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I like my newest gadgedroid, the Archos 7o Internet Tablet. It is usable in a way that the lower cost tablets I purchased earlier, and returned, were not.
With sipdroid now installed and configured to work with my onSIP virtual PBX, I’ve turned airy cloudware into a working, low cost mobile phone solution. The Archos’s email app is completely usable, the browser is browsable, and as I just wrote about, I’ve started introducing my own apps using App Inventor.
But …
Archos tablets do not have Android Market installed. That’s not completely bad news, though certainly a disappointment. To load a free Google app onto the Archos 7o (and presumably the rest of their product line), you’re forced to hunt for .apk files in various forums and Android-dedicated sites, and then install manually.
I’ve begun to experience in the nitty details of Android what many others have already gone through: open Android software does not mean software that will install and work uniformly on all devices.
For example, I tried to get the stand-alone Google Reader app to behave on my Archos.
I simply couldn’t get this thing to register with my existing Google account. It (Android 2.2 and/or the Google Reader) ignored my repeated attempts to add a new new account. It goes without saying that user error could be involved.
Drat!
It’s not a major inconvenience since there are other RSS feed readers out there. It just that I did spend time and effort collecting and registering my favorite feeds with the Reader subscription manager and wasn’t looking forward to going through this exercise again.
I’ve been conditioned to expect an annoyance free experience from the Googlers!
I’m not the first to complain about the vendor-specific irregularities in the Android market, and not the only one to suggest that history perhaps may be rhyming with itself as Google is positioned to replace Microsoft, and ARM to dethrone Intel in mobile gadgetry.
Will there be an Android equivalent to the Microsoft blue screen of death?
A tentative nomination: Android force closed pop-up.
Related articles
- New Year, New Android, New SIP Client (Sipdroid) (technoverseblog.com)
- This is the most interesting CES ever (asymco.com)
