PhanMail Friday: Your Questions Answered [10/22/2010]
You can submit your PhanMail questions here, or just read below and enjoy a good old-fashioned round of Q&A – Android style. Let the fun begin!
If Andy Rubin, Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer fought in a 3-way celebrity deathmatch cage fight – who would win and how?
Steve Jobs would definitely have the upper hand. Being in that type of closed environment is definitely the equivalent to home field advantage. Steve Ballmer would definitely have a great shot too, because while Jobs and Rubin are busy pummeling each other to death, Ballmer would be sitting in the middle of the ring announcing why Windows Phone is so revolutionary. But in the end, I think Andy Rubin would find a way to take the battle to more fertile ground, pulling an Undertaker by choke slamming his nemesis through the very cage that used to encapsulate them. Jobs would land on Ballmer, instantly killing them both.
And just to clear this all up, I’m talking about this in the context of Celebrity Death Match and inherently in the most sarcastic way possible. I’d never wish harm on anyone, and when it comes to Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer, I wish them nothing but success. Better competition = Better quality. Not to mention they’ve got families and are probably good guys and all that.
/2nd-paragraph-buzz-kill
If you had to sum up each (American) carrier with one phrase or sentence, what would they be?
- Verizon Wireless: Best Coverage/Signal/Service… DROIIIIIIIIIID
- Sprint: G G G G… turned it around in an EPIC way
- T-Mobile: home of the original Android and incredibly balanced offerings (value)
- AT&T: I’ll have to get back to you on this one
What killer feature are you eagerly awaiting phones to start getting as a standard – either hardware or software related?
For some reason I’ve had this odd fascination for mainstream phones to get optical zoom. We’ve got devices with incredibly high megapixel counts, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to quality pictures. If an awesomely spec’d Android comes out with optical zoom… I’m getting it. I think it’s one of the key features that’s preventing people from using their phone as an everyday type of camera.
Make the phone a little more thick to accomodate. Slap on an extended battery as the default/stock battery. Hook it up with 5x optical zoom or something sick along with a 5MP or above lens, but focus on picture quality. Then send it to me and watch me smile. Then put it on sale and profit.
Are you ever going to update the Phandroid Application in the market?
Staff and premium members of AndroidForums already have access to a beta of the new Phandroid App. It’s infinitely improved and offers support for news, forums, IRC chat, and a whole lot more on the way. We’re fixing bugs and polishing things off and hope to have it released in the next couple weeks. I promise you that compared to the current app… it will blow you away.
FYI we’ll also be changing the name from “Phandroid News” to simply “Phandroid”
What will be the hottest Android items for the holidays?
It’s impossible to deny that Google TV products and Samsung Galaxy Tab will be among the favorites. Keep an eye on ChromeOS tablets and netbooks because while they’re not necessarily Android-related, we could see some integration between the two. For example, Google TV is based on Android but also baked in with Chrome.
It’s hard to know what will really catch fire in the mind of consumers. I think Google TV might take a little bit of time for people to understand and for it to catch on. It’s also only October so I’m hoping that a lot of Android stuff is still waiting in the wings for optimal announcement time. After Halloween people seem to start thinking holidays… so let’s see what November has to offer in terms of product announcements.
Hope you enjoyed the first edition of PhanMail and we look forward to getting your questions throughout the next week!