Having been an Android user for 10 months or so, I’ve decided to call it a day; quit; move on.

Here’s why:

As many carrier-provided Android users have found out, their handsets are hamstrung by a combination of carrier-provided ROM, woefully small internal memory and the inability to delete stuff you don’t want.

The first problem I had was with the apps, thoughtfully loaded on to the phone for me by my carrier, Orange.  Facebook, I concede, might be useful to one or two people, but not to me; in addition, there were demo versions of Monopoly and Uno. Seriously. Orange also thought it would be fun to to provide their own browser and own maps application, too. Quite what makes them think their branded apps would be better than the stock Android versions, is anyone’s guess. The thing is, I didn’t ask for, want or need any of these things, but because they’re burned into the ROM, I was unable to delete them. Imagine buying a PC with demo versions of software installed on it and you weren’t allowed to delete them. So much for open.

Although I could (and did) download alternative browsers, keyboards, SMS app from the Android Marketplace, I soon found I’d run out of space on my 4gb phone.  Of course, it’s not a 4gb phone, it’s actually a 148mb phone stuffed with bloatware I don’t need and can’t delete which happens to have a 4gb SD card installed in it. Even with the modest number of apps I’d installed, I was forever seeing the low-storage warning, clearing down temp files and generally having to babysit a phone!

Oh, and here’s a fun feature for a handset: when the internal storage does fall too low, it rejects SMS messages and for added hilarity, it doesn’t even display the phone number of the sender so you know who to get back to; it just refuses the message.

Then there was the Calendar app, which would frequently crash back to the home screen when I tried to scroll through my agenda  or do something out of the ordinary, like create a new appointment.

There were problems with GPS signal acquisition too, which, even outside, could take up to 15 minutes; 3g signal acquisition wasn’t much better and always seemed to be balanced on a knife-edge.  There were the random lock-ups, shutdowns and reboots. The camera app would helpfully Force Close when I hit the shutter button, and occasionally leave the LED flash lit up until I power-cycled the phone.

This was all before 2.2  had been released, so I was prepared to wait it out on the promise that Froyo provided the ability to move and install apps to the SD card, and offered all manner of stability and performance improvements.  The Orange-supplied version of Froyo did make the phone more stable – the shutdowns and reboots were much reduced (but not eliminated) – but the GPS and 3G problems persisted and it turns out not all many apps can be moved to the SD card so I still couldn’t move the preinstalled bloatware off the phone.

After further reading, I installed the Cyanogen Mod, which combined with App2SD, offered the ability to move any app to the SD card. The installation was remarkably straightforward and without a doubt, CM is vastly better than any ROM supplied by Orange. The phone was more stable still than the Orange Froyo and the screen much more responsive (pro tip: if you’ve bought an Android handset, then I’d recommend the first thing you do is wipe whatever your carrier has landed you with and install CM instead).

Good as CM is, though, it’s still over-encumbered with crap like Facebook, an FM radio and a default Twitter client, which wouldn’t be so bad, but because they’re deemed to be system files, still can’t be moved to the SD card. Once again, I was reduced to deleting the apps I wanted to run, while apps I don’t need are taking up valuable system space. Yet more further reading revealed that you can bake your own ROM, and remove the components you don’t want, but at that point, I thought, “Screw it; this is just too much work for a phone”. And I jumped into walled garden of the iPhone.

Sure, the notifications aren’t as good as Android; it’s not as customisable as Android, but all 16gb of storage is available for me to use how I want; there are no apps installed that I haven’t chose myself; there’s no lag on the camera; the calendar app actually lets me make appointments; calls are clearer; 3g signal appears to be stronger and the GPS works… indoors!

To me, the iPhone vs. Android argument isn’t about open vs. closed any more, it’s about what works and for me, the iPhone is what works.

I had to replace my cell-phone last week after my trusty SPV C600 died; Orange don’t stock the C600 anymore, so I was given an SPV E650 as a free upgrade – now, I know what you’re thinking, “Dude, it was free, stop complaining!!!!”.

Even though I knew I would have to replace my existing 2gb mini-SD with a micro-SD card; that I’d have yet another power adapter to add to the collection; that my FM transmitter would be rendered useless because the E650 doesn’t have “normal” headphone socket; I was expecting the E650 to be a better user experience than my C600. Sadly, despite the free upgrade, this has not been so; to whit:

I’ve yet to have a day without a crash – that includes recoverable errors (the ones that generate an MS error report) from Comm Manager, Calendar, the messaging applet, and non-recoverable errors (which don’t even respond to the power button, so I have to take the battery out). And on one intensely frustrating day, all of the above within about 2 hours.

If that wasn’t enough, I can’t install the GMail Java client (which worked just fine on my C600) because of a certificate error; Efficasoft’s GPRS monitor installs but doesn’t appear on the Home screen, or monitor GPRS usage (and it worked just fine on my C600).

Wireless almost works – I’ve tried it on two APs; one which is wide-open and one which isn’t,  and the results were the same. I get an IP address, but can’t browse out so the phone resorts to GPRS.

Application installs take forever – seriously; 25 minutes with the rotating Trivial Pursuit pie-icon.

Sliding the keyboard out and then back in hangs the phone.

This thing is so bad it’s practically unusable. There are so many things wrong, that I’m actually beginning to wonder if I’ve got a faulty unit… Am I alone in my growing hatred of this device? If you’re an Orange customer, and you’ve got an E650, I’d love to hear if your experience has been the same as mine; even better, if your experience was the same and you found a way to fix it, I’d especially love to hear from you.

[tags]HTC, Vox, , S710, E650, problems, cellphone, mobile, handset[/tags]

My own Jedi-powers have long been the envy of family and friends, and my mere presence has seemingly breathed life back into all manner of uncooperative hardware. Call it what you like, the Force, an aura, mojo, it’s all the same.

Until last week. First, I hose my my router during a firmware upgrade; then my Xbox 360 refuses to talk to my new router, followed swiftly by my DS Lite and my laptop. Then, my Smartphone refuses to upload new podcasts via ActiveSync – appointments, emails  and contacts; fine. MP3 files? No chance. This morning, the NIC on my desktop PC starts throwing a hissy-fit. Oh, and the cooker-hood in the kitchen – which of course, has a micro processor in it, to warn when the filters need cleaning – flashes an undefined error when I switch it on last night.

I stand and glare at this pile of hardware, willing it to function normally again, but nothing. Is this what it feels like to be a mere “computer user“? I’ve lost my mojo, baby. Major bummer, man. Like, totally.

[tags]life, digital life, computers, mojo, jedi powers[/tags]

This all sounds worryingly familiar, but the first version wasn’t called Web 1.0; it was called “the dotcom bubble”. Back then, an awful lot of money was thrown at companies who ended up delivering nothing but promises and some fancy schwag.

Thankfuly, it looks like the tide might be about to change. This article at The Register describes how Tim Berners-Lee and Eben Moglen are calling for a bit of common-sense and calm to be applied to the “Web 2.0″ hype.

That was the elapsed time between activating an email address on andrewterry.com and receiving this piece of junk:

This week we are creating several new positions in your area, and the experience listed on your resume reflects the type of person we are looking for. You could be missing out on a promising job opportunity, so contact us soon. This position has high earning potential, excellent benefits and opportunity for advancement. You really should look into it.

As a Representative for American Income Life Insurance Company, there is no limit to your earning potential, and you don’t need prior sales experience. We offer an in-field training program as well as flexible hours and full support. Many new representatives earn from $60,000 to $90,000 or more in their first year. This job could give you the high earnings you’ve been looking for.

Start a rewarding job today… with American Income Life Insurance Company. Please
CLICK HERE to find out more about the position we may have available for you. We hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Roger Smith
President And Chief Executive Officer
American Income Life Insurance Company
1200 Wooded Acres Drive
Waco, TX 76710

P.S. You received this E-mail because you responded to our ad or placed your resume on one of the internet job boards. To unsubscribe from future E-mails follow the link below.

I’ve disabled their CLICK HERE link, and I haven’t included the unsubscribe link either – for the simple reason that clicking that almost certainly won’t unsubscribe me. It’ll confirm that the email address is active. So back to the rant – first of all, nothing my resume would match the “skills” that Roger Smith is looking for; Second, I have never seen a recruitment ad for American Income Life Insurance, let alone repsond to one; and third, I wouldn’t place my resume on a US job board because I don’t live there.As with unsolicited junk snail mail, I didn’t ask for it; I don’t want or need it. And yet, it’s wasted my server space, my bandwidth and my time.

When is this shameful practice going to be banned outright? No opt-in schemes – as if anyone would want to opt-in to junk mail; No white-lists – consumers already get enough advertising shoved down their throats; Just make it stop!