“Instructions for Installing Themes on Your Android

1. Rename the theme to update.zip

• Themes usually come in .zip format with a title. It is important to change file name to update.zip. You will need to right click file, and then right click again to rename.
• If you have multiple themes that you want to download, just download them to a separate folder and remember to follow the instructions and download them to the SD card and then rename with update.zip.

2. To the root of your SD card, copy update.zip.

• You need to copy update.zip to the root of your SD card and not to a folder but directly on the letter drive.

3. Reboot the phone in recovery mode…”

It goes on for another thousand words and seven or so more steps.

If you have to tell your users to rename, unpack, reboot…IN RECOVERY MODE, then we’re a little too close to Windows ’95. These days I expect my computers to do all that geekery for me. If they can’t then their UI is just not quite up to par.

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Wow. When Goliath finally decides to step up and kill David you expect some fireworks. I mean Motorola isn’t exactly new at cell phones. They practically invented the Bat phone and those huge things that Crocket and Tubbs lugged around on ‘Vice. So when Google and Verizon and Motorola teamed up for the wireless Malachi Crunch I expected something really cool. Unfortunately the first go round with it suggests that it kinda sucks.

I remember my two year-old son was able to operate my iPhone and unlock it on his own. He was quickly navigating through the interface without any help. I was able to make the iPhone work without resorting to a manual. I was annoyed by the touch screen typing but I got used to it in a few weeks. Already I’m jonesing for my touch screen QWERTY. The Droid is confusing and awkward and lacks, well, UI. As the CTO at my company often says, “soft is hard”. And boy the User Interface just plain stumps someone with my room temperature IQ.

The hardware is okay. The flash on the camera is nice and the speaker is better. There’s a nice use of vibration/haptics in the interface that  I like. And it’s got a nice heft to it so when I finally get annoyed enough it’ll go clear through the window as opposed to bouncing off as the iPhone might.

I will say it’s better. The iPhone has forced the rest of the world to raise the level of their game. But all you Verizonites who can’t seem to understand that it’s only about $100 to break your contract will be happier on the Droid than on the DOS like Blackberry. But it’s no iPhone. The droid is the Corvette of phones…which is nice if you’re into that kind of thing.

The game isn’t over.

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