Very vague ponderings

[abortrephrase]

I'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 I'm not sure I'm happy with my phone being tied to an online service such that if I were to have my access withdrawn I'd be facing considerable inconvenience, particularly in a situation where I'm a product rather than a paying customer and the company running that service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.

Comments

[thorfinn]

*nod* I wouldn't use a web browser on the older Nokias to do anything - presumably if I was carrying around an iPad I'd be pulling that out instead?

I guess the thing about battery life also does depend on whether you're commonly in range of power or not. I tended to go out and about to random places with no power points whilst still on call, so that was fairly important if I might have to spend hours on the phone.

And yeah, at AAPT whilst we were technically "tier 3", we were effectively "tier 1.5".

[ideological_cuddle]

There are a few use-cases -- which are fairly common for me -- where the iPad isn't really the right choice. Checking to see when the next tram will be along while I'm standing in the middle of the road, for example. Or using the maps tool to figure out where I'm going while out and about.

The iPad is great if you're sitting somewhere, but it's a lot more hassle to pull it out of one's bag and poke at it while standing somewhere busy than it is to just grab the phone from your pocket. And I still kind of feel like doing that puts a big "mug this guy!" target on me, too.

[thorfinn]

Oh right. :-)

Tramtracker works over SMS, but yeah, it's a bit crappier than pulling out TramHunter or the iOS TramTracker app. I must admit I didn't try the OVI Navigator for walking, but I imagine it should work...

And yeah, I take your point about the iPad - it's too big to just pull out randomly on a street corner.

[ideological_cuddle]

I don't usually use Google Maps on my mobile to plot a path so much as to figure out where the hell I am. :)

Or, in Boston, where the hell the T stations are. Some of those are damn-near hidden, and you have to get the right entrance to the station or you won't be able to get to the platform you need. It's kind of special...

Walking directions are usually not so hot, don't take into account minor details like the lack of a sidewalk!

[thorfinn]

Heh. Yeah. The OVI maps are definitely great for cars in terms of having great street names and very good road shape data, but I guess they don't have things like important local landmarks etc.