I think a lot of what's been said here is helpful. I'm aware that T- Mobile/HTC handles G1-specific issues, and I was concerned with Android-specific things, especially the Browser and Market apps.
However, now that I'm in the right place, I do have a couple suggestions to Google as far as how to make some of these things easier for users: 1) Post links on Android.com to places like this, the issue tracker, etc. Though the Google Code site is arguably more informative and useful, many people will assume that Android.com is "more official" because Android is in the domain name. Also, the Google Code site (at least from the front page) seems to have all sorts of sections related to developers and none for people who just want to use the platform on their phone, which made a whole lot more sense before the G1 actually came out. 2) You're Google. You know what's going on all over the Internet, or at least you have the capability to. Why not set up some scripts to crawl unofficial Android sites to find a general consensus of what people want? You can even call these scripts "Android bots" for some humorous redundancy. Maybe that will make Android easier to deal with for both developers and users. On Nov 19, 9:00 am, Jean-Baptiste Queru <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In a nutshell: > -Google is involved in the initial contribution to the Android Open > Source Project. > -Google is part of the community that will grow the Android Open > Source Project, along with anyone who wants to put some effort into > it. > (I wrote both in the present tense because this is a period of > transition from one to the other). > > Separately: > -Google writes applications for the Android platform. > > Also: > -Android is a trademark of Google. > > That's only an outline. > > If you have specific issues with the T-Mobile G1, you should be > talking to T-Mobile. If you'd like to discuss the evolution of the > Android platform as part of the Android Open-Source Project, the > official mailing lists (like this one) are the right place. You could > also submit issues on the Android issue tracker (but that's typically > not very interactive) or discuss them on IRC (which is very > interactive but where you're less likely to reach all the people you > need to reach). > > JBQ > > On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 12:23 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This is from the point of view of an Android user. As in, an end user. > > I don't develop, and I wasn't planning on it. However, from my > > knowledge of the open source community (in general), I felt it was > > probably best to take some of the confusion being experienced by end > > users to here, the community of what I assume is the developers (if > > there's even a difference). > > > I've come to realize that it's a misconception that Android is a > > Google product. Google started it, and they support it, but it's > > actually developed by the Open Handset Alliance. Except when it's > > being developed by random people who downloaded the source. In other > > words, Android has all the characteristics of a classic open source > > project: the community interaction makes it turn out great, but when > > users want something, nobody knows who to talk to. > > > Except it IS a Google product, according to the Google-riffic brand > > guideline page (http://www.android.com/branding.html). And of course > > it's by Google, because there's Gmail, Google Talk, Google Accounts, > > and Google Search integrated with practically everything. In fact, the > > G1 says "with Google" on the back! So of course we need to talk to > > Google if we, as end users, want to see changes made to Android's core > > services that we feel would improve it. > > > So, where exactly IS Google in all this? I've searched (with Google) > > all around the web to try and find out who's the key members are in > > their Android department, and I can't even tell if they HAVE an > > Android department. > > > That makes sense, though. Because this is an open source project, and > > the community develops it, why would it be in the hands of one > > corporation? So just talk to the community. Except Google pushed, > > marketed, and branded the whole thing by themselves, so consumers and > > end users and people who don't know how to compile the kernel to save > > their lives assume that they're in charge of it. Except they're not. > > Except when they are. > > > So, long story short, all of us early adopters with our snazzy new > > G1s, we like our phones and we love the little green robot inside of > > them, but there are some things we'd like to be improved as time goes > > on. If those things are software-related, not hardware or network > > related, then we don't talk to T-Mobile, we talk to the Android > > developers, right? Because Android is open and free and that means > > changes can be attempted much more rapidly and easily. Well, where are > > they? Is it someone at Google? Is it people on these discussion > > boards? Or is it a different person at a different OHA member > > depending on what specific component our concern is with? > > > Again, I'm an end user who has no idea how the internal structure of > > Android works, so I'm probably wrong about a lot and confused for no > > reason about several other things. But Google (or whoever) has made it > > clear (maybe) that they don't want Android to be a niche product for > > programmers to tinker with, they want it to be a revolutionary OS that > > will turn all of our phones into the little tiny personal computers > > that they actually are. So now that idiots like us are being included > > in the target market, can we perhaps have some clarification about who > > we're supposed to go to for questions, suggestions, and comments? > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
