Android versus WinMo - a personal experience

[dishe]

Like many of us, I've been fantasizing about the day I could leave WinMo behind and run Android full time on the Rhodium hardware.

Excited about all the progress for the TP2, I decided to dig out an old Vogue and see how Android runs (apparently, the Vogue port is just about as near 100% working as possible, with many people flashing Android to the internal memory). Found Myn's warm donut build for Vogue, and fell in love with it. Everything works- Sound, BT, GPS, camera, etc... and it works WELL. Like, REALLY WELL. They've even managed to get hardware video acceleration working, which makes the UI experience buttery smooth- far better than WinMo ever was on this handset, and even some that came after it.

Obviously, the lack of a keyboard and limited memory on the vogue really make me long for the TP2... We've clearly got some great things to look forward to when the Rhodium port is further along! However, I also found myself longing for Windows Mobile at times.

Not that I have any particular love for WinMo- the only reason I've stuck with it for so long is because no other OS offers the power and useful functions that it does.
I always said if something better came along, I'd switch.
Here's what I noticed during my 2-week long stint with Android:

1) Tasks are not part of the PIM system! As an Outlook user, I expect my PDA to be an mobile extension of the organizational tools I'm used to. That includes Contacts, Calendar, and TASKS. I organize my life with tasks, use them as to-do lists, and sometimes drag them into my outlook calendar to create appointments with reminders. Why people seem to have forgotten about them lately is beyond me (HTC's sense seems to always omit tasks as well- why? They're so useful!). Sure, there's plenty of 3rd party task/to do list applications I can install, but then my information is all segregated. With WinMo, everything is part of the PIM system, and syncs directly with my Outlook- its all in one place. Much more efficient.

2) Exchange sync is iffy. Again, I use Outlook on my PC, laptop, and work computer to keep my things organized and up to date via Exchange. Google sync is pretty great, but it only pushes real-time to the phone. It does not connect live to my desktop Outlook. This is unacceptable to me, since I rely on my data being in sync and up to date on a daily basis. Its exactly why I use an Exchange server, and this is severely lacking to me in Android. There is a commercial app called Touch Down, which you can buy and will sync your exchange PIM to your Android device... but it keeps everything seperated! In other words, your contacts, calendar, emails, etc are all part of Touch Down's database. You won't find them inside your regular Android calendar or contacts. This is pretty weak.
I've heard that Android 2.1 will support Exchange, but I'm not clear on if it will do it like TouchDown or actually do a native sync. I'm also skeptical because I know Google hasn't paid MS for the Exchange rights (unlike Apple, Palm, etc, who all paid MS to have activesync developed for their platforms). Also, even if they DO support native Exchange... YOU STILL DON'T HAVE TASKS!

3) Then there's the voice command system. It works pretty well, but unlike MS Voice Command, I can't do it with my phone in my pocket. If I say "Call John Smith", it will pop up with a message box on screen that asks me to click if John Smith is correct. If he has multiple numbers, it will present them all and wait for me to push one. On MSVC, I can say "Call John Smith", and it will respond to me "Call John Smith on mobile, home, or work?" and I can respond "Mobile". All the while, my phone stays in the holster. Awesome.
Then there's queuing up media... With MSVC, I can say "Play Dream Theater" and it will create a playlist with all songs that match the Artist tag "Dream Theater", and begin playing. Android does not have any support for that (although the Hero has some proprietary command system from HTC that does this, its not part of Android and apparently doesn't port well to other devices).

Those are the big three things that struck me as lacking. Then, there are just some apps I found myself really missing (but will probably come out eventually):
1) Groovefish/NanoGroove. Grooveshark actually has an official Android client, but they charge you $3 a month for it. A MONTHLY FEE, meanwhile on WinMo I stream unlimited music for free from them with some homebrew app. Or, pay $5 one time for nanogroove to get a much nicer interface. $3 a month?! no way!

2) Logmein. Yes, Android has RDP and VNC apps in the market, but logmein is great for some of my computers behind firewalls I don't control (and therefore can't forward ports to). I was actually rather surprised logmein has no support for Android yet, although I've heard that they will be releasing it soon. Still, I had to reboot into WinMo to fix something on my work computer the other day, and it was pretty annoying.

3) Skyfire. Ok, I have a kind of love/hate relationship with this browser. The remote server model is kind of slow and laggy, and I would never use it as my primary browser... however there are times that I want to see a page the way a real desktop would, with flash, streaming video, and everything. And for that, nothing beats Skyfire, and there's no alternative for Android. Again, I found myself rebooting into WinMo just to see how a particular flash-based website looked. Lame.
Yes, Adobe has announced full-on Flash will be available on Android, however Skyfire tones it down Opera-mini-style, and only sends your phone a compressed stream it can play back with ease. There are some kinds of flash that would easily bog down our mobile processors, and that's where Skyfire really shines.

4) Office support. Ok, obviously WinMo has MS Office and Android does not. But what about Google Docs?? I don't use Excel all that often, but sometimes I like to use it on a whim to play with some numbers. Word I use a lot more. Why doesn't Android have anything like this? It doesn't have to be Office, it could very well be Google Docs. You know, part of their whole live-in-the-cloud-computing set of services? The closest thing I found was a rather expensive suite of tools to buy from the market. Found that disappointing as well, since I'm used to it being free and part of my phone.

5) Rar. Ok, this is a weird one, but it came up and I'm listing it for illustrative reasons. Someone sent me an attachment to my email, and it was in .rar format. Well, the team behind WinRAR actually has a Pocket PC version as well, believe it or not. If I were running WinMo, I could opened it up right then and there. But nothing exists on Android to open a rar file.
Now, granted, I don't think the ability to have rar on my phone is something that I care THAT MUCH about. In fact, I would probably give this one a great big Who cares?! however it proves a point that I've been starting to suspect here... Windows Mobile has over 10 years of application development behind it, which means that someone, somewhere has probably already written an app to do what you want it to do. Whether its opening a rar file, downloading a torrent, turning it into an FTP server, etc... Android is catching up really fast, however right now there is still so much more available for WinMo than Android.

Ok, now that I've said all that (and you're still reading this which means you either have too much time on your hands or actually found this interesting), I'll just say: I much prefer Android's UI to Windows. It runs smoother, reacts faster, makes more sense. However, when it comes to power and versatility, the ability to do ANYTHING, Windows Mobile still wins.

For now.

I'm still very excited for Android and look forward to some dual-booting on my device, but I feel like people should just know that there are some things WinMo is worth sticking around for.

/rant.

[bedoig]

I tend to agree. My app list might vary, but there are still some essentials that would keep me coming back to WM for quite a while. And although the iPhone finally offers basically every application I need -- offline GPS, great RDP/VNC apps, a good selection of music streaming services, awesome jailbreak scene that addresses most/all of the platforms weaknesses -- I can't stomach AT&T's data and messaging rates. Plus, there is some really sexy hardware coming out for Android and Windows Mobile these days.

It's really a love-hate relationship with Windows Mobile. I love the fact that WM is as close as you can get to a mobile computer (file downloads, file system access, unrestricted software installation, etc), but many times those are the same things that are aggravating from an ease-of-use perspective.

I dug out my wife's old Vogue recently to play with as well. Even loaded up SD cards with Myn's build for some family members that got Vogues back in the SERO days. I'd be ecstatic if the TP2 builds get that far along; and with the great group of developers working on the multi-platform builds we just might get there sooner rather than later. Not that I see myself flashing to internal storage though. I just can't cut the cord on WM.

[x10guy]

+1. I was sort of hinting that in the "Ready for Everyday Use?" thread but I was by far in the minority. Most people in that thread and perhaps this whole sub-forum seems to think that Android TP2 project is the answer to everything.

Don't get me wrong. The Android project is by far one of the coolest and perhaps most compelling projects to come around in a loooong time.

Again, this is just my opinion, I just have a feeling that it is not going to be the "be all, end all" OS for our devices. It is easy to jump on the Android bandwagon right now but I think once people start using it long term, they'll figure out that there are nagging annoying issues just like there are in the Winmo arena.

This is not to say that people may prefer Android over Winmo, but it'll be far from perfect.

[gTen]

Most of the things you mentioned seem to be just things you are not used to on the Android platform or things you can get to install with some effort.

Rar = Androzip = can extract RAR

Office = There are a few office suites...most are paid like androffice and etc..Thinkfree has a free one for viewing files and you pay if you wana edit or do calc..documents to go is also free for viewing only

Exchange = I hope there is never activesync for Android...Activesync is the worst piece of application in existence...I personally prefer SyncML. Activesync is proporitory to microsoft which pretty much makes ppl stick to microsoft..things like this should be open source and follow "Standards" this allows you to choose products based on their quality and not be locked down to microsoft..try Funambol for example

Tasks = there are some patches to make them integrate by default..as for outlook..again your mentioning microsoft products...why not use thunderbird or zimbra desktop or etc?


Voice Recognition = I do not know much about that so can't help there

Logmein = Ok so blaim them not android and I am sure there are alternatives..they are developing an android soon too

Skyfire = I don't see why people like this browser at all but ok..

Groovefish/NanoGroove= there are alternatives...

Now I am not saying Android is 100% up to par with everything winmo was but you gotta give other things a chance..if your ideology is Android won't be good until its 100% microsoft software compatible then maybe your looking at things a bit different

Well spoken dishe, you basically outlined all the reasons I'm still on WinMo.

[x10guy]

Originally Posted by gTen

Most of the things you mentioned seem to be just things you are not used to on the Android platform or things you can get to install with some effort.
...

I admire your love of Android. But your post is funny in that your most common phrase is "there are alternatives" but you don't seem to mention any alternatives.

But Android is indeed a nice mobile OS. Alot of likes and dislikes are subjective so that can determine which one you like better.

This discussion would probably be a bit more concrete if we had a more complete version of Android. Right now, things are just hypothetical.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by x10guy

I admire your love of Android. But your post is funny in that your most common phrase is "there are alternatives" but you don't seem to mention any alternatives.

But Android is indeed a nice mobile OS. Alot of likes and dislikes are subjective so that can determine which one you like better.

This discussion would probably be a bit more concrete if we had a more complete version of Android. Right now, things are just hypothetical.

I actually gave a few alternatives..some I did not give alternatives for some because I don't use them..how can I give alternative for something I myself don't use? but I am sure there are..

[x10guy]

Originally Posted by gTen

I actually gave a few alternatives..some I did not give alternatives for some because I don't use them..how can I give alternative for something I myself don't use? but I am sure there are..

Thanks for the explanation. That's fine. It just that you sounded so confident in your previous thread that you actually knew of the Android alternatives.

You'll probably know more once the Android TP2 becomes more robust.

[mlin]

Originally Posted by gTen

...if your ideology is Android won't be good until its 100% microsoft software compatible then maybe your looking at things a bit different

Microsoft has become very well ingrained into the business world. There are solutions to Android's missing functionality like you mentioned, such as the ability to view office docs from the device. With Microsoft products having a rather large presence in the world, I think it should be expected that in today's smart phone world, there is compatibility with these products.

Nice write up Dishe!

[gTen]

Originally Posted by mlin

Microsoft has become very well ingrained into the business world. There are solutions to Android's missing functionality like you mentioned, such as the ability to view office docs from the device. With Microsoft products having a rather large presence in the world, I think it should be expected that in today's smart phone world, there is compatibility with these products.

I do not disagree Microsoft's presence, mostly in the business world but the use of Exchange makes me sad. Syncing is part of making all technology work together and those need to have standards and be open source for it to have competition and variety.

Also viewing is free but editing costs $$$..but that aside from the microsoft is not the only one setting standards for documents..many formats exist including PDF, ODF and etc which are commonly used.

There is compatibility with use of 3rd party apps but in general I believe people should migrate off solutions that do not allow flexibility. If Microsoft wants to sell exchange they should open up activesync. But Microsoft tries to get both which is bad for consumers and businesses.