Android Central 85: The Droid RAZR MAXX, LG Spectrum, Google privacy changes

i was sorta disappointed with the podcast this week. also why do you guys hate on the htc rezound soo much?

my advice to anybody looking to upgrade is too wait to see whats coming at mobile world congress. the gnexus will not be the end all device for long!

I too get tired of Phil's comments about it being "yet another Sense device." The Rezound is, in my opinion the best phone on Verizon right now. This coming from someone who buys almost all of Verizon's top phones and currently owns their beloved Razr and Galaxy nexus as well. It has the best skin on Android, a good camera and cellular radio, excellent screen and battery life, the most powerful processor and RAM on Android right now; and honestly to take a line from what Phil keeps saying about the Nexus One... it feels great in the hand. I think the problem here is that Phil didn't do the review himself but rather had someone else (Jared I think) do it for him. He keeps calling it "yet another Sense device" but how is that different from yet another Motoblur deice or another TouchWiz device.

Was listening to podcast 85 on a Zune (prefer listening on dedicated player, save smartphone battery for, well smartphone tasks). I was on a subway train, and almost pulled the emergency chain to stop the train near the end of the podcast. I thought the Android podcast I was listening to had morphed into an iOS fan club / infomercial via some type of Star Trek accidental beam gone bad. We always read / hear that the iPad is market leader because of its ease of use, smooth UI, app store etc., but the disparity in quality / quantity of mainstream advertising by Apple vs. competitors is rarely mentioned including podcast 85.

The iPad is very heavily advertised in the mainstream media vs. sporadic mainstream advertising for Android tablets at least in the Boston Metro area. Is it a surprise that a device you see advertised regularly on prime time network TV, see advertised on many stand alone illuminated kiosks downtown, see advertised on many end panels of bus waiting areas, and is the darling of the mainstream media outsold a device which has minimal long-term mainstream advertising? Since the iPad's introduction, I have seen the iPad ads in downtown Boston thousands of times (not thousands of advertisements, thousands of viewings) vs. a grand total on one for the original Tab 7 on one end panel for a bus waiting area, and that was not even downtown. For every Android Tablet TV ad I have seen, I saw at least a hundred (again viewings, not distinct new ads) for the iPad. The ventilation building for the Mass Pike Pru tunnel has an illuminated app. 12 foot by 16 foot iPad ad on both sides of the building so all Mass Pike commuters see the advertisement daily on the commute into Boston, and then see the ad on the other side of the building at night on their commute from Boston along with all the commuters on the Number 1 bus along Mass Ave who pass this massive ad on their way over to the land of MIT, and Harvard. No similar advertisements for competing products.

The radio talk show host with the largest audience is an avid Apple fan. When a new, or upgraded iOS device is announced / released, a segment, or two of the show could be mistaken for an Apple infomercial. When a new iOS device is announced, and again when released the top of the hour radio newscasts for many mainstream stations mention the new device, and the 6pm network news has video of the Apple store lines as well. Non-tech consumers are inundated with iPad ads / branding daily vs an occasional short term Android tablet campaign. Let's not forget the episode of Modern Family dedicated to obtaining the original iPad on release day. Like it or not, Apple's marketing is exceptional. Android vendors have to increase the quantity / quality of their advertising substantially to try chipping away at Apple's massive market share, and more importantly, Apple's massive mindshare.

I am a gadget addict, and have way too many tablets of all varieties. Some of my Android tablets are in the iPad's league from a smoothness / fluid POV, and others should have been rejected before leaving the factory. Unfortunately, some of the jerky interface machines are the popular ones like the Galaxy Tab which is a bit ironic since overall the Tabs are some of the better machines, and the Verizon Tab 7 I carried for a year was in the iPad's league for smoothness about 99% of the time. Contrary to web lore, the iPad does have lag at times although it is infrequent. I do have both the iPad, and iPad 2. When tweaking their vendor specific UI skins / enhancements, vendors should have smoothness as a top priority, not an afterthought.

I also would like some clarification about the iPad's alleged better ease of use that I always read, and hear about. Prior to iOS 5, the Android tablet was much easier to initialize / update than the iPad. A computer was required for iPad's initialization, and all iOS updates required a full image be downloaded, and installed vs. no computer for Android initialization, and incremental OTA updates for many Android devices. Never heard about this ease of use advantage for Android on any site I can recall when iOS 3 and 4 were still the current versions. If the opposite was true, that advantage would have been a common theme on most general tech sites.

The Android tablets I have used ask for timezone, WiFi network, and Google account when setting up with the option to skip all three questions if desired. The first home screen usually has a clock and / or weather widgets along with six to eight icons that represent about 90% of the applications a new user would want to use such as email, browser, music, video, gallery, and messaging. Assuming you answered the questions on set-up, your internet connection is already working, and if you utilize Google services, your contacts, calendar, and third party apps are usually being downloaded in the background at least on some of the devices. Like the iPad, you then click the desired icon app, and start working / enjoying. I am not suggesting the iPad is a bad device, or hard to use; it definitely is easy to use and a very nice device. Frankly, the iPad can be fun to use, but usually within 10 minutes of each use I encouter a limitation that turns that fun to agony. Based on web lore, you would think the iPad is a 10 for ease of use, while the Android tablet is a 2 at best. Android is much closer in ease of use than the buzz suggests although I do respect other opinions.

I am not suggesting you bash the iPad, and have no problem with you admitting the iPad is a nice device (it is); however, I should not think I was beamed to an iOS fan fest when listening to an Android podcast. ;-)