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Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

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Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#491

Post by vaishaksuresh »

criddell wrote: post #448
rib3ye wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to buy that argument. It doesn't appear Material ever attempted to be better than iOS, just different. And now Google Design is quietly backtracking (dialogs are transitioning to iOS action sheets, hamburger button is being phased out for bottom tab navigation). And now the phone even looks even more like an iPhone. Let's be honest, there are only two rules for design at Google: "Not Apple" and "good enough…

IMHO, Google should use Material Design for their Android applications, but it doesn't belong in iOS applications.

I second this.Gmail is something that I use regularly on iOS and the interface is so ancient compared to gmail on Android. This is true for a lot of applications except maybe google photos.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#492

Post by cyphax »

anfogoat wrote: post #218
adamweld wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now, Google is no Samsung, but they're a long way from Apple or even Microsoft on the UX front. Not sure I agree with this. I've been on android for a while, so I'm sure I'm biased, but stock AOSP Android is pretty much perfect for me. Very minimal and aesthetically beautiful, but still powerful and customizable.

I've had the worst time since switching to the OnePlus 3 and from what I've read the OS on this phone is very close to stock Android. The only way to have a good experience with email, calendars and contacts is to use Google Apps – which I refuse to migrate to. The stock apps have no support for IMAP IDLE, CardDAV, or CalDAV. You have to resort to 3rd party apps for these and they are without fail either slow, buggy,…

I was very surprised to see Android lacking support for CalDav out-of-the-box. Seemed like an obvious feature for a calendar app, yet no provider. So while it might not be much; there are CardDav/CalDav-adapters on f-droid.org, they are free software and work very good in my experience. It integrates so it allows you to use the stock calendar app.

In the end, though, I think the idea with phones like these is that they work "best" if you use the services that the manufacturer supplies, be it Apple or Google. If you use Gmail, Google Drive, Google everything, it's got a lot to offer.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#493

Post by atourgates »

mikeryan wrote: post #484
erikpukinskis wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, in terms of staff UI design cred Android is in better place than iOS right now. With the Sidekick, PalmOS, and then Material Design, Matías Duarte has been consistently at the forefront of mobile UI design. Jony Ive is probably the most brilliant consumer electronics hardware designer in the world, but I have yet to see any indication that he has any idea how to lead a platform UI design project. I had issu…

Matías Duarte has been consistently at the forefront of mobile UI design. This is a pretty subjective statement. It seems that a lot of Duarte's designs are somewhat derivative. Material extends MS's Flat design. I'm also not sure how much of that is Duarte, its a pretty open secret that Google makes use of some pretty high end digital agencies who aren't allowed to let folks know what they're working on. WebOS was p…

> WebOS was pretty tacky though an interesting OS design - actually implemented better by LG on their SmartTVs.

I've got to stop you there. WebOS was far ahead of its time, and especially considered in the context of a small startup going against established players, was brilliant.

It offered in some ways better and more intuitive usability than iOS, along with a great app development ecosystem and philosophy.

Palm's WebOS devices were a pleasure to use, in a time when that was a very rare thing for a mobile device.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#494

Post by NetStrikeForce »

qntty wrote: post #338
acchow wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a US politics thing? Blue = Democrats?

definitely not, just a special color

Which makes me wonder what's the business case behind it.

I bet Americans don't care much if blue is available in other countries or not, for the rest of the world is a tiny "because fuck you, that's why".

I'm happy now that the prices are too high, otherwise I might be giving them my money :-)

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#495

Post by kiwijamo »

amelius wrote: post #357
mikestew wrote: post #13

And yet not a single hard detail in the article as to why the headline might be true. For going on ten years we've seen the "iPhone killers" come and go, and this article does nothing to tell me why this time it will be different. Perhaps because it won't be. Of what very few details the article outlines, they just go on about nifty hardware. Have we not learned by now that cool hardware still sucks when hamstrung by…

> Now, Google is no Samsung, but they're a long way from Apple [...] on the UX front. Well, iTunes sucks, and it is pivotal in the Apple ecosystem.

I've had a iPhone for three years and have been a MacBook owner for over ten years. I can't remember thr last time I used iTunes. It's just an app which some people use. It's hardly pivotal...

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#496

Post by atourgates »

criddell wrote: post #451
dman wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish apple was as enthusiastic about processor specs for the mac lineup as they are for the iphone lineup.

You might get what you are wishing for. I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple dump Intel chips.

I would - only because of the investment required. Over the past few years, Apple's been very involved in its iOS ecosystem, while investing comparatively little in its Mac lineup.

Dumping Intel chips would take a ton of effort and resources, in an area where Apple isn't interested in making an effort or investing resources.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#497

Post by smlacy »

notatoad wrote: post #309
Veratyr wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? As someone who owns a 5X: - The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. - The camera is better and more responsive (the camera on the N5X is slow and annoying). - The body isn't plastic, which means there will be less issues with heat and CPU throttling…

>The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. what makes it premium other than the fact that they're charging lots of money for it? i can't find a real differentiator over something like the oneplus 3, which costs half as much. i agree with you that it's better than the 5X, but comparing it to this year's competition, it doesn't look so good.

4GB RAM

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#498

Post by warfangle »

jaxondu wrote: post #455
nindalf wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the article links to the review of the camera by DXOMark [1], who rate it very highly. In my opinion, they're the most reliable reviewers of cameras out there so if they say its the best phone camera, then it is. [1] - https://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles/

This number is used by most Android flagships when they launched. Surprised Google put it into their video ads, as it sure will not be the best when other flagship Nougat phones are launched.

Are other flagship nougat phones shipping before oct 21?

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#499

Post by sbuk »

erdevs wrote: post #379
mikestew wrote: post #13

And yet not a single hard detail in the article as to why the headline might be true. For going on ten years we've seen the "iPhone killers" come and go, and this article does nothing to tell me why this time it will be different. Perhaps because it won't be. Of what very few details the article outlines, they just go on about nifty hardware. Have we not learned by now that cool hardware still sucks when hamstrung by…

I've been a long-time Apple and iOS user. However, I can recognize that this is a big move by Google. > For going on ten years we've seen the "iPhone killers" come and go... The headlines says Google's first "real threat" to iPhone, not that this is an iPhone "killer". Let's not be hyperbolic. You don't need a lot of detail other than the fact that Google is designing, building and selling smartphones (and increasing…

"The headlines says Google's first "real threat" to iPhone, not that this is an iPhone "killer". Let's not be hyperbolic."

I'd argue, based on Bloomberg's form, that "real threat" is verging on hyperbolic.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#500

Post by savagej »

bluehawk wrote: post #51
kentosi wrote: post #46

With the trend of bigger smartphones I'm really surprised by the sizes of 5" and 5.5".

I'm not. My nexus 6 was fun when it was new, but I've kinda grown tired of how enormous it is. I feel like 5.5 would be perfect for me.

If Google ever releases a new Nexus 7, that will be the only device with a chance to replace my N6. I couldn't even go down to a 6P size.
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