As many of you know, I am an avid Android-aholic. I just have to say one thing about Android:
ANDROID ROCKS!
Ever since I rooted my tablet last November, I have not been able to stop flashing different ROMs to try out new things. Pushing the limits is not something new to me, I have been overclocking PC's since I built my first one around 10 years ago, but even before that I have been tweaking registries and so fourth. My LinkSys router is not running stock firmware, it is running DD-WRT firmware. Why? To allow me to do more with my router than one normally could (like the ability to track my bandwidth usage, VPN to my home network from anywhere, set up an FTP server on a NAS device, etc).
I am never happy with things the way that they came. I want to make it bigger, better faster and stronger.
I have to say the only thing better than Android is the Android Dev community. For the most part they all work together to make it better. Even devs of competing ROM's are able to share bits with each other to make both their ROMs better for all who like to use them.
Google announced Android OS version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) for its neXus7 tablet late in June. By mid July, many tablets (Xoom, Transformer, Transformer Prime,and some others) were getting some Jelly Bean love courtesy of AOSP builds as well as the CYANOGEN(mod) crew. More tablets are getting these every day.
Now, these are not official updates the average Android user can get (unless they root), but it is nice to see the updates well ahead of the OEM's timelines of months to wait for the new OS.
I have to say one thing for Jelly Bean: It is SMOOTH! It is what Honeycomb should have been, but better late than never. The Google Now search is pretty nice and works well in my experience.
Just about every other day most of the devs update their ROMs with more tweaks and bug fixes. The first JB ROM I ran had no sound, no GPS and because of the lack of sound, it was pretty rough to use. Now, those are fixed and it is mostly just polishing that needs to be done and adding some features like getting some of the device specific tweaks implemented as well as some of the hardware (like the TF101 dock) to work 100%.
Is it stable enough for a daily driver at this point? For me, yes. For the average user? Probably not, but they should not be flashing nightly builds if they are worried about stability.
I cannot comment on how the Android dev community is compared to iOS or any other platform because I have never gotten involved (mostly because I cannot jailbreak my iPhone). I am sure they have some good dev support there, but I know that the Android community is just phenominal.
So, to my Android Devs out there, keep on rockin!
Now, these are not official updates the average Android user can get (unless they root), but it is nice to see the updates well ahead of the OEM's timelines of months to wait for the new OS.
I have to say one thing for Jelly Bean: It is SMOOTH! It is what Honeycomb should have been, but better late than never. The Google Now search is pretty nice and works well in my experience.
Just about every other day most of the devs update their ROMs with more tweaks and bug fixes. The first JB ROM I ran had no sound, no GPS and because of the lack of sound, it was pretty rough to use. Now, those are fixed and it is mostly just polishing that needs to be done and adding some features like getting some of the device specific tweaks implemented as well as some of the hardware (like the TF101 dock) to work 100%.
Is it stable enough for a daily driver at this point? For me, yes. For the average user? Probably not, but they should not be flashing nightly builds if they are worried about stability.
I cannot comment on how the Android dev community is compared to iOS or any other platform because I have never gotten involved (mostly because I cannot jailbreak my iPhone). I am sure they have some good dev support there, but I know that the Android community is just phenominal.
So, to my Android Devs out there, keep on rockin!
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