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Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

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Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#71

Post by jarek »

ethank wrote: post #65
joebadmo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is it to not buy the phone? There are other phones out there, including the iPhone that have smaller screens. I have a Droid X, and while at first it felt a bit big, I've totally fallen in love with having a ton of screen real estate. I have relatively small hands, and I rarely have issues. Also, I think the stuff about Apple having found the One True Size because it fits your hand for one handed action is b…

Who isn't letting you decide? But as an app developer the screen war makes for pain. The UX gets different (if not more difficult) as you increase screen size. A good app UX has to account for modes of operation.

Please feel absolutely free to not develop for Android. As a user, I'll pick having a choice of form factor over not causing some developer pain. (And for the record, I'm pretty happy with my choice of 252 dpi 3.7" - but happier still that I had the choice.)

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#72

Post by anigbrowl »

psychotik wrote: post #42
jarek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Honeycomb was a tablet-only release. It will necessarily have a lower market share than universal/phone Android releases.

Sure, but API concepts introduced in Honeycomb are (hopefully) being propagated through v4.0 and beyond. So apps have to catch up when they move to v4.0. There was a big push to get apps to build UIs which work on phone and tablets, which not many developers adopted because of immense number of bugs in their Compat Libraries. v4.0 is just going to make it worse -- my users are still running 2.2/2.3, so I can't abando…

I thought Google's solution was to move past that and have ICS run on everything, degrading higher-end functionality gracefully within the OS if it finds itself running on less capable hardware.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#73

Post by gfodor »

jarek wrote: post #70
kevinchen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “let’s cut corners because most people won’t notice or care” mentality you mentioned is where sub-par software comes from. Good software shouldn’t be a luxury that one can be “spoiled” by — it should be the standard.

The big problem with this argument is that there isn't a software creator out there that doesn't cut corners, not the least because there isn't one agreed-upon master list of what constitutes a corner.

Poor responsiveness for a touch screen interface on such a late generation device is an embarassment especially when you look at the features that have garnered focus.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#74

Post by jarek »

gfodor wrote: post #73
jarek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big problem with this argument is that there isn't a software creator out there that doesn't cut corners, not the least because there isn't one agreed-upon master list of what constitutes a corner.

Poor responsiveness for a touch screen interface on such a late generation device is an embarassment especially when you look at the features that have garnered focus.

So I understand "poor responsiveness" in 2011 is on your list of corners. What else is? What was on that list in 2009?

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#75

Post by jklp »

CoffeeDregs wrote: post #58
flyosity wrote: post #16

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (comp…

>Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with your hand movements, or if >letters didn't appear on the screen until a moment after you pressed your keyboard. Even in my imagination, Android installed base is still growing at nearly 2X of that of the iPhone. Apparently, most people don't care for whatever you're saying they should care about. I have experienced the lag you mention, but I have a big, lovely scree…

> Even in my imagination, Android installed base is still growing at nearly 2X of that of the iPhone. Apparently, most people don't care for whatever you're saying they should care about

I remember seeing a chart awhile ago which showed that while Android's market share is getting larger than the iPhone's, it isn't actually taking away any share from the iPhone but instead from RIM, Windows phones, and feature phones. (just did some googling and found the link):

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-30/tech/30087696...

What I think this means is that the people aren't moving away from their iPhones, but instead people who don't have a smart phone to begin with are more likely to pick an Android phone instead of an iPhone.

Maybe it's due to things like finger lag, or how great the camera / video is, or maybe for completely non-technological reasons , i.e. cost, or even as simple as which phones are available on their carriers, which I honestly think it could be it as I have heard that where I live (Australia) the iPhone has one of the largest market shares in the world (4.5 million iPhones with a population of 22 million), and I think is one of the only places which place no restrictions on which carriers can stock the iPhone.

In all fairness, it is early days yet and I think once the smart phone market has reached saturation we might start to see a different story play out between the competing OSes.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#76

Post by pilgrim689 »

boyter wrote: post #61
JamesPeterson wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted; your point is valid. I can not accept owning an Android phone until this is fixed.

I agree. I bought a Samsung Omnia 7 with Windows Phone 7 over android (and I am a free software kind of guy) because I found the Android experience lacking. I just found every Android device to miss the nice snappy response iOS and WP7 gives.

WP7 needs more spotlight. It's a really nice OS, both in UI and in UX. I really hope MS keeps focusing on it!

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#77

Post by Kylekramer »

flyosity wrote: post #16

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (comp…

Of course, that is one data point. Gizmodo says "certainly responsive" (http://gizmodo.com/5851133/samsung-galaxy-nexus-the-greatest...). Engadget says "startlingly fast" and "faster than its ever been" (http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-galaxy-nexus-hand...).

Personally I just think it is clear that Android has gone well beyond the limits of caring (not perception) for the vast majority of users. There will always be nits for picking, but acting like this really needs to be addressed (especially considering how subjective this performance perception can be) is silly.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#78

Post by kalleboo »

camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

Too cluttered? If you can't find the camera icon on a screen with a clock and 6 icons (4 of which are in a row), how the heck are you going to find the camera icon in a grid of 12 icons that all have the exact same shape?

I find iOS's homescreen extremely cluttered and VERY frustrating to use.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#79

Post by camdykeman »

_ea1k wrote: post #19
camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

> If resources are that plentiful and the OS is still completely open-source then its only a matter of time until this is exploited and the phone starts to lag. It's really not a function of plentiful resources. It's that the contract only allows applications to keep running, it doesn't guarantee it. So if resources are a bit low, Android has the right to kill -9 any background process. In Android 2.2+ this actually…

I've still found that running multiple applications starts to cause touch-events to go unnoticed, swiping to jump around, etc. But to your credit my experience may be a fault of the device rather than the OS itself. I know dalvik is a good resource manager and all, i just tend on the side of caution i guess. Some peoples' apps try to manipulate the OS in strange ways.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#80

Post by camdykeman »

tullidil wrote: post #48
camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

I'd argue that an interface is only as cluttered as a user allows it to be. Plenty of people I know own iPhones with similarly cluttered home screens. You point out how the guy in the video takes a while to find the camera but I've had that exact problem looking for it on friends' iPhones, and that's knowing exactly what the icon looks like. Any interface can be made cluttered given a bad enough user. I'm not a devel…

You're right, any sloppy user can make a mess of the iPhone interface. But as a mobile platform, the OS shouldnt promote sloppiness and with all its tabs and panels and pages in addition to all the physical buttons already present.

The VM that Android runs on, as is pointed out in another comment, is designed to kill off processes if it needs resources. Either way, its never been a selling point of Android for me, personally.

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