Smart Phones

I want to get an idea of what type of phone technology is popular with the Mob.

I don't have one, but if I did, it would most likely be a Droid.

I've got an Android-based HTC Droid Eris and I'm sad to say that it'll probably be the last phone on that platform that I'll buy. It's slow, has unreliable battery life, and tends to lock up if too many apps are being used. Android itself is a pretty full-featured OS that is fun to use on a fast phone, but if I'm spending that kind of money I might as well get an iPhone.

The iPhone is just as bad as your Eris, the only difference is iOS limits you on what you can do at one time; and thus keeps it so you don't have those problems you are describing with your device.
Also, the Eris was a bad phone.

Each OS has extreme limitations, you also forgot WebOS from HP/Palm.

Windows Phone 7
- Eliminated Fragmentation by having a Dev Phone and it being high spec'd along with requiring a minimum requirement of hardware.
Limited on apps right now; has the Windows Phone OS label on it, so it might not get adopted fast.

iOS
- Limited to 2 devices; hardware sucks terribly to modern standards.

Android
- Large device fragmentation. Multiple UI's for difference devices. Fragmented App market

Blackberry
- Torch sucks bad, lots of issues when BB Servers go down, and limited device applications for those actually looking to have fun with their devices.


Honestly; it comes down to phone, not the OS used. (Read: Phone as in Device.)

If I was to pick a phone right now:

Sprint - HTC EVO 4G, besides the lack of a keyboard it's an amazing device.
T-Mobile - Samsung Vibrant or MyTouch 4G
Verizon - Droid X
AT&T - iPhone4 or HTC HD7

Sadly not many of the WinPhone7 phones are out yet. Otherwise you may have saw more recommendation for them.


EDIT: Also, for those Android users not flashing custom-rom's onto their devices.... go back to the stoneage plox

Doing what, Tot?

I'm confused by what you are asking.
Is it about the custom roms?

I just want a phone that is guaranteed to work well and have all the features I need. The iPhone has that from what I've read and experienced first-hand. Sounds like justification for buying a MacBook, I know, but it's a damn phone not a PC and you can't just build your own and spend all day tweaking it.

Maybe if Google would tighten up their standards and stop allowing half-functioning devices and apps to fuck with Android's image I'd be down for another Android phone, but at this point I'm pretty turned off on them. I've played with about half a dozen over the past year and the only one I didn't have some sort of usability problem with was the EVO. Though I'm also turned off on the touchscreen-only idea too, so I'll probably end up shelling out iPhone money for something high-end with a pop-out QWERTY when it's time to upgrade.

Can you see I'm frustrated? Fuck cell phones.

Koblentz wrote:Can you see I'm frustrated? Fuck cell phones.

I don't see the fuss, to be honest. What do I need all the features for? I need a self phone to call people, and that's about it. But whenever I pull out my cell phone, I get dirty looks; hell, even a friend's technologically retarded family made fun of me for not having an iPhone. What? Seriously? /me sighs.

True, iPhones are useless status symbols for most people, but I'd actually get some good use out of one. Just today I used my Eris for calls, texts, emails, tweets, mobile web, video, music, shopping lists, navigation, and tracking my workout. If it wasn't such a wreck with typing accuracy and responsiveness I'd probably use it as a full-featured personal organizer and who knows what else.

I'm pretty pleased as punch with my Droid Incredible. It does everything I want it to do. Hell, it even did my avatar for me. Used my face on some jedi dude.

Trust me Kobe, I feel you.
Especially when it comes to terms of durability. Almost no modern phones have that. And it annoys the hell out of me.

Though; for your Eris I would highly suggest heading to XDA-Developers and finding a custom ROM for you.
http://www.xda-developers.com/

Half the beauty of Android is the custom OS ROM's out there.

Aye, Koblentz. If you are truly unhappy with the phone, root it and place a custom rom on it. It might make it a whole new phone for you.

Koblentz wrote:If it wasn't such a wreck with typing accuracy and responsiveness I'd probably use it as a full-featured personal organizer and who knows what else.

This ROM looks like your cup of tea.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=726467

Hmm...I will definitely take a look at that when I get home today. Thanks!

Tator Tot wrote:I'm confused by what you are asking.
Is it about the custom roms?

Yes!

Xyless wrote:

Tator Tot wrote:I'm confused by what you are asking.
Is it about the custom roms?

Yes!

Custom ROMs in short, and varriations of the Android OS developed by the XDA-Devlopers community to better the experience with the Phone.

XDA-Dev's came out when the only options on the market were Nokia (terribad phones or crazy $$) Blackberry (no fun, business only devices) or WinMo (ugghhhhhhh terrribad)

So a group of guys got together with different phones, hacked their phones and started altering the WinMo OS on them so that things would run smoother, they could get longer battery life, and have more control over their phones.

Well WinMo is all but dead and gone right now, and Android allows you to freely alter and change your device all you want. So the XDA-Dev scene has really burst open with varriences of OS's for each device all based on Android.

The difference really comes down to what you need; usually it breaks down to: Most Productive UI, Best Performance, or best battery life.

The ROM's are normally designed around those ideas.

So while one ROM will come with HTC's Touch UI; another may come with only the most basic of basic UI's that requires no rendering power and just allows you to get basic tasks done.

You may have another ROM though that has Touch UI and overclocks the CPU in your Phone to 1.2Ghz (as most phone CPU's are actually underclocked by default.) so that you can do just about anything on your phone.

You can read the wiki overview of the community as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xda-developers

Or just simply head to their site:
http://www.xda-developers.com/

Long story short, the stock OS that comes on almost ALL Smartphones sucks. XDA-Developers are here to solve that problem and make the world a better place.

i cant say much for the market as ive only just got my 1st smart phone, HTC wildfire, ive had no probs with it apart from that it likes to keep apps running and not shut them down, draining battery life and memory, but i downloaded a reliable (well it works) app killer, stops any apps you have running, freeing up battery and memory.

just my $0.02

App Managers are always good to keep around.
Advanced Task Killer is what you should be using on Android.

It's still probably the most robust as they come with a simple one click, kill all function.

yer thats the one i got tot