Vedant’s blog

The comments below explain why I don’t like Android quite well. It’s got this thing about being open and open source when, in spirit, it really isn’t. I can’t auto-reply to SMSes depending on attributes like sender, date/time; I can’t put my own system which plays a voice saying "Hey, I’m very busy right now; if your call is important, press 1" so, depending on the input it can either drop the call, notify me with a beep or start ringing. I can’t connect to the phone from the Internet and retrieve information from it, and that would still use less power than wifi or bluetooth. Bluetooth is still a pain in the arse; it is too complicated in spec which ruins it. I don’t have a system to block callers from specific numbers if I don’t use the Do Not Disturb registry. I can’t track my phone and have it send debug-level logs of positioning systems (cell-id and GPS) to my computer in near real-time (without using an app that would drain your phone battery in a few hours). There’s nothing that efficiently connects all neighbouring phones with each other (with consent) without using the cell network. With such a lot of focus into phone operating systems, you would think companies would bring features that customers need rather than overwhelm all the customers with features that aren’t very useful.

I wonder if Palm’s webOS would be good. I wish it would, but I doubt it.

Also see a previous post by me on a similar topic.

Comments are from a Slashdot story about how bloatware is becoming a problem on android phones):

I’m Confused… (Score:5, Insightful)
by RobotRunAmok (595286) on 2010-07-22 23:03 (#32992646)

I thought android was the "Open" one…

Re:I’m Confused… (Score:5, Funny)
by MrEricSir (398214) on 2010-07-22 23:06 (#32992716)

Of course it’s "open," you just have to jailbreak it first!

Re:I’m Confused… (Score:5, Insightful)
by nine-times (778537) on 2010-07-22 23:35 (#32993236)

Funniest thing is that people have said that to me, and they weren’t joking. Part of the reason I got an HTC Incredible is that everyone kept talking about how open Android phones are. Then I was like, "Ok, now how do I get WiFi tethering on this bad-boy?"

The response was, "Oh, it’s easy. You just have to root it."

"So you’re saying I have to hack it. Same way I can do whatever I want with my iPhone, but I have to hack it first."

"No, no. It’s totally different. Android is open."

"But you have to hack it in order to be able to do what you want?"

"Yes."

*sigh* "Ok, so how do I root an Incredible?"

"Oh, you can’t. Someone will probably figure it out sooner or later, but for now you’re just stuck with what you have."

"But I could jailbreak an iPhone now and do whatever I want with it. People already figured it out."

"Yeah, I guess."

"How is this more open again?"

"Because with Android, you can do whatever you want! It’s Linux, after all."