[UFO Chicago] mobile phone advice sought

[Brian Sobolak]

On Tue, February 7, 2012 1:01 am, Larry Garfield wrote:
> Warning: Biased content follows.

That's certainly expected, even welcome.

> At this point, there are only two serious platforms in contention,
> Android and iOS.  Blackberry is sliding rapidly, webOS was stillborn
> (due more to business failure than technical failure), and Windows Phone
> (or Mobile, or whatever they're calling it this week) is still going
> nowhere fast, even with Nokia getting in bed with them.

iirc, weren't you a Palm fan?

> Of those two, iOS had the early lead but Android is currently growing
> faster and has a larger market share, even with the surge from the
> iPhone 4S.  I think some stats have Android capturing over 50% of the US
> smartphone market.  Both platforms have a bajillion apps.
>
> Android is *not* open, in the sense that Free Software people tend to
> use the term.  To make it useful still requires tying into Google.  Some
> manufacturers still pull dick moves to lock down the device.  However,
> it is still far far less closed than iOS is, by leaps and bounds.
> There's a healthy custom ROM community, if you are into such things.
> Almost all devices let you side-load apps or install 3rd party markets
> rather than going through the One True Curated Walled Garden of The
> Steve(tm).
>
> Some recent stats actually suggest that Android is more stable than iOS,
> despite conventional wisdom saying the opposite.
>
> If not obvious by now, I'd suggest an Android device. :-)

<snip>

I have to dig deeper on the price aspect of some of your suggestions. I
like the idea of 'vaguely open' from Android vs the closed model of iOs,
but it's also not the primary decision point for me.

For example, I have a child, so a lot of what this phone will be used for
quite frankly is "here's a game, can you be quiet for a few minutes
please". My wife has a Nexus G2 and we haven't had a ton of luck with the
games. iOs seems to be more appealing here.

Also, the camera on the nexus is pretty crappy.  (Again, a camera is
important with kids. Helps placate the grandparents.) It's not good at
capturing a still image.  I am not sure if that is the hardware or the
software, but it appears to be a limitation.

You're definitely right about the keyboard aspect. Having a built-in
keyboard usually adds bulk, but big gains for usability. The software
keyboards often seem to suck. I know people can become very productive on
them, but they just don't seem to be very practical.

I'm surprised more haven't made mention of Motorola. I saw they had a
system where the phone was basically the "brains" of a laptop.  That
strikes me as much more practical than a tablet -- use your phone when you
want, and when you need a laptop, jam it in and all of your "stuff" is
right there.  Might need to wait for the 2nd generation on that as it
seems that v1 had some bugs.

I'm also a very loyal tmobile customer. They've been 100x better than
other carriers to work with. So giving them up for another might be tough.

brian

> --Larry Garfield
>
> On 02/02/2012 09:34 PM, Brian Sobolak wrote:
>>
>> So when discussing the popularity of Unix and Linux, it is often left
>> unremarked that almost all of the mobile phone vendors have moved
>> towards
>> unixy platforms through Android and iOS (and if still relevant in two
>> years, qnx aka Blackberry).
>>
>> So I need a new phone. I have been using a corporate one for some time
>> and
>> haven't paid much attention to price vs features. I do need a
>> smartphone,
>> as I plan (hope?) to be able to use it as a GPS for recording exercise
>> and
>> geocaching.  Beyond that, I'm flexible.
>>
>> My only other requirement is that I will not use AT&T. I despised
>> Cingular.
>>
>> Any deep thoughts to share?
>>
>> brian
>>
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