The anti-perky

[jducoeur]

Oh, my -- just hit the new ad for Verizon's upcoming Android-based phones. It's oddly reminiscent of the legendary 1984 ad, albeit utterly different in tone. Like the original, it plays upon the common mental construction of the current dominent platform. In 1984, it was the regimented, corporate image of the PC; in the new version, it's the perky but somewhat confining limits of the iPhone. In contrast, they're painting the next-gen Android as full of attitude and power.

Nicely-constructed ad, I have to say -- a little risky in the choice of videogame-shooter style, but attention-getting. I'm exactly the target audience: in the market for a new smartphone, but leery of some of the iPhone's design decisions. Nearly every point they make is one I've thought about myself. They're setting high expectations here -- I'll be interested to see whether they can live up to them...

Comments

[asim.livejournal.com]

Reading the various tech blog commentary on the Droid is the first thing that's stopped me from driving pell-mell for my Palm Pre once I'm out of AT&T's clutches. Although Android isn't as open a dev environment as WebOS, a really nice phone might just tempt me.

[jtdiii.livejournal.com]

Now that is a snarky add. I like it.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, edgy. And actually, I'm right there with you: in the market for a new smartphone (my Palm Centro stopped syncing last month, and the screen went wonky -- still usable, but with a "smear" -- yesterday), but stuck with AT&T. I'm "due for an upgrade" on our plan next month, but auntie_elspeth loves her Razor and neither of us wants the drama of switching plans. I'd like a Pre, but that's not possible (reference osewalrus's writings on that absurdity here). And I'm nooot quiiiite suuure I'm buying the iPhone hype. Nor am I enamored of the Blackberry, based on friends' feedback. So I'd be very interested in the opinions of the great Intarmesh out there.

[jducoeur]

I've heard very negative stuff about the Blackberry, albeit just from a couple of sample points. The iPhone *is* tempting, particularly for the zillions of apps, but I'm far from entirely convinced yet. And for all Verizon's notable flaws, their network *has* tended to provide me better coverage than the other options. So if they can come out with a good enough phone, they might yet keep me as a customer...

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

But specifically -- being as you are far more clued in to this stuff than I am -- what are the issues that are skeeving you about the iPhone? Mind, I use my phone for pretty run-of-the-mill stuff:
* Calendar/schedule, linked to the Palm Desktop app.
* Calculator (not exactly high tech!)
* Email (both Cox and Gmail)
* Web (LJ occasionally, Weather, Google, SCA sites)
* eBook reader (Nice to have in waiting rooms)
* and occasionally to make phone calls (Yes! It actually does that!)

[jducoeur]

Much more technical stuff, mostly: the lack of multi-processing and push capability, the horrifically arbitrary process for getting apps approved, generally the way Apple is maintaining unbelievably tight control over it.

Basically, it's a fairly sucky-looking platform to build stuff for -- and as the sort of person who might want to build apps for myself and friends, I'm not sure I want to support that.

(Also, I'm not sure that AT&T reception is especially good at home, which is a significant consideration...)

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Okay, I do understand your PoV. And I've read some disturbing stuff about that arbitrariness. But the way I read the above, none of those issues actually relate directly to the consumer experience of a garden-variety user like myself. So...from my PoV, what do you think of the thing? Would it be a good choice for my purposes? It does look pretty cool, and I could see myself going all candy-store over the gajillions of apps.

[jducoeur]

Oh, for the average user it's certainly competitive -- indeed, I should be clear that, despite my qualms, I haven't ruled it out as my next phone. Reports vary about the relative merits of the various platforms -- in general, it sounds like Palm's WebOS is a bit better -- but all of the platforms are pretty powerful. And Apple absolutely has the edge in apps: they got first-mover advantage, and parlayed it unusually well.

It's worth noting that Ars Technica did a monumental article about WebOS a few months back, which implicitly talked a fair amount about the iPhone in terms of the relative strengths and weaknesses. Their conclusion was essentially that, as a mobile communications device and a personal organizer for *large* amounts of data, WebOS wins hands-down; as a platform for personal consumer applications, the iPhone still has the edge. Both have a lot of both, but that's where the relative strengths are. The article summed it up as (paraphrased from memory), "WebOS isn't an iPhone killer, it's a Blackberry killer".

So my guess is that, for your purposes, both would probably do fine -- you're not really pushing to the edges in either direction...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Since you list Calendar/schedule first, I remind you of how Epic Fail I found that functionality on the iPhone.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Eewsh! Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that. Turns out I've always had one of those schedules that can only be plotted on a toroid in 11-space, and lately it's only got more complicated, so the Calendar/Datebook function -- although outwardly trivial compared to some of the sexy uber-techy stuff that smartphones are doing -- is vitally important to me.

So...given that I (a) don't want to switch from AT&T (and so can't get the Pre I think I really want), (b) want a fairly robust smartphone and (c) decidedly don't want a Blackberry, what would you suggest I get when my account "becomes due for an upgrade" on November 17?

Given the spajillions of 3rd party apps reportedly available for the iPhone, isn't there something out there that would suit my needs (which does involve the "third Tuesday" and "every month except July and August" and suchlike functions)?

Opinions/suggestions, anybody?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Windows Mobile's built-in calendar has enough complexity handling to suit me. It can't handle *completely* arbitrarily complex patterns, but it can recognize a pretty large phase-space. And it will allow you to edit a single instance of a repeat without disturbing the rest, when you want to do that.

I can't say I love the OS particularly, but it fulfills most of my needs at the moment.

[jducoeur]

Well, the heart of the problem is the background-task issue that Alexx alludes to. One of the iPhone's big weaknesses is that it cripples the ability to run stuff in the background, which makes it very difficult to build an effective third-party calendar app. (At least, it makes it near-impossible to get the alarms to work right...)

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Given the spajillions of 3rd party apps reportedly available for the iPhone, isn't there something out there that would suit my needs

Apple doesn't permit apps that duplicate their built-in functionality.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

You might consider using a Web-based calendar (Google Calendar has a good rep) and getting notifications by SMS.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, after a little research last night, I'm starting to think that, of the options available from AT&T, the smartphone I really want is, of all things, the Samsung Jack. It has a (reportedly) decent OS in Windows. It has a real, physical keyboard, which I prefer. It has one of the email programs (Xpress as I recall) that will allow me to access my Cox account directly without screwing around with Yahoo, AOL, Me...or Outlook (which I flat-out refuse to use).

Comments?

[keshwyn]

My main complaint with the 'Droid is that the leaked photos of the thing make it look really *ugly*. I love the look of the Cliq, and I'm seriously considering it, but it apparently has the usual smartphone battery life problems *and* there's a rumor mill running around that whatever Project Dark is in T-Mobile, it's going to result in a serious price drop in rates and fees, so I'm waiting.

IMPATIENTLY. :}

Perhaps it will end up being whatever my yulething gift to myself is. If the 'Droid turns out to be less ugly than the leaked photos, I can definitely see myself going back to Verizon.

Huh...looks good to me

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Interesting; I think the Droid looks really good. Might be a...gulp...generational thing; at a guess, I think you're about 10-15 years younger than I am.

I'll agree that the non-square D-pad looks pretty bad.

Not specific enough

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Where this may backfire is that "Droid" is too generic; customers who don't pay enough attention may think all Android devices are the same, and go for something cheaper from Sprint or T-Mobile.

(I wish AT&T would get an Android or Maemo phone, but I doubt they'll bother as long as they've got a lock on the iPhone.)

Tethering

[metageek.livejournal.com]

My main concern about the Droid is that it's on Verizon, which has always been pretty rabidly anti-tethering. (They customize their phones to omit DUN altogether.) There are tethering apps for Android (both Bluetooth and WiFi), but they require a rooted phone. Some stock Android phones have been rooted, but it's apparently much harder if the phone has a custom build. We'll see.

Re: Tethering

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

To quote Meredith (who works in the industry), "All phone companies are evil. It's just a question of 'Has this one screwed me over lately?'"

Re: Tethering

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but it's not just a matter of having evil policies; it's also a matter of enforcing them competently. I don't think anybody actually permits tethering, but AT&T doesn't prevent it. By crippling their phones, Verizon does.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Some info/pictures on the Droid, here.

While Apple's control of the iPhone has been fairly heavy handed, Verizon has a reputation that's at least as bad. They go out of their way to disable useful features to prevent phones from being used in any way but how they imagine they should be. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out in this case.

Writing apps for the iPhone is pretty easy. It's unfortunate that one needs to be a paid member of Apple's development program to actually get them to run on an actual iPhone, but you once that's done, you can distribute apps to yourself and (up to 100 of) your friends without having to deal with the App store. Even the App store isn't that bad, in practise. Yeah, there are some horror stories, and high profile rejections, that are pretty troubling. But 80,000 of us, or so, have gotten Apps approved.

[jducoeur]

It'll be interesting to see how that plays out in this case.

Yaas. Really, my main reason for hope is that the ad *specifically* dings the iPhone for not allowing open development, and indicates that they will be doing differently. We'll see if that is true...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

And I just came across this, which claims that Apple and Verizon are testing a 4G version of the iPhone on Verizon's network. Assuming Verizon doesn't put too many restrictions on the phone, this might be a nice alternative, for those not thrilled with AT&T, but still liking the iPhone.

[jducoeur]

That rumor has certainly been flying for a while, but this does seem more concrete than the previous versions I've heard...

[metageek.livejournal.com]

And it would avoid my latest objection to the Droid: EV-DO doesn't support simultaneous voice and data.