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Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

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Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#71

Post by jganetsk »

taligent wrote: post #35
graetzer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome is not just a wrapper. WebKit requires you to implement networking, graphics rendering, font rendering etc. There are huge differences between the different WebKit based browsers

Sure but you can just defer to the OS for the bulk of those services e.g. CoreGraphics, DirectWrite etc.

Things unique to Chrome that don't come from the OS: V8 Javascript engine, process isolation model, networking including new protocols like SPDY and possibly QUIC [1], auto-update (for browser and all apps and extensions) Chrome sync (for bookmarks, open tabs, apps, extensions). Don't forget that the Chrome team is now a major contributor to WebKit.

[1] https://plus.google.com/u/0/100132233764003563318/posts/b36w...

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#72

Post by myko »

nirvana wrote: post #66
patrickaljord wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny to read someone defending Apple based on hardware specs when Apple lovers told us for years that Apple killed specs because no one care about them and that hardware should be judged on its beauty and slickness and the UX of its software which is where the Pixel does indeed shine. As for the 32 GB, the Pixel comes with 1TB of google drive and a "save to Google drive" option.

Forget specs, lets talk about software: The MacBook air is a real computer. You can compile your code on it. IT has an operating system. You can play games. The pixel is just a web browser. The correct thing to make the comparison to is the iPad, but even the iPad is more functional, since it can run apps that aren't browsers. From a usability viewpoint, the pixel is kinda laughable... it's so arbitrarily limited, it…

> From a usability viewpoint, the pixel is kinda laughable... it's so arbitrarily limited, it isn't even really usable unless you're on a network.

Stated by someone who obviously hasn't used Chrome OS.

Also, it's trivial for a developer or semi-technical user to install Crouton and setup a build environment or whatever else.

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#73

Post by myko »

ishansharma wrote: post #25

Google is definitely getting better. Their search infrastructure gives them a huge advantage over Apple. I have used Google Now on my friend's Android and it is much better than Siri. I remember someone linking to a video of Google Now (maybe it was Gruber)and commenting, "How fast should Siri be? - This fast!" Google can put a voice over their search interface and boom, they have a Siri alternative that works on any…

> Google can put a voice over their search interface and boom

Isn't this already done? www.google.com, click the mic in the search box.

Also the Google Search app on iOS has similar functionality.

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#74

Post by terminus »

nirvana wrote: post #58
onemorepassword wrote: post #44

But is Google actually that good at services besides a few great products? I'm considering moving away from Google Apps, because besides GMail, most apps are a weak and seem to have become stagnant. Google Drive, which we had been waiting for for half a decade, is still buggy, clunky and unreliable. And don't get me started on the UI and the complete inconsistency between various apps. Yes, Apple has been consistentl…

This is an area where we can do direct comparison. Mail- Google has gmail, Apple has iCloud mail. Both have "web 2.0" UI's. I think here Apple wins hands down. Apple's support of sproutcore (what became ember.js) has given it a great lead in the ability to do great web apps. And apple's iCloud.com mail app is a good example of this. Google "Office" vs. Apple Works - Apple wins again here in my opinion. Numbers, Pages…

> Where google's clearly winning? Ideological propaganda. The whole "open vs. closed" campaign has people actually believing that Google is good and Apple is evil. Apple which has never spied on its users or sold them out to advertisers.

Umm, iAds?

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#75

Post by 7952 »

nirvana wrote: post #65
7952 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could look for links that prove my point but whats the point? That information is naturally opaque. I believe that R&D costs are likely to be lower because I see such a huge number of new devices coming from companies without the clout of Google or Android. If Google are spending amounts equivalent to Apple on the pixel they are doing something wrong.

Apple is vastly more efficient at R&D than google is, in part because Apple's products are so profitable, that it's R&D as a proportion of sales is "small". Meanwhile, Apple is investing $10B this year in CapEx, and while a couple billion of that are for server farms, the new HQ and store upgrades, many billions are going into the equipment and tooling necessary to make Apple products. People seem to think you just c…

That is a false comparison. Google's business is to make money on ads, not hardware sales. The R&D at Google is for a completely different purpose and much harder to measure in terms of efficiency for an outsider.

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#76

Post by [deleted] »

nirvana wrote: post #58
onemorepassword wrote: post #44

But is Google actually that good at services besides a few great products? I'm considering moving away from Google Apps, because besides GMail, most apps are a weak and seem to have become stagnant. Google Drive, which we had been waiting for for half a decade, is still buggy, clunky and unreliable. And don't get me started on the UI and the complete inconsistency between various apps. Yes, Apple has been consistentl…

This is an area where we can do direct comparison. Mail- Google has gmail, Apple has iCloud mail. Both have "web 2.0" UI's. I think here Apple wins hands down. Apple's support of sproutcore (what became ember.js) has given it a great lead in the ability to do great web apps. And apple's iCloud.com mail app is a good example of this. Google "Office" vs. Apple Works - Apple wins again here in my opinion. Numbers, Pages…

[deleted]

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#77

Post by BitMastro »

nirvana wrote: post #70
mailarchis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you are not taking into consideration google glass and self driving cars.

Google glass is just a bluetooth headset with a display and camera, combined with a SIRI like service. People seem to think it's a competitor to the iPhone, but it's an ACCESSORY that needs and iPhone to connect to the network. Worse, it has no technology (other than miniturization) that hasn't been done many times before-- I first saw a "glass" type system in the 1980s.... and that one actually had a computer on boa…

"just"

I personally don't think it's a competitor to the iPhone, and I haven't seen this opinion around as well, so maybe it's an opinion shared just by Apple evangelists?

I've seen mp3 players, laptops, software stores and smartphones way before Apple did them, so should we blame Apple for being a copycat? Let's wait and see if it reveals itself as useful or not.

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#78

Post by BitMastro »

taligent wrote: post #16
pinaceae wrote: post #4

the big question is though, can Google also be awesome in Services going forward? i am loyal user of chrome, gmail, search, youtube, maps, picasa - in this order. none of which is younger than what, 5 years? innovation in those items? gmail got a new UI, but else? where are the BETA products? used to be the awesomeness of Google. ever since Page took over, they've been killing the small, useful things. ok, they want…

Don't forget that they acquired YouTube, Maps, Picasa, Android and Chrome is a wrapper around WebKit.

And WebKit is forked from KDE KHTML, Apple acquired FingerWorks for multitouch, C3 Technologies for 3D mapping and Siri (http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/04/28/apple-moves-d...)

So what's your point? Acquiring is bad?

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#79

Post by cromwellian »

nirvana wrote: post #58
onemorepassword wrote: post #44

But is Google actually that good at services besides a few great products? I'm considering moving away from Google Apps, because besides GMail, most apps are a weak and seem to have become stagnant. Google Drive, which we had been waiting for for half a decade, is still buggy, clunky and unreliable. And don't get me started on the UI and the complete inconsistency between various apps. Yes, Apple has been consistentl…

This is an area where we can do direct comparison. Mail- Google has gmail, Apple has iCloud mail. Both have "web 2.0" UI's. I think here Apple wins hands down. Apple's support of sproutcore (what became ember.js) has given it a great lead in the ability to do great web apps. And apple's iCloud.com mail app is a good example of this. Google "Office" vs. Apple Works - Apple wins again here in my opinion. Numbers, Pages…

Neither SproutCore nor Ember compares favorably to Closure + Closure Compiler in terms of doing large web applications like Mail or GDocs.

Google has been producing and releasing web development libraries and tools for years not "recently".

Re: Google is getting better at what Apple does best faster than Apple

#80

Post by OGinparadise »

patrickaljord wrote: post #43
rethaw wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>actually better than an MBA Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The Chromebook does have a nice screen, but... - The Chromebook is almost half a pound heavier that the Air. - It only has USB 2.0, not 3.0 like the Air. - It has just a 32GB SSD, the Air has 128GB/256GB/512GB. - It has just 5 hours of battery, compared to 7 hours with the Air. - It only has Bluetooth 3.0, not 4.0 like the Air. - It still start…

Funny to read someone defending Apple based on hardware specs when Apple lovers told us for years that Apple killed specs because no one care about them and that hardware should be judged on its beauty and slickness and the UX of its software which is where the Pixel does indeed shine. As for the 32 GB, the Pixel comes with 1TB of google drive and a "save to Google drive" option.

Specs or not 1 lbs heavier (if true) and 2 hours less in battery time are important to consider.
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