Today Motorola responded to all of the eFuse nonsense with something that makes the situation a bit better.
Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com.
This is very good compared to bricking the phone. At least the phone can be recovered by the user instead of having to ship it to Motorola for a repair(not sure of the complete details and how warranty would work). I’m also happy to see that Moto responded so quickly to the public. However, this still does not sit well with me as Android was developed with developers and tinkering in mind. If I want to mess around with my device, why can’t I?
Let me set the stage up for those who don’t know much background. In 2005, Android, Inc. (a small company in Cali) was acquired by Google. Android, Inc. was a start-up whose business was in developing software for mobile phones. In 2007 Google helped fund the Open handset Alliance (OHA) which is a consortium of several technology companies whose purpose was to develop open standards for mobile devices. Motorola, Samsung, and T-Mobile and among these companies. These companies should all be first in line to make phones more open and free, right?
Well…
Yesterday’s post has already shown us that Motorola should really rework some of their business practices, but it also puts them in a precarious position in the OHA by going against what the OHA is exactly trying to stop, carrier and corporate lockdown of mobile devices. Some even think that because of the eFuse Moto should be asked to leave the OHA, and I’m not entirely sure that they’re wrong in asking this. If they are supposed to abide by the OHA terms, they should. No deviations.
Now for another punch in the OHA/Android face, T-Mobile and Verizon are now installing “junkware” in their new Android phones that cannot be removed in most circumstances. The LA Times blog is reporting that, “the Droid X comes loaded with several nonstandard applications for Google’s Android, most of which cannot be removed” and that T-Mobile’s new Samsung Vibrant is also loaded with some extra apps that cannot be removed. What kind of apps are installed? Here’s a few snips:
Among the [Droid X's] so-called junkware is a Blockbuster video app and a demo for an Electronic Arts game called Need for Speed: Shift….The EA racing game, which provides limited functionality and a large button on the introduction screen urging players to buy the full version, can be removed…
Skype, which is included with other Android handsets Verizon sells, is a permanent fixture, as is a utility called City ID. The latter program provides location information about phone numbers on the incoming call screen. But it works for only 15 days before asking users to pay $1.99 per month…
The T-Mobile Vibrant phone from Samsung, meanwhile, has four of these extra apps staring you in the face.
One is the movie “Avatar,” permanently loaded onto the device…Another is a live video channel called MobiTV — good for only 30 days. The third is a link to install an EA game called The Sims 3: Collector’s Edition. The last is an outdated version of Amazon’s Kindle app.
There’s also Slacker Radio, which cannot be used before providing an e-mail address, and a button leading to Gogo Inflight Internet’s website, which includes a one-month trial for Web surfing (only on plans that provide the service).
Try as you might, none of these apps can be uninstalled.
That is an awful lot of software to load onto a phone that runs an operating system that is supposed to be “free” and “open” for it’s users. The fact that most of them cannot be uninstalled is the most enraging part. I’m also sure that these apps take up a good deal of storage space.
Samsung, Motorola, Verizon, and T-Mobile are completely going against the principles of the OHA which they are all (with the exception of Verizon) a part of. But I’d probably blame the carries more because in the end, they are the one’s with final say on what is loaded on their devices.
So, should all of them be asked to leave the OHA? I’d say that if they continue this trend then yes. The OHA should give them an ultimatum to stop and they should take it or leave. If the OHA fails to even deliver on that then what is the point of the OHA? If you’re not going to stand by one of your most basic principles then you have failed.
While I don’t think this is worse than the eFuse in the Droid X, it certainly is something that needs to be resolved just as rapidly. Putting a few small applications on a phone specific to your company is not really a problem, not allowing your customers to remove them is.
Last year I bought my first smartphone, a Motorola DROID from Verizon. This is my first Moto phone since I got a RAZR many moons ago and swore off Moto forever because of their shitty product. Now, I love my DROID, it does everything I need it to do and more, and I really think Moto got it right with the DROID (I also applaud Big Red for finally making their phones more open). Since the DROID came out Moto has yet to release another kick-ass Android-based phone; the CLIQ is a piece of junk so don’t say that. Verizon has released the DROID Incredible (an HTC device) which is also making the rounds as being an amazing phone, but people were waiting for Moto’s next DROID. The Droid X was to be the next amazing Verizon/Android/Moto Android phone but with its release something has popped up on the tech radar; the eFuse.
According to a source at My Droid World (and Motorola themselves), the Droid X has an eFuse chip installed in the device. The long and short of it is that Motorola has installed this eFuse in the new Droid X which checks the phone for the proper kernel, boot-loader, and ROM and if the proper software is not found it will automatically “trip a fuse” to corrupt the phone’s boot-loader forcing you to get it repaired and will most likely void your warranty. Oh and did I mention that the phone can ONLY be repaired by Motorola, so the Verizon Store won’t help you (well, they’ll ship it to them for you) and you’ll most likely end up pay for a new phone.
Why is Motorola doing this to their phones? According to the Motorola blog:
We understand there is a community of developers interested in going beyond Android application development and experimenting with Android system development and re-flashing phones. For these developers, we highly recommend obtaining either a Google ADP1 developer phone or a Nexus One, both of which are intended for these purposes. At this time, Motorola Android-based handsets are intended for use by consumers and Android application developers, and we have currently chosen not to go into the business of providing fully unlocked developer phones.
Now if I read that correctly, Motorola just told people to buy an HTC device (the Nexus One or a Google ADP1 dev phone) and not their product because their “Android-based handsets are intended for use by consumers and Android application developers.” So, the DROID was a fluke? Well…
When we do deviate from our normal practice, such as we did with the DROID, there is a specific business reason for doing so. We understand this can result in some confusion, and apologize for any frustration.
You’re joking, right? You deviated on the DROID for a “business reason” and now that everyone loves your Android-based phones, you’re going to change it? How stupid does that sound?
First, if you’re going to say you have a reason you could at least tell the people what that reason was even if it’s most likely about money. Secondly, why would you want to change something that has worked already? You know the whole “no fix if no broke” thing? The DROID was probably the best smartphone released last year because of it’s features and it’s openness. Taking one of those key selling points away is really going to piss people off. Also, not only is it frustrating, it’s just a punch right in the face of all the people who praised your phone for it’s openness.
What happens when (like the MyTouch 3g and G1, etc) the developers stop caring about a phone so much that they don’t release a new version of Android for it, when their phones are still capable of running them? Or if Motorola decides not to update the SenseUI on the phone and you’re stuck with whatever they stop with? Well, of course you’re supposed to buy another phone from them, but it probably won’t be a Moto phone if the eFuse is still there. But there are a lot of people want to get all they can from their device (I mean, you did pay $200+ for it!). So they’ll end up going the route of rooting a phone and installing a modded Android install and continue to be happy with your device. Does it change that fact that it’s still a Motorola brand phone? No, it just shows that your hardware still kicks ass 2 years after it was released instead of going to the bottom of the old electronics drawer or whatever.
I realize not everyone cares about modding their phones, hell it’s most likely a larger portion than the people who do care, but the issue is that Motorola is making it okay for a company to brick YOUR phone if they don’t like what you do to it. You know, the phone YOU paid for with YOUR money (which Motorola took of course!). A lot of people buy devices based on how much the company lets you tinker with the device after you buy it.
I’m almost positive that the phone will still be hacked, but this is going to cause a big backlash in the Android community against Motorola (and probably Verizon even though they most likely have nothing to do with it). A lot of Android folk are very pro-open-source and while the software is still “open” the hardware will strike you down if you try to change it.
While I won’t tell people not to buy a Moto phone again I will say that the Droid X will probably be a bad choice if you’re going to alter the base software or if you want the phone to last a long time.
So I was supposed to write about the other 2 posts on TUAW regarding the iPhone wish list, but I figure I should just skip that and go right into the iPad, the latest gadget from Apple. For the last year I’ve been seeing rumors about the all mysterious “Apple tablet” that they’re working on. I couldn’t go one day without some site I browse having something about this damn thing. I actually was hoping that it would be something more than “a big iPhone.” I think my hopes got too high, and when I saw the announcement online I was just confused.
First thing, I’m really not a tablet PC type of person anyway, so I was hoping that it would at least have something different than other tablets, or even something so good that I might even want to get one. Lets face it, I do like my Apple products; my 80GB iPod, my old 40GB iPod, my MacBook Pro, the lab machines, the servers, etc. I enjoy using them for the most part and I believe that Apple does make quality products. And you already know my disdain for the iPhone from my last twoposts, so you can’t really say I’m a fanboy; meaning I’m not going to buy everything Steve Jobs says because he said to, NO. I’m going to buy a product I feel has a use in my life, and that I will like to use. And the iPad just doesn’t do it for me.
There are many things that they should/could have done differently with it, but they didn’t. I admit, it’s very nice looking and I can see some uses for it (below) but I just don’t think it’s practical for most.
The iPad would be an excellent control for, say, a media system or a professional presentation. I can see people buying one of these for their office to use as a datebook or a replacement for magazines and newspapers or even to control things in their office (lights, music, etc). Using it as an eReader or an internet device when on the road? I just don’t see it. Reading the screen would probably be like reading a book on your computer screen, you’ll go blind. Why is the Kindle so popular? It uses e-ink and doesn’t blind you with back lighting. That’s the whole point of it. Don’t get me wrong, using the iPad as a magazine or newspaper reader would be great, you can’t do that shit with e-ink but $400 for a magazine reader? I don’t know…
I also don’t see people buying this thing as a gaming device. (Yes, I know that’s not the point of the iPad) Sure, it can do some nifty graphics and tilt functions, but it’s so big compared to a Nintendo DS or a PSP. And those systems won’t make you look like an idiot steering a box in public. And about the games and apps; all iPhone apps work on it, great, now I can have an iPhone sized app running on my 9 inch tablet, way to utilize the screen space. Yeah, you can zoom in, but what happens when you zoom in on things that weren’t meant to be zoomed in on? That’s right, it looks like a piece of mosaic.
The drawing features are nice. I can see many artists or designers wanting this to sketch out things on the fly and be able to send it to someone without a scanner or whatnot…but why not take that a step more? Make a deal with Wacom and allow it to become an actual Wacom tablet. Charge like $50 for an app that when you plug it into your PC it shows the screen of the PC and allows you to draw on it! Genius! That would actually make it multifunction; hell I’d consider buying it then.
Speaking of multifunction, I must say this:
HAHAHAHAHA!
They didn’t learn that people really wanted multitasking. I know many folks who were very pissed off about this and I just ask them, “you’re surprised?” Good luck on the next update.
Oh and another one: Think they’d learn from their AT&T problems?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Unfortunately, sticking with AT&T was inevitable; the iPhone is AT&T only, so why in the hell would they move to another carrier? If they released a new iPhone for Verizon then I’d see it to be more plausible…until then, enjoy your AT&T iPad users!
Oh and the name…iPad? You’re fucking Apple! You couldn’t have used one of the much better names like iTablet or my personal favorite, the iSlate? You went with the name in which MadTV did a skit on already making the joke that everyone is making now? Wow. Someone missed that joke from like 3 years ago. That’s why people are making those jokes, not really because of the maxipad/pad reference, but because it was already a stupid joke on MadTV.
I’m not saying that the iPad is a failure, or it’s a completely useless product, because it’s not. I’m just giving my $0.02.
Yesterday I came across this post on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). I read through it and couldn’t help but laugh at some of the requests; not just because some are silly but because some phones already do this and iPhone users used to ask, “Why do I need that?!” I felt I should write my opinions on these requests. Mind you, I have never owned an iPhone, but I’ve witnessed countless people with them and have used them a good deal troubleshooting for people while at work, I also own an Android-powered DROID; just a disclaimer.
Before I even get into the list I come across this
This is the first of a series of letters to Apple on your behalf, telling the gang in Cupertino what would make their wonder-phone even more wondrous
And it even goes into a real letter to Apple.
Dear Apple,
While it’s clear the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market right now, you have a lot of competition creeping up. We want to help you blow them out of the water with the iPhone OS 4.0. Here are our suggestions:
Now, if you know Apple AT ALL you know that they really don’t listen to the user. TUAW certainly knows this since they write about Apple all the time. Apple’s idea of market research is “Steve said this was good, so it’s good.” This isn’t always the case of course; they brought back firewire to all of their laptops after omitting it on most for a time, but Apple really isn’t going to listen to you all that much. They will look at the market and see what other phones have that they missed, and probably include some of those. For instance, people use removable-media on their devices a lot, some people prefer it over internal media of course. Will Apple ever put a microSD card in their iPhone or iPod? Probably not. Why? Probably because it’s something else that could break that they don’t want to have to worry about, but it’s probably because they don’t want people to add more space to their devices without buying a whole new device.
Now to the list (please read the article if you’re going to ask questions or complain or whatever, I will only be posting the main idea of each item, not the description of the idea)
1. The lock screen needs to change
This one is nothing too crazy. The lock screen could change of course to show more information; a list of to-do’s, emails, whatever. So this one I really don’t have an issue with. Other phones do this a bit; on Android you get your notifications with an icon in the top menu bar as well as a different colored blinking LED on the front of the phone.
2. A new home screen. The iPhone is the smartest phone on the market. Make it smarter. Introduce a location-aware home screen.
This is another one that I really don’t have an issue with. I actually like this idea and wonder why more phones/devices don’t have it.
3. That new home screen? Let us access it by vertically swiping.
This one confused me a little bit. I can see the desire to have all of your feeds and shit within a simple swipe, but why? Do something like Android and use a drop down menu at the top. You select the top menu and slide it out, this way you don’t accidentally swipe vertically while you’re reading something and open your home screen. The mock-up looks nice:
Credit: Teehan+Lax
But it reminds me of the drop down in Android, just more refined.
4. Overhaul app navigation.
This is another one I really like. Tape the home button when on your app menu and it shows all of your homescreens in a nice “exposé” style manner.
This should be standard too. If hold my home button on my DROID it brings up my running programs and I can switch between them (more on multitasking later).
5. 85% of us want multitasking and 3rd party background apps
This is where I get a little annoyed with iPhone users. Now, multitasking is something that the Palm Pre does with WebOS, as well as Android phones, but the iPhone falls short here. It SHOULD have it, but iPhone users used to ask me “Who needs that?” or “Who cares about that?” Well, apparently 85% of the people polled care about it enough to respond to TUAW. This is a good demand…until I see the next line: “but not at the cost of battery life.” What? Really? You want to run multiple applications at once and not use battery life? What kind of engineering do you think Apple does? Come on now, be realistic!
6. Almost 80% of us want Flash, even if it’s a bad idea.
Again, a pretty good request. I want it on my DROID too. Apparently it’ll be out for Android before the iPhone though. Also, running Flash on anything MacOS related is a death sentence. They realize this in the post, but I’m just throwing it in there also.
7. We love that you introduced landscape mode across virtually all apps in iPhone OS 3.0, but 70% of us want the ability to selectively turn it off.
Okay, this really isn’t built into the phone? Android has it built in already…why didn’t Apple? I don’t know. But it’s actually a legit request also.
8. When we leave an app, we want it to remember where we were.
This one is part of the whole multitasking thing. When multitasking comes, this better be in it, or you’re doing it wrong! (Yes, Android for the most part has this, and I believe WebOS does as well.)
9. 65% of us want the ability to remove Apple-branded apps.
This next one is a fair request, but it just won’t happen. Apple doesn’t care…really. They don’t want you to remove their apps on the iPhone because, well, it’s their apps. There are ways apparently to hid the app from your screen, but not to remove them. These apps are so small what should it matter? This is what you’re getting with a brand; the device and the apps to come with it. Same on most devices.
10. 60% of us want a universal “documents” folder.
Okay, fair again, but a question is why doesn’t it do this anyway? “We realize this breaks the sandboxing model that prevents one app from blowing away data belonging to another one, but we have every confidence you can make it work.” Yeah, and when an app comes out that removes all of your pictures and documents who are you going to blame for allowing this? Thought so.
11. Better Support for Codecs and Add-ons.
This one is basically asking to allow WMV and AVI stuff to run. I suppose this is another valid request. Next!
12. The iPhone is a hard drive with a screen, so….[Give us Disk mode in the OS. 50% of us want to use our iPhone as an external USB/Wi-Fi hard drive.]
One of my favorites. I wonder why Apple doesn’t allow this. Maybe it’s because they don’t want people to be able to remove their apps so easily, or copy some over, or maybe it’s because they want their users to use iTunes. You know, one of their most popular pieces of software. It’s all about controlling the environment the phone runs with. You can use other programs to add songs, and documents and pictures, but adding apps is all iTunes. There is really no third party app vendor, is there? You’re stuck with iTunes, like it or not.
So that’s really my $.02 on this blog entry. It’s probably biased, but it’s me being honest. I like the iPhone. I think it’s a great device, but it does have some stupid flaws that can easily be fixed (as well as being a shitty phone). Unfortunately these requests might fall on deaf ears, Steve Jobs is not going to listen much, he’s going to make you listen.
Fixing or adding any of these features to the iPhone will still not help if you’re sitting on a shitty network. I’ll keep m DROID and use an iPod Touch (or my 6th Gen iPod Classic). I’ll at least be able to do everything I can on an iPhone while actually being able to make phone calls.
There will most likely be a part 2 from this article, so I may just have to wager in on that one as well.
