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Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

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Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#61

Post by visarga »

hnriot wrote: post #48

Very misleading title. The predictive power of this sounds really impressive, but utterly useless. I don't have alternative routes if there's traffic, and if there is, I already know what my options are, because I drive it every day. (coincidentaly this morning I was followed by one of google's white lexus self driving cars, with its silly spinny thing on top making it look like an attempt at being a TARDIS, although…

It's not that you don't think for yourself. You just move up the ladder a notch - now you are in symbiosis with Google and instead of doing the low level work you do the high level work. You can still enjoy life just as much in different ways.

The same kind of argument has been brought by people against cars, telephones and recordings. "I like to walk on my own feet, or ride a horse." "I like to speak to people face to face, not on that contraption." "I prefer to play the song on the piano, no need to use recordings!"

And especially agains Google Search & Wikipedia - many have voiced that we have become generalists and don't remember anything anymore, instead relying on Google to bring information to us all day long. Well, instead of learning dates and places and APIs by heart, we learn to efficiently search for them on Google. It's like meta-learning vs direct-learning, it's not worse, just one level up on the abstraction ladder.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#62

Post by mixmastamyk »

cmccabe wrote: post #60
mixmastamyk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're quoting out of context. He's speaking of a single category advantage in which WPh has an arguably better design... integrated services instead of silo'd apps. He says this was their advantage and that (with their sloth-like dev pace) MS is in the process of squandering it, because competitors are adding those improvements, leaving WPh with none. That competitors have other huge advantages to lean on is not inc…

You need to learn about android intents.

...or you about windows phone.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#64

Post by freehunter »

chris_mahan wrote: post #59
freehunter wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have it running on my HP Touchpad running Ice Cream Sandwich. Isn't one of the benefits of Android that it's so open you can make it do just about anything? If I didn't want to hack my mobile device, I definitely would not have gotten invested in the Android platform. In my opinion, that ability is literally the only advantage it has over the competition. Without the hacker community supporting it, it's ba…

I'm not rooting my phone. Not enough time to play with it. Need it to work when school calls and I have to go pick up my son.

I bought a Windows Phone because I wanted something that just works when it needs to work, and also is slick, modern, well-integrated, and protected by a walled-garden. I bought into the Android platform with a device that is not on contract and is not a phone, because I am willing to accept hacking around on and breaking a non-phone device.

Not that I'm denigrating your choice in any way, it has no bearing on my life at all, but I'm genuinely curious as to why anyone would buy an Android phone unless they're willing to hack it to bits. In my opinion, without root access on an Android phone, you're using an iPhone without great software support. The only draw of Android over the iPhone in the last three months that I can see is root access and a hacker community supporting it. Especially when it means buying an out-of-date and possibly out-of-support phone.

What drew you to the Android platform over the iPhone platform if you're not willing to update your software manually and are resigned to not getting a software upgrade until you buy a new phone? That seems ridiculous to me. Even on Windows Phone, every device that came with WP7 got WP7.5 and WP7.8.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#65

Post by _neil »

commandar wrote: post #25
_neil wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the Nexus 4 for about two weeks and it's surprised me a handful of times. You really have to use Google services to get full use out of it though. Like adding locations to events in Google Calendar (and, you know, using Google Calendar in the first place) to get the "you should probably get on the road now" messages. Also things like birthday reminders seem to only work with your friends on Google+. None of…

>And I've yet to see a package tracking card, but it will be cool if they make improvements and stuff like that starts actually working. Odd. It usually pulls in tracking data within a few minutes of a ship confirmation hitting my inbox in Gmail. The only time I've seen it have trouble is with some USPS tracking numbers or if I place multiple orders from the same vendor in short succession (e.g., I place two Amazon o…

This probably won't be seen since this thread is off the front page now, but the reason package cards (and all GMail based cards) don't work is because I'm using Google Apps.

http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/mobile/B-jW1pAZpdM/Pdm...

No real reason given. Just, "NOPE." Le sigh.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#66

Post by hnriot »

visarga wrote: post #61
hnriot wrote: post #48

Very misleading title. The predictive power of this sounds really impressive, but utterly useless. I don't have alternative routes if there's traffic, and if there is, I already know what my options are, because I drive it every day. (coincidentaly this morning I was followed by one of google's white lexus self driving cars, with its silly spinny thing on top making it look like an attempt at being a TARDIS, although…

It's not that you don't think for yourself. You just move up the ladder a notch - now you are in symbiosis with Google and instead of doing the low level work you do the high level work. You can still enjoy life just as much in different ways. The same kind of argument has been brought by people against cars, telephones and recordings. "I like to walk on my own feet, or ride a horse." "I like to speak to people face…

symbiosis with Google - no thanks

I do prefer to walk, and I do prefer face to face. I am not against technology, in fact quite the opposite, I am just against useless technology like this.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#67

Post by mixmastamyk »

cmccabe wrote: post #63
mixmastamyk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or you about windows phone.

Android doesn't have "silo'ed apps." I don't see what Windows Phone has to do with it.

It does in the sense that they show one at a time. In WP functionality mostly integrates into the main interface. Of course android isn't standing still, which is the point of the article.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#68

Post by chris_mahan »

freehunter wrote: post #64
chris_mahan wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not rooting my phone. Not enough time to play with it. Need it to work when school calls and I have to go pick up my son.

I bought a Windows Phone because I wanted something that just works when it needs to work, and also is slick, modern, well-integrated, and protected by a walled-garden. I bought into the Android platform with a device that is not on contract and is not a phone, because I am willing to accept hacking around on and breaking a non-phone device. Not that I'm denigrating your choice in any way, it has no bearing on my lif…

I'm not interested in purchasing Apple products, for other reasons.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#69

Post by chris_mahan »

freehunter wrote: post #64
chris_mahan wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not rooting my phone. Not enough time to play with it. Need it to work when school calls and I have to go pick up my son.

I bought a Windows Phone because I wanted something that just works when it needs to work, and also is slick, modern, well-integrated, and protected by a walled-garden. I bought into the Android platform with a device that is not on contract and is not a phone, because I am willing to accept hacking around on and breaking a non-phone device. Not that I'm denigrating your choice in any way, it has no bearing on my lif…

On android: my phone does "just work" and it's got a good camera, and plays youtube videos. I prefer hacking on the raspberrypi, personally.
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