Android Year in
Review
Its been a pretty interesting year for Android
Read what I wanted to change for android in 2012
 |
| Google Nexus 7 |
2012 was a really good year for android especially with
the release of the newest version Android 4.2.1 Jellybean making it as smooth
as its competitors with its project butter. The excuse of not getting an android
device because of its laggy interface can be pretty much voided out now.
Easiest the biggest and most noticeable hit for Google was the Nexus 7. With its
HD screen, powerful Quad core processor, and a price that is making Apple
cringe up in disbelief; the Nexus 7 appears to be a no brainer for anyone
wanting a powerful tablet without need to have deep pockets.
In 2011 I made an Android wish list almost exactly a year
ago of things I wanted to happen for android in 2012. Here are my results…
I wanted Manufactures
of android devices to have a UI disable feature.
-
Sadly to this day you can’t disable Manufacture
UI with rooting and flashing a new “ROM”. I have come to the realization that
maybe android needs to have UI overlays to distinguish devices from each other;
otherwise you will just have well an iPhone made by a verity of companies.
 |
| The God Awful T-Mobile Mall App |
I also hoped that
Carriers would stop putting their crap on your devices; it was bad enough that 9times
out of 10 you were stuck with a Manufacture UI.
-
This is also a letdown seeing that nothing has
really changed in this department.
-
Honestly speaking I haven’t seen too many of
these anymore plus you can always protect yourself by downloading ABP from the
play store. So for the most part I can call this a Victory!!!
I really wanted to
see a good Mozilla Firefox app for Android.
-
This is another Victory, because the Firefox that is available now is light years
ahead of the one that was when they first announced it codenamed “Fennec”.
 |
| Google Chrome on Android (Galaxy Nexus) |
Could you believe
that Google didn’t even have Chrome available a year ago…?
-
Definite Victory
here, Chrome is one of the best browsers out there on any platform.
Being a gamer I sometimes like to play
games but, I hate using on screen touch controls to control them. So being that
pretty much every android device has Bluetooth capabilities you would expect to
be able to connect your Bluetooth controllers’ right?
-
Well you would be wrong… Almost every device
shipped today has a Manufacture UI and used them for some reason these
companies refuse to support HID. And for the few that do the stacks are all
messed up.
-
To make things even worse, now the newest version
of stock android 4.2.1 doesn’t work either… so this is a Fail IMO.
Probably the most annoying
thing about android is that fact 9 times out of 10 you device is on dated
software unless you root.
-
To be honest there is no excuse any more... almost
all devices these days are packing multi-core processors, and a GIG or more
of RAM (and they have been for well over a year now). I’m no longer buying that
crap, “Unfortunately you device can’t handle or won’t be optimal on the newest
version of android”. We all know by now that it’s all about the $$$. But to get
back on topic this is a Fail… Only like 20% (@most) of android devices are on
the newest firmware.
Another problem
with android is battery life.
-
This issue is pretty much hit or miss because,
Yea they do put larger battery in phones nowadays and new version of android
are more conservative when it comes to battery consumption but it still not
where it should be if you ask me.
In Conclusion 2012
was a good year for Android, it wasn’t perfect but it did have its +’s like with
its Nexus line of products and, the Samsung Galaxy line of products. The app
store (Google Play) only seems to be getting better and better. Google has also
recently overhauled most of their first party apps which is a huge +1 for them. I’m looking forward to see what Google has in
store for Android come 2013…
Stay Tuned for my
2013 Wish List…
Comments
Post a Comment