By Technology is quite funny. In two years’ time you could go from having the rawest of products to a premier offering that no one can live without. Such was the case with Android. We’ve come a long way from Android 1.0 and the operating system has transformed tremendously since its initial release in September 2008.
We’re three full versions ahead of that first release now, but we’re curious: is there anything else that you wish Google would add? I, for one, would love the ability to have different wallpapers for different pages on my homescreen.
It’s something I’ve wanted ever since HTC started airing those “You” ads. It’s just one of those things which would add to the experience for me. What’s one thing you guys would love to see Google add to Android? Let’s hear it in the comments section below.
A google, “evernote” alternative.
You should check out GNOTES in the android market, I like it better then evernote
I really like any.do — It has the ability to share notes/tasks. So does evernote, but it’s really satisfying to cross off each task upon completion.
any.do claims to share to do lists, but you can’t share lists/folders, you can only share individual tasks. So you can share “Buy Milk” with your wife, but not whole grocery list. What good is that?
This is my major complaint for android most apps are substandard. I have been waiting for Android to catch up to Apple on this but its been almost 4 years and still hasnt happens.
This is particularly true for business apps and education apps. This is an area of tremendous potential and so far Google seems to be missing it.
A seamless way to add all of my friends as Google Talk contacts. I must know 40 people with Android phones and I only have about 5 of them as Google Talk contacts.
Perhaps by allowing them to put in their phone numbers?
Google Tasks, and the ability to share/edit those with other gmail users.
you can do it already with quite a few third party apps. Among them I use GTasks which syncs with Google Tasks and allows me to share a task via all the different ways Android allows you to share items.
I think he means more like collaborating with another user, or at least that’s what I’d like to be able to do…
But the point of this page is to see what we would like for google Android to do without the help of any third party apps or workarounds.
I want gTasks to be integrated into gDocs/gDrive as a type of document (“List”), along with a polished editor integrated in the Android gDocs app. This would ideally allow for collaboration between multiple users on a “List” document.
Google Voice VoIP functionality.
Good luck getting carriers to sell phones that support this, but I’m with ya.
Not built in but there are lots of 3rd party apps that make this possible.
we have tonnes of apps that do voip for free already
tango, LINE-naver, skype, fring etc etc
That would be nice. I’ve used Groove IP which uses GV to do VoIP calling. Call quality is lacking though…..
I know there is some VPN support in ICS, but I would love to get a connection to my work’s Anyconnect Cisco VPN.
Cisco’s Anyconnect client is in the Market…
Doesn’t work on ICS.
Fancy rotation and google keyboard
Fancy Rotation is in ICS, and all versions of android have had a keyboard from google? I must be mis-understanding the second one.
Sorry I mean fancy screen rotation like the ipad and google keyboard that resemble swiftkey or thumb key
But as ericl5112 said, fancy screen rotation is in ICS =)
3-d holographic display
Better battery life, no question. But I don’t know if that counts as a feature…
If not, I’d have to say high quality music output. But then that’s probably hardware.
Google Tasks integration within Calendar
Gapless audio playback in Google Music
Replaygain support in Google Music
UMA (wifi calling) support
MMS in Google Voice
MKV/H264 and DIVX/XVID video playback support
Call recording
Ability to delete Frequently Contacted
Probably a few other things I can’t remember.
Thats funny because my ex-gf is #1 on my “frequently contacted” list. Thank goodness, the current gf has never seen that list lol.
this has caused me to get a new phone with each new gf.
* DicePlayer plays everything I throw at it
* Call recording will probably never be a Google feature since it’s too much of legal grey area
* Cyanogenmod allows you to easily delete calls from the call log, fwiw, so now that they’re working more closely with Google, we could see that (like how we FINALLY got swipe to remove notifications in ICS, etc).
-Google Voice already has a call recording feature, I just want local call recording (plus not everybody uses Google Voice)
-Clearing call logs has always been possible and removing Frequently Called was possible in Android 2.x via an app, in 4.x that app doesn’t work (don’t know if Cyanogenmod allows removing Frequently Called and if that’s what you were referring to)
Call recording is available now via 3rd party
An OS-wide plugin system that would allow manufacturers to develop their own skins, drivers, and other customizations and allow users to turn those customizations off. And in conjunction, the ability of users to update their device from google directly. I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s what’s holding the platform back.
Also, a functional version of google docs.
I agree. That is a good idea. I wish that Google would break apart all its components so that the devices can be upgraded as new groundbreaking stuff comes out. Then have the other companies try and put their skins over it but give us the choice to decline that and run things pure.
Its not up to Google. Imagine Google trying to keep up with the dozens of phones that get released and having to have optimized versions that work for each phone. We should get OEMs to force this not google.
Isn’t that sirt of what CM does, except without the billions of dollars.at their disposal?
Even CM can’t offer support for all possible phone combinations. Google would need to dedicate a lot of developers to porting each Android release to every phone out there. The main problem is that each device uses unique hardware, and the drivers aren’t open source, so they have to be patched before they can be used with a new Android OS. Not to mention all the testing that goes into upgrading Android.
Its really not that simple.
Yes CM selects devices that have large support and can be modded for their version of vanilla android. Yes Google does have millions at their disposal but they are creating better and newer software, not just modding current software for released handsets. CM does a great job with their ROMs, they made my old vibrant usable. But Google is creating not just editing. They are building android for the future, for years to come, not just modding an already released version.
Remember when Google said that OS updates going forward were going to be found in the Market? This was 1.6 or 2.2 if I remember correctly…LOL FAIL
They said parts of the OS…like the Music app, Maps, Gmail, and now, the browser.
My bad you are right! Thanks.
They never said that the OS would be in the Android Market. You are an idiot for even thinking that is possible. LOL YOU FAIL
Don’t go attacking.
I did mis-remembered that but the talk was stemmed from the spin off apps and maybe just chatter suggesting an OS market update.YES I WAS WRONG, but don’t go name calling keep the internet a civil discussion!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/192841/googles_plan_to_end_android_fragmentation.html
It helps to keep things civil, if you don’t go around screaming FAIL, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about. Didn’t mean to attack, I just despise the overuse of words like FAIL.
You using FAIL in an abrasive manner nullifies your privilege of telling others not to attack you.
@dickchao:disqus @tim242:disqus I didn’t use FAIL towards a person or a post. There was no attack on my part. I even added a friendly LOL.I fail to see how that is abrasive. I am not trolling and as I have said my memory was off, but when dealing the land of webz…
Anyhow, on to real posts.
A bit surprising that Google is updating all Chromebooks themselves, regardless of manufacturer, and yet they aren’t doing the same for Android. I know the Android ecosystem is a lot more complex by now, and they probably didn’t think of doing this from the beginning, but it’s never too late to start working on that.
Yes, tho’ the parallels are tempting we’re definitely talking about two vastly different programs. The ChromeBook project involves just 2 or 3 licensees, plus a handful of current product-codes. Meanwhile, Android drags in not only a roomful of licensees with hundreds of devices but also dozens of telcos (‘carriers’; ‘operators’), around the world.
But you do make an excellent point about the benefits of a hands-on approach for Google. And it’s pretty clear Mountain View has learned much from their push into mobile. I expect we’ll see what comes of that fresh knowledge and experience, very soon. Look for Team Android taking a more assertive role, once the Motorola acquisition is settled.
MobilePhonesFan
http://www.mobilephonesfan.com
I was going to suggest a dual-boot capability. Pure Google on one partition and any piece of crap the manufacturer/carrier wants to infest in another partition. Easy access to a choice of which to boot. Google partition updated direct from Google. I couldn’t care less if or how the other partition is updated.
Voice control with more integration like siri
check out the app Utter! Don’t think it’s released yet thou
A feature similar to airplay in both function and ease of use.
Supposedly this is coming. Still rumor though.
Expanded Device Uses and Deeper Integration. I wish that my car stereo ran on Android and my DSLR Camera and Home Stereo and pretty much every electronic device around me. I want to walk out of my office to my car which has the address that I put in Google Calendar ready to go on my Navigation and then play some music from my Rhapsody app right through the car speakers. And furthermore, I don’t want to have a data plan for all these devices. I want my car to use my phones 4G services to download the data on the go. My tablet should do the same for that matter. Share my internet connection between Android devices through bluetooth. So when I take pictures with my DSLR it tranfers it through my phone right up to my Facebook account. I know that there are ways to do all of this stuff somehow but it is just not all in one nice and neat package like Android of the future could be. And stop trying to make something stupid like Latitude Leaderboards and just make it so when I check-in on my Google Maps application that it checks-in on Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp and every other stupid check-in app that I want to use all from one convenient spot. Try using the apps that drove this device instead of replacing them. Remember how we first logged into our phones and it grabbed all our contacts photographs from Facebook. My phone even has a hard time doing that now. That was the good old days of just being the link that binds it all together. Does this all count as one thing?
id love to have a android powered car stereo that is more than the half assed ones they have came out with so far. i wouldnt mind paying a data plan for it if it was more along the lines as say satellite radio costs are. unlimited car data=$10/mo i could handle. 5gb for $50? youre nuts.
pioneer is getting there..
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/AppRadio/AppRadio+2+(SPH-DA100)
The ability to send text message through time.
A game center with leaderboards and achievements!
Better location based support (ie. Use my latitude location to set my forwarding phones in Google Voice, location-based reminders, calender reminders that notify you based on current travel time from present location to event location)
I like this idea a lot but it would come at the cost of battery life I imagine. But then again adding this feature and being able to switch it on and off could be the simplest solution.
Timely OS updates from all manufacturers.
1) Group SMS to become a standard to Android so we all have true group texting (threading) like the iphone, Sidekick 4g, and mytouch 4g slide.
And no we don’t have group texting now we have the ability to send one text to multiple people but we can’t have everyones’ responses in one thread unless your phone already supports it. which are few. 2) Something similiar to Galaxy S2’s voice talk commands.
I want to be able to say ” Hi nexus find me the closets Bookstore” and only buttuon i would have to push is a search button or something.
3) Make it where and if your phone has an SD (or even internal memory) card every app you install doesn’t create a folder in the root of the sd card but within a folder called e.i. Android Apps, then every app i get creates it’s folder there so it is more organized. and i don’t have to look through 50 folders to find DCIM folder. when it could be kept to a minimal amount if they were organized better.
For the Group SMS, go here to vote for Google to look into it (click on the star to vote)
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24468
thanks
I’m rooted so pretty much everything I want I can get. I’ve never really had a “Damn I wish Android had this!” moment, and if I did it wasn’t something I desperately wanted, just something I thought was cool.
Group text with I phone users. So its all in the same thread
Delete this comment please since it was a mistake. ha
Individual SMS/notification tones for contacts – one thing iOS has that Android doesn’t :(
MMS in google voice, and the ability to have all conversations from one person maintained in one single thread. Sometimes i get 3 an 4 threads from someone, an it clutters up the message list.
Since most people here are adding app suggestions instead of Android OS suggestoins, I’ll add one too: I’d love for my gmail to inherit all my signatures like my “desktop” account and give me rich text support. Plus others that were mentioned above. As well as, being able to view animated GIFs in G+ app. :)
They’ve addressed most of my OS gripes with ICS mainly. Better WiFi security compatibility as well as better VPN support would be great. PEAP enterprise security doesn’t work with Android very well, keeps dropping signals as you move about from spot to spot. Persists through every Android device and OS version thru 4.0+.
Its not so much the software features that I want, but rather hardware features. I want a tablet “dock” that I can plug my Galaxy Nexus into and the device becomes a 10″ tablet.
No more 2 verizon accounts. No more data limits.
If i wanted to lust after more features that i do not yet have i would get an iphone. My android is complete.
No phone has every feature. If this was all anyone could make, that would be quite boring.
1. Integrate a theme engine similar to what is provided with the AOSP although much cleaner. This would allow manufacturers to provide their own custom look for devices without messing with the underlying code. If they want to differentiate further, they can limit it to replacing factory apps like the dialer, gallery, camera, etc. If the app is not initially compatible with the newest version of android pushed out, the manufacturer can release the new build stock with their theme on top and update their apps to be compatible and replace the stock ones later either through the market or OTA. This would allow OS updates to continue to come from google while putting carrier and manufacturer customization only on the surface.
2. Google should push the chipset manufacturers to take responsibility for providing updated drivers in a timely manner similar to what they do for windows builds. Motorola recently came out and said that updates take a while since Kernels and drivers need to be adapted for the various chipset manufacturers not included in the original source code.
3. Cut out the carrier from the update process. The carriers state that they need to test devices on their network but this is simply not true. The reality is that they just need some time to test their crapware on the devices prior to pushing it out. Give carriers a hub in the market to push their wares and the carrier can use SMS or account notifications and bills to encourage their users to use these services. Uninstallable carrier apps are unacceptable and should not be permitted.
4. Integrate ChromeOS and android far deeper. Eventually, the idea would be that the UI for chromeOS would disappear and be relegated to the browser while the emerging webapp development tools would be integrated into the android SDK. The idea that native apps would eventually be phased out by cross platform web apps that behave on par or better than native ones. Google could use the native code program they have been working on for this.
5. Partners need to reduce the amount of devices that they are releasing which is already beginning to happen now. Each manufacturer needs to launch one annual hero device that is made from premium materials and always updated to the latest version of android. This would also eliminate issues like Motorola is dealing with where they have stated that some devices won’t get updated because there are just too many to support.
6. Android is evolving into an incredibly powerful OS. Google needs to increase the size of the android development team and set aside a group that is focused on creating a build of the software that is usable as a full scale desktop OS.
7. Improve google docs to the point where it can be considered a solid option to MS Office. Mobile apps are still sloppy in their editing functionality and people tend to lean towards third party options to get the job done. Also, Docs need to be simplified as the interface is fairly clunky and confusing for users.
8. Merge google talk and messenger with the perks of both. From google talk, those being the ability to see online/offline/busy status. From G+ messenger, the ability to see delivered and read reciepts. Add full file and location sharing to both, including downloadable links on the desktop. Expand in limited form to access contacts from other messenger clients
9. Build GoogleTV right into the phone so that you can plug it into your tv and have a full htpc on the fly
10. Expand google music to additional countries
11. Add CM power widgets to the notification bar as standard
12. Improve voice capabilities to rival Siri. It is already well known that voice actions actually work better than Siri but they are limited in their commands. With googles knowledge database, this could be much better.
13 Add tasker like functionality into the OS.
14. Buy Evernote, absorb it into the OS and use it to completely replace google tasks.
15. Give the option for dummy tablets that are powered by attaching the phone to the back of them like the Asus padfone as stock. This would be easy considering the code base is merged in ICS. All they have to do is have it switch which screen to use and display a tablet interface. This would kill the ipad since the android tablets would just be touchscreens with a camera and no processor or internal disk space. They would cost next to nothing. Of course the option of buying full on tablets would still be available for those who want it.
16. Allow customization of the action bar to add a search button on softkey devices such as the galaxy nexus
17. Google Voice available in more countries over VOIP. Then the carriers have no say since it is being routed through data and wifi connections. This would be a massive disruption to the industry.
18. Remote track and wipe functionality similar to the find my iphone that IOS has.
I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
haha I should do a newsletter. I have thought about blogging.
True to Google’s ethos – they unfortunately never read customer feedback in official forums – forget about your post getting any visibility unless Phandroid grows some balls and makes a big deal about so many basic shortcomings instead of sucking the dick of the next manufacturer that comes along with a new phone for them.
The BIGGEST immediately solvable problem with Android is the fucking battery life. It’s a joke. I get 8-9 hours easy on 3G on my iPhone 4S.
I can barely get more than 6 hours on any Android device (Sensation 4G, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2) on 3G with sync turned on. This is unacceptable and manufacturer need to, at the very least start selling 2000/3000 mAh expanded batteries with official back covers as opposed to all the sub-standard after-market bullshit. Look here and weep: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5533/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-review-18x-the-battery/2
How the fuck does jackass #1, Mr. Sanjay Jha have the balls to release the Razr with a 3.1 hour 4G/LTE battery life? Clearly, his nuts shattered with the fact that he had to release a MAXX version less than a month later. Think about all the ill-will Motorola now faces from the neutered RAZR owners.
Not to pop your bubbles of hope dude, but you’ve put a lot of time in your post – Google is a company with incredible smarts – but no vision, direction or strategy. Google+ is a case in point. Vic keeps trumpeting the increasing number of people that are using G+; well I seriously doubt that claim as there is NO ONE on my 300+ Facebook contact list that gives two fucks for G+ even though they all signed up for it.
Re: True to Google’s ethos – they unfortunately never read customer feedback in official forums
Actually, I’ve seen Google’s Dianne Hackborn comment in Phandroid’s comments — usually to correct some idiot’s misinformation — so, there’s that…
I agree with some of your points but not all. I fully agree that google needs to step up their support, its awful. Look at the whole nexus one customer support fiasco. At least they seem to be doing better at it with wallet. Can’t really attest to Phandroids loyalties. I don’t think that they lobby for free devices, I would imagine the manufacturers want them to have them for free publicity.
As for battery? I really don’t think the iphone is any better on battery. I average around 13-14 hours on my nexus S with heavy use. From what I have seen, people on XDA are getting an average of 16 on the Galaxy Nexus. You need to check the battery log to see what rogue app is eating your battery. I find the facebook app really bad for that. The other day it ate 25% of my battery!! Either way, you shouldn’t be getting less than that on an android device on 3G.
What you have to remember is that android has real multitasking like palm and blackberry which allows apps to consume the battery in the background. Unlike those two though, you have to combine that with massive power sucking amoled screens which look awesome but are definitely thirsty.
I think the thing with LTE is right now you don’t really need it. If I had LTE on my phone I would most likely disable it unless I needed it. To be honest, HSPA+ is stupid fast on my phone so the extra speed isn’t really necessary for me. I’m sure apple will release an iphone once the technology has improved and people will hail them as all great and mighty even though the only reason their device gets better battery life on LTE is because they are late to the party and now everyone else does too.
I agree that Motorolla should have held off on releasing that device until the power consumption could be optimized but is apple really any better? The first two generations were notorious for not even being able to maintain a phone call and lets not even get started on the antennagate thing. It is really the same situation since both motorollas and apples defects should have been caught in testing.
As for G+, I actually use it alot. Not so much for a facebook replacement as a better twitter. I agree that most of my friends let it sit idle but for those that I follow, I tend to see much more rich content since there is the ability to post over 140 characters and include multiple links, photos, and videos. In addition, it supports everything that twitter does like hashtags etc. On top of that, you usually see some interesting comments in the discussions that spring up below. I actually find that there are more engaging and intellectual comments on g+. Do I think it is better than facebook? Yes. Do I think it will ever replace my facebook? No. People bitch about every change facebook makes but they don’t leave because it is established for them. People don’t want to start over again.
I also disagree that they have no vision. They have been aggressively unifying their services over the last few months and the android platform is the fastest growing platform well….ever. I don’t know how g+ will pan out, if it pans out, but with over 550000 new devices being activated every day with a big g+ link there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does explode. Ice cream sandwich has deep g+ integration. It will take a while for all handsets sold to have or updated to it but it will happen. Manufacturers are becoming increasingly conservative in their approach to custom skins with updates in mind. Nobody ever thought myspace would die but look where they are now and if any company can do it, it’s google.
Too bad but:
My Galaxy Nexus easily holds out longer than 6 hours. I don’t know how rich you are, but if you own the Galaxy Nexus, SGS II, Sensation 4G, Nexus S, Motorola RAZR and iPhone 4S and all of them except the latter can’t hold out longer than 6 hours then I recommend you to go back to your retailer.
Also, since when does your Facebook contact list represent the whole world? Each person is different, let alone each group of friends, let alone each group of friends in different countries.
I’m not saying that everything you said is false, you’re just really overdoing it.
battery life is more hardware than software related. with manufacturers trying to get the thinnest phone most likely it’s going to come from a smaller battery. some companies have been trying to develop new battery or energy saving technology.
but as far as moto and the razr. that was marketing. true, moto should have just released the MAXX, but they went for two medals- thinnest and biggest batttery.
The other thing you have to consider is that whether this test was done with or without moto’s smart actions turned on. It is a pretty awesome system that I want to hack onto my nexus if someone makes a flashable zip. Allows you to set things like data off, wifi on, sleep, etc. depending on when it is and where your device is. MASSIVE battery savings if set up right.
Ummm, you’re comparing several 4G phones to iPhone’s *3G* battery life. And for the record my Galaxy Nexus GSM gets the best battery life I’ve ever had from an Android phone. I generally plug it in at night with over 40% remaining after a 16 hour day. And it’s completely stock.
wow. you really put a lot of thought into your response. great ideas and honestly, all of them are doable.
oh…and one small feature that i miss from ios, tapping the top of the screen to fast-scroll to the top of any webpage/list. not a huge deal, but it’s kind of a natural movement and something that would be a nice time saver. i assume there’s a patent involved, but…maybe an alternative could be worked out. like double tap to quickly scroll up rather than simply tapping once.
I don’t have a smartphone but that’s a feature I really like on my iPod touch. Reading your comment surprised me, that Android doesn’t have that easy and convenient feature.
I honestly hadn’t thought about that feature. I forgot about it since ditching my ipod touch a few years back lol. that would be nice. I guess the equivalent would be the slide bar on the right although not as intuitive.
Pretty much every app I’ve used where the page/list is more than one page allows you to double-scroll: scroll once for regular scroll, do another fast scroll right after that and it usually takes you to the top in a second. Yes it’s not the same but I’d rather be able to scroll and stop the page where I want than have it automatically go to the top of the page. If I need to get to the address bar then I just hit menu and I’m there.
Opera mini displays a scroll to top /, bottom arrow on scroll. Its a rather good solution, try it.
1. is not going to happen. Ever. The problem is that even without customizations, Google can’t push out new Android updates to all devices, because each device has its own set of drivers that would need to be patched and tested. This is why even stock phones tend to run behind on updates. Unless all drivers and hardware configurations become open source (which is a fairy tale, unfortunately) Google will not be able to support third party phones. They can barely support the Nexus program as it is.
The theming engine I’m all for though, since even without the update component, it would make it more customizable for the user, and developers could play around with setting up their phone the way they want.
Thanks for the comment. I actually addressed this in my 2nd point. The other part of the equation is that google would have to release early builds to the chipset makers for them to build drivers for prior to release.
I am not calling for google to support the third party phones but it would make it much easier for manufacturers to update their wares if they could take the UI customization time out of the equation. Instead, they could focus all of their efforts on the kernel.
I do wish that the kernel source’s were released for more phones beyond the nexus line. It would make for a much more vibrant developer community. I like what SE and HTC are doing with their bootloader unlock sites. It makes sense, you sacrifice your warrantee to take the burden off of them and in exchange you get full access to your device.
In the end, the only reason that you see skins like you do is because carriers do not want the same interface on every phone on their shelves. Hence, why windows phone hasn’t taken off. On top of this, manufacturers have to find a way to differentiate their product. The theme engine would serve a lot of purposes. It would allow for the custom skin on top and it would allow the user to easily go to stock if they choose.
Agreed. Like I said in my post, I’d love a uniform theme engine built into Android. It would save the manufacturers a lot of work, it would give Android a much more open feel without needing to be rooted, and it could even make develop good looking apps that match the phone’s theme possible.
Somehow I missed the point of your second point. I do like a lot of your ideas, and I really hope some them make it into Android sooner rather than later.
“18. Remote track and wipe functionality similar to the find my iphone that IOS has”: the app Lookout provides this functionality, but it would indeed be great if this could integrated in Android.
Ya, I have it through lookout but it really should be an integrated service. You and I may know about that but when saying these statements we need to think about the average user that doesn’t know or care about any third party solution and will use what comes on their phone.
It’s funny, I actually edited my post yesterday to add that point.
I like #7. Google Docs needs to be considerably more robust if it is going to have any chance of preventing Microsoft from becoming a third player in the mobile market. I can’t even search for text or set the layout currently.
Add in much better USB device support, especially for hard drives, and there will be little reason to even try an MS tablet. Google could supplant Microsoft entirely relegating it to specialized computing only.
Android also needs a guest account login so we can let others use our tablets without them accessing our private data.
On the hardware side, USB booting would allow better backup and restore, and servicing options.
Better USB support is a big one, not sure how I missed that, although, from my understanding, Ice cream sandwich supports a ton of peripherals already.
Guest account would be a good number 19. This would bring it closer to being a full featured OS which seems to be the direction it is going. While Apple seems content with IOS being a stripped down OSX it seems that google has bigger aspirations for the little green robot with the features that are beginning to be added.
USB booting would be good, or a stock equivalent of a Nandroid backup. I think that would be the best solution. The ability to completely roll back your system image to your last scheduled backup.
Oh, and an API for voice actions that third-party apps can utilize
Siri
My one pet peeve right now is the number of places that have, track and offer to sync your contacts. I use Facebook, Yahoo Mail and Flickr, Google GMail, Picasa, and Plus, and Linked-In. While I like seeing Facebook Profile pictures for my contacts on my phone with actual phone numbers and email addresses for the people I regularly contact, I don’t want the even a record on my phone for many of the peripheral people I know.
And heaven forbid of they have similar names. My father and son have derivative names. Their contact records keep getting mixed up. And with the number of sites that sync, I can’t get them all corrected before they’re back to being mixed up. And I know it’s not necessarily an Android issue. I’m just frustrated with the whole thing….
System level proxy support. Although some browsers are now supporting http/s proxys there are numerous other functions on the phone that need internet access. The market is one such example.
When I’m at work I simply can’t access the internet through the work proxy server for anything other than web.
I’d like to have proxy settings that are linked to specific wi-fi SSIDs so that they would kick-in at the appropriate location.
I’d love to have better backup features so that when I change devices everything gets restored (settings, apps, etc) to the way I had it WITHOUT rooting. Titanium Backup has worked like crap for me in the past and the native app sync through my Google account seems inconsistent.
Definately would love to see mkv and other ext. support
The ability to open, manipulate, and VIEW multiple windows at once. That’s true multitasking. This would also be a boon to tablet owners and clearly place Android above all other tablets, as none can do this currently.
I would be fine with a Split Screen Feature on Tablets. That might be cool.
I don’t want freely resizable windows, but something like tiles might be nice. Windows 8’s implementation of it looks okay. I can see tablet owners appreciating having gchat open (scaled down to the phone’s UI as a sidebar) while using the browser.
There is already a product that was just released for the HP Touchpad that does exactly what you’re referring to. It’s called Cornerstone. It allows for true multi-tasking like you would on a desktop OS. Check out this link for a video of what you can expect from future versions of it. I for one can’t wait to try it out on my touchpad.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1501637
High speed camera
fine grain cotrol of sound and notifications – why can we not have a txt from a particular contact have a different sound than the default (I am not talking about individual ringtones).
And why not a hardware standard for I/O so we can have decent docks/accessories – not just usb. But sound both analogue / Digital, Video, ethernet, digital buttons / joystick, sensors. Make the phone a truely complete device. That way manufacturers of accessories will really get in on making things to go with our phones / tablets.
And while on the rant can’t all phones come with a infra-red out – so they can be used as remotes in a snap (Google can put the hooks in and define the standrad)
OK done…
I’m a huge Android fan, but one thing iOS has that Android doesn’t yet is solutions for film and audio production. Yes, they’re very minimal solutions, but knowing that if I would just take the plunge and get an iPad that I could have this functionality is tempting and could be avoided if someone would step up and offer this. I’m not even talking about Google. Avid or Adobe could fill this gap.
I realize this isn’t an OS thing, but it’s still something I’d love to see someone do and do it well.
Just curious, why does the Android 3.0 plus app Movie Studio not meet your video production needs in a way that iOS apps do?
I’ve never used the iOS iMovie or Avid’s mvie editor for iOS as I don’t have an iOS device, I just know they exist.. I don’t have a tablet of any form, so I was not aware that Honeycomb included a video editor. My phone is running Gingerbread.
When I Google search for video editing solutions for Android, none of the hits I get even mention that Honeycomb has a video editor. I’d love to learn more about it. It would make my decision of whether or not grab a Transformer Prime or MeMO 370T when it comes out that much easier if ICS also includes this program.
The ability to backup my apps and data and restore them without requiring root. The one thing iTunes actually does well.
A solid Siri competitor, all the popular iPhone apps (come on devs!) And individual SMS tones.
Personally, I would like tablets to be able to make phone calls… I have a 7″ tablet and a 4.3″ phone, and I end up carrying both everywhere. Why can’t I just carry the tablet and forget about the phone?
Apparently the functionality is there – the HTC Flyer can make telephone calls in Europe, but not here in the US.
Along with that, I’d like to have a really good graphing calculator app.. one that could replace something like the TI-89
Definitely additional security. I love the fingerprint feature of the Atrix – hopefully, Moto and Android will work closely to get this feature rolled out to more handsets; Chrome Verified Boot and the ability to lock and wipe all data from my phone by logging into my Google Account.
Not so much a feature, but Android on PCs, sorta like Chrome OS
Have you tried Android-x86?
No actually, I’ve heard, but never attempted.
It still isn’t perfect, but it is worth giving a go.
I would like to be able to specify which internet connection specific apps use. On my Nokia N95, I set my exchange email to always use cellular data, even while my phone was connected via wifi to a network. My exchange email server settings are different if connecting via the wifi network at the office than they are if connecting via any outside network (cellular included while in the office).
In order to receive exhange emails while at work on my phone, I have to either create 2 seperate email accounts on my phone, or refrain from connecting to the office Wifi. It’s not a big deal, but just annoying that I could do it on my 6 or 7 year old symbian phone, but not my android phone running ICS.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned this yet (after 55 comments) but the #1 thing missing from Android from my POV is a “simple” BUG FIX for the fugly down-res’d contact images in ICS.
If you take the time to have nice high-res contact photos, then the moment you have to resync those photos (new phone, new rom, clear cache/data, whatever), they’re restored to your phone as crappy 96×96 resized “thumbnails” (as stored on the gmail servers)
Here’s a link to the huge bug that google has refused to fix:
Re: Issue 3870 in android: Poor quality of contact images – http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3870 Star it to let google know you care about it.
Root out of the box, unlocked boot loaders, without warranty void fuckery and such, period.
The ability to have multiple accounts or users, like windows computers, this would be for tablets. They would all have completely separate data, apps, etc that only one user would see.
Different notificaron led colours
Better ways if backing up
Compatibility with more devices
Quentyn, you wish is my command. Download the app MultiPicture Wallpaper from the market (https://market.android.com/details?id=org.tamanegi.wallpaper.multipicture) and you will have the exact feature you were looking for. Better yet, the app allows you to set different animations that will blow your mind (check out card deck transition).
Enjoy my friend!
Excellent point – if Google can’t do it, another app can! SuperWall lite does the same thing as MultiPicture, but I notice it hogs less memory and has some pretty darn cool transition effects. Also free on the market :)
Non root full App to sd
The top 5 feature requests (by people starring it) at Google’s bugtracker – http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=&sort=-stars&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
1) Arabic language support
2) Ad-hoc wifi networking
3) Integrate contact birthday + anniversary with calendar
4) Call recording
5) Task support in Calendar
Hey Quentyn you should check out an app called Multi picture live wallpaper if you haven’t already. It does the feature you described and does it pretty well too.
i want single page wallpapers with no scroll.
If there was one feature that was almost swaying me to iOS away from my Galaxy Nexus, is Siri. I know Google is working on Majel, but it can’t come soon enough. And it has to have great integration across all Google apps….and be open enought to have other apps plug into it. For example, I should be able to say…”Is my next flight on time?” and Majel checks my TripIt trips, finds the next flight I will be taking, look up the flight number, and fetch the status from my airline using FlightTrack.
in this order:
Video out via usb
voip through google services (btw ppl you can sort of use the gtalk app like this right now same with google plus)
I would like the abillitu to pick up where I left off on a game or app any where …like as long as I’m logged in to my email like if I leave off on my tablet and start on my phone and vise versa
Ability to switch between pure vanilla stock rom and skinned piece of shit “customization”
i wish when ever their is a new update it will atomotomaticly do that
You’ve been able to do that for a long while – you just have to enable it first: Settings > Auto-update. I never use that, though, since I like to know what is being updated and why.
Run x86 pc titles
CARDS! CARDS! CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WebOs got multitasking right. Nothing else is even close.
You know in Star Wars how they have those communicators that they hold in the palm of their hands, and there is a hologram of the person being spoken to? THAT.
OK, OK… I know, I know. Thats probably more along the lines of hardware and app, right? ;-)
I’ll second this emphatically!
Rotating home screen.
This is enabled on moto milestone 2.
What about an alarm clock that doesn’t need the phone to be on!! My 5 year old dumbphone is more reliable as an alarm clock because of this!
This is probably too optimistic to be true, but making all 3rd party pre-loaded apps (Amazon Mp3, Skype, City ID, etc.) so you can uninstall them if you want.
Apparently Sprint kinda-sorta already does this, at least, for apps that aren’t their own.
AT&T’s starting to let you do this too.
Combine Gmail app with other email app – One email app for everything, Business, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. I don’t like opening the separate Gmail app. Also, it can’t be an efficient use of battery to have two sets of processes running simultaneously.
How about making the Android theme/skin for OEM separate from the updates. So all the customization that is added from Samsung or any other brand a extra. Or install via a zip or an app that’s built into Android os. This will increase the timeframe for os updates and people that like it get it too.
2 words “SCREEN SHOT”
3 words: “ICS HAS IT”
UPDATES direct from Google! End of story.
Someones going to say “oh that’s easier said than done.” Oh shush. There are very few chipsets out there, Android phones have more in common than we think, and Google could easily design Android so that users could just go direct to Google and download the latest update with all the proper drivers to work with all Android devices.
This is the single feature I want to see ASAP!
Buy the ever note!!!!!!
Hands free text-speech/voice recognition. There’s a bunch of great “siri” like apps out there for Android, but all of them require me to touch the screen to activate the “Listen” mode. It would be awesome to be able to create a user-defined key word or phrase that the phone can listen for in order to trigger listening mode for a voice command as an alternative to touching a button to activate the mode. I can’t stand Apple, but that’s one of the few things they did right in OSX Snow Leopard (or whatever it was back when I owned a Macbook). I had mine set to recognize the phrase “Hey Stupid” so whenever I’d say something like “Hey Stupid, how’s the weather?” my Macbook would respond with the correct local weather information. There’s no reason for anyone to have to actually touch the screen in this day and age (especially while driving) when that kind of technology has been around for about 4 years.
Updates through the market end of story. Any other improvement will come eventually. Just end this carrier fragmentation crap
i would like to be able to open applcations on different homescreens, for them to be persistent (until closed) and interact with the other applications on the other homescteens.
drag and drop for example or switching to review some text on one while composing a reply on the other.
im sure its in the works and ill rejoice when it goes public.
1. Integrate Talk like iPhone does with iMessage or whatever it’s called. Basically so I can video call my Google Talk contacts.
2. Launch services in the UK. I can’t (officially) use Wallet, we don’t have Google Voice, we don’t (officially) have Google Music and Voice Commands only have limited fucntionality if the language is set to UK English.
1. a scalable, comprehensive Google Docs editor that allows you to open and edit a Google Doc (or .doc file) using a local document editor (rather than web-app based editor.
2. An upgraded ICS Messaging app that allows for multi-contact threads AND has a button to bulk-add or select specific contacts from the People app to a message thread.
3. Integration with the (hopefully-soon) GDrive cloud service, so all phone data, including installed apps, app data, SMS, call logs etc get uploaded and periodically synced to a cloud account. This would remove the need for apps like Mybackup or Titanium, especially for those who frequently flash
Native Note app. I really miss this feature on Android.
maybe, so long as it worked when charging.
Android’s still harsh on battery as it is, without trying go decypher the crap coming out my mouth/tv/radio/pub convetsations etc, listening for something that someone might say…
in pub… hey stupid, call ya mum. and ya mum heats ya pub conversayions
Video chat software that’s automatically built into all androids so you don’t have to add or find video chat contacts in second party apps or on google+
You mean g chat?
Visual IDE for compiling native android apps ON android.
i would love for all android phones to be able to sync to one specific computer program (something similar to itunes) where they can get updates as well as back-up and sync phone data.. if the manufacturers could coordinate themselves to make this possible, then I’m sorry to say but the iphone would be a thing of the past
That would be a step backwards though, why have to plug it in to your PC when it already does all that wirelessly and automatically. Plus iTunes is awful quite frankly.
A Android specific USB host accessory development platform, similar to Apples MFi. MFA?
Onskreens Cornerstone to be native
Thanks to ‘
Matthew Olivo’ for mentioning it here. This would be killer!
If you want different wallpapers for different pages, use Regina Launcher…journalist schmernalist… :l
An “AirPlay” like feature that would work seamlessly through phones, tablets and Google Tv. Be it Wifi, DLNA or UPnP, I don’t care which one as long as it just works.
Also, file sharing through Talk. I still can’t believe this hasn’t been added.
Run the phone in a “conversational” mode in which the phone listens for commands and processes them in any / all apps. For example: “Hey Hal”. “Yes Andy?” “Play the Angst album by KMFDM in Subsonic” or “Hey Hal”. “Yes Andy?” “Skip to next album by KMFDM.” or “Hey Hal.”. “Yes Andy?” “What did Google close at today?” “604.64, down 1.88, 0.31 percent”.
I wish there was a way to do that without killing the battery, but really you need the phone analyzing everything you say just to be able to tell if you’re talking to it. It could still be useful in a dock though.
I wish Google didn’t use and track our information …..android is great but the data spying has to stop …
I know its hardware but I heard Kombucha 6.0 will support self-healing glass. So if you drop you phone in that special way and crack your screen, the OS actually secretes a gel which stimulates the crystalline structures in the glass to grow back together.
Dude…seriously. One more comment about companies tracking info and Imma choke someone. We want all these awesome things delivered to our phones…. We want more functionality and apps that give us all the info we want and need.
Well all of that requires data to be collected. So please stop whining. At least we can get some use out of all that data collection.
Nope. Non of these ideas, which are mostly great ideas would ever come from collecting data from the system we have now. No one should ever believe any advacment requires collecting data. What it does require is reading the great ideas in blogs like this. Data farming is BS regardless of your knowledge of it it not
Its 100% scam and privacy invasion!
Different wallpaper for every screen is available for Android. It’s called multi picture live wallpaper.
An easy all-in-one integrated backup/transfer system. Backup apps, contacts, sms, settings, the whole-shebang. It should backup to your computer or the cloud or whatever. (Probably to your home computer would make this faster).
This should be much more intuitive than it is now. One of the nice things about the iPhone is that it seems like users can buy a new one and move all their old stuff to the new one in record time.
I would love something unique that no current phone has, an additional input devices that makes controlling your phone even more customization than it is now …
… a TRACKBALL.
Where o where has my trackball gone. The history of the Android trackball is fraught with misuse, misunderstanding, and a missed point.
To some a trackball is a less cool way to scroll and click on an Android phone. To me is was a dead simple, quick tool for copying and pasting specific text. It was an easy way to control may functions of a phone with only one thumb resting in one place. For those computer enthusiasts of us it was a simple and effective surrogate mouse when remote logging in.
To me the trackball was an invaluable tool that lost it’s way in a world of iPhone clones. The trackball’s demise was simple, the original G1 had a perfect trackball … but then someone wanted to make it bigger, and white so that it could be back lit (*cough* HTC). But now the trackball was large and unsightly so lets throw to a digital trackpad that’s flat and seamless (*cough* Samsung). Lest we forget Motorola’s contribution of going directly for d-pad style arrow keys on the keyboard.
The problem is that all this technological change drove us further from what a trackball is. The digital trackpad is practically useless as you are simply swiping like you would on the screen itself. The original G1 trackball was small, unobtrusive, and gave you the feeling of clicking between letters or links.
Useless or not to some, it changed too far from its origins and become nothing more than a blemish on the otherwise apple-copied exteriors. A trackball is what I want in a new Android phone that doesn’t exist today. Don’t get me started on the lack of physical keyboards on newer phones, that is another story for another day.
group text
iphone and windows phone and blackberry have it
why not android?
An OS that wasnt laggy
Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t laggy, on the Galaxy Nexus at least..
Whats so hard about building a OS that conforms to screen size as it is? google already had intended to do that, why can’t they pull it off? And why do we get updates so late? and why does literally EVERYONE hate OEM/SP bloatware, while OEM’s do nothing about it?
Its because there needs to be one simple change to how the Android Business Model works. It’s open source standards are too lax for the benefit of the OEM’s in that it deteriorates from the long term mutual goal’s of both parties. Google must give more of the option to the CONSUMER, because that’s where all there revenue is coming from. Lack of conformity is the main thing that’s keeping a day-after-day groundbreaking mobileOS in a cage. Though one may argue that it’s what brought it to where it is today, the lack thereof is whats putting it back to where it came from. Google must give the options to the users to remove all non google-mandated and UE essential applications from the operating system. All the problems that anyone has from Android comes directly from OEMs or SP. Blow for blow, its ALWAYS that Middle party inbetween that’s committing the stupidity.
And if you think thats wrong, then must not have heard about a little company called APPLE. Because when the iPhone was launching, Apple dominated the board meetings, att wasn’t able to do anything because they realized what they had in their hands was a great product (at the time, not so much at all anymore). AND the ONLY reason that they had thought so was because they had complete control of the OS. And they had control of it because they where the OEM’s as well.
But Google’s initial idea and an execution couldn’t have been more beneficial. They brought a (by consumer rating) sub-par phone to an iphone savvy market with very little developer support, but had still gained success because of a single thing they had that no phone had ever before. State-of-the-Art functionality. And I’m not the type to throw those four words around loosely. Cloud based back-up, widgets, notifications, voice capability, file management, etc etc etc. Their OS was the most advanced in the market, and to this day, ANDROID STILL IS.
SO where is Android’s strengths? And what are OEM/SP’s doing about it? They’re ripping away at it to try and gain a profit and consumer’s don’t have the slightest clue to see what is so obvious.
And really, consumer’s shouldn’t be worried about the Motorola buy out at all! They should love it! Because that means that all these manufacturer will stop dicking around and see that google, a software developing company, can bring hardware to the market that will instantly be adopted by SP’s and consumers as soon as they come out (without any bloatware). So then what’ll happen is the OEM’s will realize that they need keep doing the only thing’s they’re good at, making hardware. This will keep SP’s out of your software to finally allow Google to build software against other OS’s and not its own. Leaving all OEM’s to compete only in hardware.
And that’ll be the last you ever hear of fragmentation, weak dev-support, nonsense software issues, and dumbass iphone user bs. It’ll actually be a win for consumers.
Bbm/imessage chat for android
I would have to say to main features
1. The ability to turn off skins and all that at the beginning of the android setup process
2. LCARS aka strek computer or mainly just the interaction between computer and person.
I would want it be able to build me an island, than f*ing transform into a jet and fly me there.
All I ask is for google to allow us to upload our music downloaded from 3rd party apps (Amazon) into Google Music.
I also hope that google comes out with a Nexus tablet which is only a blank HD screen. The pins on the Galaxy Nexus will connect inside the tablet and boom. A phamblet with your own costumized version of android. If another user has a nexus. They put their phone in and they will have their version of Android shown.
I miss the menu button! Scrolling to the top of a webpage to find the menu option and bookmarks sucks. And in apps, the menu option is never in the same place. Just bring back the menu button via soft key!
I would like to see a desktop application compatible to iTunes. Something Android lovers would be proud of!!
an outlook support such as contact sync straight from Google for no charge.
As a Chrome OS user too I’d be ashamed if Google pushed out a desktop app!
Instead they should make a powerful web app that integrates all the features of their current online tools as well as the capability of competing desktop apps. It should work cross platform, even on Android and other mobile OS’s.
Icloud like sync please buy music on phone or take photo and all sync to my pc then deletes its self from the cloud. I don’t want dropbox gb of storage.
I want a docking standard so we can finally have docks and accessoires like apple devices. (And that Philips stuff with bluetooth doesn’t count)
-Set Chrome as default and integrate it with the OS, allow for Chrome extensions to install to Android and behave like native apps.
-Overhall the messaging system, one program to handle SMS, and the messaging functionality of other Google apps (Google+, Talk, Voice).
-Improve the web Market to be a complete online hub – include features such as tracking and remote access to contacts and messages.
-More intelligent virtual keys: hide back if it has the same functionality as home, hide both if on the home screen itself (or replace with something else useful).
-Add Swype functionality to the stock keyboard.
-T9 contact lookup on the stock dialler.
AN ANDROID MESSENGER
I will choose a guest account or boss mode…
very hidden and practical…
Imagine that your kid came and said he wanted to play Angry Birds, okay but you can’t guarantee he will only play Angry birds, he might mess everything in the phone !!… you just lock the phone and unlock it with another combination moves/slides…
Your kid mode will appear some selected apps will disappear, and your SMS will appear empty ( and he can’t send any also ).. call list can be customized or hidden.. specific contacts will be hidden from every where ( contacts, call list, messages, emails, etc.. )that’s one way… Imagine some one you know wanted to see the phone and its features… he’s not a kid so he won’t mess around but you does’t want him to see your SMS’s, pics or videos.. so just lock the phone and unlock it with another special combination… pics, sms and videos will be hidden… most apps will be there ( except some system apps you only wanted them for you )…
Imagine your boss accused you for using your phone too much for whats app chatting… then you said.. I don’t even have whatsapp !!… lock the phone unlock it with another special combination and every apps will be there except all chatting apps as all will be hidden.. even there will be notifications from these apps…Basically, you can have sub-profiles that can be accessed by unlocking the phone with different pin/combination/slides or what ever way…
each sub-profile will allow you to hide specific apps, contacts ( specific or contact group ), media ( even media folders ), and even specific features ( GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC )… or to be funny, you can customize the battery level.. so if you want your kid to play little, set the battery level on 20% and tell him no more than 10 minutes as the battery is running low :D
Updates. ;^)
One thing that I really love about CM and I wish would be mainlined into Android stock is a universal notification center where you can customize the LED blink color of notifications.
The ability to use an external dac/amp. Im getting a FiiO E17 but can’t use it on my Desire HD which is a shame.
Built in WiFi calling. I used it all the time when I was on T-Mobile but miss it now that I’m on Sprint. Should be part of the OS, not carrier allowed, or second hand apps.
Unification. Regardless of the gnu, Google should find a way to work with, no REALLY work with, phone devs and cell companies to update phones at least for the lifespan of about 2 years (phone contract). Updates should be done in a timely manner too. It shouldn’t take 6 months to get gingerbread on a thunderbolt which was released around the same time. If they don’t want to play nice, google needs to find a way to force them. While I agree that new features in Android should not be hampered by lack-luster old hardware, I think there needs to be a way to get this done and I think Google has enough balls to make it happen, provided they want to shake shit up a bit. If apple can put the hammer down and people still buy their crap, I think Google can too. Google needs to remind the devs of the bigger picture and not just the short term benefit of another consumer buying one of their phones. That same consumer may never buy another one of their phones again if there are broken promises, bugs and security holes they didn’t want to patch up on their “old” phones.
wifi streaming native… to a universal hardware hdtv solution
A physical keyboard option for all future Nexus devices.
The ability to choose between the manufacturer skin (Sense, Blur, etc) and stock Android at boot and also it would be nice to have something like Siri every once in a while…
This isn’t a software request.. but someone (google) needs to design an open source multipin connector (ala apple) with charging, audio out, video out, touchscreen in/out.. etc
if there is a common interface an not some half ar*e attempt with a micro usb and mini HDMI, then we might start seeing auto manufacturer adding it into cars as a standard, and we might even see some audio docks out there..
How about improved multitasking? Nokias Symbian and Meego gets this right!
I am tired of having to reload browser pages after switch to another app.
The ability to watch my Google Tv on my phone. Like slingbox.
i wish it had an IR port on it so I could control my TV. I would so do Google TV if it could do over the air.
All of the Google Voice-like features available for the cell phone line and text messaging.
Enterprise ready security; no malware/spyware; a/v built in; secure IM
I would like a High-Resolution HDMI output “WebTop like OS” (like what Motorola started) integrated into Android so any phone or tablet can be used like a mobile personal computer. Then I can just plug in my device to an LCD and Keyboard at home, work or where ever I am.
– Amazing battery life for all devices
– An option to undelete imap emails in the stock email app (I’ve had to undelete stuff using my pc)
– A compact universal gamepad that uses either bluetooth or usb, that is readily available in stores. (Several small companies have made some, but they’re always way too pricey.)
– Something in the ways of Siri, but not completely copycatting off of the bigol’ fruit.
– More uniform specs throughout a generation of devices, or for apps to support as many devices as possible. My htc aria couldn’t run apps that other devices at the time could, like google earth.
– A slowdown of new devices and less fragmentation. I buy a new device, then 2 months later a new one comes along that makes me regret my purchase. I really wanted to get the SGSII when it first came out, but my contract wasn’t up until this past month. I reluctantly purchased it this weekend, since it is already many months old. (I would hold off for the SGSIII, but rumors say it will have a 4.6″ screen which is too big for me. Plus the price on the II dropped 50 bucks this week :D.)
And with so many OEMs producing android devices with different specs and custom UIs, updates are too few and far between. Android and the oems need to come up with a way to push android updates that the custom UIs aren’t dependant on, and the os can run on a wide variety of defferent hardware specs.
1) I would like an OCR built in (stands for Optical Character Recognition). I was trying to capture text from a photo so that I didn’t have to transcribe the whole thing myself. Google Goggles has a built in OCR but only to make your pictures searchable for the text in the photo. Evernote has the same feature. I want an app that would actually capture the text in a photo and turn it into pastable text to insert in an email, text, web search, etc.. The market has several OCR apps but none that really work like that; some that don’t work at all. And basically I just wish Goggles just did something useful, I mean do I really need Goggles to tell me that I’m looking at the Statue or Liberty? Why not make picture search something incredibly useful?
2) It would also be nice to have a standardized micro USB location so as to make it easier for companies to make universal Android docks(kind of like iHome devices made by practically every home audio company), then manufacturers would have incentive to make stuff that cool. Unfortunately this is as likely to happen as Android not getting sued by Apple every six months.
3) I would like the option to delete any bloatware apps without having to root. I mean even Windows lets you delete bloat programs that come standard. Just don’t make these apps part of the image…problem solved.
4) A built in file explorer wouldn’t be a bad thing either. Sure I can download one of the many options on the market but would it be that hard to bake it into the OS?
5) I want to have the option to have different wallpapers set to the lockscreen and the homescreen. IOS does this standard since IOS 4, why hasn’t Android gotten all over that? Yeah I have Go Launcher and Go Locker right now so I get that customization. Right now I have three wallpapers; one for the lockscreen, one for the homescreen, and one for my app drawer…but again how hard to just bake that feature right in?
There’s more I’m sure, but I’ll let that stuff suffice for now. But the future of smartphones is exciting! I think we’ve only scraped the surface for what is possible, heck, I have a portable computer in my pocket and with phones rivaling netbook power we can do a whole lot more than we currently do.
Privacy
UN-SKIN: One button to restore a vanilla google android experience to any phone. Bye bye, HTC Sense, Motoblur, et al!
when u get a notification that it doesnt pause the music while listening through headphones but rings on top of the music, its gets annoying where you’re constantly getting txts.