slaingod

I recently acquired a new Motorola Droid phone, based on the Android OS. So far I love it. I’m not saying it is the best phone in the world, but it does what I need and has a lot of potential for growth.

The main cons of the phone hardware itself:

• The screen is almost too sensitive, especially around the special buttons at the bottom. It is sometimes too easy to press buttons inadvertently. This is particularly the case when typing with the hardware keyboard, as I have accidentally discarded emails I was typing with a slight brush and no recourse.
• Camera could be better, though this may be a firmware/software update thing.
• The power cable is somewht awkwardly placed, though for a reason. It is well placed for the Media Doc accessory which is pretty darn cool. But I use my phone to read ebooks so it is a slight annoyance there.

Other than that, the Droid hardware is rock solid.

As far as Android goes: It is still clearly a work in progress, but it is very good already. Here are my main issues with it:

• It MUST get a ‘selective permissions per app’ option, so that I can disable all the over-reaching app that try to read my contacts, get my phone identity, or want ‘full network access’ unnecessarily. This is the new identity fraud and information gathering vector of the future and Google REALLY needs to get on top of this. Even the ‘My Verizon’ app is getting in on the fun: Version 1.0 just needed network access (since it is basically just a web widget to their website). Now 2.0 all of a sudden needs to be able to ‘read my browser history and bookmarks’? That is just someone’s idea of data collection gone awry. At the very least, if they are requesting these permissions the SDK should require them to provide a text explanation of WHY they want them if they are legitimate to the working of the app, like ‘Full Network Access: So AdMob can provide advertising services.’ Basically this would be my primary reason to root my device, to install custom software to manage this.
• A full featured firewall…along the lines of above and for the similar reasons.
• Market needs a bookmark/save for later functionality. App update needs an ‘ignore this update’ or ‘never update’ function.
• The lock screen needs a delay like: Don’t show the lock screen if the phone has been idle for only 10 minutes.
• Enable multitouch already…if that means you need to license it from Apple for $10 and I have to pay extra…go for it.
• Bluetooth file transfer of files from a desktop. Obviously this is disabled because of tethering, though I’m not sure how this would make a difference since technically I could just use my wireless to download a file then transfer it with a cable.
• VPN support for old school group authentication.

Beyond that my main complaint lies with FBReader, the main free ebook reader. It is lacking some critical features I need, like highlighting.