Finally Making The Jump To The Android Side

Around the time that I blogged about my intrigue/concerns about the new Android phones that were coming out and/or where available, Google decided to make an unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus available on their Google Play store. Needless to say, this has been giving me the Android itch even more. The appeal of a pure Google experience, without a contract and with the ability to use on more than one network went to the forefront of all my smartphone thoughts and questions.

On the one hand, it isn’t the most up to date hardware in terms of specs when you compare it to the new HTC One X or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy III phone. On the other hand, it will always have the most up to date Android OS, when one is readily available, it won’t be bloated with 3rd-party software, it’s not all that behind the new up-comers and it’s still an update from my current iPhone 4.

I kept jumping back and forth between waiting till after the WWDC and or just to hell with it and just buy the damn phone already. One reason for my hesitation is that maybe the new iPhone might blow me away and convince me to stay with iOS for another two years. It has been a fine OS for 3+ years so far and I haven’t ever had any issues with it. Except for when it slowed down my hardware and I had to upgrade to a newer model (which happened with my 3G that made me jump to the 4 as soon as I could).

The more I thought about it though, I realized that I do feel ready for a change. I want a new toy that will challenge me and teach me something new. I learned everything I could do with my iPhone or rather what I would want to do. Short of playing in the jailbreak/Cydia world, I’ve done all I want on my iPhone and I’m sure the new iOS in the works isn’t going to change the current layout all that much. I’m ready to try something more customizable and open to other capabilities and open-source software.

With that final epiphany I made the plunge and made the purchase. I should be receiving my new unlocked Galaxy Nexus in the mail within a few business days and the Google Android world I’ll be exploring.

Patience Is A Virtue, I Guess

After a day of deliberation, regarding my dilemma, I decided stay on the side of prudence and just let things be. I found out some disconcerting things that just made me realize that maybe I was being too hasty. And as Claudia had pointed out, there isn’t anything wrong with my current phone anyway. Allow me to elaborate.

As much as I like the technical specs of the Samsung Galaxy S II, I’m almost as equally appalled by the bloatware that’s installed on this device. Unfortunately Samsung, like every other Android phone maker, feels the need to add their own twist to an already good OS when left alone. On top of that, AT&T adds a series of their own apps to further take away from the storage memory, it’s efficiency, and the overall experience that I’m looking for in an Android device.

This led me to look into rooting options and mods that would be a good replacement for Samsung’s Touchwiz version of Android. The best one on the market, so I’ve read and heard, is Cyanogenmod. Alas, it’s version for the Samsung Galaxy S II isn’t too stable and is still considered experimental at this point in time. I won’t call it a conspiracy, but it is interesting that the founder of Cyanogenmod  can’t seem to get a stable working mod for his current employer’s device.

I’m sure If I looked a little harder I can find a more stable mod of Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but the fact of the matter is, Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has already come out with the release of the latest Google phone, The Galaxy Nexus, and that is the new OS that the developers are working on getting a mod for. Instead of rushing into the latest and greatest, like most early-adopters, it’s better to just wait for ICS to mature past it’s infancy stage. It’ll take at least 6 months, or so, for all the most current Android phones to upgrade to the new OS (Only the Nexus phones have it at the moment), and the mod developers have a lot of kinks to work out to get a working stable mod released for the impatient rooted-phone users out there. Lastly, the Galaxy Nexus is only available for Verizon and by the time it is available for AT&T (if ever) it will once again be outdated like the previous models. So better to wait, when my contract is up. That way I’ll be free to weigh all my options. LTE will have expanded more in NYC for all the carriers. There will be newer and better devices which will hopefully have better battery life to handle the new 4G networks. Finally, who knows what the iPhone 5 will be like by then. Maybe I’ll end up an Apple user for yet another 2 years.

If you’re wondering, “what about jailbreaking your iPhone to get features you want like Swype?”, I did in fact look into that as well. Unfortunately, the easiest untethered jailbreaking solution for the iPhone has ceased to be available once iOS upgraded past 4.3.4. Another non-conspiracy but interesting fact (or is it?), the author of jailbreakme.com also happens to work for Apple now. Anyway, the only non-tethered jailbreak for iPhone isn’t recommended for casual users. In fact they insist “this jailbreak is intended only for developers of jailbroken apps!“, which definitely means that it isn’t Julio-friendly. I’ll  just have to stick it out with the standard Apple iOS. Lack of Swype notwithstanding, my iPhone 4 isn’t a bad phone to have.

 

Update 12/27/11:

As if someone was hearing my concerns, an untethered jailbreak option became available for the iPhone. I tried it out and even had iSwipe for a brief moment. Unfortunately it was a little too unstable for my taste (my phone would just reboot for no reason every so often), and I ended up restoring my phone back to it’s normal state. It was fun to dream a little dream though.