Google's Grand Android Plan 190
CWmike writes with news of a significant change in Google's strategy for Android. According to a Wall Street Journal report, "Google plans to give multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android and to sell those devices directly to consumers, said people familiar with the matter. That is a shift from Google's previous practice, when it joined with only one hardware maker at a time to produce 'lead devices,' before releasing the software to other device makers. Those lead devices were then sold to consumers through wireless carriers or retailers." JR Raphael adds, "Signs of something big have been brewing in AndroidLand for some time now: First, we've had the increasingly loud buzz about Google's top-secret mission to build an inexpensive Nexus-like tablet. Then, last month, Google opened the door to selling unlocked Nexus devices directly to consumers, eliminating the need for carrier meddling and contract commitments. Now, at long last, we're getting a glimpse at what's likely the final piece of the puzzle."
"just think if you could" (Score:4, Interesting)
"just think if you could switch carriers because you have an unlocked phone"
well, eh. I do have.
not much of a grand plan really. I'd reckon most galaxies worldwide were sold unlocked too. US is a bunch of partial payment pussies and changing that is a grand plan I suppose. they should just lobby the government in USA to force network operators to not lock and to use compatible tech and to disclose handset subsidies and real pricing.
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Argentina sell phones carrier-less in general, and I belive that it's not the only country where this is common. Granted, mobile phone cost quite a bit more, but a mobile phone is yours once you have it, not two years later.
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Wait, you can't keep your number when you move networks? Is that like a US thing?
In the UK, there's loads of legally binding things to make sure you can keep your number. In fact, it has to be transferred to your new provider within 48hours and I think that time frame is getting shorter.
Re:"just think if you could" (Score:5, Informative)
You can. It's called number porting, and we've had it for a while. I don't know what the GP was talking about--maybe he was going to sarcasm, but it didn't come across.
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The weirdest thing is trying to get a pager number ported to a cell.
Very small carriers and pager carriers were exempt from the portability law.
And it looks like if a company says they "can't" port a pager number, nothing in the world can get them to change their minds.
It is as if the pager number is burned into the bios of their routing equipment, and changing that is a complete impossibility.
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In the UK, there's loads of legally binding things to make sure you can keep your number. In fact, it has to be transferred to your new provider within 48hours and I think that time frame is getting shorter.
Same in Canada... As long as you're not moving to a different LD calling area, you can take your number with you (and even if you are, you can, you'll just be paying LD rates with most carriers). The rules say within 48h, but personal experience switching providers says it's closer to about 5 minutes... I have had the same phone number with 4 different providers in the last 10 years, and the longest it has actually taken to port the number was about 20 minutes. And they warned me it might take longer than u
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The US absolutely has heard of number portability. In fact they had it before Canada did. I used to work in a call center for a US mobile provider, and I was hired in a ramp up they were doing *because* almost all of their existing agents in that center had moved in to dealing with number portability. They started actually doing it just months after I was hired (which would have been late 2003 if I remember).
Now, I escaped from there, so I don't know if anything has changed - but I seriously doubt they've s
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There's plenty of other countries where the number is legally yours forever. Argentina is an example. US has far more carrier-friendly laws, clearly.
Re:"just think if you could" (Score:5, Informative)
You can port your number between any major US carrier... Not sure what you are going on about...
Two things stop any meaningful "freedom" for cell phone users in the US.
1. Network technology and frequency, every carrier as the their own freq. bands and versions of tech. So switching isn't possible in a lot of cases.
2. Carrier, 2 year contracts to lock you in. Part of the issue is the "discounted" phones but the MAIN issue is the Carrier's WON'T give a discount on service if you buy your phone outright so you gain nothing by doing it.
Smartphone service for $35/mo from Virgin (Score:4, Insightful)
the MAIN issue is the Carrier's WON'T give a discount on service if you buy your phone outright
They'll have to give such discounts if they want to compete with the $35 per month plan that Sprint's Virgin Mobile brand offers.
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virgin has crappy phones and the current Nexus only supports GSM. CDMA versions are sold by the carriers
the MVNO carriers operate on the cheap. everyone knows how much data any given phone will eat up in a month which is why the MVNO carriers like to limit which phones they support. no one will allow an iphone/galaxy or any other high res screen phone on their MVNO network for $35 a month
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There's a difference between an MVNO and a Fight Brand [wikipedia.org]... While I don't really have any experience with Virgin in the US, they are considered a fight brand here in Canada, because they're wholly owned/operated by Bell.
And honestly... you may call it a "crappy phone", because it's not a quad core 2GHz processor with 4GB of RAM, but the Samsung Galaxy Ace which I have from my carrier has no problem with anything I've thrown at it, despite only having 512MB of RAM and an 800MHz processor. Unless you're doing h
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It is a US problem and it sucks.
But....In the US I have my overpriced under performing phone that still works while walking down a street NOT blanketed in cameras.
Not sure which is worse.
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But....In the US I have my overpriced under performing phone that still works while walking down a street NOT blanketed in cameras.
Something nags at me me about this statement. Can't quite put my finger on it, but ...it's almost as if those two issues are ... completely unrelated!
--Jeremy
Re:Smartphone service for $35/mo from Virgin (Score:4, Interesting)
The Cellular company is giving you the phone for free... but then making you pay for it via a service contract that is ridiculously expensive. It IS a loan, the government needs to treat it like one. The "Interest rate" should be regulated just like all other loans.
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Except, if you bring your own phone, the plan costs the same.
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You can port your number between any major US carrier... Not sure what you are going on about...
Actually, this is only partly true. The ability to keep your number is regulated by the government in the Wireless Local Number Portability. However, as the name might suggest, it's only applies if you're living in the right area code for your cell phone. I don't have that option because I moved across state lines but didn't want to change my number. If I switch carriers, I lose my number.
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If I switch carriers, I lose my number.
My solution to a similar problem with a different cause was GOOG voice. Port it to GOOG and point GOOG to the new number.
After doing this I noticed how rarely "other people" call my cellphone for voice. Communication seems to have moved to email and social networks.
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Ah but GOOG voice forwarding is free and always works, so I have no reason to get rid of them.
There are other providers who can be ported away from GOOG if it ever becomes necessary.
I'm using less voice every year so I could just get rid of "my" number.
The point is phone number termination and forwarding to a handset is, or can be, decoupled from handset access to the network.
I remember back in 93 when I had a home SLIP account to the internet with my own personal static ip address, and I was kinda pissed w
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There's no rule that they can't let you keep the number. It's just not required. That said, I believe it's up to you current carrier to agree to release your number to the new carrier, and we all know how accommodating companies can be about helping you switch to their competitor. Maybe your old carrier gets high marks for customer service, or someone didn't notice it wasn't a local port and gave the green light anyway. Not everyone will be so fortunate.
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2. Carrier, 2 year contracts to lock you in. Part of the issue is the "discounted" phones but the MAIN issue is the Carrier's WON'T give a discount on service if you buy your phone outright so you gain nothing by doing it.
Also no service discount after the 2 years are up. At least as of last time I had a contract phone, probably nearly a decade ago now.
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They come from the discounted monthly fee. Save $20-$30 a month, over 2 years amounts to a savings of $480-$720. If I pay $500 for a phone off contract instead of $50 for a phone on contract, clearly I'm saving money in the long run. He's exaggerating the extent of the savings, but they are savings regardless.
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I know I definitely would buy my own phone if Verizon would offer a service discount.
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The Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code C628:2007 establishes processes that will enable you to transfer between telephone companies, by stipulating the maximum length of time a transfer can take, notification and validation processes, and mechanisms for avoiding invalid transfers.
How will a transfer affect my telephone services?
The telephone company that currently provides you with a telephone service must continue to provide you with a service during the transfer. Your ability to make a telephone call should not be affected. Once the transfer process is complete, you will retain your current telephone number and any call barring or unlisted number status.
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_1726 [acma.gov.au]
Re:"just think if you could" (Score:5, Informative)
This. How about mandating that the customer get to keep his/her number when switching networks? *Boggle*
Actually, you can [fcc.gov]. Since ~2004 or so.
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I've had my current phone number since... 1995 or something like that. Probably before that.
Note that I live in The Netherlands.
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Sure; but my point is that the FCC introduced regulations requiring US carriers to support retaining the number in 2004.
Tried before and failed; see previous /. stories (Score:5, Interesting)
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Now they have live support humans.
Re:Tried before and failed; see previous /. storie (Score:5, Interesting)
I purchased the GSM Galaxy Nexus direct from Google Play last week Monday. It arrived on Wednesday. Due to a small contract dispute with Sprint, which they resolved with admirable customer service skills, I had to wait until Sunday to have it activated. I'm loving it so far, but admittedly am still in the honeymoon phase.
I went with T-Mobile's web special: 100 minutes talk, unlimited text/data (5gigs 4g speed) for $30/month. For comparison, Sprint wanted to charge me $200 less for the phone, but would not let me keep my plan and the cheapest available was $80/month. Two year contract. So in just five months it will have paid for itself, and I'm off contract and can take this phone anywhere I want on the AT&T and T-Mobile bands to whichever prepaid plan is best for me. Regardless if the phone holds up as well as my last one (Original HTC Touch 4+ years), it was a sound investment and I look forward to continued use.
TL;DR- Thank you Google for providing me with a great phone, at a reasonable price, that made it possible for me to avoid the butthurt that is "subsudized phones".
mod parent down, BS complaint (Score:3)
GP is describing the so-called "Walmart prepaid plan", which is indeed the T-Mobile plan that costs $30 and offers 100 minutes talk and unlimited text/data. You'd find out if you bothered to Google before crying "mod parent down".
And yes, it is really unlimited. They throttle you down to 2G speeds after 5Gb, but you can still download stuff 24/7 at that reduced speed.
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Not convinced (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides which, Google have been selling Nexus phones unlocked, direct to the consumer for ages now. I nearly bought an HTC Nexus direct from Google back when they started the project years ago. All this pomp and ceremony because there will be no more Nexus exclusivity? Big whoop. Part of Android's beauty is that OEM customisations allow consumers to vote with their feet.
Initial outlay for a home PC (Score:2)
Consumers are used to paying next to no initial outlay for a handset on the understanding that it will be paid for through their carrier agreement
Why aren't home users used to paying next to no initial outlay for a home PC on the understanding that it will be paid for through their ISP agreement?
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The tablet market is alluding to exactly what you describe. Here at least they are sold in the same way as phone contracts, with the phone company effectively being your ISP.
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PeoplePC (Score:2)
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Not only that, but at least where I live carriers seem to apply penalties if you bring in your own phone and pre-pay. They bundle all sorts of deals such as free SMS, free social network traffic, excessive usage caps on voice, free voicemail, and other such things for what amounts to essentially paying the same amount as if I brought my own phone with me.
I remember going from pre-paid to a plan. I used to pay $40 / month, now I pay $43 / month. I went from a dumb phone to a smart phone which will be replace
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I pay 20 euro a month with loads of freebies. But you don't have that option .
Your mission if you chose to accept I it is to get the best deal you can . Hopefully you have at least two carriers to choose from.
Currently most. American cell companies suck because they don't have to compete much only by going with the best deals will you gain better deals further down the line.
If you don't make them fight for your money they will milk you all they can.
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Understanding? Don't think so. Plenty of them think that phone really is free.
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"Part of Android's beauty is that OEM customisations allow consumers to vote with their feet."
It isn't that easy in the US. Most people get locked into two year contracts. Changing hardware or carriers before the contract ends comes at a price.
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Perhaps the majority would stay there, but I'd be there is a big market for people like me (and my parents, my wife, etc) that would rather buy the phone ourselves and not be beholden to the contract of the provider.
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Samsung Galaxy S3 is around £520 SIM Free for the 16Gb model. I got mine for free on a 24 month £36 per month contract. Sub out the cost I would face for the handset (36*24 = 864-520 = 344) then work out the monthly cost (344/24 = 14.3) and I'm paying less than £15 for unlimited calls, texts and data as well as not having to make a painful £520 purchase. I'll even admit that there are better deals out there right now, I just wanted to
Re:Not convinced (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, you think this exists? I can "accrue goodwill" from that guy at the farmer's market that I buy from every week, or my independent motorcycle mechanic that knows me by name. The idea that you, as a single consumer, can "accrue goodwill" with a major cellphone carrier is delusional. You're a record in a database to them, and a millionth of a percent of their income.
how does the warranty work? (Score:5, Insightful)
with apple i can go into one of the 10 Apple stores in the NYC area and have a real life english speaking person look at my device and possibly exchange it on the spot.
google better not do it's regular retail FAIL where warranty/support is some internet forum where you get an answer in 3 days and have to send your phone somewhere hoping it won't get crapped on
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I don't see any Google stores. So no, it's not going to be the same.
End users not living in a Major City (Score:2)
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City != major city (Score:2)
You might be over estimating how many people live outside of cities
And you might be missing a distinction that I implied. Fort Wayne is a city (population 200,000) but not a major city (for example: no major league sports teams).
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The sad thing is that.... I'm an original Nexus user for years now.
I'm very satisfied. Yet. =)
(the thing has annoying glitches, but it does the job right!)
My main concern now is how in the hell I'll get another, if my one gets broke or stolen. I didn't liked *any* of the current alternatives. All of them are too much expensive, and doesn't give back anything that I already don't have (granted - my needs are not so sophisticated, I don't watch 1080i videos on demand on my phone!).
what is the point if my bill is the same? (Score:3)
Europe is different but here in the US most carriers won't give you a break on the bill. i'm on a family plan and its A LOT cheaper than being on a single line plan so buying contract-free doesn't make sense for me.
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yep
the AT&T and VZW family plan prices are cheap enough that i don't have any inclination to mess with the prepaid MVNO carriers in the US. and even with those some like to limit which phones they will allow on their network
and with family data bundle pricing coming this summer i don't see the point of this so called freedom of not having a contract
Competing with Never Been Laid Mobile (Score:2)
I think T-Mobile did offer a break on a bring your own plan at one point, but none of the other carriers offer any discount for not using the subsidy.
To compete with Virgin Mobile's $35/mo Beyond Talk plan, more carriers have been offering discounts on month-to-month service where the phone is purchased up front.
Good move, if true (Score:3)
I think the real reasoning behind this is that Manufacturers were probably getting somewhat disillusioned with Google's favouritism for the big Nexus device. It's not hard to see why, either - when HTC did the Nexus One, even though the N1 wasn't a huge success, HTC's other phones (particularly the HTC Desire, which is practically the same phone in a different design) garnered them record profits. When Samsung did the Nexus S, their next phone was the Galaxy S II - another runaway success.
No doubt getting a sneak peek at what's coming allows you to really plan ahead and hit the market with some leading devices. I'm sure LG, Motorola, ZTE and anyone else worth their salt would love a piece of that. Or at the very least, they'd love for Google to stop giving a major competitive advantage to one of their competitors.
Android Updates are Broken (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's hope that this fixes or mitigates the one flaw of android: no updates.
Let me precede with this: Android is the superior OS. iOS fanboys and others alike (i'll probably get modded down for this) will argue. But iOS is completely inferior to Android. But this is not to start a flamewar. The one thing where iOS kicks android's ass is updates and compatibility. And notice I said updates: iOS updates and security do not go hand in hand (withness the MYRIAD of exploits for iOS). But again not starting a flamewar here.
But Android gets no updates! Jesus christ. Just now, like 6 months later, are flagship models just a few months ago getting ICS. Make no mistake, if it was a dumbphone, who cares. But these are minuture computers. They need updates for security sake, if anything. Even though iOS isn't secure and has lots of exploits, at least they're patched in the next version. Android? Good luck. And the problem is that we keep more sensative data on our smartphone than our desktop.
Also is the compatibility. Close friend just got the official android phone, the galaxy nexus. And know what? Tetris, made by EA, didn't work a few times. And another app too, dropbox I believe. Not apps by little shit devs who don't have the resources to provide bugfixes. The fact that apps aren't compatible with the so-called official android flagship is pathetic.
I'm ranting because I want Android to fix this. It's a HUGE issue. And I can't vote with my feet because I'll never go back to the iPhone (had a 3GS). It's really like using a toy vs. a real OS*.
* example: iOS doesn't allow Firefox Mobile. Which is a godsend with its ability for add-ons like Adblock on a mobile phone. Or iOS doesn't have the ability to place files in a filesystem so that another application can use a file, like a movie or PDF I put on the phone.
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I agree with you. That three year old 3GS you had, it still receives the latest iOS updates. Very few Android phones even gets half of that, if at all.
I think it's fair to say that iOS does less, but the things it do it tend to do better.
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http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support [theunderstatement.com]
And in a way, this makes sense. Companies don't make money on support. Once the product has shipped, they don't want to deal with it since they want to move on to the next "big" thing. This certainly makes Apple the odd ball here. Certainly, Motorola has a history of not providing too much sup
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Perfect solution for Google: be like MS.
Sell a vanilla OEM version for like $50 that be completely up to date and fresh with no bloatware. Distribute that money to carriers and manufacturers so they still get a cut so as not have them block/whine. Make it hidden so it doesn't affect all the so-called BS value added the carrier and manuf make. This way only those who really need it will get it.
MS does this. You can get Windows preinstalled with all the BS and bloatware. Or you can buy the official retail cop
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That just isn't true in the terms you describe. My old Galaxy S still gets regular updates with feature improvements and any security fixes. Google actively maintains Gingerbread and Samsung actively supplies updates for what is a fairly old model now (Galaxy S 3 hits the shops later this month).
You are right about it taking a while for ICS to reach the GS2 and other high end phones from last year. That's the price you pay for the freedom to choose a handset and have a fairly open OS... You pays for money a
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I don't disagree with you on that one. The official google phone is the ONLY one to buy IMHO. Although even that isn't a panacea. My buddy has the Galaxy Nexus on verizon and it's only on 4.0.2, STILL. Wasn't that released aaaalll the way back in January? And that's the standard dev phone that is supposed to always give the current updates. There has been two updates since then!
Also, it would be nice for other handset makers to deliver updates. While I wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole because I hate Sens
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I'm amazed how people in the US seem to get screwed by carriers. In the UK you could get the Galaxy Nexus unlocked and unmolested free with a contract just by going via one of the many high street retailers who resell carrier plans. They are usually a bit cheaper than going direct to the carrier, as long as you say "no" to all the insurance offers.
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We get so screwed. Thing is, they offer it so low that for the price of an un-subbed phone, you can buy one now, and buy another in two years. But then we don't get the updates or support. And they don't give a discount (short of t-mobile IIRC) if you buy your own phone outright, so why shell out the full price?
Now google gave you the option recently (it was done a while back but they pulled it) to buy it directly from them. However, I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) it will only work for t-mo or att
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I think you're mistaking use requirements with superiority. I don't want to start a flame war, or fan the flames, but technically both iOS and Android have similar capabilties. The examples you give are design choices to make things easier for ordinary people rather than measures of inferiority. This isn't an apology just an observation.
Consider the placing of files on a filesystem. The number of times I've had to help people find images, movies, other files, on their phone because they didn't know where it
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Consider the placing of files on a filesystem. The number of times I've had to help people find images, movies, other files, on their phone because they didn't know where it was. Was it on the internal memory, was it on a memory card. It shouldn't matter. They just want to look at the picture, not learn how the filesystem on their phone is organised. Its unnecessary detail. Its a design choice to make things easier to understand.
You know I've thought about that. I guess you're right about not needed to know where a file was. But the problem is big when you need a .docx file and download it from your email and view it in say Dataviz office or whatever it's called. You can't. You have to set up a convoluted cloud sync or worse transfer it via iTunes (there was an article back on OSNews describing this. It was like 7 steps and using menus buried so deep I wouldn't even find it). Or media. You have a MP3 to play. Why can't I just put a
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Users should be forced to learn a few things. This isn't 1992. This is 2012. If you can't be bothered to learn how to save a file properly, get off the computer.
I think you have your dates backwards. The whole point is that in 1992, you HAD to learn how to save files and all of the quirky differences between a hard drive and a floppy disk, and the characters you are and are not allowed to use in a filename, and so on. In 2012, people want to just use their device without worrying that there is a filesystem underneath. (Make no mistake, iOS has a full-blown filesystem under the hood.) Not to mention the security concerns involved in letting any app access any file i
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I think you have your dates backwards. The whole point is that in 1992, you HAD to learn how to save files and all of the quirky differences between a hard drive and a floppy disk, and the characters you are and are not allowed to use in a filename, and so on. In 2012, people want to just use their device without worrying that there is a filesystem underneath. (Make no mistake, iOS has a full-blown filesystem under the hood.) Not to mention the security concerns involved in letting any app access any file it wants. That was DOS in 1992, not a modern, secure OS.
A few rebuttals. It doesn't matter what year it is, 2012 or not, people always want to not learn something or not do something. People are lazy most of the time. Do you honestly think this statement is sane: "in 2012, people don't want to deal with password protecting their router. they just want to leave it open for anyone to use." Yea, they're lazy, don't want to learn (notice this common theme I'm getting at) and take 1 basic safety precaution (again, common theme: learn a few simple things that they ref
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True. Google is more than aware of this problem. And you can point to the Carriers as the cause of this problem. The problem is the carriers insist on bloatware and in order to ensure that bloatware is installed, they control the releases of the updates. This bloatware, of course, takes a higher level of importance to all other things.
Another factor influencing the carriers' reluctance to issue updates is the leverage they exert against their customers to influence them to "upgrade" by buying new device
What about GPL? (Score:3)
I thought much of the Android code is GPL'ed. If they distribute early versions of Android to selected developers, wouldn't they also need to give away the Android source code to anyone else who demands it at that time?
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Now, they would need to release some GPL'd code that's not theirs, namely the Linux kernel and some utilities, but the bulk of it can be closed forever.
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Sadly, no - the only thing that's really GPL is the kernel itself. Google has stripped out all of the other "copyleft" (i.e. "share-alike") licensed components that you'd get with a more standard Linux environment and replaced them with stripped-down BSD/Apache dismissively-licensed ("Hey, I'm taking your work and messing with it and squeezing money out of people with it, but not sharing the changes or letting people interoperate, okay?" "Meh, whatever.")* components.
I've noticed that rooted phones often e
That's our Google (Score:2)
Always fighting the last war.
Google to sell direct? That's a fail (Score:2)
They've tried that before. And for most of us who access their shop we are told we can't buy, because we don't live in the right place. They don't have the money, or the brains, to do it all over - and then they fail
Jobs turning in his grave (Score:2)
Yeah, if Jobs was upset by Google Android and all the Samsung devices, now that Google is unleashing "too many manufacturers to sue" upon the world, I can only imagine how this will pan out.
But more than that, Google is helping the consumer by releasing us from the carriers! It's my wildest dream come true. When the Galaxy S3 comes out, I was planning to buy the international version outright and not get locked into any contracts and expensive data plans which "pay for my subsidized phone" like 3 or 4 tim
"My old phone is just fine" (Score:3)
Downside: Once you sell people a phone and they see the whole price they might be more inclined to own it longer. With cell providers currently offering upgrades and freebees to customers most people have a new phone in their hands ever two or three years. If people outright buy an Android they might decide to keep that phone for five or six years. That could lead to a level of stagnation.
Upside: Thrifty consumers will pick up on this if Google really commits. It could be a game changer for the US cell market and bring about a much needed round of competitive (hopefully somewhat fair) plan pricing.
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That could lead to a level of stagnation.
Probably not. There is a market for both low-end and high-end devices. Look at normal computers. There are those that rarely buy a new computer. There are also those that will not go more than a year or two without buying a new one. Within those groups, there are those that buy both high-end and low-end computers. As the manufacturing processes get more refined, the technologies originally created for high-end computers will eventually make it into the low-end computers and new technologies will be created
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unlike AMD and Intel where x86 CPU's work with all apps, ARM CPU's are different. the early Tegra CPU's were notorious for missing features that other ARM CPU's had. they might all run the same instruction set but there are other features that some CPU's don't support.
Tegra didn't support something called NEON which is why Skype video calling didn't work on nvidia SoC's for months
NEON, 3DNow, and SSE (Score:2)
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As I understand it, missing NEON is the rough counterpart of missing SSE. AMD's Athlon CPUs support x86, but after Intel introduced SSE instructions in the Pentium III, the next couple versions of Athlon supported AMD's own competing 3DNow instructions instead of SSE.
True, but if I recall, applications still ran fine if SSE and/or 3DNow were not detected.
Re:Wow Google is missing the problem... (Score:4, Interesting)
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If Google wants to compete with iPhone/iPad on customer satisfaction, they should make it so that companies selling Android devices sell them unlocked, and that users can easily install other firmware on them. There should also be an "official" Android release from Google that people are free to download and (using the mandated easy to install new firmware support) install on their phone/tablet.
This is neither possible nor desirable. in order for this to happen Google would have to know everything about every Android device, which is not what we want. We want anyone to be able to make a device. And as iWhatevers never come unlocked and WindozePhonezzz don't always come unlocked either, you're asking for something that nobody gives you. Why should Android be held to a higher standard than everyone else?
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Nonsense. Ubuntu doesn't have to know the hardware of every single computer sold to work on all types of software.
Uh, do you mean, work on all types of hardware? Because it clearly doesn't.
MS doesn't have to know the hardware of every Windows PC to be able to make an OS that runs on them.
That's because the tools that the manufacturers use to make the Windows PC report itself to Windows (like the EDID and so on) are written by microsoft and designed to tell Windows the truth and lie to other operating systems, and because Windows DOES know the hardware of these PCs; the manufacturers develop drivers specifically for Windows which are then in many cases sent to Microsoft. And when they don't pay for this service, or do
Re:Wow Google is missing the problem... (Score:4, Informative)
Nonsense. Ubuntu doesn't have to know the hardware of every single computer sold to work on all types of software.
I can guarantee that Ubuntu will NOT work 100% on every hardware configuration. Good luck getting certain graphics cards to work, fully accelerated. That is the issue with phones. Yes, Android will run on the phones. The trick is that there are proprietary HW drivers that are needed to make the phone work properly. Guess who has the drivers? The manufacturers. Guess who doesn't want to release the drivers? The manufacturers.
but I think that Google should be pushing them the device makers to make it easier for people to keep the software is up-to-date, and they should be working with consumers to make them look for devices that carry the "seal of approval" so that they can be assured proper updates.
Umm....you just outlined the Nexus program in a nutshell. By providing stock systems, it allows for phones to be more easily updated by El Goog themselves....but you still need the manufacturers to provide the drivers for the phones.
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The typical routine for a new PC is to install the OS, and then find and install drivers for the hardware you have.
With a phone, the hardware is often proprietary and different from device to device. In the PC world, you get your video card driver from the guys who sold the video card, but with the phone, all the hardware comes from the device manufacturer, so they'd need to be the ones supplying updated drivers.
And the incentive just isn't there for Samsung or HTC to spend money working on software that e
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And as iWhatevers never come unlocked
Except sometimes. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/09/business/la-fi-tn-unlock-iphone-20120409 [latimes.com]
Re:Wow Google is missing the problem... (Score:4, Insightful)
Updates are a worry to me as well - although I eventually decided my Android adventure wasn't working with my HTC Desire, I've been looking heavily at the Galaxy Note in the past week or two. Having played with one a lot, I think Samsung have a good grip on the issues I had before, but my main issue is that the device is 6 months old, and yet is only just getting ICS this week. So I have to start my comparisons from catch again when I get one with ICS on to play with - is it still responsive, do the apps still work, does the update overbear the hardware etc etc etc.
The Note should have had ICS 4 or more months ago. Right now, the slow update is a huge negative.
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Re:Wow Google is missing the problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with Android is that it is becoming a clustereff! I have an Android phone and Android tablet. I also have an iPhone, and iPad. I prefer the iPhone and iPad.
Here are some issues:
1) lack of updates! We have two android tablets and one android phone and the updates just SUCK!
2) apps will not work across devices. I can understand that tablet apps will not work on a phone. But I have phone games where if they run on the tablet the graphics do really funky things and are completely unusable.
3) Why on earth is the chrome browser only on ICS, and not honey comb? There is no excuse.
4) Battery life truly does suck in comparison to my iOS devices.
5) Performance and usability is lackluster. Windows Phone, and iOS devices have superior UI response. This goes back to the architectural design of Android vs iOS/Windows Phone.
Every Android device vendor seems to have their own custom ROM and you can't rely on the fact that they will update it. Basically, as a user, you can be lucky with an Android device or you can be SOL. When people ask me which Android device to buy I usually recommend the device vendor that seems to have the best track record on updates. Check out the following link, it's one of the best visualizations of the state of Android fragmentation I have yet seen:
http://opensignalmaps.com/reports/fragmentation.php [opensignalmaps.com] Developing for Android looks like a bit of a nightmare but this guy is still surprisingly optimistic considering the legions of exotic devices he has to deal with.
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Developing for Android looks like a bit of a nightmare
It isn't as bad as it seems. For most app developers, you just set the minimum SDK level that you want to support in Eclipse, and then it won't allow you to use any earlier APIs. As for fragmentation, it is no worse than Windows - where you need to support various combinations of: 32-bit / 64-bit, XP (release+SP1,SP2,SP3) / Windows 7 (release+SP1), various hardware manufacturers Dell/Lenovo/HP/Acer/Toshiba ... the testing departments of large companies doing Windows development test and certify across many
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It isn't as bad as it seems. For most app developers, you just set the minimum SDK level that you want to support in Eclipse, and then it won't allow you to use any earlier APIs. As for fragmentation, it is no worse than Windows - where you need to support various combinations of: 32-bit / 64-bit, XP (release+SP1,SP2,SP3) / Windows 7 (release+SP1), various hardware manufacturers Dell/Lenovo/HP/Acer/Toshiba ... the testing departments of large companies doing Windows development test and certify across many platform combinations. Undoubtedly, this is harder than having a single hardware/software platform, but it is not impossible or unmanageable.
I didn't mean to suggest it's unmanageable let alone impossible, just time and effort consuming. According to that article his gripe seems to be mainly with API fragmentation, and the enormous variety of display resolutions. Making his app look good on gawd knows how many display sizes and resolutions must be a time consuming task.
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I am sorry, but this is crap... I have an Acer Iconia in SWITZERLAND... We get updates whenever...
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Yeah thanks I was wondering about this... I was actually surprised that I was modded as a troll... Na ja there goes Slashdot...
CyanogenMod (Score:3)
Maybe it's time to fork Android into LibreAndroid.
That time was years ago, and the fork is called CyanogenMod.
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Looks like Android could potentially become open in the more traditional way, not just "Look it runs Linux and you can customize the home screen"; but from TFA it unfortunately sounds more like non-disclosure for a certain few.
Android as an OS is open. Android as a consumer product is unfortunately usually restricted due to carriers and device manufacturers customising the OS and then dropping support for the device as soon as the next model comes along. This does suck, and as you say, hopefully this move by Google will help solve this issue.
Until that day...
Maybe it's time to fork Android into LibreAndroid.
You're free to do so but maybe it's just easier to install the massively popular CyanogenMod [cyanogenmod.com].
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Apple is no longer a "computer company" and they certainly do not compete with Dell or HP. They do NOT operate in the same market. If you think they do then you're not paying attention.
Apple does not sell to or support "the enterprise" (or any of the other star trek ships for that matter). They sell gadgets for consumers and support them in a way which is appropriate for consumers. The most you can buy is "front of the line privileges" at an apple store to talk to a "genius." There is no next day on-si
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