Very vague ponderings
Aug. 9th, 2011 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abortrephraseI've had my HTC Desire for about eighteen months now. Probably a little longer. It's not strictly necessary to upgrade or replace it, but there are some rather shinier toys out there now, and I'm the kind of guy who winds up thinking about it a lot.
My new gig -- which I start in a couple of weeks -- includes a phone as part of the package. Not sure exactly what models are available, just that they have "some pretty nice" smartphones on the list, including some Android models. It's a telco, and I can make a reasonable guess that the options will match up with what they sell to consumers, so either the HTC Sensation or the Samsung Galaxy S II is probably on that list.
And there's a fair chance the iPhone 4 is, too.
Anyway. I've been increasingly disenchanted with Google. It started out with their rather boneheaded "real names" policy with Google+, but the way they've handled the fallout from that, the complete lack of transparency, the apparent gagging of dissident employees, and their general failure to be able to deal with "product service" -- remember, we're not the customers, we're the product -- makes me leery of relying on them too much for anything I couldn't do without.
There are other options in search. There are other options in mail. Calendar and contact management is a little hairier, but there are alternatives and there will eventually be more.
There are also other options in mobiles.
An Android handset needs (or at the least very much wants) a Google account. If something goes wrong with that Google account, your phone is basically screwed in a bunch of ways. I'm not sure I'm happy with my phone being tied to an online service such that if I were to have my access withdrawn I'd be facing considerable inconvenience, particularly in a situation where I'm a product rather than a paying customer and the company running that service has a bit of a track record for not knowing how to do the people stuff.
(Hell, if what I hear around the place is true, they have an active disdain for "people stuff" as part of the corporate culture.)
So, I don't know. I might well try for an iPhone 4S/5 or whatever when it comes out. But the Nokia N9 is looking increasingly appealing, even with that whole "DOA" thing going on. It may have a rather limited app ecosystem, but on the other hand Nokia isn't trying to sell me and my data to anyone at all. They're a phone company, not a data-mining advertising firm.
My new gig -- which I start in a couple of weeks -- includes a phone as part of the package. Not sure exactly what models are available, just that they have "some pretty nice" smartphones on the list, including some Android models. It's a telco, and I can make a reasonable guess that the options will match up with what they sell to consumers, so either the HTC Sensation or the Samsung Galaxy S II is probably on that list.
And there's a fair chance the iPhone 4 is, too.
Anyway. I've been increasingly disenchanted with Google. It started out with their rather boneheaded "real names" policy with Google+, but the way they've handled the fallout from that, the complete lack of transparency, the apparent gagging of dissident employees, and their general failure to be able to deal with "product service" -- remember, we're not the customers, we're the product -- makes me leery of relying on them too much for anything I couldn't do without.
There are other options in search. There are other options in mail. Calendar and contact management is a little hairier, but there are alternatives and there will eventually be more.
There are also other options in mobiles.
An Android handset needs (or at the least very much wants) a Google account. If something goes wrong with that Google account, your phone is basically screwed in a bunch of ways. I'm not sure I'm happy with my phone being tied to an online service such that if I were to have my access withdrawn I'd be facing considerable inconvenience, particularly in a situation where I'm a product rather than a paying customer and the company running that service has a bit of a track record for not knowing how to do the people stuff.
(Hell, if what I hear around the place is true, they have an active disdain for "people stuff" as part of the corporate culture.)
So, I don't know. I might well try for an iPhone 4S/5 or whatever when it comes out. But the Nokia N9 is looking increasingly appealing, even with that whole "DOA" thing going on. It may have a rather limited app ecosystem, but on the other hand Nokia isn't trying to sell me and my data to anyone at all. They're a phone company, not a data-mining advertising firm.