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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

#821

Post by [deleted] »

2bitencryption wrote: post #567
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…

Rule #89: if someone on HN argues that something that seems subjective is actually objective... they're wrong.

[deleted]

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

#822

Post by asciihacker »

Veratyr wrote: post #269
Fej wrote: post #95

What is the draw here? I have been running my Nexus 5 into the ground (soldered on a new power button when the original broke) in anticipation of the next Nexus phone. Pixel is no Nexus. Seriously, what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? And a massive price hike? Why should I buy this? (Seriously, Google? You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen?…

> what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? As someone who owns a 5X: - The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. - The camera is better and more responsive (the camera on the N5X is slow and annoying). - The body isn't plastic, which means there will be less issues with heat and CPU throttling…

>It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC.

What is "SoC" an abbreviation for?

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

#823

Post by alderz »

asciihacker wrote: post #822
Veratyr wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? As someone who owns a 5X: - The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. - The camera is better and more responsive (the camera on the N5X is slow and annoying). - The body isn't plastic, which means there will be less issues with heat and CPU throttling…

>It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. What is "SoC" an abbreviation for?

System-on-Chip

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

#824

Post by StRoy »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #351
czhiddy wrote: post #8

“The difference with this device is that we started from the beginning,” says Dave Burke, who runs Android engineering. Started from scratch, yet the end result looks like a iPhone knockoff from a random Chinese shanzhai company? http://i.imgur.com/LlqaAPO.png

Reminds me of the original iPhone - it was an LG Prada ripoff. I'm sure you call all phones with a white front iPhone knockoffs.

As someone who has owned the first LG Prada: please, don't. The LG Prada was nothing like the iPhone and I was glad to get rid of it by the time the iPhone 3G came out.

First of all, the discussion here was about the design/look of the phone and plagiarism and there was no similarity in their look as another commenter already proved. But even in terms of operation, there was no similarity either. The LG Prada had a UI that was meant for non-touchscreen phones operated through a touchscreen. Scrolling was done.. by moving scrollbars. You couldn't scroll unless you touched the scrollbar itself. Those scrollbars were small and the touchscreen was unreliable. Fun times! The experience was like using a Windows Mobile PDA/Phone with a touchscreen instead of a stylus. Which made everything much worse. It didn't have the iconic homescreen that shows all the apps you may want for quick access either. And trying to browse the web on that device was a worse experience than the non-touchscreen competitors like the Nokia N95, which was a much better pre-iPhone device than the Prada.

Any mention of the LG Prada in comparison to the iPhone is just revealing you as a baseless Apple hater who does not comprehend the amount of innovation Apple brought to the market and how it changed the landscape. I don't even use iPhones anymore, as midrange, cheaper Android devices suit my needs just fine these days. But those phones owe a big lot to the groundwork Apple laid out in terms of UI. Even in terms of software tech. Chrome forked off webkit, and webkit was the first engine to ever be truly usable on mobiles. Browsing the web on an iPhone was a game changing experience before the market started photocopying everything Apple did.

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

#825

Post by joshstrange »

yathern wrote: post #420
joshstrange wrote: post #392

The graphic showing rating of camera's is super disingenuous [0] The gap from 88-92 is actually shorter than the gap between 86-89. [0] https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehp0sn8w04fpf2q/Screenshot%202016-...

I really think this is grasping at straws. So you think they placed the 'Pixel' data point a little too far to the right? I didn't really get the impression that this was supposed to be super accurate and quantitative chart of their comparative performances - just a little graphic showing which phones it scored ahead of.

I'm not saying the whole presentation is null and void I'm saying that graphic is plain wrong. You don't get to lay out data on a line like that and plot every other phone the correct relativity apart and then put your phone out further than the +4 gain when your phone only has +3 gain. This presentation wasn't slapped together by some intern there is no excuse.

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

#826

Post by VikingCoder »

apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #469
VikingCoder wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$27 a month is pretty dang accessible for a developer, in my opinion.

That's on contract. As a developer at a small agency, getting a $650 purchase approved can take months or even longer because every expense is larger than you think.

That's not on contract with a carrier. That's direct through Google.

"From $649 or $27.04/month for 24 months with Google Store Financing*"

https://store.google.com/config/pixel_phone

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

#827

Post by SapphireSun »

collyw wrote: post #726
SapphireSun wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Android app quality is much worse. Good thing that offline web apps will start making most native apps obsolete in a few years.

Careful what you wish for. I have an Ubuntu phone which is mainly web app based, and while its fine for most things, traveling abroad without a roaming plan renders the phone pretty useless.

I didn't mean that they could do it literally today. Offline capability is already present in some browsers though and producing a polished web app allows universal deployment. It wouldn't have the same look and feel as native apps though and performance is an issue for some things, but not most things.

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

#828

Post by dpark »

gotthemwmds wrote: post #670
dpark wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What carrier do you want to use the phone with? If, say, you want to use it with AT&T, just go in and buy an AT&T phone. It will be unlocked. Just swap out the SIM card in the phone with the one you already have if you don't want to activate the provided SIM card for some reason.

I thought I could do that but s/AT&T/TMobile. 3 TMobile retail stores have refused to unlock my phone. It's still unopened in a box. I paid full retail price for it and have never had a TMobile account, which is where they get confused.

Did you buy your phone from Apple or from TMobile? If you bought it from Apple, it should be unlocked already. You should be able to drop in your SIM and go.

In fact, I did this two years ago with the 6 Plus. I bought a T-Mobile phone from Apple because they were unlocked (at the time the others weren't, even if purchased directly from Apple) and used it with my AT&T SIM.

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

#829

Post by JohnnyConatus »

The thing people often overlook is the value of iMessage. I switched to Android for a few months and using plain SMS with my friends was a definite downgrade. True, we could use a 3rd party chat network, but everyone seems to prefer a different one.

Also, hard to quantify, but there was an element of social cost in that every knew I no longer using an iphone because the texts weren't blue. HN tends to dismiss such things but branding/advertising are important to perception of value, like it or not.

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

#830

Post by inopinatus »

kalleboo wrote: post #804
inopinatus wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]"

I'm not so cynical, in large part because I think you could develop an Alexa skill right now that does most of what I described.

However, that is besides the point. This was just an illustration of what is possible if your VPA is a preference-aware negotiation agent.

Of course you are free to choose a closed platform, but it doesn't have to be that way.

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