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Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

engadget.com

161–170 of 190 posts

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#161
post #139

> differentiated experience I still can't believe that decision makers actually believe that customers want that. Sure, it makes for great bullet points on the packaging, but most consumer in the lower segment just want something that is familiar to all the other stuff they have. Things you will never hear an Android user say: "That Samsung Whatever Cloud App is really useful.", "That second App Store of my carrier i…

"I really enjoyed having to learn a different interface"

"It was great that all the directions about how to do stuff, that I found on the internet, didn't apply to my phone"

"I enjoyed having stock features removed from my phone so my carrier could charge me for them"

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#163
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a slider, but not a side-slider, a top-slider. I want something like the Blackberry Torch, but Android-based, or at least like the N86 or N95. I still use my N86 for everyday use. http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_torch_9800-3203.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n86_8mp-2713.php

Why a top-slider? The side-slider seems to give so much more real-estate for keys. Is it just the portrait display of the screen you want, or do you actually prefer typing on the top-slider keyboard? Personally, I find the on-screen keyboard fine for the ham-fisted one-handed typing of short messages, but I want the maximum width and real keys IFF I have enough to type to justify switching to two-handed typing. So th…

It's probably very quirky of me, but I like the slide-to-answer feature, and I like holding it in one hand and being able to type without watching.

I basically like my N86 because it allows for one-handed operation without looking at it - I can even fast-dial some numbers just pressing the .

I also like the physical camera button A LOT, if high end Nokias come with Android and camera buttons, I might consider them for that alone :)

TL-DR I love physical buttons.

I also don't use predictive text - I should get to the 21st century someday :) , but I switch languages and contexts too often and it gets in the way.

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#164
post #26

Ars Technica [1] put it best. These phones are dead on arrival. This is not the first time Nokia has done something like this. It released a Meego version of the N9, its long-in-development Symbian successor, before immediately abandoning the platform and switching to Windows Phone. This isn't a sign of some deep strategy. It's just standard Nokia platform craziness. 1: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/02/nokia-to…

Well the idea was good the implementation sucks as usual. Android without the play store is not as useful or flexible and you can't compete with other budget phones which do have the play store so you're shooting yourself in the foot. As log as there's an easy way for end users to put it on it shouldn't be such a big deal though. What I suspect they are attempting to do is get back into the low budget phone market wh…

Nokia is clearly aiming the low end market in emerging country. I am not sure that market needs the play store as much as you seem to insinuate. Most of the services offered by the play store apps dont even work in a lot of developping countries.

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#165

The cat is finally out of the bag: Android as a platform is a more capable service delivery layer than the web even for Nokia and Microsoft, especially in developing markets, much as Google and Mozilla like to pretend otherwise. These are going to prove exceedingly popular. The sad thing is Android is essentially a dead platform at this point because Google recognise investment in the core system is helping their ene…

>The sad thing is Android is essentially a dead platform at this point because Google recognise investment in the core system is helping their enemies, and they hold a veto over what counts as a fork and what doesn't. The only thing that can save Android would be Google letting go completely, which is simply not in their interests.

Still trying to grasp if it is just a parody or it is said seriously

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be so quick to discount this move. It could be a classic Microsoft embrace/extend/extinguish move. They lost the first round on mobile phone platforms, but this would allow them to very quickly create a platform that has developer support - after all, porting your apps from standard Android to an AOSP fork is easier than than porting it to Windows Phone. Especially as Microsoft/Nokia is pretty much the onl…

> It could be a classic Microsoft embrace/extend/extinguish move. The rules governing mergers actually prohibit Microsoft and Nokia from strategizing that kind of thing together until the merger is complete.

Microsoft's never been a stickler for the rules.

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android isn't really linux? Please expand.

To the extent that Linux is technically just the kernel and fundamental services, Android uses Linux but is not itself "Linux". To the extent that Linux implies "GNU Linux", i.e. a whole operating system and a broadly interoperable and source compatible set of *nix services, Android is not Linux any more than iOS is FreeBSD.

Then you could argue that any embedded device that runs the Linux kernel is not Linux because it doesn't use the GNU userland. I think its splitting hairs, anything that runs the Linux kernel is by definition, Linux. You can replace the GNU userland with anything you want, it doesn't suddenly make it a completely new operating system.

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#168

"In fact, Nokia told TNW that only three APIs have been changed, so if a developer isn’t making use of these, no changes are needed at all." http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/02/24/nokia-unveils-nokia... This so reminds me of Microsoft's J++.

Looking at Nokia's dev docs: http://developer.nokia.com/nokia-x/platform-overview

It looks like the "three APIs" are not Android APIs, but rather Google Play Services APIs. Specifically push notifications, maps, and in-app payments.

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#169
post #14
post #10

spec: http://conversations.nokia.com/2014/02/24/nokia-x-family/ Looks rather poor. 800x480px on a 5-inch screen would be painful.

It's supposed to be very cheap'o. MS (and by that Nokia) is focusing on "fast-growing emerging markets" a lot.

Nokia has a big advantage in emerging markets where cheap phones are needed

Re: Nokia announces the X and X+, its first Android phones

#170

Installing Google Play on this should be trivial anyway, what's the big deal? The problem is that it's another iphone lookalike. I WANT A DAMN KEYBOARD!

This. I just don't understand what are the benefits of a on-screen keyboard vis-a-vis a slide-out hardware qwerty keyboard. Ever tried using an on-screen keyboard with wet hands? Tried texting in class without looking? Why can't we get one, just ONE, good Android device with a hardware keyboard?

I used to be firmly in the hardware keyboard camp. Then I installed Hackers' Keyboard. The problem with hardware keyboards on phones is they have strange keys that PCs don't have, and are missing critical keys (like Ctrl and Esc) that PCs do have. Hackers' Keyboard solves that issue.

Of course on tablets I have either a BT keyboard or a keyboard dock.

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