Android Identity Crisis

[Crumbz]

The Android OS has been around for several years, and can be found on pretty much every recent mobile device (with the exception of Apple and Nintendo).

But have you ever thought "Am i using the real version of the Android OS? Or am i using an altered version?"




Well research has shown that approximately 98% of all Android powered devices that have been made since its initial release have been altered or modified in some way. Making it a diluted form of the original operating system.

As you may already know, cell phone carriers and dealers will often alter the Operating System of any of there mobile devices to include their company's products and features instead of the ones originally included with the device.

This is to force us to buy products from their own online stores and to keep us from using another competitors signals with the cell phone they sold us.

Even the applications for the Android OS are different from those that are supposed to be on the operating system.

So if these cell phone carriers/dealers were to include an untouched Android OS, imagine how powerful these mobile devices could really be!

And what they could really be able to do.



- CreativeMindMedias

[[HoP]]

so very true. tons of carriers (most) put bloatware on their modified OS's... also they tie it in soo deep that if you were to root your phone and remove some of this bloatware it would render the phone useless...


AT&T is the worst though, they block certain programs from the marketplace and im sure others do as well, however AT&T is where you see it the most.

if you have a 600mhz phone that has to have 3 programs running besides the OS itself, you are in turn getting less than what you paid for.

Its unfortunate that nobody steps forward and says "here is a phone that works the way it is supposed to"

[hyper999]

I have to disagree,

These phones are designed to be suitable for a large target market, the bloatware that everybody moans about is often used by the "less techy" portion of the market. The reason you never hear anybody saying "YAY BLOATWARE!" is because the people who do use it are generally not the sort of people that would know what the term "bloatware" means or be the type of people who would discuss it over the internet.
I would say yes sometimes it is buried to deep, but I also believe that this is becoming a thing of the past, and that generally us "more techy" people are able to easily remove it, or apply custom/untouched versions of android.
Also like I said times are changing, you may have read recently that Samsung sent free Galaxy SII's to the developers of CyanogenMod (custom version of android OS), and also that Sony Ericsson have released the option to unlock the bootloader on your device so that you can do whatever you like with it, should you not like their version of the OS.

[geraldrubalcava]

well at least android has the ability to flash different flavors of roms. when i got my original android phone is did come with so much bloatware, and you can not uninstall what they put in there without modding the original rom. i used CyanogenMod and never looked back.

[krazyone2006]

yeah first thing i did when i got my EVO was root it and flash CyanogenMod have never looked back have flashed a few other roms but none are as good as CyanogenMod i just keep going back to it makes my EVO a super sexy fast hot beast lol

Kilokk i had a IPhone 3GS 32gig before i got my EVO I will never go back to a IPhone cause my EVO does more than i was ever able to do on the IPhone

[Kilokk]

Man... And I thought iOS could be annoying... I will have to chalk this up as another reason why I would never own an android based device.

[hyper999]

As for the speed I have a galaxy SII still with the exact same firmware and bloatware it game with, and have not been able to slow it down at all. I mean out of the box it was blazingly fast, then I downloaded loads of apps, still blazingly fast, then I run all the apps at once, still blazingly fast, this thing is nearly too fast!

This is the only android device I've ever personally, but I have used my friends' devices since android first appeared, and i have never had problems of them ever being slow with all bloatware as it was out of the box.

As for iOS, in terms of phones, I most definitely will not be going back.

[Crumbz]

I didnt even know that you COULD flash a phone. lol

But does anyone here know if there is a way to flash a Symbian phone?

[krazyone2006]

its not really a service flash once you root your android phone you can flash custom roms basically diffrent dev's versions of a android os and some are really good and some are worse than the stock bloated roms

[hyper999]

I didnt even know that you COULD flash a phone. lol

But does anyone here know if there is a way to flash a Symbian phone?

Its phone specific.

[krazyone2006]

here you go i know were not suppost to link other sites but if you wanna try your hand at flashing a phone its not to hard just look it up on this forum here

http://www.howardforums.com/

they have a forum for just about every phone ever made and just about every carrier and you gotta remember some phones are easier to flash than others to a diffrent service providers hope it helps you

[toadzilla]

u forgot microsoft

[hyper999]

u forgot microsoft

Don't even get me started on windows phones...

[Crumbz]

lol. yeah i forgot about them. But didnt think that they got altered so much as the Android and Symbian phones.

I dont really know why i thought that i just did.

[Bonz]

have been altered or modified in some way. Making it a diluted form of the original operating system.

i have a problem with this statement it makes it sound like something is being taken away from the OS with these mods... Sony did a good job with media and time scape.  these things make it better... just saying!

[jrfhoutx]

Android is a great platform, I think it's amusing though listening to the argument about bloatware. And I think hyper had it pretty correct, the only people who really give a about bloatware are us tech geeks (though personally I don't care about it) the average consumer is what drives the industry not the tech geeks. It's the same with rooting and flashing roms, the vast majority of consumers have no ideas what any of that is, how to use it or why they should care about it, and they don't care about it, all they care about is that the phone works and is easy to use.

Personally I'll stick with my iPhone, say what you want about it, but I could care less about what it can and can't do. as long as I can make calls, text, and listen to my music, I'm happy, and that's what matters to the large majority of people.

Arguing about which is better is like arguing about which light beer is the best, in the end it's all the same stuff, none are as good or full flavored as the real deal and people are going to drink what they like...