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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

#801

Post by kalleboo »

Paul-ish wrote: post #316
zippergz wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when price is no concern to me, I am pretty picky about the exact arrangements. Which seats at the concert? Which restaurant, what reservation time? Which airline and seat on the plane (for the also common travel example)? Etc. Yeah, I'm busy, and I book this kind of stuff all the time. But I don't trust an automated system to arrange things the way I like them. With a human assistant, they quickly learn my pref…

I think Google would love to learn, then serve, your preferences in all these areas. I would find that creepy though.

Google has no negative feedback though. You can't tell them, "no, I meant THIS"

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

#802

Post by redial »

2almalki wrote: post #289
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.

although i like iOS, but I can't help think it may end the way of BlackBerry. Those guys made a ton off hardware..

On an infinite timescale, sure, everybody is going the way of Blackberry.

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

#803

Post by hesarenu »

rimantas wrote: post #778
hesarenu wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to target based on you end customers. In my country more then 90% users are on Android. So going Android first is no brainer. We recently launched a App using react native, getting positive reviews.

What if 90% of users are dumbphone users? Would it be a nobrainer to target them? My point is: the marketshare of Android does not tell the whole story. A lot of Android phones are lower end phones which are never used as a real smartphones, just some feature phone, which happens to run Android. I think that part should be excluded from your potentional market to see the more realistic picture.

If they have a Android then its not a dumb phone. My app is a report mechanism for a business. Most of its end users would be using low end mobiles.

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

#804

Post by kalleboo »

inopinatus wrote: post #595
dplgk wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think parent is talking more about: "Please buy tickets to concert" "Front row tickets to concert purchased for $500" "Wait no, buy the cheapest tickets!" "Cancelling order! Purchased last row tickets for $10" "Only $10? Well maybe I can spend a little more an not be in the last row" etc

This is exactly the kind of exasperating dialogue I've had with underwhelming organic assistants too. It is not a problem confined to machines. Ergo, the next step in virtual personal assistants is learning your preferences and being able to apply them. It's not hard to imagine the following exchange: "Alexa, book me a flight to Sydney for Wednesday" Alexa knows that I'm in Melbourne, that I always fly economy class…

That would be lovely, but there's no way that's the next step. The next step is "I booked a flight with our GreatDeal™ Partner [and you're paying more than if you had used a discount booking site]"

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

#805

Post by shostack »

glenndebacker wrote: post #232

So does this come without tracking and more privacy because for that price you can't play the "they need to recoup the costs through user data" card. Apple it seems can do it for devices in those price range.

At this point, while Google is an ad company, it is important to realize that the true value they offer only comes with acceptance of tracking.

AI needs to know everything about you to truly personalize the experience and be more valuable.

Don't believe me? Here's an interesting exercise. Watch the movie Her. They do a great job of showing where these nascent AI efforts could go. Now think through on every scene what kind of device permissions and data access and tracking would realistically be needed to deliver on that.

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

#806

Post by redial »

hossbeast wrote: post #629
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…

Google has universally better UX than Apple. Have you used the enormity that is iTunes?

Google Plus.

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

#807

Post by andybak »

glenndebacker wrote: post #232

So does this come without tracking and more privacy because for that price you can't play the "they need to recoup the costs through user data" card. Apple it seems can do it for devices in those price range.

I'd be interested in being corrected on this but here's my understanding.

Assuming you don't use actively use Google services (i.e. use someone else for search or email) and you say 'no' to every question about tracking during setup then as far as I'm aware the only tracking that remains is the use of the radio to collect anonymised wifi and cell location data to use for A-GPS. And I think it's possible to disable this too (although it's probably not immediately obvious where the setting is).

I guess the Play Store tracks usage but you could use F-Droid.

I'm sure there is some residual tracking after the above is taken into account but the devil is in the detail. Is it anonmymised or personal? Can you view and potentially delete it via your Google profile?

I'm genuinely interested as my privacy is a cost/benefit tradeoff and I want to make an informed decision rather than accept hand-wavey "everything you do is tracked" claims.

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

#808

Post by shostack »

mdasen wrote: post #184

It looks like a good device, but is it that special? At $649, it's in iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 territory. It doesn't have an impressive curved display like the Galaxy S7 Edge so the 5.5" Pixel is likely to be larger than a 5.5" Galaxy S7 Edge. The Snapdragon 821 is probably the best processor they could get, but it doesn't stand up well against an iPhone 7 (or even older iPhones on common tasks like web browsing). So,…

The unlimited storage is linked to the device in that for many people that is the biggest storage hog. Stuff it in the cloud and 128GB goes MUCH further.

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

#809

Post by redial »

bergie wrote: post #790
falloutx wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is a like an ADHD kid, one minute they want to conquer Android hardware market with Motorola, and other days they are so annoyed by hardware that they sell Motorola to Lenevo.

They bought Motorola for the patents, and sold off the rest.

That's what they are saying now that they sold it.

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

#810

Post by redial »

redwards510 wrote: post #148
Unklejoe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhones receive OS updates for like 4 years after release where as most Android phones seem to be forgotten as soon as the next model comes out. As an Android user, this is one thing that I have to admit Apple wins at. Not to mention the fact that Google seems to have a habit of deprecating their own apps for seemingly no apparent reason.

I've owned iDevices, and they have this curious ability to 'age' themselves into the dumpster after two years of iOS updates. The latest iOS versions run incredibly slow (or not at all) on older devices and you are left with something you can't even flash a custom ROM on.

I'm using an iPhone 5 from 2012 and it runs faster on iOS 10 than it did on iOS 9.
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