iYawn
OK, that is really harsh, so I need to explain.
Last week Verizon had a gadget open house put together by Laura D. to show off some of the latest and greatest Verizon gadgets to be released in the very near future.
Everyone there seemingly loved the Droid so this underwhelmed sediment is shared solely by me, and my biggest disappointment was that no one could show me a game changer on the Droid. I lean towards the luddite end of the early adopter scale, when I find something that works for me, I have a tendency to hang onto it like Christopher Walken held on to that pocket watch in Pulp Fiction.
The first thing I thought when handed the phone was, "damn this thing is a brick!" Looking up specs, its 30 grams heavier than my current phone, which is only a little over an oz. but it feels more substantial than that.
Then when the first website I visited loaded up as a mobile version of the page I lost all interest in it and didn't give it a fair shake after that.
Now it was explained this is at the discretion of the web server and not the phone, but still, it happened on one other site and to me, the web pages seemed to open slower than what I was used to on a mobile phone.
But, its probably unfair to compare it to my jesus phone, its not a leap above, but maybe more one step behind.
For a more neutral viewpoint you can read one of Tom Streeters reviews here and Bryan Sherman's here. They have been geeking out on the Droid and they love it.
So my take on the Droid, it could be the Blackberry killer, iPhone killer? not so much, but that's totally based on a first impression.[where: 45202]cincinnati ohio downtown coast-usa streetcar Cincinnati Issue 9 droid
9 comments
I know what you mean but, from the point of view of someone who likes to get their hands dirty (and fingers bruised) the TI Omap processer is on the far side of the curve, the Android OS is much tighter than Blackberry (a bunch of Java lo mein by now) and much less anal then OS X (which I use daily and love so don't get upset). Android is particurly appropriate for small embedded systems. A lot of mobile phone mfrs are about to adopt Android and eventually one of them well come out with a UI that's better than a 1980s one button digital watch. So be patient. For me, I'm stuck with Cincinnati Bell so who knows. Maybe I'll have to be happy with the SDK and the emulator.
ReplyDeleteI guess its all relative, I'm stuck on a RIM v4.6 8320 and was thinking about gettin the droid. I am still wondering if the phone is able to handle the google translation API, and AJAX APIs in general. Also wondering if the push feature of the RIM is superior for the many email accounts I have connected to my device. Glad to see someone is giving an honest review instead of just re-iterating the hype.-Adam C.
ReplyDeleteAs I tweeted when the whole iDont campaign started... it isn't a matter of being an iPhone killer, it is a matter of making a killer phone. If all phone companies attempt to do is out iPhone the iPhone, they will fail every time. Instead, they need to figure out ways to make a phone that will appeal to the people who don't have an iPhone yet (for whatever reason) and try to convert them to users.
ReplyDeleteBy branding themselves in comparison to the iPhone, Motorola/Verizon managed to remind everyone that if you get a droid, you are getting something other than an iPhone. It was stupid on their part.
Bob, was the loading of some web pages the only reason you didn't like the phone? You do know that you can modify Opera Mobile to report to the web server as an iphone. I get the same web rendering on my WinMo phone as you do (albeit, not the same useability or overall experience, but that is a conversation best held over some cigars).
From the people I have talked to, Android based phones don't really purr until you get under the hood and tinker a little bit. Between flashing new ROMs and tweaking core system functions, it could really become anything you want it to. The commercial release is made for the majority of people, but it has potential that is left untapped for those that are comfortable tweaking and modding. Sure, they could open everything up, but why confuse the 99% that won't use the features for the 1% that will.
Nice blog and comments but I don't have a clue what anyone is saying. Why do you want to do all this stuff on a telephone anyhow?
ReplyDeleteNice comments everyone, it didn't seem a bad phone, it just didn't do anything to give me a reason to care about it. A phone just as good as the one I have?
ReplyDeleteWow, that's impressive.
That said, from what I've heard and I can see because its open source maybe down the road it could be much much better.
We'll see, to far, the narrowly focused is beating open source.
Dad! LOL, you can us old timers, we walk around actually talking on our cell phones.
"A phone just as good as the one I have?"
ReplyDeleteIf it is a phone just as good as the one you have, then isn't that a big leap for the competitor? Most of the other phones that have tried to be iPhone killers have clearly fallen short..
Anything WinMo based? nope, not even close (even with hours of hacks it still stinks on ice)
Android 1.0? Nope, it was a phone based around a proof of concept OS
Palm Pre? Not really. It seemed to be less impressive than most things out there.
RIM? It is an old standard, and they don't seem to want to change the old part. Storm was an embarrassment.
So if Android 2.0/Droid is on par is the champ, that is a big improvement for the competition.
Even if it can't compete with your Jesus phone for your affection, I'm glad you came out for a visit. It's always good to see you.
ReplyDeleteI really dig my Palm Pre, plus I am developing applications for it. I would say the downside of the device is the Sprint network because we switched from Verizon.
ReplyDeleteI would say the downside of the device is the Sprint network because we switched from Verizon.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny to hear. While the in-store customer service from Sprint is some of the worst I have ever had to deal with, both the online (via twitter) support and coverage have been great. I rarely drop calls, am in roaming, or have calls/texts disappear.