Well, it seems like I need to get one just so I can keep up with the world and innovation there. The main problem is that everything points to waiting until this fall with Ice Cream Sandwich coming out.
But with this fragmented platform, it is so hard to know which one to buy which only wikipedia can explain well, but the main thing is that you need Ice Cream Sandwich and it isn’t clear how operating system updates are handled as this looks device and carrier specific
- 2.0/2.1 (Eclair), which revamped the user interface
- 2.2 (Froyo), which introduced speed improvements and added Wi-Fi hotspot tethering and Adobe Flash support
- 2.3 (Gingerbread), which refined the user interface, improved the soft keyboard and copy/paste features, and added NFC Support
- 3.0/3.1 (Honeycomb), a tablet-oriented release which supports larger screen devices and introduces many new user interface features, and supports multicore processors and hardware acceleration for graphics. The Honeycomb SDK has been released and the first device featuring this version, the Xoom tablet, went on sale in February 2011. The 3.1 update has been announced on 10 May 2011.
- Ice Cream Sandwich, a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb into a “cohesive whole.” It was announced on May 10, 2011 that it will be released in Q4 2011.
It also turns out that you can jailbreak Android at least at the 2.2 level.
So the search for the best Android phones (http://www.topandroidphones.com/) and there is C|Net are even website on the topic, so here is the scoop and also digitaltrends.com, PC World and http://phandroid.com/. Seems like given the fast state of evolution, you’d want a dual core processor, good battery life, amoled screen and 4G 🙂
- Looks like the Samsung Galaxy S II which uses Gingerbread 2.3 and is unlocked to boot is the right phone to get now if you can find it. It comes unlocked which is pretty cool.
- There are a zillion tablets out there. The rumor is Amazon will do the right one in the future.
