Android Backflip summary

[David Kramer]

Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 11:50 PM, David Kramer <david-8uUts6sDVDvs2Lz0fTdYFQ at public.gmane.org>
>> wrote:
>>> I said the other day I would summarize my findings on the Backflip.
>> [...]
>>
>> Thanks a lot for the helpful summary.  I was considering this phone
>> but I think 1) and 2) alone will preclude me from getting one...
> 
> Only problem is ... You've got to get some phone.  So what's it going to be?
> Pick your evil...

True.  But all of these issues are going to affect different people to a
different extent, so one man's anathema is another man's godsend.  I've
kind of set myself up for failure by becoming reliant on very strong PDA
functionality (calendar/task/contact).  For my current Windows Mobile
phone, I was able to get that in a third party program, Pocket Informant.

Now that I'm becoming more OK with the concept of an iPhone without a
keyboard, my research found the calendar and contacts apps are
insufficient, and Apple doesn't let any third-party apps interface to
them, so any third-party solution can't integrate well with the rest of
the phone or use whatever sync capabilities it has.

And my absolute refusal to send my data to Google makes choosing an
Android phone much harder.  Most other people have no problems with
doing this.

> Android sold by AT&T or T-Mobile, bastardized.
> iPhone evil from the start.
> Win Mobile surprisingly less evil, but also bastardized and unreliable.

My current phone is ancient and can only run up to Windows Mobile 6.0
Pro, not even 6.5.  It would be sheer lunacy to sign a two-year contract
with a new WM phone, because even Microsoft is TELLING you it's been a
dead end for over a year and a half.  Unless I can get one on eBay or
something cheap.

My current phone was the right choice at the time, because the first
generation iPhone had JUST come out, and there were very few apps, and
very little indication of what kind of apps Apple would allow.  Today's
iPhone is MUCH more powerful, and there's 93,000 apps.  Of course that
doesn't mean that includes exactly what I need, since I'm not looking
for a program to make farting noises ;)

> You could get the nexus one.  It's good.  But you'll have to pay the full
> price upfront.

I could, but then I would still have the Android-related problems on my
list, and no keyboard.  If I'm not getting a keyboard, I might as well
get an iPhone, which has better syncing with open source servers I can
run myself than the open source Android OS.

> Blackberry.  Palm.  The same as far as I'm concerned.  Very very limited
> apps.
Blackberry is a lot more powerful these days, but they have TINY TINY
screens, which is a dealbreaker for me.  Palm has been a dead end for
even longer than Windows Mobile.  They haven't released a new version of
PalmOS in like 7 years, and the Pre only syncs with Google, which is
once again a deal-breaker for me.

Thanks to my current employment status (NULL POINTER), I'm going to the
Burlington Mall today to torture the iPhone (and the "Geniuses") and the
Backflip some more.