Android Backflip summary

[Edward Ned Harvey]

> The overall message from me, though, is when I envision a phone built
> on
> open source software, this is about as far as you can get from this
> vision.

This is a partial truth.  In its ideal, android is an open platform, but
most carriers bastardize android before selling the phones.  You've
mentioned AT&T below.  I only looked at T-Mobile before.  So ... There's two
for two.

There is one alternative that I know isn't bastardized.
http://www.google.com/phone


> 1) AT&T modified the software install process so users can only install
> software from Android Market.  This is one of the biggest issues I have

T-Mobile modifies theirs such that the phone is nonfunctional unless you get
the data plan along with it.  A lot of people obviously find that
acceptable, but not me.


> 8) Android does not sync directly with ANY operating system or
> software.
>  No import, no export.  You can sync with GMail and Google Calendar,
> but
> I don't like handing over every piece of private data I have about
> myself and my friends to a company known to hold onto data about you
> you've asked them to delete.  The funny part about this for me is that
> the iPhone, created by the Kings of Closed, syncs with CalDAV and LDAP
> (calendar and contacts respectively).

Built-in, no.  You'll have to install something.  I only looked at this
about a year ago, so things have surely changed by now, but you should look
at Astrasync.  It's not free, and I had some problems using it on my
blackberry on the wifi.  But it was good on the mobile broadband, and that
was a year ago, and blackberry is known to have problems for apps trying to
use wifi.