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Essential Phone, available now

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Re: Essential Phone, available now

#471

Post by deaddodo »

criley2 wrote: post #79
ksk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see (though don't entirely agree) why companies feel some pain, when the customer paid for the phone, but the public's expectation is free updates for "life" (however you define that). I wonder if having a subscription where they reduce the cost of the phone for the general population, and let others sign up for a paid subscription model for updates, backed up by some kind of SLA type agreement would work. I de…

It's moot. Apple offers ~3 years of software updates included in the price of the phone. Right now, Android companies COMPLETELY FAIL to match Apple's update value. The idea that Android companies should switch to a paid update subscription model, while iDevices retain free updates for most of device life, would be a hilariously incompetent decision. "They're better than us, we know it, so why not subscribe to us and…

Except, you know, all Android manufacturers are free to support their OS as they see fit and have different update cycles.

The closest apples-to-apples comparison would be Google's Nexus and Pixel lines to iPhone. In that case, the Nexus 5 came out in 2013 and received updates into 2016, before being dropped for Nougat. Pretty much all of their phones have seen similar support (N4: 2012-2015, N6: 2014-present, etc).

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#472

Post by Karunamon »

georgespencer wrote: post #316
afandian wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just can't type on screens. I have tried so many times. My current phone is a Blackberry Passport, previous one was an HTC Desire Z, and my next one (fingers crossed) will be this: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-... I'd like to ssh sometimes, but mostly I want to send text and emails like everyone else. Shame that few companies have the guts to break the monoculture. It is vaguely ridic…

> Shame that few companies have the guts to break the monoculture. It is vaguely ridiculous that most phones look identical. You are describing cars. There is no market for cars which are driven with more complex mechanisms than steering wheels. The world has percolated around the optimal solution, and it is a touch screen.

I'm not so sure about optimal. Touch screen input devices always come with software that tries (and often fails, to humorous effect) to correct your typing because typing on a slick surface with no tactile feedback, to coin a phrase, fucking blows.

I think it's got more to do with negative perception. Keyboards found their way onto cheap (read: awful) Android phones and better (but app-less) Blackberry phones and the mindset carries the perception home.

If Apple were to come out with a keyboard phone, the rest of the industry would be doing it overnight before the sales numbers were in.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#473

Post by Karunamon »

skykooler wrote: post #121
git-pull wrote: post #85

I admire the gumption of making a new phone. But controlled obsolescence kills me. The real feature that improves in phones the past few years for me is the software and apps, not the hardware . My wishlist: - Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life). - Actually support updates to the things for longer than 2-3 years. - (Not related to this phone)…

Related to the last one: there's a keyboard mod for the Moto Z Play, which Motorola has officially approved, which is coming out next month.

115% funded, too! For a phone addon. Take that, "there's no market for it" doomsayers!

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#474

Post by fasquoika »

soapdog wrote: post #209
fiatjaf wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is the people who make software for the rest of the users, so they'll buy this phone and write software for it, making it desirable for others.

As someone who has numerous Palm/HP devices running webOS and BB10 based Blackberry Passport and is a complete sucker for hardware keyboards, let me say that this assumption is false. People don't care about physical keyboards, it is not worthy the factory/design/maintenance costs. I still love them but I understand why vendors are not investing them anymore. If "people who make software" could really influence the m…

>If "people who make software" could really influence the market, Linux dominance would have happened between the 90s and 00s.

Er, the vast majority of computers run linux

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#475

Post by CaptSpify »

mst wrote: post #350
CaptSpify wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heavily disagree. Especially when using ssh. I always have alt/ctrl issues, and I've tried a handful of them.

The lenovo thinkpad bluetooth keyboard w/built-in trackpoint has been working very very well for me, originally with the thinkpad tablet 2 it was designed for and these days with my second gen nexus 7.

Thanks. Ill give that a shot

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#476

Post by merpnderp »

hohghitlblkh wrote: post #372
baddox wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the draw of a tiny physical keyboard? I can type much faster on an iPhone than with any similarly-sized physical keyboard. The only advantage I can think of is the ability to touch type without paying attention to the screen as closely, but for a phone that doesn't seem like a very big deal.

I could type faster (and without looking) on the old Nokia style keypads than I can on a touchscreen.

So could I. No looking at the keyboard and almost never making a typo. I had to backspace and correct 3 typos writing this on my iPhone with autocorrect fixing several more.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#477

Post by prgmatic »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #260
foobaw wrote: post #43

As someone who worked in a large OEM company releasing tons of smartphones, I'm actually impressed it only took 100 people to getting this out. I presume there was an incredible amount of sleepless nights, as this is no easy task. To be fair though, Sprint is one of the easier carriers to work with after T-Mobile. I can't imagine them releasing a phone on AT&T or Verizon, as their process is grueling. I guess since t…

Any idea if they are planning to get this work with Project Fi service? I've always wondered what changes in hardware are required to get it compatible with Google's Fi service. Anyone knows?

I ordered Project Fi service recently, got my SIM card over 2 weeks ago and to this still still am unable to activate it and use the service. Their support has gone back and forth with me, and even escalated it to engineerse but nothing has been done to resolve the issue. Moreover they typically respond days later and ask me vague questions like whether or not I enabled Project Fi within Google Apps policy settings (I did that long before calling support). The whole thing has been a clusterfuck to be honest and I'm waiting one final response before I just cancel the whole effort outright and keep on keepin' on with AT&T. The sad part is that I purchased a 5X just for this.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#478

Post by odux »

posguy wrote: post #410
freehunter wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus you have a great piece of industrial design. I love the look of the 5S/SE. It looks premium, it feels nice in your hand, it's solid, and those chamfered edges are so nice. It's a shame they went from that to the iPhone 6 design and stuck with it all this time. It might make bigger phones easier to hold but man it just doesn't look as nice IMO. It looks like a generic round phone. Nothing stands out about it at a…

Having sold hundreds of iPhone 5s's when I was selling B2B, I have to say I was fairly unimpressed. Not great battery life over time, if an employee left with iCloud enabled it was a whole affair with Apple to get them to reset the device and allow it to be reused, and the brick style design is not very comfortable overall. My favorite is the curved back, as is on most Motorola's and some LGs. Personally, I stick wit…

Off topic but do you have recommendations for cheap rootable phones? (LG or otherwise)

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#479

Post by rl3 »

ariofrio wrote: post #286

Give me software updates for 7+ years, then we'll talk about buying your $700 phone. Lasting hardware means nothing without lasting software. In the meanwhile, I'll keep buying $120 phones (Moto G4 with Amazon Ads FTW) and keeping them for ~2 years until they break or software updates stop. Even though as a Catholic (Laudato Si, Rerum Novarum) it kills me to waste all those materials every couple of years and be part…

>Lasting hardware means nothing without lasting software.

The Nexus 6P is a perfect example of this:

https://m.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/01/google_eol_for_nexus_...

I've had mine a year and a half, and it doesn't even feel close to struggling with things. Performance is great.

Yet, it's going to be artificially deprived of the latest Android releases starting one month from now, and won't even receive security updates after September 2018. It's absurd.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#480

Post by balls187 »

r3bl wrote: post #401
balls187 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you know how awful it is for a single customer to try to buy something from another country? Would you mind elaborating?

I think I can sum it up like this: no worldwide delivery for a substantial amount of products you can buy online + higher shipping costs + import cost (in my country, anything above ~30 bucks) + occasional delivery failure + at least a month of waiting for the actual delivery. I once payed ~$30 import tax for ~$40 worth of books from Amazon. I ended up purchasing Kindle (no delivery inside of my country, so I had it…

Thanks.

In a previous life, I worked on a duty calculator, to help merchants inform their customers about any estimated duties, taxes and fees associated with the importation of goods.

Being in the US, it's pretty easy getting goods so cross border commerce pains is something we can't easily empathize with.

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