The Official Android Thread [OP Updated 1-24-12]

http://gizmodo.com/5921713/android-jelly-beans-new-features

JB features.

 

Jpripper88 did they tell you about the upgrade fee? Our indirect agents are really bad about not telling people that when they upgrade.

 

Could not pay me to go to Tmobile or sprint no matter what phone they have. Verizon or ATT are the only two worth a shit nation wide.

 

every one of my friends that have switched from iPhone to Android (including myself) are glad they did. I haven't heard one with a regret. My buddy had a terribly shitty samsung android and is the only one I've known to go opposite

 

a few thoughts from a fanboy

maps is a lot faster (and 3d is better, or at least since last time i tried it)

caching on youtube is neat, but not as neat as caching on maps. sidenote: the feature that I wanted (draw an area to cache, rather than selecting a square) would have been a lot nicer

how i would have done Nexus Q:
put NFC and a better vid in/out system on the google tv box and eliminate the Q. basically it duplicates the purpose of google tv (for me its a media hub w/ added convenience of browser and some non touch enabled apps).

the q has a nice use, but could have totally been built into a google tv box (already on the nice tv/surround sound which "wins" the social aspect). if you are playing back local storage (non cloud) content, the q has to download it first from the device, which can take time. ouch if you are trying to replay a nice big mp4 (again just come up with a nice vid in/out solution)

meh, maybe android@home will have alot of other built in uses for the Nexus Q.

also, not sure on the whole integration into your HT/surround sound. again, the q would be (for me) on the nice tv in the den (where the google tv and surround sound are). hopefully ill read more about it.

the Nexus 7 weights about 45% of what my 10.1 xoom weights. I do wish the battery was longer (4325 mAH), but it sounds like it is neither good nor bad. if its built for content consumption (IE screen on the whole time) then give it a monster battery that will last an all day car ride/flight across the atlantic/etc. tether that sucker to your phones data plan and you have possibly the best possibl maps/gps/navigation.

i wonder if i can get my hands on JB earlier via my xoom (specifically Moto feedback network for a soak test)

offline voice input is one of the biggest new features.

G+ update on tablet looks great, but when i want to watch a video (or even on chrome) i have to launch the separate youtube app.

tl/dr: lots of nice new features, but i think android might be throwing too wide of a net. refine your products before you continually grasp for more (Q being chief example here)

 

also I was out on a ranch today with some buddies and we stopped to take a picture of the herd on the way out. I whipped out my panorama mode (idk if on their iphone 3GS or 4S) and they were pretty impressed. Im not a camera settings wizard but its not too bad.

 

kindle fire wont be replaced for a while, i have no knowledge of the iconia tab.

the 7" tab space is a little bare, but there is prob a Galaxy tab 2 (but idk, it may have had an injunction slapped today from apple)

that Tegra 3 should be competitive for a while. the specs aren't what set this device apart, its its use/function and price point which could do some real damage for android (high adoption>app development >great cycle of growth for the android)

 

4 ways for the Nexus 7 to succeed

Spoiler

Apps​

The biggest gripe with Android tablets thus far have been the severe lack of applications available that are customized to the larger screens. The remedy thus far has been blown-up phone applications, which look awful on a 10″ screen. Google has a slight advantage here in that these applications look fairly decent on the 7″ screens, but Google still needs to push developers to put out versions of their applications that take full advantage of the larger displays afforded to them by tablets.​

Google has previously said that it wants to double down on tablets this year, and with Google I/O set to kick off today, Google has a perfect opportunity to reach the developers it needs to get this goal accomplished. Here’s hoping Google places a focus on apps when it takes the stage later this morning.​

Price Point​

When it comes to getting the most people to adopt a product that doesn’t have an Apple logo on the side, pricing is key. Amazon showed the power of the bargain when it unveiled the $200 Kindle Fire, which sold like hotcakes throughout the holiday season. Other Android tabs have been fairly expensive, with price points mirroring Apple’s iPad, and sales have obviously suffered. In order for Google to have a shot at success, it will need to keep the price point low.​

Fortunately, it looks like Google is doing the right thing here. We first suggested that the Nexus Tablet would retail for $149-$199, and all signs recently are pointing to an 8GB model for $199, and a 16GB model for $249. This is with a fully-powered Tegra 3 quad-core processor inside, giving Google the unquestionable leg up against the low-cost competition.​

Marketing​

Marketing is something Apple has done extremely well with its iPhone and iPad devices. Adverts for Apple’s leading slate are everywhere, from your television, to the websites you visit, and even on many bus stop benches. Amazon’s marketing with the Kindle Fire was almost equally impressive, with the tablet plastered all across Amazon’s homepage, as well as a few TV ads geared at generating large amounts of sales.​

How many people use Google? That’s right, a crapton. While Google usually doesn’t do more than text ads on its own page, we’d like to see Google do more of a visual push on the Nexus 7, perhaps featuring it in the daily doodle a few times in the first few weeks. Google will also need to buy some TV spots in key markets, similar to what it and Samsung did with the Galaxy Nexus device, one of the few Android phones people actually lined up at stores to purchase (see also: Galaxy S III).​

In short, the advertising campaign needs to be large scale if Google is to successfully push the Nexus 7 tablet.​

Ecosystem​

Again, how many people use Google’s services? From Drive to Gmail, hundreds of millions of people are using Google’s services every day, and even though competing tablets can hook you into these services, nobody does it as well as Google itself. TheAndroid Google experience is head and shoulders above the competition, and Google needs to demonstrate that ecosystem experience in its marketing campaign.​

Google is also set to launch a true cloud storage platform to rival that offered by the likes of Amazon and Dropbox. Imagine if Google offered something extra–say, 50-100GB of free storage–if you purchase a Nexus 7 tablet. The costs to Google would be fairly minimal, and free cloud storage is a strong incentive to get people to purchase a tablet, especially when the tablet only costs $200. And the return for Google is two-fold, not only do they get more Android tablets (and therefore, search revenue) in the hands of consumers, they tie these customers into their cloud storage service, and as more and more services move to the cloud, people would likely upgrade to Google’s higher storage tiers.​

So too with a tie-in to Google Music, another under-performing service Google is hoping to bolster.​

Conclusion​

Google I/O is set to kick off in just a few short hours, and we should learn a lot more about the Nexus 7 tablet very soon. Google has the potential to make the Nexus 7 a runaway success, if only Google puts an adequate amount of focus on apps, pricing, marketing, and the powerful Google ecosystem. Should they do so, we believe the Nexus 7 could finally be the tablet that can help Android emerge as a true competitor in the tablet market.​

in my mind, the order would be

1. price point
2. marketing (goes hand in hand with price point)
3. ecosystem
4. apps- kindle fire has sold millions with nothing really on it. this device is for content consumption (books/mags/tv shoes/movies/music), so even stock apps like gmail/maps/calendar are playing second fiddle to the true purpose of this device (penetration)

 

Holy shit is that a phone picture?

Also for you guys on here have any of you watched wicked4u2c youtube videos on the android vs ios. Guy has almost single handedly made me excited to switch over and not worry at all.

Android seems pretty amazing and very simple as well as quicker to do what it is you want.

 

My phone just updated to ICS. Now i gotta figure out how to use it.

 

whoops. one thing of note is that it will only have stlighty improved specs (the rumoured screen in that article is the same resolution the nexus 7 has) the price point will stay the same and likely have a processor in the same ballpark as the tegra 3. it also says oct 2012-march 2013 which is a handful of months away.

hardware manufacturers are cuffed by price (have to keep it low) so dont expect anything to
A) severly outperform the nexus 7 at the same price point
B) severely undercut the nexus 7 on price w/ being an under powered tablet.

 

Are you flashing to 4.1 or waiting until CM9 updates? I can't decide if I want to flash 4.1 or wait for a ROM with it to come out.

 

any of yall on GSM GNEX?

 

keynote starts in 5mins and is 1:45 long

 

Google one upping Apple by demoing their own software on apple hardware.

 

I'm in love with the S3 this thing is awesome

 

so much want

how is the radio on phone calls? the guy at verizon when i was looking to upgrade was trying to push me away from pre ordering a S3 because he says that the other galaxies have issues with volume on phone calls.

I him for that being a huge non selling point

 

I have a first gen Ipad. I am thinking about selling it for 200 bucks and buying the Nexus 7. Any thoughts? Not sure what I should do.

 

id keep both, esp if you have previously bought apps on either platform

so far I/O attendees have recieved

Galaxy Nexus w/ 4.1
Nexus 7
Nexus Q
Chromebox
first access to Project Glass ($1500), coming in 2013.

i think the entrance cost was maybe $900 or 1100 (students had access to cheaper tickets)

 

Just got done watching the I/O demo of Google Glass. First of all it looks sweet and I wouldn't mind looking like a dork wearing that thing if it has impressive functionality. However, they focused almost entirely on it's ability to capture photos/video. I would like to hear/see more about how it can access information via the HUD. They acknowledged the focus on capturing images, but c'mon throw us a little more info.

Demo:

 

Absolutely no issues so far. Don't have a huge sample set yet of course, but so far very good.

 

I knew about it and they did point it out. Everyone has one, so no real way I know to get around it. Sucks.

I completely forgot you were working for them. Would have given you business if I could.

 

We paid to send some of our tech analysts to I/O, lucky is all I can say....

 

so jelly right now lol. Can't wait for this to finally make it's way to a S3 rom, because this phone was made for some project butter.

 

Ok can you guys explain to me what rooting is? Im assuming its like jailbreaking and if so what can you do if you root your droid?

Also what are these roms you speak of?

 

someone should put all of this stuff in OP

 

Good article thanks

 

So when should non rooted Verizon GN see JB? A true OTA update.

 

Yea unfortunately everyone does it now. I hate when I get calls when a customer buys a phone from an indirect agent and they don't tell them about it. Then I get the call from the customer who is highly upset and rightfully so.

Unfortunately the only way to throw business at me is to call in and get lucky if I answer the phone. We can't just pull accounts because it stamps them with everything. I'm only working for a few more weeks and then it's off to south florida anyways lol.

 

And someone needs to tell me what all ICS does for me?

 

Its official
HTC One X has been ordered

The GF got the iphone 4s switching from her droid x
so excite

 

Payday is tomorrow and I dont need a tablet, but that Nexus 7 is tempting.

 

Gotcha. Yeah, I do hate Verizon's reasoning more than the others because they tried to sell it as paying for "smartphone education" for all users. Well guess what? I am not a 68 year old who is going from a Jitterbug to an iPhone, so I think I can handle that on my own. I would rather them just be honest about it and say it is an extra charge to update account and subsidize the phone discount. The worst part is they added that, but took away the $50 new every two credit at the same time, so really it was like an $80 change if you waited the full two years.

 

What kind of phone do you have? The ICS update for my Razr maxx supposedly came out a week or so ago, but I'm still waiting.

 

thats a good lineup.

Desktop: windows 7
Laptop: chromebook and windows 7
phone: evo LTE
tablet: xoom getting JB

im thinking about getting a chromebox when if got some spare change lying around.

 

siri got "definitively" dominated