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Welcome to a brand new feature that we’ll start doing every single Friday… PhanMail Friday! We get a lot of Android-related questions throughout the week and can’t POSSIBLY answer them all. But for the ones that could be entertaining, informative, educational, interesting and beyond… we thought you might enjoy hearing our answers.
You can submit your PhanMail questions here, or just read below and enjoy a good old-fashioned round of Q&A – Android style. Let the fun begin!
If Andy Rubin, Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer fought in a 3-way celebrity deathmatch cage fight – who would win and how?
Steve Jobs would definitely have the upper hand. Being in that type of closed environment is definitely the equivalent to home field advantage. Steve Ballmer would definitely have a great shot too, because while Jobs and Rubin are busy pummeling each other to death, Ballmer would be sitting in the middle of the ring announcing why Windows Phone is so revolutionary. But in the end, I think Andy Rubin would find a way to take the battle to more fertile ground, pulling an Undertaker by choke slamming his nemesis through the very cage that used to encapsulate them. Jobs would land on Ballmer, instantly killing them both.
And just to clear this all up, I’m talking about this in the context of Celebrity Death Match and inherently in the most sarcastic way possible. I’d never wish harm on anyone, and when it comes to Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer, I wish them nothing but success. Better competition = Better quality. Not to mention they’ve got families and are probably good guys and all that.
/2nd-paragraph-buzz-kill
If you had to sum up each (American) carrier with one phrase or sentence, what would they be?
- Verizon Wireless: Best Coverage/Signal/Service… DROIIIIIIIIIID
- Sprint: G G G G… turned it around in an EPIC way
- T-Mobile: home of the original Android and incredibly balanced offerings (value)
- AT&T: I’ll have to get back to you on this one
What killer feature are you eagerly awaiting phones to start getting as a standard – either hardware or software related?
For some reason I’ve had this odd fascination for mainstream phones to get optical zoom. We’ve got devices with incredibly high megapixel counts, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to quality pictures. If an awesomely spec’d Android comes out with optical zoom… I’m getting it. I think it’s one of the key features that’s preventing people from using their phone as an everyday type of camera.
Make the phone a little more thick to accomodate. Slap on an extended battery as the default/stock battery. Hook it up with 5x optical zoom or something sick along with a 5MP or above lens, but focus on picture quality. Then send it to me and watch me smile. Then put it on sale and profit.
Are you ever going to update the Phandroid Application in the market?
Staff and premium members of AndroidForums already have access to a beta of the new Phandroid App. It’s infinitely improved and offers support for news, forums, IRC chat, and a whole lot more on the way. We’re fixing bugs and polishing things off and hope to have it released in the next couple weeks. I promise you that compared to the current app… it will blow you away.
FYI we’ll also be changing the name from “Phandroid News” to simply “Phandroid”
What will be the hottest Android items for the holidays?
It’s impossible to deny that Google TV products and Samsung Galaxy Tab will be among the favorites. Keep an eye on ChromeOS tablets and netbooks because while they’re not necessarily Android-related, we could see some integration between the two. For example, Google TV is based on Android but also baked in with Chrome.
It’s hard to know what will really catch fire in the mind of consumers. I think Google TV might take a little bit of time for people to understand and for it to catch on. It’s also only October so I’m hoping that a lot of Android stuff is still waiting in the wings for optimal announcement time. After Halloween people seem to start thinking holidays… so let’s see what November has to offer in terms of product announcements.
Hope you enjoyed the first edition of PhanMail and we look forward to getting your questions throughout the next week!
at&t – what? hello? you still there? lmao…. BTW, FIRST
I want to know about the supposed 4.3″ phone going to verizon…..i can upgrade in like 2 weeks and IDK what to do!!
ChromeOS is for netbooks. Android is for tablets.
4.3″? thats a mini tablet IMO, not a phone. My droid x is as big as I can handle….(thats what she said….lol)
this is all nice and dandy but…. where is the ‘gingerbread leak of the day’
I want to know when the hell the Android devs are going to focus on the market. The fact that you cannot sort by rating or any other number of parameters is quite ridiculous. Also, if it were made into desktop-based program or even better, a web-based program so that you could actually read, review, search, and download apps while on your computer and then transfer them to your phone…that would be cool. Considering that the android market is now bigger than Apple’s appstore, I would like to think that the Android devs would take another look at what I consider the area that is in most dire need of improvement.
@Taylor – Says who?
@Fletch – Um, I don’t know what you’re reading, but the Android market is most certainly not bigger than Apple’s app store yet. The Android market is maybe around 100K now, and Apple’s just topped 300K.
i agree with fletch. Also the desktop version could sync and back up our contacts, media, everything just like itunes. They are majorly behind with the lack of a desktop client.. i think at least
For features I am waiting for is 1080p video recording/ playback with those sand size optical laser gyroscopes for in building and which floor to your room of choice navigation.
How about a phone like let’s say the nexus one. Have an option where you can take off the back cover and attach a physical qwerty keypad. So for the ones who like only virtual keypads they keep it slim or the ones who like physical can attach and get a thicker phone that can easily be slim also??
I LOL on the ATT comment. Good thing I wasn’t in a meeting. Tmo N1 user.
@Brad – Says me.
DaveyBOY–Verizon had a phone like that a couple years ago. I believe it was called the LG Versa. It had an attachable keyboard or gamepad. Never really caught on, but it was pretty bulky with said add-ons.
@Taylor – Good for you then, but there is no official statements to back that up. Neither OS is restriced to either platform. There are Android tablets now, and though they have not been released yes, there are Android-based netbooks in development, or at least there were. Also, there are rumblings about Chrome OS based tablets as well. The only thing I don’t understand is why Google is wasting time with Chrome OS, when they should be pushing Android fast and hard on everything. Come on Google, just create a proper Chrome browser for Android, and move on.
@ chris valos…the Droid X IS a 4.3 ” device.
I want to know more about the T2/Terminator, and if it is coming to all 4 carriers. Please let it not go to just Verizon…
@chris…. the droid x IS a 4.3 in device.
I personally can’t wait for the T2/Terminator. I hope the rumors are true and it goes to all four carriers, and not just verizon.
Sorry about the double comment. My first one didn’t show up from yesterday until now.
@ Nick, that is close but the versa is a qwerty with a case added. Like a wallet. I am talking about like my Epic 4G. The physical keyboard is on the bottom of the screen. If only it could connect like when you remove the battery cover. There are some phone that would make everyone happy. If you could of done that with the Nexus one that would been awesome. I care more about functionality then looks. But thanks I never saw that phone before.
I will go one step forward then my last comment.
Why can’t smartphones be like computers.
I can add a different keyboard to my computer, I can change the RAM. It would be nice to change the processor.
Also we should be able to buy a bare bone case. I would like a 5 inch screen with buttons you can program all over the phone like a computer mouse. If thet came with a genius app I would like to pick out where I want the button to be not the phone manufactor or the cell phone company. So basically you can keep the outer and swap out the insides as technology get better. I think that is true open source.