Five things I hate about Android

Android is my mobile operating system of choice. While I am unhappy with the new KitKat name for 4.4, I still generally enjoy the OS very much. I like that Android uses the Linux Kernel and is more open than iOS.

However, there are five aspects of the operating system that I simply hate or find unnecessary. Read on for my choices, which like all good lists, are presented in reverse order...

5. Widgets

I've never understood the allure of widgets. They drain the battery and for the most part, are useless. Take for instance a weather widget. Why do you need the weather on your home screen all the time? A simple swipe can launch Google Now and display the weather. Also, why would anyone need to have a clock widget? The notification bar displays the time already. Widgets end up being nothing more than battery vampires with no function.

4. Multiple Home Screens

This drives me nuts. No one needs more than one home screen. The purpose of the home screen is to list your most used apps. The rest of your apps should be accessed from the app drawer. If you can't fit your most important apps on one home screen, you are doing it wrong.

3. Holo Theme

I hate dark interfaces. The world is a dark and depressing enough place -- we do not need a UI that furthers this. For some reason, Google seems adverse to using colors other than black and blue. Why can't the UI have all the colors in the rainbow and make the user feel good? iOS 7 is a perfect example of this. Just looking at the iOS 7 screen makes me happy. Stock Android makes me want to wear black and listen to The Cure.

2. Too Many Devices

The Android market is over-saturated. There used to be clear-cut top-of-the-line devices that power users could buy. Now, we have Nexus devices, Google Play Editions, the Moto X -- which is the flagship device? Not to mention, the moment you buy the device, a new one is already around the corner. It feels like the PC market in the 90s, which coincidentally is fizzling-out today since people are upgrading less-often. The smartphone market may see the same fate as devices become more powerful than they need to be and end up lasting longer.

1. Fragmentation

Unfortunately, fragmentation is a real problem. For the most part, popular Android apps will run on Gingerbread and above. However, Google is losing control of the overall user experience by leaving so many devices stranded without an update. Going forward, Google needs to take a page from Apple's handbook and enable a way to have all new devices get upgrades simultaneously. Call it naiveté, but if Apple can manage to release devices without carrier bloat with timely upgrades, why can't Google? After all, isn't Google the market leader now?

Those are my pet hates. Agree or disagree with them? Leave your comments below.

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