40% of "Many" Android Phones Being Returned--I Don't Think So

I usually do not link to the analysis of other sites as I do try to contemplate Android.  But, this post at Boy Genius Report does a very good job of debunking the recent of meme of 40% Android phone returns.
Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Lies, Damn Lies, and IPhone Sales Predictions

Our friends over at Beat Week are citing a survey that 33-50% of all Americans are going to buy an iPhone 5 when it comes out.  Take a second to think about that.  Apple is going to sell 115-175 million iPhones in September?  It's absurd on it's face.  If you read the "poll" you can see why.  First. it is by Pricegrabber.com, a online price search engine--mostly for tech items, not a reputable polling company.  Second, the results are based on people "who responded" not a statistically valid sample.

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Pentile Display Revisited: Just as bad as before

A few people have been able to pick up a Motorola Photon which has a "qHD" pentile display (also on the Droid X and the upcoming Droid Bionic).  This side by side comparison with the HTC Evo clearly shows the visible pixelation despite the Photon's higher resolution.  Look at the glow around the star above and the texture on Mario's face below.  It should be perfectly smooth.  Motorola needs to drop the pentile screen quickly if it wants to compete.  The first thing people want is a good screen and using a pixelated one is not going to make them any sales.  In all fairness though, the Photon screen does have better contrast in the Mario picture.

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Beatweek Explains Android Success: Store salesman brainwash customers

Today Johnny Major of Beatweek informs us of the reason why people buy android devices:

• Carriers have demonstrated undue influence over their customers when it comes to steering them away from the phone they came into the store to buy (read: iPhone), instead talking them into walking out of the store with something they know don’t really want (read: Android).

Why are carriers pushing users to buy Android phones?  Johnny doesn't say.  Probably because it is a tin foil hat conspiracy theory that makes no logical sense whatsoever.  There are a dozen other factual errors and misrepresentations in the article (i.e. the $100 Nexus S is a new model), but this was my favorite

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Moronic Beatweek Post of the Week: Only "geeks" criticize the iPhone.

Just a week after being expertly fisked by iDownloadblog on his ridiculous take on jail breaking, Bill Palmer of Beatweek is at it again with his Apple worshiping posts.  This post is dedicated to "geeks" which seem to be defined as anyone who criticizes the iPhone for any reason.  First he continues to deny the all-too-real iPhone antenna problem--which Apple tried to fix on the Verizon iPhone.  Then he disparages anyone as a "geek" who gets upset when iPhone all glass (not gorilla glass) surface is easily scratched.  That's right Bill, if you are upset at an aesthetic problem, you are a "geek."  Lastly, he actually has the gall to say, without irony, that anyone who has any "problem" with the iPhone is, you guessed it, a "geek."  Bill, anyone so obsessed with a gadget as you are with the iPhone is a geek.


Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Moronic Beatweek Apple Fanatics Post of the Week

There are many Apple fanboy sites on the internet, but none of them remotely hold a candle to the Apple worship of the editors of Beatweek.  Some of the stuff is so funny that I thought I would highlight some of their rantings and ravings every week.

• In this post, Beatweek tells us how the new iOS5 features are horrible because they change the perfection that is iOS4.  These horrid additions include: a large screen, iMessenger, and horror of horrors LTE--which they rediculously contend has no build out at all.  Correct if you exclude every major city on the east coast, west coast, and midwest. They even have the gall to say that no one wanted the iPhone's notification system to change--an almost universally desired feature.  And god forbid you should want to take 30 seconds to jailbreak your iPhone for some great features like SBSettings, then you are a total geek. 

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

A sidebar about Netflix

This week Netflix raised its rates significantly and pissed off a lot of customers, but most likely for good reason.  The cost of content continues to go up.  The big mistake they made was not increasing prices gradually.  No one wants to see a 60% price increase with no additional benefit, even if it is still the best deal in town.  Whoever made this decision for Netflix should be fired for the PR nightmare it has caused the company.  For me, it made me consider just how little I have been using my Netflix account.  I cancelled my blue-ray package and will probably cancel DVDs and use Redbox for new releases until I run out of new broadcast/cable content to watch. I have been streaming a lot of content to my iPad so I will keep the streaming account which is a good deal for $8 a month.  I will save $16 a month which is a lot more than I would spend on Rebox movies. 

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Motorolla Shooting itself in the foot with Pentile Matrix Displays

All of Motorola's new qHD displays use a pentile matrix (Atrix, Bionic, X2, Photon, Droid 3).  There are a few types of pentile matrix screens, but the bottom line is that each pixel is not aligned the same way and causes what a/v people would call screen door effect--a visible grid bwtween pixels.   Now, some people can't see the difference or are such Motorola fanboys that they refuse to admit they do.  To me it is night and day.  So why is Motorolla using them?  Well they are cheaper to make and use less battery and can be marketed as qHD (960x540), but it seems to me like they are cutting off their nose to spite their face and they are in almost every new Motorola phone.   I would never buy a phone with a pentile screen.  840x480 screens look better to my eyes.  So, for your own sake Motorola, cut your losses and use a real LCD screen.

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Resolution will soon be a non-factor

I look forward to the day the resolution on phones and tablets become a non factor.  For me, resolution is a very important part of the experience as I really do not like looking at a pixelated screen.  It is rumored that the new Nexus phone from Google with be 1280x720.  For a screen of 4.3 inches or less, I don't see much need to go any higher.  Apple's next iPad 2 is a also rumored to have a 1535x 11.52 screen.  I think Android tablets will eventually go to 1080p.  Once we meet these levels then resolution becomes a non factor and we will probably only see the same ram, CPU, CPU cycle that we see in PCs today.

 Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.

Android Games Crushed by iOS Games

Games are now the most downloaded type of mobile software.  Android has certainly come a long way in terms of gaming, but having had an iPad for 3 months, I can tell you there is no comparison in breadth and quality--not to mention price.  Here are just a few of the games, I have gotten for $.99.  Real Racing 2 HD, Madden 11, Fifa soccer, Mirror's edge, Nova 2, Scared Oddysey, Dungeon Hunter 2, Asphault 6, Gangstar: Miami Vindication HD, Eternal Legacy HD, and a few more.  These are all near console quality games for .99.  The few that are available for Android are much more expensive and not made for tablets yet.  To Gameloft's credit, they did being the first mobile MMO, Order and Chaos, to Android only a few months after the iOS version.

Tiered Data Comes to Verizon

The day of reckoning comes on Thursday as Verizon moves to tiered data.  Nice of them not to even give new customers a discount of $5 the way AT&T does, but that's what you have to pay to get Verizon's network.

I do have to applaud Verizon for grandfathering in all current data users with the unlimited plan and not forcing us to get one of the underwhelming LTE phones available now.  My wife was waiting to get an iPhone5 this fall to get a smartphone so I bought her a used Droid 1 with an unlimited data plan for now so she could get grandfathered in.

Please take a few seconds to click on the ads on the right to help support this website.