




I.  Google -- Not So Open



That's when Google stepped in.



II. Smacked With a Lawsuit

Outraged, Skyhook filed suit in Massachusetts Superior Court.




III. Mountain View Giant Covers Its Tracks Carefully






Comments     Threshold


By sviola on 5/9/2011 4:52:33 PM , Rating: 5

The same that happens with most people/companies when they are in a position of power/advantage: they do everything not to lose that position.

RE: Simple...
By kleinma on 5/9/2011 5:04:58 PM , Rating: 5
See this is why MS won the OS wars of yester-year...

They did bundle certain softwares into the OS, and they did tend to crush competition, but they at least allowed the competition to actually compete. They did allow you to go ahead and install whatever the hell you wanted, even if the OS already had something that did that thing.

I only hope Windows 8 runs on phones and they churn Win7phone into that.

I have an android phone, why doesn't google give a shit about Verizon and/or Motorola preinstalling crap on my phone that I don't want, can't remove, can't prevent from running in the background. Skype, CityID, Frigging BLOCKBUSTER??? are you joking? Games like madden and need for speed. Apps like VZNavigator that are paid services I don't subscribe to that run on their own in the background all the time. What is up with that google?

RE: Simple...
By FaaR on 5/10/2011 4:03:57 PM , Rating: 2
Crapware on the phone and other stuff that can't be deleted is why I bought an iPhone and not some android headset last christmas. I had enough of shit like that with my previous Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets that all came with pre-installed themes, backgrounds, screen savers, games or even videos that could not be deleted and just sat there uselessly and consumed flash storage space.

One of these phones had no less than three (!) buttons on the handset pre-programmed to launch the service provider's website (on MY dime of course, as data traffic was uber expensive back then), and as expected that "feature" could not be turned off. If I jammed the phone down my pants pocket carelessly, next time I pulled it up again there'd be flashing GIFs galore announcing new fabulous deals and offers blinking back at me. No more of that now!

Plus, Apple has traditionally supported each iPhone generation for 2 years, if not more, adding new features and functionality if the hardware handles it. Android support post-purchase is spotty and erratic to put it mildly, as is security updates and bug fixes. Apple wins here too, even though you have to use the monumental pile of crap that is iTunes to actually deliver the update to the phone...

Now, Apple's not perfect (witness: iTunes, quicktime and so on), and the iPhone's not perfect either; I detest the on-screen keyboard for example: it sucks, actually exiting an app requires too much fiddling, and iOS won't remember my home private wifi network; I have to type in the name and password every time I want to use it, and so on. But it's still preferable to android, IMO. Plus Apple's hardware just blows everything else out of the water, glass and steel beats flimsy plastic any day of the week.

Dunno windows phone 7, maybe that's a decent OS, I've never actually used it, but there's not much app support for it, and the graphics hardware microsoft supports is crap compared to PowerVR, and there's too many physical buttons on the front face of the phone. One's enough. :P

RE: Simple...
By Alexvrb on 5/11/2011 10:59:19 PM , Rating: 2
One is enough? Just like for mice, eh? Other than that, I agree with some of your sentiment regarding preinstalled crapware.

RE: Simple...
By Azethoth on 5/13/2011 1:04:57 AM , Rating: 2
"iOS won't remember my home private wifi network"

Mmm, it does remember mine. I have id broadcast turned off and WPA2 encryption on.

There is an issue in setup though where if you first connect to it when id is broadcast then change that to off it will not notice the change and fail to connect. You need to turn on plane mode for a bit and tell it to forget that network. Or you can change the name to accomplish the same thing.

RE: Simple...
By Lerianis on 5/12/2011 4:39:22 AM , Rating: 2
Not always.... I remember that Microsoft got caught putting certain 'hooks' into Windows 3.0 that if they were run on anything but MS-DOS, Windows became exceptionally crash prone.

RE: Simple...
By jtemplin on 5/9/2011 8:05:22 PM , Rating: 3
Something about absolute power...

RE: Simple...
By priusone on 5/10/2011 2:44:12 AM , Rating: 2

-John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

RE: Simple...
By paydirt on 5/10/2011 9:46:28 AM , Rating: 2
Did the dude really have five names as his name?!?!

RE: Simple...
By InfinityzeN on 5/10/2011 10:01:39 AM , Rating: 2
RE: Simple...
By stimudent on 5/10/2011 10:40:47 AM , Rating: 2
Just another day of ethics violations from the big tech companies. It's a draw between Microsoft and Intel as to who has the best ethics violations handbook. It looks like Google is catching up.

