Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

More Details on Motorola Droid Surface

I'm impressed. This phone is really promising. I'm NOT saying it's an iPhone killer. But throwing in a keyboard, 5MP camera with dual LED-flash, high resolution screen and Android is a heck of a good device. I'm sure Verizon customers will be happy to see that there is finally a good phone on The Network. :D
 
Iphone Killer or not.. This thing still looks like a Texas Instruments calculator from the 80s to me.

Form follows function etc.. fine all that, but a nice design also is quite important to me.

I'm getting a bit tired of the iPhone design tbh, but it is still nicer than this abomination in my book. The Nokia Communicator from 2001 looks better than this.

Just my 2 c.
 
Toe said:
A lot of the apps are not free, and many of those are quite nice. They have a smaller audience, but they are not all junk.

That said, I use several free apps that help me out quite a bit.
  • AP Mobile keeps me up on the news
  • Epic Pet Wars sucks a ton of my time ;)
  • Twitterific gives me my Twitter fix on the road
  • Shazam has helped me ID dozens of songs I never would have been able to find again
  • Public Radio gives me my NPR-talk-radio fix when all I can get over the air is music.
  • Wikipanion gives me fast, easy access to the wealth of Wikipedia
  • Light has been the most useful of all. It helped me countless times. Way better than the light from the home screen.
  • Enjoy Sudoku is a great Sudoku interface. Better than paper or even than paid versions.
  • The Weather Channel has saved my butt more than once, showing me live radar of storms coming my way. Plus the hourly forecast is a great thing to have on the road.
  • MiniPiano has helped me work through a few ideas
  • iHandy Level has helped me level someting more than once
Hm. That's all that's coming to mind off the top of my head. But no, I most certainly would not call any of the above junk. They are all excellent applications. (Well, Public Radio does cut out too much, but it is certainly worth every penny I paid for it… zero.)
Click to expand...

And less than 10 of the 100,000 or so available. I mean yes, even if there are only 20 really solid useful and good apps out there, it is much better than any other phone that has no apps, but still advertising this fantastic number of 100,000 apps is deceptive because most of them are useless.
 
thesmoth said:
And less than 10 of the 100,000 or so available. I mean yes, even if there are only 20 really solid useful and good apps out there, it is much better than any other phone that has no apps, but still advertising this fantastic number of 100,000 apps is deceptive because most of them are useless.
Click to expand...

The Fart App has been the cornerstone of drunken entertainment.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I don't get this idea that the Pre is selling poorly or is failing? The original iPhone took 5 months to sell 1,000,000 units. The Pre is right about there after it's first 5 months.
Click to expand...

The original iPhone was $599, had neither 3G nor apps and was, compared to the current iPhone, pretty limited overall. And don't forget the market for decent smartphones didn't exist back then. It took a while before the non-geek world found out about the new devices.

mrgreen4242 said:
Ah yes, because Motorola nor anyone else every made a smartphone before the iPhone... Apple invented that market out of thin air! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well, in fact, they did. There were no _smart_ phones before, only dumb crap mainly limited to calling and texting due to unbearable user interfaces. And don't mention Blackberries. They couldn't do more than email+push, which isn't very smart compared to what today's phones can do.
 
The Droid looks to be the most powerful Android handset to be available so far, and this can only be good for Android as I do think the current crop of HTC and others are somewhat underpowered and with too little RAM. The Droid's 512MB RAM will certainly help, as will its slightly fast processor.

I have been using an HTC Magic alongside an iPhone 3G and then 3GS this year. The lagginess of the HTC Magic, all through the firmwares up to and including Donut, is as frustrating as it was on the early iPhone OS X versions. But with Android on the Magic (and G1 for that matter) there has been little to no improvement. That strongly suggests to me a hardware performance bottleneck rather than the OS itself.

It is not important at all that anyone develop an "iPhone killer" - what would be the point of "killing" off the single most significant handset in this decade? If it were not for the iPhone we would still be meandering around with kludgy Nokia Symbian and lacklustre WinMo devices. Apple raised the bar almost stratospherically and, in one moment, re-defined the smartphone paradigm. Everyone else, quite patently, wants to follow that success and are clearly trying very hard to do so.

The game is being upped by the non-iPhone community, and that can only be good for everyone, regardless of their affiliation. I, for one, welcome advances in the Android range.
 
Gunga Din said:
I love how u all rip this thing when its got far better specs than the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I don't see many people "ripping it apart" here. There are more people leaving positive comments.

Gunga Din said:
The slide out keyboard is much better because it doesn't take up screen space.
Click to expand...

It remains to be seen whether the Droid's keyboard is better. You haven't typed on it yet, have out? It could be utter crap, no one really knows. Plus, you'll sacrifice battery life for it. So there's always a trade-off.

Gunga Din said:
I have an iPod Touch and can't stand using the keyboard. Stupid idea.
Click to expand...

I like it, not stupid at all. A matter of personal taste I guess. I couldn't imagine an iPod touch with a slide out keyboard, and I'm perfectly fine with the iPhone being "virtual" only.


Gunga Din said:
One guy mentioned the software is 75% of the equation lol. Really?
Click to expand...

Yeah, really. Have you never noticed that the raw specs of iPhone, Pre, Storm, Hero etc were never really that great compared to much older phones? All that changed in the last 2 years was the software and the fact that we have big touchscreens everwhere now.
If you reduce "software" to fart apps, then you really are missing the obvious.
 
Gunga Din said:
Like turning the iPhone into a flashlight, crap like that. Lets say a tenth of the apps get 8/10 and the rest below that. I guess 100 is an exaggeration but u know what I mean. A small percentage are really done well.
Click to expand...


Maybe you should step back and look at the apps you get for Symbian / Windows Mobile, and redefine your definition of "crap".

And who gives a damn about crappy apps if you have so many good ones? A "small percentage" of 100.000 is still a hellotof good stuff.

On the one hand, people are complaining that Apple is oh-so-closed with the app approval and all, and on the other hand they keep moaning about the crappy apps, which are inevitable with the huge amount of apps around. It's like saying the Internet is useless because 90% of all webpages suck. This is just silly!
 
thesmoth said:
Anyone with any sense would perceive it the same way as me.

I've personally downloaded at least 100, and of those maybe 5 were worth the time. People download tons because they are FREE. That is why there is 2 billion downloads. There is not big loss in download a bunch of junk, other than wasting your time.
Click to expand...

Yeah right. All those numbers from AdMob that show massive App usage must be wrong

Maybe you should read reviews before you waste you time with crappy apps.
 
thesmoth said:
Oh get off your apple fan boy high horse. Any moron can tell that a majority of those apps were made in half a day and are totally useless. I mean not even entertaining. Ohh, 150 different apps that make farting noises. Another 300 that check the weather.

Yes there are lots that may be good for some people and not others, but a majority of them are just worthless.
Click to expand...


You are completely missing the point. No one said that the majority of apps are great. No one ever did!
There are tons of really good apps out there, and that's all that is relevant.

You have made an utterly ridiculous statement with your "15 apps" and are getting the deserved reaction, that's all.
 
thesmoth said:
And less than 10 of the 100,000 or so available. I mean yes, even if there are only 20 really solid useful and good apps out there, it is much better than any other phone that has no apps, but still advertising this fantastic number of 100,000 apps is deceptive because most of them are useless.
Click to expand...

There is an old adage that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". What may appear "useless" to you may very well be the complete opposite to someone else.

Unless, of course, someone went and made you Apps Police without telling the rest of us ;)

Thank you for your opinion nonetheless.
 
Consultant said:
File under iPhone competitor of the week




Let's see

Study: iPhone leads in satisfaction for consumer, business smartphone users
http://obamapacman.com/2009/10/stud...ction-for-consumer-business-smartphone-users/
Click to expand...

And your point? How does that warrant criticizing this phone when all we have are its specs? Based on the specs, it looks very promising. Now if its released with horrible support etc, then you have a point. Until then, based on its features, you have to admit it nice. So your saying because the iPhone is doing well, that allows you to rip any new phone? lol
 
Speedy2 said:
Maybe you should step back and look at the apps you get for Symbian / Windows Mobile, and redefine your definition of "crap".

And who gives a damn about crappy apps if you have so many good ones? A "small percentage" of 100.000 is still a hellotof good stuff.

On the one hand, people are complaining that Apple is oh-so-closed with the app approval and all, and on the other hand they keep moaning about the crappy apps, which are inevitable with the huge amount of apps around. It's like saying the Internet is useless because 90% of all webpages suck. This is just silly!
Click to expand...

I'm sure this phone will have plenty of apps to use and 90% of them will suck just like Apple's. I'm looking at the core features here and the Droid looks good. Forget the apps, its easy to counter Apple. Its not the quantity its the quality. I'm sure the Droid will have enough good apps to compete in that category.
 
Overall, I think Apple has held back tech on the iPhone and Touch to milk the consumer to no end. Good for business but bad for us. With my Mac purchases, I never felt that way, but these new devices are starting to tick me off a bit.

You should be grateful the Droid is here. Its gonna force Apple to improve your iPhone and Touch. Your telling me Apple couldn't have released a Phone with specs/features similar to this Droid?

Ah well, I love my Mac, just not this iPhone era. Just doesn't sit right with me.
 
Gunga Din said:
I'm sure the Droid will have enough good apps to compete in that category.
Click to expand...

Point of order. Apps are all about Android the OS and not any specific make and model of [Android] handset. Thus, an app that works on a G1 should be expected to work on a Motorola Droid and vice versa.

I believe that if the Android apps become device-specific we'll have started down the road of the Wintel PC yet again, and the chaos that is there. Maybe that will happen anyway, who knows. I certainly hope that it doesn't, in order to preserve the original intentions of Android.
 
thesmoth said:
Do you just go around these forums asking the same stupid question to everyone to troll and piss people off? You are not contributing anything useful.
Click to expand...

Look who is calling somebody a troll, what have you contributed to this forum since joining?
 
thesmoth said:
Oh get off your apple fan boy high horse. Any moron can tell that a majority of those apps were made in half a day and are totally useless. I mean not even entertaining. Ohh, 150 different apps that make farting noises. Another 300 that check the weather.

Yes there are lots that may be good for some people and not others, but a majority of them are just worthless.
Click to expand...

I guess having more choice to choose from and cheaper prices is a bad thing, who would have thought. :rolleyes:
 
Hands0n said:
Point of order. Apps are all about Android the OS and not any specific make and model of [Android] handset. Thus, an app that works on a G1 should be expected to work on a Motorola Droid and vice versa.

I believe that if the Android apps become device-specific we'll have started down the road of the Wintel PC yet again, and the chaos that is there. Maybe that will happen anyway, who knows. I certainly hope that it doesn't, in order to preserve the original intentions of Android.
Click to expand...

Yes, but this is Android 2.0, a new operating system, and I think it'd be a big mistake to limit the apps of the Droid by making sure they all chug along on the first gen android systems. You can do a lot more than any other device with so many pixels, at least until the on-screen buttons get too small to be useable.

Unless Android devices support software updates... do they?

Like most people here I've never actually browsed the Android marketplace, or whatever it's called, but the AdMob numbers speak for themselves.
 
thesmoth said:
And less than 10 of the 100,000 or so available. I mean yes, even if there are only 20 really solid useful and good apps out there, it is much better than any other phone that has no apps, but still advertising this fantastic number of 100,000 apps is deceptive because most of them are useless.
Click to expand...

Different people like different things. That was eleven of the ones I prefer the most. But other people probably are not exactly like me.

It's not like everyone uses their Mac for exactly the same things, or with the same software. Why should a phone-shaped software platform be any different?
 
EnigMoiD said:
Yes, but this is Android 2.0, a new operating system, and I think it'd be a big mistake to limit the apps of the Droid by making sure they all chug along on the first gen android systems. You can do a lot more than any other device with so many pixels, at least until the on-screen buttons get too small to be useable.

Unless Android devices support software updates... do they?

Like most people here I've never actually browsed the Android marketplace, or whatever it's called, but the AdMob numbers speak for themselves.
Click to expand...

The Android design philosophy, and demonstrated in the new Donut 1.6 update, is to handle differing display sizes and formats independent of the developer. Although I suppose there's nothing to stop the Dev making an app that doesn't render too well on smaller screens such as the HTC Tattoo. But that would not necessarily be a design intent by the Dev who understands that Android's OS is taking care of all that "stuff".

Android 2.0 will carry on that paradigm, and it will be readily extensible all the way up to Android on Laptops/Netbooks (it already is). So the philosophy and the practical execution of it is sound and works well. So far.

To answer your specific question - Yes, Android devices do support updates. The first commercially available device, the HTC-manufactured T-Mobile G1, supports Android up to Donut 1.6 so far. There is speculation/Talk that Google will drop G1 support after 2.0. I suppose that is only reasonable as the OS begins to grow in size to accommodate the features.

The Android Market, under Donut 1.6, has a distinctly App Store look and feel to it. The range of apps is growing all of the time. You can get an appreciation of the richness (or otherwise) of Android Market here http://www.cyrket.com/type/1 - it is a useful website to browse Market with if you've not got an Android near you :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back