on my phone, I just plug it in with a USB cable and use it as a mass storage device and literally drag and drop what I want onto my phone. The flexibility is killer.


And to the comments relating to out-of date hardware, I don't know where to start...
I'm doing my best not to sound like a troll here, so I'll keep it concise and break it down into two points and a conclusion:

1. As mentioned elsewhere, apple consistently releases out of date hardware extremely marked up but with some kind of improvement elsewhere to make it worthwhile. I know: I have a MBP that cost far more than a PC of the same specs would, but man do I love that trackpad...
Phone-Example of the above: The Nexus 1 and iPhone 4 have comparative specs, both have a 1Ghz processor (although to be fair, the iPhone's is underclocked to 800Mhz), and 512MB RAM. But the N1 came out 5 months before the iPhone 4 did. The iPhone has that nice display, and a front facing camera, but so does the Evo which came out the same month as the iPhone 4 with again, similar specs. It's really tit-for-tat here, it depends on what's important to you. Want wireless tethering? -N1 Want a huge screen? -Evo Want great batter life? -iPhone 4, you could go on all day, the point is, they're all great, it depends on what's important to you in a smartphone.

2. Apple releases roughly one model a year, it's impossible to say that they are always top of the line for that entire year. HOWEVER, I think we can agree that the point most commenters are trying to make is that it's top or close to top of the line at the time of release, and all android phones are not. This is definitely true, but it comes back to what I just said; Apple releases one phone at a time, there is no cheap model, just the good one, if Android was structured the same way it would be much more similar, but it isn't, and that's where the confusion sets in.

In Conclusion: When comparing Tesla Motors to Mercedes, you end up comparing one car (the only one Tesla currently makes) to an entire line of cars. While a Mercedes sports car might compare to the Tesla Roadster, the Mercedes minivan certainly won't.
Android is compared to iPhone in every aspect, because Apple had the first successful smartphone to be adopted by many non-business users. That's good, it should be compared in some respects, but that doesn't mean they are the same and should be compared in ALL respects, and hardware (in the respect that it's been argued here at least) is one of those caveats.

How about not even starting? You're too much into specs and not enough into the whole package. For instance, you more or less indicate the MBP trackpad is to die for, yet how many laptops have trackpads? Conclusion: a laptop's merely having a trackpad doesn't mean squat.

Sure they mostly all have trackpads, but the one on the MBP is multitouch and just really pleasant to use (software-wise and actual feel). Not to mention that multitouch gestures seem to be interpreted completely separately on the MBP than courser movements so I can edit an image in Photoshop with the mouse while simultaneously scanning around it with a trackpad gesture. But I wasn't trying to say that it's all about the hardware, in fact, I was pointing out that though I bought a computer with specs I could have achieved for cheaper because the hardware was old, it was still a good product because it brought something else to the table that I felt I benefited from.

I agree that the whole package is important, and to that effect, like I said, it's tit-for-tat from device to device and OS to OS. I was, however, not addressing my comment as an overarching statement on all of Android or all of iOS. I was responding directly to comments concerning hardware by making statements concerning hardware.

I would gladly discuss other areas of the systems, but I was trying not to create a diatribe that was too lengthy and spanned too many topics.

Ad nauseum and semantics - look it up

Trailer footage isn't the same as gameplay footage? Wow, I never knew! Thanks for that unrelated piece of information - the Internet sure is full of learning

You realize the difference between one game and a completely unrelated and different game, right?

And that the difference between a trailer footage and actual gameplay isn't at all relevant to your point (or mine!), right? Unless, of course, you're claiming that the trailer shows a 3D environment and graphics when the game is - in actuality - a 2D side scroller. Man, that would be quite the advertising scheme!

I just noticed this, too. Does this count as double posting?

When would you ever need to install a 25GB OTA? Even desktop operating systems are a fraction of that size! If you mean syncing your music/movies wirelessly then you wouldn't be doing it over the Internet, just on your local Wifi network...

Wait, you're just trolling now right? You must be trolling. Are you trolling?

I would think he's/she's talking about all of their data to iOS. But with the sizes of some of these apps, it's understandable that one could rack up such a large stash of data. I recently downloaded a weather app that was over 200MB for my iPad. It was a beautiful app full of animated videos and high quality sprites, but over kill when all I wanted was a quick vew of the weather that wasn't an over-stretched iPhone app.

Having recently updated a SonyEricsson Experia X10 to Eclair, I was wondering where this OTA stuff was, especially as I had to go out of my way to find a windows box to do it on, as neither Mac or Linux are supported.

This must be an example of fragmentation that all the Android touts seem to want to deny.

The update to iOS 4.2 is over 600MB, my GPS software (MetroView) update was 900MB, game updates are anything up to 7-800MB, updating on iOS is not like updating the crappy Java based Apps found on Android.

Wow, that's totally absurd. I wouldn't even install that on a desktop/laptop. Using up that much disk space for "pretty" (on any platform) is pretty baffling to me. Of course, I'm sure it's a very nice app, but it just doesn't seem worth it.


While I (sort of) feel your pain, you can't even reliably transfer music to an iPhone on Linux, much less run a software update. Hardware manufacturers are notoriously lazy when it comes to supporting anything other than Windows, so using an alternative OS is pretty much a calculated risk in most regards.

That being said, is hardware compatibility a legitimate reason to choose one phone over another? Sure, absolutely. Is the opinionated "crappy Java based apps" opinion helpful to anyone? Not really, and it's ill-informed at best but a disingenuous over-simplification at worst (and I say this as someone who quite detests Java).

As a certain Australian video game critic once noted (though referring to consoles), the almost crusader-like fervor that people develop regarding their choice of hardware is truly astounding. People seem to feel surprisingly inadequate if their electronics aren't ZOMG THE BEST.

TL;DR - People are weird.

Maybe you should move to a bigger town, the place I live only has 50,000 people and I have 16Mb ADSL to home

DED's simply putting his money on Apple. Chances are, he's right. Every quarter proves his point. After all, backing Apple gives you a set of points that are brutally easy to argue. It's far more difficult to argue against their success. It's like telling Michael Phelps how to swim.

Expect more articles like this. This decade belongs to Apple, with the addition of a whore-out-your-OS-to-any-takers style commodity pusher too busy in the race to the bottom to care, and it ain't MS.

I looked up the original data and the sums add up to more than 100% because they included apps that changed pricing model during the study period. That is, if they started out paid and then moved to free within the survey period, they were counted twice. Not due to rounding. Good eye though.

I don't know why people take these things so personally. I love my iPhone, but if using another brand of phone/OS/app store makes someone happy, so be it! I dunno why people why need to call each other crazy, dumb, ignorant, etc.

People will give their allegiances to the pettiest of things

Liar AND troll - no link

It is when people are misled into believing that they will experience games on Android, based on a trailer and find that they end up with a VERY different experience due to games made to run in Dalvik, (Googles non license compliant version of a JVM), which are made to run on the lowest common denominator.

same here... am happy with my iPhone and that's all there is... though reading the comments surely gives me a laugh...

i have to say sorry to you acslater as i accidentally clicked on the multiquote...

This is a perfect example of why Android sucks. What is my mom supposed to do with this screen? How is an everyday user supposed to know whether they are getting hacked from this? Like write access to an SD card, uh ok, what are the implications of that again?? I lose everything? Great. Thanks for the warning, I'll just skip the whole freakin platform.

wow that post was actually objective... pretty refreshing from the flame war I have to say and I learned something...

I read articles on this site because I own a 27" Mac, an iPad, an iPhone and 4 iPods. However, the blatant lies and skewed comparisons are getting worse and worse. It's beginning to feel like reading a teenage fanblog about Britney Spears or worse, it's like reading the Pyong Yang Times... If you give freedom to people, like Android does, you always get a phase where the copiers and quick cash cowboys are a majority. However, a free market always works in favor of price AND quality. Steve and the Church if Jobs think that their followers can't handle this kind of freedom. They want to decide FOR you because they know what's best for the sheeple. The press idiots that populate Apple sites don't seem to be capable of free journalism. They swallow whatever Steve can spit and anything else is sacrilege. I love Apple products but I shudder to think what will happen if the Great Steve goes to that big Apple Store in the sky.

I understand loving your device and showing support for it. But how hill60 knowingly misrepresents Android by using trailers from the dumbphone version of Avatar is just sad.

By his subsequent posts,I get the feeling that even if we got Gameloft to demo both games on both platforms side-by-side for him, he'll claim that the Android version was nothing more than a perfectly timed video.

For what it's worth, I played Let's Golf and Let's Golf 2 on both the iPad and Galaxy Tab while I was waiting for my friend to finish some business at a Verizon store. I loved it so I bought it from Gameloft right in the store. Besides a larger screen, there was absolutely no difference in my experience between the Tab, iPad, and my DX.

Thing is, the HD versions of the game require a certain minimum spec level to play it. It's not different than the PC/Mac gaming world. If you bought a computer with low specs, then it's not unfair that you can't run a graphically intensive game.

What you're saying is similar to Crytek putting out a trailer for Crysis and then you crying foul that it won't run like that on computers that don't meet the minimum specs.

So for Gameloft to put that trailer out for the Avatar HD game for high-end Android devices (which runs exactly like Gameloft's video shows, might I add), they are misleading no one.

She can just click "install" and if she is using regular software, everything will work as intended.


I think that most people like your Mom have a wonderful son who helps them with stuff like installing software, however. Anybody ever gotten a call with a Mac question from a relative?

When you are ready to graduate to a real smart phone platform where you no longer have daddy Steve Jobs taking you by the hand and no longer need the baby protective barriers of his walled garden, Android will be waiting for you.

Or you can stay in kindergarten all your life. Why not, after all, you have no responsibility.

How does she know it is "regular" software? What does that even mean in an un-policed zone like the Android store? The point is that on the AppStore from Apple, she can download what ever she wants and not worry that some evil action is going to occur. There certainly is a lot of crap up on Apple's store but I can be confident and she can be confident that none of it poses a risk to the user.

This sort of warning is just bogus. What does it even tell me? My information is potentially at risk because of this app? How do I as an end user not the good actors from the bad with this sort of notice?

Why are you attacking me? Is it because your argument is so weak? Why were you even showing that picture? To me it represents the biggest failure of Android - that it is posing as something anyone can use but really it has all this nasty technical stuff there exposed that no one understands or wants to. That is not more mature, its just bad. No reason for that. It just means they did not know what the hell they were doing and they are experimenting on users in a bad way.

You are wrong if you really think that sort of warning means that the platform is smarter. Who wants to buy stuff from a market where there is no inspections for quality and hazard? Are you happy eating in a restaurant that is not inspected by the health department? Do you want to buy toys for your kids where there is no one checking to see if there is lead in them? It is the same story with software.

It is not a question of paternalism, it is a question of reasonable oversight. We don't all need to be inspectors. It is better to have a central place where things can be reviewed to make sure that the software is not taking a bad action. Then it can be released to the wide open market for people to evaluate for themselves. There is no reason to expose everyone to malicious code to "help" them become advanced. On the contrary, the Apple system is awesome because anyone, my mom, my sister, my neighbor, all the people who might otherwise ask me for help, who might otherwise be worried about viruses or what not, can just go up there and buy something with reasonable confidence that nothing bad is going to happen. They don't ever ask for help with iOS, they don't need to.

We so often hear the whining from developers about how Apple is hurting them by checking their app before release. What we don't hear is how awesome the experience is for consumers. They are having a ball downloading apps, trying new things. Happily paying for stuff they have never heard of but want to try. It totally works well. And they don't have to see that sort of BS warning Android shows.

So why don't you be specific about this handholding?

I think you'll find that there aren't terribly many things that Apps can't do these days.

Quit with the generic bullshit, it's boring.

Location: I'm getting there is a social networking aspect of this app. More than likely this is clearly listed in the description

Personal information: Challenge your friends to tetris!

Network access: This part is pretty obvious, no?

Storage: It needs space to store on SD card.. a lot of users won't download a game unless it's capable of being moved to SD card.

Phonecalls: The app runs in full screen mode. It needs to know if a call is coming in so it will minimize.

iOS applications can access similar information. They just don't tell you what.

The thing is that if nearly every app is using all of these functions, then what is the point of the warning? Also, each of these domains tells me very little about what could happen with this app.

Because you complained that Android has no security, as if it just blindly allows whatever.



Who said Android apps didn't have security checks? (not rhetorical)



Uh, Apple shows warnings too.

Well I guess since no one understands it Apple shouldn't have an any options to turn off anything related to privacy?

I guess they don't need that website either to opt out of location based iAds either huh? Must be nice that you have to browse to a web site to opt out of personalized advertisements.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4228

Generic? There's a reason for that: It's the whole fucking iOS ecosystem. No carriers in the US but ATT, no provision to unlock after fulfilling the contract, no political paradies, no porn, no distasteful stuff (although the Android market doesn't allow it either), in 2009 no apps that duplicate Steve's most holy iOS functions, no third party browsers (caved in finally), no unapproved apps, no choice to run flash, hell up until iOS4 you couldn't even change the fucking background.

I said nothing of the sort. I said the sort of warnings shown in the photo you posted are stupid - they are. I am not an expert on Android security - I just know bullshit when I see it and those warnings are useless. They do nothing for the user. Is this version of Tetris a good or bad acting app? I know nothing from this warning based on the API's it accesses - no way I could make that judgement. So the result is that every user feels a little like a guinea pig. That sucks.

Why with the ability to side load apps wouldn't Google review the app store? Pull the illegal content? Curate the content as any retailer does? I will tell you the reason: it is because then they would be validating the types of things that Apple has been doing and they, purely for PR and marketing reasons, don't wan't to be seen as doing that even though it is in the interest of the user and IP holders. Google has this big openness bullshit identity that they think makes them morally superior, it is a fraud. Copyright infringement of the type listed in the article should not be tolerated.


Honestly, what are you talking about? Do you consider the warning you showed a security check? How does it help security if I am just going to allow it for every app? If every app is going to access storage, the phone, the internet according to another Fandroid, what is this alert telling me?


Apple's warnings about allowing an app to have your location information are totally appropriate. What is your point? My issue is about warning that make sense - that do something useful to help the security of the user.


Ok, this has little to do with iOS as a platform and everything to do with opting out of the iAd network. So how do I opt out of AdMob? I assume your point is that that is a natively controlled by the user on Android? Looking at the AdMob terms I don't see an opt-out system. So what is your point?

Not every app is using those functions

The point is that you don't know WHAT your iOS apps are accessing.

And if you download a movie player that needs access to your SMS client, you know not to install it.

No the point is that I don't need to care. The apps have been checked over. I don't have to worry about what apps my sister or mother might download. I don't have to worry about whether they understand the implications of a game wanting to access SMS. I am not sure that I want or need to understand that implication for myself.

And the huge benefit there is that consumers can experiment with apps that might be new or untested in the marketplace without fear. I downloaded an app from a child developer. I had no security worries there. That is part of the reason that the app store has allowed software sales to take off in a way they never could from an un-curated channel.

With the Android app store I am in a position to need to trust the developer. I need to be concerned with which API the dev is using, I guess I do, at least that is what that warning seems to be saying. Why would I need to care about that stuff if the app has already been vetted by an organization I trust. It is a benefit to the user not to have to worry about that stuff, viruses or any kind of malicious code just should not be in the store at all.


Do I? What if it, like Tetris, has some social aspect? Well then I guess it is ok?