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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

#541

Post by meerita »

supercoder wrote: post #440
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…

Material design is like bootstrap for mobile. Good to give devs something they can't mess up too badly, but is pretty soulless.

I don't agree with this. It is the same as iOS: design an app with the barebones, you will have a soulless app. The OS doesn't matter. What it matters it's what devs do with the visual kit. There is few innovation in app design in Android and this will be like this until the Android market turns out more profitable.

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

#542

Post by problems »

st3v3r wrote: post #526
problems wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try getting an IMAP PUSH on iOS or staying logged in to XMPP or SSH all day and you'll take that back pretty damn quick. How about not wanting to use their phone app and use SIP instead? These are things I find necessary for day-to-day stuff, but which are simply impossible on iOS. If you want good 3rd party integration, Android is your only option in many cases. You just have to find the good apps.

While that's part of your every day routine, I think you'd have to agree that a lot of that is pretty niche.

Niche, maybe, but we're talking about integration with 3rd party stuff and that's exactly what this is.

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

#544

Post by st3v3r »

angryasian wrote: post #188
seanmccann wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple earns about 94% of the smartphone industry profit with just 14% of the market. It's a thing.

google has never sold a phone directly. The pixel is the first one. Second no one know how much income google generates from Android or Android related services.

"google has never sold a phone directly."

They've sold the Nexus phones directly for quite a while now.

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

#545

Post by woodpanel »

twblalock wrote: post #530
kogepathic wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. You can get AOSP on a lot of phones, you just have to be comfortable flashing a custom ROM. I don't understand why anyone would pay iPhone prices for an Android phone. Even if the hardware quality is similar (which it won't be,…

> I just can't see the justification to spending this much money on a phone Google will drop support for after 2 years, in addition to never fixing some issues that are present at launch (look up the Nexus 4 camera reset issue, which Google never fixed). Plus, you can't just walk into a local Google Store and use the accidental damage insurance to replace your phone on the spot (or repair it within an hour or so) if…

> I don't want to mail my phone in to a repair center and be without a phone for a few days.

FYI: I've been a long time Android user and can tell you that the process works different. And is actually not as bad as you think.

1) You call the hotline, they send you a link via mail 2) Clicking this link will place you in their shop with a promo-code 3) You buy the replacement phone 4) Once you've got the replacement you send in the broken one (or if you feel like it earlier) 5) Once they recieved the broken one, you get a refund on you purchase

Knowing this process so well is the reason I've bought me an iphone 7 now ;-)

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

#546

Post by Sylos »

rayalez wrote: post #402
zepto wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not new technology.

Oh, come on! A new good looking android phone with a cool camera, vr, and super advanced AI assistant is not good enough for you? How revolutionary was the last project that you have developed? What qualifies as "new technology" by your high standards? Do you expect it to be able to mine uranium while giving you a blowjob? I'm pretty sure it'll be able to do the later thing when new cool VR apps come around =) Creati…

> What qualifies as "new technology" by your high standards?

Well, why don't we start at the standards that Google is advertising with? It's them who are acting like this is the best thing since sliced bread, while it's really just yet another average phone.

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

#547

Post by jolux »

richev wrote: post #508
codeflo wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flipping the mute switch on the side of the phone is difficult?

Easy to do != easy to discover

How is it not easy to discover? You flip the switch, the phone buzzes and shows you what happened. It's one of the few buttons on the phone, it's not like it's hard to find. Not to mention contextually it's right next to the volume buttons which is where it should be.

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

#548

Post by erikpukinskis »

reacharavindh wrote: post #535
erikpukinskis wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design is not a matter of personal taste. It either achieves the goals of the designer or it doesn't. It can be evaluated on a purely objective basis. You're talking about style, which is about expression more than outcomes, and is received in a very personal way. When someone reacts so negatively to material design that they won't use it, that is a failure. There's no matter of opinion there. The purpose of the desi…

"Design is not a matter of personal taste. It either achieves the goals of the designer or it doesn't. " But, what if I like/dislike the designers goals? In other words, if the designer painstakingly crafts a detail I don't care about, does it mean it is a good design? Not trying to prove any point. Just trying to understand your perspective.

> In other words, if the designer painstakingly crafts a detail I don't care about, does it mean it is a good design?

If that detail helps them achieve their desired business outcomes, then yes. You might not like the product, but the design work is good. If you are trying to weed your garden, a Tesla is not useful to you. That doesn't mean it's a bad design, it just wasn't designed for that particular need.

All design comes from a specific set of values, and can only be evaluated within the context of those values. The notion of universal design is a fiction. It's the remnant of the colonialist mindset, where there is a presumption of universal values.

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

#549

Post by mhomde »

Retric wrote: post #486
mhomde wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS is in a tough position, the road of incremental changes is coming to an end. The icon-based home screen is showing it's age and will need a revolution rather than an evolution. You can kinda see Apple dipping it toes into the widget arena with the notifications area, yet they're probably hesitant to remake the whole home screen and risk alienating their current users. Tech savvy people won't mind a new home scree…

Age is not a sign that's something is broken. Apples main lead is they need much less hardware to get good preformance which means smaller and longer lasting battery's and better profit margins. Giving that up for a useless status screen is a terrace idea that would cost them 10's if not 100's of billions of dollars.

Nothing wrong with the age of an UI per se, but I think the notion of App's as silos which need to be individually opened get its information is rather old fashioned, and not ideal from an UX POV. Being able to quickly glance information from weather, email, social media does do quite a lot to lessen unnecessary UI excise.

I don't think it has anything to do with hardware, they can be engineered in such a way they don't needlessly drain the battery, nor do I think most people would feel it was useless. Then again, people sometimes don't miss something before they have it :)

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

#550

Post by problems »

kogepathic wrote: post #65
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 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. You can get AOSP on a lot of phones, you just have to be comfortable flashing a custom ROM. I don't understand why anyone would pay iPhone prices for an Android phone. Even if the hardware quality is similar (which it won't be,…

Yup, get a OnePlus, get a Xiaomi, but what's the gain in going from one of those devices to a Pixel or the latest Samsung or even an iPhone? Pretty much nothing, a different UI, maybe a slightly better camera. It still does almost everything the exact same.

Specs are very often on par (this Pixel is pretty damn close to a OP3, less RAM and less ) and the phones are 40% or more cheaper! It's just plain stupid.

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