Holo Theme Is Now Mandatory For Android Devices 206
tripleevenfall writes in about the new theme changes in Android 4.0. From the article: "Starting with Android 4.0, support for the 'Holo' theme will be mandatory for phones and tablets that have the Android Market installed. Holo is the stock Android theme, known for its sharp angles, thin lines and blue hue. Third-party developers can now create apps and widgets using the default Android aesthetic, knowing that's how it'll look on every major Ice Cream Sandwich device that has the Android Market. "
This is not banning custom themes; instead it is merely giving developers a consistent theme that is guaranteed to be installed if they want a consistent look across all devices. There are even a few improvements to the style protocol to help developers deal with dark and light themes.
This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:2, Interesting)
This doesn't appear to address fragmentation at all. To the contrary, fragmentation will be even easier, according to the article:
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that the carrier's business model is to sell you a new phone every six months.
I don't think carriers and handset makers are actually that clever. I just dont' think they consider software updates at all relevant. Given even in the days of yore, with WinMo and PalmOS, OS updates were largely nonexistant. Want Winmo6 from Winmo5? Buy a Winmo 6 device!
The idea that you can have the latest and greatest OS with out custom flashing your ROM is kind of new.
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IIRC, major OS updates for palm devices largely didn't exist. Going from Palm OS3 to 4 or 5 was impossible.
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I'd flashed both my Treo 180 and Treo 650 with updates. Mind you those were closed-source OSes, but you just entered the phone's serial into a page on the Palm website and received the update image.
Subsidized (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that the carrier's business model is to sell you a new phone every six months.
Why in the world would they do that? The carrier's primary goal is to get customers is to commit to the most expensive 2 year contract possible. The insane overage rates are really just to prod customers into upgrading to more expensive contracts is all. Smartphones require the most expensive contracts because they consume voice minutes, SMS texts and data more than any other type of phone. Thus carriers subsidize the phones to give customers the equipment to consume those resources. The ideal customer is one with a modern enough smartphone to require an expensive contract, who that keeps that same smartphone as long as possible.
Does your monthly rate decrease after your contract is up? Does it decrease if you buy your own phone straight out? Of course not. Yet the carrier makes even more money off of you because you're still paying a monthly rate that factors in the subsidization cost of the phone.
So to sum it up, there are only two reasons a carrier wants to put new cell phones in their customers' hands. To upgrade customers with regular or premium phones to smartphones that require a more expensive contract, and to keep the more demanding customers from switching to other carriers because they offer more cutting edge hardware.
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Or reason #3, minimize churn by getting your customers in a new contract before the old one expires. By getting them to lust after a shiny new phone.
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They are probably loving this phone smart phone fad t
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Really? So texting on a numeric pad is just as easy as on a keyboard?
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Ever since getting a smartphone, I make much less calls and sms messages than before.
That's because people can be reached through IM, Whatsapp and Email, which is much cheaper than a call or an SMS
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
With all due respect, you don't understand what you're talking about. The greater fragmentation threat revolves around custom implementations of core parts of the OS. Most specifically "ContenProviders" (the API, not media companies, although those are a problem for everyone of a different sort). This is even a problem with Google not following their own APIs but asking developers to use the MediaStore API (but that's a different discussion).
With regards to upgrades, certain older devices had limited inter protected storage for the OS an apps. The original Samsung Galaxy S is one of these. Right after that phone came out more and more devices were implementing larger internal storage. This particular problem with upgrades, is an unfortunate one-time-only growing pain. That's not to say those devices cannot receive security updates, just that they cannot fit the entire ICS image + apps + a skin on the protected storage.
You can sit back and play monday-morning-quarterback, but the truth is the internal storage+SD had some nice advantages for the user, but ultimately it was decided (rightly so) that there needs to be more room for apps and the OS.
Finally, the point of this article, which has little to do with upgrades, is that app makers now have some more reliable and consistent APIs for UI widget appearance. There is nothing bad about this. Sure it's a small step, but it's a step in the right direction. It even allows devs to maintain a style inline with whatever skin the user is currently using, or use the more stock looking one. Finally, when you consider many apps use their own look and feel above and beyond any OS look and feel, this is probably not a huge deal regardless.
Your tirade again fragmentation, especially being so uninformed on the issue, just seems irrational. iOS is great, Android is great. They have different strengths and weaknesses.
Flurry is a joke to Android devs. They specifically cater to iOS devs, and were embroiled in a privacy scandal in early 2010 on Android. Further, Google Analytics provides a similar service for free, and one that is already hugely popular among web developers. Flurry puts out that same press release every year to garner press about themselves. This is absolutely the worst kind of skewed statistic. "Iphone analytics company that was previous burned by bad behavior on Android, says more of its customers are iphone devs than in the past" It was sad to see so many media companies pick up the PR release.
With regards to who does the most web surfing, you would need a statistic that accounts for the fact that many Android phones used to report the UA string as "mobile safari" and that many Android users use a variety of browsers: Firefox, Opera, Dolphin, xScope, and more. I'd look to admob or comScore as at least decent approximations. Certainly
There are some very valid fragmentation and bloatware arguments to be made against Android, but none of what you brought up holds any water when you dig a little deeper.
Full disclosure: I'm and Android dev myself, as you can see in my sig.
Bingo (Score:5, Interesting)
*Thankyou*. I'm an Android dev too, and it constantly astonishes me that the form of "fragmentation" that most of the tech world complains about (OS version number) has nothing to do with the form of "fragmentation" that actually causes me any sort of real problem (screen aspect ratios / device bugs / differing OS implementations).
Re:Bingo (Score:4, Informative)
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Given that you are, what do you think of this [networkworld.com]? (Seriously.)
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The AC post sums it up well, there's more money in iOS for sure. I wouldn't dispute that. Thought certainly there is a different revenue model via ads vs paid apps. Still, I think the conclusion there is correct, though note they quote the flurry study.... To be honest, I have a hard time ever taking any *World article seriously though.
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What about the actual development? For Android, you have far more software/hardware combinations to code/test for than you do for iOS. Not only is developing for Android less money, but it costs more in terms of developer time.
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The iPhone 3GS runs an underclocked CPU running at 600 MHz. It received iOS 5 and runs it perfectly. The iPhone 3G contained the exact same hardware as the iPhone 2G, the original iPhone released in June 2007. Until just a few months ago the 3G ran the latest version of iOS.
If the Galaxy S, a "halo" phone from a year back, can't run the latest version of Android, something is desperately wrong with Google's OS.
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As I've observed in other comments [slashdot.org], the iPhone 3GS running the latest version of iOS by version number isn't that impressive since the major new functionality is still locked out of the device (typically for sales reasons rather than hardware reasons such as with Siri). It's cool that you get to see a number which is the same number on newer phones, but it only grants you a carefully selected subset of the most basic of the new functionality, so it's not really the same version after all.
In contrast, on An
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Fast forward to the iOS 4 release. What? I can't get iOS4 on my phone (w/out a jailbreak anyway). What's that Steve? It's because my phone
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:4, Informative)
but it only grants you a carefully selected subset of the most basic of the new functionality, so it's not really the same version after all.
That's a pretty huge exaggeration. The only missing features for the 3GS are Siri and in-place photo editing. 2 features of 200+ added with iOS 5. Big deal.
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I've been an android user from the start - I really don't know what this fragmentation thing is you speak of. I think its a buzzword invented by apple to scare people away from Android.
My honeycomb tablet even runs regular phone apps with zero problems.
If it is an issue - I certainly don't see it as a regular user.
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Just look at this chart of the completely broken upgrade cycle
Although I agree that things are much easier to maintain in the black-and-white-world of one hardware platform, one software stack and one source of development, Google is allowing manufacturers to have the ability to innovate and experiment without being locked-in to doing everything "one way". That kind of trickles down to the consumer by allowing them to have a platform where they can experiment and innovate also.
Yeah it's easier to support one single platform but I think the freedom to innovate is more
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The fragmentation issue is something Google desperately needs to solve if it wants to avoid the same fate that desktop Linux did.
Hmmmm ... I'm not sure the fate of desktop linux (which never broke past even 1% of the market) is comparable to Android, which is nearing 50% of the smartphone market. Given Android's success, I'm not sure most users know or care about fragmentation -- all they want is for apps to work on their phone, and this is a good step to ensuring that.
What I'm really confused about, though, is why a trolling post like this has been modded up to +5. You make one good point (regarding fragmentation) but then sully i
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Recall that TouchWiz is the reason the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab won't get Ice Cream Sandwich [slashdot.org] despite being only months old..
Specifically the 7" Galaxy Tab, only 15 months old and the Galaxy S, only 20 months old. In the tech world that's ancient.
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Sure it does. It adds an additional point of commonality to all compliant devices. It may be an incomplete solution, but it does address the problem.
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Agreed on all points.
A few years back, I needed a new cell phone. Despite being a big PC freak, I had avoided smartphones for a very long time. I preferred using a cheap phone, and a separate Palm Pilot. Anyway, when shopping for phones, I didn't know much about iPhones and Androids, so the wife and I decided to get one of each, with the option of swapping them, or replacing one outright if it sucked. Despite being Motorola's then-flagship, the XT720 was running an outdated version of Android, with no u
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Are there still MS shills? I thought they all had to get real jobs.
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There's always at least one "squad" of 4-8 MS shills operating on Slashdot.
Apple doesn't need shills, they have fanboys :-P
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> There's always at least one "squad" of 4-8 MS shills operating on Slashdot.
I've noticed a couple, but they usually get shouted down fairly quickly. My impression is that the users at large just aren't buying it anymore.
> Apple doesn't need shills, they have fanboys :-P
I noticed that... It's built into the culture. Why spend extra money astroturfing when your fans will do it for you? Apple marketing has to have the most brilliant strategists on the planet.
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Sorry, I had to chuckle at that. Rule 34: "openly pro-Linux" sounds like an invitation to group sex. Or would, were we talking about any other group than computer nerds...
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> Yes, what an open-minded, neutral place Slashdot would be if not for 4-8 MS shills.
It would definitely be less entertaining.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the stock phrases, such as "Seamless experiences win out in the long term." They're pretty much copy-paste.
And this from an extremely unhappy Samsung Galaxy S phone, complete with busted GPS and no ICS.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you'll find it icy-sweet enough
True, Samsung doesn't care about software updates, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't either.
Oh, and if your GPS antenna is broken or has bad contacts; you can order a new one for roughly 10-20$ off eBay, replacement is easy with just 2 screws.
However I usually find external bluetooth receivers with SIRF3-chips the best; my "Road66"-one even manages to get a steady and accuracte fix in large cities, has 6 hours battery charge and takes around 10 seconds to cold-start (I dont know how it does it... amazing!)
I for one am quite pleased with my Galaxy S (first revision), even if not with Samsun'g customer service. Well, that's what homebrew is for, isn't it?
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I could do hardware repairs by myself, then install an unsupported third party firmware... or I could pay a little more, get an iPhone, and not have to learn a ton about my phone and dedicate what little time I have to other things than repairing my phone.
It's like the old saying that open source is only free if your time is worthless - but in this case, I'd have to pay anyway!
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You don't even have to pay a little more if you don't want.
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Or maybe you just don't care about jailbroken freedom, in which case: Why didn't you buy an Iphone4 in the first place? They were roughly the same price...
On the other hand you could just get a phone from one of the manufacturers that really cares about updates, like HTC, even if that means having a less impressive hardware. You did a choice knowing full well the manufacturer's notorit
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My HTC phone went from 2.2 to 2.2 during it's lifespan, despite 2.3 being available from the day I bought it, and it was a new model back then.
I *don't* care about the freedom jailbreaks provide, that's why I replaced my HTC with an iPhone 4S.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
What is funny is anytime I ask my friend who has an iPhone 4 if he can do things like swype (or any customized ime), inter-application data sharing etc - his answer is always - I can jailbreak my phone and do that.
I guess it goes both ways ehh?
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Meanwhile, my 1.5+ year old Droid X is happily humming along next to my brand new shiny Galaxy Nexus, having never had an issue despite several cringe-inducing drops (once into a glass
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Seamless experiences win out in the long term. We saw this when gaming moved from PCs to consoles in the 2000s, and it's happening now in the transition to the post-PC era.
It's the business model, +5 Informative by Overly Critical Guy: [slashdot.org]
Seamless experiences always win out over time. We saw it when gaming shifted from PCs to consoles, and now the industry is shifting from desktops to mobile devices. Fragmentation is a huge for users.
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And absolutely fascinating that the other quoted comment is also a first comment in this story:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/12/28/1536257/samsung-reconsidering-android-40-on-the-galaxy-s [slashdot.org]
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Sometimes you'll see an Apple advocate mention in a post that he likes product X because 'it just works'. It's hard to imagine that somebody writes that with a straight face, but I think they're deadly serious. They think they're making a point, not realizing that they're admitting to the world that their thought processes are con
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I used to believe that Apple products "just worked" - I assumed that they don't "just work" for me because I am not part of the target demographic, being a developer (and therefore a power user).
Then I bought an iPad for my mom. A few days ago, I went through an experience of updating it to iOS 5.0, which ended up in it being messed up rather badly with some apps crashing on open - most notably, iBooks. Googling around, apparently it's a well-known problem, detailed descriptions of which include references
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
An open platform will always have a certain level of fragmentation. It's part of the cost you pay for having an open platform. The benefit is that you get more apps and options. The downside is that they don't always play nice. So - I admit that there are negatives to so-called fragmentation.
With this said, if you honestly parse the OP's post, look at the structure, language, word choice and links, not to mention the timing of it's posting, and consider modern marketing techniques as they pertain to blogs and social networks, it seems to be at least a reasonable to at least suspect that the author has either professional or monetary ties to Apple, or that he is a true Holy Warrior for The One True Platform.
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An open platform will always have a certain level of fragmentation. It's part of the cost you pay for having an open platform. The benefit is that you get more apps and options. The downside is that they don't always play nice. So - I admit that there are negatives to so-called fragmentation.
Fragmentation is a pejorative, invented by Apple in an attempt to cast diversity in a bad light.
When anyone brings it up when discussing a wide range of options and freedom in the market place you can know they are Apple fanbois. You never see the word applied to any other area, such as Automobiles, where there is even more diversity and choice.
In those areas, phrases like wide selections, lots of choices, wide variety, diversity, freedom, all are positive attributes.
Even "clones" and "Forks" have a positiv
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Funny)
Android reduces fragmentation. (Score:4, Insightful)
The main fragmentation that interest developers is the one between platforms, not within a platform. If Apple and RIM both switched to Android, it would be much easier to develop for mobile devices. They add a lot of fragmentation by continuing to push their proprietary platform. Google actually removes fragmentation by giving away for free an OS that anyone can use. There would be much more fragmentation in the mobile world if HTC, Motorola, Sony, Samsung and LG all pushed their own OS like Apple and RIM are doing.
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Absolutely! Competition is bad! Idiot! Of course some developers want few platforms to work on, that way they only do the job once and sell the same old shit forever. On the other hand as long as there is a moving target, the developer has a job developing for the new and improved OS and sells something new to someone who bought his program for his last phone. In other words, the developers you cite should be ignored because they do not know what is good for them. As long as manufacturers are trotting
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Either the OS has clear and open, well-documented APIs that are trustworthy and predictable when you invoke them, or it does not.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank goodness, I hadn't realized that Samsung failing to upgrade the Galaxy S to ICS, and all Android vendor's and carrier's systematic failure to offer good support of anything, is actually part of an Apple marketing campaign.
Fortunately, you offer the solution. All I have to do is stopping using the word "fragmentation," and start calling all vendor mistakes "diversity," and, my mind being thus made right, I will understand that bad support is actually a good thing.
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First, for some things, possibly including automobiles, more choice isn't always a good thing [ted.com]. Second, "fragmentation" is much more of a problem [networkworld.com] for developers and not consumers. Third, "fragmentation" doesn't apply to things like automobiles because they don't run a common OS that developers write apps for. "Fragmentation" is referring to the fragmentation of the OS, not the hardwar
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It would be just as "fragmented" a market and as much of a pain to write apps for.
No, it wouldn't be, because it isn't. The OS isn't software as you're thinking of it, but there most certainly is a set of design standards for a car that everyone follows more or less, and as such these cars are compatible with the rest of the world.
Thats why all cars pretty much take the same double DIN stereos.
Tires are all pretty standardized in a given class of cars.
Bolts and Nuts are standardized.
Pretty much all cars in a given geographic area will use a single common fuel source (gasoline, diesel, p
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I know it isn't that way today which is why I posed CarOS as a hypothetical situation. And I do literally mean an OS for cars in the same sense that we have other OSs today. An OS that non-auto-employees could write their own apps for and upload them to your car. If it helps, just pretend there'
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It is the same with software, really. Bits (and most bytes) are standard, the languages used are similar enough, implementations for most algorithms exist in very similar libraries on virtually all platforms, and even the technologies that are used for communication and user interactions - from hardware up to the protocols are very similar.
The only thing a developer must do is to know these standards and apply them to his software so that his app works reasonably on all platforms. Basically in the same wa
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When anyone brings it up when discussing a wide range of options and freedom in the market place you can know they are Apple fanbois.
Or it could be just someone who wants to know that their phone will work.
You never see the word applied to any other area, such as Automobiles, where there is even more diversity and choice.
Except you know you will have a seat to sit in while driving, a steering wheel (on the left in the US), and the gas pedal will always be on the right, and the brake will always be immediate
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Ford (and basically every other maker) will happily sell you a new engine for your 1 year old car, they just won't give you a special upgrade price or install it for free.
Also new software isn't what makes those fuel efficiency
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You manage to make the car analogy even more terrible than usual.
Gas not being equivalent to electricity?
And just try putting an oil filter from a BMW into a pinto.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem here is that the fragmentation is so bad quite a few developers are jumping ship to Apple - resulting in Apple's quite monolithic ecosystem actually looking more appealing even from a choice viewpoint, at least to me.
I could have my choice of poorly working, barely updated Android phones, and having to wrangle with the Android Market being full of malware even if I choose to void my warranty and go Cyanogenmod or get an official Google phone - or I can go for a much, much smoother user experience with iPhone.
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Dont forget that it's an absolute PITA to program for android compared to iOS.
Android Programming is painful and downright ugly. I HATE having to write android apps and try to convince management here to simply let us create a webside "app" that does not need to be installed and will work on all phones.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget the security aspect. We see threads on /. daily about Android malware. iOS is pretty much 100% secure when it comes down to incidences of compromised devices.
Your point is partially valid, although exaggerated. I'll make two in return:
1) Apple is hardly 100% secure. Every jailbreak method that has ever existed exploits an unpatched vulnerability in their software.
2) The upside to Apple playing the role of Morality Police is that it reduces app malware to manageable levels. The downside is that apps that disagree with their social views or with the desires of their carrier partners are not approved or are quickly removed.
With great power comes great responsibility. The difference is that Android largely endows the customer with that power, while Apple largely reserves it for themselves. There are benefits and drawbacks to both.
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The A5 chip has yet to be jailbreaked. You also can't jailbreak an iOS device and thus access vulnerabilities with a rogue program.
The iPad2, which runs the A5 CPU, certainly has an untethered jailbreak. Whether the vulnerability is in the CPU or the OS is irrelevant. Root is root no matter how you get it. You get root on an Android phone using similar methods.
In terms of secondary exploits, how about all the Jailbroken iPhones where sshd was enabled by default and the password was "alpine"? Remember the worm that changed wallpaper to Rick Astley? They could have done much nastier things than that.
I'm not saying this is Apple's fault s
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So you always developed your desktop apps for Windows & Mac & Linux too, right? To reach the most customers?
I actually *agree* with your point in theory, but realistically, development time/resources are limited, so people must choose which to develop for. Thus some people pick just one. (They don't necessarily always even pick the 'biggest market', since there have always been e.g. Mac developers even though that same "logic" meant you should only develop for Windows.)
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"With this said, if you honestly parse the OP's post, look at the structure, language, word choice and links, not to mention the timing of it's posting, and consider modern marketing techniques as they pertain to blogs and social networks, it seems to be at least a reasonable to at least suspect that the author has either professional or monetary ties to Apple, or that he is a true Holy Warrior for The One True Platform."
Huh? This sort of response is the sort of thing that hurts actual debate.
"Your point se
Copy Paste from Bonch / Overly Critical Guy (Score:2)
Seamless experiences win out in the long term. We saw this when gaming moved from PCs to consoles in the 2000s, and it's happening now in the transition to the post-PC era.
It's the business model, +5 Informative by Overly Critical Guy: [slashdot.org]
Seamless experiences always win out over time. We saw it when gaming shifted from PCs to consoles, and now the industry is shifting from desktops to mobile devices.
These were both first posts in each respective story.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Informative)
Actually if he wasn't disingenuous to his own damn post, maybe he wouldn't be branded a troll. First he quotes part of the article that hints at Google's plan to make the UI theme more accessible to app developers, and then he turns it on it's head and says this will increase fragmentation... Because nothing says "fragmentation" like making app developers have to do LESS to cleanly support the OS. Then he links to an article as a claim of faith (re: the Galaxy line not getting rev 4 software), and completely leaves out the article from approximately a day later that showed Samsung was reversing their position due to customer outcry. And to top it all off, to not sound too much like a anti-google shill he throws in the sentence "Requiring support for a theme is a step in the right direction" which makes no sense at all given the nature of the rest of his argument.
He slapped together some canned flamebait responses and didn't bring anything about the actual article to this thread (or anything new at all for that matter) so yes he earned those downmods.
Re:This still doesn't address fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
> He's a subscriber, so it's not surprising he has first post. Is anything even remotely critical of Android on Slashdot these days automatically considered an Apple or MS shill?
No, not at all. For instance, I have several large beefs with Google, and I'm not happy with either MS or Apple for several reasons I'd be happy to bore you with at a later time. As geeks we have to use *some* devices to get our work done; the difference is, non-fanbois tend to judge devices on a case by case basis rather than buying entirely on logo and calling it good.
What made the thread originator (since vanished, for some reason) an Apple shill is how he went on and on for paragraphs about how wonderful Apple's philosophy is yadda yadda. People who have any interest at all in the original topic are unlikely to be interested in how Apple is so much better. It's something that's written for the benefit of the writer rather than the reader.
And just incidentally to the original poster if he's still listening, if Samsung won't play nice on Android versions, there's a simple solution: Don't buy Samsung. That's the thing about Android. When the vendor screws up, you don't have to go through the mental gymnastics to try to convince yourself that the vendor is correct and that's the way it's supposed to work and you're a better person for missing that feature. You just buy from a different vendor. Apple fanbois don't have any concept of that, and this causes a cognitive disconnect when they try to talk to the rest of us.
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> You would think so. But it also seems that bonch has shit like this typed up, just waiting to copy and paste into any Android article that shows up on slashdot. A pretty good collection of pre-made posts that he modifies just a little to accommodate the article, apparently.
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Exactly. Bonch would be just as annoying if he spouted pro-google talking points over and over again. This isn't an apple vs google thing; this is simply a question about low quality posters. Bonch isn't contributing to slashdot; he's degrading it, in nearly the same way a guy selling fake Nike shoes would be degrading the quality of slashdot by posting the same stuff repeatedly
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I have good logical (and hopefully obvious) reasons for hating Apple and I'm not a fanboy of any company (well, maybe GoG...).
bad subject line (Score:4, Informative)
Holo theme is not mandatory, only support for the Holo theme for devices that use the Android marketplace. So applications can be written that use the Holo theme with some confidence that they will display correctly. This is a good thing. It gives developers a minimum standard look and feel that is required to work.
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Most GUIs on PC work perfectly accross different look and feels why is it such a big problem on mobile?
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That's said in the very first line of the summary. Sure, technically the subject is incorrect, but isn't it de facto correct for a large portion of big name brand Android phones?
The Problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
...for me has always been that any OS or device I've used has been riddled with bone headed design decision. Things that break easily with normal use. UI elements that are the wrong size or in the wrong place. Poor choice of fonts. In all honesty, you'd have to be pretty simple minded to love every product that comes out of a single company or every bit of software that comes from the same developer. I mean look at the Ford vs. Chevy guys. That's the ultimate outcome of customer loyalty: a lack of thinking. Given that most of us here are rugged individualists, it's a natural assumption that we're going to want to do things our own way. Sometimes that will be just giving in an saying, "Oh the heck with it, Apple makes a pretty decent device and I don't have the time to fiddle". Other times it will be, "Good lord Microsoft can't code a decent UI to find their way out of a virtual box of nothing. Screw this I'm going back to (insert better OS choice for your needs here)". Show me a person who says, "Everything that (insert company or developer) created has always been perfect and I've had no need to change a thing" and I'll show you a liar. Config files, preferences, options, themes, control panels all exist for a reason: nothing is perfect.
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You know what I mean. Teddy Roosevelt.
this will insure... (Score:2)
That even more devices wont have default access to the market.
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Will the users be allowed to change the theme?
"This is not banning custom themes; instead it is merely giving developers a consistent theme that is guaranteed to be installed if they want a consistent look across all devices."
I think you missed that sentence.
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Yeah, but will the users be allowed to change the theme?
Re:Err (Score:5, Interesting)
Android is nice because it allows the companies selling/branding the phones to do it their way.
Unfortunately they are better at stealing money then they are designing UIs.
Re:Err (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Err (Score:5, Funny)
It's depressing when my mom asks me to do something on her new Verizon Android phone and I stare at it in confusion for more than 5 minutes.
That is quite common with Tier I family tech support. Suggest your mom escalate incident to Tier II.
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Android is like Windows in that regard. When you buy a phone from any popular vendor, you can be assured that it'll come preloaded with their crap, same as with Windows PCs sold by HP, Dell etc. The important part is that 1) you can buy a phone that is not so preloaded, or that can be stripped of it - if you know what you want; and, 2) it serves as a common platform (API, ABI etc) for app developers - they mostly target the demographic that buys crap-laden phones, but their apps will also work on yours.
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Maybe I'm missing something and that is your point, but aren't those two paragraphs in contradiction with each other?
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No, they aren't. Carriers and OEMs can still use different themes -- even provide them as the default theme. TFA (and this is even in TFS) explicitly notes that all Google is doing is requiring that the Holo theme be available on all Android 4.0+ devices with access to the Market.
They aren't requiring it to be the only option available, or even the default theme. And, in fact, TFA (and TFS
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Users can still change the theme, it says so right in TFS, it's just setting a standard default theme like most OSes had from day one.
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Really? Having a consistently-available UI is "a wall"? Or even the "foundations of a wall"? I think we've forgotten what a "walled garden" actually means.
Re:What's this? (Score:5, Informative)
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No, it generally means "someone who likes something different from the thing I really really like in the same domain". See sports teams, etc. Generally its a result of it being a zero sum game (Only one team can win the super bowl/world cup/whatever), whether that means there's an actual limitation or a perceived one (I only get one phone so my choice is the best, or "My mom said I can only get one console, so that one that I have is obviously the best"). Those of use who recognize that one can often hav
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No, I think it's generally applied to people who are incapable of seeing the flaws in the things they like, and cannot have a rational discussion about them. It's people who somehow have an emotional investment in their chosen product being "the best" and anyone who chooses differently, for any reason, is "wrong".
It's perfectly fine to have a favorite, it's not perfectly fine to be blinded to alternatives.
--Jeremy
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Except that this is patently untrue in at least one instance that I can think of: Apple products. The most vicious Apple-bashing posts I've ever read were from Apple fanboys who got their feelings hurt when they found out some bug was unfixable or a key feature was changed to some other behaviour. They (perhaps I should say "we"? But I don't see myself as a fanboy, despite having a lot of apple gear) are also quite capable of having reasonable discussions about the failings of their favourite products when
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Except you didn't read my post properly. What I was saying is that the fanboy often is the upset customer. The person who comes to slashdot to viciously defend his favourite phone is often the one screeching loudest about some flaw in the phone or its os on the support forums. Just because he doesn't acknowledge his phone's flaws here doesn't mean he doesn't acknowledge those flaw to himself (and subsequently rage about those flaws in a friendlier forum).
Shit, I just been trolled, haven't I? Ah well.
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But it's the emotional ties that make them so vitriolic about the flaws they do find in their favourite product. Ah well, it would take some actual research to sort out who's right, and I for one won't be doing that.
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