Phone companies will cannibalize the Mobile OS

You see it every day and you just don't realize it. That person using their fancy new smart phone hacked it/has a paid app that they downloaded/has at least 10 MP3s that they don't "own" on it. The phone company doesn't want you to have any of that and they WILL stop you.

No matter how many times technology changes for the better or how awesome it is for the world, no one is going to be happy... especially the guys who are looking to making money off of it. I am currently a perfect example of this.

I have an HTC Incredible. Verizon calls it the DROID Incredible by HTC. It's a great phone and I love it to death, but getting the latest version of the Android software has been quite a pain. The Motorola Droid managed to get it before Incredible owners, which is a huge letdown by itself. I, however, don't really care. The official update is out and circulating to phones, but it doesn't matter to me. Not that 2.2 isn't important or a great update, but I've already got it.

Yep, I have it before it even came out. I've had it in several different flavors. Right now I have it in a flavor that seems to work better and have less bugs than those with the OFFICIAL update. Go figure. I have a phone that is "rooted" (Jailbroken to anyone with an iPhag...err iPhone) and I've already had this update for quite some time. The official version doesn't seem to really offer much more. But it should.

Soon we will start seeing phone companies take the Mobile OS technology and consume it. Verizon might end up with Android while AT&T ends up with iOS and T-Mobile gets Windows Mobile. Fuck Sprint, they might as well go out of business for all I care, lying pieces of shit. This may not be how it all boils down, but it will go that direction soon enough.

Why? Because of money. If people can so easily hack, change or manipulate this stuff then someone, somewhere isn't getting their money. Jailbreaking your phone could result in an automatic brick if Apple catches you soon enough. Verizon and Sprint have been slowly narrowing your ability to root and modify your phone on their latest Android devices. In the next few years we will see the Mobile OS become a huge market and you can bet that the phone companies are going to cash in on it.

Until they do I plan on having plenty of fun with my uber powerful smartphone and it's open source OS. Hopefully by the time they do that we will all be on a network similar to what they have in Europe. Pick your phone, pick your carrier. We will just have an extra step with "Pick your OS".

Smartphone vs. Battery Life

My brother got a new TP2 in April. He got a Nexus One last week, after having phone envy when he saw my Incredible, nah just kidding, he just loves Android (don't we all?). His TP2 is GSM and I'm not sure if they use the same batteries, not sure why it wouldn't, but we will see. I plan to pick up the battery from him this week and see if it works. Maybe we can trade or he will let me hang onto it until Verizon release their 2150mAh Extended battery and back.

Here is to hoping it all goes well. =)

Edit/update:

I just picked up the battery from my brother and tossed it into the phone. It's been in for maybe 90 minutes, charged it back up to full and have it plugged into my PC while I transfer a few things to it. Will pull it off and give it some lovin'. Hoping just to pull a couple extra hours with it. Will update when I've had a bit of time with it.

edit/update 2:

have spent some time with the new battery. didnt use the phone as much as normal, between cooking dinner diagnosing and repairing a pc and fragging it out in tf2, i just didnt fool with it like normal.

my stats so far are.....10:48:27 up, 4:38:12 awake. cell standby 41%, phone idle 36%, android system 18%, display 5%. osmonitor and system app both say 73%. i did not do the turn off and keep charging method (you know what im talking about), gonna try it tomorrow. it really did do bettet than i expected. i will report back tomorrow after a nice big charge on this battery.

(I typed this on my phone, while laying in bed... it sucked)

Edit/update 3:

The day didn't go as I had planned, phone got left at home and didn't come off of the charger until about 8PM, it's 3AM now. Uptime of 32:10:39, Awake time of 17:04:13. Plan to actually turn the phone off and give it a good solid charger tomorrow. Battery is reporting 57% charge today after fairly heavy usage coming off the charger. Lots of time on WiFi, as well.

My regular battery would probably be in need of a charge by now. I am pretty pleased with these unscientific "tests" I've run. Basically, I just use the phone like normal and I have seen an improvement in how long the charge lasts. I will check back in with more news tomorrow, after it gets a good charge on the charger with the phone powered off.

Edit/update 4:

Up time 8:55:49 - Awake time 3:27:45 - Battery 62%

Usage

31% - Maps

24% - Cell standby

22% - Phone idle

10% - Android System

7% - Voice calls

4% - Display

2% - Dialer

I didn't do as much gaming today as normal, very light usage throughout the day (for me). I'd say that makes me "moderate". I used Google Maps, as you can see, I think that makes up for my light use of my games. I made some phone calls, fielded and sent out the normal amount of texts. I even showed off some of the coolness of the phone to someone today. Random loading of internet pages to show how fast the browser was and some of the random/neat apps like Sky Map and Google Goggles.

I can assure you that my 1300mAh battery would be dead just from this usage. It would have had to sit on the charger at my desk all day or it would be in need of a charge.

I am no scientist, but based on my usage patterns I can say that the 1500mAh battery is far superior. This makes me wonder if the 1500mAh is less awesome and the 1300mAh might just suck. The 2150 is getting reports of in stock, or soon to be in stock. That's good. This will hold me over until I finally pick up a 2150. I look forward to the battery life that the 2150mAh will net me, especially after the results with the 1500mAh.

So... come the hell on Verizon. I'm dying for a battery here. GIMME! This smartphone is painfully weak and limited with such a short battery life. Gimme the juice!