Why Ben Duchac’s Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

Of course I’m going to link to this, a story from an Android fan (and happy user of an HTC Incredible) who helped his mom buy a new Samsung Charge from Verizon, and, well, it didn’t go well at all:

Seeing the basically useless state of the phone on initial boot, I told my mother that I’d take the phone for an hour or so and give it back to her “cleaned up.” I deleted apps. I configured notifications. I set up accounts. None of it was easy, and every step of the way I ran into really bizarre problems. The elegant Google widgets that come with stock Android were stripped out of the phone. The camera app, besides looking like it had been designed in 1995, just wouldn’t rotate when I turned the phone on its side. Apps that worked on my Droid Incredible crashed as soon as I opened them on the Charge. After about an hour of poking and prodding the battery had dropped from 95% to 50%. Completely frustrated, I turned to the internet, where confused users were posting questions with titles like “Should my battery last more than 6 hours?” and “I think my phone is broken…”

(Duchac, by the way, is a talented photographer.)

★ Monday, 1 August 2011