By We can’t always write about the greener pastures of Android, right? Facebook’s Joe Hewitt – one of the developers responsible for iOS’s Facebook app – switched over to the Android team and his findings were undesirable, to say the least: he called his experiences with the Android platform “horrendous”. It wasn’t just the development tools he was referring to, either, as he specifically calls the OS as a whole horrendous.
I’m trying to do a better job of keeping my opinions bottled up so as to not step on the toes of our readers, but I do just want to say this: thousands of other developers don’t seem to have a problem with pushing out quality apps for Android. While I understand not everything is all a bouquet of roses with Android, it’s not the OS’s or the engineers behind it fault that you can’t grasp it as easily as others have.
His main gripe has been fragmentation – something we can all agree on (and just as frustrating for developers as they have to sacrifice features in one version of their app because too many users are still on obsolete versions of Android). But to call the entirety of the OS horrendous is like calling a piece of candy nasty because you don’t know how to take off the wrapper.
I digress, though, because everyone will always have their own opinion and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that. While one quote from one developer isn’t echoed by the entire Android development community, it’s still notable to point it out when a developer from one of the biggest websites in the world has something to say. The beauty here is that we can just ignore his baseless frustration and move on knowing there are still many great apps headed for Android with or without his “help”.
[Twitter via Androinica]
So that guy sounds like a bit of a tool. Others don’t seem to have issues developing apps. Maybe he can hand it off to someone who can actually do his job.
I put as much faith in Facebooks developers as I do their CEO… which is to say none.
Whatever anyone in that company does is for monetary and political capital, all else be damned.
We can make money off location based ads? Sweet! Screw their privacy!
He just needs to figure out that, with android, you don’t need to insert balls into your mouth before programming.
WHA!! Carry your punkass over to apple then “Nancy”.
From the developer of the most horrible app I have on my Droid X .. this just makes me laugh. There are TON of very nice apps on Android .. ie. Seesmic, Weatherbug, Trillian and Urbanspoon to name a few. But the Facebook app is really sucktastic. It passes off function to the browser at every turn and lacks quite a few of it’s iOS counterparts features. How about he put out something worthy and then tell us what he had to do to get it there and what he would change. He should get involved in the dev community and make changes from within instead of giving Mac News Network, Apple Insider and MacDailyNews ammunition to dis Android.
This guy is a putz.
this punk ass has sour grapes because the android facebook app is what is horrendous!! he’s just crying like a bitch because his shitty app is getting blasted everyday in the market comment section because their so called updates continue to break the apps functionality and why the hell do i need an app to open up the touch website. get a clue guy you suck as a developer period!!
LOL @ tyler
Yes this guy is a tool.
BTW: The facebook android app sucks HARD. I dont even use it.
Put an Apple in his mouth and he would fit right in with the Steve Jobs cult!
Facebook has one of the worst web experiences ever. I remember being so damned frustrated with Facebook because features would randomly work, the site would randomly be in accessible. You would get random web errors when trying to post comments, upload pix, etc etc.
A developer from Facebook is rather low on the ladder of good developers. I’d most likely as the Facebook developer to clean my toilet than trust him to do any computer related work.
oh yeah one more thing…he probably is on steve jobs payroll…i mean cry me a river just learn linux you f-in’ moron!!
You guys have panties on and they are in a twist. Lulzylulzlulz.
Still we have to admint that the fragementation of the Android OS is a desaster. In my first lecture at uni I learned to seperate programs into layers, so u can change some thins but keep others in common over different version.
Now we are talking about an OS, but anyways, Google just messed this up.
I hope desperately that with the 3.0 they kind of ground all future Android versions so developpers won’t have to pay as much attention to compability as they have to now!
I agree. Android is horrendous. I’ve owned a Droid since last November and I haven’t been pleased with it at all. The 2.1 and 2.2 updates have crippled my phone somewhat, and a lot of the apps are cheap and look like ass. As soon as the iPhone hits Verizon I’m done with Android. Yuck.
@iRK – see ya, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
LMAO! These comments were hilarious. Tyler takes the cake.
@iRK get the fuck off of phandroid then you ass
I love these articles because it brings out the losers of the netz. OMGZ, somebody is being negative about my device and it makes me mad. Lulz. You all look like raging toolz.
You all also got trolled hard.
On a serious note. I can’t wait to get my DX.
This comes from the place where their mobile site is better then the real one? Sorry, but please don’t speak again
Ah, fragmentation – war cry of the lazy. When device manufacturers first started to leave older devices behind in Android updates (ie, when “fragmentation” began) I was as nervous as any other developer. But then I calmly sat down, read through all of the dev docs, and discovered exactly how the situation is handled (programmatically speaking). It’s just not that big of a deal. With a little extra effort, it’s fairly straightforward getting your app to run on everything. Sure you may have to leave newer features out when running on older versions of Android, but that certainly doesn’t mean you HAVE to not run at all on those devices. Unless you don’t want to do the work.
This article is flame bait. At least at the end of the twitter post he says, “but the absence of big brother telling me what to do gives it [android] a slight edge”
Way to cover up for a lack of programming skills… blame the OS!
Glad you all already wrote what I was about to.
@lulz@fanboyz your a dumbass obviously has never used this travisty of an app so shut your hole!
iRK – you obviously got a bunk phone. You should try to swap it out with a new one first. The update to 2.2 just made my EVO better.
I’ve been a developer for 20 years now, and I think I know EXACTLY what he is talking about.
The problem likely isn’t Android, or the dev tools (I’ve had no problems), or really even the developer.
The problem, IMO, is an entrenched mindset. When you work too long in one language or a given development environment there can be a real system shock when switching to something that uses a significantly different way of doing things. Everything feels unnatural and awkward – like driving on the other side of the street or changing your camera controls in a video game to (or from) inverted. You can still do what you want, but everything takes way more effort and focus and just feels clumsy.
If he would spend some time working with it before badmouthing the system (which, let’s all remember, was itself designed BY developers) it would eventually come just as naturally as other systems he has worked with. Clearly he doesn’t like to leave his comfort zone, though. Not exactly a sign of a mater programmer. Sorry, Joe.
This guy looks like an Apple guy. He’s crying because Android uses Java, and he is used to a fake ass code used on OSX for iOS. I don’t like Java either, but an Apple dev of all people shouldn’t open his mouth with their FAIL code.
Fragmented? Almost everything is 2x+ at this point.
This guy is a complete moron, another Apple fanboy that has become accommodated to XCode and Objective-C, get over yourself, Joe.
I take it he isn’t behind the facebook app for blackberry? Making a BB app is the most painful experience I’ve ever been through. For one thing, you can’t get a reliable internet connection from an app unless you cough up $2000/yr plus jump through a whole lot of hoops. Then the OS fragmentation is 1000x worse than android (and this from a company that puts out all their own hardware). Try BB and then we’ll see if you complain about android.
What Clayton said.
In the words of Ira Wright- “F**K FACEBOOK”
First this guy whines about iPhone development…now he whines about Android. Gah….I would hate to work with someone like this.
Here’s the success to programming, pal: shut up, sit at your desk and get shit done.
Sweet, this just enforces why I don’t use Apple products or FB. The two can get together down in Silicon Valley and have a circle jerk! They just have to steer clear of Mountain View.
@behold_this YOU MAD? Lulz. Case closed. Your one of the losers butt hurt over someone saying something negative about one of your electronic devices on the net. Your easy prey. Step back from your pc and get some fresh air or something. Rethink your life goals and where you are now.
Take some anger management courses. Lulzy
@Clayton Well put. And I’m sure they were trying to port the app, so many of the design decisions were probably based around iOS not Android.
well, i’ve got some xp with java, but it took me less than a day to make a working app (not a f***ing hello world) and to get a grasp of the system basics
Wow! Some excited posts. Sadly I think Mr. Hewitt’s opinion is typical of Apple-philes. He probably owned an iPhone, iMac, iPod, and a MacBook before he ever wrote a line of code for the iPhone. And I suspect he jumped at the chance to write the app because he *loved* Apple; it was his chance to be a holy Steve Jobs crusader marching off to war.
By the way, this is an absolutely true story. I contacted a vendor about a document management app that is really awesome on iOS. (I have an iPad through work and can’t wait for an equivalent Android). Explained it’s a good app, that it would be great to have on iOS and Android, would let me standardize on one app for all the devices I support, etc.
The response: “We will never write an app for Android.” I was surprised, at first. but then remembered the thinking of a lot of Church of Jobs worshipers.
Maybe the should hire a developer with the ability to adapt.
The fragmentation argument is, I think, increasingly bunk. Virtually all new handsets are running 2.1? Over half of handsets are current running 2.1+ and virtually ALL future growth of the platform will be from handsets running 2.1+. I know that developers want the maximum install base possible to run their applications, but if it means producing a substandard product, they should probably go ahead and program for 2.1+.
…sounds like he was paid by the fruit people to say that mess.
@lulz@fanboyz I make 90k a year and can spend my day online…maybe you should reconsider your life mine is oh so sweet!
OT – Is he Ferris Beuller’s offspring? Just saying …
Hire some of these guys from XDA. Problem solved…
If you program nothing but Macs and iPhone, you start to see the whole world of programming through that lens. Which is a shame, because that’s a pretty cheesy plastic lens, lifted from a 1970’s Kodak Intamatic Camera. MacOS stinks, if you’re used to other OSs. Not as bad as Windows, but it does sink.
And Objective-C… it’s a kludge. Java is better for apps development in every possible way. I’d even take C++ instead, particularly for systems-level programming.
Of course, a lot of Android developers don’t really do a quality job either. They make something that’s functional, but not great. Doing Android apps right is a lot more multidimensional that doing iOS apps. You have to consider threads. You need to consider platform differences (dynamically) and can’t just say, “When you upgrade the OS, upgrade the app,” because you have many versions out in the wild. This guy isn’t necessarily wrong: Android app development, if done correctly, can be a pain. Many developers don’t know how to do it correctly or even care. But that’s because Android is the advanced class. It’s not freshman app development. It’s for grown up programmers.
So basically he doesn’t know Java, that’s what it boils down to.
what a total tool. The facebook app for both android and iOS sucks ass.
So, perhaps not the most popular opinion to hold for this audience, however, being a long-time web and opensource software developer, release engineer and build coordinator, some of us are interested in what Joe Hewitt has to say, and the ultimate sense of what his post was actually about.
Joes has credibility within the Firefox development team and with those interested in operating system and user experience engineering with the Parakey project. He had a wealth of interesting opinions about a wonderfully envisioned future for web-based services. You should read it.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/30/joe-hewitt-web-development/
Joe didn’t leave the iPhone dev group at Facebook because of the quality of XCode. He didn’t leave because Cocoa and the iOS SDK couldn’t do what he was interested in succinctly, quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Tools are the programmer’s bread and butter. XCode is a great one.
So, anyway. One thing that can be said is that he knows where The Man isn’t, as can be gleaned from the end of his original Tweet, for those who backtracked that far. Freedom gives the eventual edge. Ultimately, Android does have something going for it.
So something happens, and instead of reporting ON it (telling us what he said and what his arguments were), the point of this article is almost solely to defend _your_ position and allay any threatened feelings? We don’t need you to tuck us in and tell us not to be sad or switch to iOS or anything. Great reporting usually but this is very silly and disappointing.
Human beings have a hard time with “Change”. Some face “Change” by diggin in to face the challenge. Others, like Joe, bitch and complain when confronted with Change. Joe must lack the necessary skills to be productive with Java on a flexible OS. Maybe he would feel more comfortable on the Farmville team?
It’s clear that people who read this site have no idea who Joe Hewitt is, otherwise you’d be a bit more polite.
This guy was a member of the early Firefox team, and single handedly wrote Firebug, the greatest tool ever made for web developers. All of this was done on his own time, and released as open source. The web as we know it wouldn’t exist without Firebug.
Sure, the guy has opinions and likes to voice them, but he’s done more than most to progress the open web. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s also said he’ll never write another app for the iPhone because he’s philosophically opposed to Apple’s app store practices.
So calm down, and at least entertain the possibility that there could be a nugget of truth in what he says
You people need to clean up your language. You sound like a bunch of ignoramus rednecks and your making the Android community look like a bunch of 1st graders who can’t control themselves.
this guy is a STRAIGHT MORON!
i have a droid and i have to agree, the apps suck ass. All of them. You can take your crappy weatherbug, urbanspoon, pandora, robodefense, “market”, Froyo, and shove em up your whiny asses. No wonder you are all so flamed, its because android sucks. Its like having a car that only turns left.
Ok mockingbird time to kill ya
My issues is that their app is one of the worst corporate apps out and they are blaming the is instead correcting their mistakes. That’s bad form is all.
Everyone calling Joe Hewitt an Apple fanboy, and questioning his development ability… he’s the guy who created Firebug, probably the single most useful development/debugging tool for Web development in the last five years. I’d say that means he at least gets a chance to say what he thinks without being ridiculed by a bunch of Android fanboys.
Disclaimer: I own neither Android or iOS devices.
Correction: is=OS
why would FB have any interest in feeding quality apps to their competitor? of course they claim googles OS sucks.
We agree android is fragmented, but here’s the rub. As a developer you are always on a timeline and decisions are made on a cost-benefit relationship. Certainly this is not the case for all mobile application development, but if you are trying to turn apps into a business and not a hobby it is critical to develop wisely. Fragmentation is the biggest obstacle to the bottom line, the more customization for android builds the less profit- face it, good apps are a business. If I’m developing an app for android I’m going for most bang for the buck.
After 20 years working for software companies on the sales side, I know when a programmer is full of shit.
It is when he calls something “horrendous” but doesn’t enumerate the x number of ways in which it is horrendous. If a programmer calls some code, OS, movie, or whatnot crap or horrendous, it usually means they don’t understand it, it is too complicated, and they are being lazy.
If they really know that it is horrendous, they will spare no detail in enumerating the ways in which said item sucks donkey dick.
Yeah, cause making an app that doesn’t just redirect to a website is totally not the fault of the developer. Sorry FB but ymthe suckage that is the android fb client is your own fault.
A facebook programer calls ANYTHING ELSE HORRENDOUS??!!?? Damn..
I don’t think it has anything to do with fanboyism, Joe Hewitt just doesn’t mesh well with the premise of openness, variability, and brand differentiation that android promotes. Some people call it fragmentation, I call it differentiation. 200,000 android phones a day, and they are not all the same, they will never be the same, and that will make your job as a developer more difficult… but also it can be conversely be more rewarding. If you can make an app that runs and scales to many platforms, screen sizes, processor speeds, then you have really done something impressive. If you don’t like it then stick to making fart apps for the iphone.
I think its unfair for Facebook to ask Joe to move to the Android team if it is too difficult for him to transition. Leave him to develop for Apple since he is clearly good at that (the apple Facebook app is much better than the Android one). Seems silly to have a guy work on something that he doesn’t want to work on when he does a fine job where he is at. Just get someone that is as good as him to work on the Android platform. Specialization will lead to efficiencies for both platforms in the long run.
Look at all the Fagdroids upset that their OS is crap
well, i agree that both the platform and the dev tools are not optimal. don’t get me wrong, i wouldn’t switch android for anything, i’m a total apple hater etc etc – just saying, it could be better. i’ve been pulling my hair alot. try making a reasonably advanced game in XNA/.net and then doing the same thing in Android, and you’ll know what I mean. it just isn’t as fun… sure, you can make great apps if you really want it, but it’s hard. I’m sure that there are great things to come, but we shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge the flaws that are currently present.
Look at all the stuff that broke between 2.1 and 2.2. Every steaming media app developer had to update their app because google decided to change the media framework.
He’s got a point, but is laying on the drama.
Google needs to do a better job with developer relations.
I think Phandroid was just paraphrasing what Joe said. He actually said:
“Wait, this isn’t in Objective C? This whole thing is horrendous!”
damn, that was well said! I agree 100%
Wow, I thought Apple fanboys were bad but these comments take the cake.
Me: I use *6* Android devices on a daily basis, and only 1 Apple device (iPad). Still, I’ve coded for both, and I am a Google-man through and through, but I agree — Android just sucks for coding, at the moment.
Yes, Apple has the walled garden of hell, but it is so much easier to develop for, again at the moment. Android’s development system feels like some mentally retarded kid decided to go through some open source repositories and toss code snippets in a blender. It’s just ugly.
— A Google “fanboy” of sorts
Who cares whats the big deal I love my droid and my opinion is the only one that counts to me. Who cares what some guy said we all have our own opinions. Im not going to go buy an apple because someone tells me that droid is so hard to make apps. I personally have no care for this and neither should any of the droid users. As for the people trying to say that the droid sucks and saying all these people are losers for commenting on here- look in the mirror your doing the same thing the only difference is that we don’t go on apple sites looking for a fight like you all do so this is from me to you get a life do you really need to come on to a droid website and try to bash a phone now that is funny. I come here for news not some drama because a developer lacks the skills of making an app (which he is paid to do) I have no care for this and all droid users shouldnt either. Have a great day Peace and Love
This guy simply denied his potential position at Google…for good.
Why doesn’t he just learn how to program? That might help. Facebook for Android is awful, I thought it was bad on Blackberry but this takes the cake. Get someone new in who knows what they’re doing!
I respect his prior work, but to call a OS that other developers work hours to enable consumers make the best out of our phone crap, is just silly. If he is so concerned with the well being of android then he should help develop for it. I see people comments defending him and your have to understand if it was flip side the iOS community would attack say cyanogen, if he said something bad when he developed for iOS. People admire him, and coming to android we welcomed him, it’s a shame he came in, didn’t even really get his feet wet and already complaining. We know Android have its flaws but it’s maturing day by day, we don’t need a well respected developer telling us what we already know. Also i don’t agree on the fact that just because someone does something great they have the pass to attack other peoples hard work.
– just my opinion.
I’d like to make few points about fragmentation:
– Fragmentaton exists on all platforms, if you write desktop apps for Windows you will suffer from fragmentation between different Windows versions and different hardware setup (game developers suffer greatly from this)
– Same thing for web apps, there are different browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera) and IE browsers tend to behave differently compared to non-IE, not to forget the inconsistency between the different IE versions (e.g. IE 6 is a nightmare for every web developer to support)
– EVen Apple’s iOS is fragmented to some extent, there are differet firmware versions and not everyone is running the latest version, there are various hardware, the camera in iphone 2g/3g doesn’t have autofocus and they are not multi-task enabled like iphone 3gs/4, iphone 4 screen resolution is higher than previous generations, same thing applies to iphone vs ipod touch, for instance there’s no sound recorder on the ipod touch and it doesn’t have any phone functions. last but not least the different processer speeds between each generation.
As for Android, well according to the stats in the following page:
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
2.1 is dominant and about 60% are running on it, so if you wish to avoid the trouble of supporting multiple versions, it would be wise to support 2.1+ devices
Plus if you stick to Android’s SDK and don’t do tricks or misuse glitches then 90% you won’t suffer from bugs in most devices.
And supporting different resolutions on Android is easy and google has already cleared that point before, it doesn’t matter what screen size do you have, there are sets of supported resolutions in Android and providing the right resources for these resolutions will make it work on all devices regardless of the screen size.
Some bugs are present in some Android versions, same thing can be said about iOs or any other platform, there’s no such thing as flawless perfect platform and every developer out there knows that well.
Google’s Android is superior in many aspects compared to other platforms in terms of development:
– Most developers are familiar with Java language and its easier and more clear than objective-C especially in terms of Syntax
– Memory management and no need to deal with annoying pointers
– Eclipse IDE is superior compared to xcode IDE and is widely adopted by millions of developers out there with a great community
WoW!!!
You FanDroid geeks are something else. You behave as if someone made a joke about yo momma!
Im shocked at all the name calling toward Hewitt. When my company started reimbursing us for phone bills instead of supplying BBs I got a Droid… then two weeks later I switched carriers for the iPhone 4 and never looked back.
Droid is glitchy… Thats because it is still getting settled down. Just face the facts… its not that smooth.
That is what Hewitt means… as a developer, I know that you have to adapt to change. That does NOT mean you have to openly accept bad technology.
Why do you think Droid has a new phone and new update every month… Its because they are picking at the things that suck one at a time. Its like the things that suck are ALL on a priority list being that they are attacking the suck-most part of droid in a systematic way…
And EVERYTHING DROID is doing is in efforts to catch up with the iPhone… You know, the one who started it all and everyone has been desparately trying to copy ever since!!!
Face it fandroids…. You will not be as good as iOS. No droid phone will ever really compare to an iPhone.
Prove me wrong… show me ONE phone which has sold more than the iPhone 4. JUST ONE!!!!
Oh yeah, you cant… thats because its not somethign that will come in to real life. Those of you who just live to be iPhone haters give the droid commmunity a bad name…
You know what i mean… ( iPhobes)!
So many comments.
–
Fragmentation is a part of every piece of technology out there. PC’s built for DOS could barely run win95. PC’s on 3.1 couldn’t run 98. It goes on and on.
–
It’s only really noticeable on Android due to the speed of the updates.
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We all know that there is fragmentation on the iPhone as well, though some won’t admit it. If you don’t agree, why has iOS4 not been released for the iPhone 2g?
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If you’re not able to adapt to new code as a developer, you shouldn’t be developing, much less posting that you don’t like a particular system because it’s different.
Just look at his picture .. He looks like a young Steve Jobs! He’s just missing the turtle neck. No wonder you can’t thrust his opinions!
The guy has obviously been doing C programming for two long with Facebook, then iOS – he is just annoyed that he has to learn another language.
I disagree. Just because a developer from the worlds biggest social networking site comments on Android, it doesnt mean its worth talking about. Especially if his bitching and griping is in total contrast with nearly everybody else that has anything worth value saying about Android. Hmmm…Android is horrendous? I would say that tens of millions of people dissagree with you based on their choice of phones. You suck balls as a developer. Your shitty Facebook app proves that! The only thing it does right is upload photos and my status. It wont attach links to news stories or anything else. I’m telling you, it fucking sucks.
Read more of his tweets he’s obviously in love with Apple, hates Java, and is very biased. The only good thing I saw written about anything Andorid was that the Droid x had a big screen.
Maybe Facebook needs to work on getting the right people in the right jobs and maybe he should be looking for a job where he’s more enthusiastic about what he is doing.
And maybe we shouldn’t read too much into one developers biased opinion.
@Bahaha – Look at the typical faggot of the internet who doesn’t even use a Droid device on a website dedicated to such devices feeling the need to flame.
Hes just a shitty developer. Completely unopen to new platforms. He looks like an apple faggot, anyway. What a pathetic tool, he is. There’s no excuse for his words, aside of the obvious fact that he doesn’t know what he’s facing. I guess Linux is above his head, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Like th OP said, if thousands of other developers can do this just fine and make true quality apps, this douche could at least put forth some serious effort- that is, if Facebook cares about the people.
I must say, there are a LOT of bad Android apps out there. Most of them suck balls. But that’s probably only because the operating system is so new, and came out after the iPhone. Most good developers that saw the iPhone come out probably jumped at the chance to develop for it. Then the G1 (Android) phone came out afterwards. And by then most of the good developers had already learned how to write for the iPhone.
I don’t know much about programming. I’ve only taken intro courses to C++, Ada, and VHDL. But I do know that there are a FEW really good Android apps out there, so it is possible to write a good app. We just need the good developers to come over to Android, learn it, and write good apps for it.
He can call it whatever he wants…just make the Facebook for Android app better!
I’m not having any problems. I’m writing apps for Android 1.5 thru 2.2.
Maybe he’s still trying to figure out how to use a pointer in Java?
I, for one, am utterly appalled that Mr. Hewitt would have a negative opinion about developing on Android. This is especially true as his past history with iOS clearly makes anything he has to say completely invalid. As someone who has absolutely zero experience coding with Android, it is unbelievable that Hewitt would find it “horrendous” and feel that we should all hate him based on a post on a blog that has essentially no actual information whatsoever.
He’s just trying to make up an excuse oh why the Android Facebook app sucks so hard. Stop complaining and do your job!
As an android developer who has also done some iOS work I can see where he is coming from. The two platforms are very different and the learning curve is steep. I said the exact same thing about ios. Complaing about fragmentation is bs though as it’s much easier in android to your bases…. Oh wait Facebook doesn’t support iPad
Twit
I could give a rat’s ass whether this guy invented the internet or not, he’s displaying a poor attitude and total lack of respect for the platform. F*ck him and facebook.
From what i’ve read he’s been complaining about iphone app development also. Sounds like someone who just doesn’t like doing their job!
The Quality of a work doesn’t come from the Quality of the tools. It comes from the quality of the artist.
-Brad
I paid this man good money to speak lowly of Android. What else am I left with? I mean, I won’t get flash support on my platform, I’m trying to patent spyware, and I do everything I can do to prevent user freedom! The least I can do is attempt to steal the favor of social networks. F*ck Android! F*ck Google!
I don’t understand… He didn’t call the whole Android OS horrendous, but rather the development tools. The only thing he critisized specifically about the OS is that it is “hideous,” and I can see where that comment might be true in some parts of Android.
+10,000 Clayton…. WELL SAID. In other words his Java language skills suck and he is too lazy to get them up. I tend to expect this out of .Net guys but….well hell what is he coming from…who uses Objective-C outside of Apple? I’m wondering if he is a PHP guy as well being that he works for Facebook. I also imagine he wants a bunch of drag and drop WYSIWYG crap. Give me programmatic or XML layout anyday. The WYSIWYG crap is for folk that don’t want to learn their craft.
I enjoy using my Android phone and I prefer Android over iphone, bb and palm for various reasons. But, c’mon Android fans, don’t make us all look like a bunch of douchebags that can’t accept some criticism.
Android isn’t perfect. It’s evolving and it needs improvement. You don’t improve something by pretending the problems don’t exist. I’ve found it incredibly useful as is. However, there are some things I wish my phone did better and I’ve dealt with a few glitches here and there (minimal and infrequent)and look forward to Android’s continued improvement.
I’m thrilled if some big wigs in the programming field talk a little trash; I also love it every time Apple comes out with some nifty new gadget. Because all of that drives innovation and improvement. And that results in better products for me as a consumer (and android fan).
What a whiner…..go work for Apple, fanboy!
Why is everyone focusing on the negativity of his twitter post. He still acknowledges that android OS has the edge.
UPDATE THE POST HE RESPONDED:
http://twitter.com/joehewitt/status/22203558963
@eclsnowman:
“If you don’t like it then stick to making fart apps for the iphone.”
Best. Comment. Evar!
Wow.. I love android and I can’t stand apple products. But wow.. these guys make the Android community look bad. I understand the guy (i could care less who he is) Is saying bad stuff about Android. Take it or comment something constructive.. Geesh, it’s a shame to read articles on this website and all i see is f* you or s* nutz because some iphone supporters come on here to troll.. Ignore the losers (Trolls) they are everywhere on the the net. You should be used to them by now. I enjoy Android’s products, Apple not so much due to it’s hardware’s restrictions. but Android has it’s falls also. Like apps, All i can show my friends who are Iphone advocate is look how much faster my EVO is compared to your iphone! but they turn around and show me some badass app lmao! it’s called competitive market non of these guys are the next bill gates to smart phone OS. I’ll just tell you that.
@Bahaha Did you just post this while sucking the dick of Steve Jobs HARD cause it sounds a lot like it to me. You fucking Apple fanbois are major tools and not only does the software community know it, but everybody does, so have a nice life being a lonely gaytard, suckin hard on those dicks up in Cupertino!
Just a question about all the obvious androi haters flaming on here. If android dev tools are so terrible to program with, and all android apps are crap, why is is that every iphone guy I meet is jealous of my Google “Voice”, my Android “Maps”, Google “Voice Search”, Etc. Obviously Google has it figured out well enough to program in Java, and make an app that even apple boys wish they had.
The problem isn’t the dev tools the problem is there was no money in android until 200k a day people started signing up.
Give it a year and lets see where the developers are programming first.
A good developer sees the flaws and works his magic to work around it. Making a horrendous situation a revolutionized new piece of technology that makes it better.
Well this “Horrendous” OS is currently selling more-a-day than Apple, so im assuming you’ve never used it personally, cause when people switch to Android, they dont go back :)
Maybe he can hire a good Android Developer to do this. Poor guy is getting flamed.
A lot ov people are being brutal ov this one mans comment who cares. Yeah its nice that Apple had a bit ov time. Right now Android is moving at such a fast pace that as a developer it really is hard to maintain a app. You can compare or bash Android. I dont understand if you come to android you are entering the world ov challenge. Cause you have to develop a app that fits different screen size, processor size, screen type, everything else. There is only one iPhone so there only one single phone you have to worry about so yeah I can see why he had it on easy street. But what will happen in the near future android will level off and updates will be yearly major and minor throughout the year. But what you still wouldnt have to rule out is developing a app to fit different phones. Hewitt all I can say if you cant hang with the big dogs then park your ass on the porch with the lil dogs cause there much room. Google is doing there best at day One to make this System easy for Developers same as Apple but this was a company that didnt want to release a SDK from the start.
Basically he’s saying Android is ugly (I tend to agree, it should be prettier. So does Google), and the development tools suck (Eclipse). I actually like how you develop with Eclipse, but I’d welcome constructive criticism on the subject, rather than just name calling. In his recent followup he’s saying the framework is great, so calm down, have a bud…
@Linuxguru – There’s only one iphone? When are you from? Last I checked there were four iphones AND an Ipad you had to develop for. I’m sorry, that argument is simply rubbish now.
That tool of a developer should either get a life or go back to the iFail platform
We have the App, Mobile site, Touch site or regular .com site.. I couldn’t care less if they closed down the App.
Well, now I see why the android app sucks compared to the BB and iPhone versions (I’ve used all three). This guy has an attitude about the whole thing and nothing will change that, unless they get someone who actually enjoys programming in Java and for android. Are we ever getting push notifications for this damn app?!? If not, I’m just dumping facebook altogether. Been way too long waiting for just the basic features that the other platforms have had for years.
Which is why as a 12 year old kid, I want to prove him wrong, make some money, and develop for Android.
What a cry baby…
I don’t know about you guys, but this guy looks like a douche, even from before reading the topic title. :/
wtf?? What does this jack ass knows about Android?
Well – The fundamental differences between developing for 1.6 and 2.1/2.2 are fairly small for plain application development. All the resolutions are covered (WVGA, HVGA etc.), and the UI stuff just hasn’t changed much since 1.6. I can see frustration if you had to be compatible with 1.5 – but I seriously doubt they had to support it.
What is odd though, is most companies have just drawn a line in the sand (2.1) and will not bother supporting older OSs. I can’t see why facebook wouldn’t have done that. I think they may have. In that case, it’s sort of a moot point.
After seeing the freaking trainwreck that the iOS developer tools are (debugger is an embarassment – and intellisense is a joke), I don’t know how you don’t dance a jig once you start coding in Eclipse. Heck, the reason I’m a big android fan is because I am so revolted by the iPhone dev framework. Viva Java!
Maybe, he is just a horrendous programmer?
Facebook sucks ass anyway i wouldnt want his POS app on my phone in the first place go back to crapple LOL @tyler
He’s a looser even as an iPhone developper: Shoemaker belittled Hewitt as a “mediocre engineer”
http://www.businessinsider.com/rogue-apple-exec-trashes-rivals-mediocre-engineers-2010-8
What a bunch of link bait! So tell me why didn’t you quote what he said on Twitter in the post? How about I do it for ya:
@LucasTizma Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous, but the absence of big brother telling me what to do gives it a slight edge.
So he says even though the developer tools suck and the OS is hideous, he still thinks Android’s better than iOS. I can’t seem to find that in your post. Hmmmm…
Oh, BTW, your comment system sucks. I can’t have a line between paragraphs? Fail.
To be honest, I use Bloo over the official app :/
I can upload pictures to whatever album I choose, it doesn’t kick me to the touch site when I view things, and I can upload HD video right from my phone
Over the past 30 years I have written software on virtually every category of hardware imaginable, from low-level hex-code stuff where you’re putting the actual machine language instructions directly into memory, all the way up to extremely abstract Smalltalk and PROLOG type of things. Cash registers to mainframes, video games to banking apps, I have seen and done it all. And I agree with this guy. From a developer perspective, Android programming is awful. The tools are awful, the docs are awful, it’s painfully obvious that Google’s devs are rank amateurs when it comes to this kind of thing. I love the phone, I love using it, but when you look behind the curtain, things are pretty ugly back there. Truthfully that’s part for the course with Google, though. I can’t say I find this newsworthy, but from what I’ve seen few of phandroid’s readers are even qualified to comment on this.
Just look at his twitter page. The guys is full of his own shit. Probably an Obama supporter
Wow, fanbois surprises me. Be you and apple or android fanboi. See how human beings get work up because of a statement made about an OS. Almost all the comments are ridiculous. Everyone is mad as if someone put a bullet in their asses. Grow up people its just an OS.
yet hear you are “someone” reading these posts and devoting time and effort to respond, get over your self you know you love it.
come on fess-up, what do you carry Nexus One? Vibrant?
Obame is the man not like those douche republicans.
I agree with Jo to get a development environment with Eclipse and Android means spending al day on google looking for the next bloody problem, how can anyone have made such a mess?
The truth is, Android is a fragmented, quagmire of irrelevant software garbage. Anything that has to be written in Java and C# comes with it’s own decade (the late-90s), as well as it’s own tombstone.
Android phones are for broke losers with bad credit. After all, who can’t afford “free”? They will loose the tablet war, because there will be no give-away or buy one for free subsidies from the carriers; because the carriers can’t make money on Android copycat tablets.
Did I mention there are no apps available for Android tablets? Did I mention that Android is on it way to having more viruses that it’s older, retarded brother, Microsoft Windows?
If they think that the iPad 2’s biggest competitor is a Motorola Xoom, then i have an $800 paperweight and a bridge on the east coast that I want to sell you : )
The only one making money off Android is Google—and they should be saving that money for Larry Ellison, because soon they will be tea-bagging him for mercy in court.