Why I'm not getting a Bionic -- and possibly leaving the Android world for good.

[DJBeanPole]

I think its absolute BS that they try and charge extra for tethering. I mean c'mon, lets get real here; I'm already paying $100+ per month for my voice and data plan to Verizon. Now that I am looking to buy a tablet in the coming months I am 100% buying a WiFi only model in spite of the carriers wanting to double dip on data fees.

I look at it like this: I am paying out the ass for my voice data plan on my phone. I shelled out big bucks for my phone. I am shelling out big bucks for a tablet. I'm only going to be using ONE OR THE OTHER, not both simultaneously! I shouldn't get reamed twice for this... In my opinion, the carriers would be smart to figure out a way that we can have both a 4G phone and a 4G tablet and get data to both with the same contract. I know I'm dreaming, but it only makes sense as a consumer. In the meantime, people will continue to tether, illegally or not. I personally can't find a way to justify an extra data plan for a tablet that will be in addition to my smart phone, my home computer, and my work computer. Waaaaay too much overlap in me paying for data access.

Ok, end of rant

A sensible rant.

When you purchase home internet service, thats exactly what you are getting. Their SERVICE. For $XX/month, you get 1.5M up and blah-blah down. It doesn't matter if your incoming connection is hardwired to your desktop PC, or spread amongst a router to multiple devices whether it be wired or wirelessly done. You can connect X amount of devices to a router still using the 1 service. You don't pay extra per X amount of devices hooked up. I wish it was like this... somewhat along the lines of your rant. I'm sure there is a loophole and someone will raise that point, but thats how I think it should be done.

 

[mpciii]

I can see tethering being free when they go tiered. Makes sense that you purchase a set amount of data, they won't care how you use it. With unlimited plans tethering is an uncontrollable variable for the network.

 

[DolfanCole]

A sensible rant.

When you purchase home internet service, thats exactly what you are getting. Their SERVICE. For $XX/month, you get 1.5M up and blah-blah down. It doesn't matter if your incoming connection is hardwired to your desktop PC, or spread amongst a router to multiple devices whether it be wired or wirelessly done. You can connect X amount of devices to a router still using the 1 service. You don't pay extra per X amount of devices hooked up. I wish it was like this... somewhat along the lines of your rant. I'm sure there is a loophole and someone will raise that point, but thats how I think it should be done.

Yep. I agree. And an excellent point that was brought up on the AC front page article some days ago ... it doesn't matter how many devices you have tethered to the single connection, the bandwidth will not increase as it's limited by the bandwidth capabilities of the phone and connection. I could see charging extra should the bandwidth increase, thereby increasing the strain on the network. But, you're already paying for the bandwidth capabilities of the single device, and it's impossible to exceed that regardless of how many devices are tethered to it.

 

[DolfanCole]

My take on this whole issue is that should this come to fruition and you would no longer be able to root, etc., then it really comes down to which operating system is most desirable. I currently have an older BlackBerry (Tour), and have never owned an Android device. But, looking at the various platforms and weighing all of the advantages and disadvantages of each, I choose Android, whether I'd be able to root or not. To me, the advantages of it just seem to outweigh those of the other platforms (BlackBerry, Win7, and iOS). But, obviously, this is a very personal choice on what one values in the operating system.

 

[cody_21]

My take on this whole issue is that should this come to fruition and you would no longer be able to root, etc., then it really comes down to which operating system is most desirable. I currently have an older BlackBerry (Tour), and have never owned an Android device. But, looking at the various platforms and weighing all of the advantages and disadvantages of each, I choose Android, whether I'd be able to root or not. To me, the advantages of it just seem to outweigh those of the other platforms (BlackBerry, Win7, and iOS). But, obviously, this is a very personal choice on what one values in the operating system.

Well said. I look at it the same way. I have a iphone 4 right now on at&t and I have to admit I do like the UI and everything about it, but I have also done my time with android also, which was back with the first Droid and to admit, i wasn't to fond of it but i do like android don't get me wrong. Here recently though a good friend of mine bought the atrix and i have had the chance to play around with it and I love it. To me it is a look at how far android has come and thats why I plan on buying the Bionic. Rooting and a locked bootloader doesn't matter to me, mainly because I have never done it before, so choosing a phone, for me, has always been purely based on which platform i like best.

 

[The_Engine]

Look at it this way. You now have wifi hot spot. So 2-3 devices connected to a phone in this mode will pull a hell of a lot more data than just the phone. Also a laptop is less data efficient than a phone in several ways. So even just tethering to 1 device you are going to be pulling more data than if you were just using the phone.

I am not saying that carriers aren't overdoing it. When we get to volte will they still charge you for voice min over and above the data even though its all one thing? Probably.

I think once they tier data rates they should not charge for hot spot etc. The data amounts will add to higher charges. On lte they can also throttle speed and you could pay by that as opposed to amount of data. Like how fios works.

 

[The_Engine]

Also I think google should make each oem offer a straight android version or a skinned on. When you buy the device you can select if you want blur or aosp. Or they can all retail as blur but you can get an unlock from oem for your device and go aosp.
I see the need to reduce hacking and harden the os for broader enterprise adoption but android has been about choice for some time. They should work to keep that.

If xda and groups like cyqnogen can do it, than the oems should be able to. And google should mandate that.

 

[DolfanCole]

Look at it this way. You now have wifi hot spot. So 2-3 devices connected to a phone in this mode will pull a hell of a lot more data than just the phone. Also a laptop is less data efficient than a phone in several ways. So even just tethering to 1 device you are going to be pulling more data than if you were just using the phone.

I am not saying that carriers aren't overdoing it. When we get to volte will they still charge you for voice min over and above the data even though its all one thing? Probably.

I think once they tier data rates they should not charge for hot spot etc. The data amounts will add to higher charges. On lte they can also throttle speed and you could pay by that as opposed to amount of data. Like how fios works.

You may pull more data over a certain period of time with tethered devices, but you can never use more bandwidth than what the phone's capabilities allow. But by buying the phone, you've bought a certain level of bandwidth that goes along with it, whether you use it all or not.

 

[Bearly]

What Google should do is MANDATE at least 1 major OS upgrade (e.g. 2.1 to 2.2) from the carrier/mfgr. So, if you buy a phone with 2.1, it is guaranteed to get 2.2 before it's EOL'd.

 

[TuxDotKing]

Man i love how everyone is running and about to "jump ship" because of this. Relax for crying outloud. So it will be harder to root. Even without rooting android is the most open os out there, even if and when these policiea go into effect. And say they do, and you move to windows 7, what are you going to do when they do something similar?

If you got an android so you can root it and everything, then you got into android for the wrong reason.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

I got into Android because of open source, not necessarily it's open marketplace (which is getting to become more of a question mark as time goes on) or app sideloading or widgets. It may sound stupid to some, but that's simply the main redeeming quality about Android to me. If that goes away, whether as a result of carrier or manufacturer malevolence, Android becomes a proprietary platform and them will have to compete in my eyes with the other proprietary platforms. And I'm sorry, but at that point iOS, where Apple hasn't put any real effort into containing the jailbreak scene, or WP7, which Microsoft has been lobbying hacking/modding extraordinaire Geohot to jailbreak WP7 devices, or WebOS, which seems to acting in good faith towards it's modding scene become much better choices. Especially iOS; it's got well designed hardware (well, sometimes, can't forget the deathgrip issue) and gets all the games and apps first. I'm not happy about not having Tiny Wings yet.

I don't want to leave Android though, and I hope the 'Open Handset' part of the OHA title stays true for at least a few phones (i.e.: will the Nexus brand be affected if the carriers become so hostile towards hacking? Will we see carriers come up with policies that block Nexus phones from being used on them?). I can live with being stuck to the Nexus brand, but that all depends on it being an option for me in the first place.

Europeans, with their open access GSM wireless carriers that all are mostly on a few standard frequency bands, and their Nokia N900s and Nexuses and Openmokos and other open phones that run on networks with decent service, are lucky as hell.

I like to know how this is Androids fault and not the actions of the carriers and manufacturers making the phones.

Android is an open OS similar to Linux, it's the people that create the phones and providing the service that are strong arming each other into doing this. The majority of people buying phones really don't know and could care less about lock bootloaders and rooting. It's us the small minority that do care.

The carriers are trying to stem those that use over 15g a month tethering, now I'm not defending them but I do see their point. The solution would be that they would improve the infrastructure not punish the rest of us for something a few abusers.

On the subject of this being Android's fault, of course it's not. I can't help but think some of this could've been avoided by choosing the GPLv3 over the Apache license, though. It would have prevented the locked bootloaders, at the very least.

 

[1966cah]

The day Android phones are locked down to the point where they are no longer fun, I will have a wi-fi only tablet and the old flip-phone. Verizon will be making about $100 less a month from me, and even less if there's a less draconian carrier out there.

This is similar to the ISPs clamping down on file sharing. "Well, sure we sold you a service, but we didn't expect you to actually use it."

 

[Rob.G]

I'm in agreement with the OP on this. I've had my Droid X since release, and the way things are going, I will likely switch to an iPhone 5 or 6, whatever is out (or close to being out) when I can upgrade. If I have to be on a closed platform, I'll choose iOS, because at least Apple has their stuff together. I have an iPad and have been thoroughly impressed with the UI. The ONE thing it still needs is a centralized filesystem, and it sounds like iOS 5 will have that.

My phone, while I like it for the most part, has too many "weirdities" going on at times. Like having to reboot it frequently to get the wireless hotspot to work. Or when the hotspot is running, it frequently drops its connection.

When I tether with it (using PDAnet), it works flawlessly.

I'm paying out the wazoo for data too... between $60/mo for regular 3G via a USB modem, which is flakey as hell, $20/mo for the hotspot, and $30 for the phone's data plan, it's nuts.

And get this crap... they won't let me upgrade my 3G line to 4G without a new plan, which would knock me out of my grandfathered truly unlimited status. I've been doing 20+ gig a month for years and they've never complained (got the plan in 2007 before they ever added the cap). I'm miffed to the point that if I can't get somebody at VZW to get me into a grandfathered 4G plan that I may cancel all four lines and go to Sprint (because I'll NEVER have AT&T).

I'm rambling now, but I think I made my point.

Rob

 

[corymcnutt]

Openedness (is that a word?) is nice, to a point, but then you get MANY fragmentations, it can really cause problems with updates and app developers. I'm one of the many that will not root their phone, so I am more concerned with stability in the O/S, timely updates, etc. It seems like new technologies are more open to changes, but as they mature it is a natural evolution to make them "tighter" and more structured to avoid problems or discrepancies between different phone manufacturers.

 

[ottscay]

I think the OP is right. Let's all leave Android for another, more open OS that welcomes hackers to modify and root their phones. Also, let's move over to the carrier that does the same.

Please just let us know what that is so we can all go...

 

[TuxDotKing]

No one!

...Seriously, you don't think I get that?

I'm pretty much just staying with my D1 until a.) a Nexus comes to Verizon, or b.) my D1 breaks down and Asurion refuses to replace it, if you really care what I'm doing. That, and being anxious to get to the UK. But I'm not buying a locked down phone anytime soon, and if things aren't better in the future, well, we'll see how Android competes on OS alone against the rest. But I imagine that since Google will probably still be trying to pretend Android is open (open to crapware, open to money gouging, open to malware, open to carrier spyware, open to uselessly compile, closed to consumers), it won't be very pretty.

 

[1812dave]

I'm in agreement with the OP on this. I've had my Droid X since release, and the way things are going, I will likely switch to an iPhone 5 or 6, whatever is out (or close to being out) when I can upgrade. If I have to be on a closed platform, I'll choose iOS, because at least Apple has their stuff together. I have an iPad and have been thoroughly impressed with the UI. The ONE thing it still needs is a centralized filesystem, and it sounds like iOS 5 will have that.

My phone, while I like it for the most part, has too many "weirdities" going on at times. Like having to reboot it frequently to get the wireless hotspot to work. Or when the hotspot is running, it frequently drops its connection.

When I tether with it (using PDAnet), it works flawlessly.

I'm paying out the wazoo for data too... between $60/mo for regular 3G via a USB modem, which is flakey as hell, $20/mo for the hotspot, and $30 for the phone's data plan, it's nuts.

And get this crap... they won't let me upgrade my 3G line to 4G without a new plan, which would knock me out of my grandfathered truly unlimited status. I've been doing 20+ gig a month for years and they've never complained (got the plan in 2007 before they ever added the cap). I'm miffed to the point that if I can't get somebody at VZW to get me into a grandfathered 4G plan that I may cancel all four lines and go to Sprint (because I'll NEVER have AT&T).

I'm rambling now, but I think I made my point.

Rob

LOL!, Yes, Rob you made your point: you despise Verizon. I'm not really happy with their prices but dang, the service has been great for me, over the last 9 or so years. I had a MiFi in use for over 7 months and it was super reliable, even on the road. I have a tougher time with 3G service in the same places, using my BB Storm2. My wife's storm2 also has a tough time hanging onto a 3G connection that the MiFi handled reliably. (I'm in the Bay area and have used the MiFi on the way to and from the Bay area to LA and Vegas. Worked pretty much everywhere we went but inside much of Griffith Park.)

 

[jdotcarter]

No one!

...Seriously, you don't think I get that?

I'm pretty much just staying with my D1 until a.) a Nexus comes to Verizon, or b.) my D1 breaks down and Asurion refuses to replace it, if you really care what I'm doing. That, and being anxious to get to the UK. But I'm not buying a locked down phone anytime soon, and if things aren't better in the future, well, we'll see how Android competes on OS alone against the rest. But I imagine that since Google will probably still be trying to pretend Android is open (open to crapware, open to money gouging, open to malware, open to carrier spyware, open to uselessly compile, closed to consumers), it won't be very pretty.

is there any difference in hackability between the Droid OG and the incredible? Or the Thunderbolt even (other than developer support?)

There's tons of different roms you can choose from for the Dinc... probably even more since you have the choice of running a bunch of different versions of sense.

i recommend satiating your need for rom flashing by upgraded your droid to the Dinc at least. Having tried about every single rom out there, MIUI is my choice and will upgrade my device to the latest and greatest on Verizon that is supported by this rom.

 

[Jude526]

I wouldn't get upset over something that hasn't happened as of yet. If thre is a device you want, get it and do with it as you wish. It is a phone.
I haven't rooted and don't need it. I like my Incredible as it is.

 

[Johnly]

Words if wisdom from Jude.

 

[TuxDotKing]

I guess reason won out with me in the end. I've decided to upgrade this year after all, either to the Droid Bionic, or Droid 3.

I was thinking about how I missed my old dumbphone a bit (you know, that whole battery life thing), and I actually missed it enough to consider reactivating it on my line. Then I thought, well, if I'm going to lose features anyhow, I could do a lot better than that.

I'm ticked that they just snatched away my freedom like that, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's pointless. It took away a good bit of my enthusiasm for the smartphone industry away too, but I guess that's just life. I still have computers at least, and I can do whatever the hell I want with them.

Maybe someday a company or network will come along and say "Hey, we care about consumer freedom, join us" and we'll all live happily ever after again. But that's only farcical thinking.