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Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

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Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#141

Post by ConstantineXVI »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #71
MartinCron wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but the soft volume controls aren't uniformly available. When you're watching a movie in Netflix, you have to stop the playback to adjust volume, but you can't hear the volume until you start playback again. Just painful. Note: this experience may have been fixed, I haven't used my kindle fire for watching movies in months, for obvious reasons.

Its been fixed upstream by Netflix.... but why didn't you just change the firmware on your Fire to ICS like I did? Standardized soft vol avail everywhere.

Because not everyone wants to make up for Amazon's [or any other OEM] R&D failures by wasting hours of their time wiping out their software?

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#142

Post by jonny_eh »

gte910h wrote: post #98
btipling wrote: post #5

It ships with Jellybean... I've been waiting for the Samsung 10 inch tablet with the stylus, but it's already out of date and hasn't even shipped yet. I don't want a 7inch tablet and it is going to be years by the time a Jelly Bean 10 inch tablet comes out and by that time there will already be a new version of the OS! I already have a Fire and I can't read magazines on it, it's too small. I'm just going to give up a…

While I'm all over you getting an iPad (I'm primarily an iOS dev), the Nexus line of phones, other than the G1, have shown markedly more updatability than the run of the mill random crapware phones you get for free by doing X or Y. Perhaps you'll get a few years of updates out of it?

The OP wants a 10" tablet, which Google's not making. He's saying that if he buys a Samsung produced Jelly Bean 10" tablet, it won't be future proof.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#143

Post by pyoung »

zobzu wrote: post #51
btipling wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tablets are expensive. I cannot afford to buy a tablet every year. So I want a tablet that is future proof. The 10 inch tablets that others will release this year will have an outdated operating system on them and will still cost many hundreds of dollars. I do not want to spend hundreds of dollars on an outdated operating system. I love Android, but this terrible to the extreme.

If you had gotten the galaxy 7 (the new one) you'd still be fine. But none can predict what's future proof, mainly because it's what companies make their money off. They NEED you to buy a new tablet, phone, etc, every year. They'd make car breaks and need complete replacement every year if they could as well. So, while it can happen that a product is "future proof" for a couple of years instead of one, it's rare. Hec…

I understand your point, but I am not sure I agree. The initial demise of the American automobile manufacturers was partly due to the unreliability of their products.

Regarding tablets, I would think that locking people into a particular app ecosystem would be a higher priority than achieving a high tablet turnover rate. Seems like the money is in the apps, not the hardware.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#144

Post by exhilaration »

nsns wrote: post #123

Am I missing something? Why is this made by Asus and not Motorola Mobility?

Motorola Mobility will never build a Nexus device. The other Android manufacturers (particularly Samsung) need to be reassured that Google will not simply lock them out of Android's future by leveraging its own hardware division.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#145

Post by AncientPC »

scubaguy wrote: post #65
keltex wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Even Kindle Fire's sales are slowing" You have any evidence to back this up? Seems like just the opposite is happening: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/26/kindle-fire/

The article says "According to a recent report from Pacific Crest Securities, a Portland, Oregon-based investment bank, orders for components used in Amazon's standard e-readers have fallen 75% from the bank's previous expectations."

  - Kindle Fire: Android Tablet
  - Kindle Everything Else: E-reader
> But while Kindle sales may be falling, demand for the Kindle Fire is climbing, with requests for components up nearly 60%.

The article is about how Kindle Fire may be cannibalizing sales from the e-readers.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#147

Post by programminggeek »

Android's UI as a "media consumption" device is terrible compared to what Kindle Fire and Nook have done. The average user (say your parents), aren't going to go to the Google Play Store (which is a terrible non-obvious) name to buy books, movies, apps, etc. unless you explain to them that you have to use the Play app to download content.

Kindle Fire nailed the obviousness of this with the top bar being labeled with Movies, Music, Apps, Books, Web.

Nexus 7's home screen widget is a poor attempt and trying to shoehorn media discoverability into an OS that isn't built for media consumption, it's built for phones primarily.

You could make the same arguement for iOS, but iTunes has already trained users that you go to iTunes to get content or you go to the obviously named App Store.

Make it easy, make it obvious. Nexus 7 is a small step in the right direction, but it needs work.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#148

Post by AncientPC »

frazerb wrote: post #137

I struggle here with Google's business model, and the impact their efforts have on other Android tablet vendors. At this price point the profit (if there is any to speak of) must be wafer-thin. But Google can handle such wafer-thin margins because the secondary markets that this tablet secures for them. No other Android tablet vendor can enjoy the same control over the underlying OS, the same footprint in terms of Ap…

The PC hardware industry profits are already razor thin, while the laptop industry is marginally better. This doesn't mean an ecosystem can't exist.

Amazon retail / grocery stores are another example of an industry that survives off volume to make up for razor thin profit margins.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#150

Post by mkaltenecker »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #120
mkaltenecker wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hihi, you are funny. You view of the companies clearly colors your view. It’s not really clear that either company plans or does not plan the obsolescence of their devices. The end result, however, is that iOS devices become obsolete much more slowly than Android devices. What do I care about the reading of tea leaves as to whether some company plans something or not?

Apple owns the entire ecosystem, they can't claim anything they do to it is unplanned. Google merely owns the OS and a few devices, they can't control what samsung and htc and everyone else decides to do or not do.

“Planned obsolescence” implies that a device is made obsolete to force people to buy newer devices as opposed to other reasons. Just because a device becomes obsolete doesn’t mean it’s “planned obsolescence”, even with total control over the whole ecosystem. That’s at least how “planned obsolescence” is commonly used and defined. “Planned obsolescence” as a term implies a reason (forcing people to buy newer devices), so not all forms of planned obsolescence (not as a term, notice the lack of quotation marks) are really “planned obsolescence” (as the term implying the reason).

Since we can’t read minds it’s definitely akin to reading tea leaves when you want to find out whether “planned obsolescence” plays any role for Apple.

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