That’s my opening statement and now I’m going to explain why!

You’re probably reading this article, or at least the title and thinking; what the hell is going on with AndroidSPIN and all this Windows Phone 7 talk and bashing Android. First of all, this is all me and my thoughts and feelings about where Android is heading. These are the impressions I get when I use competitors products to try to keep up with the times, and see what Android has to compete with. I still love Android and it’s still my number one OS and I don’t see anything changing in the near future, but I also like to keep my mind open and see what other people do better or worse and feed this information back to you guys. Read this article before you start to judge and I hope it will get your brains kicked into motion and see if we can get some more informed answers to the questions I’m raising in this article. I’m no developer so all the opinions and findings in this article are based on my own experiences.

Androids Achilles Heel? Maybe!

Everyone states that we have complete multi tasking operating in Android and how awesome it is to have all that power, but I’m saying that’s it’s becoming Androids Achilles Heel.  Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with a Samsung Focus S from AT&T that Samsung was kind enough to send me. While I have my concerns about the Interface and the lack of customization you get with Android, I have to say that Windows Phone 7 is pretty well done. It will never replace my Android phone, but it does work well. One of the main advantages is the battery life that I previously reported.

The Windows Phone 7 has never had any problems with memory or slow down and I never have to worry about what’s running in the background.  I don’t have to think about the applications I’ve installed and if my phone is slowing down or becoming unstable due to badly written software running in the background that is not easy to track down or close.  It just seems to keep going.  I’ve gone through the Windows Marketplace and installed application after application, games, social tools and lots more and have not experienced any issues.

What’s with all the developer options?

The guys over at Google want us to believe that Android  has awesome memory and task management and that the operating system will simply take care of things and manage its memory as required.  If this is the case, why does Google keep adding more and more tools in the background to counteract badly written applications?

The option for “Don’t keep activities” appears to force android to clear out the data used by the application you are switching away from, thereby releasing more memory.  This is something the application should do on its own accord, if the developer has written the application correctly.  From what I’ve read, the function “onSaveInstanceState” is what a developer should use to save the application state from an activity before being killed so that the state can be restored later when the user returns to the application.  This is probably too much information for the average Android user, but I’m just trying to give some background.  You can also set the “Background process limit” which I’m assuming will prevent an application from starting too many background processes, leaving them running in the background.  I’ve done some searching for more information about these options, but I can’t really find any definitive answers.  Most of the answers I find just say that these options are for developers and should not be touched.

What I don’t understand is why we are even seeing these options.  Most people are end users of the phones and not developers so why not have a developer tools application that developers can install with extra setting for their application testing.  They are simply making Android more complicated to the average user and the over all experience.

I’ve talked about Windows Phone 7 before and people commented that they never have slow down on their devices and Android is simply awesome.  I seriously question those statements or say that those people are not really using the power of Android to its fullest or haven’t encountered one of the many badly written programs.

If a program is written correctly, it should release most of its memory and processes when you switch to another task, but this relies on each and every programmer to write their applications correctly in the first place.  Windows Phone 7, iOS and WebOS  enforce this method and freeze an application when you switch away from it, only allowing specially written services to continue to do background tasks.

If a program is written badly on Android, it can refuse to release the memory it should and simply continues to run at full pace in the background eating your precious clock cycles and eventually slowing down your phone.

Why are we trying to make our phone act like a desktop computer?

Android is an operating system designed to run on phones, so the first question I ask is “Why do we need our phones to multi-task like a desktop computer?  Your screen is not big enough or capable of showing multiple applications at the same time so why do this!

I’m sitting at my desktop running Windows 7 and have a dual monitor setup.  I have 3 browser windows open, a number of Google Talk chats and I’m monitoring my tweets while I’m writing this article in Microsoft Word.  Do I want it to multi-task, of course I do!!  I can see everything at the same time so I want it all to keep running and updating in real-time.  That’s the nature of what I call multi-tasking.

Can I create this same view in Android?  No I can’t, so why do I want it all to act the same as my desktop?  I don’t!

It seems all other phone operating systems have stricter control over the applications released for them.  Windows Phone 7, iOS, and WebOS to name the major players.  It also seems that these other operating systems do everything we need them to do but don’t get bogged down with too many programs running at the same time.  They still perform all the same functions.  We still get our notifications for email, Twitter, Facebook and many other social applications.  They still receive phone calls and text messages in real-time in the background.  They just do it differently.  The tighter guidelines and controls over how people implement services that perform the background tasks of the applications seem to work much better and give much less chance of a rogue application causing chaos on our devices.

Is Android Too Much?

The BIG question is.. “Is Android overkill for a device that has a primary purpose of receiving phone calls and keeping an eye on some of our favorite social messaging and emailing accounts?

When we have a rogue application, why don’t we have an easy way to shut down that application?  Why isn’t there a task manager we can get to?  this also raises the never-ending debate of whether we need a task manager or not to make Android run better.

I made the mistake of thinking that the new “recent application list” in Ice Cream Sandwich was in fact a pseudo tasks manager.  From watching initial videos and presentations from Google, I thought when you swiped your finger across an application from this list that is was not only removed from the list, but it also killed the application altogether.  Silly me.  It’s still just a recent application list the same as we’ve always had, they just changed the way you get to it.  This really makes no sense to me.

They have removed the long press of the Home button that we previously used and added a dedicated button.  Now a long press of the Home button does nothing.  What a waste of screen real estate.  We still have the Home button so why didn’t they just leave it alone and use the soft keys at the bottom for some other purpose or allow us to customize it ourselves?

So I open the debate!  What is wrong with Android?  Why do we need multi-core processors and gigabytes of memory to run what is primarily a phone?  I can understand this need more when we start to get some serious gaming on our phones, but then again, most of this performance comes from the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and no the CPU.

Forget your interface preferences at this point and just think about what I’m saying in this article!  Does Android need to be a fully multitasking operating system that acts like a desktop computer and why?

I realize you’re all probably tired of hearing anything new about the Google Nexus S built by Samsung, so I’m not going to take up too much of your time.  I’ve been reading everything I can about the Google Nexus S and trying to work out in my brain…

What is Google Thinking?

When the Google Nexus One came out, it was the one and only device to get your hands on.  It had the external connectors for car and desktop docks, Aluminum casing and just looked and felt like the best Android phone ever released.  It’s still the best designed Android phone to date if you ask me.

Then comes the Google Nexus S, with the same old processor as current devices, in a plastic shell with no external connectors, no track ball or pad and the most ridiculous removal of any component ever.  Not to mention, no external upgradeable storage whatsoever.  I just don’t get it!

We better just hope that the GPS works when it arrives!

There are so many questions going around in my head; Why would Google release such a device? How can this mediocre device be launched as the flagship Android Gingerbread device?

So it has a curve to the screen! OMG, I think I’m going to wet my pants in excitement…. NOT

The hype has been abundant, been posted so many times on so many sites and you’ve all had a chance to absorb every detail about the Google Nexus S. What do you think?  Tell me why you’re going to purchase one, and why I should purchase one?  Tell me anything about this device that makes it any different from the existing line of Galaxy S phones available today.

Oh that’s right, I remember now, it has a Near Field Communications (NFC) capability we’ve all been eager to get our hands on.  That’s what makes it THE device to have this holiday season.  How silly of me to forget that!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

It’s been a long time since my last “Simon Says” article and if you’ve read them in the past you’ll know that one of my pet gripes is the lack of hands free support in the base Android OS.  This is just a little update along the same lines as some progress has been made and the functionality is in fact almost complete, with exceptions.

This is even more important with the introduction of more and more bans on phone usage while driving a vehicle.  Which is totally justifiable as the number of accidents increases due to phone usage while driving.

See the map below for the latest laws on text messaging bans around the country. The table shows states that have cellphone laws, whether they specifically ban text messaging, and whether they are enforced as primary or secondary laws. Secondary laws mean an officer must have other reasons for stopping a vehicle before citing a driver for using a cellphone. Laws without this restriction are called primary laws.

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

When T-Mobile released their update for the MyTouch 3G slide, they included a function called “Driving mode“.  If you’ve seen Driving Mode in action you’ll know that it’s a complete hands free system for your Android phone.  Text messages arrive and you are asked if you want your phone to read them,  once read, you have the option to send one back with confirmation prompts along the way.

Enter the T-Mobile G2 and lo and behold the functionality is no longer present.  Why oh why do they tempt us with something pretty cool and much safer for the Android driver and then fail to add the same functionality in future devices?  I was really hoping that even though the G2 was advertised as a base Android experience phone that some extras would be included and not just the stacks of bloatware we found.

Many of you will say that there are applications available on the Android Market that will provide the same functionality and you can download them for free.  I almost agree, there are applications that do MOST of this but I still maintain that this is one area where Google is failing with the base Android OS.  They have the time and money to invest in making cars that can drive themselves all in the name of safer driving and then fail with something as simple as the phone operating system.

I also think if  T-Mobile (and any other carrier) are going to introduce something in a phone that they are selling then future devices released by them should at least have the same functionality.  This way you know if you purchase a phone from your carrier, you’re getting the same basic functionality as previous devices based on the same OS.

If you want a somewhat safer hands free driving experience, you should look to Vlingo.  Vlingo has a function called “SafeReader” that will read out your incoming texts but unfortunately, does not give you the option to return the message like the Driving Mode T-Mobile provided.  Vlingo will also read out emails for you but you have to separately configure your email accounts in the Vlingo application, which is a little bit of a pain.

Vlingo is not stopping. They have built an “InCar” feature, currently only available for Sprint customers, that has a more complete hands free experience.  The system integrates with any Bluetooth connected device and offers a much richer experience.

They created a small video showing off some of the features of the InCar enhancements.

Vlingo has a report titled “Distracted Driving” that provides some numbers and statistics about this subject.

So come on guys, let’s see more hands free integration. Let’s make our driving experience safer without having to wait for our Google car to drive itself.

You know I’m a big fan of a community where everyone can work together as one big happy family sharing code and applications.  We’ll I’m glad to report that the momentum is moving in the right direction and people are talking.  The idea that I originally placed in the minds of the community was a long time ago, but thanks to Chris Soyars for taking the first step with the developers, OpenEclair has gained momentum and is moving forward with WesGarner and BenBuchacher.

Now we have the first Open Android Team, an OpenAndroidTeam twitter account and the OpenAndroidTeam.com domain name.  Along with this we have created a central area to manage all the projects with private  areas for the team to chat among themselves and present ideas.  I was going to wait for the release of AndroidSPIN’s new site, but the momentum was to great to wait any longer.  This will only be improved once we release the new site with vBulletin forums and a much stronger team.

If you have any ideas for an Open Community project, please let us know in the forums and give the team your support at OpenAndroidTeam.com

What are HTC and Google playing at?

Firstly we have the whole total lack of plan options when you buy the phone forcing you into a 500 min individual plan.  Next we have the issues of the built in unlock functions as if they want us to unlock the phones and then tell us if we do, they provide NO WARRANTY at all, even if you have a hardware problem.

and finally (for now) we have the 3G connection issues plaguing the networks so they release a new radio update…..but wait…..it breaks it for people who didn’t have problems in the first place….

It was awesome that they released an OTA update that gave us the new Radio, Multitouch in Gallery, Google Maps and the Browser plus new version of Google maps with lots of really nice enhancements.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the new Radio is starting to give people problems and a downgrade has already been release by Enomther to take you back to the original radio.

Come on guys. Test this stuff first.

T9 Dialing for your Android

One of the base features I still think should be included in the phone’s base OS is the ability to quickly search in your dialer using T9 input. This works by narrowing down your contact list as you type characters on your T9 dialer.

HTC include this is most of their HTC branded phones but it’s not part of the base Android it an enhanced dialer developed by HTC.

If you have a Nexus One…Install the new phone dialer from Wysie called NubDial.  NubDial lets you narrow down your contact by dialing the letters on a T9 style dialer.  As you type a new letter is narrows down your contact list matching the characters your typing.

I would give NubDialer a try and see what you think.  It runs along side your existing phone dialer so you don’t have to worry about loosing anything.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

In the mean time, Awesome job Wysei.

As you’ve probably seen in the past.  I like to rant and rave about things.  I’m not one for drama in general and hate all the He said, She said bantering that goes on in the Android community.  I’ve been outspoken recently about the fragmentation of the Android community and how difficult it’s becoming to find what you need for your Android device without searching through piles and piles of forums, tweets and wherever else you go to find your info.

Centralized Release repository

You may have seen my latest call for help regarding a centralized release repository.  You may also say that we have something already in the AndroidSPIN ROM database.  Well we do, kind of, but it’s becoming an impossible task to maintain because it’s heading down the same road as everything else, fragmentation.  The only way for something like this to work is with the buy in from the community and mainly the developers.  Everyone is trying to entice the developer to their site, justifiably, as everyone wants the best developer on their site so the people will come and use it.

A centralized repository is not intended to take away the people from those sites; it becomes an index to those sites and would hopefully help those sites get more traffic.  The current AndroidSPIN ROM database is already an index.  Go into any ROM and Click the ROM Homepage link and it takes you to the site where the developer hosts that ROM.  This is what we need, but on a bigger scale.

We are already creating a completely new Release database for MobileTweek that will support any file type at all.  You may also have seen my call to create a team of leading Android community specialists to help define more of how that could work.  One concept is the creation of a common update application for Android devices in the vein of Cyanogens already excellent CyanogenMOD Update but one that will work for any ROM in the release database.

I started a thread in AndroidSPIN forums which you can find at:
http://www.androidspin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=260&t=226

It’s hard for me to push this as many people see this as just another way for me to promote AndroidSPIN or MobileTweek, I can assure you that it’s not my goal and you’ll have to take my word for that.

If you have a spare minute, take a look at the thread linked above, tell your favorite developer how awesome this would be and let’s try to do something.  This would benefit the whole Android community.

The state of Android functionality

I for one feel that Android is getting way too many new versions with lots of flashy enhancements in the graphics front, new menu systems, re-organizations of the setup system and more.  Yes, it’s getting better with every release but I feel that the core functionality is being ignored.  With more and more regulations and restrictions on the use of cell phones while driving, why isn’t the core hands free functionality being enhance more.  Yes, they are adding voice dictation and voice dialing has been there for a long time, but they all still require some form of physical interaction.  My Bluetooth headset has a long press action that used to launch voice dialing on my Windows Mobile phone.  It does nothing on the Android platform.  Instead I have to reach out, wake my phone up and then launch voice dialing with my hands.  It doesn’t make the functionality that’s already there pointless, but it still means I really don’t have a hands free device.  Why does this basic functionality never get addressed?  Even with the headset that came with my Nexus One, I can’t launch any form of voice control without touching my phone.  Come on guys, put some thought into the basic functionality of Android.  Even notification for missed calls and text’s there are no settings.  Yes, my trackball can flash but what about sounds?  If my phone is in my pocket, I can’t see the trackball flashing.  The functionality is there, in the background, so why not add a simple setting to say as well as flashing my trackball, make a sound.