Picture it, San Luis, August 17...I go in to the corporate Verizon store downtown to get my battery replaced (second replacement due to battery short). I came to the realization that I'm completely horrified both by the employee's condescending attitude coupled with complete ignorance -and- being reminded that Verizon has molested the daylights out of Android.
Verizon Has Molested Android
Android comes with a lot of freedom. Verizon has, however, not passed this freedom onto the consumer at all. By denying administrative access to the operating system and adding a mile long list of non-removable crapware THAT RUNS IN THE BACKGROUND they have effectively ruined the Android user experience with greed.
The moron (read 'employee') who gave me a replacement battery insisted that he install Advanced Task Killer on my phone so that he would "educate me" on the apps that run in the background and may shorten battery life. Okay, my problem was that the battery drained when the phone was OFF. He didn't listen. He also didn't bother to listen to me when I informed him that Advanced Task Killer is just a front-end to the task manager already buried in the settings, not to mention the fact that Advanced Task Killer runs in the background itself! While this tool eventually replaced my battery, this situation reminded me that Android is in the evil clutches of Verizon and is not one bit safe. When I looked at the Droid 2 and the other shiny new Android phones they kept calling out "Kill me!" because they were running a bazillion apps that shouldn't be there in the first place.
For example, the Droid X is a terrific piece of hardware. Well-built, huge screen, noise-cancelling, the whole enchilada. However, if you look in the task manager there is a mile-long list of crapware running in the background that cannot be removed without root access to the OS. This is unacceptable. A 1ghz+ phone is running sluggishly because of all these sports and weather widgets the customer didn't ask for...is horseshit.
Why Apple Gets It Right
Apple is often criticized for having a closed eco-system and for not allowing providers to have any say in the software, well, there are upsides and downsides to Apple's closed system. This one, however, is a serious upside. Apple would rather shoot off its left nut with a sawed-off than let AT&T or Verizon have access to iOS4 and install crapware. Apple is determined to control the user experience in this sense and I fully agree with them. The average user (99%) of phone buyers should NOT have to know what a task killer is let alone have to use it just so their phone doesn't slow to a crawl. Apple has been hesitant about multi-tasking third party apps and for good reason. iPhone has worked consistently since it came out (although I won't let them off the hook for upgrading the 3g to iOS4, effectively ruining the phone). With iPhone you don't have to kill the MLB app or the Weather Bug just to make a frigging phone call that doesn't stutter.
If the iPhone does indeed hit Verizon soon, it has the potential to be the best user experience in smart phone history. Verizon has a terrific network and Apple will never in a million years allow Verizon any access to iOS4.
This is quite unfortunate because I'm a huge proponent of open-source software and Android in particular. The problem lies in the downside to Android's licensing freedom. Android is primed for abuse and Verizon has lead the charge in making Android phones a horrific user experience.
My generally decent tech knowledge has allowed me to make sure that I don't run any apps in the background of my original Droid that would cause performance and battery life to decrease. Because of this, my experience with my Droid has been a terrific one. People should NOT have to have my level of geek experience to use a cell phone. The Droid is the only Verizon device that I'm aware of that runs a pure, unmolested version of Android. (Although 2.2 has added a non-removable Twitter app and forced Amazon MP3 downloader to run in the background and is no longer removable).
I will no longer recommend Verizon Android devices until further notice.
For those of you with a newer handset, all hope is not lost. If you are so inclined I would highly recommend rooting the phone simply to get rid of the crapware and simplify the tasks the phone must run.
