this is my main problem with android as well (current nexus one owner, former iphone owner): that unfortunately a lot of the core applications can't be separated from google services. the early releases of android on the g1 and mytouch 3g couldn't even be used past the welcome screen without forcing you to sign up for a google account.
currently there is no way to create and store local calendars or contacts. everything must be tied to an account, which currently limits you to a google account or an activesync/exchange account. i setup z-push (http://z-push.sourceforge.net/) on my server to act as an activesync server so i could at least sync my contacts to my own machine, but it doesn't yet support calendars. of course the built-in calendar app has no support for ical or anything standard, and expects you to do that all from google calendar's web interface and then sync that to your phone.
i just updated the "listen" application on my nexus one, which is a google-built application for downloading and listening to podcasts. with the new version released yesterday, it now forces you to store your subscriptions in google reader instead of just on the phone itself.
i'm sure there are many that have no problem trusting google with all of their data, relying completely on them for email, chatting, searching, reading rss feeds, and making phone calls through google voice, and so all of this automatic syncing with google is neat and useful. but there are those of us that would like to use alternatives or just prefer to keep everything on the phone itself.
as bad as apple is with their strict control over the iphone and its applications, at least they don't force users to use their .mac service. calendars, contacts, and every other application can be used without giving apple control over all of your data.
but there are those of us that would like to use alternatives or just prefer to keep everything on the phone itself.
So use alternatives. Searching Android Market for "calendar" and "podcast" comes back with lots of results. Unlike Apple, Google won't reject submitted apps for "duplicating functionality".
and if you actually looked at all of those calendar applications, you'd see that none of them are actually new calendar systems. they're all widgets and things that just display the data in the calendars already on the phone. even if they created a new system calendar, it still has to sync to an account, which i already stated is limited to a google or exchange account.
otherwise, it would be creating a calendar that only that application can manipulate, which would not work with all of those other widgets and things that tie into the phone's data.
currently there is no way to create and store local calendars or contacts. everything must be tied to an account, which currently limits you to a google account or an activesync/exchange account. i setup z-push (http://z-push.sourceforge.net/) on my server to act as an activesync server so i could at least sync my contacts to my own machine, but it doesn't yet support calendars. of course the built-in calendar app has no support for ical or anything standard, and expects you to do that all from google calendar's web interface and then sync that to your phone.
i just updated the "listen" application on my nexus one, which is a google-built application for downloading and listening to podcasts. with the new version released yesterday, it now forces you to store your subscriptions in google reader instead of just on the phone itself.
i'm sure there are many that have no problem trusting google with all of their data, relying completely on them for email, chatting, searching, reading rss feeds, and making phone calls through google voice, and so all of this automatic syncing with google is neat and useful. but there are those of us that would like to use alternatives or just prefer to keep everything on the phone itself.
as bad as apple is with their strict control over the iphone and its applications, at least they don't force users to use their .mac service. calendars, contacts, and every other application can be used without giving apple control over all of your data.