Am Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:13:56 +0200 schrieb Mariano Kamp <[email protected]>:
There is a big misconception. Comments are comments. Not bug reports. That's what the "Email the developer" button is for. Most users do not get that. And yes, I usually try to be friendly, include all informations that seem relevant, and in some cases I was able to pinpoint the bug, but then I guess this would be to much to expect from an average user. And yes, writing an Android app is clearly way harder than "trivial". OTOH, before we start whining how badly Android sucks (and there are problems from the community interaction to API problems, hardware issues, and so on), Google Android managed something that is really hard: An essentially working multitasking OS for mobiles. And that's an achievement, just compare: iPhone: no multitasking, strictly limited push functionality => there are many apps that are not doable with an iPhone, or only by using a server. E.g. chat apps work badly if at all, and even with the newest stuff (not sure if they managed to release Push, officially it should have been released more than half an year ago) only by implementing the chat client in effect on the server and putting only a UI client on the phone. Symbian S60: supports basically multitasking. Only issue, that in many routine situations I found myself with up to one minute delays where the phone "worked" without even drawing anything on screen. Comparing to my G1 where the phone slows down with a dozen of activities at the same time, the multitasking on a S60 device (or a S80 device although these are not produced anymore) is crude and works really bad. And if the memory runs out, which does happen rather often, it soft resets the phone. Basically, while we may complain about many things, but the possibilities on Android are a magnitude bigger than say on the iPhone, while at the same time it's reasonable easy to program and works rather well. They are harder to program correctly (probably, never done iPhone development, my last forays have been when MacOS X was still called NextStep) than say iPhone apps, because you have to deal with the multitasking bit. Andreas > Oh, one more thing I'd like to share. > I use an automatic bug reporter that is installed when the app starts > and it populates an error email with the stacktrace and some app > specific information when an exception is not handled. > > This is great to reproduce bugs and to see how often they occur. That > was what I expected though, what I didn't expect is that it is a > great way to learn to know your users. > I have to say that nothing boils my blood so quickly as some comments > I see in the Android Market and those guys start from a neutral > position. When submitting a bug report this is not the case, the app > already inconvenienced the user. But still I never had even a single > mail with swearing or unsubstantiated claims. Quite the opposite, at > least every third bug report contains encouragements and quite a lot > feature requests or insights about my users. > > > On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 4:04 PM, Mariano Kamp > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Al, > > > > >>To try and alieviate this AndAppStore switched to a popularity > > >>chart > > which covers the last 7 days only, at least that way apps have to > > maintain popularity as opposed to just clocking up the numbers.<< > > > > > > And what a difference this makes. I know that AndAppStore and the > > Android Market are apples and oranges, but still, my app is in the > > top 20 on your page and is about the 192.000th(*) in the Android > > Market. > > > > (*) I don't know how to acquire a hard number for the Android > > Market. > > > > > > On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Al Sutton <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > >> The problem is that it's a naieve system that only works when all > >> developers are considered equal. > >> > >> Once you get into dealing with brand names the system falls apart > >> and it also isn't helped by the fact that as Market lists apps > >> ranked by popularity by default thus helping popular apps stay > >> popular and other less popular apps have a small window in which > >> they're shown to the user. > >> > >> To try and alieviate this AndAppStore switched to a popularity > >> chart which covers the last 7 days only, at least that way apps > >> have to maintain popularity as opposed to just clocking up the > >> numbers. > >> > >> Al. > >> > >> > >> > >> ----- Original Message ----- > >> *From:* Mariano Kamp <[email protected]> > >> *To:* [email protected] > >> *Sent:* Sunday, April 12, 2009 12:49 PM > >> *Subject:* [android-discuss] Re: G1 failing miserably.. > >> > >> I think you can only write better apps and hope that they overtake > >> the bad apps. That's how the rating system is supposed to work, > >> no? Maybe at some point in time the Android Market will take the > >> more recent history of comments/ratings into account with a higher > >> rating and will help to dethrone the (buggy) incumbents. > >> > >> Yeah, this is dreamy, but everything else will fail anyway. > >> > >> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Al Sutton <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >>> My concern is that the the Camera is a "built-in" app, Weather > >>> channel app is *the* number #1 app in terms of popularity in > >>> Market, and snake is the number #5 game by popularity, and all > >>> three throw up errors like this which will make the *average > >>> user* feel that Android is flaky by association. > >>> > >>> I am a developer, I can understand how things like this can > >>> happen, but this is not a developer-only product we're talking > >>> about. This is something that is aiming to be as popular as > >>> possible and used by everyone from kids to pensioners. > >>> > >>> So maybe the discussion should be; What do we do? Do we name and > >>> shame apps to try and get them improved? Do we look at improving > >>> the OS to deal with situations like this in a better manner that > >>> doesn't require users to be shown error messages they may not > >>> understand?, or do we carry on with the current system where we > >>> expect users to educate themselves to deal with problems like > >>> this? > >>> > >>> To me the last one isn't part of the path to success. > >>> > >>> Al. > >>> > >>> --- > >>> > >>> * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ * > >>> > >>> ====== > >>> Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > >>> company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, > >>> 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. > >>> > >>> The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not > >>> necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or > >>> it's subsidiaries. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> ------------------------------ > >>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > >>> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Mariano Kamp > >>> *Sent:* 12 April 2009 11:38 > >>> *To:* [email protected] > >>> *Subject:* [android-discuss] Re: G1 failing miserably.. > >>> > >>> This guy is a developer, and an Android developer on top of > >>> that, himself. So he is not trying to understand what the dialogs > >>> mean. He knows. So he seems to be publicly shaming apps for not > >>> being up to the expected standards (long running operations on > >>> the UI thread, forced closes) – and by association, the platform. > >>> > >>> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Pd <[email protected]> > >>> wrote: > >>> > >>>> > >>>> Al, > >>>> > >>>> My curiosity got the better of me so I've just downloaded the > >>>> Weather Channel app to see if I could re-create the problem Eric > >>>> saw. Sadly I did. > >>>> > >>>> With the weather channel app I saw the force close dialog when > >>>> the app was accessing the Internet for a weather update. I > >>>> think the problem may be that the Activity is waiting for data > >>>> from the call for new weather data. I guess the way around it > >>>> would be to put all networking calls in a service and poll for > >>>> data when required by the UI Activity. This way the UI doesn't > >>>> have to hang around for a reply and the service can update the > >>>> UI when data is ready. Sort of fire and forget. For user > >>>> friendliness I would put a "Loading data, please wait!" type > >>>> message in the tab which gets replaced with data when retrieved > >>>> by the service. > >>>> > >>>> Then again I could be miles off the mark ;-) > >>>> > >>>> Pd. > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Al Sutton wrote: > >>>> > http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2009/04/11/android-hall-of-shame/ > >>>> > > >>>> > Not a happy user, any ideas on what would cause this and how > >>>> > to fix > >>>> it? > >>>> > > >>>> > Al. > >>>> > > >>>> > --- > >>>> > > >>>> > * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ > >>>> > * > >>>> > > >>>> > ====== > >>>> > Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > >>>> > company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp > >>>> > House, 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. > >>>> > > >>>> > The views expressed in this email are those of the author and > >>>> > not necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's > >>>> > associates, or it's subsidiaries. > >>>> > > >>>> > > >>>> > > >>>> > > > >>>> > > >>>> > > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >>> > >> >> > >> > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
