The world is ready for the Nexus One Car Dock, we’re just waiting for Android to catch up.
The Android community has been ready for the Nexus One Car Dock for some time and waited patiently for the Dock to arrive but is the Android operating system ready for the Car Dock? I think the simple answer is NO!
I’ve been using my Car Dock for a few days and there are a things that I’m starting to dislike. My dislikes are not with the Car Dock itself, instead they are with the way the Nexus One and the Android OS handles tasks when docked. My concerns are with the safety of how Android forces you to interact with the device when it’s supposed to be hand-free.
Why, when I dial someone with my Nexus One locked in the Car Dock in a landscaped orientation does the contact list still come up sideways? It’s very disorienting to try and scroll through your contact list sideways and potentially dangerous due to it’s distraction. Voice dial is the answer and in most cases work nicely but for those tricky names that never seem to get accepted by Android the choice is to manually find them.
What’s wrong with this picture? ( apart from the blanked out names )
Yes, it’s sideways!
Let’s say you do successfully get your contacts dialed using the voice dialer. What happens once your call is finished? Your phone returns to the “call logâ€, sideways, and not back to the Car Home screen. More user interaction required.
With more and more states imposing laws about cell phone usage, hands free operation should be on the top of the Google’s list of priorities.
I don’t understand why we can all install updated ROM’s from the Android community that offer many of the features missing. Screen rotation it appears is simple to hobbyists out there but eludes Google’s vast team of Android developers.
Why if my device goes to sleep when it’s in the dock can’t the touch functionality of the screen stay alive so a simple touch to the screen will wake your phone, instead I have reach around the side of my phone, press the power button and the swipe across my phones lock screen before I can do anything.
These are just a couple of what I consider the major flaws the need to be addressed by Google, but there are many more on the wish list that would help with your hands-free safety. What about an option to read out your text messages or emails when they arrive. Text-to-Voice is already in the phone, let’s use it.
I’ve had the conversation with many people about Android being open and if you don’t like what it does you can usually find an application in the market to change it. My point has always been that I some of this functionality should be in the base OS that comes with the phone, especially when it concerns the safety of it’s users.
