Nexus updates

Even though Google cancelled their launch event due to Sandy, they still announced their new Nexus lineup today.

Nexus 4(.7) is an interesting looking phone. Glass front and back design form LG. Odd to me that it's lacking LTE, but Google appears to be retreating from Verizon a bit after the Galaxy Nexus issues. HSPA+ on T-Mobile should keep US users at near equivalent LTE speeds. Also has a Pre Touchstone like wireless charging option. Storage options limited to 8 and 16GB with no expandability, so not all that interesting to me. During my trip, the 64GB has been handy on my phone for keeping a wide selection of music and podcasts on the device. Also uses an IPS screen, so no pentile issues for those who are bothered by it.

Nexus 7, the 8GB version is gone (good), and now $199 buys a 16GB version. 32 GB is now at the $249 price point, and one with HSPA+ cellular is $299. If I were buying a Nexus 7 to use as my primary tablet, the $299 would be the device for me.

Nexus 10, a 2560x1600 screen (16:10 widescreen) Samsung built tablet. Launch price is $399 for 16GB or $499 for 32, so about $100 cheaper then a similar screen quality iPad. WiFi only. Hopefully it does well enough to encourage more proper Android tablet apps. My other disappointment with the Nexus 7 has been the clear scaled up phone apps from third parties.

Also announced, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Odd reuse of the name, but Android version schemes haven't had much consistency in the past. Newly added, the ability to create "Photo Spheres", aka the VR explorable photos showing everything around you. New Swype like option for input, multiuser option for tablets (nice), and an airplay like option for showing content wirelessly on TVs. They also added some new cards to Now and some other minor tweaks.

Overall looks like an evolutionary move in the Android space, bringing some more benefits to those in the ecosystem. I assume the 4.2 update should be out for my Nexus 7 by the time I get home, so I'll have to check it out then.

I'm glad the LG Nexus phone is still keeping the $350 price point. I've been waiting for this announcement for some time and I guess that's what I'll be going with for my next daily driver.

It was between the new Nexus and a Galaxy Note II. The price of the LG makes it a winner since the Note II will cost me $300 more and then I have to deal with daily CM10/CM11 flashing (I despise TouchWiz). The only thing I'm going to miss will be AT&T LTE. In the past 3 months, I've owned a Galaxy S III and Galaxy S II Skyrocket. While LTE is cool, it's not everywhere and it's a battery hog. I'll try to manage to survive without it.

I look forward to seeing the Nexus 10 in person, but I genuinely like the form factor of the 7. The price is a little high on the 10 to justify owning both the 7 and 10. If I want a bigger tablet to play around with, I'm looking at the Surface. I'm expecting it to have a Zune-style fire sale sooner than later...

For me, the biggest take-aways from the recent Google press has been what I consider more reasonable pricing tiers for configuration bumps. $50 buys you a storage upgrade of 16GB and another $50 buys you a cellular radio. While Apple products rightfully command a premium price, it's always struck me as gouging on the upgrades. $100 for 16GB and $130 for GPS and cellular radio.

And, leaving aside the fact that these products aren't going to make Google any money on the initial sale, it was also nice to see a realignment of specs versus price point. While 8GB wasn't passable on a tablet to begin with, contrasting again with Apple, I'm disappointed they (Apple) have kept their storage capacities static since the introduction of the iPad, and for too many generations running on iPhone/iPod.

I also have a Galaxy S III, but I'm using a different launcher since I didn't like the default look of it, so I don't think I see much of TouchWiz. I have not felt the need to go to CM yet, since last time I checked it wasn't really ready for prime time.

The US versions of the S III are based on Qualcomm chipsets. I'm no developer, but apparently Qualcomm is much more open to the romming community than Samsung's Exynos team. When I decided to sell my S III, the SGH-I747 build of CM10 was at M1 status. I'm not certain, but I don't think the Exynos-based phones have had an M release yet.

The Verge has some video of the Nexus 4 and 10 in action:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3570034/inside-android-building-the-nexus-4-nexus-10-android-4-2

Native widgets on the lockscreen has been a long time coming.

My VZW Galaxy Nexus is now just under a year old, and I'm locked into a two year contract with VZW. Once that expires, assuming the wireless service pricing is the same as today, I'll go with the then-latest unlocked Nexus of some sort and T-Mobile's "bring your own phone" plan.

The biggest selling point for me is the Touchstone-style wireless charging. The ability to just throw your phone on a magnetic mount and have it charge is the big thing I miss about my Palm Pre (I went so far as to remove the guts of the Pre's back plate and tape them to my Nexus S so I could still use my Touchstones as non-charging mounts in my car and at home.)

My Sprint contract ends in June, by which point I reckon T-Mo will be either giving the Nexus 4 away or selling it dirt cheap. I'm sure there will be phones out at that time that will have better specs, and maybe some that are CyanogenMod-able, but unless they're leaps and bounds ahead, the Nexus 4 is probably my next phone.

Amusement: are there magnets in the phone itself or only in the charging base? I can see those magnets nuking lots of credit cards.

You haven't seen the Mythbusters episode on how hard it is to nuke a credit card then

Magnets in both, and what Andy said.

+1

The only difference with me is that I might go through the trouble to get out of my Verizon contract early to do so. I have no love for Verizon. If Google announces a car dock for the Nexus 4, I'll be waving goodbye.

Any word on removable or glued-in battery in the N4?

Also, I'm not sure that it's going to be any quicker (datawise) than the GN -- both do HSPA at 21mbit/sec max. Right? And neither has the 42mbit/sec flavour of HSPA. Edit: nor the 84mbit/sec flavour.

Finally!

Although the problem at Apple seems to have been eradicated (Forstall has been given the boot).

Still, in a couple of weeks I will hopefully get my hands on one of these!

Right now, I'm one of the "grandfathered" VZW customers with unlimited 4G service. That's sweet while I've got it. When my contract comes up, and I want the new hot phone, I'll either have to pay full price, in order to keep my old pricing, or I'll have to get metered service. Not interested.

I figure I'll milk VZW for all they're worth, then switch to T-Mobile later on.

The Swype-style gesture typing in Android 4.2 looks like it might be a winner. If the prediction quality is anywhere close to Swiftkey's, I think I'd use it instead.

What I find funny is that both Swiftkey and Android its self are adding Swype functionality. I guess the previous keyboard update already added some limited Swiftkey-like word prediction, though.

Huh, didn't realize Swiftkey was getting Swype-y. If so, I'll check it out, but the advantages of something integrated with the OS instead of tacked on as an app will be hard to overcome with slightly better predictions. (I don't use any of the import predictions from Twitter/email/etc. stuff.)

The competition for better keyboards in the Android marketplace is nothing if not a singularly monumental benefit for the platform. Don't like your keyboard? Try another!

Yeah, I never allow Swiftkey to have access to all that stuff. The problem I have with the app learning my writing is that I'm often using it to write myself notes in incomplete sentences, which really messes up the learning function.

Good luck to anybody on the other side of the pond looking to get a N4 in a couple of hours.

In the UK it was a nightmare, I managed to get straight through for a 16GB and through to the final order page and then it came back with an error for my postcode because it was in lower case rather than upper case

Then all hell broke loose, cart kept emptying, checkout would timeout, then the 16GB went out of stock.

Eventually managed to get a 8GB, which wasn't my original intention, but we have a teenage girl in the house who'll be quite happy to have it as a hand me down once 16GB versions are readily available, although might wait a bit incase a 32GB version pops up a-la the N7.

Would have waited for the 16GB but having sold my 4S I'm currently sporting a £10 samsung phone that basically just operates as a phone, it's been hard enough without a smartphone for the past week, can't carry on without one!

Good luck, you'll need it.

You'll do fine with just 8GB for starters. Unless you want to load it up quickly with lots of video files and stuff.
I think I'm using about 7GB right now on my GN (aka. N3), and that's with tons of apps loaded on.

So.. should last you until the initial rush is over, at least.

Yeah, that was my theory! I'll probably still be on the 8GB come next nexus cycle!

I didn't actually store any video or music on my iPhone, just apps. I had a 32GB but I'm pretty sure I was well under 8GB on that!

TomTom (I think) was probably the biggest consumer of storage out of all my apps.

Yeah, TomTom will take up some space, for sure. I don't have offline GPS apps loaded on mine at present (no good ones exist for here), but I do have some cached Google Maps for big chunks of Ontario.

Cheers

That's something I've wondered about with google maps, you can save stuff for offline use - but does it update the saved data? Say, when you're at home on WiFi would it refresh it it to get the most up to date data?

Or does it just use old data forever until you delete it and re-add it?

Oh, and don't forget to "unlock" the bootloader BEFORE DOING ANYTHING MUCH with the phone. That's because "unlocking" the bootloader wipes the phone back to factory-fresh again.

So get that part over with immediately, and only THEN start customizing and adding apps etc.

"Unlocking" the bootloader is simple, and is a necessary prerequisite for later "rooting" the phone if desired.

Best "how to" link for this stuff.
Dead simple to do on Linux; tougher (driver issues) on MS-Windows.

http://galaxynexusroot.com/galaxy-nexus-...indowslinuxmac/

My iPhone has 25GB of non video/audio content on it I appear to have 249 apps installed

I think I'd struggle a bit with 8GB

I already have to trim some of my music to fit, I could really do with Apple making a 128GB phone...

IMO, the iPhone should start at 64GB - with the current 16GB price point. Not that Apple need to do anything like that to improve sales of course.

Wow! That's the total opposite of me, I think I had maybe 2 pages of extra apps.

Phone gets used for email, internet and maps mainly (my biggest gripe with iOS6). The main third party apps that I used to use were small apps like Train times.

That's good going though 25GB in apps!

8GB or so is photos. I like to have all the photos I've ever taken on an iPhone on hand and leaving the full size ones in the photo roll is easier than messing about with syncing.

I write apps as part of my job, so part of having so many installed is as I trying lots of stuff out from the App Store just so I keep on top of what people are up to.

Also, about 2GB of the 15GB of apps is UK and European TomTom and probably two thirds of the rest is made up of a handful of large games.

They'd just be spending money on FLASH that the vast majority of people are never going to use. Most of the normal people I know with iPhones wouldn't even fill an 8GB one.

I don't know anybody that would not fill an 8GB phone. Most normal people I know have a shitload of photos, video and music and blow out a 16GB iPhone in a couple of months of owning it. These are people who are not into computers whatsoever.

I think if my mom had an iPhone she'd burn through 32GB in no time flat. Normal people don't like to sync stuff back to their computers and manage the contents of their phones to try and keep them lean.

IMO, normal folks are the ones who need the most storage.

If I wanted to think outlandishly, I'd want 1TB on my phone to make sure I could keep all my music and still be able to shoot photos and video. I don't actually "need" to keep all my music on a phone, but I really hate the sync process. automatic sync isn't useful at al once you have more music than the capacity of the phone and manually syncing is extremely tedious - how do I know what I'll want to listen to a few days from now?

In addition to TomTom US+Canada (1-1.5TB), I also keep Wikipedia on my phone in English (4-5GB, no photos). Those are the two big ones. Most of the other apps are relatively small, the rest being photos and video, which I do have to cycle off regularly.

This has come up before, but I believe the two technologies that are holding back these devices are still storage space and battery capacity. Each of those is extremely underwhelming and neither have kept pace with other advancements like processing (G and C PU) nor screen/touch resolution.

The normal people you know are clearly different to the normal people I know

My 12 or so non techie iphone owning friend/family members all have 8GB/16GB phones and to my knowledge none of them are even close to running out of space.

I wasn't exclusively considering iPhone, because I also have a few friends now with Samsung phones (Galaxy 2 and Galaxy 3). These smartphone wielding friends all have kids, so that might explain the extra video/photos usage. And also corporate email with plenty of attachments. I still suspect that takes up an insignificant fraction of the space used by photos and video (and music) however.

In my mom's case, I drew my hypothesis by her digital camera usage. However, with that device I've been able to control the lack of sync (on her part) with an Eye-Fi card that I've pre-set with their endless memory feature and backup to her computer and my FTP site. Otherwise I'm sure she'd need an army of SD cards.

Many of the people I'm talking about also have kids.

The trick with an Android phone, versus iPhone, is that everything is rigged for streaming. I've loaded my entire record collection into Google Play, all of which I can get to from my phone or tablet. I have only a handful of albums "pinned" so they're available when I'm offline. It's a similar situation with videos.

That said, 8GB would be too cramped. 16GB is usable.

As usual, I'm happy that there are choices.

I am NOT one of those people who needs tons of space on their phone. I used to be, but then I was blessed with the wonders of rdio. Since then, I haven't stored a single MP3 on my phone and it fits MY usage perfectly. It won't fit everyone's usage, but once again, that's what choices give you. If the Nexus 4 won't suit you, you don't have to buy it.

I've attached a screenshot of my data usage. This is how it's been for almost a year since I got my Galaxy Nexus. Clearly, I will have no trouble moving to an 8GB phone.

I think I keep my current album on my phone, and whatever pics and videos I have taken that day, or sometimes that weekend. That's it. The only reason I have our album on it is to let people hear it and to bluetooth it to them in pubs as and when required. But there is no phone with decent audio playback so I wouldn't use it to listen to tunes unless I had to.

Similar with photos - I don't want local storage of photos on my phone. They serve no purpose on a small device. If I take a picture with my phone it is because I will be facebooking/tweeting it soon after.

But I never go more than 2 days without plugging the phone in to charge, and that automagically hoovers all the media files off into my terabyte storage disk.

My very non-techie wife forgets to dump her photos off for weeks at a time, so hers can fill up, but she doesn't look at them on her phone...it just happens. So she also wouldn't need much space.

Success!

Niiiice. Jealous!

Cool.

Mine arrived yesterday, but went to where my bank card is registered (my parents house)....

My dad is going to meet us tomorrow half way, so I'll get my hands on it soon!

That didn't quite go as smoothly as expected!

There is an official ClockworkMod recovery ROM for the Nexus 4 and that's what I used on my Nexus 7, so I thought I'd go that route.

Oh god.

Once I flashed it on it started going into a boot loop. I couldn't access recovery via the boot loader (loop again) so had to do it via fastboot command. When CWM started, it was showing mount errors and nothing would work.

Tried starting phone normally, but it seemed to take forever on the "Google" screen before heading to the nexus one....and then it just seemed to get stuck there.

Bit of panic at this point.

In the end I downloaded the stock image from the developer site and reflashed everything and hey presto, the thing started up.

The odd thing is that it would appear that I accidentally flashed on the CWM recovery during my full restore (judging from the filenames), so I think I have CWM installed and the phone is starting normally.

For the moment I'm not going to risk it again, I'll wait a while until these issues with CWM have been ironed out, reading the thread over at xda I'm not the only one who ended up with a device in this state.

Still, bootloader is unlocked now.

The newer Android versions normally try and restore the stock "recovery" partition after each boot, unless you have specifically taken action to prevent that. This could be what "saved" you.

So.. your N4 may (or may not) have the stock recovery on it now.

Note that all you really "need" to do right now, is unlock the bootloader. Rooting and ROMs can wait, but unlocking the bootloader wipes the phone and thus is best done at the earliest.

Fortunately, it's simple, and doesn't require any custom recovery images or anything.

Just: fastboot oem unlock

Do you mean "no Android phone?" I thought that most should have at least the same audio quality of an iPod or iPhone. Which is, without stepping too far into the obscene, probably at least as good or better sound playback device than any other devices 95%+ of the population own - things like Walkmans, discmans, radios, car stereos, boomboxes, other digital audio players, etc.

Very few people actually have good, let alone great, sound systems - in the home or in the car.

Just my opinion, but I don't really see any advantage to ROMing a new Nexus phone. I'm curious why you're doing that. Do you just like CM a lot? Nothing wrong with that, I'm just interested.

Rooting, on the other hand, always has advantages.

I run stock Android, unlocked and rooted, but I can see the appeal of CyanogenMod. Notably, it has some nice / nerdy controls that let you crank back on permissions given to apps. Yes you require access to my contacts list, but you're not getting them.

So far as I can tell, the bulk of people installing third-party distributions are either interested primarily in getting away from vendor crapware or they're just interested in some of the crazy skins and such that the third-party universe offers.

That all makes sense. The vendor crapware, however, wouldn't really apply to the Nexus devices, and in any case should be removable with just root access.

Also, I've got an older Samsung 10" tablet (the freebie given away at Google I/O two years ago). Samsung doesn't support it. Google doesn't support it. CyanogenMod, however, supports it just fine.

(EDIT: Samsung is apparently releasing Android 4.1 very recently, at least to German customers. CyanogenMod had it running back in July.)

(EDIT #2: Seems that CM10 hasn't got the permission revocation feature any more. Hmm.)

I was installing CWM into the flash so that root could be redone without the need for access to a computer, so for example after a ota update.

It's the method I used on my nexus 7. I have no intention to use anything other than the stock android rom!

I assumed everybody rooted android devices this wasn't until after it all went wrong that I realised that they didn't and that root can be done by booting an image while connected to a computer.

I'm new to android, be gentle!

No worries! I was honestly just curious about what you were doing.

...and actually, I really must apologize to you. For some reason I read Clockwork Mod as Cyanogen Mod - even after I typed it myself! Yikes! I don't know what's up with me... Yeah, CWM is great, especially the touch version.

Wow, sorry about that

I have to say I am loving this phone, it really highlights for me how far apple have fallen behind the game with iOS.

A few more quality apps in the store and apple may well start to feel the heat from Google.

Apple need to put a lot of work into iOS, that's for sure. No one is more vocal about that than me as far as I'm concerned. But at the same time, I can't say I've seen that Android is ahead - or rather that it has a large amount of what's missing from iOS - IMO, it needs a lot of the same work, and in fact needs a lot of core work yet, if even only to bring some consistency, performance and refinement to the platform.

What kind of things specifically are you thinking about with respect to that comment?

I'm really hoping that Scott Forstall's departure is going to bring some positive change to iOS. But I'm also worried it could be a "be careful what you wish for" situation.



I don't think that a few more quality apps is going to make a difference over night. IMO Apple aren't likely to feel any heat for a very long time. They still have a great market share for a manufacturer. Google has a great OS market share, and that's significant for developers, but it doesn't help to bring much money in for Googleand will probably continue to be a big money loser for a while. It's done wonders for Samsung though. There must be people at Google wishing they were in Samsung's position wrt to phone sales.

I'll be interested in this too, but after the honeymoon period is over with the new Nexus 4. I don't think one can have an honest opinion of an ecosystem until they have lived in it for at least a few weeks.

Ah, but there's an app for that: Voodoo OTA RootKeeper

Mmm.. looks like Android 4.2 is available (sort of) for the Galaxy Nexus now too.

Installing it the hard way..

Bruno, go hunt out somebody with a nexus 4 and see how smooth 4.2 actually is. I'd have agreed with you about smoothness and general clunkyness prior to jellybean, but this is good, this is way faster and smoother than my iPhone 4s ever was.

Things like the data warnings and counters and battery graphs and such like make such a difference to the whole experience. The battery life on my 4s was shocking by the way, although it seems very hit and miss whether you have battery problems.

I loathed my 4s after I'd put ios6 onto it, it turned what was a dull experience into something that was awful.

With regards to the my comments about the apps, its particularly this hardware that I feel has the chance to really push android into spotlight, sure it night already have a huge market lead, but this phone is quality, runs a stock kernel and is cheap. Its a wolf (iPhone) in sheeps (android) clothing.

I'll keep you updated on my experience! Maybe it will change but its looking positive at the moment!

Just rooted it, did the "fastboot boot recovery.img" and was able to install the su and busybox binaries.

Phone started as normal after, but as expected is now rooted!

Okay, now go into "Settings", "About Phone", and click 3 times in quick succession on the "Android version" line.

After a short spell, you should be able to press-and-hold on the icon that "pops up". Click-and-drag works after that.

Oh my god its full of beans!

And, wow! Somebody has already created an app to disable the lock-screen camera, which will otherwise take pocket photos and drain the battery (smart, Google; not!)

New version of the CWM recovery out that works.

Put my brave boots on and flashed it and then booted into recovery, all working this time!

Brilliant.

I just want to get the stock recovery image back in place, so that OTA updates work without fuss again.

I tried flashing the 4.1.2 recovery.img before the OTA update, but it still hung when attempting the update. Pull battery, reinsert, try again -- what do you do about that on the N4 with it's sealed chasis ???

Do Android phones not have the protected boot loader approach that iOS and Empeg have then ? Is there not a magic button combination during boot that you can use ?

(though IIRC the iOS approach is different to Empeg, as the boot loader does sometimes get updated ?)

Yeah, it has something like that. All nice and solidly secure from the factory. Geeks like us then "unlock" the bootloader, allowing us to replace the alternate boot image (aka. "recovery image") with customized ones.

Cheers

Hopefully people here with a Nexus device on 4.2 don't need to note someones birthday or anniversary in December.



(from http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/17/sorry-santa-google-cancels-december-in-android-4-2/ )

Funny. I've never used that particular feature, though.
The main Calendar app works correctly, even though the interface is practically identical there.

The way it works on my HTC One X which is also sealed up is that holding down the power button for about 5 seconds does a 'hard' reboot. The annoying side effect of this is that with the phone in my pocket, taking more than 5 seconds to do my right shoelace also reboots my phone.

Also, I bought a Nexus 10. Having a lot of fun with it actually. The screen is fantastic, the build quality is great and feels every bit as much of a premium product as an iPad in my opinion. Really like the textured rear. Yes, it does have some weight which makes extended holding in portrait (reading using the Kindle app for example) a little annoying. Software is not too great. Rightmove, Engadget, Squeezebox Controller, GTA 3, and my Humble Bundle games work perfectly well. But iPlayer, The Verge, XBMC Remote, Twitter and many others are either broken or just ridiculous when viewed in 2560x1600. I am hoping some of these will improve, but I do spend the majority of my time using Chrome for browsing and for that it really is a very nice device.

The multi user support was a big plus for me, but it isn't quite as seemless as it should be. Domus Link (home automation via Linux and X10 app), Sony Media Remote and the Squeezebox Controller seem to forget their settings in my wife's account on the tablet. Pretty disappointing really.

That's a handy little feature. I guess that is a less known disadvantage of not having a physical home button (for those who don't know the iOS hard reset is done by holding home and the power, thus it sadly lacks the convenient shoelace reboot feature).

I will give Google credit for trying to encourage app developers to operate in a resolution independent fashion, where they rearrange the screen as more space becomes available. Hopefully, as the market share of the Nexus 7 and other such tablets grows, more devs will get on the bandwagon.

The Nexus 7 is a great device, but as popular as it is I think the problem is that it is still really close to a phone. It has the same resolution as my One X phone, and it does get away with running normal phone apps upsized a bit. I would guess that it would make developers a little lazy as they can look at their app and think that it works fine. With a much larger resolution and a much larger device the Nexus 10 is quite a different beast along with devices like the Moto Xoom, Asus TF101, Samsung Galaxy Pad etc. But the reality is I don't know anyone else who has one of these larger Android tablets so it may take a while to catch iOS when it comes to tablet app quality, if that ever happens.

You're right, of course, but if Android devs start following the tablet style guide, which encourages them to split their app into fragments that might display full-screen on a phone and share the screen on a tablet, then it becomes relatively straightforward for a dev to support a variety of different screen resolutions and sizes.

(And, of course, at the next Google I/O, I wouldn't be surprised if every attendee gets a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 10.)

I'm puzzled by the apps originating on iOS with good iPad versions that fail to make the jump to Android properly. My Nexus 7 would be a fantastic smaller Flipboard tablet. But it has the layout from the iPhone version, which just doesn't work as well for quickly browsing stories.

??? Dunno what FlipBoard looks like on an iGadget, but I like it on my GN, and liked it on the N7 (which I no longer have).

Cheers

Main key ability, more then one story viewable on the screen. I'd quickly "read" my Google Reader feed by knocking out 5-8 stories I wasn't interested in with one flip. Any one of those you tap to get the full article view.

How does "Google Reader" relate to "Flipboard" ?

Flipboard has great integration with Google Reader, along with many other services beyond the preset categories. I find it to be a good Twitter client as well.

Got the OTA update for Android 4.2.1 today, fixing the "missing month" and other bugs. Dunno (yet) what else might be different.

Cheers

No 4.2.1 for me yet!

Nearly 2 weeks in and I love this phone, I'm loving android in its jellybean flavour.

This phone is so unbelievably quick and smooth, its a complete and utter bargain, the screen is amazing too.

No regrets in breaking the ties with iOS.

The wife loves the phone too, so when they're more readily available I think we'll be getting her one too.

Excellent!

It'll be interesting to see how the long term availability of the nexus 4 goes; it's another of the "sold at cost" products (along with nexus 7/10, samsung chromebook, etc), so google are paying the manufacturer something to make it worth their while building the thing - or covering another piece of the retail cost structure, be it distributor margins or whatever to achieve the same effect.

Obviously in the tablet/chromebook market, they needed to prime the market with competitive devices to get android/chromeos a foothold, but that wouldn't seem to be the case with android. There are many many vendors in the game delivering to every price point and every quality level. Possibly it's a warning shot to amazon?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's always in short supply for this reason - it's subsidised with a limited budget. The fact it exists is enough to mark the nexus checkbox, and if you really really want one you can order and wait.

Just got the samsung chromebook and it's decent for the price, I have to say. Sub-par screen, plasticky build, bad keyboard feel and a meh trackpad (though nicer than the Cr-48) but for $250 you really can't argue - it browses the web perfectly acceptably and battery life is good.

Lots of supposition and guesswork below. I have no insider information...

My guess is that Google is just absolutely desperate to bust up the current carrier-subsidy business model. Steve Jobs made a similar observation, back in the day. Apple managed to negotiate very effectively with its carriers. Google presumably found it had very little leverage with the original Android business model, so this new Nexus-branded project is presumably their attempt to try something else.

Long term, the real consumer cost, with all the usual middleman profits, will fall below Google's current subsidized profit, and Google may then choose to terminate their program if its objectives (presumably giving Google more direct control over user devices) have been achieved.

So far the only thing that I have found in my general use that doesn't work as well as iOS is copy and paste in the SMS application.

It's often useful to be able to copy and paste a portion of the text, for example yesterday I received a tracking number via text and the only way I could use it was to copy the whole message and paste it into an email and then copy out the tracking number to paste into the browser.

Adrian

Yeah, that's weird. Just about all other apps on Android seem to have the generic text copy/cut/paste functionality. But the SMS app only copies complete messages.

I think you'll find that the iOS Messages app has pretty much the same restrictions. You can copy a whole message and you can copy phone numbers and assorted other things that the app thinks it recognises, but beyond that you have to copy the whole message.

Humn, I could have sworn that I'd copied and pasted sections before, but now you mention that it doesn't have that functionality I do seem to recall this.

I'd probably never noticed it as this is the first time I'd received tracking information via text, so probably wouldn't have had cause to copy and paste from a text before.

Both iOS and Android should fix this!

On a stock Galaxy S III with 4.0.4 you can copy parts of an SMS. I think this is the Samsung app though rather than the native Android app. You just tap the individual message and then it opens separately and then you can click-hold to get the little "book end" markers.

Ok, the best part of a whole month in and I'm completely and utterly sold on this device and Android in it's current incarnation.

You know when you first picked up an iPhone and played with the operating system and marvelled at how slick it was (compared to "smartphones" of the day), well, there's no difference here in slickness between the current version of iOS and Jellybean.

My thoughts.......

I like that you can decide what Apps you want on your home screen. No Apple, I didn't want Passbook or Stocks (etc) anywhere on my home screens.

Widgets. I have my train times displayed on my homescreen, I see whether my train is late without having to find and launch an application.

Notification bar. Again, this is just dumb in iOS, why on earth are there not icons to say you've got email or a message. Android (and virtually every other phone OS on the planet) have this right.

Tethering, I like the fact that it's my choice on how to use data that is included in my package. I often use it on the train with my Nexus 7 just so I can browse bigger.

Stats, the stats are useful, I can see how much data I've used between a set of dates or in the current billing period. I can see what's using my battery, this is useful stuff.

Battery. No worse than my 4S, probably slightly better if anything. It's a smartphone, I'm used to knowing that if I use it, the battery is going to drain. It's not a feature phone that'll last 2 weeks on standby.

Screen. Awesome, looks beautiful and is a lovely size.

Camera. Dunno, I've never been one for taking photos on a phone, wouldn't bother me if it was the worst camera on the face of the earth.

I've still got 4GB free space on the device, I was never a prolific installer of apps, maybe because there's so much crap out there (A problem in both the play and apple app store). When I do install stuff, it tends to be because it's trending somewhere or because I specifically know that I want it, I don't randomly browse the store and think "oooh...I'll install this".

Speed. Whoosh, this thing is fast and responsive, no lag. It just works. (Where have I heard that before).

If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd own an Android device and that it'd be as good (and better in so many additional ways) as an iPhone I'd have laughed in your face, but here we are.

My name is Adrian and I'm an Android-a-holic.

Edit:

Build Quality. Awesome again, feels solid and a quality product.

If only this was actually true on my Nexus 7. I still have the problem with something randomly sucking the battery dry on standby.

It doesn't happen all the time now, sometimes it will go 4 days or more on standby (still crap compared to any iPad in that respect). But often it will just drain the battery in 24 hours or so.

The battery stats simply haven't helped to track down the offender, besides showing that something stops it sleeping properly

Re the battery I have the same issue with my SGS III so you're not alone there. The ICS battery usage monitor does seem to show more "awake periods" when it's flogging the battery i.e. discharge graph is steeper than normal but the percentage usage breakdown doesn't help.

I've tried various other third party apps that claim to be able to help with this, but none of them helped.

Really great to hear your impressions of the device. I'm interested in picking one up as well, but I'm waiting to see better accessory support. It looks like the dock isn't even out yet. If Google also releases any kind of car dock that's made for this thing, I will order a Nexus 4 immediately as well as all the accessories

Thanks for sharing your followup, and glad to hear it's working out for you.

Hiding unneeded apps, yeah that would be nice. Androids separation of the home screens and app screen is one way to do this, though adds a bit of janitorial work for setting up the home screen. I'd need to live with both on a phone for longer to really decide which way I prefer.

Widgets could be handy, and I do make use of an app that sends push notifications about the temperature outside. Just updates the little red circle with the appropriate number. iOS could definitely make better use of widgets.

The Mail notifier didn't hit me as a big feature, mostly since Mail is in my dock on both iOS devices. I can see the benefit of having it on every screen though for those who really need e-mail.

Did you not have tethering on iOS though? I've been using it for a while, and it is indeed very handy. These days, I tend to tether off the iPad to the phone or the computer, since it's the one device I have with LTE.

Data stats would be very nice to have. Though past experience with the battery stats (on 2.1 with a Galaxy S) showed me that screen was untrustworthy and useless. I haven't spent enough time with that part of the Nexus 7 to see if it has improved.

Any thoughts on the Google vs Apple ecosystem at this point? Thats the bigger question for me these days, and more of the deciding factor if I were to ever switch. Each little device is going to have it's good and bad features, difference in quality and such that can all be dealt with. The ecosystem requires a bit more work to transition between.

Tom, I'd be interested in knowing more of what you personally mean by ecosystem. I could see that being one of a few things when you're talking about Apple. I just want to know what that means to you.

It's a mixture of devices and services. My entire house is Apple stuff now which brings benefits beyond what just one device does. Some small examples of the ecosystem at work:

I edit an address on my desktop using a local application, and my phone has the new address in seconds.

I have a YouTube video on the phone I want to share with friends, so I turn on the TV and display it using AirPlay.

I start reading a book on my iPhone on the go. I resume later on the iPad, which automatically downloaded it and synced my page.

I edit a spreadsheet on the desktop, then edit later on the phone. No manual syncing or digging through folders to find a file.

I take a picture on the phone, and it's on the laptop photo program ready to be edited or shared with no cables.

My router detects a problem with the internet connection and an app on the desktop reports the problem to me.

I watch a TV show on the TV for a bit, but then decide to resume later on the iPad.

I'm on the road, and need a file off the home computer. I simply copy it as if I was on the same network, just a little slower.

If any of these devices fail, a replacement can be brought back to 100% of where the previous device was before the failure.


I'm curious about the similar experiences living in an all Google world. This is stuff I use frequently, and factor in now if I'm looking to go with another device. And I do mentally keep an exit path planned if ever needed from the current setup. So far nothing in the other ecosystems (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) is a 10x jump to really make me go "Wow, thats worth the effort to switch". I may be missing some of the benefits though, hence my interest in others experiences.

Its not just email that the notification area is useful for, messages, voicemail, missed calls or whatever information a third party app might want to show. I've had the temperature up there for example.

I would often forget to reply to a message or such like on iOS because I was in the middle of doing something else when it came in and once the notification banner had dissapeared it became victim to "out of sight, out of mind".

Tethering on iOS was dependant on your service provider, some allow it, some don't. Some allow you to add it for a fee and my network allows me to do it but because they're a virtual network they don't have their own carrier profile so although permitted on the tariff, you couldn't actually do it because of the parent carrier profile forbidding it.

Eco system, well I don't think anybody could deny that there are a lot more higher quality apps on the apple app store, however, I've not found that I've wanted or missed anything that I had on my iPhone.

Adrian

Tom, as usual I think it's really what fits you personally. With the Apple ecosystem they have the benefit of building all the hardware and all the software. That gives you a ton of great benefits.

No, I still don't think you'll like Android, Tom. The phones are really nice and the operating system has matured to a really great point now, but it just doesn't fit you, and that's fine. I love it, but that doesn't mean you have to.

I'll address some specific points:


Ah, see, you take out "using a local application" and it's the same thing. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about when I say that the alternative ecosystem doesn't fit you, because I don't care - nay, I prefer - that my contacts are all on the web.


Just FYI, this is easily done between an Android phone and a Google TV. Plus, I can do it at any time, like in the middle of watching TV since I don't have to change inputs.


I don't understand the second part of that. Manual syncing?


Bah, easy. My browser tells me that. It's called "I can't get to anything on the internet"

You can sync Gmail calendars and contacts with iCal and MacOS Contacts. If you subscribe to Google Apps for Business, you can also sync with Outlook if that's your preference.



I have extensive experience with AirPlay and I think it's a big feature that keeps many iOS users from experimenting with Android. If GoogleTV actually works well like you say, I may have to invest in one of those $99 Vizio boxes.



I think Tom is talking about iCloud document syncing which works pretty well. Google Drive accomplishes the same thing, but you have to actually keep your documents in Google Drive and install the desktop OS syncing software. The upside to that is it works on Windows and OS X (and Chrome OS if that means anything to you).



Windows Vista and 7 (and I assume 8) do this. When there's no connection to the internet, the network icon in the task tray changes and a balloon pops up. Any non-skinned/Nexus Android device also does this. When the signal meters turn grey, you can't reach the Google mothership.


Dropbox does this on Android. Google+ also does something similar, but the photo is in the cloud, not on your desktop.


That's not happening with an Android device at the moment, but the Chrome Remote Desktop extension works quite well. Unfortunately, it only works with Chrome on Windows, OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS. Hopefully it will be extended to Android at some point.


Sadly, Google is lacking in this area too. You can backup your device to the cloud and restore some of its settings to another device, but it's nowhere near as good as Apple's implementation. Google will just restore your WiFi access points and passwords and your installed apps (if you're lucky). If you're unlucky, it will either restore nothing or every app you ever downloaded (including ones you've uninstalled in the past). It's too flaky and I usually choose not to restore when setting up a new Android device. I change phones every couple months, so I'm pretty good at manually restoring things at this point.

Completely agreed. One however does not know what fits without knowing the other options well too, hence me asking and wanting to throw out benefits I currently enjoy to compare. It's also why I'm willing to buy and try other devices too. This isn't a contest to say which is better for all time and will be crowned champion of the universe. Just my household

Don't get too hung up on nitpicking each item I posted, they were just meant as examples to see similar from the Google side. Rob, thank you for pointing out a few I was unaware of, Chrome Remote Desktop is interesting. And by no means is the situation I'm in perfect. One issue I have with iCloud currently is in regards to PDFs. If I do save one to iCloud on my desktop via Preview, my iOS devices have no way to see the document.

I will note on the router example, it also applies to my extenders. Those I may not notice a problem with as quickly with the no internet situation.

Sure, I didn't mean we had to, I just wanted to emphasize my point of "whatever suits you best."

The problem with either ecosystem is that they both either break down or simply don't work if you try to combine elements. You seen it yourself, Tom. You had disastrous things happen when you tried to start using Google's services. If you start in the camp that suits you and never stray, you're going to have a mostly flawless experience. But try to put too much of a toe across into the other camp and you'll lose a leg


I can promise that it does not work as well as Airplay, and it doesn't work for as much stuff as Airplay does (it's Youtube and nothing else). However, what I do like about Google TV is not having to switch inputs. So, if we're watching TV I can send a Youtube video to the screen at any time and Youtube will automatically launch.

The only annoyance I had with it: in typical fashion, it just didn't work the way Google said it should. I had the latest version of the app on my phone and Google TV, and both devices were on my network. Because it's using DLNA, the two should have seen each other and just worked seamlessly. Instead, I had to go through the "antiquated" pairing process, and now I can do it at any time. Part of this, however, could be my slightly messed up phone (messed it up hacking some NFC stuff ).

One thing I definitely don't miss from iOS is that stupid modal window that appears:

"Unable to connect to data network".

Edit:

Or words to that effect, I can't remember the exact wording of the error.

Yes, very annoying message that. For a long time I thought it was a message from TomTom, as I only saw it when I was driving using TomTom.

They really should make that message turn-off-able, or at very least make it dismiss itself after a couple of seconds.

Android tablet owners, Flipboard has released their tablet app at last: http://flip.it/xklRs

Hopefully this is the start of a trend to make real tablet apps for Android instead of simply scaling up phone apps.

http://bgr.com/2013/01/03/nexus-4-sales-total-2012-280432/

...sure smells like they're not going all-out on production of it, which would tie into it being subsidised from some promitional budget.

That's nothing new, in that pretty much every Cr-48 was given away at great expense.

OTOH it could be component shortages too... very hard to tell!

It's still very frustrating to me that they haven't released the inductive charging dock that they announced. At least this time I didn't jump on the new phone without hesitation. My experience with the Galaxy Nexus has taught me not to assume when it comes to product support. I bought my Verizon Galaxy Nexus on launch day because I was told I'd be getting the accessories that had been announced with the phone. Turns out that us Verizon GN users got useless plastic crap instead of the legit docks.

Now I'm waiting for them to actually release that dock, then I'll jump ship to the Nexus 4.

I notice the Nexus 7 dock is still AWOL as well.

Dignan, I'm with you in shared annoyance at Verizon over their mishandling of the VZW Galaxy Nexus, which I also bought on launch day, and for which I'd also like a proper dock.

I'd say that my solution is to jump ship to a proper Nexus phone, purchased directly from Google. My Verizon lock-in doesn't end until a year from now, so I assume there will be even better Nexus phones coming soon. And, while I wait, T-Mobile will presumably be steadily building out their 4G infrastructure, to which I could then switch with a fully-paid unlocked phone. (Or I could switch to one of their MVNOs.) By then, hopefully all the pieces will be in place. Or maybe if/when the presumed successor to the Nexus 4 is announced at next summer's Google I/O, it will be so extremely awesome that I'll find a suitable way to tell Verizon to take a hike and jump early.

(Or, who knows, maybe Google and Verizon will make nice-nice with each other. Given that Google/Motorola is supplying a significant number of the Droid-branded handsets that Verizon sells, I'd think there's some opportunity for leverage in there.)

I don't particularly find the Nexus 4 to be my ultimate phone, mainly from all the stories of glass cracking, but also from the lack of LTE. Again, this will presumably be hammered out in a year.

I'm curious about whether the bargain basement prices from Google are related to the lack of supply in the market. Certainly, there's less profit there to motivate them to crank up the manufacturing engine and to gamble on the downside risks that come with over-production. (Versus: when will we start seeing fantastic firesale prices on all the unloved Windows RT tablets and when will I be able to boot Android on one?)