Yep thinking of going to the darkside

[digmydroidx]

Well my upgrade is in October..and I have been entertaining the idea if the iphone 5 or whatever they will call it comes out 4g and a larger screen...I may do it. It would be nice to have upgrades for one phone...on mfg....not waiting and wondering why this phone or that phone gets it and not mine.

Also with so much out there geared towards iphone it makes the decision that much easier.

My wife uses an iphone 4 I got her at christmas time and loves it...I.play around with it a lot and thought it doesn't do as much as I can with my charge unrooted...I think from all the reading I am doing that I can jailbreak it and have it do what I want.

So.now to wait and see what they come out with.....

Anyone else feeling as I do about the charge and android?

Don't get me wrong I love this phone and the display...its hard to beat.

Sent from my Awesome Verizon Droid Charge ! Using Tapatalk

 

[grimmace193]

I was feeling a little like that when I got my charge. it just needed something. I rooted and tried a few Roms. I'm on eclipse now and this phone rocks

that being said, my kid has an ipad and other family members have iPhones. you'll be hard pressed to find better quality and ease of use than apple products. I would never go that route because I like to have options. but if you want it to "just work" then I can't fault you for it.

 

[Chocoburger]

As long as there are high-quality custom ROM developers and Titanium Backup Pro for Android, I'll happily stick with Google. Especially since they keep pushing forward the notion of having a portable PC in your pocket, which is what I want.

I already have an iPod Touch, no need for an iPhone.

BUT, if you're the type to stick with the stock software on your Android phone, I can totally see why you'd want to go with iOS. Stock and unrooted Android is just plain bad.

 

[Chocu1a]

If Apple finally gets off their duff & increases the screen size & jumps on true lte, then I would consider it. iOS 5 is very polished out of the box. I really loved my iPhone 4. BUT...the screen size & lack of custom ability (prior to j/b), was the nail in it's coffin. hopefully tomorrow I can pick up my G.Nex... fingers crossed.

 

[TBolt]

Fortunately, my Rezound "just works." My brother is on his 2nd iPhone - still as boring as the last one.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[lpt2569]

I may be headed in this direction myself. We are planning on getting the "new" iPad (3), and I've had an iPod since the first one, and i love my iPod Touch. There are plenty of good things to say about i-devices, imo, and iCloud works really well. It is better, again imo, than anything Google has to offer at the moment as far as cloud services. And I'm so entrenched in iTunes now, having used it as my music and video library from day one of its release, it's really nice to have devices that work seamlessly with my media collection.

However, since rooting and adding custom ROMS to my Android phones over the past 6 months or so, I've become a flash-a-holic, and can never seem to leave my phone alone. And when I think of NOT being able to tweak my phone on a daily basis to get it exactly how I like it, that seems really lame (iPhone). iPhone needs more customization options, without having to jailbreak it. I can still customize my Charge to my heart's content without rooting, Apple needs to get with the times in that department.

A lot depends on what the next iPhone has as far as specs, etc. If it does not have at least a bigger screen (possible) and LTE (highly likely), I will most likely stick with Android, and hope that Verizon gets either the Samsung Note, or Samsung GSIII.

 

[Chocoburger]

Not sure if you care, but I use iSyncr and iSyncr WiFi on my phone, it syncs my entire iTunes library exactly as it would on my iPod Touch, it also syncs my playcounts back into iTunes (I've become OCD when it comes to playcounts). I also use Rocket Player (made by the same person), which will sync the playcounts more accurately than other music players.

 

[lpt2569]

Not sure if you care, but I use iSyncr and iSyncr WiFi on my phone, it syncs my entire iTunes library exactly as it would on my iPod Touch, it also syncs my playcounts back into iTunes (I've become OCD when it comes to playcounts). I also use Rocket Player (made by the same person), which will sync the playcounts more accurately than other music players.

Thanks. I haven't tried iSyncr, I'll give it a shot. I've been using DoubleTwist, which syncs my iTunes fairly well, but it takes forever.

 

[Maikai.Guy]

My son has a Charge, so I visited this forum to see if there is any news of a ICS rom yet. The only one out there is far from being a daily driver.

Couldn't help but sense the frustration here. My son is frustrated too.

The problem with the Charge is with Samsung/Verizon, not Android. I'm running ICS on a phone 2 years old and it just works. ;-) You can't do that with Apple. Sure, they upgrade some POS to the 3GS and call it iOS5, but it's buggy and incomplete. The best/latest features of it are only available on their latest phones. The old stuff is hobbled.

If you're serious about wanting a phone with the latest builds, what you want is a Nexus phone. Apple only has one line of phones. It is true they are upgraded regularly/continually/timely. Why would you think that any Android phone you picked up would be in that same support class? There is only one line of phones in that class and the name is Nexus.

I came from the iPhone world. I owned the first three of them. Then I bought an HTC Incredible two years ago and never looked back. Android services an enterprise user like me far better than Apple does. It's really kind of startling how much they continue to miss this far into the game. I was just lucky enough to pick a non-Nexus phone that was popular enough to keep it's support. Next phone will be a Nexus.

My recommendation is to take a look at how you currently use your Android phone. If you're in business, you may be surprised at the lack of some stuff you take for granted now. I've come to say "If you're a teenage girl, there's nothing better than an iPhone." ;-) The reason is they are best at multimedia. The bad news is the sucking sound they make when one tries to press an iProduct into enterprise service drowns out any multimedia advantages rather quickly.

 

[richs10]

I've always said I would never buy an iPhone, but I'm pretty frustrated with Android and especially Samsung after having the Charge for a while. Just bought a new Ford but the Samsung is so crippled by Samsung's own proprietary systems (bluetooth, music player, text message system, TouchWiz) that most of the features either don't work with the car or do so on a very limited basis. (I don't root my phones - just not that into modifying the phones). Android talks about being a open system, but I think Samsung cripples that advantage with their own non-compatible operating systems.

I'm going to wait to see what Apple does with the 4GLTE and battery life. If they come out with a good 4G phone with decent battery life, I may make the jump. The other problem is that I feel like my phone is outdated ten minutes after I buy it. From what I can tell, the Charge is not going to get ICS (or probably any other significant upgrades). It's already an end-of-life device. Apple seems to back their devices longer than most Androids do.

Rich

 

[lpt2569]

My recommendation is to take a look at how you currently use your Android phone. If you're in business, you may be surprised at the lack of some stuff you take for granted now. I've come to say "If you're a teenage girl, there's nothing better than an iPhone." ;-) The reason is they are best at multimedia. The bad news is the sucking sound they make when one tries to press an iProduct into enterprise service drowns out any multimedia advantages rather quickly.

I'm not saying I disagree with you in your assessment of which system works better in real world business use, I'm just saying it does not mean that everyone feels the same way, and the evidence is out there that Apple devices are being adopted faster than Android in the IT/Enterprise world. I think you may be a little jaded in your view, being an obvious fan of Android over Apple/iOS. Here are just two examples I found just now...

New iPad And Enterprise IT: Exclusive Research - Hardware - Handhelds/PDAs - Informationweek

Enterprises want iPad

In my work environment (hospital/research), I see more and more iPhones/iPads as the days go by. I think the second generation of 4G Android devices (GSII, Rezound, RAZR, and of course the GNex) are actually great devices, and better in almost every aspect than the iPhone. It still does not mean they are better for everyone's needs/desires from a mobile device. I run ICS on my Fascinate, and it runs really well. I can't do it yet on my Droid Charge, but most likely that is just around the corner. However, I can only do this because I am cool with rooting and flashing ROMS, which the majority of users do not want to do, and a lot of people have no idea what it even means. If I hadn't done this to my Fascinate or Charge, both are pretty crappy devices when running the stock system. You can blame whoever you want for this, but in the end, the user experience is what matters. Apple lives by this, Android, not so much.

And it's also a little offensive to keep saying the iPhone/iPad is for teenage girls...makes you sound, well, like a teenage girl.

 

[Maikai.Guy]

...I'm pretty frustrated with Android and especially Samsung after...

Frustrated with Samsung. Google and Android have nothing to do with it. Android is simply an OS that Samsung licensed to put on a phone. In this case, the Charge. Samsung has apparently decided not to continue to support the phone. Google and their Android OS have no blame in that decision.

Apple seems to back their devices longer than most Androids do.

:-/ Well, uh, yeah, you're right, if you compare one single phone from Apple to the entire Android offering. But that's not exactly comparing Apples to Apples, right? Are you really saying you expect every single vendor of every single Android phone to support it the same way a high end (very expensive) flagship phone is supported?

If you want an Android phone that gets all the updates first... it's called Nexus.

 

[Maikai.Guy]

I'm not saying I disagree with you in your assessment of which system works better in real world business use, I'm just saying it does not mean that everyone feels the same way, and the evidence is out there that Apple devices are being adopted faster than Android in the IT/Enterprise world. I think you may be a little jaded in your view, being an obvious fan of Android over Apple/iOS. Here are just two examples I found just now...

New iPad And Enterprise IT: Exclusive Research - Hardware - Handhelds/PDAs - Informationweek

Enterprises want iPad

In my work environment (hospital/research), I see more and more iPhones/iPads as the days go by. I think the second generation of 4G Android devices (GSII, Rezound, RAZR, and of course the GNex) are actually great devices, and better in almost every aspect than the iPhone. It still does not mean they are better for everyone's needs/desires from a mobile device. I run ICS on my Fascinate, and it runs really well. I can't do it yet on my Droid Charge, but most likely that is just around the corner. However, I can only do this because I am cool with rooting and flashing ROMS, which the majority of users do not want to do, and a lot of people have no idea what it even means. If I hadn't done this to my Fascinate or Charge, both are pretty crappy devices when running the stock system. You can blame whoever you want for this, but in the end, the user experience is what matters. Apple lives by this, Android, not so much.

And it's also a little offensive to keep saying the iPhone/iPad is for teenage girls...makes you sound, well, like a teenage girl.

Yeah, I answered you in that other thread.

It's very difficult to press an iPad into service as a notebook replacement. iOS lacks too much. It's nothing like a notebook. You can't navigate the file system like you can on a PC. Etc, etc, etc... (all said on the other thread. No need to repeat it here).

In my industry (semiconductors) we don't use iProducts. My company has over 5000 employees and not one of them has an iProduct hooked up to our net. We were Blackberry. We looked at iPhone, but said "nah". When Android showed superiority to Blackberry, we switched. If that magazine would have polled 400 IT guys in my industry, it would be overwhelmingly pro-Android. It's a security thing. Apple's security is "my way or the highway". Our IT people need to install our own encryption and be able to remotely monitor and wipe the units. Apple's closed system makes this impossible.

As I said in the other thread. If Windows 8 delivers on all their promises, we will probably drop Android and go Windows. And I'll be the first to go as soon as I see an advantage. I'm not a mindless fan/defendor of an architecture. I actually had the first three iPhones as personal phones. The Blackberry was great for work, but not so much for personal. Couldn't care less about either one of them an hour after I switched to Android. I won't care about Android an hour after I find something better.

The medical field is one of the few fields that has adopted iPad as a tool, but their usage is specialized. There are fee based services that have supplied very specific applications, like reading xray images. These companies use Apple, because it's easier to protect their IP. It is more difficult to root and grab the .apk like you can on an Android. In the general business and engineering world, you need to have more complete "notebook like" capabilities, which iOS simply doesn't offer. I need to drill down to directories, see what I have, share files via USB stick, hook up to a projector/HDTV, etc...

Here's the link to the page in the other thread, where I list all the ways Android helps me in business and iOS can't touch. I'd like to hear you address those shortcomings of iOS, because those needs are needs of the average enterprise user.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/motorola-xoom/160913-anyone-planning-switching-new-ipad-2.html

So tell me... in what capacity is the iPad used in your medical research? Is it a very specific application, like I believe, or is it a general use of the native capabilities of the iPad. If the later, which capabilities? Please be specific. In the other thread, the best you came up with was to use a remote/RDP program back to a real computer. Really? Seriously? You've got to do better than that. We're talking about replacing a notebook, not RDP'ing back to one!

I'll stick to my teenage girl thing, because it's true. If you're a teenage girl, there's no better product than an iProduct. I'm a 53 year old electrical design engineer, working for a major semiconductor company. I'm about the furthest thing from a teenage girl as can be. ;-)

 

[lpt2569]

I'm pretty sure I said I agree with you...yep, I did. Relax brother this ain't life or death. I'm simply pointing out that apple products are being adopted by enterprise faster and by a majority over android devices. That's a fact. I'm just happy we are adopting mobile tech in the workplace...I dont care who makes it. I get excited by new tech.

Where I work, yes doctors and researchers are using very specific apps from what I understand, but it helps them get their jobs done, that's what matters. I work in purchasing and have yet to see anyone from the 30,000 plus employees request anything except an iPad when buying a tablet. They are free to buy anything they want.

Again I agree with you that android offers more business like architecture and way more flexibility, and that's why the US Army is using Android devices in the field. I ain't your enemy, Mr 53 year old as far from a teenage girl as one can get.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[Chocoburger]

Richs10, you need to make the jump to tweakstock. You'll really start to enjoy your phone I think. I used to hate the Charge, but no more. Though I still want an official ICS (so that a custom ROM of it can eventually be made from it), but I'm pretty happy with Gingerbread on my phone. For now.

This is my first smartphone, so I've learned a lot from this purchase. Overall, I know now that I have to look towards custom ROMs or I shouldn't bother buying Android anymore.

 

[richs10]

Frustrated with Samsung. Google and Android have nothing to do with it. Android is simply an OS that Samsung licensed to put on a phone. In this case, the Charge. Samsung has apparently decided not to continue to support the phone. Google and their Android OS have no blame in that decision.



:-/ Well, uh, yeah, you're right, if you compare one single phone from Apple to the entire Android offering. But that's not exactly comparing Apples to Apples, right? Are you really saying you expect every single vendor of every single Android phone to support it the same way a high end (very expensive) flagship phone is supported?

If you want an Android phone that gets all the updates first... it's called Nexus.

You may have misunderstood my post. I said I was frustrated with Samsung and their need to modify/restrict/customize the Android operating systems so it doesn't play nice with other applications. The point I was trying to make is that Apple is now "in the running" as a candidate when I replace this phone. That's a big change for me.

As to your second point, when I bought this phone, it was hyped as the "high end (very expensive) flagship phone" in Verizon's lineup. But I realize that was ages ago........(NOT. It was actually seven (7) months ago). And the Nexus 4G wasn't yet available. I realize progress is good, but just don't leave us in the dust so fast.

Rich

 

[richs10]

Richs10, you need to make the jump to tweakstock. You'll really start to enjoy your phone I think. I used to hate the Charge, but no more. Though I still want an official ICS (so that a custom ROM of it can eventually be made from it), but I'm pretty happy with Gingerbread on my phone. For now.

This is my first smartphone, so I've learned a lot from this purchase. Overall, I know now that I have to look towards custom ROMs or I shouldn't bother buying Android anymore.

Thanks for the suggestion, Chocoburger. I may pop over to XDA see what tweakstock looks like. I've always kept the phone on the stock rom, but haveused alternate launchers and such, which have helped a bit. But your suggestion might be a good idea for the Charge if Samsung is finished with us.

If you don't mind, a few questions:
Is tweakstock the ICS rom for the Charge?
Does your Charge handle it well? (I'm worried about our lack of a full gig of ram)
Do you think it would make my phone more compatible with Ford Sync's bluetooth and text messaging systems?

(edit: just re-read your post. I understand tweakstock is gingerbread, not ICS. ignore that part)

Thanks,
Rich

 

[lpt2569]

I highly recommend tweakstock or eclipse ROM. You will love your phone again...at least for a little while.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[Maikai.Guy]

You may have misunderstood my post. I said I was frustrated with Samsung and their need to modify/restrict/customize the Android operating systems so it doesn't play nice with other applications. The point I was trying to make is that Apple is now "in the running" as a candidate when I replace this phone. That's a big change for me.

As to your second point, when I bought this phone, it was hyped as the "high end (very expensive) flagship phone" in Verizon's lineup. But I realize that was ages ago........(NOT. It was actually seven (7) months ago). And the Nexus 4G wasn't yet available. I realize progress is good, but just don't leave us in the dust so fast.

Rich

You started off the first post I responded to with "I've always said I would never buy an iPhone, but..."

I don't see why your frustration with Samsung changes your mind about considering iOS. It sounds to me like you are angry at Samsung (rightfully so IMHO) and painting Google/Android with that brush.

I must have missed the Charge as "Flagship" promo. ;-) I bought the phone for my son just before the July 4th weekend of 2011. At that time, it clearly was just another phone in their lineup.

At that time, the only "Flagship" phone Verizon had in their store was the iPhone. Fully half the front window advertising and about a quarter of the entire store was dedicated to that one phone and it was the only phone the salespeople seemed to know very much about. In fact, I thought it amusing, because I let them give me their pitch and many of the features and benefits they verbalized were Android only. They must hear so many pitches from so many phone vendors, it all becomes blurred in their brains. They just spout out the super-set of features. ;-)

The bottom line is the Android phone market is a difficult market to navigate if you are the kind of person who wants the latest OS (which I am). On the logical level, I get it. The difference between Gingerbread and ICS is not earth shattering. It didn't make my Dinc into a different phone. I think the manufacturers are taking this point of view and dismissing people like myself (and I think you too) who want the latest features. With ICS on a Charge, that would be primarily Face Unlock and streaming voice to text (don't have to wait after speaking just two/three sentences anymore!).

Apple doesn't have this problem, because they have only one product. The answer for people like me (and you, if you're like minded) is to buy the equivalent Android "Flagship" phone... the one and only Android Flagship phone, not matter what a sales person may say... Nexus. If a Nexus phone isn't available on your network, like it wasn't back in July, another solution would be to wait and see which phones are the most popular with the development community and buy one of those.

 

[Maikai.Guy]

I'm pretty sure I said I agree with you...yep, I did. Relax brother this ain't life or death. I'm simply pointing out that apple products are being adopted by enterprise faster and by a majority over android devices. That's a fact. I'm just happy we are adopting mobile tech in the workplace...I dont care who makes it. I get excited by new tech.

Where I work, yes doctors and researchers are using very specific apps from what I understand, but it helps them get their jobs done, that's what matters. I work in purchasing and have yet to see anyone from the 30,000 plus employees request anything except an iPad when buying a tablet. They are free to buy anything they want.

Again I agree with you that android offers more business like architecture and way more flexibility, and that's why the US Army is using Android devices in the field. I ain't your enemy, Mr 53 year old as far from a teenage girl as one can get.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

Well... you used the double negative version: You didn't disagree with me. And for that... you must die! ;-)

I think you're premature on your iPad over Android tablet announcement. iPad has a distinct advantage at the moment. They don't have anyone to compete against.

Let's be honest. The Android tablet market stepped on there you-know-what. The real kickoff was late 2010 with the 7inch Galaxy Tab, based on a phone-only OS. Ouch! Then came the supposed game changer... the XOOM with Honeycomb. Double Ouch!!! Honeycomb was awful! It was hard to love, even for the Android fan-boys.

Even today, the official ICS OTA upgrade IS STILL NOT OUT for the XOOM!!! Worse, when you go to the Motorola site, they don't even list a date for the 4G XOOM to get ICS!

Luckily, there are a few developer ICS ROMs out there for those of us with 4G XOOMs. I'm running the Eos ICS ROM and loving it. The tablet is finally complete!!! Awesome... just awesome.

IMHO, ICS is the first true Android tablet OS that "just works" and can truly compete and beat iPad. The trouble is most Android tablets don't even have it yet.

Once the Tablet playing field actually has two players on it, then we can start discussing which is being adopted.

Even with only one player on the field, I don't see enterprise running toward iPad. I see them waiting for someone to answer their needs. iOS doesn't. Android can, but essentially hasn't yet and people are wary of the new promises of ICS. These are promises they've heard before.

My sector (semi makers) don't use iProducts. We overwhelmingly use Android. Our teenage daughters use iProducts. ;-) My company, in particular, will not allow iProducts on our net. They are not secure. Apple insists on controlling everything, including the levels of possible security/encryption their devices are capable of. This makes iProducts and non-starter for our industry. Of course, there may be some exceptions in my industry (don't know of any, but nothing is 100%). I travel for work visiting our clients, about 75 hotel nights per year. I meet with a lot of electronics companies. More than you can shake a stick at... and I'm sure you can shake a stick at many things. ;-) The overwhelming majority of the engineers and managers I meet in the electronics sector are Android based.

I've got to believe if your infoworld writer would have polled more than 400 people and included people from all sectors, his data would be quite different.

If you follow the World Wide Market numbers, you may have noticed that Apple no longer separately reports iPhones and iPads. They now include iPod Touch to bolster their numbers. They were shamed by the fact that the Android OS now controls more than 50% of the World Wide Mobile Phone and Tablet OS market with an incredibly steep growth slope. In contrast, Apple's percentage of the WW market has struggled to stay in the upper teens and has been flat, flat, flat! Adding the iPod touch turns the data into crap, IMHO. Heck everyone has an iPod Touch. It's the only game in town in that space. But it's not a phone. It's not a tablet. It's really just a toy.