About Android devices and all the hype

A response to a brother's query on the hype of Android devices

I'm more of an Android purist than an evangelist for any of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) who, in a bid to distinguish themselves from the competition, consider it necessary to, not only alter the beautiful vanilla stock User Interface, but to plough a sizeable portion of their investment capital into Research and Development that introduces several other functionalities into the device, especially flagship devices, thereby outpricing these devices by way too much.

The truth is that some of these functionalities are actually necessary and some wonder why they were not included in Android by default and some other functionalities improve upon what is available by default. The crux of this argument lies in the inclusion of functionalities that the majority (non-geeky, non-research-minded) clientele who would buy these units, without doing an ounce of the detailed background reading you've done,  may never use but which seem to add to the overall cost of production, and by extension, final costing of the device. This is not actually all that ingenious. It is a money-spinner for Samsung, and sounds appealing in the beautiful ads specifically created to, to borrow your term, 'hype' these bells and whistles.

Make no mistake, a geeky few actually buy these devices for these very add-ons but they are the happy minority.

To boot, there are always user complains. These are those for whom it is said, you cannot satisfy everyone. The fact is the internet is a reservoir for every need. Need I seek to drown myself in complaints about every Apple products from the days when good ol' Stevie Jobs returned to the company he cofounded to raise it up from its ashes, I'd find. Need I desire to find how much Samsung copied the 'dress sense' of the iPhone to gain it's dominating role today in the business of smart devices, it's there. Are there more complaints about Android products than Apple's? Sure thing! Are there more complaints about Apple devices than Android's? Oh, yes sire! I could go on, but you get the idea?

However, when respected blogs and tech enthusiasts crown the S4 the smartphone king of 2013, it's safe to assume they know their gizmos and can judge in favour of what the standards are and what the practicality, in real life usage, outputs for each device given the various criteria they applied to reach their decisions. Their views ought to be respected however as their views.

In the end, it's up to the buyer. What are your preferences viz a viz the cash in your pocket. How can your mobile computing needs be best served with some change left to put food on your table? Or even to allow you some money for data bundles, which still don't come cheaper today than before. I have discovered, personally, that Android suits me. Not just any Android but Nexus Android. It's cheaper, heavily subsidised by El Google, works like a champ, has a specs sheet like any other flagship, gets the latest and greatest updates the fastest and is downright securely locked down (not all will agree, but I don't run an antivirus on my device today).

Knowing the questions people ask me often about tech and devices and seeing that it mirrors my inquisitiveness as well, I often believe that many will not tarry to join in my preference should the knowledge I have be shared with them. That's why I share Android-related news often and Nexus ones too, every once in a while. Motorola, now a Google company, is treading this path too - offering nicely spec'd devices, with stock Android and therefore are getting updates faster to their devices (even beating the Nexus 4 to getting 4.4.2 on the Moto X). That's just brilliant.

For me, OEMs can improve Android if they must, but devices should be affordable and updates should be timely. However, do your best to be the manufacturer of the best device on the best mobile platform that offers choice, adaptability, freedom and security.

Peeking ahead... BLEAK

Often, the thought of a better tomorrow provides the spur to keep one going through hardships and turbulence. The knowledge that a time is coming when all these will end and will be consigned to the past, only a memory to be visited sometimes, makes you resolved to go on. Such thoughts evoke a determination to stay the course, keep going, until the certainty of victory causes a cessation of the 'aluta'.

In the case of Nigeria, however, the situation is different. Where is the better tomorrow to look forward to going to come from? Is it from Benin Republic, that's even now gaining from the brain drain that is education in Nigeria? When will all these end? When will that time come? 2015 has already been compromised in our very before.

Where's the determination to stay the course? Where, the guts to keep going? The die is cast, there shall be no victory to assert for the common folks, for those without linkages (nay, 'connections') to the common till, for those with no one with a hand on the National Cake. Nothing to lighten the burden because when you look ahead, the bleakness stares right back at you, unblinking. Dark. Foreboding.

Look around. The dramatis personae are already spoiling for a fight. The consternation of political stars are already aligning for the epic showdown. The personages are not secret. Look closely at them all? Where's the Messiah among them? Yes, we shake our heads collectively with the stark realisation. There is no such person. We shall be the collateral damage when this fight is done and dusted. Or children, the bloody drumsticks for the battle soundtrack.

The Messiah has probably not been born because among these self-serving individuals, we see none to bank on, none on whom we can depend for the salvation of what could have been Africa's proudest nation and the jewel of the Black Race. They have made it clear: their first and final interest is selfish. And in doing so, they have successfully raised a nation of selfish people. Absolutely ingenious.

What this implies is that even the next generation that may succeed them, if they allow (since most of them have been around for as long as the memory stretches) will not be any different, worse maybe. The quest for the materialistic at any cost is behind all the crimes reported in the dailies perpetrated by the youths. They want riches, not by hard and sustained effort, but RIGHT NOW. So, even tomorrow is not guaranteed. Nothing, at present or in future, is there to lighten the pain of today's hardship. Nothing. Colour me obstinate but don't even get me started about praying.

Pessimism? Realism? Desolate-ism? Call it what you want. The stark truth is clear. The aluta will CONTINUA unabated for a long, long time to come. UNLESS...

For the love of noisemaking (aka music)

My grouse with contemporary poplar music: if it's not too noisy and utterly meaningless, it fails in market. It seems the buyers silently pass a message to the artistes viz: wanna gain commercially? Join the bandwagon of meaningless musicians.

In the end, what they sell is really the beat, rhythm and tempo of the accompanying music which, for the most part, is also a coterie of noise. They have successfully redefined what music is. It used to be an organised sound pleasing to the ears (elementary school definition in which class Handel's Messiah fits) to something else not immediately susceptible to actual musical description.

Buyers and listeners play their role in this turnaround to perfection. They patronise them because it's "trendy" to do so, it's what's in vogue. They thus starve those who attempt to make some sense in their lyrics and musical content so much that these latter artistes are left with no choice but to attempt to "belong" to the list of noisemakers or quit the scene for something else commercially rewarding.