The Saturday Wrap: 11/14/09

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Looking for a weekly nutshell of Android news so you don’t have to scour multiple blogs every day? The Saturday Wrap is for you.

Samsung Behold II

T-Mobile’s Behold II was officially announced on November 12th, set for release on the 18th. I received my own review unit, which I’ve begun to test out (see video below). The price we were expecting turned out to be incorrect. Unfortunately, the phone will be $229 on a two-year contract. Most people, myself included, think T-Mo is asking too much in exchange for what the phone offers. I’m using the phone every day, so I’ll let you know if I change my mind. (cont.)



The rest of the Saturday Wrap lies after the break

Spotlight on Moto

motorola_3

I asked in the last Saturday Wrap if anyone was sick of Droid news, and I didn’t hear anything back. Perhaps you’re indifferent. Maybe I was just deafened by the flurry of stories about the ultra-hyped device. The thing did sell roughly 100,000 units in its first weekend on shelves, and I’m glad to say I have one. I have an Eris as well, so you can expect some comparisons in the not-too-distant future. Both of the phones are expecting updates in December, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some “before and after” contests. Maybe the fury will die down a bit by then. The buzz storm is headed North: it seems Canada will suffer the media blitz before long.

There has been a lot of talk about the Droid’s exclusive peek at Android 2.0, but the Android hacking community, as usual, has sped up the process of the proliferation of the tasty new software. Thanks to the source being pushed over to the AOSP, you can soon pop an Eclair into that ol’ G1. Another Droid exclusive – Google Navigation – was anticipated to be G1-ready for the masses before too long. Now, it is.

Is that all of the MotoDroid news for the week? I know there was a bit about the percentage of phones they’d produce that would run Android, and uh… Oh, if neither the Vega tablet or RAmos MID caught your attention this week, have a look at the three OLED tablets MOTO has in mind.

Saygus

This odd bugger, the Saygus VPhone, is supposedly headed for Verizon. The company seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Hey, it does video calling over 2G. I don’t care how obscure the company, if it actually delivers, I call it a contender. (cont.)



It came with the frame

Have you ever purchased a digital photo frame? Me neither, but I like the idea. A purchase like that is basically a declaration of the abject disposability of a large percentage of your income (unless you got it as a gift for your mom, grandmother, etc.). If that’s where you’re at, I could use a couple unopened frames myself. And what kind of frame do you send the guy who writes for DroidDog? An Android-powered frame…Psha! If you’re making a donation, go for the $620 designer model. I can get a grip for that on ebay. If you’re just looking for some funny video content, grab the Hikari frame from Japan. (cont.):



More rumors, more problems

HTC’s fabled Dragon-enhanced Passion is being rumored to drop mid-December, but I don’t even know what to think anymore. Verizon? T-Mo? Direct from HTC? Stop playing with my emotions already. The phone probably runs WinMo. (cont.)

crying-child


What a week! Busy all over the place, though I know only a small percentage of that is evident at the DroidDog homepage. But a couple of back stage tasks changed the way you interact with me and each other. Do you like the new comment system and related links? Ah, don’t worry about the survey. Just let me know if something really damages the site, please. Growing pains can be expected.

There ya go; the stories I found most important in Android this week. Here are a few others:

Softbank joining Android fold
Sprint’s Hero Rooted
Treo 650 booting Android
Motus passes FCC
Droid dismantled
Device Anywhere helps devs with fragmentation issues
Ion is ADP 2
Confusing Android video stuff

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For me, I like simplicity, so Rosie/Sense/Touchflow hasn't been the draw that would pull me in to upgrading to a new phone. And although none of that was ever intended to be on the G1, I've played around with some of the Hero/Sense/Blur custom roms on my G1. There seemed to be so many background processes running that the phone could never catch up with itself. Yeah, the G1 is too underpowered for it, but seems to me that none of the phones being released could reasonably run any of that without slowdowns & force closes. There simply isn't that much of processor and/or memory difference once the G1 has been overclocked and the spl updated and/or the 10mb boot hack applied. Even if the new phones run semi-well with Sense, can you imagine how much better they would run with a more simplified desktop? And I think that's my point. I don't want to do without ... I want everything out of my phone (em, mini-computer) that it can possibly offer. I want it to do the things I want, fast. For some, a whizbang desktop with a widget for everything could possibly be the answer. Or maybe the animation of the Cube desktop. For me, a couple of well placed widgets on the home screen, an uncluttered drawer (thanks to the oh so helpful Advanced Launcher mod) with folders that have my apps sorted into categories, and some pruning of apps that duplicate functions of other apps and reduce things from sucking the life out of the phone by constantly doing things in background ... well, all that brought my G1 back to fantastic performance (especially on top of Dwang's rom). Honestly, I couldn't be much happier with a phone than I am right now. Of note, check out "Manilla" in the XDA app forum. Right now, it's only a prototype, but it looks especially designed for me! What it all boils down to is this is still a baby OS. It's maturing very fast, but it's still young. I'm thankful that there was slow adoption of Android amongst the carriers (and customers too). With 2.0, it looks like there are great strides in every aspect of the OS and the phone's they run on. I think that's what fed excitement over Droid. The 1st G1's (and Android 1.0) wasn't exactly ready for prime time. Luckily, the community has rabid supporters and a number of brilliant developers that have quickly found solutions to most of the flaws ... and the Google developers have been (for the most part) open to changes and have implemented the useful one's in the core system ... we now have an OS that we can brag about to all the obnoxious iPhone users! :) And once the community developers get their hands into the bowels of 2.0, that thing will likely lead to the most impressive 3.0 by Summer, 2010. I hope the phones can keep up.

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I haven't received my Cliq review unit yet, but regarding the UI issue, I agree for the most part. I do like Sense, and am anxious to try it on a more powerful phone. I think HTC needs to start releasing some custom icon packs, or to open it up for others to release them on the Market. Thanks for the comment. Checking back on my 2.0 talk, I noticed that a chunk of text was gobbled thanks to a missing quotation mark in a link.

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I missed your question about Droid mania. I'm sick of it too. Seems to me that right now we aren't getting exceptional Android phones. Nothing really and truly stands out from the rest. All they are doing is slapping interfaces on top of the OS. And when it comes to those interfaces, they've all been a disappointment because they slow the phone down so much or don't live up to hype. Yeah, the phone may have a few extra features/enhancements over the G1 (or others), but with 2.0 being ported as I write this, we'll all have it soon enough ... we already have some of the features available to us right now. But I do look at it like this ... I'm a big supporter of Android, so if they hype for the Droid (or anything else coming up) helps the adoption of it, then so be it. The furor over Droid will subside when the next thing gets officially announced (or the rumors start flying around). That will be soon enough.

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For me, I like simplicity, so Rosie/Sense/Touchflow hasn't been the draw that would pull me in to upgrading to a new phone. And although none of that was ever intended to be on the G1, I've played around with some of the Hero/Sense/Blur custom roms on my G1. There seemed to be so many background processes running that the phone could never catch up with itself. Yeah, the G1 is too underpowered for it, but seems to me that none of the phones being released could reasonably run any of that without slowdowns & force closes. There simply isn't that much of processor and/or memory difference once the G1 has been overclocked and the spl updated and/or the 10mb boot hack applied. Even if the new phones run semi-well with Sense, can you imagine how much better they would run with a more simplified desktop? And I think that's my point. I don't want to do without ... I want everything out of my phone (em, mini-computer) that it can possibly offer. I want it to do the things I want, fast. For some, a whizbang desktop with a widget for everything could possibly be the answer. Or maybe the animation of the Cube desktop. For me, a couple of well placed widgets on the home screen, an uncluttered drawer (thanks to the oh so helpful Advanced Launcher mod) with folders that have my apps sorted into categories, and some pruning of apps that duplicate functions of other apps and reduce things from sucking the life out of the phone by constantly doing things in background ... well, all that brought my G1 back to fantastic performance (especially on top of Dwang's rom). Honestly, I couldn't be much happier with a phone than I am right now. Of note, check out "Manilla" in the XDA app forum. Right now, it's only a prototype, but it looks especially designed for me! What it all boils down to is this is still a baby OS. It's maturing very fast, but it's still young. I'm thankful that there was slow adoption of Android amongst the carriers (and customers too). With 2.0, it looks like there are great strides in every aspect of the OS and the phone's they run on. I think that's what fed excitement over Droid. The 1st G1's (and Android 1.0) wasn't exactly ready for prime time. Luckily, the community has rabid supporters and a number of brilliant developers that have quickly found solutions to most of the flaws ... and the Google developers have been (for the most part) open to changes and have implemented the useful one's in the core system ... we now have an OS that we can brag about to all the obnoxious iPhone users! :) And once the community developers get their hands into the bowels of 2.0, that thing will likely lead to the most impressive 3.0 by Summer, 2010. I hope the phones can keep up.

share
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For me, I like simplicity, so Rosie/Sense/Touchflow hasn't been the draw that would pull me in to upgrading to a new phone. And although none of that was ever intended to be on the G1, I've played around with some of the Hero/Sense/Blur custom roms on my G1. There seemed to be so many background processes running that the phone could never catch up with itself. Yeah, the G1 is too underpowered for it, but seems to me that none of the phones being released could reasonably run any of that without slowdowns & force closes. There simply isn't that much of processor and/or memory difference once the G1 has been overclocked and the spl updated and/or the 10mb boot hack applied. Even if the new phones run semi-well with Sense, can you imagine how much better they would run with a more simplified desktop? And I think that's my point. I don't want to do without ... I want everything out of my phone (em, mini-computer) that it can possibly offer. I want it to do the things I want, fast. For some, a whizbang desktop with a widget for everything could possibly be the answer. Or maybe the animation of the Cube desktop. For me, a couple of well placed widgets on the home screen, an uncluttered drawer (thanks to the oh so helpful Advanced Launcher mod) with folders that have my apps sorted into categories, and some pruning of apps that duplicate functions of other apps and reduce things from sucking the life out of the phone by constantly doing things in background ... well, all that brought my G1 back to fantastic performance (especially on top of Dwang's rom). Honestly, I couldn't be much happier with a phone than I am right now. Of note, check out "Manilla" in the XDA app forum. Right now, it's only a prototype, but it looks especially designed for me! What it all boils down to is this is still a baby OS. It's maturing very fast, but it's still young. I'm thankful that there was slow adoption of Android amongst the carriers (and customers too). With 2.0, it looks like there are great strides in every aspect of the OS and the phone's they run on. I think that's what fed excitement over Droid. The 1st G1's (and Android 1.0) wasn't exactly ready for prime time. Luckily, the community has rabid supporters and a number of brilliant developers that have quickly found solutions to most of the flaws ... and the Google developers have been (for the most part) open to changes and have implemented the useful one's in the core system ... we now have an OS that we can brag about to all the obnoxious iPhone users! :) And once the community developers get their hands into the bowels of 2.0, that thing will likely lead to the most impressive 3.0 by Summer, 2010. I hope the phones can keep up.

share
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I missed your question about Droid mania.I'm sick of it too.Seems to me that right now we aren't getting exceptional Android phones. Nothing really and truly stands out from the rest. All they are doing is slapping interfaces on top of the OS. And when it comes to those interfaces, they've all been a disappointment because they slow the phone down so much or don't live up to hype.Yeah, the phone may have a few extra features/enhancements over the G1 (or others), but with 2.0 being ported as I write this, we'll all have it soon enough ... we already have some of the features available to us right now.But I do look at it like this ... I'm a big supporter of Android, so if they hype for the Droid (or anything else coming up) helps the adoption of it, then so be it. The furor over Droid will subside when the next thing gets officially announced (or the rumors start flying around). That will be soon enough.

share
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  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

I missed your question about Droid mania.I'm sick of it too.Seems to me that right now we aren't getting exceptional Android phones. Nothing really and truly stands out from the rest. All they are doing is slapping interfaces on top of the OS. And when it comes to those interfaces, they've all been a disappointment because they slow the phone down so much or don't live up to hype.Yeah, the phone may have a few extra features/enhancements over the G1 (or others), but with 2.0 being ported as I write this, we'll all have it soon enough ... we already have some of the features available to us right now.But I do look at it like this ... I'm a big supporter of Android, so if they hype for the Droid (or anything else coming up) helps the adoption of it, then so be it. The furor over Droid will subside when the next thing gets officially announced (or the rumors start flying around). That will be soon enough.

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