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Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

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Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#251
This stuff is blowing my mind.

On every single spec, Nexus exceeds the iDevice equivalent. The Nexus 4 has two NFC radios, a higher res screen, is thinner and lighter and is less than half of the price of the iPhone 5. (edit: That's unfair, I forget about LTE, though I understand why Google skipped that)

Similar things hold for the Nexus 10.

Am I the only one really surprised?

(This is of course not to mention the numerous new Android 4.2 features that everyone except the Verge has ignored)

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#252
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of app do you find yourself wishing for? The apps I use the most are the default apps, i.e. Calendar, Mail, Chrome, Reader (google version) and Google+/Facebook/Twitter.

A high quality simple sketching app like Paper by 53 on the iPad.

I've done a lot of research into this category on android, and there are a couple of good ones.

For real drawing, Adobe Photoshop Touch https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.adobe.... Autodesk Sketchbook Pro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adsk.sketc...

For simple and very responsive line drawing, Quill https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.write.Quil...

If your use case is more diagrammatic, try Skitch https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote.s...

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#253

The screen for 10.1" model is great: 2560x1600 (300ppi) - iPad (3 and 4) are 2048x1536 (264ppi). Which means it has 30% more pixels (409600 vs. 3145728).

I can't see pixels on my 1920 x 1200 Transformer Infinity, but I can't help but think more pixels is a good thing. Maybe we can finally get some 2560 x 1600 desktop monitors at reasonable prices around 20 - 22".

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree with that. I switched from an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 to a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, in part because of a new job as an Android developer and in part because I just couldn't put up with the OS anymore. I absolutely hate Objective-C and Xcode, but even I have to admit that the Android SDK is kind of crap. Even in Eclipse its integration isn't very good (though I use IntelliJ as my IDE, which is finally catc…

It's been a while since I jumped into Android dev, so I'm curious if you could elaborate more on the things you are finding annoying and/or confusing. Also, are there things about Android development that you like more than iOS development?

I never did iOS development in anger; I just really, really don't like Obj-C or Xcode from dealing with OS X programming. A few things that come to mind off the top of my head:

-Again, the documentation isn't well-written. It almost all feels like it's written either by an engineer with little writing experience or a technical writer without engineering experience. There have been times when I've had to re-read passages over and over again because I genuinely couldn't parse what they were trying to say.

-The insistence on weak typing everywhere is insane. Intents are sloppy, weakly-typed junk; Messages ditto. The R auto-generated class isn't bright either--even if you need an integer index, at least wrap it in a type-safe class to eliminate the possibility of passing the wrong thing around. I really do genuinely like working in Java, but I like working in well-designed Java. This is the same company that made Guava, which is perhaps the most elegantly designed API I know of in Java-land. But many of Android's APIs treat classes as an incidental hindrance.

-Dalvik blows. There is nothing good about it and there's so much that's bad about it. The class limit is crippling, and the lack of hot-loading is prohibitive. (I write games in my spare time, I'd love to be able to use Groovy as a scripting layer, but that's not going to happen.)

-This might sound crazy, but XML is a machine-readable format. People know that, right? Okay, great. So why are the tools for building layouts so much junk?

Not on this list is fragmentation, because I don't find that to be a real problem for my purposes. My app for work is 4.0+ only, and I test on a Galaxy Nexus; if it works there it'll work on a SIII or an Atrix HD or whatever else somebody wants to try. (We're outsourcing wide device testing to uTest, but our app isn't done so I haven't had the opportunity to try their services.)

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#256

The idea of owning a tablet by Google creeps me out to no end. I just can't picture myself using this without the lingering feeling of having Big Brother tracking me, watching me, keeping tabs on what sites I visit and what content I post online.

The Nexus devices all have unlocked bootloaders, go get Cyanogenmod if you are concerned.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#257
post #114
post #37

I've been very happy with Galaxy Nexus so far. The specs on the Nexus 4 look impressive. Anyone going to upgrade their Galaxy Nexus for the 4?

I've been waiting for a smaller nexus to hit the stands before I buy my first Android phone but it looks like that won't happen so I may just get the Nexus 4, once it becomes available in New Zealand. I just wonder for how much.

I'm not sure about NZ, but my guess for EU is around $450.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#258
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 (I'll leave my rant about 16:10 vs. 16:9 for another time). Technology is so ridiculous at times.

> Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Because Windows and Windows apps don't support resolution-independent UI scaling. > Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 Because they know they can rip you off, and because it's a lot more expensive to produce high resolution dis…

> Because Windows and Windows apps don't support resolution-independent UI scaling.

If I'm not mistaken the new, formerly known as "Metro", UI is vector based and any applications built with the WPF which includes all Windows 8 GUI based applications (at least the non-html one's) are of course vector based so it's simply up to the designer/developer to scale it however they want.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#259
Quite frankly, I haven't seen these mentioned anywhere except in a very long Verge video so I'm making a list of Android 4.2 features:

- Google Now will now automatically detect packages you are going to receive and will notify you of their progress. You can now dictate calendar events (also, in 4.1 they added the ability to say "navigate home").

- You can take 360 degree panoramas

- Quick Settings & Multi-user accounts

- You can swipe the lock screen to reveal informational widgets. (quickly check your calendar, etc)

- Swype functionality built into the keyboard. (Even cooler than Swype though because of where it shows the word and the suggestions)

I've also yet to see anyone mention that the Nexus 4 rests in a capacitive, magnetic dock.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#260
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 (I'll leave my rant about 16:10 vs. 16:9 for another time). Technology is so ridiculous at times.

> Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Because Windows and Windows apps don't support resolution-independent UI scaling. > Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 Because they know they can rip you off, and because it's a lot more expensive to produce high resolution dis…

> Because Windows and Windows apps don't support resolution-independent UI scaling.

This is not true. Windows has had very good support for custom resolutions since Vista. Windows 7 actually looks great when set to higher resolution. Windows applications is another story, but the number of DPI aware applications is growing http://www.rw-designer.com/DPI-aware

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