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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

#381

Post by luke_s »

eropple wrote: post #345
luke_s wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many of your points are valid. In any large SDK there will be rough edges, and you have pointed out several of them. However I would like to post a contrary opinion, just because I know that many people who have never done Android development will read this and think 'yup, android development blows'. I've been working with the Android SDK for a few years now, and I haven't found any of the things you mentione…

Typically your strings are a R.strings, colours are at R.colours, etc so it makes it pretty easy to spot if you are passing a string through where you should be passing a colour. Here's the problem. Say you need to pass around a specific resource (reusable code somewhere in your app): void doSomething(int stringResourceId) ^ THIS IS WRONG The problem is that the R bullshit essentially decontextualizes what that actua…

Well, we should aim to do better than 'good enough'. There are some bits of android that absolutely rock:

* I really like that the OS can handle so much of the scaling and resizing for you as you move from a 3 inch phone all the way up to 10 inch tablets

* I think google is to be commended for building an eco-system that involves so many different hardware devices, manufacturers, etc

* The latest look and feel in 4.1 and 4.2 is turning out really well. A well designed android app looks great [1][2]

* The intents system and the way you can link together different apps is very innovative. I wish iOS would copy it!

* Android is evolving at a really rapid pace.

There are some bits that are 'good enough'. You mentioned many of them. They get the job done, but are not necessarily the best way of doing things, or they need plenty more polish. I would add one thing to your list: performance. Project butter still has helped, but android still feels nowhere near as performant as the apple devices.

Finally there are some bits with just plain suck. Google HAS to do something about the upgrade story on existing devices. They can add features and optimise existing code until they are blue in the face, but it isn't going to do them one iota of good if 95% of the devices out there will never see the updates!

[1] - Checkout Instapaper and mint here. IMHO they look really good: http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/spotlight...

[2] - http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/

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

#382

Post by tadfisher »

notatoad wrote: post #194
bitcartel wrote: post #27

It won't be long before the usual suspects start claiming - screen resolution isn't important - multi-user accounts are overly complex - low prices mean the devices are cheap and nasty

In fairness to the usual suspects, their reviews of the nexus 7 were all pretty fair (and for the most part, favourable).

It didn't stop Gruber from complaining about the lack of cell data (which, thankfully, will be fixed when the $300 Nexus 7 flavor comes out).

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

#383

Post by adhipg »

hkmurakami wrote: post #276
stanleydrew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an Android 4.2 feature so I'm sure it's also on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4. But those devices are smaller and less likely to be shared so they are not playing multi-user up in those marketing materials I suspect.

I believe the recent Nexus 7 update was 4.1.2 and not 4.2, so this feature is (unfortunately) still missing for Nexus 7, as others have affirmed.

4.2 is officially due on November 13. We shouldn't really be expecting it before that.

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

#384

Post by seunosewa »

astrodust wrote: post #298
saturdaysaint wrote: post #236

I've been a happy iPhone customer since the first model, but I think a good low-price competitor is going to be a real challenge for Apple - an affordable and desirable unlocked phone strikes me as a big breakthrough. Whether Google is going to make a push to spell out the saving to contract-happy U.S. (and risk alienating carriers and competing handset makers) is the real question.

Apple's not in any significant danger yet. The margin built into their products is usually high, so should push come to shove, they can always cut that. Normally demand is high enough that even at the premium price the product is sold out until it's replaced by a more sophisticated model and the "old" product can be manufactured more cheaply. Other vendors should be thankful that Apple doesn't sell things at cost. Th…

They are not in danger of outright failure, but they are in danger of significantly reduced earnings and stock price, which is always a big deal for a publicly traded corporation.

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

#385

Post by RShiki »

_djo_ wrote: post #380
RShiki wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entry level, 16gb iPhone has a profit margin that is bigger than average, but not huge. The 64gb iPhone on the other hand.. it's like printing money. The markup doesn't even begin to compare to what the bigger storage actually cost to Apple. Apple makes a LOOOOT of money out of the customers who have bigger needs than average. That's been Apple's strategy forever, people who want more have to pay a lot more than…

I remember how ridiculous Apple's RAM prices used to be and you're right about their pricing strategy on iPhone storage representing a large markup. As I said, Apple's margins are high for a consumer electronics company, partly because they're able to employ those pricing tiers. The point of my post wasn't to defend Apple, it was to show that comparing the selling price and bill of materials figures to highlight prof…

Point taken, and I'm not really hating on Apple either so I don't really think of you as "defending" them, I'm just stating my thoughts about their strategy.

Apple completely changed the way I look at mobile devices. My first smartphone and tablet were the iPhone and iPad. I just wish they'd be more reasonable on some points, but they're obviously too successful to change their strategy unless a strong competitor shows up (and I hope that Google's strategy with the Nexus pays off).

I also am part of those who switched to Android but think that Apple had some reasonable arguments against Samsung that made them go wild against them. When you go as far as to make the charger look like an Apple charger you know there's something wrong going on. Samsung clearly tried to ride on the popularity of Apple products by making it look as much as possible as the iPhone and iPad, be it in the packaging, included accessories, look, early TouchWiz releases... there's a reason why TouchWiz on the S3 isn't like TouchWiz on the first Galaxy phones.. The customization on early Samsung android devices went too far toward Apple's direction. Even the "hardware" buttons, making the home button prominent and the other two android buttons more invisible in the design, and still keeping the home button as fully hardware on the S3 rather than going onscreen or capacitive like the other android OEMs.

Apple makes great products, but I feel like they're trying too much to milk us as much as they can.

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

#386

Post by adhipg »

dazbradbury wrote: post #205
klausa wrote: post #3

Flagship Android device, unlocked, without contract, for $299. Impressive. From the marketing video it looks like Android 4.2 gained Swype-like keyboard. It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10 (i.e. it has status bar on top, navigation buttons are in the middle of the screen). That's weird, and I definitely don't like it, but it might not be that big of a problem.

Unfortunately they are selling it for £239 in the UK, which is more like $380 - Still an absolute steal for a headline retail price, but not quite the incredible £185 I thought it would be initially. So for now, having paid only slightly more for my sim-free S3 months ago, it's not that good a deal. Still patiently waiting for a nexus with a hardware keyboard like the good old days...

> paid only slightly more

I see SIM free S3's selling for around the £500 mark. How much is the slightly more?

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

#387

Post by hugoc »

vlasta2 wrote: post #260
w1ntermute wrote: post #221

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? 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

Windows seems to have to have the support, but is not widely used http://techreport.com/review/23631/how-windows-8-scaling-fai...

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

#388

Post by theintern »

Derbasti wrote: post #170
stcredzero wrote: post #86

With regards to tablets, one of the next major battlegrounds is going to be in the enterprise, with Apple, Google, and Microsoft duke-ing it out. From that perspective, Surface makes a whole lot more sense. If they can perfect Surface, they will be in a fierce position to defend their enterprise territory. With regards to the emerging enterprise tablet market, Google is playing serious catch-up. If Microsoft can come…

I sincerely hope that with regards to tablets, the next major battleground will be the desktop. I want a tablet that acts as a tablet on the go, but plugs into my mouse/keyboard/monitor at home and just replaces my desktop. Performance is not quite there yet, but it's getting close. OSes are not quite there yet, but progress is being made there, too. I think it is only a matter of time and it might get there faster t…

The Lenovo Yoga seems pretty incredible, much more expensive though. http://www.cnet.com/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-yoga-13/4505-3121...

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

#389

Post by hyperbovine »

jonknee wrote: post #18
melvinram wrote: post #12

Someone forgot to tell their marketing team: http://www.google.com/nexus/ Edit: Basically the website still has old info about old devices.

Maybe they're evacuated--these devices were supposed to debut at an event in NYC that was cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy.

But but... why use reason when you can make a facile, snarky observation instead?

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

#390

Post by theintern »

suprgeek wrote: post #112

The Pricing on the Phone for the Given specs is very impressive. Howvwer I would wait for the reviews for the Nexus 4 to come in and wait for a few months. This phone is made by LG and every person I know who has bought any LG telecom product (Phone/Tablet) has had Quality issues with...

That's the only thing I'm worried about, hopefully the close ties with Google have made sure that the quality and reliability is up to scratch.
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